“Tell them,” Gabriel commanded.
“Not until you tell me why you’ve been following me!”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Irrelevant.”
“No, it’s?—”
“Spit it out, Tweety Bird.”
And damn, I’d never seen Luke relent—or blush—so quickly. He stopped squirming, swallowed hard, and gazed up at the man holding him. Then he looked at me. “I don’t want to get hurt again.”
I sighed with relief when James handed me a mug. I didn’t normally drink tea, but I craved the warmth. Before anything else happened, I took a sip of the drink. My throat spasmed, and I choked on the liquid, spitting it back into the pumpkin-shaped mug. I coughed, the pain in my throat bringing tears to my eyes. James rubbed my back and guided me to sit down on a chair he’d pulled out from the table.
“We told you, Luke,” James said, “you’re protected no matter what. Nothing has changed: You talk, we protect you.”
Luke wiggled again, causing his sweater to ride up and drawing my eyes south. Gabriel’s thumb slipped beneath the knitted hem and the move seemed to light a fire beneath Luke, whodemandedto be let go.
“Are you going to talk?” Gabriel asked.
“Yes,” Luke huffed.
Gabriel pulled out a second chair, set it in front of me, and manhandled Luke into the seat. James’s fingers dug into my shoulders, and I tried to tell him without words that he had nothing to worry about. It must have worked, because his grip relaxed, and he nudged my drink toward me.
“Do I have to worry about you trying to run?” Gabriel asked Luke.
Hunter green eyes stared up at Gabriel. Outside of me, I’d never seen suchchallengein a human’s eyes when standing up to a vampire. The shade of them deepened, his throat working as he swallowed.
“No,” he finally spat, looking like he’d rather rip the man limb from limb.
I opened my mouth to speak, but Gabriel cut me off. “Good, because I’mnotafraid to tie you down.”
If I wasn’t mistaken, Luke’s eyes widened before he composed himself. I attempted to snicker, but that only hurt my throat and resulted in another coughing fit.
“Speak, Tweety,” Gabriel commanded.
What the hell had gotten into those two?
Luke returned his attention to me. “You were leaving Victoria’s café when someone approached you from behind. They injected you with something, then wrapped their hands around your throat until you collapsed to the ground. They then muttered something under their breath—something that I couldn’t hear—before they propped you against your car and left you there.”
No wonder I’d been so groggy—I felt the same after Dani injected me that first time at the bar. “How do you know all of this?”
Luke swallowed. Gabriel nudged him, and they shared another indiscernible look. Then Luke dropped his gaze to his lap, scrubbing the back of his neck. “I may have followed you.”
“Why?” James asked the question that I couldn’t. He bent at the waist, dropping his arms around me. His protectiveness pressed at our bond. I laid my hand over his, doing my best to soothe him. It was alarming to learn Luke had been stalking me, but he had possibly saved my life. We should hear him out.
“I wanted to see if I could catch whoever dropped the necklace.” Luke glared over his shoulder. “Turns outhewas followingme.”
Gabriel rounded on Luke. “You used to be part of that society. How do we know you didn’t plant that necklace to get our attention?”
“I guess you’ll just have to trust me.” Luke gazed down in his lap, tugging on his fingers.
“What else?” Gabriel demanded before I could get the words out of my mouth. Exhausted, I sat back with my drink and let the vampires do the work.
Luke sighed and scrubbed his hands over his face. “I’m probably wrong—I usually am.”
“Just tell us, Luke,” James pleaded, sounding as near to the end of his rope as I was.
Hunter green eyes met mine again. “You don’t remember anything after leaving the coffee shop, do you?” I shook my head, and he continued. “I’ve had a theory for a while—ever since I started with Virtus, really, but no one listened to me. Not even Dani.”
