A flashing grin answered that, and Chloe rol ed her eyes. She actual y thought her godson might be having the time of his life with this little day trip. Sicko. “Even if you can disable the security system, that won’t get it to unlock the door like Tess made it do. And there wil be no magic used here. Nothing to make it obvious Magickals are in residence. No spel s.”
The kid cocked his head, considered the problem, offered: “I can use a little wolf strength on it. One quick push, and we’l be in.”
Merek gave a growl worthy of a werewolf, his gaze flinty as it slid over her. Oh, yeah. He was not happy about this little snafu. She couldn’t even blame him. She should have considered that Tess would have her uncle change the code. Probably on a regular basis. Merek slid his wal et out of his back pocket and flipped it open, pul ing out a few metal tools. “We can do this with no magic of any kind.”
Interest flickered in Alex’s eyes, and he arched an eyebrow. “You know how to pick locks? Sweet.”
“Security system first.” Merek jerked his chin toward the keypad, and Alex’s enthusiasm slid away until he wore his most solemn expression.
“Right.” The wolf fished his cel phone out of his pocket, then dug some tools out of his backpack.
Unfastening the face of the panel, he pul ed it out to reveal the maze of wires inside. He hooked his cel phone into the wires, and the screen lit with information Chloe had never seen on a phone before. He got to work, his face set in lines of fierce concentration.
A few minutes later, the panel beeped, went black, and then flashed back to life. Alex set the keypad back in place and typed in a series of numbers. “Okay, I wiped everything and reset the code to 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0. Lame, but easy to remember.”
Chloe finished his thought for him. “But having to wipe everything also means the keystrokes to unlock the door aren’t in the program anymore.”
“Yep, and that would take equipment I don’t have with me.” He shrugged. “What’s a little breaking and entering after grand theft auto?” Pul ing her out of the way, he motioned Merek forward. “Your turn.”
The reminder of al the laws they were bending just made her warlock scowl more ferociously, and she sighed. He had the door opened in under forty-five seconds, which Alex clocked on his wristwatch. Chloe went in to the guest bedroom on the ground floor and put away her belongings. It stung more than she could have imagined when Merek fol owed Alex up the stairs to claim rooms on the second floor.
Ophelia padded into Chloe’s room and made herself at home on the bed. Chloe took a moment to pet her, and then went to close al the curtains on the bottom floor, knowing Merek would do the same upstairs.
She watched the sunlight fading on the cloudy horizon as she shut the last set of blinds.
Turning on every light she passed on the way to the kitchen, she went searching for pots and pans to cook dinner. After a minute or two, she heard the males tromp downstairs and out the door to finish unloading the car. Neither of them was speaking, which didn’t bode wel for the evening. She wondered how long Merek could hold on to a grudge. Not long, she hoped, but she didn’t know him wel enough to be certain.
They spent the next hour mostly silent, and Alex turned in early, without getting his usual self-defense lesson from Merek. The boy just escaped to his bedroom upstairs for a loud television show. She had an idea that he was hoping to drown out any arguments they might have. That he assumed they’d default to screaming made her heart ache and told her things about Jaya’s home life that she wished she didn’t know.
Merek left her in the kitchen to do the dishes and stalked into the living room. She heard him rustling around, but couldn’t figure out what he was doing. She went to peek at him, couldn’t see anything, but could stil hear him moving. Frowning, she stepped into the room and saw him kneeling near a wal , a pile of night-lights next to him on the floor while he fitted one into a socket.
Her lips shook when she opened her mouth, and she had to press them together for a moment before she thought she could talk without tearing up. Even pissed off and not speaking to her, he was stil taking care of her, plugging in night-lights to save her from the dark.
“I love you,” she blurted. The words just fel out, shocking the shit out of her. Until they were out there, she hadn’t known she was going to say them.
His muscles went rigid, his head turning slowly to stare at her in utter, dumbfounded shock. “You can’t.”
His eyes went stormy, turbulent with too many emotions for her to decipher. The words that came from his mouth sounded rough and desperate. “We’ve been together under some extreme circumstances—”
“Save the police psychobabble for someone else, Detective. I’m the one with the medical degree, remember? I know what love is, and I love you.” She spat the words at him, but the fury burned itself out as quickly as it flared. She felt as if she’d been kicked in the stomach. Again, she needed someone more than they’d ever need her, like she’d needed Mil ie as a child. But she wouldn’t cling or make demands. She refused to be that person ever again. Not even for him. “You don’t have to feel the same, but don’t try to tel me what I feel.”
“I won’t.” He rose to his feet, the stunned look stil glazing his eyes. His mouth opened, closed, but he just stood there staring at her until she couldn’t take it anymore.
“Good night, Merek. Sleep wel . I’l see you in the morning.” Turning on her heel, she marched into her room and shut the door behind her.
She col apsed on the bed and dropped her face into her trembling hands. It hurt. Gods, how it hurt. Tears burned her eyes, but she refused to cry. She had expected this. Even then, it felt like her heart was shredding into tiny pieces, and she was bleeding to death from internal wounds. It was one thing to think she was in love alone, it was another to know it.
Yet, it was something of a relief. She had said it. It was out there. She didn’t have to hide it or worry that he’d figure it out and feel guilty or obligated. Obviously, he hadn’t felt obligated. He’d tried to talk her out of it. A laugh that was almost a sob bubbled out, and she clamped her hand over her mouth to stop it. Shoving her head between her knees, she sucked in slow, deep breaths until the need to cry—or vomit—passed.
When she felt like she had a modicum of control back, she sighed and sat up. Pushing herself to her feet made her muscles ache, and she swayed a little. She clenched her jaw and wil ed her body to do what she wanted. There was nothing to do except put one foot in front of the other and get on with it. Survive. That was her specialty, wasn’t it? A painful smile flicked over her face. She shook herself and went to shower and get ready for bed. She hadn’t slept alone in almost a month, and she didn’t relish the thought of doing so tonight.
It wasn’t just the sex. She wanted Merek near, wanted his arms around her in the night, the security of his embrace.
That wasn’t going to happen.
Scrabbling for something— anything—else to think about, her mind turned to the issue of the upcoming ful moon and Alex’s forced Change. It felt like so much longer than a single month since she’d had to dig a silver bul et out of her godson’s body. Her bel y tightened at the thought. She never wanted to live through another night like that for the rest of her life. An ironic grin twisted her lips. There were several nights in her life she’d rather not think about again.
She stuffed those thoughts away and made herself come up with a new topic, like when this whole situation was over and they could go back to their lives. Alex could be his computer genius self, headed for col ege soon. Merek could go back to the police department. She could resume her research on lycanthropy. The potion she’d made for herself had worn off weeks ago, so she now remembered her work, but there was nothing she could do about it cut off from her lab the way she was.