I recoiled as if he had slapped me. Honestly? I would have preferred to take the hit.
He was around the car and opening Mai’s door before I recovered. I grabbed the essentials while he lifted her against his chest. After locking her car, I followed him. We bypassed the office and circled to the rear of the building. I wasn’t not convinced it helped us look any less like kidnapper/murderers when he proceeded to carry Mai’s limp body up a flight of unlit stairs, but I wasn’t going to argue method of delivery with him when I couldn’t have hauled her upstairs alone.
After swiping a keycard, Shaw kicked open a door beside a vending machine alcove. He carried Mai inside the room and arranged her comfortably on one of the two queen-sized beds.
With her settled, he snatched a notepad off the desk and scribbled on it.
“My room number.” He tore the top sheet off and slapped the paper into my hand. “Night.”
“Night,” I called to his retreating back.
I jumped when he slammed the door. Crumpling the paper in my fist, I curled up in bed and waited for the others to arrive.
A roar jolted me out of a dreamless sleep. I bolted upright, tossed aside my covers and swung my legs off the bed. Righty sat in a chair pulled beside the door leading into our hotel room. He pointed at the foot of my bed where my now-panther-sized cat twitched his whiskers and flexed his paws in the throes of some phantom hunt.
According to Diode, the guards’ magic had scrambled his charm in transit. No loss there. It had almost petered out on its own anyway. As to their method of travel, he summed up all I needed to know in two words: plausible deniability.
A shadow slanted across the curtains, and my heart stuttered.
“It’s only Daire,” Righty said. “You should sleep.”
No, I shouldn’t. Rook waited for me in dreams. Only he hadn’t been up to visiting lately. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. For the sake of making my next one hundred years more bearable, I kept cracking open the door to friendship with him. That lasted for a few hours, days. Then he found a new way to betray me, and I shut it in his face. Had life in Faerie twisted him until even his best intentions were doomed to fail? Did he even know what honesty was? Was he capable of putting another’s welfare ahead of his own?
I didn’t know, and that warped curiosity kept me doling out second and third and fourth chances.
I slid to my feet and checked on Mai. Sleeping soundly. “I’m going to get some air.”
Righty gave me a tight nod.
The balcony here was longer than at our previous digs, but just as narrow. I stepped out into the humid night and shut the sliding glass door behind me. Inhaling brought the smell of dumpsters and a burger joint. I sneezed the pollutants from my nose then propped my elbows on the railing and gazed up at the stars.
Another scent hit me, earthy and spiked with hints of citrus, but I chose to ignore it—and him.
“It’s late,” a low voice rumbled on my left.
“Really?” I faked surprise. “For your next trick, maybe you can explain those dots of light in the sky.”
Shaw emerged from the shadows wrapping his balcony. “Street lamps or stars, take your pick.”
I thinned my lips in answer. “What are you doing out here?”
His eyes glinted. “Think about it.”
“One guard covering the front entrance. There are windows, so a second guard positioned inside the room.” I straightened. “That makes you the guy guarding the exit. Are we in that much danger?”
He speared me with a look. “You tell me.”
“The gray men aren’t a threat. They wanted us gone, we’re gone. I don’t see them caring one way or the—”
“Selkies.” He bit off the word. “There were selkies in Daytona? They threatened you?”
“Yes and yes.” I blinked innocently at him. “Didn’t I mention them?”
“No,” he snapped.
“Huh.” I started braiding the ends of my hair. “I could have sworn they came up.”
“Why would a pod of selkies threaten someone like you? They’re a peaceful people.”
This was the part I dreaded. There was no way to fudge the truth, it was too dangerous, and he needed to know all of it. “Well, that particular pod is being hunted to extinction by the Morrigan.”
Shaw rocked backward. His palm slapped the railing on his balcony and then he was vaulting onto mine.
My hip bumped off the opposite railing before I realized I had taken the first step back. Shaw landed in a tense crouch. His head shot up, narrowed eyes shining white, bronze complexion waning under the moon.
“The Morrigan,” he snarled up at me.
“Yes.” My foot slid between the metal bars as if trying to escape.
Apparently, he wasn’t a fan of highlight reels.
He straightened to his full height. “Did you offer to help them?”
“I did.” I tightened my grip on the railing. “They told me not to interfere.”
He prowled closer. “Will you interfere?”
Unsure where this crazy train was headed, I told him the truth. “Yes.”
“Why?” he breathed down on me.
“No one should have to pay such a high price for making one mistake.”
The answer must have satisfied him. His skin darkened by degrees, almost back to normal.
He canted his head. “So you believe in forgiveness?”
This answer would bite me on the ass, I just knew it. “Yes.”
Shaw leaned forward and braced his hands on top of mine, trapping me between him, our grips and the railing. “If that’s true...” the hunger in his eyes made breathing impossible, “...forgive me.”
“For earlier?” I waved him off like I thought that was what he meant.
“For months earlier,” he clarified. “I want to hear you say it.”
Panic dumped adrenaline into my system and left me shaking. Was this some attempt at absolution before the end? I examined him for signs his condition had worsened, but health radiated from him. “Where is this coming from?”
“Thierry.” He rubbed his cheek against mine, his lips brushing my ear. “Say the words.”
The scent of his skin, the tone of his voice, made my knees wobble. “You’re using your lure.”
“No.” He drew back to look at me, and smug satisfaction wreathed his face. “I’m not.”
Anticipation cramped my stomach. Sweat beaded on my skin. Clothes that fit fine when I fell asleep felt too tight. I wanted them off, wanted to feel his bare skin slick beneath my palms, wanted to lick the salty drops from his collarbone.
No. He wasn’t using his lure. Simple lust wasn’t this dangerous.
The jagged edges of the heart he had broken were digging into my ribs, slicing through my common sense. Part of me would always love Shaw. I accepted that. I just didn’t know what to do about it.
“Are you sick?” I reached for his arm. “Is your condition worse?”
“Are you scared?” His copper eyes held pinpricks of white. “Does my nearness bother you?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“There’s your answer.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“Nothing has made sense to me since the first time I saw you.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“I hurt you, and I’m sorry.” His jaw flexed. “I should have explained myself...but I didn’t.”
“I don’t want to have this conversation.” Understatement of the century.
“Tough.” His warm palm cradled my cheek. “You ran into Rook’s arms at the sight of me. That tells me you still feel something for me. Other than pity. I want to know, Thierry. Tell me the truth.”
The truth. Ha. Because there was so much of that going around.
“Rook tricked me.” I wet my lips. “It had nothing to do with you.”
“You’re going to leave in a year.” Shaw’s hand slid from mine and clenched around the railing. “You’re his wife.” A
growl entered his voice. “How do you think it makes me feel? To see what he’s turning you into? To know that you’re his?” Metal groaned behind me. “Losing you would kill me.”
My lips parted, ready to spout some offhanded feeding comment, when his mouth crashed into mine. He pinned me with his hips, with the flex of his arms and the tilt of his head. His taste was hot, familiar. I was home. Dreams tasted this way—ambrosial—and then they shattered.
A year later I didn’t have enough of my heart patched together to risk this. Losing Shaw... Mai was right. It had wrecked me.
At most, we would have a year together. Probably a good year. Sex. Laughter. Fun. Danger. A year when I would wonder every single day if he was with me because he loved me or because I was the only thing keeping him alive and he was scared of losing it. I could stand feeding him because it was my fault he was broken. I couldn’t stand to love him again, not the way the press of his mouth or the grinding of his hips encouraged me to. I had to know this was real, but I couldn’t tell if it was anymore.
“You’re not kissing me back.” His body trembled. “Is it Rook? Do you have feelings for him?”
Saying I didn’t have feelings for Rook would be a lie. I felt something when I was with him. He was likable when he wasn’t being a lying bastard. Was that forever material? No. But I didn’t need a husband forever. Just for the next century. Could Rook and I sustain a platonic marriage? Or would I grow to care for him in time? Love him?
What did it matter? Unless I fixed Shaw before I left, he would die. Even if I did manage to get our lives untangled, it’s not like I could ask him to wait a mortal lifetime to be with me.
Shaw had cheated when I was a phone call away. When I was a realm away, with another man, what would he do then? And what right would I have to say anything about it?
“I see,” he said softly. He turned, jogged five or six steps, and then leapt back onto his balcony.
Once I heard the snick of his sliding doors close, I turned. The railing was warped with the imprint of his fingers. I placed my hand where his larger one had been, soaking up his lingering warmth while I wondered how the hell I had ended up on the run in mouse country.
Short bursts of rock music yanked me from the balcony. I darted inside the room, found my cell and checked the caller ID. My weirdo stalker. Crap. I had filed his threat to find me under things to worry about later. I rejected the call, noticing Righty had made himself invisible for my comfort—or so he could spy on my conversation with Shaw—then I muted the phone and hit the hay. Tomorrow was a blink away. Reluctant as my eyes were to shut, I couldn’t fight sleep long.
Chapter Seventeen
Morning sucked. Rook hadn’t visited my dreams, probably because two hours wasn’t enough time to get me into an REM state of mind. I shifted onto my side with a grunt and found Mai sitting upright in bed. Pillows were crammed behind her back. An assortment of junk food and soda cans were spread across her covers, and a bucket of ice sat on her side of the nightstand. Someone had hit the vending machines. Hard.
The Spanish soap opera she had been watching on mute flickered as the screen went black.
“There she is. I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to wake up.” Mai tossed a packet at me. “Are you sure you’re not the one they drugged?”
“What—? No.” I scanned the wrapper through blurry eyes. “I’m not eating chocolate for breakfast.”
“You’re saying no to chocolate?” She wiped a smudge off her lips. “Sounds like drugs talking to me.”
I pushed off the mattress and locked my elbows to force myself to stay vertical. “Where did you get all that?”
A snap of her fingers and an orgasmic scent wafted past my nose on a gust of AC-churned air. “Can you deliver it for me, pretty please?” She fluttered her eyelashes at dead space. “I would do it, but you heard the doctor’s orders.”
I stopped salivating and wiped my mouth. “What doctor?”
“Dr. Shaw.” She flicked crumbs off her covers. “Ever met him? Tall? Dark? Broody? Apparently he gets off on force feeding girls laxatives.”
Lefty appeared at the edge of my bed, holding a greasy paper bag away from his body.
“For me?” I snatched it out of his hand and stuck my head in the opening. That first long inhale made me believe in God. Wait. Was I really equating proof of a higher power with the existence of bacon?
Yes. Yes, I was.
“You better stand back before she bites you on accident,” Mai warned.
Crunching down on a slightly burnt strip rescued from the bottom of the bag, I shut my eyes in bliss. “Was this your doing?”
“No.” He turned his back on us and resumed his post. “It was Shaw.”
At the sound of his name, my appetite vanished, and I crumpled the bag.
“Hey.” Mai made grabby hands. “That is a perfectly good extra bacon, egg and cheese biscuit. I was just kidding about the laxatives. Mostly.”
“There.” I snagged a napkin and then tossed her the bag. “Enjoy.”
“What gives?” She froze with her hand in the sack. “He didn’t take a bite out of it, did he?”
“No.” I wiped my fingers. “He wouldn’t do that.”
He knew how seriously I took crimes against pork products.
“Then what is it?” She examined her prize. “I thought you’d be happy we were playing nice.”
The two of them would have to forge a truce the second he and I broke ours. “I am happy.”
“That’s not your happy face, Tee.” She took a tentative nibble. “That’s your marshal face.”
I rubbed the grit from my eyes. “I have a marshal face?”
“You have several, actually.” Food garbled her words. “This is your pissed-and-yet-professional look. I’ve seen you whip it out at work when a suspect is lying but you don’t have proof, and you can’t just break his face. Well, I guess you could, but you won’t. You’re all about being aboveboard.”
At least someone still had faith I would do the right thing. Too bad the Morrigan’s gift weighed more this morning than it had last night. The chain cut into my nape, and the pendant felt cold as the grave against my skin. My fingers were at the clasp before I stopped myself, and that slight hesitation was telling.
Shaw was right. I was compromised. Even with the burn of shame fresh in my mind, I fumbled. The old me would have yanked off the necklace, logged it into an evidence locker at the office, and then reported the Morrigan to boot.
The new me advised prudence. The charm provided me with instant access to my skins and to a powerful ally. Old Thierry’s morals might be looser, but new Thierry was staring down the barrel of a hundred-year sentence. Without allies or weapons, when Faerie aimed and fired, I was the one poised to go boom.
“We need to make plans.” I tossed aside my rumpled sheets. “Are you well enough to travel yet?”
“Well...about that.” She picked at the rubber buttons on the remote. “My dad is on his way to get me.”
Mai was a daddy’s girl, so her announcement didn’t surprise me. “That’s okay. I’ll mooch a ride home off Shaw.” I hadn’t spotted his truck last night, but he had to get here somehow.
“Sure you don’t mind?” She glanced up. “Daddy’s flight lands in an hour, and he’s already announced his plans to have me driven home.”
“I don’t mind, really.” The last thing I wanted was to be cooped up with Mr. Hayashi for sixteen hours. “I’ll help Shaw for a few days to earn my keep. It’s not like I have a job waiting for me. I might as well do something productive while I’m counting down the days.”
Her relief was so palpable, I became suspicious. “What happened when you called your dad?”
She had volunteered him to be our voucher if the Daytona skulk took issue with me. Maybe he had stomped on that idea.
“He wasn’t as supportive as anticipated.” She scrunched up her face. “He refused to back you.”
The rest of her scheming clicked t
ogether. “That’s why you booked us into a hotel.”
“Yeah.” Her expression darkened. “Dad called Jon and warned him off letting us crash there.”
“Let me know when you pay the bill.” My wallet whimpered before I made the offer. “I’ll cover half.”
“This was my treat.” She rummaged through her chocolate stash. “Our one big chance to hang out, to go out with a bang, and I was happy to supply the dynamite.”
I climbed off my bed and plopped onto hers. Wrapping Mai in a big bear hug, I kissed her cheek with a resounding smack. “Thank you.”
“Not so tight.” Her stomach made a gurgling sound, and she pushed me back. “Oh. Oh, no. That’s not good.” She blanched. “Shaw’s concoction gave me a case of the fox trots. I can’t get more than six feet from the toilet.”
She shot to her feet and bolted to the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her while I mentally adjusted the sixteen-hour drive home to Wink to thirty-two hours.
“Has she been like this all morning?” I asked Lefty since Righty was MIA.
“Yes.” He wrinkled his nose. “Unfortunately.”
The quiet of the room hit me, and I turned a circle. “Where’s Diode?”
Lefty raised and then lowered a shoulder.
Buzzing in the vicinity of my bed had me searching for my cell. My stalker again. Great. I thumbed the ignore icon then turned the ringer on and noticed the time. “How long ago was Shaw here?”
“A half hour or less.” He indicated the door. “Odhran joined him outside to discuss security measures.”
“We’re under lock and guard.” I frowned. “How much safer can you get?”
His face smoothed into a mask of innocence. “Shaw mentioned concerns about access from the balconies.”
Fire leapt into my cheeks and would have singed my eyebrows off if I hadn’t chugged some of Mai’s ice water. So much for pretending last night was all a dream. Why would Shaw discuss our interlude with Righty? Did it mean Shaw was trying to protect me from himself? That wouldn’t work. I had to feed him. Soon. He was due up any day now.
Mentioning the balcony was moot. All four of us had security training. My guards would have noticed the balcony and assessed the risk before I stepped foot inside the room. They already knew it was a weak spot. It was obvious. That was why Shaw covered it last night.
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