Deathtrap

by Dannika Dark

  DEATHTRAP

  CROSSBREED SERIES BOOK 3

  Dannika Dark

  Contents

  SUMMARY

  Also By Dannika Dark:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Back Cover

  WHAT’S NEXT

  Want More?

  Books by Dannika Dark:

  DEATHTRAP

  Crossbreed Series Book 3

  USA Today Bestselling Author

  DANNIKA DARK

  All Rights Reserved

  Copyright © 2017 Dannika Dark

  No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database retrieval system without the prior written permission of the author. You must not circulate this book in any format. Thank you for respecting the rights of the author. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Edited by Victory Editing and Red Adept. Cover design by Dannika Dark. All stock purchased.

  www.dannikadark.net

  Official Dannika Dark Newsletter

  SUMMARY

  For Raven Black, hunting criminals is second nature. So is denial. It’s not easy moving forward with one foot stuck in the past. But a new case offers her a much-needed distraction when Keystone accepts their toughest assignment yet—to track down an elusive criminal who’s selling children on the black market.

  Their investigation leads them deep into the underbelly of the Breed world, a place both treacherous and enticing. With no room for mistakes, Raven makes a tough decision to lock the door to her past before it interferes with her job. The only trouble? Christian holds the key.

  The stakes are high, and a shocking twist turns everything on its head. Will they catch this criminal before more lives are lost? Find out in the latest edge-of-your-seat installment of the Crossbreed series.

  Book 3

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  Also By Dannika Dark:

  THE MAGERI SERIES

  Sterling

  Twist

  Impulse

  Gravity

  Shine

  The Gift

  MAGERI WORLD

  Risk

  NOVELLAS

  Closer

  THE SEVEN SERIES

  Seven Years

  Six Months

  Five Weeks

  Four Days

  Three Hours

  Two Minutes

  One Second

  Winter Moon

  SEVEN WORLD

  Charming

  THE CROSSBREED SERIES

  Keystone

  Ravenheart

  Deathtrap

  We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.

  - Oscar Wilde

  Chapter 1

  “So this is the place you keep raving about?” Christian asked, running his dark gaze over the diner and giving it a judgmental stare.

  I smiled and continued examining the menu. “The fate of your meal lies in the hands of whether or not Betty McGuire likes you.”

  He leaned in tight. “Betty sounds like a real joy. I already told you I’m not ordering.”

  “Oh, you’re ordering. I don’t care what you get, but Ruby’s Diner saved my life more than once, so show a little respect.”

  He snapped open his laminated menu. “In that case, is there anything that hasn’t been marinated in lard?”

  I set my menu aside and gazed out the window. Condensation formed along the outer edges from the humidity and contrasting temperatures. Winter had arrived early, and a light dusting of snow blanketed the city, making even the filthiest streets pure again. It was an accurate representation of my life since joining Keystone.

  Working for Viktor Kazan was an evolving lifestyle adjustment. After closing my first official case only a month ago, I’d taken Viktor’s advice and used the downtime to get my head together. I needed it, especially after discovering that the detective I’d gone out on a date with was the serial killer we’d been hunting all along. But downtime between job assignments was by no means a vacation. Viktor had given me a stack of cold cases to review before Wyatt entered them into our private database as part of his archiving project. It kept me occupied.

  Betty sidled up to our table. “And how are you two this morning?”

  “Grand,” Christian replied, lifting his gaze and staring at her as if he’d seen a ghost.

  She steered her attention back to me and patted my shoulder. “Honey, I’ve been worried about you. I haven’t seen you around here lately. I’m glad you’re doing okay.”

  I noticed white roots peeking through her light red hair. “How are the grandkids?”

  She put her hands on her plump hips. “Where does the time go? Do I look old enough to have great-grandchildren? Well, now I have a third on the way. They did one of those fancy tests and found out it’s a girl. Back in my day, we just had to wait to find out. I guess kids today don’t like surprises.”

  I smiled. “This is my friend Christian.”

  She pulled the pen out from behind her ear and pressed the blunt end against her chin as she gave him a thorough appraisal. I waited for her reaction with bated breath. I respected Betty. She was intuitive about a person’s character.

  Unlike me.

  I still wasn’t sure about my own feelings for Christian, only that I had feelings that weren’t appropriate for our working relationship. Maybe it was normal when partnering with someone so closely, but it didn’t make sense. Christian was the opposite in looks and demeanor of men I was normally attracted to, and aside from that, he was a Vampire—the most loathsome creature imaginable. I’d spent a lot of time in the past weeks thinking it over and had finally decided to compartmentalize my feelings for Christian, keeping the affectionate ones locked up in order to keep our partnership functional and harmonious. Otherwise, it could bring consequences, and my life until recently had been one big consequence after another. In order to remain within Keystone, I had to learn to work with Christian as a team.

  Christian averted his gaze from Betty and stroked his beard. “Would you have any meat and potatoes back there?”

  She shifted her stance, still studying him closely. “We don’t get many Irishmen. Have you been in here before?”

  He scratched the back of his neck. “No. I’ve changed my mind. I’ll have a grilled cheese, and she’ll be having the same.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Oh, will she now?”

  “You’ve been staring at that menu for ten minutes,” he said, taking on an imperious tone. “Are you telling me you’re actually going to order something besides a hamburger and onion rings? Step out of your comfort zone and live on the wild side.”

  I handed her my menu. “I’ll have a glass of water with that. And my friend will be having a glass of milk.”

  He held out his menu. “I’m lactose intolerant. Bring me a bottle of red.”

  She slowly collected our menus. “Cheese has lactose. I’ll bring the milk.”r />
  I wasn’t sure what to make of Betty’s peculiar reaction to Christian. She was usually more bubbly and talkative, but something had shut her up.

  “That was weird,” I muttered, stacking one of my gloves on top of the other.

  Christian gestured toward them. “I hate to inform you, but someone snipped the fingers off your mittens.”

  “It’s easier to get to my daggers when I can grip them with my fingertips.”

  He pinched the whiskers on his scruffy beard. “What does Viktor have you working on? I saw him carrying files to your room.”

  I lifted a saltshaker and set it between us. “Cold cases.”

  Christian chuckled. “Ah, to be the rookie again. Sifting through old papers and given menial tasks to make you believe your opinion matters.”

  “It’s smart of him. Maybe you guys are used to looking at something from a certain angle, and a fresh pair of eyes might see something new.”

  He laced his fingers together. “Pray tell, what have your fresh eyes uncovered?”

  I tapped the saltshaker and accidentally tipped it over. “Why hasn’t anyone pursued the case involving Vampire trafficking? The one with all the women who are promised to be newly made?”

  He pinched salt between two fingers and flicked it over his shoulder. “We could never outbid anyone at a black market auction. And without victims, we have nothing. We can’t even be sure if a crime is being committed. It might come as a surprise, but there happens to be a lot of women who have fantasies about being kept by a man. Not everyone for sale on the black market is an unwilling victim.”

  “Did you look at any missing-persons reports? I don’t mean Breed ones, but a nationwide search in the human databases.”

  “Aye. But we came up with no matches based on the description. In some cases, they included a photograph.”

  “That means whoever’s behind this is preying upon women who won’t be missed. He takes them, makes them, and sells them.”

  Christian leaned back and draped his arms across the top of the red vinyl seat. “What makes you believe all the cases are linked? It’s just an increase in Vampire trafficking. Demand affects supply.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe it was the typo.”

  He furrowed his brow. “Typo?”

  “Didn’t anyone notice that some of the descriptions had the same typo? He didn’t spell discreet with double e’s. He wrote: D-I-S-C-R-E-T-E. That doesn’t have the same meaning. I also think he’s an American.”

  Christian snorted and set his arms on the table. “You’re just full of theories this morning. I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but there are a lot of illiterate immortals in the world. English isn’t everyone’s first language.”

  “Including yours?”

  He narrowed his eyes when Betty set down our plates and glasses.

  “Anything else?” she asked, her green eyes twinkling at me.

  I bit my lip and hesitated on answering.

  “Your slice of pie is in the warmer.” She placed two straws on the table and gave me a wink before heading back to the kitchen.

  Christian poked at his sandwich. “Assuming one person is behind all the trafficking, what makes you think he’s an American?”

  I tore the end off the paper around the straw and blew the wrapper at Christian’s forehead. It bounced off and landed on his plate. “He used words that have alternate spellings in England, Canada, and all those other countries. I didn’t see anything that suggested he’s a foreigner.”

  Christian threw up his hands. “Well, for feck’s sake. You’ve solved the case! We’re after an American who can’t spell, which makes everyone at table five a suspect.”

  I glanced over at a man who was trying to balance a spoon on his nose. “Make fun all you want. I gave Wyatt my notes, and he’s adding them to the file. You never know when little things like that might come up later. You’re just mad because you didn’t notice it first with your ancient, dusty eyeballs.”

  He held up a spoon. “May I borrow yours?”

  I smiled at the private joke, the one referring to our trip to Washington when a Shifter had planned to spoon my eye out.

  Christian tugged on his earlobe. “Don’t get too wrapped up in those files, Raven. The more obsessed you become over a dead file, the harder it is to focus on the work at hand. You need to concentrate on the open investigations. We aren’t always paid for solving old crimes, and not all of them were contracted to us. Some fell in our laps, and Viktor took them on as charity cases.”

  “I know. It just gives me something to do.”

  “Well, you should have gotten a nice paycheck deposited into your account after the last case. Perhaps you should kill some time and go to the zoo.”

  “Why? I already live with the circus.”

  He cracked a smile. “Touché.”

  I gulped down my water and then sighed. “It’s hard to get used to unsolved mysteries.”

  “You’ll learn to live with it. It’s not as if we’re in a rush, and one day something might link back to those old cases and allow us to solve them. Maybe you should get out more.”

  “I would, but I’m without transportation.”

  “Last I looked, you had two strong legs.”

  “The walk to town is too far, so I’m saving up for some wheels. It would be a different story if the train were near the mansion.” I took a bite of my sandwich, the bread so buttery I had to wipe my fingers on a napkin. “You know, I used to sleep in trains and subway stations before they started beefing up security. It was a lot safer than alleyways or abandoned buildings.”

  “You’re just full of happy memories.”

  When Betty set my pie down and slipped away without a word, I peered over my shoulder to watch her. She looked back at us briefly before clearing off a table.

  Vampires weren’t especially frightening to look at when their fangs were receded. While their black eyes could be unnerving, they didn’t stand out in a way that drew attention. Lots of people had dark eyes, and it was only when you looked close enough that you realized how bottomless they were. Betty’s peculiar behavior made me even more curious about the man I was partnered with.

  “Jaysus wept. You’re not going to convince me this is cheese.” He dropped his sandwich on his plate and then wiped his fingers down his black coat. “I’m suddenly reminded why I gave up eating. Cuisine just isn’t what it used to be.”

  “I thought your aversion to food had to do with the latrine.”

  “That too. So, are you going to explain why you dragged me all the way into the city on such a fine morning?”

  I finished half my sandwich and waited for the pregnant woman walking past us to go into the bathroom. “It’s about that favor you owe me.”

  “You mean the favor for that inane bet where I had to abstain from sex for your amusement?”

  “That’s the one.”

  He slowly dragged the glass of milk toward him and gulped it down as if it were ale. When he finished, he held my gaze.

  I struggled not to laugh at his milk mustache. “I want you to take me to see my father.”

  He tapped his finger against the edge of his glass. When he didn’t reply, I shifted my eyes to the parking lot outside. A couple emerged from an SUV and held hands as they waddled like penguins toward the front of the diner. A few snowflakes clung to the window, and I clung to the hope that this wasn’t going to erupt into an argument. Why did everything with Christian turn into such a fucking battle? He owed me a favor, and that was supposed to mean something in our world.

  “Then hurry up and eat your sandwich,” he finally said.

  My heart skipped a beat. “I don’t mean now.”

  He leaned back. “For feck’s sake, then why did you invite me out all this way?”

  “I didn’t want anyone overhearing our conversation, especially Viktor. You know the general opinion about cutting ties with our human life. He wouldn’t approve, but this is something I need to do. When th
e time is right, I want to see my father without having to give you an explanation.”

  “What does this have to do with me? Can’t you go by yourself?”

  “You know why. I need a Vampire to scrub his memory when I’m done. He’s already moved on with his life, so this isn’t about making him feel better. If anything, it might do the opposite. I need to get some things off my chest.”

  “Besides your bra?” He cocked his head to the side. “Why not just go now and get it over with?”

  Christian wouldn’t understand. I was terrified of how my father would react when he saw me alive. Terrified that the truth might send him into cardiac arrest. Terrified that seeing him might be a mistake. Would he resent me for abandoning him? Maybe I wasn’t ready for the truth that my father might be happier without me in his life. But I needed that final good-bye. That was all I really wanted—a hug from my daddy and maybe his forgiveness.

  Eventually.

  Just not right after my apple pie.

  “Can you be available when I ask? No questions?”

  Christian scratched his ear, a perturbed look on his face. “And here I thought you just wanted to share my good company. I can’t be at your beck and call for the rest of eternity while you make up your mind. If you haven’t called me in a fortnight, I’ll drag you there myself.”

  I started to laugh and held it back.

  He propped his elbow on the table and tucked his fist against his chin. “What’s so funny?”

  I averted my gaze from his milk mustache. “I just had a tickle in my throat.”

  “Hurry up and eat that pie. I want to get out of here before I start smelling like processed cheese and fish sticks.”

  “I’ll tell Betty to bring the check the next time she comes by the table.”

  “Tell you what. I’ll just leave a flat hundred on the table, and we can skip the formalities.”

  I took a bite of warm apple pie. “Don’t be such a fanghole. She’s my friend.”