“Yes,” I said, “he acts like a cop. What does that have to do with love?”
“Nothing. Everything. It has to do with secrets. The things people won’t say because they want to keep someone they love safe.”
“He doesn’t want to tell me he’s a cop?”
“He doesn’t want to tell you a lot of things. Maybe he’s not a cop. But what I know for sure, is he is not just an architect, and he did not move back into this tiny town because he thought it would be good for business.”
“You think he lied?”
“I think he hasn’t been forthcoming.”
“And you know this how?”
His black eyebrows raised and so did the corners of his mouth. “Hello? Trickster. I know when someone is putting on.”
“If he is hiding something, that’s all the more reason why I shouldn’t be in a relationship with him.”
“Tell that to your heart.”
“My heart isn’t stupid enough to fall for a man who might be keeping dangerous secrets.”Crow shook his head.
“What?”
“Now who’s the liar?”
I didn’t have time to answer because one: I didn’t want to, and two: we had arrived at Old Rossi’s place.
I parked the Jeep right next to Ryder’s truck.
What was he doing here?
I tried to picture him doing Zen scribbles or hot yoga....
Hot yoga had its appeal. Ryder sweaty, shirt clinging to his chest, his flat stomach, muscles flexing as he moved, stretched, thrusted.
“Are we getting out today, or should I order us a pizza?” Crow asked.
Okay, so maybe my mind had been wandering a bit. “You can stay here.”
“Nope. I’m very interested as to why our Mr. Bailey is here at big daddy vamp’s house, aren’t you, Delaney? Do you think it might be asecretmeeting? Full of skullduggery?”
I ignored him and got out of the Jeep. Yes, it was odd that Ryder was at Old Rossi’s house, especially since Rossi had warned me off of Ryder, and Ryder hadn’t ever seemed all that friendly to Rossi. Not to mention I’d specifically told Rossi to leave Ryder alone.
There was little chance Rossi would want to give me time to answer questions about what he had felt, what any of the vampires might have felt, when Sven had been killed.
But I didn’t want Rossi to do Ryder any damage. It had been Ryder’s blood on Sven, it had been Ryder’s blood used in the ichor techne. It was possible that Rossi had called Ryder up here so he could kill him.
Well, hell.
I resisted the urge to pull my gun. Instead, I walked quickly up to the front door.
Even though I had been here only a handful of hours ago, it felt like an entirely different house. Funny what sunlight can do to a place.
I knocked. I heard voices coming closer. Three, I thought. Two I recognized: Old Rossi and Ryder. The other I didn’t.
Crow stood behind me now. Guess he didn’t want to wait in the Jeep.
Old Rossi opened the door. For just a second, a heartbeat of a moment, his eyes narrowed. If I were anyone else in town, I might think that he was unhappy to see me. But since I knew Old Rossi, I knew he wasn’t just unhappy, he was annoyed.
