I headed for the bus stop that was outside the Wall. It would have been nice if Hermes had found me while I was still downtown.
For a while I’d been using a car that technically didn’t belong to me. Sure, it had been Barbie’s, but I’d grown to like it. Now it was impounded, and I had no money to speak of, so the bus it was.
I frowned as I walked to the bus stop, my mind racing. What the heck was Yaya doing at Vanilla and Honey at this hour anyway? It was after ten, and . . . more than that, how had she gotten in? I hadn’t given her a key to the bakery. “Yaya, what are you up to this time, you crazy old lady?”
I knew the bus schedule by heart, and I also knew I was going to have to wait for at least a half an hour for the next one, then there was the long ride itself. It would be after midnight before I was at the bakery.
The whoop of a police siren made every muscle in me tighten up. A police cruiser inched closer, its lights flickering. I stepped back. What now?
Officer Jensen leaned out his window. “You going somewhere?”
“Why, is that illegal now too?” I raised an eyebrow. I knew that his job was to patrol downtown Seattle. Not to drive around up near the Wall. Which meant he was here for a purpose, and probably that purpose had something to do with Remo. Seeing as Remo was also his boss.
He nodded. “Actually, yes. You aren’t supposed to be on this side of the Wall.”
I clenched my fingers over the papers in my hands. “And you’re going to make me go back?”
“Nope. Remo felt bad for dropping you at the bus. You need a ride anywhere?”
I blinked several times. “Yeah. Can you take me to my bakery?”
“Sure. Hop in.” He leaned across and opened the passenger door.
I slid in and buckled my seat belt.
“Considering what you went through today, you look good. I’m sorry about throwing you into things like I did. I . . . knew you could handle it.” Jensen smiled at me, then swallowed and looked away. I liked him. He was a friend, handsome with his light-brown skin and deep, dark eyes, not to mention being a man in uniform, but . . . he wasn’t Remo.
I kept my eyes on the side window. What to say? What not to say? I didn’t want to encourage him, nor did I want to offend him and have him drop me off in the middle of the highway.
“Alena, Remo is no good,” he said.
I turned to look at him. His eyes stared straight forward, locked on the road.
“Well, he’s helped me a lot so far.”
He frowned, his jaw ticking several times before he spoke. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I can’t keep letting you help him. Even with what I did . . . he sent me to get you, using the influence on me to force my hand. He’s using you. That much that Santos said is right. Remo doesn’t care about you, but he’s making sure you think he does. That’s his MO. You understand? He doesn’t care about anyone, and he’ll use you until he gets what he wants, and then he’ll cast you off like he’s done to every other woman in his life. Worse, you’ll get hurt or be killed. I . . . don’t want that to happen.”
I bit my lower lip. His words didn’t feel right, and yet I couldn’t deny that there was a possibility they were true. “What do you know about the girl he went to medical school for?”
His head whipped sideways so fast the car jigged side to side as he jerked the wheel. “What?”
I swallowed hard, doing my best to work past the feeling that I might be betraying something Remo didn’t want to be common knowledge. At the same time, I . . . wanted to know everything I could about him. “He went to medical school, about twenty years ago.”
He shook his head. “I doubt it.”
I thought about Remo’s hands inside of Tad’s belly only a week before. How he’d quickly found the puncture that Beth had not been able to discover on her own. Remo had staved off Tad’s death long enough that we’d been able to get the healer Damara in to finish the job and save my brother’s life.
I didn’t argue with Jensen. From the set of his jaw, it was obvious to me he wasn’t going to be open to anything that even slightly made Remo look like a good guy. The whole conversation made me wonder . . . was this just another aspect of his knight-in-shining-armor complex? Or did he really think I was in danger? “Why are you still working for him, then? If he’s such a bad guy.”
His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I’m tied to him, Alena. Anyone who signs on with him signs their loyalties over. It’s how it works with vampires. I never had a reason to care . . . I don’t want to see you get hurt, Alena. The best way to do that is to stay close to Remo so I can warn you. The fact that he dropped you off at a bus stop to get all the way home is just another—”
“He sent you to get me,” I pointed out.
“After I asked him where you were.”
My heart sank a little. I reached up and pulled my hair over one shoulder, threading my fingers through it, then braiding it.
He grimaced. “There’s something else I have to tell you.”
I leaned back in my seat, trying to quell the twist of nerves in my belly. “What?”
“I don’t think Remo wants you to win your case. He . . . he stands to lose a lot of his hold on the Supes if the human court system begins to recognize them. They could then go to protection on the south side of the Wall. Do you understand? He doesn’t want you—”
“I got it.” I cut him off, not wanting to hear another word about Remo. I needed to digest what he’d told me. And I wanted to ask Remo about it. No matter what Jensen said, I trusted Remo.
“Thanks for looking out for me, Officer Jensen,” I said.
“Anytime. You can call me anytime, for anything. And call me Ben. Please.” He flashed me a grin, and I smiled back.
“You’re a good friend.”
He grimaced. “Ah, don’t friend zone me.”
I laughed, and just like that the tension was broken. We spent the rest of the drive arguing about movies that didn’t accurately portray supernaturals. In particular, vampires and the variety of types they came in in movies. Sunlight defying, beautiful, ugly, bloodthirsty, maniacal, and heroic.
“Here we are. Do you want me to wait?” He parked the cruiser at the curb in front of Vanilla and Honey.
“No, I see my grandmother’s car. We can carpool.” I opened the door, paused, and looked back. “Thanks, Officer Jensen. I mean, Ben.”
He tipped his hat and winked at me. “Ma’am.”
Laughing, I stepped out and shut the door behind me. He was a nice guy; I liked him, and after the initial awkward tension, he was easy to be around. A thought flashed through my mind. He didn’t seem to mind the monsters . . . maybe I should introduce him to Beth? As the thought took root, I nodded to myself.
There was no chemistry between Jensen and I; there never had been. Whatever he felt was only because I’d used my siren abilities on him in a desperate situation. If I gave him a push toward Beth . . . I could totally see it working.