“Because,” he said, voice tight, “you’re a key player in that investigation—and one we certainly don’t want in the hands of the sindicati.”
“Yeah, well, shame you didn’t think about that before you gave me the drug and left me defenseless.”
He snorted. “You could still use that tongue of yours. It’s sharp enough to cut glass, after all.”
“Just fuck off, Sam,” I said. “I don’t need—or want—your help.”
With that, I marched through the scrub and headed down the road again. After several seconds, a door slammed and the car continued on up the hill. Surprise flitted through me. Despite my words, I really hadn’t expected him to go.
The surprise was short-lived, however. A few minutes later, the car pulled up alongside me. Obviously, he’d left only to find somewhere to turn around.
“Red,” he said as the passenger-side window slid down. “Get in the car.”
“What, are you going deaf or something? Didn’t I just tell you to fuck off?”
“And we both know I’m not going to. Get in the car.”
I stopped. So did he. For several seconds we simply glared at each other. But the truth of the matter was, I did need help, and it was stupid not to accept his just because I was madder than hell at him at this particular moment. Besides, being stubborn wouldn’t help Jackson, but Sam just might.
I opened the door and got in. He planted his foot on the gas and the car took off.
“So,” he said, once we were on a main road again. I could see the city skyline in the distance but had no idea where we were in relation to it. “What did the sindicati want?”
“What do you think they wanted?” I couldn’t help the annoyance in my voice because, well, it was a stupid question.
“Obviously, it was related to Baltimore’s research, but all indications suggest they have that already.” The darkness in him briefly rose, touching his eyes and sending chills down my spine. Thankfully, it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. I wished I could say the same about the desire that always stirred when he was this close. He added, “Unless, of course, you’re holding additional information you haven’t told anyone about.”
“I’m not. Baltimore gave me five notebooks to transcribe the night he was murdered, and that’s all the information I had.”
“Well, they didn’t snatch you for the hell of it, so what did they want?”
“The fifth notebook.”
He frowned. “But they snatched all the notebooks from your apartment, didn’t they?”
“Well, someone did. There’s no evidence it was actually the sindicati.”
“I can’t imagine it being anyone else.”
I shifted slightly in the seat and studied him for several seconds. He didn’t react in any way to my scrutiny, though I had no doubt he was aware of it.
Eventually, I said, “Can’t you?”
He frowned. “Can’t I what?”
“Imagine anyone else wanting the research?”
“Well, yeah, the government. But the government wasn’t involved in the raid of your apartment.” He paused, giving me a dark look. “And before you say it, neither were we.”
“Of course, I have only your word on that.” It probably wasn’t the wisest comment in the world, but it was out before I could stop it. The inner bitch, it seemed, was alive and kicking, even if the rest of me felt like doing nothing more than rolling over and having a good sleep.
“Of the two people in this car,” he growled, “there’s only one with a history of lying—and it’s not me.”
“I didn’t lie,” I snapped back. “I just didn’t tell you the entire truth.”
He snorted. “That’s a cop-out, and you know it.”
“What I know,” I said, voice icy, “is that I believed you couldn’t and wouldn’t understand the situation with Rory. I still think that. Hell, you can’t even hear his name without exploding in anger.”
“And for a damn good reason.”
“Did it never occur to you that I might also have had a good reason?”
“You were sleeping with another man,” he growled, “even as you were professing to love me. What more is there to understand than that?”
“Far more than you will now ever know,” I bit back. “Life isn’t black-and-white, Sam. Not when you’re dealing with someone who isn’t human.”
“But you live in a human world, and you were with someone who at the time held very human beliefs. How the hell did you expect me to react?”
There was anger in his voice, but there was also hurt and pain. It was a reminder that while his reaction had hurt me to the core, it was my actions that had truly ended our relationship. It was my refusal to trust, to share what I was and what that meant, to believe that someone could love me once they knew, that had doomed us from the very beginning.
Even so, I couldn’t help saying, “What I expected was a chance. But you couldn’t even look me in the eye once I told you what I was.”
“Because when I looked at you, all I saw was a lie. You, me, everything. It was all a lie.”
I closed my eyes against the sudden sting of tears. It wasn’t a lie. Not then, not now. “If you believe that,” I said quietly, “then you’re an even bigger fool than I thought.”
“Well, that, at least, is something we can agree on.” His voice was bitter. “Who else do you think could have taken the notebooks, if not the sindicati or us?”
I took a deep, somewhat shuddery breath and fleetingly wished I could turn my emotions on and off as easily as he seemed able to. “It could be the very same people who took Professor Wilson’s body.”
A lone muscle along his jawline ticked, but other than that, I might as well have been staring at a blank canvas. “And why would you think that?”
“Well, it’s hardly likely the red cloaks snatched Wilson’s body for the sole purpose of getting rid of any DNA evidence that might be found on it. An attack as public as that one suggests it was a very deliberate choice—and that means there’s another reason. One that’s a whole lot scarier.”
“That Professor Wilson is alive and now one of the red cloaks.” He briefly met my gaze. “We are aware of that possibility.”
“Then why not at least mention it when you knew Jackson and I were investigating Wilson’s death?”
“Why would I, when fruitlessly pursuing information on Wilson at least kept you away from Baltimore’s investigation?”
“What? You didn’t trust your own drugs to do the job for you?”
“I ordered you away from Morretti, and for a damn good reason. He’s not someone you want to tangle with, in any way, shape, or form. Especially now.”
I frowned. “Why especially now?”
He took a deep breath and released it slowly. Obviously, he hadn’t meant to add that little tidbit. “Because the sindicati is on the verge of a factional war, and it’s not something you want to be caught in the middle of.”
No, it certainly wasn’t. But if that was the case, which faction had questioned me? Morretti, or the other? And did it even matter in this particular case?
“Yeah, well, I’m not exactly defenseless,” I muttered. “Or at least I wasn’t until you snatched any recourse I had of self-defense.”
“Let’s not get overly dramatic,” Sam all but growled. “The drugs only dampen psychic capabilities and shape-shifting for forty-eight hours. I’d foolishly hoped that you might come to your senses within that time and leave the investigation to the experts, but I should have known better.”