“When he calls you tomorrow, promise me you’ll hang up on him.”
Custo was trying to save her from the Shadow wolf. Her side wasn’t hard to pick. “Okay, fine. I’ll hang up or whatever if he tries to get in touch with me.”
It was too bad about his relationship with his father. Not everyone is so lucky to have a chance at reconciliation, and he was throwing it away. She’d give anything for five minutes to understand hers. Five freaking minutes, but no…
“He will,” Custo insisted. “It was all he could think about when he saw you.”
“I’m pretty sure he was thinking about you.”
Custo put the heels of his palms to his eyes. “No. He’s thinking about you as a way to get to me. About how he finally has a connection to exploit. I can’t get him out of my head. Nothing my whole life, and now he’s entrenched in my mind. He’s already got a list of people he’s going to contact tomorrow morning. He’s going to talk to your director, Mr. Venroy, right now.”
A chill washed over Annabella’s body. Custo kept saying things like that. She hadn’t thought much of it before, but now…“What do you mean out of your head?”
“I mean I can hear my old man in my fucking head.” His hands moved to grip his skull. The muscles on his jaw rippled as he clenched his teeth.
Annabella darted a glance at the cabdriver only to see him drop his eyes from the rearview mirror to the road. Yeah, you just watch where you’re going.
She shifted closer to Custo. “You mean you can hear what he’s thinking? You can read people’s minds?”
“Some better than others.”
Annabella was pretty sure she was part of the “some.” He’d said, done, too many things to be merely observant. Damn it—she’d been practically begging him to touch her since they first met. Imagining his hands everywhere…No wonder they seemed to have danced right over the preliminaries and got right to the heavy stuff. Simple flirting was nearly impossible when all she could think about was—
Her gaze flew to his face, body rapidly flushing from chilled to heated embarrassment.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of,” he said, voice rough and strained. “I’ve wanted you just as bad, and I showed as much this morning.”
And did he know about the sick thrill she got from the wolf? From the Shadow magic?
Custo looked outside his window.
The burn in her face intensified. This was not okay with her.
She sat back against the door, putting as much distance between them as she could. She didn’t want to be cold about his whole dad thing, but this was…was just…not okay.
The rest of the freak show stuff she’d handled, not well, but she’d handled. She’d seen and been told some scary shit, and she hadn’t run screaming from any rooms or been drugged happy and drooling. Of course, the wraith thing she’d known about. They were all over the news and online. She’d never seen one, but the authority of the nightly news had, in a little way, prepared her for the idea of the existence of other spooky beings.
But still…People had the right to pick and choose the thoughts they shared.
He should have told her.
“Annabella, please…”
She didn’t answer. Didn’t know how. And, she didn’t even know if he needed her to. Not when he could lift her responses out of her head.
“I can’t help what I am,” he said.
Me neither. I’m upset.
The cab pulled to a stop and the driver flung a number over his shoulder at Custo.
She opened the cab door and got out, leaving Custo to pay. She took a deep breath; the air here had the flat overlay of dust and concrete. The imposing buildings, facades quaint with old-world architectural details, were well kept, the street semiclean. A tall silvery block to her right looked over the rest of the neighborhood, all very gray and businessy, with little character in comparison.
Custo got out, paid, and joined her on the sidewalk. He looked up at the tallest building. “Come on.”
If she decided to walk the other way, would he head her off?
He walked to the entrance and punched a code into a numbered pad. A tiny light turned from red to green. He pulled open the door, the inside a black rectangle of darkness, and looked over at her. “Whenever you’re ready.”
His sarcasm wasn’t necessary. What choice did she have? Stick with the tortured, mind-violating angel, or be devoured by the obsessed wolf?
Her heels clacked across the sidewalk to the door, echoing off the nearby buildings. She didn’t enter right away. What was this place? She gripped the doorway and leaned in, peering around. More dark. “Can’t see anything.”
Custo reached around her. She was suddenly enveloped in the sensual musk of his body. A light flickered on. “The motion detectors were off.”
The entry was nondescript white, except for a small sign that read ANNEX. NO room for a reception desk. Anyone who entered here had to know where they were going. There were two choices: a plain door, or an elevator riddled with, dear God, bullet holes.