Her gaze met his. “We’ll work it out.”
He nodded. Whether it meant joining as man and wife and growing old together, or spending an eternity. Either way, they would be together. Now. Always.
“So which is it?” He eyed her. “Are you my lover or my friend?”
“Both,” she murmured, and then she kissed him.
Epilogue
GARRET SAWYER STOOD off to the side of the deserted highway and eyed the man and woman standing catatonic in front of him. Thanks to their recent escape attempt, their clothes were ripped. Dirt caked their skin and leaves stuck to their hair. But they were here. Present and accounted for.
Which meant Garret and his buddies were safe.
For now.
Both the man and woman were repeat offenders recently released on bail. The man had a rap sheet longer than a first grader’s list to Santa. The woman had been in and out of the system since she was twelve. Neither had ever committed anything more than a misdemeanor, except for an assault charge when the woman had gotten into a fight with her bigmouth neighbor and pelted her with a paintball gun.
They were small-time crooks who’d figured they’d get their hands on some righteous cash by selling real vamp fangs on the Internet.
A crazy scheme that wasn’t the least bit funny.
He fought down the urge to grab them both, slam their heads together and knock some sense into them. But Garret Sawyer hadn’t been around forever by losing his temper. He settled for something even more effective.
“Climb back into your car,” he said, biting out the words, carefully, clearly, staring deep into the man’s eyes. “Go back to wherever it is that you came from and forget all about us. You weren’t here. We weren’t here.” He gave the guy one last sweeping glance. “And for Christ’s sake, do something good for your fellow man.”
When Jake arched an eyebrow at him, Garret shrugged. “As much trouble as these two have gotten into over the years, I figure they owe society big -ime.”
He nailed the woman with a stare and repeated his spiel. A quick motion with his hands, and the couple scrambled into their damaged car. The engine roared, the Buick shifted into gear and just like that, everything went quiet.
“It’s late,” he murmured as he watched the headlights disappear in the distance. “We’d better get back to town.” He turned back to his friends, but they’d already taken the hint and were bailing.
Dillon, still weak from the recent tranquilizer attempt, slid his arm around Meg and let her guide him toward her car. Nikki and Jake walked hand in hand to the custom-made chopper parked next to Garret’s classic Harley.
Isolation slithered around him and yanked tight. A feeling he’d had more than once in the two hundred plus years that he’d been a vampire. Always standing on the outside and never really fitting in. It came with the territory.
And it had never really bothered him.
Until now.
You’ve smelled one too many exhaust fumes, buddy.
He stiffened and turned toward the Harley he’d spent the past month restoring. The bike’s frame gleamed neon blue in the darkness, the chrome handlebars a nice contrast with the vivid color. A black-and-silver skull wrapped around the fuel tank. It was an original and the inspiration for one that Garret was working on right now for an investment banker out of Austin. A job he had to finish in the next two days, otherwise he lost the bonus he’d been promised.
And Garret didn’t like to lose. He took his work seriously. Even more, he liked his work. It passed the time and that in itself was a godsend to a man who’d already been around one hundred and eighty years too long.
A temporary situation, he reminded himself.
While Dillon hadn’t managed to lure out the Ancient One this time, the young vamp was onto something with his research and his blog. A little legwork from Jake and Garret to follow up on his leads, and they would be able to narrow things down considerably.
It was only a matter of time.
Hope fired inside of him, a feeling that was quickly snuffed out when he gripped the handlebars and started to straddle the leather seat.
A whisper of awareness drifted down his spine. He stiffened and his fingers clenched. His nerves shifted to red alert. Garret knew then that while Dillon had sensed his attackers rather than another bloodsucker, there truly was a fourth vampire in Skull Creek.
But it wasn’t the Ancient One.
The realization should have eased the sudden pounding of his heart and the frantic tightening in his stomach.
It made it worse.
Because what lurked nearby was much more dangerous than a centuries old monster with annihilation on his mind.
His groin tightened and his nostrils flared. The truth hit him. Her.
The first woman he’d ever loved.
The only woman.
“Long time no see, Garret,” her soft, familiar voice slid into his ears.
But it wasn’t nearly long enough.
Because Viviana Darland hadn’t just taken his heart way back when. She’d taken his soul, as well. And her presence in Skull Creek could only mean one thing.
They were in for trouble.
Big, big trouble.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-1487-7
DROP DEAD GORGEOUS
Copyright © 2008 by Kimberly Raye Groff.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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