If he was legit, then I was all ears. “When can you get here?” I asked.
“It would be faster if we met in Nashville. By the airport. I can catch a flight and be there in a few hours.”
I doubted I’d make it safely to the airport. Stark had to be near. By now, other vampires would be looking for me, too: Masie Kicklighter, the woman calling for an end to vampires. “If you want to talk, you’ll have to come to my apartment.”
“Montgomery Stark would have my head,” he argued. “He still claims you’re his fiancée.”
After I just told everyone I planned to kill him? “I don’t know where you heard that, but he never asked, and I never said yes. In fact, we’re over.”
“That doesn’t mean he agrees. Vampires are very possessive. Even with humans who betray them.”
I had not betrayed him. It was the other way around. “Fine. Meet me at the Rooster.” It was as safe a place as any, even if my family was hopped up on moonshine.
“I’ll see you there around ten.”
We ended the call, and I got to the task of sending out another round of emails, explaining to the world the true motives behind the bill.
That’s right, Monty. You’re on our radar screen now.Soon, there’d be nowhere to hide. “I am so winning this war.”
After stashing Betsy behind the bar and saying hello to a few of our longtime customers, I took a seat at a four-top in the back of the Rooster, past the jukebox and near the small dance floor.
Thankfully, the only member of my drugged-out family working tonight was Maybell—too busy with customers to even notice me—and at least I was safe here. Kinda.
Nowhere was truly secure from vampires, but our little slice of Southern charm was known to be frequented by Stark, and vampires tended to be somewhat territorial, especially the older ones. Other vampires stayed out of their way. It was why Daddy never wandered too far from the watchful eye of his master.
Barf.Their relationship still made my skin crawl, but that was their world. Weaker, newer vampires had to serve an older, more powerful one if they wanted protection. Which they did. From what? I guessed it was a safety-in-numbers kind of thing because not all covens got along.
“Masie!” Ashley hurried over, holding an empty tray, her bottle-blond hair in pigtails. She was one of the servers I considered a close friend. “I heard you were attacked in the parking lot last week, but yourfamily wouldn’t tell me anything. They kept sayin’ you were just peaches, off on some vacation with Stark. Why didn’t you answer any of my texts? What happened?”
“Um…” I didn’t want to reveal the humiliating truth about being brainwashed and kidnapped by my vampire boyfriend, but I couldn’t come up with a good answer. “I got what Betty Su had.” Betty Su was a part-time server.
Ashley made a sour face and glanced in the direction of my lower torso. “You mean…” she made a circle with her finger toward my crotch, “the pees?”
The pees was slang for herpes, which wasn’t what I meant. Betty Su had come down with the flu.Wait. She’s got herpes?I needed to make sure we hung up more handwashing signs in the bathroom.
Ashley went on, not giving me a chance to reply, “But I thought you were only doingthe Wednesdaywith Montgomery Stark, and vampires don’t get the pees.”
Doing the Wednesday meant humping.
I rolled my eyes. “Not the pees. I had the flu.”The man flu.“And Stark and I are Wednesdaying no more.”
“Really?” Her eyes lit up like beacons of lust.
“Don’t even think about it,” I growled. “Not now, not ever. Besides, you have a boyfriend.” And since when had Ashley gone Twi-curious?
She sighed. “Yeah, butBeau’s nowhere near as hot as your sexy Twizzler. Also, he’s broke. Lost his bouncer job again.”
Twizzler was her nickname for vampires. The red licorice ropes reminded her of fangs or something.
“Broke is better than being a five-hundred-year-old coffin squatter,” I pointed out.
Confused, she frowned.
“A Twizzler,” I clarified.
“Why would a vampire squat over a coffin? Do they have weird bathroom habits I don’t know about?”
“Never mind,” I said. “Hey, can I get a red slaw, black coffee, and cheesy gator-taters?”
