“It’s Anastazia Proctor.”
“Yes ma’am. What can I do for you?”
“I’m sorry it’s late, but I need a favor.” She detailed what she wanted and read him the cell number from Rafael’s phone.
“Can you hold on a moment? I’ll get it for you.”
“Thanks.” Taz waited several minutes, checking to make sure the call didn’t drop. He finally came back on the line. “I’ve got it. Patricia Nunez…” and read off an Atlanta address. Taz wrote it down on the hotel notepad she’d brought in with her.
“Thanks, Davidson.”
“Anytime, ma’am.”
She hung up. It was too late to call her tonight.
Then again, this wasn’t exactly the kind of news you wanted to drop on someone over the phone. They would be in Atlanta late tomorrow. She could call the girl and try to meet with her there, tell her face-to-face.
“Want to see the competition?” Crap, the voice was back, and stronger than ever.
Oh, God, would that please, shut the hell UP!
Another ghostly chuckle.
This would drive her crazy if it continued. Eventually she’d break down and tell Matthias it was still happening. Keeping a barrier around it was taking a major toll, and she hated keeping secrets from him.
She just couldn’t bring herself to tell him the whole truth, even though she suspected he knew more than he was letting on. Sparing her the embarrassment of telling her she was crazy, perhaps?
When she told Matthias about Trish the next morning, he frowned. “We can call her, Taz. We don’t need to stop by.”
She let her anger take over. “What the fuck? Matthias, she was dating him. You can’t drop a bomb on her like that, you insensitive male bastard!”
After a few moments, he nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Taz sighed and put her arms around him. “We’ve been dating for what, a few weeks now, and you’ve seen me at my worst. Why aren’t you running and screaming yet?”
A sly smile teased his lips and started the familiar tingle between her legs. “Because you haven’t seen me at my worst, cara. This is one contest I know I could easily win, if I so chose.”
The girl lived in a small apartment near Turner Field, where the Braves played. She looked nervous but welcomed them in. Her apartment was clean and tidy if sparsely furnished. Maybe in her early twenties, Taz got the feeling she was a college student, or recently graduated.
“Can I get you anything to drink?” Trish asked. “I don’t have much, just water and Coke, but you’re welcomed to it.”
Taz shook her head. “No, thank you. Can we sit and talk for a few minutes?”
The girl swallowed and nervously nodded. Taz sensed the girl knew something was seriously wrong but was trying to talk herself into believing the best.
Trish sat in a chair by the end of the couch while Taz took the end closest to her. Taz reached over, took her hand, and looked the girl in the eyes.
“I’m afraid we have some bad news about Rafael Collins.”
The girl’s eyes widened. Taz wasn’t trying to take control and fought the urge to smooth this over for her. Trish needed to feel her grief, not have it masked.
“What happened?”
Matthias stayed silent and let Taz take point. “He had a heart attack. He came out to Yellowstone National Park for a meeting with us and some business associates. I’m so sorry, but he died.”
Trish didn’t need to know Rafael was suffocated by another vampire not too long after Taz had played happy hooker succubus with his head because she was pissed at Matthias.
Trish also didn’t need to know how much Taz loved him.
The girl froze, trying to process the information, then her tears fell. “He’s dead?”
“I’m so sorry.” I feel like I killed him, but you don’t need to know that, either.
“It’s not your fault, Taz baby!”
God, not NOW! Taz wanted to scream, and the only thing that kept her from doing so was that Matthias and Trish sat right there. Taz wanted to reach into her brain and rip the source out. She was having a hard enough time keeping it together.
The girl pulled away, hugging herself. “Dead?” she whispered.
Taz nodded. The girl looked to Matthias, who also nodded but remained silent. He knew he was on Taz’s short shit list over suggesting they call instead of stopping, and he didn’t dare enrage her.
Trish shook her head. “I talked to him the night before he left. He said we’d get together when he got back…” She started sobbing.
Taz lost the inner battle not to ask the question. “Were the two of you close?”
The girl didn’t look up. “I wanted to be. We weren’t…you know. We hadn’t. He wouldn’t, said he wanted to get to know me better first. We’d been out on a few dates, only knew each other a few weeks.” She finally looked up at Taz. “He just had this really sweet, playful side, you know?”
Taz knew. All too well. Seeing this girl’s grief stirred her own, and it was sheer will holding her own tears in check. They stayed a little longer, then Taz handed Trish a business card. “If you want to talk, give me a call, okay?”
Trish nodded, still stunned. Taz knew the girl would cry herself to sleep that night.
Matthias wanted to drive but Taz withheld the keys. “I need to do this. I need the focus.”
“Okay.” Without further discussion he went to the passenger side. He was learning to take his cues from her.
Taz adjusted the seat, the mirrors, and tried to steady her shaking fingers as she hooked her seat belt. She didn’t want Matthias seeing how rattled she was, how close to her own breakdown.
It didn’t get any easier, even after her own grief.
They arrived home after midnight. Matthias offered to carry the laptop case, but Taz shrugged him off.
“No, I’ve got it.” She also had Rafe’s phone and MP3 player in there, and she wasn’t letting them out of her control. She needed more time to deal, and she still wanted to know why the playlist mysteriously appeared.
“All right.” He took their bags, leaving the photo albums and other things until morning. He followed her up to their room and she put the laptop case on the floor on her side of the bed. She’d deal with it tomorrow. For tonight, she needed to sleep.
“You don’t really want to sleep, do you, Taz baby?”
She froze. The voice had remained mostly silent on the way home from Atlanta.
It had to be the guilt. That was it. Her subconscious was adding Rafael’s voice to her own guilt. It didn’t matter that everyone else kept telling her it wasn’t her fault.
“That’s because it’s not your fault.”
She closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and tried counting backward from ten.
It didn’t return.
She took a shower while Matthias was downstairs talking with her dad and Albert. She wanted to stay awake until he returned, but by the time she heard their door open she was nearly asleep. She felt him kiss her cheek before he slipped his arm around her waist and spooned against her back.
“I love you, Taz,” he whispered.
She smiled. “I love you, too, Matthias,” she mumbled.
As she drifted off to sleep, the voice chimed in one last time. “That makes two of us, Taz baby.”
Matthias was asleep upstairs when Taz went down for breakfast the next morning. Albert held a small box in his hand. “This came while you were gone.”
She took it, looked at it, and nodded. “Thank you.” She placed it in her lap, out of sight under the table.