He narrowed his eyes on me then shrugged. “Fair enough.”
The phone rang again.
“Don’t you dare hang up on me or—”
“Yup, don’t want to hear your threats either.” I spoke over him. “How about you call me back when you’ve calmed down?”
I hung up again amidst several loud threats and curses.
I grinned. That felt good. Maybe next time he’d think twice about making threats against someone’s family or sharing information that wasn’t his to share with the vampires. Petty, I know, but sometimes you just had to allow your feelings to rule or end up regretting it years down the road. It was good for them to realize I wasn’t a doormat. That I had teeth, even if they were small, baby ones.
I was able to listen to two songs on the radio before the phone rang again.
“You ready to be civil?” I asked chirpily.
“Only if you’re willing to start following directions,” Liam’s cool voice said on the line.
Shit. I answered without checking.
“Liam, what a surprise.”
The sorcerer’s head whipped towards me as he bolted upright. He mouthed the word ‘crap,’ echoing my feelings exactly.
“Is it? I don’t know why as you were supposed to check in ten minutes ago.”
My eyes went to the dash board clock. 3:10. Not that I’d planned on checking in at all, but if I’d known we were so close to a check in time I would have been a little more careful answering my phone. After all, he had called during every other supposed check in.
“Oh gee, look at the time. You’re right. I can’t believe I missed it. The time has really gotten away from me tonight.”
He ground his teeth. There seemed to be a lot of that happening tonight.
I’d be lying if I didn’t get a small charge out of his and Brax’s aggravation. When you’re as low on the totem pole as I was, you take your wins where you can. Pissing them off was about the only thing I could get away with. Trying physical violence would only result in a severe beating or death. I was banking on time and distance blunting the worst of their anger.
“We had an agreement,” he said, his voice dropping into a smooth cadence. “You have violated the conditions of your release—not just once or twice but many times.”
He made me sound like a prisoner on parole.
“I was a little busy running from the draugr and all. I didn’t have time to stop and make a call to assure you I was still alive.”
“And were you running for the entire four hours?” he asked silkily.
I paused, debating how much I wanted to tell him about my whereabouts. I didn’t like the idea of letting him know about Caroline or the research she’d done for me.
“It was more difficult to dodge him than I thought.”
“Oh, and so you weren’t sitting at the campus library a few minutes ago?”
I gave the sorcerer an uneasy glance. He watched me with wide eyes and gestured as if to say he was as confused as me. How did Liam know where I’d been, and did he know where I was right now?
I looked in my rear view and side mirrors. Was he following me even now?
“It was a handy place to hide,” I bluffed.
A white truck turned behind me, following me down another block. I sped up slightly. It sped up.
“For four hours. Hm. You must have been very worried.”
“Have you been following me?” I teased uneasily. “I didn’t know you cared.”
