“I could see it. Whistle power. Brass knuckles. Bossing people around trying to make them play fair. Expecting the best of them, never giving up on them even when they disappoint you.”
I was surprised to hear that he thought of me in that way. Was I like that? Did I expect people to be, if not good then maybe diligent, no matter what was proved otherwise to me? Did I want a fair playing field for people, did I want to enforce rules that would level the disparities in the world?
Yes.
It warmed me to realize he knew me that well.
“Don’t make this about us.” The words came out too thick with emotion.
“How can it not be? This is us. We’re right here throwing these dice, dealing with our devils and taking huge risks on faith and trust.”
“Devils I have plenty of. Give me details.”
“Not sure that can happen.”
“Trust me that I will do my best to keep you safe,” I said.
“Trust me that I will do the same,” he said.
So we were both hiding secrets, and navigating dangers that the other person wasn’t aware of. Crow was right.
Cards, meet table.
“The vampires in town know you’re involved in Sven’s death.”
His body language went hard even though his facial expression didn’t change. He took it for what it was: confidential information given freely. I was trusting hard here. I just hoped he would return the favor.
“The men at the bar came to the notice of my boss. They are...known to the agency I work for.”
Pretty sure he didn’t mean housing agency.
“If I can’t prove your innocence in the next couple days, you’re not going to be alive long enough for it to matter.”
Another piece of truth, freely given.
“Ordinary is being targeted. We don’t know who is behind the sudden attention.”
“Who do you work for?”
“Who is the prime vampire?”
We sat there, stared at each other. My heart was beating too fast—fear. If I confirmed what he suspected, if I outed Old Rossi, I would be taking him into a confidence that could not be undone.
It would leave both my town vulnerable to whatever he was really mixed up in, and it would leave him vulnerable to the forces in my town.
“Ask me something else,” I said.
He didn’t hesitate. “What really killed Sven?”
“An ancient blood spell. What is your agency’s objective?”
“To contact the unknowns in this town.”
“Contact as in kill?”
“We didn’t kill Sven. Deadly force isn’t forbidden, but isn’t encouraged.”
“Define contact.”
“Just what it sounds like. You’ve told me there are vampires in the town. That Sven was one. We’re here to meet them. To offer them certain protections. To ensure they have oversight.”
“Oversight?” He obviously didn’t know much about vampires if he thought they would allow an agency to keep tabs on them.
He tipped his head in agreement. “What is a blood spell?”
“What agency do you work for?”
He leaned forward and set his cup down on the short table between us. “That’s...” He sighed as he leaned back, then rubbed his hand over his mouth.
“You want to know anything about vampires in this town, you want to find some way to facilitate that ‘oversight’ or make contact, you’re going to have to go through me.”
A wash of heat poured off him, his eyes went intense with a focus that had nothing to do with this town, these deals, or those words. That spark between us smoldered, kindled, and caught.
“Jesus, Delaney,” he breathed. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Who said I’d let you?”
He stood up. I was standing too, even though I didn’t remember getting off the couch. Then one of us moved. Or both of us moved. All I knew was that suddenly the space between us was gone.
I looked up into his eyes and knew the want there was echoed in me. I could feel it like a strumming beneath my breastbone, a rhythm as primal as time, as the sea, as a heartbeat.
Whatever we might have, whatever our past had made us, whatever our future might be, we could not deny this draw, this connection. We had walked away, but were walking back together as if there were no other state in which we could exist. As if we would always walk back together no matter what ripped us apart.
As if we’d been doing it our whole lives.
And maybe we had.
“Delaney,” he whispered, his palms on either side of my face. In that one word, my name whispered and husky between his lips, lived layers of emotions. I thought I understood. He was trying to protect me, didn’t want to see me hurt again, shot, or worse.
What I should do was step away. Take care of business. Take care of my vampires, my murdered friend, my town.
It would be selfish to do anything else. Reckless.
I grabbed hold of the front of his shirt and dragged his mouth down to mine.
At first, I thought I’d read this wrong, read the heat between us as attraction when it was something else. Then his mouth softened, his body bent. His fingertips pressed against my jaw, cheekbones, back of my skull as he angled my mouth to better fit his own.
I lost myself to the warmth of him, the sensation of his lips, sliding against mine. His tongue darted across the corner of my mouth, and I opened in answer, licking across his lower lip, wanting him and finally, finally tasting him: coffee, mint, and something rich and unique that made my heart beat heavy and slow.
We kissed, until the world disappeared, until the doubts and questions were burned away. When I couldn’t breathe any more, I pulled away.
“Don’t...” Ryder reached for me again, to pull me near.
But I took another step back. And another.
I had kissed him. Kissed the man who had dumped me when I was lying in a hospital bed. Kissed the man who was still not proven innocent. Kissed the man who wouldn’t tell me who he worked for.
All those things were just details.
No, they were the devils.
Was there a difference?
“Who do you work for?”
The warm, open lines of his body tightened. His eyes that had seemed glassy, soft, narrowed down to slits. His mouth hardened into a frown.
“Is that all this is? All you care about?” His voice was deep, angry.
“Why shouldn’t I care about that? You won’t tell me, and we can’t build anything...”
...between us...
“...on this case until you do.”
He wiped his hand over his jaw, and when he pulled it away, there was a sardonic grin where his frown had been. I knew him well enough to know that grin covered anger.
“The case. That’s your priority. Your only priority. Fine. You shouldn’t care who I work for because I’m not going to tell you. If you want answers out of me, then you’re going to have to play by my rules, Delaney, not yours. You can’t use...whatever this is between us to make me do what you want.”
Hold on there. What? He thought I was what—throwing myself at him to get information? I didn’t know if I should laugh or punch him.