Adam’s stone cool broke with confusion as well, so she didn’t feel too stupid.
Luca shrugged at Custo. “Well, they’ve come this far; I don’t see why they can’t wait here while we talk. Nothing can harm them within these walls. The hunter cannot tolerate this light, and the immortal dead, whom you call wraiths, don’t know we exist.”
These confines were giving Annabella a blistering headache.
“Actually, I’d like to talk to you about the wraiths,” Adam put in. “It is the mission of my organization, The Segue Institute”—he produced a business card and held it out to Luca—“to destroy them.”
Luca pushed away Adam’s hand. “I know who you are. The wraiths at this time are not our concern.”
Adam sputtered, then regrouped. “How can that be?” He took a step forward to command Luca’s full attention. “They prey on people with impunity. No one is safe anywhere until my wife, the daughter of—”
“I know who your wife is, too. I wish her the very best in the successful delivery of your children. But the tower is not, at this time, working to eradicate the wraiths.” To Custo he said, “If you’ll just follow me…”
Adam wouldn’t be put off. “Do you have the authority to make that decision? I want to speak to the person in change.”
Luca smiled, somewhat ruefully. “You’ll have to settle for me.”
“I don’t suppose you know anything about Shadow wolves, do you?” Annabella asked, though she didn’t really expect an answer after Luca had dismissed the entire wraith war.
Luca shifted his smile to her. “I know there is one in the city.”
Confession time. “Yeah…um…” she began, “about that…we almost had him last night, but I let him get away. It’s not Custo’s fault at all. I was too wrapped up in myself to do the right thing.” Luca said nothing while she stammered through her explanation, so she summed up her point. “I don’t want Custo held responsible.”
Luca lifted a brow. “I believe he left you alone with the wolf for a period of time during the performance.”
Annabella glanced at Custo. Yeah, actually, there had been that moment during the ballet when she’d looked for him, scared to be suddenly faced with Wolf. She’d forgotten in the aftermath and was still too chicken to revisit her part in her own seduction to recall that moment. But, yes, she had needed Custo, and he hadn’t been there.
He’d have a good reason, she was sure. He wouldn’t just leave her.
“I take full responsibility,” Custo said, looking at her for the first time since they’d crawled out of bed. He turned back to Luca. “And I’m not going anywhere with you until I have your assurance that Annabella will be protected from the Shadow wolf, and that Adam will have the support he needs to fight the wraiths.”
Luca gestured into the bright fog. “Let’s go somewhere we can talk.”
“No.” Custo dropped the word like an anchor.
“Custo,” Luca said, “you don’t belong with them. You know this. You’ve done the right thing in coming here today, though I know it had to be difficult.”
Annabella was totally lost now. Was Custo leaving them? She leaned over to Adam. “Are you getting any of this?”
Adam looked down at her. “Not so much.”
“I can’t abandon my friends for them to be preyed upon by monsters,” Custo was saying.
Abandon them? That didn’t make sense either. Custo couldn’t very well stay here. Leaving might be hard on Adam, but it would be like throwing her to the…
Her chest was starting to tighten, breath more difficult to draw. Custo was leaving?
“At least follow me and get some information so you don’t get yourself killed. Then you can decide,” Luca said.
Annabella’s throat constricted, too. This got worse and worse. “Killed?”
“Will you come?” Luca asked Custo. “Somebody needs to dig that bullet out of your gut before you bleed to death internally.”
Custo frowned deeply in response.
Bullet? Killed? Leaving?
Custo turned to Adam, including her with a darted glance. “You’ll wait here? I’ll be back as soon as I can and explain everything.”
She wasn’t budging without some answers.
With a quick tug on her arm, Custo kissed her, his mouth urgent, burning her up for all of three seconds. He drew back, his gaze hard on hers. “Do what Adam tells you.”
Was that good-bye?
“I don’t understand—” she said. Nothing made any sense.
“We’ll be waiting,” Adam said to Custo. The statement was loaded.
Custo released her, her vision blurring suddenly as he and Luca smudged into receding daubs of color, soon drowned out by the light.
Annabella’s chest was so tight she doubled over.
“Deep breaths,” Adam said, putting a hand on her back. She fought for air, and when her equilibrium returned, she straightened.
“I don’t see a bathroom,” she said to be funny, to cover the tears in her eyes.