Because if I didn’t, she could die.
“As careful as we—asI—always am, it’s still careless.” He took her hand, and I took a step back, staring at them, because suddenly I saw what Faythe had seen. Suddenly it was so obvious. At least, it should have been.
Did everyone else know?
No. If they did, I would have heard about it. There would have been gossip. Teasing. There would have been more rules broken, if this one was common knowledge.
DidTuckerknow?
“Accidents happen, in the heat of the moment. That’s why they’re called accidents.” Vance’s thumb stroked my sister’s knuckles, and I struggled to hold onto my anger in the face of their pain and heartbreak. “And the truth is that Faythe knows that better than anyone. She stood trial for that very thing when she was your age.”
She…What?
Davey frowned. “Faythe was ontrial? Like, in acourtroom?”
“Of the shifter variety.” Vance nodded. “Titus said she accidentally infected her human boyfriend when her teeth shifted during a moment of passion.Justher teeth. Just alittle. She didn’t even know it had happened. But that was enough to change his life forever. And I would never forgive myself if that happened to you.”
“I would never forgive you either,” I said.
“I know.” He let go of my sister’s hand and backed slowly away from her. “I’ll leave.”
“No!” Davey shouted, grasping for his hand. Forcing him to back even farther away.
“I am so, so sorry,” Vance said, and I could not tell which of us he was talking to. “The report from my interview with Billy is in your inbox.” He headed through the swinging doors into the kitchen, and Davey turned on me, pain and fury both magnified by the tears still standing in her eyes.
“If you let him leave, I willnever everforgive you,” she said, her chin quivering.
I wasn’t sure I would forgive myself.
“I’m sorry.” I had to force the words past a throat tight with my own pain and frustration. “I tried to save you from this heartbreak, Davey. I tried to stop it from ever starting. I know what you’re feeling. I’ve been there. All I can do now is promise to help you through it.”
Her tears fell and she glared at me through them. “Fuck your empathy and understanding.” She grabbed her keys from the hook behind the bar, then she unlocked the front door and marched right through it, leaving me alone in the Fat Cat Bar and Grille with a short order cook in the kitchen and a prisoner in the basement.
TWENTY-ONE
“Charley?”
“Hey Titus.” I exhaled in relief as I closed my office door, speaking into my shiny new phone. “Thank god you answered.”
“Well, you called three times in the span of a minute and a half. During a birthday party.” A door clicked shut over the line, and background laughter ended abruptly. “I assume this is an emergency involving a serial killer.”
“Not exactly. Though I have an update on that for you too, now that you mention it.”
“Now that I mention it?” I could practically hear the frown in his voice as he sank into his office chair with the groan of familiar springs. “Did that not warrant its own call?”
“It’s been a long day.”
Titus snorted. “Do they make any other kind?”
Valid. “So, I just fired Vance.”
His silence was…thick. “May I ask why?”
“Because Faythe mentioned, completely offhand, what a cute couple he and Davey make. Which was when I realized that his apartment didn’t smell like bleach the other day just because he’s a good housekeeper.”
Titus sighed. “He was purging her scent.”
“Yeah.” I sank into my own desk chair and fought the urge to reach for the bottle of tequila. It was running pretty low, which was probably a good sign that I should abstain, even if it was more of a mental crutch than anything, with a shifter’s metabolism. “I told him to be at your place in four hours. Hire him if you want. He’s a good enforcer. But he can’t stay here. Not to work, and not to live.”
