by Tina Folsom
“Yes. Nina found him. Or rather, he approached her tonight when she was looking into her brother’s death. He was at the Mezzanine.”
“Isn’t that where Zane and Quinn tracked your suspect to?” Samson asked.
“Yes, and it’s also the place Nina’s informant told her to find the man who had his hand in Eddie’s death.”
“You think Luther’s got his hand in this?” He let himself fall back onto the couch.
Amaury nodded. “There’s no reason for him to come back to San Francisco other than to exact his revenge. I’d thought we’d seen the last of him.”
“I guess not. Did Luther see you?”
“We exchanged a few words. But what’s worse is he knows Nina is with me.”
With him? Didn’t that sound just a tad bit possessive? Just because she’d slept with him didn’t mean she was with him. She’d better explain that to him.
Amaury continued, “He’s up to something. I could sense it.”
“Did you read his emotions?” Delilah asked.
What an odd question. How would he read somebody’s emotions? Nina gave Amaury a sideways glance.
“No. For some reason I couldn’t. Maybe he veiled them from me to hide what he’s up to.”
“I thought nobody could veil their emotions from you.” Samson’s stunned look swept over him.
Amaury shrugged his shoulders. “Not sure about that lately.”
What the hell were they talking about? Curiosity got the better of Nina. “What do you mean by reading emotions?”
Samson raised his eyebrows. “I guess Amaury hasn’t told you about his gift yet.”
She caught Amaury giving Samson a look as if to cut him off, but his friend continued, undeterred, “Amaury has a psychic gift and can sense emotions of people around him. It’s come in more than useful many times.”
A psychic gift? Did this mean he knew what she was feeling all the time? Oh no, that sounded terrible. She felt exposed, naked, and vulnerable all of a sudden. Had she known he could read her emotions, she would have never slept with him. He had an unfair advantage. No wonder he was playing her like a string instrument. What else did he know? Could he tell what she truly felt in her heart?
She felt his hand squeeze hers lightly. “Don’t worry. I’ll explain later.”
She yanked her hand out of his grip. What was there to explain? He could see through her like through a glass wall. Now he knew everything about her, her fears, her hopes, and worst of all, how she felt about him—the feeling she hadn’t even admitted to herself. No, this wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.
“I’ll get in contact with Gabriel and warn him to look out for Luther. Did Zane not see him in the club if he followed Paul Holland?” Samson voice was calmer now than when he’d first heard about Luther.
“Zane’s never met Luther before. I’ll make sure Gabriel distributes his picture. We should also try to find out if Paul is the guy Nina’s informant pinpointed.”
“Agreed,” Samson said.
“I have an idea,” Nina interjected.
“No.” Amaury’s command came with nary a second’s hesitation.
“You don’t even know what my idea is.”
“The answer is still no. You’ve put yourself in enough danger for one night. That’s all I can handle right now.”
That’s all he could handle?
Nina caught Samson’s grin. “Maybe we should listen to Nina’s suggestion. After all, it’s because of her we were alerted to Luther.”
Amaury’s annoyed grunt filled her with satisfaction. Finally somebody stood up to him. She liked Samson. He seemed to be a pretty levelheaded guy—for a vampire, of course. And his wife was sweet and so tiny sitting right next to him. Whereas the asshole next to her … well, she’d deal with him later. But he sure wouldn’t get away with leaving such important details as his psychic gift out of the conversation.
“I was thinking if we confirmed that he recognizes me, then we know he’s the right guy.”
“Not a good idea. It would be better to find Benny and have him identify the guy.” Amaury’s voice sounded gruff.
“Benny’s skipped town. There’s no telling which hole he’s hiding out in now.”
“Benny?” Samson raised an eyebrow in inquiry.
“My informant.”
“Let’s put one of our guys on him, see whether we can locate him.” Amaury looked at Samson, obviously trying to get his approval.
“Waste of time.” Nina knew it would be useless. “It could take days to track him down. Do you really want to wait that long?” she addressed Samson, ignoring Amaury completely. Right now she was too annoyed to deal with him—which shouldn’t be a surprise to him since he was reading her emotions. Damn, she hated that!
“She’s right. I’ll talk to Gabriel and have him set something up.” Samson cast Amaury a determined glance.
“Fine, but under one condition. Nina will not leave my side.” As if to assert his statement, he took her hand again.
“Fine,” Samson agreed.
Was that a smirk on Samson’s face? It seemed so. When she looked at Delilah she saw her, too, suppress a grin. It had to be an inside joke, because Nina could not figure out what the two were finding so funny.
Twenty
“Unacceptable. She’ll be too far away for me to rescue her if something goes wrong.” Amaury let his frustration out on Gabriel and looked up and down the downtown street. Despite the late hour, there was still the odd car about.
“I can take care of myself,” Nina protested.
“Yeah, I’ve seen that the last two nights.” He was in no mood to see her putting herself in danger again.
“You don’t have a choice. If I let you go with her, we won’t be able to tell if Paul recognizes you or her.” Gabriel’s voice had a schoolmaster’s tone to it. Amaury didn’t need a lecture right now. He wanted Nina nowhere near the suspect.
His frustrated grunt only got him a shake of Nina’s head. Did she not realize he was only trying to protect her?
“Okay, in positions then. Quinn is hidden in the doorway at the other end. Nina, you know what to do,” Gabriel instructed.
She nodded and turned to leave.
“Wait.” Amaury couldn’t just let her go. “You can change your mind. You don’t need to do this.”
She spun around, gave him a stern look and flipped him off. A second later she crossed the street.
Amaury felt heat shoot through his veins. Before he could stalk after her to paddle her insolent ass, Gabriel’s hand clamped down on his arm.
“You can teach her manners later. We need her to do this now.”
Gabriel even had the audacity to chuckle. Amaury shot him a displeased glance, but it didn’t deter the New York boss from making yet another disrespectful remark. “Should have wiped her memory when you had the chance, but no, you didn’t listen. Now she’s got the upper hand. Serves you right.”
Served him right?
Where had he heard that before? Yeah, right, Thomas had made the same comment.
Amaury curled his hand into a fist and leveled it at Gabriel. “None of your fucking business.”
“What is it with you and human women anyway?”
“None of your business.” Gabriel was getting downright annoying now.
“Listen, let me give you some advice.”
“I don’t want your advice.”
“Well, you’re gonna get it anyway. A woman like her can get under a man’s skin. I’ve seen it before. Already now she’s got you all worked up, and how long have you known her? A week, a month?”
“Three days, not that it’s any of your fucking business.”
Gabriel’s surprise was evident. “Three days? Oh, boy, you’ve got it bad.”
Didn’t he know it! He needed no colleague to tell him that. And it irked him to no end. The little insolent minx was pushing all his buttons as if he had “fuck me” written all over his forehead. How she had brought out
this possessive side in him—a side he thought he didn’t have—was beyond him. Why couldn’t he just fuck her and leave her like he did with all other women?
Already now everybody made fun of him. Samson’s smirk hadn’t escaped his attention. What was it? Schadenfreude? Like everybody was happy about what was coming to him. Could they all tell that he was turning into some pussy-whipped idiot?
He couldn’t go on like this. Tonight, he’d fuck her once more, and then he’d turn her loose, wipe her memory of him and be done with it. He could not allow her to screw with his head like this. And besides, something in her attitude had changed, and he couldn’t figure out what it was.
A sound on the other side of the street had him whip his head around. Somebody was approaching her.
“It’s just a homeless guy,” Gabriel said next to him.
A moment later an airport shuttle approached and came to a halt in front of them, obstructing their view. The din of emotions suddenly hit Amaury and he pressed his hand against his temple. Almost the entire evening he’d felt barely any pain or discomfort from his gift; in fact, he’d barely sensed anybody’s emotions. He attributed it to his extremely satisfying interlude with Nina in the staff room of the club. It seemed that sex with her kept the emotions at bay for longer than any of his previous sexual encounters ever had.
He tried to look past the shuttle van to the other side of the street.
“Can you see what’s going on?”
Gabriel grunted. “No. Don’t worry; she can handle a homeless guy.”
The van was stopped for entirely too long, as the driver helped a handicapped person into it. Who the hell left for the airport at four in the morning? Amaury was just about out of patience. Ignoring his colleague’s displeased look, he stepped around the van and trained his eyes on the scene on the opposite side.
The homeless man was gone. And Nina was nowhere to be seen.
“Ah, shit!”
Without waiting for Gabriel, he rushed across the street, dodging a car and a furious driver. His eyes, well equipped for the dark, darted along the street, checking every doorway, every entrance. At a faint sound, his ears perked up. His reflexes set in, and he swiveled. Two steps and he was at a narrow alley leading to the tradesmen entrance of a building. He could make out two figures struggling.
Despite the dark, Nina’s golden hair was hard to miss. Amaury leaped at them and pulled the man off her.
“Bastard! Get your fucking hands off her!”
The mere thought that the homeless guy was touching her turned his stomach. He slammed his fists into the man and threw him to the ground. Behind him Amaury heard footsteps. Gabriel and Quinn. They could take care of the bastard now.
Amaury brought his attention back to Nina. She was still on the ground, but moaning. Damn, he should kill the bastard for hurting her.
“Nina, chérie, don’t move. I’m here.”
He crouched down next to her and ran his hands over her, testing for injuries.
“What are you doing?” Her voice sounded less than pleased.
“Keep still. I’m just trying to see if you’re hurt.”
She pulled herself up to sit and wrenched free of his hands. “I’m fine.”
Something was wrong. He couldn’t find any physical injuries, but there had to be a reason why she was so annoyed with him. In fact, she’d been pissed at him ever since they’d left Samson’s house.
Before he could ask her, he heard Gabriel behind him.
“Well, hello, Paul Holland.”
Amaury spun his head around. Now that he looked at the homeless guy closely, he realized that Paul Holland, their suspect, had disguised himself. How had he known that Nina was waiting for him here? All Gabriel had done was send Paul on an assignment that would take him past the place where Nina was waiting. So, how had he known to disguise himself?
“I guess this proves that he’s our man. Take him back and interrogate him.” As much as he loved to beat it out the bastard himself, he needed to take care of Nina now. “On second thought, have Zane do it. I think I’m all out of nice for today.”
Gabriel raised his eyebrow, but didn’t object outright. “Don’t you want to do it yourself?”
“I’m taking Nina home.”
“I can go home by myself.” Nina’s protest would have no bearing on his actions tonight.
“No, you can’t, because you’re coming home with me.”
Gabriel and Quinn restrained the suspect. “We’ll leave you guys to it.”
Amaury barely nodded at them and watched as Nina got up, her legs a little shaky. Instinctively, he reached out to steady her. She pushed his hand away.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Amaury snapped.
“Why don’t you just read my emotions?” She gave him a defiant glare.
So that was the problem—she thought he could sense her feelings. What was it she didn’t want him to know?
“Nina, I can’t sense your emotions.”
“Liar. Samson told me that’s your gift. You were there, and you didn’t contradict him.”
He took her by the shoulders and turned her fully to him, even though she continued to struggle under his grip. “I can’t sense your emotions. Not yours. Everybody else’s, yes. But not yours. And I don’t know why.”
“You can’t?” Her voice was softer now, as if she was trying to figure out if he was lying.
“I have no idea what you feel, and it drives me crazy.” Even more so now that he suspected there was something she didn’t want to share with him. What the hell was it?
“Oh.” It was all she said, before she dropped her gaze from his face.
“Come, let’s go home. You must be tired.”
Amaury felt drained. Worrying about her had zapped his energy. Or maybe it was because he hadn’t fed since the night Thomas had untied him from his bed. How long ago was that? Was that last night or the night before? He couldn’t remember. Too much seemed to have happened since then.
There were still a few hours of night left, but all he cared for right now was to crawl into bed with Nina securely locked in his arms. Nothing less would do.
In the cab ride home he put his arm around her shoulder, and finally the stubborn woman leaned against him.
“Are you hurting?”
“Just a little.”
“Are you sure?” He tipped up her chin to make her look at him. “You’ll have to let me know when something bothers you, because I’ve never learned how to figure out what a person is feeling just by looking at their face. I’ve always relied on my gift for that.”
“I guess that makes you just like any other man then.”
“That’s not a consolation.”
“You’ll get used to it. All men do.”
“I’m not all men.” To prove it, he took her lips with his mouth and kissed her. When he released her she was breathless. “Still think I’m like all other men?”
“Not sure. Could you give me another demonstration?”
The wicked glint in her eyes was back. That was something he could work with. Wicked, he knew how to handle. Amaury sunk his hand into her locks and cupped her head to hold her to him. His mouth fitted perfectly to hers. He’d missed her sweet scent and her hungry tongue.
The moment Nina welcomed him into her moist heat to dance with him, he lost all sense of time and place. He scraped his teeth against her lips just enough to elicit a shudder, before he used his tongue to smooth over the tender spot and soothe her.
“You okay now, coming home with me?” He spoke against her lips, not breaking the contact completely.
“Why?”
“Because I can’t bear to know you’re out there on your own. When you’re with me, at least I know you’re safe.” He inhaled her breath and nipped at her lips.
“Is that really why?”
Amaury sighed. “I want you in my arms. Is that so terrible?”
“Why didn’t you say so in the first place?” Her tongue trace
d the outline of his mouth.
“Because you drive me so mad sometimes, I don’t know what I’m doing anymore.” He’d never been this honest with any woman. But he couldn’t lie to her. Nina was driving him nuts, constantly, making his head spin, and at the same time she calmed his mind, blocked out other people’s emotions for him, as if she’d put a shield around him.
She deepened her kiss, and Amaury pulled her into his lap, angling his head so he could get more of her, more closeness, more warmth, more Nina. Just how much would be enough?
Twenty-one
Nina eyed Amaury when he led her into his apartment and locked the door behind them. She was back in the lion’s den and getting more comfortable by the minute. Only four nights earlier she’d tried—unsuccessfully—to kill him. Now this thought was the furthest from her passion-clouded mind.
In the taxi, his kisses had practically knocked her socks off. Amaury had pressed her so close to him, she’d barely been able to breathe, let alone think.
He’d proven over and over that he wanted to protect her, even after she’d intentionally provoked him when she’d given him the finger. She’d been so pissed off thinking he’d known her feelings about everything that she’d been spoiling for a fight. It wasn’t right that he’d know what she felt, when she wasn’t at all sure about her feelings herself.
“Are you hungry?” His question was unexpected.
“Actually, I haven’t had any dinner. But it doesn’t matter.” She could hold out until the morning, even though her stomach immediately started grumbling.
“I have some leftovers in the kitchen.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I’m not into blood.”
“In that case, how about some coq au vin with Potato Gratin? You’re not vegetarian, are you?”
He took her hand and walked toward the kitchen. Nina had no choice but to follow on his heels.
“Why would you have human food in the house?” She remembered that he’d told her about the food earlier in the evening, but she’d frankly thought he was pulling her leg.
“I like cooking.” As if that was the most normal explanation there was. A vampire who liked to cook.
