In an attempt to calm him, I put my hand on his arm gently. “Thanks for coming. I didn’t mean to freak you out. I know you’re busy. My Jeep is a few blocks up. Just drop me there, and you can go back to what you were doing.”
“You expect me to drop you off and leave you alone? Uh, no. That master dickwad was interested in you enough to send three of his minions to listen at the door to our feeding room. Even you had to notice his unnatural interest in you. He basically came right out and threatened to take you from me. I will rip his already dead head off him if he lays one finger on you.” Jay’s jaw was tight. “Why in the fuck would the head of the slayers send one girl in? Does he want you returned in small pieces?”
Jay had always watched out for my friends and me, but this wasn’t normal. He hadn’t reacted this way to Myra.
Myra and Jay frequently got along fine. They were both shifters, though she was a cat shifter and he was a wolf shifter. And Myra didn’t actually get into trouble or binds. She was straightlaced.
He and my close friend Lindsay had dated for a while. She’d spent a chunk of her adult life being hunted by big dark baddies who knew she was the mate to the Prince of Darkness. Jay, Myra, and I had all tried to look out for her and keep her safe. Exavier, the frontman for Loup Garou—who also happened to be the Prince of Darkness—had reconnected with Lindsay again just over six months ago. Lindsay no longer lived in the city and was six months pregnant—yeah, they’d wasted no time getting busy on the baby making.
That left me. While Jay had always seemed protective of me, he’d never been like this. He’d never been this worked up before. I wasn’t exactly sure how to handle it. The me of old would have laughed at him and ignored him. The new me understood he had feelings too.
Yeah. I was broken for sure.
“Jay, I’m okay. I’m out of there now. Thank you for that,” I said softly, trying to calm him down. “I’m sure Zachariah didn’t realize it was a den in addition to a club. He wouldn’t have sent me alone. Just drop me off at my Jeep, and I’ll be out of your hair tonight.”
“Out of my hair?” he shouted, and gripped the wheel to the point I thought he’d rip it off.
With as strong as he was, he could tear apart the SUV with ease.
I licked my lower lip. Jay and I had been spending a great deal of time together over the past six months. Far more time than we’d ever spent together before. And all of it had been just him and me. At first it was strange, no longer having Myra and Lindsay there as buffers. But then it grew on me. I now looked forward to our time together. To seeing him and just getting to hang out with him. I also understood I was using him to fill the void my best friends had left in their wake.
“I’ve eaten up a lot of your time already by being at your house nearly daily. And you just drove all the way across the city to get me out of a vampire den. So yes, I want to get out of your hair. You’re so busy. You didn’t need this tonight too.”
He shot me a look that said we were far from done with the conversation. “That dress barely covers you.”
“Gee, sorry, Dad,” I mocked.
“Gina,” he growled. “Don’t joke about this. You walked into a den of vampires dressed like a present for them to unwrap. You had to fucking know the master would notice you. That he’d take an interest in you. Hell, he’d notice you dressed in a paper bag. You’re kind of hard not to notice. The dress you’re in demands attention. He was undressing you with his mind. I know it.”
I lifted a brow. “So, it’s my fault that Reynaud took an interest in me because I dared to wear this dress?”
Jay let out a long, frustrated breath. “Fuck, baby. No. I’m just…I knew you were in there, alone with all of them, and I was terrified I wouldn’t get to you in time to get you out. I called Zachariah. He and I both tried calling you. You didn’t answer your damn phone.”
I’d never seen him this way before. “Um, not to draw more attention to the dress, but where, exactly, was I supposed to put my phone?”
The look he gave me made me wonder if he was going to pull over, spank me, and then send me to my room. Instead, he grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight.
“Can you try not to scare the hell out of me again?” he requested, need showing on his handsome face.
The sincerity in his voice kept me from making a witty comeback. His concern was real, and I had to admit that made warmth spread through me.
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. I’m taking this out on you when I should be directing my anger at Zachariah.” He kept hold of my hand. “I told him to run your missions past me first. I’d have never signed off on this one.”
I clenched his hand tightly. “You did what?”
Jay adjusted in his seat nervously. “Nothing. Hey, great dress.”
“Jayson, what did you do?” I asked, my voice barely there as I attempted to keep a lid on my anger.
Guiltily, he glanced in my direction. “I might have been talking to Zachariah on a totally unrelated incident, and I may have asked that he please keep me updated on what he had you doing. I only asked out of curiosity. Nothing more.”
His explanation bordered on ridiculous, so much so that I had to dig deep to find righteous indignation and not merely laugh at him.
“Jayson.”
“Give me this, Gina. I worry. The network and support system that were in place between you, Myra, and Lindsay isn’t there anymore—not like it was. You’re all going in three different directions with your lives now, which is fine. And I know you love each other like sisters, but what happens if you need backup or help in any way?”
“I’m not the only slayer, Jay,” I stressed. “Zachariah would send other slayers to me.”
He lifted a brow as he glanced at me. “You know as well as I do that you and the rest of the city’s slayers have a tense, relationship, at best. I’m sorry. That doesn’t work for me when it comes to your safety. And how would you call them when you don’t take your phone with you?”
He had a point. I didn’t like it. But I couldn’t deny he was right.
The other slayers and I did our jobs, but we didn’t hang out, chitchat, or like each other much. I’d felt like an outsider when I came on. That hadn’t changed despite how long I’d been with the branch. They had their cliques, and I wasn’t included in them.
“Fine. Thank you for trying to keep track of me to keep me safe,” I said, having to bite back the taste of vinegar from admitting as much. “I’ll tell you what, how about you and I do what I used to do with the girls?”
He grinned, and it was entirely too sexy. “Tell me this involves pillows, frilly panties, and whipped cream.”
I snorted. “Totally. That all happens before we rub each other down with body lotion.”
“Yes!” he said, winking at me. “Sorry. I’ll be serious. What are you proposing?”
“That you and I text each other, letting one another know what we’re doing, where we are, and that we’re okay. Basically, we had updates going all day, in order to be sure each of us was okay. But I doubt you’re going to want to be checking in with me all day like I’m your ball and chain or something.”
Jay lifted my hand, reminding me he was still holding it. “I love the idea. It’s a deal.”
I tried to work my hand from his, but he held tight. “Uh, let’s add the rule that you and I don’t go to the extreme the girls and I did though.”
“And that would be?” he asked.
I took a deep breath. “Letting each other know if we’re going on a date, or we’re going to go back to a guy’s house with him, how the sex was, if we’re too hungover to move, and so on. I don’t want to know about your booty calls.” The thought of Jay being with another woman bothered me way more than it should, and it had for months.
The lowest of growls came from him. “No. I say we leave that caveat there.”
“Jay, I really do not want to know about your sex life,” I said earnestly. The very idea o
f him having one turned my stomach.
“We do this all the way,” he returned.
I groaned. “Okay, but I might cut your man parts off if you go into detail about what happened in the bedroom on your dates.”
His lips twitched. “You’ll let me know if you’re going out with anyone, or anything else, right?”
“Sure, but you’re going to think I’m not holding up my end of the deal,” I confessed, my hand still in his.
“Why is that?”
“Jay, I haven’t gone on a date in months. Myra and I were talking about it last week before she left for her mother’s, and she pointed out that I haven’t been on a date or had a random hookup since right after Exavier and Lindsay mated. So, like six months now. Let me be the first to say, a world record for me.”
Jay exhaled slowly, some of the tension in him leaving. “Good.”
“What?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
“What about you? Should I expect eight different texts a day about your newest girl of the moment?” I asked, hoping that wouldn’t be the case. “And please do not date that one chick who thought your pager going off was the doorbell. I’m very ashamed for you over that one.”
He snickered. “Yeah, I’m ashamed over all of them. And no, you won’t be getting multiple texts from me about women. I, uh, haven’t been out with anyone since before Xavier and Lindsay hooked up.
“Jayson, are you dying of something terminal?” I asked, only partially kidding. The man was legendary with his conquests.
“Totally serious.”
I tensed. “Is it because you’re still hurt over things ending with you and Lindsay?”
He caressed my hand with his thumb. “Gina, that ended long before she and Exavier became an item. And it wasn’t a relationship. I need you to understand that.”
I just looked at him, unsure why he felt the need to stress as much to me.
He pulled off into the empty parking lot of an office building and put the SUV in park. “Gina, I need you to hear me fully. Lindsay and I weren’t in love. We weren’t even dating.”
“Just fucking?” I asked, my chest tightening. I pressed the same fake smile to my face that I’d used with the vampires at the club.
“Dammit,” he whispered under his breath. “I didn’t know then, Gina.”
“Didn’t know what?”
Tipping his head back, he looked strained. “I didn’t have all the facts. I was confused. When Exavier pulled me aside after Lindsay’s baby shower to talk to me…it all made sense. I’d felt it for years, but I’d talked myself out of it. It all aligns now. I get it. Please know if I could take away my past, what I did and who I did it with, I would.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. “You are so incredibly weird, Detective Gonzales.”
“I’m trying very hard to tell you I’m sorry,” he supplied.
“For what?”
He swallowed hard. “It’s complicated.”
I snorted. “Okay, my weird, weird friend. I can walk to my car. It’s just over a couple of blocks from here. Thanks again for coming for me.”
He scowled.
I got out of the SUV and leaned back in for a second. “Hey, are we still meeting at your place tomorrow to work on your kitchen?”
“Gina, I told you, I’m not leaving you alone after the interest I saw that master vampire take in you.” Jay leveled a hard gaze on me.
His phone rang, and I knew the ringtone meant it was work. He sighed and answered the phone. “Gonzales.”
I stood there, watching as he rubbed his head.
“Send Taylor,” he said with another big sigh. “Romeo, I’m all the way across town. Send fucking Taylor. I know it’s my case. Yes, I know Taylor is an asshole. Let him have it. Fine. I’m coming.”
He put his phone down and looked at me. “Get in. You’re coming with me.”
“Jay, I’m fine. You’re needed at work.”
He reached for me. “Gina.”
I winked. “I’m getting my Jeep and heading to Zachariah’s. I’ll take one of the extra rooms and bunk there for the night. Feel better?”
He exhaled. “I’d feel better if you were bunking at my house, but yes, that’s better than you going straight home. Where is your Jeep?”
I pointed to a lot close to us. That wasn’t it, but he’d never leave if he knew I’d have to walk a whole three blocks all by myself.
“Gina, remember our deal. Text me the second you get to Zachariah’s.”
“Will do,” I said as I shut the door and walked in the direction of my Jeep.
4
My heels clicked loudly on the pavement as I headed in the direction that my Jeep was parked. The area was lit, but not well. Thankfully, I wasn’t afraid of the dark, and if someone tried to mug me, he’d be in for a rude surprise when I handed him his ass back.
I made it to my Jeep, grabbed my hidden key. In no time, I was in and ready to go. I grabbed my phone from the glove box and noticed the amount of missed calls I had. Scrolling through them, I saw that nearly all were from Jay. Zachariah was next in line. I accessed one from Jay.
“Dammit, Gina, answer your phone. You need to get out of the fucking club. Now.”
When I got to the sixth voice mail from him, I sighed. “Gina, shit. The pack members watching the club got pulled away with an emergency. I’m coming as fast as I can.”
The rest of the messages from him were a lot of the same. At some point, he’d gone from seeming as if he saw me as a competent slayer, to acting like it was my first week out of training. On the one hand it felt nice to know someone cared, but on the other, it was slightly insulting.
I pulled out of the parking lot and headed in the direction of home, having no intention of going to Zachariah’s for the night. What Jay didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Besides, he wasn’t my keeper.
I made it another three blocks from the club when a tire blew. Several curses later, I was out of the Jeep and surveying the damage. The tire was toast. There was no saving it. The last thing I wanted to do was change a tire in a dress and heels. Not to mention doimg so in the warehouse district at this time of night. It was always a favorite stomping ground for supernaturals looking to have some fun without repercussions. Having to kick some demon ass while in four-inch heels and a dress that just barely covered my breasts wasn’t high on my bucket list.
As I soaked in what was around me, I couldn’t help but notice the vast amounts of graffiti on the majority of the warehouses and office buildings. This stretch of the warehouse district managed to be more run-down than others. I suspected it was due to the fact most of the businesses that operated out of this portion had gone belly-up at some point. Not a surprise with the state of things.
Some of the graffiti was from humans, but a large portion was from supernaturals. It was easy to tell the difference. The symbols and tags used were different. I’d learned all the local supernatural tags some time ago. Many just announced that the area was part of a supernaturals’ territory, or turf if we were taking it back to ’80s movie time. Others were warnings to humans that if they entered, they wouldn’t leave. Which I found ironic, since humans weren’t hip to the fact supernaturals were even real.
Not sure the warning system was well-planned.
My phone rang, and I answered it quickly. No sense allowing my phone’s ringtone to act as a beacon to draw unwanted attention. If I was dressed for slaying, I’d have turned on my music and let it blare from my phone, daring the assholes to make a move.
“Hey, babes, is this a good time?” asked Lindsay, my best friend.
I grunted. “Sure. I’m about to change a tire in a dress that probably retails for several hundred dollars. It was one that Zachariah keeps in his giant room of women’s clothing. Let’s not even get into how weird that is.”
“Call Jay,” she said nonchalantly, as if Jay’s manliness should be exploited at all times. For a second, I agreed with her. “He’ll come chan
ge the tire for you.”
Lindsay and I had been friends for what felt like forever. She was funny, sarcastic, and someone whom I’d clicked with instantly. But our personalities tended to differ to a point. She’d gone from blindly trusting everyone around her and laughing nonstop, to losing faith in everything and becoming jaded. Since she’d mated, more and more of the old Lindsay was shining through. She no longer kept armor around her heart.
I strongly suspected that was because she no longer had to live in constant fear of being attacked by whatever supernatural of the week was hunting her for her mate. Now that her mate was with her, they all thought twice about attacking her.
That had helped to set my mind at ease when she’d told me she was moving. I’d spent so long trying to watch over her and help as much as I could that I was happy to know she’d be safe but sad to see her go. We’d spent nearly every day together before. Now that person-to-person time was spent on the phone.
“Linds, I’m capable of changing my own tire.” I retrieved my jack and set about doing as much. “Still suffering from insomnia?”
She bemoaned. “Yes. I swear all I did was sleep for the first four months I was pregnant. Now I’d give anything to sleep six straight hours.”
Putting her on speakerphone, I set the phone on the ground and continued with the task of changing the tire. It was less than glamorous.
“Kill anything interesting tonight?” she asked. “I’m so bored. Let me live vicariously through you.”
Snorting, I pulled the old tire off and set it aside. “No, I haven’t killed anything tonight. Zachariah had me on a recon mission. It was interesting, to say the least. I’m pretty sure I was propositioned by a really scary master vampire.”
“Was he at least hot?” she asked, letting me know pregnancy had not yet ruined her sense of priorities.
“Oh yeah. He was hot. But there’s something more to him,” I confessed. “Something that made me want to keep my distance.”
“Gina, you have like no fear,” she said softly. “If he wigged you out, you need to reach out to Jay. I can send Xavs or Eion. They’re taking turns making me sit still.”
Bad Moon Rising: A Loup Garou World Novel (Tempting Fate Book 2) Page 3