“Yeah.”
“So the whole thing hinges on Donny,” I said to Colm. “If he’s out of the picture — discredited, in jail, dead, whatever — Rossi loses the one card that gets the Murphys to back him.”
“That’s the idea,” Colm said slowly. “But we can’t just walk up and discredit him, Moira. He’s careful. And you’re out of practice.”
“I’m not planning to walk up to anything,” Hazel said. “I’m planning to spend some time with him and let him think he’s already won. He always had loose lips, because he figured I was just a girl, so it didn’t matter what he said in front of me. It’ll be easy enough to get him talking about his accomplishments.”
“That might work,” Colm said. “But if we’re going to deliver you to him — which we totally are so we can get credit for it — we can’t go in there alone. We’ve lost a lot of our soldiers in this little skirmish, we’re going to need back-up.”
His eyes went to Boris and Yuri, who were eating their way through a Costco sized bag of peanut M&Ms at the end of the table. “Strong back-up.”
We finished mapping out a plan, then sent the O’Brians back to the hotel. They were crying poor, so we told them they could stay in our room since it was already paid for tonight.
“But stay away from the mini bar,” Hazel ordered. “I’m not paying for your ten dollar candy bars and twenty dollar shots.”
“Uh, can we get the blood out of the fridge then?” Elizabeth asked. “It grosses me out.”
Martha and Allie agreed to go back with the O’Brians, get them settled, and pack for me and Hazel – including grabbing my bottle of blood from the fridge. Then they’d bring everything to the safe house where Hazel and I were staying.
“Make sure no one’s tailing you,” Lois reminded me. “I’m going to be pissed if another safe house gets compromised.”
“Understood.”
Hazel and I drove to a location about thirty-five minutes outside of Seattle, doubling back several times to make sure we weren’t being followed. The safe house was a nondescript duplex, one of those ugly boxy buildings that builders had slapped up in the eighties while trying to quickly increase the supply of housing in the region.
One unit was used mostly for storage, with the other one being the main living area when we used the duplex. I pulled into the garage, then dug out my wand to check for bugs and evidence of explosives. Keeping Hazel behind me, I carefully checked both the residential unit and the storage area.
When I was satisfied that the building was clean, I led Hazel into one of the bedrooms.
“This will be your room,” I said.
“Don’t you mean our room?” she asked, her eyebrows raised.
I smirked. “Yeah, but I didn’t want to presume.”
“It’ll be a while before Martha and Allie get here, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
She pulled me into the room, closing the door behind us and clicking the lock.
“All these people trying to hurt me today has made me incredibly horny,” she said in a flirty tone I’d never heard her use. “I was hoping you could help me with that.”
“It’s the adrenaline surges,” I said lamely.
“Don’t care,” she shot back. “Get naked. Now.”
There was something different about her now. Despite her flirty order to get naked, I could tell something was bothering her. And if I was a better woman, I would have stopped right then so I could get to the bottom of it. But Hazel was standing in front of me completely naked, her full breasts and curvy body on full display, and every thought went out of my head besides‘mine’.
Hazel gave me a push, and I let myself fall back onto the bed. She crawled up, lowering her body over mine and giving me a long, hard kiss. There was something there, a feeling like there was agoodbye in that kiss, but then her hand snaked between my legs, and I forgot all about it.
She squeezed my cunt once, twice, three times before sliding her fingers inside and making a happy sound when she realized how wet I was already.
“Is this all for me?” she asked against my lips.
“You know it is.”
Hazel scooted down a few inches, clamping her teeth around my collar bone and biting down hard enough to sting. She slid two fingers inside me, stretching me as she pumped in and out of my body, ramping me up more. I could feel my vamp and wolf struggling, both of them wanting to come out and claim her. I pushed them back into the far recesses of my mind, focusing instead on the waves of pleasure that were rolling through my body.
