My heart leaped up into my throat with a mix of wariness and anticipation. I hadn’t heard him approach, and I wouldn’t have sensed him at all if not for my metal magic. Sometimes I wondered if that was why I was so drawn to Tucker. If we were like tuning forks ringing in perfect harmony with each other, whether we wanted to or not.
“Here to offer me another escort, Mr. Tucker?” I drawled. “As you can see, I’ve already reached my vehicle.”
Humor sparked in his black eyes. “Too bad. It’s always such a pleasure to escort you, Ms. Parker.”
“You do seem to enjoy playing the part of the perfect gentleman. Why is that?” I asked, genuinely curious.
His amusement vanished, and his forehead creased as he considered my question. “My mother, I suppose. She was quite the stickler for manners. I think making me follow the rules gave her some sense of control. Certainly more control than she ever had over my father, who was a mean drunk and a degenerate gambler.” He paused and cleared his throat. “My father squandered my mother’s fortune and greatly diminished the Tucker family’s standing within the Circle.”
Surprise rippled through me. Despite all the time we’d spent together in that shipping container, this was by far the most personal thing he had ever revealed. “Why are you telling me this?”
His face remained serious. “I suppose I’m hoping it will improve your opinion of me, however slightly. About who I am and why I worked for Mason Mitchell and the other Circle members for so many years.”
“And why you did so many awful things on their orders.”
“Something like that.”
“And what opinion do you think I currently have of you?”
He eyed me. “A terrible one, given everything I did to you, Gin, and the rest of your friends over the past several months.”
Tucker had done some pretty awful things to Gin, including trying to kill her. Then again, she had tried just as hard to kill him in return. But now, despite all that, the two of them were… Well, I wouldn’t sayfriends. Perhapsnot enemieswas a better term.
Tucker had helped Gin figure out Mason’s plan to destroy the Pork Pit, and he had gone along with our heist at the Bellum Bank, when Gin had stolen Mason’s money right out from under Emery Slater and her giant goons. Plus, he had saved my life at the Mitchell family mansion. So my opinion of Hugh Tucker was probably kinder than that of most other folks, including Silvio and Sophia. Then again, they weren’t as drawn to him as I was.
“People do awful things for all sorts of reasons,” I replied. “Money, jealousy, revenge. Some people even claim that they do those awful things for love.”
“Like your father and brother?” Tucker asked.
His voice was soft, his tone kind, but I still felt as though he’d punched me in the throat. I hadn’t thought the vampire knew about my father and my brother, but the Circle had had dealings with Raymond, so Tucker probably knew all about my terrible childhood.
“Yes, just like my father and brother,” I snapped in an icy tone. “Tell me, did you do awful things to Eira Snow out of love?”
For once, I’d smashed right through Tucker’s calm façade, and hurt pinched his face before he could hide it. He had been in love with Eira, Gin’s mother, for years, although all his dirty work for the Circle had been one of the many things that had kept them apart.
That sick, oily shame slithered through my gut again. “I’m sorry. There I go again, making assumptions, making a fool of myself, and talking about things I have no right to discuss.”
“If I wished to discuss them with anyone, then it would be you, Ms. Parker.”
I blinked at his confession, even as his voice wrapped around me like a warm blanket, inviting me to lose myself in that deceptive softness, to lose myself inhim.
Tucker cleared his throat again. “But I have something else to discuss with you.”
“What would that be?”
I’d barely finished speaking when he moved forward. One moment, the vampire was ten feet away. The next, he was standing right in front of me, so close that the wind made the bottom flaps of his overcoat brush up against my jeans. That same wind also brought with it a whiff of his cologne, something soft, subtle, and spicy that made me want to bury my face in his neck and just breathe in his scent.
But I couldn’t do that. Not here, not now, not ever.
Still, I wasn’t about to let him know how much his stupid cologne affected me, or that I was worried he was about to deliver a more violent and pointed message from Clyde O’Neal. So I lifted my chin and looked right at him.
Tucker stared down at me, and a small smile curved his lips. “Do you know what I like about you the most, Ms. Parker?”
“What?” I asked in a wary voice.
“That you are absolutely fearless.”
I frowned. “Why would you say that?”
