“Sex.”
I belted out a laugh. “You two have fun. I’m just going to wait outside.”
“Stay right where you are. I want you to see this.”
“Why?”
He shifted around to look at me, the intensity in his gaze making the hairs on my neck stand on end. “Because you need to see with your own eyes what it’s like when I scrub memories.”
I swallowed hard. The idea that a Vampire could tiptoe around in someone’s head and erase things was disconcerting. I couldn’t imagine walking around with a piece of myself missing. But I knew why he wanted me to watch. This was what I was asking him to do to my father.
Christian locked eyes with Amber. “Remember when I first approached you in the bar? Do you recall the moment I spoke and when you looked up and saw my face?”
She nodded.
“That never happened,” he said, his voice smooth and suggestive. “We never spoke, and you’ve never seen the woman sitting behind me. You never walked outside in the snow to a black van and got inside. You never revealed any information about the baby or Cristo. When you walked away from the bar earlier, you sat down and watched people dancing. I’m going to take you to that table where you’ve been sitting for the past fifteen minutes. You’ll be warm, a little thirsty, and thinking about changing your life and getting a job. You’ve never seen my face before, and if you see it again, you won’t even notice me.”
I watched Christian get out of the van and lead her toward the front of the building. Then he stopped and whispered something in her ear, and she headed around the corner alone.
I shuddered.
A flurry of laughter erupted when four people abruptly rounded the corner and walked toward the parking lot. Christian casually propped his back against the wall, his head down. I rocked on my heels and pretended to look around as if waiting for someone. When the small group flashed toward two cars several rows down, I collected my thoughts about what we’d just discovered.
Wyatt couldn’t help us research this newfound information since he was busy trying to buy a baby. We also couldn’t go traipsing across the city when Viktor might need us at a moment’s notice.
I approached Christian. “Now what?”
He reached underneath my jacket and pulled out my hood. “We have a name. If Viktor wins the bid, we have a witness that links him to previous crimes. If Viktor loses the bid, we’ll have a lot of work to do.”
“So we have a name and we have to sit on it.”
“Smart as a whip.” He secured the hood over my head and tucked my hair inside. “You should wear a warmer coat.”
“It blew up in the fire, remember? Anyhow, a few flurries don’t bother me so much.”
“Liar.”
I chuckled and matched his stride as we headed back to the door. “When I lived on the streets, I got used to the cold. Now I’m spoiled because of a warm bed and a hot meal every day.”
“I’ll have to rectify that. Remind me to put your bed on the roof when we get home.”
“And what would you do if I froze?”
“Bury you in Greenland. Worry not, lass. I promise to come get you before archaeologists in the future discover your body in a cryogenic state.”
“You’ll still owe me a beer.”
Chapter 17
Amber sat listlesslyat a table near the front hall, watching people dancing and having a good time. She’d been in a haze since Christian wiped her memory, and thirty minutes later, she finally snapped out of her stupor and checked her phone.
“How’s the um… bargain hunting going?” I asked Claude, trying to be discreet about the black market trading.
He scooted down in his seat, still reading a text message from Gem. “It’s intense. Sometimes these things can go on for days.”
I gave Christian a lethal glare. “I’m not sitting in here fordays.”
Impervious to my harsh tone, he crunched on his candy. “Would you rather we go bowling? I’m afraid there aren’t many options. Here we have food, drink, comfortable seats, and lovely breasts,” he said, admiring the buxom waitress who approached our table, her shirt thin and tight.
