“Honestly.”
“You want me to tell the truth. I want the same in return.”
“And how long does this deal last?”
“Until the questions run out.”
I didn’t see how this could go wrong. I could answer anything he asked honestly. He might not like the answers but I could give them to him.
“All right. Deal.”
He smiled and leaned back. “So ask.”
“Did you really donate your blood to the Red Cross?”
His eyebrows plunged. It was not the question he expected. “You sure you want to ask me that? I already gave you the answer.”
“I want an honest answer.”
“Yes, I donated my blood to the Red Cross. You’re not very good at this game, Delaney.”
“You think it’s a game?”
He lifted a palm in a shrug sort of gesture.
I searched his eyes. The problem with our little truth or truth game was that we had to trust that neither of us would lie. He didn’t look like he was lying, but he might be. Vampire murderers weren’t the most reliable sort, one would suppose.
“My turn,” he said.
“That’s not how it works.”
“It’s how it works. One question for one question.”
“You didn’t say that in the rules.”
“It’s in the small print.”
“What small print?”
“Right here on the tip of my tongue.” He stuck his tongue out at me and I couldn’t believe how stupid and sexy it made him look.
I tried not to smile. From the bull-hockey totally sincere look on his face, he was trying not to smile too.
“All right, slugger. Ask your question.”
“Have you forgiven me for breaking up with you?”
Man went right for the gut. Had I? He had given up on me. On us. And yet he was right here, in front of me, still a part of my life. Maybe a friend. Maybe more.
Maybe a murderer.
I put that possibility aside for the moment.
“Yes.”
He nodded slowly, and bit at his bottom lip then released it. “Thank you.”
“Did you kill Sven Rossi?”
His shoulders jerked. “No.”
I searched his eyes, his face, his body for the truth behind that single word.
He held up a hand. “I’d like this to be outside the question game.”
“All right.”
“Holy, shit, Delaney. Sven’s dead?”
“Yes.”
“How? Since you’re asking me if I did it, I assume you don’t think it was an accident.”
“He was shot.”
Ryder rubbed his palm over his face, fingers lifting to tug his wind-mussed hair. “Jesus. Okay. And you think this has something to do with me?”
“Are we back on the question game?” I asked.
It was his turn to study my face. I could guess at what he saw. I had a good mask of indifference when I needed it. My eyes met his steadily. Waiting.
“Sure. Do you think I have something to do with Sven’s death?”
This might be my childhood friend in front of me, but there was something about those words, about how carefully he said them, as if he were using the question as a means to an end. Ryder wanted something from me, or expected me to be or do something.
He was digging for information just as hard as I was. I knew my motivation. What was his?
“Yes.”
Slight tightening of his eyes was the only response I got from that. Now it was my turn.
“Do you know who killed Sven?”
“Pass.”
“What? No.”
“I said I won’t answer three questions. That’s one.”
“If you don’t answer it, I’ll assume the answer is yes.”
“Assumptions are not the truth.”
I finished off the water and set the glass down. “I think we’re done here.”
He watched me stand, watched me walk toward the door. Just as my hand wrapped around the handle, he asked. “Do you trust me, Delaney?”
I swallowed hard. Wondered if I did trust him. Wondered if I was just trusting a man I’d known years ago, instead of the man I didn’t know now.
“Pass.”
I opened the door and walked out into the night.
Chapter 5
Someone was staring at me. Since I was sleeping, in my bed, in my house, the sudden knowledge that I was not alone was more than a little disconcerting.
My gun rested on the wooden stepladder I used as a night stand. I could grab for it, but whoever was staring at me would see that move coming from a mile away.
Unless they had already found the gun and were pointing it at me.
That thought pushed me right over into instantly awake, eyes open, adrenalin pumping, sitting up.
“Delaney, dear. It’s about time. I’ve been waiting.”
I blinked at the voice, and also at the face of Bertie, our town’s one and only Valkyrie who was sitting in the corner of my room, in a chair, sipping something that smelled like tea.
Bertie’s white hair was cut short and a little spiky, making her sharp green eyes too large in her heart-shaped face. She wore a pantsuit in a lovely red that might make other people think of roses, but made me think of blood, and a scarf with little red cherries printed on it tied at her neck.
The tea was in a china cup that must have come from her kitchen because I didn’t own anything that delicate. Her fingernails were sharp and painted gold.
I should really start locking my front door.
“Why are you in my bedroom?” I glanced at the clock. “At six-thirty in the morning?”
“Because I need to be at work by seven, of course.”
“Of course.” I echoed like that made any sense. “Bertie? Seriously?”
“I’m delivering your package.”
“Package?”
“The one your sister left with me yesterday.”
I pressed at my eyes with my fingertips and tried to get my brain working. “Crow. You brought Crow here.”
“Exactly. Now, since you’re awake, I’ll get my day started. The fundraiser is taking quite a lot of time to coordinate. I’m always so short on volunteers. I’m going to have to reach out into the community more vigorously if people don’t start stepping forward.”
Subtle, she was not. But then Bertie didn’t so much recruit volunteers as conscript people into service. “Coffee before blackmail,” I said.
“If you want breakfast alone, you should really start locking your front door.”
I shoved the heavy quilt off my legs and swung my feet down to the floor. I was wearing what I usually wore to bed: T-shirt and boy shorts. “Not a lot of people bother to climb the million steps to my house, and those who do aren’t usually criminals.”
“Yes. Still. Most people don’t have to be murderers to have ulterior motives.”
“Did you hear about Sven?” I asked.
“Yes.”
I wouldn’t have expected another answer. She was, after all, a creature who pulled fallen warriors off the battlefield and escorted them to the party pub in the sky. It made sense she would be in the know about the newly departed.
“Do you know anything about his death that might help me find his killer?”