by Jenny Allen
“Trust me. I’m all too aware of just how complicated families can be, but Duncan was a good man, a good father.” There was a brief flicker of emotions across his face that said Chance knew exactly what a bad father was like. However, this wasn’t the time to go digging up Chance’s past. “Spencer sure is an ass about it.” His hands clenched the steering wheel tight, turning his knuckles white. “It was all I could do to keep from rearranging his face back there.”
Without even stopping to over think it like usual, Lilith smoothed a hand over his. “You were amazing. Restrained, yet effective.” She was smiling as she ran it back in her head. The look of utter surprise on Spencer’s face was priceless. Lilith turned in her seat to look at Chance with a sudden thought. “You know you could be an excellent interrogator.”
Chance’s eyebrows flew up in surprise and he slowly turned his head to glance at her, before returning his eyes to the road. “I’ll try to take that as a compliment. I’m not sure I’m thrilled by the fact that you think I’m scary enough to beat a confession out of someone.”
A bubble of laughter popped out of her and she clasped her hands over her mouth to stop it at a death glare from Chance. When she had it under control, she tried again. “Not some inquisition interrogator. A real detective that questions witnesses and suspects. It takes a lot of psychology, and your instincts back there were better than my training.” This time when she laughed it was soft and light. Even in the dark, with only the pale glow from the instrument panel, she could see a blush creeping over his cheeks.
Chance ran a hand slowly through his hair. “Uh…thanks.” He glanced over at the warm smile on Lilith’s face and he couldn’t help but smile himself. “I appreciate the compliment, but I seriously wanted to break his face. I couldn’t deal with that every single day. Plus, Gregor’s my boss, and I love my job.”
There was a slight pull of his lips and tightness in his jaw that contradicted his late sentence. It surprised her. “You don’t.” She blurted it out before she could think it over.
He glanced over at her in confusion. “I don’t what?”
Lilith sat and contemplated just dismissing it, but she honestly really wanted to know. “You don’t love your job, not completely.” She sunk as far back in her seat as she could, waiting for the screaming to start.
Instead, Chance quietly looked at her for a second at a red light. “I love Gregor like family. I’d protect him without the paycheck, but no I don’t completely love my job. Gregor is a wonderful man, but he knows the power he has over people and he uses it. There are things in my life, things that would be different if I didn’t work for him.” His eyes caught hers for a significant instant and then turned back to the road as the light changed.
Her arms slowly folded over her chest and she frowned across the car. The need to defend her father was purely instinctual. “Gregor isn’t a tyrant. Come on, Chance. He doesn’t play people like pawns. He’s always open and honest. So the man flipped out when some eighteen year old kid got a tattoo for his sixteen year old daughter. What father wouldn’t go ballistic? Don’t make him out to be some super villain because of it. He doesn’t control your life. That’s just juvenile.”
The car jerked to the side of the road and Chance slammed on the brakes. Lilith was clutching the dash, holding on for her life when the tiny car finally rocked to a stop. “Are you fucking insane?!” She tried desperately to catch her breath and control the trembles running through her arms.
Chance twisted in his seat, leaning over the center console and reached out to tilt her chin toward him. His hazel eyes, flecked with green bored into her from inches away. Her breath caught in her throat and she struggled to remember how to simply breathe. The anger didn’t flood out of her like they talk about in the movies. It was simply intense. “Just because you know one thing, doesn’t mean that you know the whole story. Sometimes you are too smart for your own good. You think one or two facts will let you fill in everything else. That might work on a crime scene, but not with me. You have some serious rose colored glasses on when it comes to your father. He’s a survivalist. He needs to be. I get that, but don’t sit there and tell me that he doesn’t manipulate things to his advantage. You only see one side of him. I have been with him almost every waking moment of his life for the past decade.”
“I…” Lilith couldn’t even form a sentence she was so startled. All she could think about was how soft his skin looked and how his warm scent wrapped around her. She couldn’t wrap her head around his anger toward Gregor. None of it made any sense to her. Squashing a teenage crush wasn’t the work of an evil mastermind. She swallowed the lump in her throat and was about to try and form words when he cut her off.
“Yes, Gregor went ballistic over the tattoo, and that’s what I thought too, that you were too young and he was being protective. So I waited. I worked hard to be the best I could at my job, tried to show how responsible I was. On your eighteenth birthday he sat me down and told me the truth about things. He very calmly told me that this…”He motioned between the two of them. “Would never happen. He made that crystal clear.”
She stumbled through her thoughts and none of it made sense to her. Gregor would never threaten him, that wasn’t her father. “He’d fire you?”
“No, Lilith.” His jaw clenched tight and he stared into her eyes willing her to understand. “He’d ship me off to the ends of the earth with no support. A death sentence. He might as well have threatened to kill me then and there. ”
Her eyes went wide and it seemed like the whole world just turned upside down. “Why?” It came out as a weak breathy whisper. None of it made sense. Her father barely raised his voice much less threatened people’s lives and Chance was like a son to him.
“You’re basically a pure blood, Lily. Your body is strong enough to live centuries.” His eyes fell and there was an intimate sadness in them that made her want to cry. “I’ve got one century, if I’m lucky, assuming I don’t die in the line of duty which is entirely possible. Not to mention, the further dilution of the bloodlines. Gregor very reasonably explained it all to me. You’re right, he is a great man and a very protective father, but he’s ruthless to whatever threatens his family.”
There was a tightness in her chest that felt like her lungs were going to explode. She wanted to take all the hurt and sadness lingering in his face away. She tried desperately to get her brain working. It took a tremendous amount of effort with him so close to her. “But you are family! Gregor took you in, helped raise you. You are like a son to him.”
“No, Lily. I’m a fixture, a tool. I know in some way Gregor cares about me, but it’s not like family. Not to him. You are his family, Duncan, Miriah, Malachi, even Spencer. I’m just the hired help that he knows a little better than the others.”
“Why are you telling me all this? Why now?”
His green-flecked eyes slowly met hers again. “Because you deserve to know, and I can’t keep all these secrets when we’re working so close together. I need you to understand. When you do things, it affects me. So I’m asking you, begging you, take it easy on me. I don’t have an endless amount of willpower. I need to do my job here. If anything happens to you, I’d never forgive myself and that’s nothing compared to what Gregor would do.”
Her heart was pounding heavy in her chest, drowning out everything else. The tension in the car was thick enough to cut with a knife and it was pulling her in a million directions. Without even thinking, she whispered “Shut the fuck up.” Her lips brushed against his in a torturously tender kiss that caused every little hair on her body to stand up.
At first, Chance just sat there, paralyzed and she had a moment of blind panic. She was just about to pull back and prepare to be horribly embarrassed when his thin control snapped. His strong arms slid around her and held her close as his lips pushed against hers in a nudging kiss. Her head swam in dizzy intoxication as her whole body sprang to life. It felt like she’d been in a haze all her life and now it was s
uddenly, beautifully, vibrantly clear.
She wasn’t the hermit that Chance jokingly thought she was. She’d dated, but nothing ever serious. The men that could handle her schedule and line of work, usually weren’t the passionate ones that ever moved her to really feel anything. This was different than anything she’d ever felt. It was like her whole body had been sleeping and was just now waking up.
Her arms slipped around his neck, pulling him closer as his tongue caressed her soft lips. He tasted like sunlight, warm and electrifying. She wanted to live in the bubble of this moment forever. His fingers drifted softly against her ribs and she gasped against his lips. Chance pulled back suddenly, resting his forehead against hers. He drew in a ragged, shaking breath. “God, you cannot do that, Lily.”
Her back stiffened and she pulled away from his arms. Righteous fury flooded through her and she rubbed at her flushed cheeks. “I am a grown woman, Chance. I’m not my father’s pawn, no matter how honorable his intentions.”
A lazy smile so tender stretched his lips that she caught herself just staring at him. “That is not what I meant. Believe me. I’ve noticed you’re a full grown woman."
All the anger flooded out of her and relief rushed over her so fast she felt dizzy. Her cheeks burned and she felt the blush all the way down her neck. She swallowed down the breath she’d been holding and relaxed into her seat. “What did you mean then?”
His eyes glazed over and he rubbed a hand over his auburn- speckled hair. “Gasping like that. I’ve wanted to kiss you from the moment I saw you, twelve, thirteen years ago and I’m mostly human after all.” His smile held subtle undercurrents of pain and then doubt slowly started to trickle in.
Lilith reached out and ran her palm along his cheek. The stubble was long enough not to prick her soft skin. It felt completely surreal to actually touch his face. It was like touching some movie star that you had a crush on most of your life. Chance closed his eyes and leaned into her touch as all the pain, doubt and everything else slowly drifted away. Tears threatened to well in her eyes at how peaceful he looked right then. The thought that this brave, courageous and wounded man found such solace in something as simple as her touch shook her right down to the core. Actually it scared the living crap out of her.
His eyes drifted open and he must have seen the edges of fear on her face. Chance pulled her close and his lips caressed hers as his hand smoothed over her cheek and sank into her auburn curls. Goose bumps ran down her arms like lightning and she melted against him.
A sharp tap on the glass busted the little bubble they’d been in and the real world came to a very sharp focus. Cars were flying past them on a busy freeway and red and blue flashes were filling the car. “Great.” She murmured as she glanced through Chance’s window and saw a sour faced cop standing there with his flashlight.
The cop shined his bright light into the car and Lilith shied away from it, blinking. Chance rolled down the window and took the brunt of the bright light.
“Ya’ll okay?” The cop’s thick southern accent didn’t hold a single trace of concern. It was more like polite suspicion. He shined the light over Lilith who winced against the glare and then settled it back on Chance.
“Absolutely, officer. I just pulled to the side of the road when my girl and I were arguing over directions. I don’t like to be distracted when I’m driving. It’s a recipe for an accident.”
Officer Humphrey, as his name tag stated, just watched Chance silently for a few minutes. She was about to break the awkward silence when he finally spoke up. “It seems ya’ll have made up. The shoulder is for emergencies, boy. Take it elsewhere.”
Chance nodded. “Of course. Sorry, Sir.” Officer Humphrey didn’t move. He just stood there looking them over. His flashlight bounced all over the car and for a moment, stopped on Chance’s bandaged knuckles on the steering wheel.
“Where are ya’ll visitin' from?” He didn’t sound casually curious, more like shrewdly interested.
“New York City, Officer. We’re just here visiting family.” She’d never heard Chance so polite, but she knew that he was struggling, the longer it went on. Usually he was the silent muscle, Gregor was the suave faceman. Of course, it made sense that Chance picked up a few tricks while working for him all those years.
The bright light flashed over Lilith again and she blinked at the painful light. “Don’t your woman speak?” There was a ton of contempt in that little sentence that made her skin crawl. “You have a license on you, Miss?”
Lilith dug into her aluminum kit and pulled out her trifold. It held her driver’s license along with her city forensics office badge and ID. She reached over Chance and handed it to the cop. “Here you go, Officer.” She smiled sweetly and the muscles under Humphrey’s eyes tightened. Finally he grabbed the wallet and flipped it open.
His expression changed instantly, contempt slowly replaced by something a tiny bit friendlier. “New York City Forensics team, eh?” He carefully looked over her license and badge in silence for a few minutes that seemed to stretch on forever.
Finally he shined the light back on her and directed his calculated look at her. “I reckon you’re smart enough to know when someone’s no good.” The sentence took her totally by surprise. Her mouth dropped open as she fought for something, anything to say.
Before she could, the cop handed the wallet to Chance and Humphrey fixed him with a hostile glare. He leaned into the window and pointed a finger right in his face. “You better wizen up, boy. If I had any right to bring you in, I would. You might think that kind of thing is all right, down here in the south, but I take it very seriously. Watch your step, boy, and get this young woman home…safe.” The officer stormed away from the car and back to his cruiser.
Lilith sank back against the seat with her heart racing. “What the hell was that?”
Chance turned to her with a brilliant smile and started laughing when the cop car peeled off the side of the road with a roar of power. He tossed her trifold wallet into her lap and leaned against the steering wheel, trying to breathe through the laughter.
Lilith stared at him open mouthed. “What the hell is so damn funny?”
Chance just tapped the right side of his head and kept laughing.
Her eyes went wide and she yanked down the mirror above the sun visor. The pale light from the cosmetic mirror light up the myriad of colors along the right side of her face. The foundation she’d used to cover it up was all gone and the sickly yellows and faint purples along her temple definitely didn’t look like a fashion statement. “Shit.” She hissed and twisted over her seat, reaching for the front pocket of her bag.
She flopped back down in the seat and started smoothing the concealer over it again while Chance just continued to laugh. “Oh come on, cher. That was funny as hell. Between my knuckles and your bruises…”
She paused to glare at him and went back to smoothing out the makeup. “You wouldn’t be laughing if he decided to haul you in to jail, or worse.”
That stopped the laughter and Chance blinked with a sobering look. “True.” His face cracked into a crooked grin. “You should be smart enough to know when someone’s no good.” His impression of Humphrey’s thick southern accent was pretty spot on and it pulled a smile out of her. She looked over at him and shook her head, laughing softly.
“Well at least he got one thing right.” She tucked the bottle into her jeans pocket and snapped her seat belt back into place. “Let’s get to Miriah’s office, before another cop comes by and accuses you of being a woman beater.”
The drive was pretty quiet, but not awkwardly so. It was a comfortable silence that felt familiar and warm. Lilith stared out the window, watching the lights pass by as she thought about that kiss. She didn’t want to talk to him about it yet. What Chance told her, about her father, settled like an uneasy weight on her heart. She never thought he would be so controlling, but then, when she really, truly thought about it, it made sense.
Duncan’s notes held hin
ts about Gregor’s past, some horrible tragedy. That alone would be enough to make Gregor fiercely protective. If she really looked like his daughter, Mary, who was the victim of some unnamed crime, then it stood to reason that his protective urge would be on hyper drive.
However, the fact that she was a pureblood being a factor in Gregor’s thinking, that shocked her more than anything. Her father had never lectured her on the purity of the blood line. There was no vampire soapbox that he rallied around. She could barely think of more than a handful of times that he’d even really talked about what they were, as a species. Why would it suddenly be so important to him that he’d threaten Chance’s life? Did he suddenly have an attack of vampire planned parenting?
Lilith only knew who her father was to her, and for her entire life, she thought that was all that mattered. She never questioned his past or his motives, she simply accepted him. That’s what kids do. They blindly love their parents, or was it just her? How can you really accept someone you don’t truly know? The very thought that her father might have this whole other side made her stomach churn. She needed to look through that tin. Duncan said the answers were in there, but somehow she knew there would be less answers and more questions.
She thought about Spencer and wondered. Was it better to really know your father and resent him? Or was it better to be blissfully happy because of your ignorance about who he is? When her phone rang, it startled her out of her thoughts. She jumped in her seat and dug into her pockets. Chance glanced quickly at her before returning his attention to the SUV in front of them.
She stared down at the caller ID for a moment and had an unreasonable thought that Gregor could read her mind or something. She clicked the answer button hesitantly. “Dad?”
“Lily, Alvarez came to see me.”
Malachi’s smiling face from all the photos littering the apartment flashed across her mind and she sighed softly. “I’m glad he was able to tell you in person.”