He didn't need to find anything. Mendez was alive and in custody. Warrick would squeeze him for information, and Xave would have the proof he'd waited his whole life to find. He had nothing else to do, no need to dig for more information. Yet he continued, tossing aside holo-flyers advertising private lap dances and random bits of wire and hyperplastic odds and ends from Mendez's technical gadgets. It was a distraction. It was all a distraction, anything to keep his eyes away from Tavish.How had he become so ensnared? When had it happened? And why could he not sense her deception all along? Had she bewitched him so that he couldn't sense the truth behind her motives?He fought back a howl of frustration. He had raped her! Perhaps not in the base sense of the word, but their coupling had begun with forced seduction. That was not the way he did things. He'd treated her as if he'd been more machine than man.And yet…there had been no fear.Fear smelled unlike anything else. It had a fetid odor he could barely tolerate.
