His blunt fingertips pressed across my waist, skimmed up my back, one palm warm and right between my shoulder blades, the other shifting lower, cupping heat onto my lower back.
“I want a second chance I don’t deserve. I want to be with you, Delaney. And honestly?” His mouth drifted closer to mine, breath soft against my skin. “I didn’t kill Sven. I haven’t been near him since I went to the bar to meet those men who, yes, think the town is full of vampires.”
A hot current raced down the core of me like a heating coil on fire. I wasn’t sure if it was lust or victory. He had told me the truth. Admitted there was a group of vampire hunters in town.
That’s what Rossi had suspected. All I had to do now was figure out which of them had killed Sven, who sent them to do so and why, and then see that justice was done.
Kiss me, my heart begged, over and over in rhythm to my ragged pulse. Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me.
But my mouth had other ideas. “You said you work with them.”
He shifted away, inch by inch until he was standing above me looking down into my eyes.
“Not how you think.”
A bucket of ice down my pants couldn’t have chilled me quicker.
It was my turn to take a step back. “Then tell me how you know them, who they are, and how you’re involved in this mess.”
More than a hint of my official tone crept into my voice. From the flash of irritation in Ryder’s gaze, he wasn’t a fan of that kind of bossy.
“There are things you shouldn’t know, Delaney. Things I can’t talk about.”
“I want names. I want to know who’s behind the group of hunters. I want to know any information you have on who killed Sven. This is murder, Ryder. Someone lost his life. In my town—our town. A place that is supposed to be safe. So I don’t give a damn what you think you can’t talk about. You will talk about it to me. Or I will take you in and deal with you with the kind of thoroughness you might never recover from.”
Something kindled in his expression—hunger—and I felt the snap of sexual tension spark between us. And right after that, I felt his anger.
“You’ve already decided what I am,” he all but growled. “Already decided I am guilty and not owed the same kind of protection as any other person in town. Decided it the moment you got your hands on whatever evidence you think implicates me in this thing.”
“Your blood. They used your blood to kill him.”
I said it softly, but Ryder’s head jerked back as if he’d been slapped and his mouth went thin. He stood there for a long moment, his eyes sharp and turned inward as if he weren’t in this room, as if I weren’t standing in front of him, as if this conversation weren’t happening.
“That’s why you were asking about the Red Cross.”
“Did you really give blood to them?”
“It was a Red Cross mobile van. I thought it was a whim...but maybe...”
I waited as he sorted through things he didn’t want to tell me. I could press to make him talk, but he’d push back. Better to give him a minute and see if he would come around.
“Who would have wanted your blood? Who would have taken it, and wanted to implicate you in Sven’s death? Someone in your group?”
“My group?”
“You said you’re a part of them. The hunters. Tell me how.”
He was still tight, his fists clenched at his side, the fabric of his shirt straining against the bulge of muscle. He looked like he wanted to hit something.
I understood the feeling.
“How about I make us both some coffee?” I asked. “We can talk this out. Take our time.” It was a peace offering. A cease-fire. He nodded, accepting both. “Sit down and get comfortable.”
I walked into the kitchen, which was mostly hidden from the living room. I made myself busy at the sink, then the coffee pot, measuring out my favorite grounds, putting in extra. I needed either espresso-strength coffee or whisky, and my day was far from over yet.
By the time the coffee was done, and I had two cups poured and made the way we liked them, he was sitting on my couch.
“Just so you know,” I handed him the cup, “I’m on your side here, Ryder. There are a lot of reasons why I shouldn’t be, but I refuse to throw you under a bus because you make a convenient scapegoat. I really do want justice. I really do want to catch the killer. It won’t do me or anyone any good if I pin the crime on someone who was stupid enough to get sucked into this insanity.”
He swallowed coffee. “Thanks for your vote of confidence.” Sarcasm. Yeah, well, I had just told him he was stupid.
“You’re welcome.” I took the chair across from him, blew across my coffee, then took a sip. “What are you caught up in?”
He drank, and for a long moment, I thought he wasn’t going to talk. Then something changed in him, as if he had made a decision, and even though he wasn’t comfortable with it, he wasn’t going to shift course.
“I was approached by a man who wanted to know about Ordinary.”
“When you were working for the firm in Chicago?”
“Sophomore year of college. His name was Frank Walsh.” He lifted his eyebrow as if to say his name really wasn’t Frank Walsh.
“Is that what we’re calling him?”
“That’s what he called himself. But it wasn’t who he was. Eventually, when...things weren’t adding up, I looked into him. Name and driver’s license number belonged to a man who had been dead for fifty years.”
“Vampire?”
“That wasn’t the first thought that went through my mind, no. I confronted him about it. Thought it was identity theft. That’s when I realized it was a test of sorts. That I questioned him. That I was observant.”
“Is Frank one of those men you met in the bar?”
“No. Frank was my boss.”
“Is he a vampire?”
“No. Though I still don’t know what his real name is.”
“I thought you worked for yourself.”
He took a gulp of coffee. His fingers pressed into the mug, knuckles white. “I do.”
How could two little words hold so much ambiguity?
“All right.” I’d let it slide for now. “How is Frank involved with Sven’s death?”
“Frank is a part of a research group.”
I waited. He drank coffee. I rolled my eyes.
“Do not make me get the pliers to pull this out of you, word by word, Ryder, because I will.”
The corner of his mouth twitched slightly. “Bossy.”
“Stop enjoying this,” I grumbled.
A full smile curved his lips and set a sparkle in his eyes I hadn’t seen for far too long. “You just hate not knowing something. Have all your life. It makes it so easy to needle you. If I stop talking, if I do nothing, you’ll lose your nuts. You do know you don’t actually have to know everything about everyone everywhere all the damn time.”
“And you do know I’m an officer of the law. It’s my job to know things. A lot of things.”
“You’re nosy.”
“It’s a small town. I get paid for being nosy.”
“Good career choice, by the way. High school counselor talk you into it?”
“Nope. My dad. My high school counselor thought I should teach P.E.”