Nicky spread his hands and leaned back in his chair. “I’m not confessing to anything. I’m just stating a fact. I had some things to deal with, so I’ve been doing a little work to clear my head.”
“You promised me you’d never do another hit, Nicky,” Red reminded him, her voice barely above a whisper. She glanced at her closed office door before adding, “After you got shot, you said you’d stick to making a point in other ways.”
“I have,” he insisted. “This had nothing to do with my own business.”
Nate crossed his arms over his chest, his face going dark. “Seeing as how I never got any calls for a hit on a Tale, I’m assuming these were Ordinaries?”
Red cursed a blue streak. “Perfect. That’s exactly the kind of headache we need right now.”
“Trust me,” Nicky said, “all these guys had it comin’. Nobody’s gonna miss ’em.”
Red ran a hand through her thick black hair, letting it fall around her shoulders. “So what does any of this have to do with Trish?” She jabbed her finger at his chest. “So help me God, Nicky, if you drag her into your bullshit . . .”
We’d agreed on the way to headquarters that we were going to steer clear of Nicky’s vigilante alter-ego and the connection to Dracula, but we had to have some reasonable explanation as to why he would be helping me on an open investigation or Red would put the smack-down on both of us in a fairytale minute. “Trish needed my expertise on a case,” he said with a shrug.
I glanced over at Nate, not surprised to find his bottomless black eyes on me, narrowed with a silent question.
Red wasn’t nearly so subtle. “What kind of expertise?”
Nicky glanced around as if expecting the authorities to come barging into the room at any moment. He leaned forward a little in his chair and hissed, “Insight into my business ventures.”
“Tim Halloran’s dead,” I blurted, impatient with the euphemisms and innuendo.
Red’s brows shot up. “How? When?” She then turned an accusing glare on Nate. “And how did you not know this?”
Nate shook his head, clearly as baffled as Red. “Got me.”
“He was the victim in the alley,” I explained. “Nicky got a tip about his identity from one of his associates and passed it along to me.”
Nate nodded. “That guy’s soul was so traumatized by his death it was unrecognizable. I couldn’t tell who it was. Damn. Hell of a way to go.”
Red seemed unmoved as she pegged Nicky and me with that look of hers that tells you to stow the bullshit. “And you two teamed up how?”
“Nicky and I bumped into each other sometime back. And, well . . .” I paused, my heart suddenly in my throat as I thought about what Nicky and I had agreed to say. It was just a little too surreal to utter the words aloud. Fortunately, I didn’t have to.
“And we’ve been hooking up for a while,” Nicky supplied. “I came by Trish’s apartment last night after I heard about the vampire attack.” He took my hand in his and raised it to his lips, his gaze locking with mine. My face was instantly aflame, no doubt confirming his insinuation, which was most likely his intention. Oh, man, he was good. . . .
Red gaped. “Say what now?”
“Trish was pretty shaken up, so she spent the night at my place.” Nicky smoothed the back of my hand with his thumb, setting my heart racing when that wickedly handsome grin curved his lips. And for a brief, blissful moment, I actually believed him, too. “Hell of a night, right, doll?”
I swallowed hard and my voice was a little thready when I said, “To put it mildly.”
Red cocked her head to one side, regarding me closely. Then she said, “Guys, I think you need to give me the room.” We all immediately got to our feet, but she added, “I meant guys as in gents. Take a seat, Trish.”
I plopped back down in the chair, sitting on the edge with my back board straight. It hadn’t occurred to me until just then, when I’d heard the edge in her voice, saw the stern look in her eyes, that even though Tess Little was one of my closest friends, she was also my boss. And she was seriously unhappy.
Nate and Nicky both glanced toward me as they sauntered from the room, Nicky looking a little apologetic. I gave him a smile that I hoped didn’t look as lame as it felt.
As soon as the guys shut the door behind them, Red crossed her arms over her chest. “So, you wanna tell me what’s really going on?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I demurred.
She gave me a knowing look. “You’re a horrible liar, Trish. And I know you’ve been lying to me for a while. I just didn’t know why. Now spill it.”
“Really, Red—”
“How long has this been going on anyway?” she cut in. “How long have you been sneaking around behind my back, trying to hide all the evidence?”
Oh, shit. . . .
She was totally on to me. Somehow she’d found out about the doctored reports, about my agreement with Nate. . . . Now I just had to try to keep her from taking off, half cocked, to go after Dracula.
“Tess, it was for your own good,” I said, my tone as gentle as I could manage. “I was trying to protect you.”
“Protect me?” she echoed, her eyes going wide. “Last time I checked I was a big girl, Trish. I think I can take it.”
I sighed. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s only because we love you that we didn’t want you to get hurt—”
“Damn it!” She shoved back from her desk, her face taut with fury as she got to her feet and began to pace the room.
I snapped my jaws shut and pressed my lips together. There was really nothing I could say to dig myself out of this hole. I’d known all along that Red hated being treated like she was a delicate little waif incapable of taking care of herself. She’d struggled for almost two hundred years to break away from the story that had haunted her. About the only thing she hated more than being underestimated was being lied to. And I’d committed both sins by hiding the intel on Dracula.
“Please forgive me,” I said softly. “I never should’ve deceived you.”
She waved away my apology, then sat down in the seat Nicky had vacated and let out a long, mournful sigh. “Do you love him?”
My brows came together in a frown. “Huh?”
She leaned back in the chair, scooting down a little so she could rest her head on the back. “Just be straight with me,” she said. “Are you in love with Nicky?”
“Oh!” I gasped, a nervous little twitter of laughter coming out before I could stop it. “You’re talking about Nicky!”
She turned her head to frown at me. “Yeah . . . Who were you talking about?”
“Nobody,” I said in a rush, relief washing over me like a tidal wave. “No one. I mean, Nicky, of course.”
Her expression became one of wary concern. “You feelin’ all right?” When I nodded and forced a smile, she went on. “Trish, I love Nate Grimm more than the air I breathe—and I’d probably suffer less without air than without him. The man is everything to me. But Nicky . . . Well, he means a lot to me and always will.”
I nodded. “I know. He means a lot to me, too.” At least that part was the God’s honest truth. And it must’ve been enough because she suddenly laughed in a burst of mirth not unlike Nate’s.
“At least this explains why you kept turning down all the insanely hot guys I’ve been trying to set you up with,” she said with a grin. “I mean, seriously? You said no to Achilles. Who does that? Most women would fight to the death for one night with that guy.”
“And he knows it,” I drawled, rolling my eyes. “No one will ever love Achilles as much as he does.”
She chuckled, then smiled a little sadly. “Just be careful, okay? Nicky’s been through a lot. He’s not . . . Well, he’s not quite the same, you know? I can see it in his eyes. There’s a darkness inside that wasn’t there before—not even during the New York days.”