The only lead they had so far.
Well, him…and those idiots who’d tried to torch Niol’s bar. Gyth had alerted him to the guys, and he’d been waiting for ’em. They’d gotten patched up, then they’d come to him.
It had taken ten minutes to get them to tell everything they knew about the woman who hired them. Unfortunately, they knew damn little.
But McNeal didn’t believe in coincidences, and he couldn’t wait to compare their description with King’s.
“She knew what she was doing.” Smith looked up at him with those big, dark eyes that always made his stomach clench. He’d taken a look in those eyes long ago and known that he was lost. “This wasn’t the work of an amateur.” Her lips trembled, but she kept talking and she kept her chin up. My Smith. “This woman knows how to use a scalpel-”
Damn. “Am I looking for a doctor, Nathalia?” His hands smoothed up her chilled arms and he didn’t give a shit that the blinds were up in his office. If one of his cops saw them, screw it. Nathalia needed him.
And he sure needed her.
“Could be.” A hard pull of breath. “This person didn’t make any mistakes. No hesitation marks were around the wounds, just straight cuts. Quick and cold.”
An amateur would have hacked the girl to pieces.
The other bodies had been carved like hell gone bad, but the organ removal-he’d read the reports-had all been done a bit too well. Maybe the carving job had been deliberate, a way to hide the other surgical precision.
“Is she gonna make it?” He asked. He’d voiced the same question to the docs in the ER. They hadn’t answered, just stared at him like he was crazy for asking.
But they’d been human. They didn’t understand and that’s why he’d brought in Nathalia.
Kim Went had a much stronger healing system in place than a human. There was a chance, slim, but a chance she would recover-
“Niol said she would.”
Niol. He blinked. Since when was Nathalia on a first-name basis with that guy?
“He was at the hospital. Him and the reporter. They stayed in the waiting room the whole time Kim was in surgery.” She swallowed. “They care about that girl.”
News to him.
“The reporter, Storm, was crying.” That he could believe. He’d caught a few of Storm’s stories. Seen enough to know that she wasn’t the usual fluff reporter. “They didn’t leave, not until-”
She stopped, breaking off abruptly. Like he was gonna let her end there. “Until what?”
A sigh. “Until Niol got to see the girl. He stared at her a few minutes after surgery, just watched her, then I heard him tell Storm that Went would be all right.”
If the devil had said so…
The tension in his shoulders eased, just a bit. He knew Niol’s reputation. If the demon had said that Kim would live, she would.
“Another half hour, hell, another fifteen minutes, and Kim would have died.” She pulled away from him and started her pacing again. She looked tired. Dark shadows lined her eyes. Her arms hung limply and the sexy stride he so enjoyed watching was gone. “That bitch just left that girl to die.”
After she’d taken a little souvenir. What kind of freak job was he dealing with here? “Niol told Gyth we were after a human.” A human who’d taken to carving up the demons in his city and stealing body parts? Shit, what would he have to deal with next?
Sometimes, he could still remember the good old days. When humans killed humans and supernaturals kept to the shadows.
Not anymore.
Nathalia paused near his one window. “Guess we can all be monsters deep down, huh?”
His hands clenched. This was a sore point for him. Nathalia was freaking beautiful and perfect and… human. For a time, he hadn’t believed she’d want him, not if she knew the truth about him.
He sure wasn’t beautiful. More like scary. He’d been called that a few times. Perfect-uh, that was another word that would never fit him and the shit that was his life.
As for human…not quite.
Even when he held Nathalia late at night, when she was beside him in bed and he could feel the soft beat of her heart, he worried he’d lose her.
Because he was a monster, too. And no matter what that crap in storybooks said, Beauty didn’t want to spend her life shacked up with the Beast.
She wasn’t looking at him now. Just staring out the window with her shoulders slumped. “When I…first found out about the Other-”
He winced. That had been a brutal introduction, and just thinking about the attack she’d suffered made him want to kill .
“-I thought all supernaturals were evil. Even though Gyth saved my ass, my head-” She glanced back at him and McNeal thought he managed to wipe the desperation from his face. “-it was all messed up.”
An attack by a psycho could do that to a woman.
“It’s okay.” His voice sounded gruff. He hadn’t planned that. He’d wanted to sound soft and comforting, but his voice was always like gravel. “You don’t have to-”
“That girl-Kim. When I saw her, I didn’t think about her being human or Other. I just saw a victim.”
Because that’s what the girl was.
“Monsters, humans-we’re all a tangled mess, just trying to survive.” Her eyes held his. “And I’m not afraid anymore, Danny. I’m not afraid .”
That cracking was his heart. Breaking-no, bursting, because dammit, he loved her. A woman who’d walked through hell, but could still understand the monsters.
He walked to her, slowly, even though he knew she wouldn’t frighten off. “You don’t need to be afraid anymore.” He’d never let her be in danger. Never.
“But others do. Kim. Holly Storm. They have to be careful.” She turned fully to face him. “This killer is smart and she’s good.”
She’d sure managed to clear out of that house fast. Gyth and the crime scene guys had been poring over that place and they’d found jack shit. A guy with a nose like Gyth’s wouldn’t miss anything.
Which meant there was nothing to find.
And it meant they had three dead bodies.
And one live victim.
Thanks to the demon king of the city. Owing that guy stuck in McNeal’s throat, but he’d make sure he paid his debt.
McNeal always paid his debts.
After the killer was caught, and he would catch the slicer, he’d handle Niol.
Her eyes were grainy from crying. Because, yeah, she’d cried like a baby when she’d been in that ambulance with Kim. Cried and prayed-prayed like she hadn’t prayed in years -and used every bit of her strength to will Kim to live.
And so far, she had.
So far.
Holly climbed from Niol’s SUV, her knees shaking and her calves trembling. Her stomach was one hard knot. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten and she just wanted to crawl inside and wash away the blood staining her fingers.
Just wash it away.
“Holly…”
Niol’s voice. Tense.
She didn’t stop walking. She didn’t know what to say to him then. The guy confused her too much. She wanted him. She needed him and-
And if she wasn’t careful, she’d lose her heart to him.
Because she knew Niol wasn’t the staying kind. Or the loving kind. He’d warned her of that, himself.
Her steps were heavy on the sidewalk. She wasn’t paying attention to-
“Holly?” Not Niol’s voice. Feminine. High. Screech-level.
Her head lifted. Her gaze searched the darkness and saw the figure standing on her porch.
Mom?
Oh, damn.
“Tried to tell you.” Now Niol was talking. Quiet. Whisper-like. “We aren’t alone.”
Her mom was there. Since when did her mom pay her late-night visits? Or any visits?
Click. Click. Click. Her mother’s shoes on the steps. “I’ve been waiting here for hours, Holly Ann Storm. Hours. I called your cell at least a dozen times and you couldn’t be bothered to answer.”
She’d had to turn the cell off in the hospital. Frowning, she dug around in her purse and, after a moment, felt the cool touch of the phone. Forgot to turn it back on.