“I hope you brought her home as Thorn said you would.”
Darius’s lips thinned for a moment. “She refused my aid, but I followed her nonetheless and made sure she arrived safe and sound.”
“Everyone should know about the Dark.”
Darius nodded in reply. He watched her as she ate. It would normally have made Lexi feel self-conscious, but she was too hungry to care.
“How do you kill one?” she asked offhandedly, hoping he would take the bait and tell her without thinking.
“Nice try, lass.”
Lexi put down the chip she had been about to eat. Her stomach was suddenly too full to even look at the food. “I’m not going to go after them here, but what if they’re in South Carolina? What if I walk out my door and there’s one standing there?”
“Then you’re in trouble.”
“So I can’t kill one?”
He set down his food and leaned back in the chair. “Nay. I saw you withstand their pull, but how long could you hold out? You would have to get close in order to kill one.”
“And you don’t think I can ignore their pull.”
A thick blond brow rose in his forehead. “Have you seen a woman succumb to them?”
“No.” And she didn’t want to.
“I think if you did, you might rethink things.”
Lexi rolled her eyes. “I’m just a fragile female, right?”
“I’ve seen women tougher than men,” Darius said, his voice lowered with a hint of annoyance. “Your sex has nothing to do with your weakness. The Dark prey on humans for a reason. Your kind are drawn to them.”
Your kind. What was that supposed to mean?
Before Lexi could ask, the door opened and Thorn filled the entrance. He halted when his gaze landed on her. She shifted in her seat and ran a hand over her hair to make sure nothing was sticking up.
Thorn’s face was pulled tight, as if he were trying hard to control some emotion. He jerked his head away and closed the door.
“Better?” Darius asked him.
Thorn grunted in response.
Lexi frowned and rose to get something to drink. She checked the fridge and got a bottle of water as she considered Thorn’s remark, or lack of one.
In all the time she had been alone with him he had been easygoing, his voice calm and even. Now he looked as if he were stretched thin, as if every nerve ending was on fire.
“What do you do back in South Carolina?” Darius asked her when the silence stretched for too long.
Lexi returned to her seat, putting her between Thorn and Darius at the round table. “I’m a masseuse. I work for a spa in Charleston near one of the B&Bs known for its romantic location. We get a lot of couples coming in for a massage.”
“You make a good living?”
“I do. I’m one of the senior masseuses, so I can set my own hours. I have loyal clients who come in every couple weeks on a constant rotation.”
Darius nodded in appreciation. “What brought you to Scotland?”
“Jessica,” she replied with a smile. “We all had destinations in Europe that we wanted to see. We pooled our money together and took three weeks off.”
“Sounds like fun. Tell me of your friends,” Darius urged.
She really didn’t think he was interested, but the more they talked, the more relaxed Thorn became. So Lexi kept talking. “Jessica’s family is obscenely wealthy. She doesn’t have to work, but to her mother’s horror, she got a job at the spa with me doing facials.” Lexi laughed as she remembered it. “Jessica is part of Charleston high society, so for her to be working for her mother’s friends doing facials was shocking.”
“I can imagine,” Darius said, a hint of a smile poking through.
“Then there is Crystal, whose family is on the fringes of high society. They make really good money. Her father owns a construction company.” Lexi paused for a moment, her smile dying as her thoughts turned to Christina. “Christina ran with the same crowd as Jessica and Crystal. Her parents are surgeons.”
She drank her water and saw that both of the men were watching her. Lexi licked her lips and set aside her drink. “Crystal dreamed of seeing Paris. Christina wanted to see Venice.”
“What did you want to see?” Thorn asked.
Lexi looked into his dark brown eyes and shrugged. “I was so happy to be getting out of Charleston that I didn’t care. I chose London since it was close to Paris and not that far from Scotland. We had three amazing weeks in Europe. We were flying out of Edinburgh in just days.”
Darius grabbed a handful of chips and ate them one by one. “How did you meet your friends?”
“I worked at the country club as a waitress my senior year of high school. I still don’t know why Christina befriended me, but as soon as she began talking to me, so did Jessica and Crystal. We all went to college together and stayed in a house Crystal’s parents owned.”
Lexi ducked her head. “The only way I was able to afford college is because I didn’t have to pay rent. Her parents took care of the utilities and kept the kitchen stocked with food. I wasn’t part of their social class, but they all took me in as if I was. I owe them so much.”
“Friends like that are rare,” Darius said.
It didn’t go unnoticed by Lexi that neither man asked about her family. She tore off a piece of fish and ate it. “I’m a fair hand at drawing. If I can draw Christina’s killer, will you find him for me? I owe it to her and her family to have her murderer brought to justice.”
Darius wiped his hands on a napkin. “It’ll be our justice, Lexi, no’ the authorities’.”
“I’m just fine with that.”
“We’ll find him,” Thorn said. “No matter how long it takes.”
Lexi knew that he would. Thorn was that kind of man. The kind like back in history who when he gave his word, he wouldn’t go back on it. Thorn had just given her his word, and she was able to breathe easier knowing it.
“Tell us about being a masseuse,” Darius urged.
She looked from Thorn to Darius. “You both have gone out of your way not to ask about my family.”
Darius lowered his gaze. Only Thorn kept eye contact.
“Do you already know?” she asked.
His chest expanded as he inhaled and then slowly released it. “Nay.”
“Now you’re lying.”
Thorn clenched his jaw. “I know you doona have family. I doona know more than that.”
“That’s right. I don’t have any family. It’s been like that for so long that I’ve gotten used to it.” Now who’s lying, Lexi?
Thorn and Darius waited silently for her to tell them however much she wanted to divulge. Everyone who mattered in Charleston knew of it, so she never had to speak the words. In college, no one had been important enough to share such a thing with.
Why then was it different now?
Lexi sighed and leaned her head back against the chair. “I was an only child. My parents’ marriage was rocky, at best. My father was a hardworking man who only wanted to give his family all that he could. My mother was an alcoholic. Despite that, my father stuck by her because he loved her deeply. I wish she could’ve seen his suffering.”
An image of her parents filled her mind. “We were at a New Year’s Eve party. It was my junior year, and I had turned seventeen two months before. My boyfriend dumped me before Christmas, so I was miserable. I didn’t want to spend the holiday at home alone so my father talked me into going with them. I actually had a good time.”
Thorn’s lips softened into a smile when she glanced at him.
Lexi lifted her head and continued. “We thought we were watching how much Mom had to drink, but she was sneaking drinks when we weren’t looking. As soon as we broke the New Year, we put her in the car and headed home.”
She stopped, the pain of it still hurting after all these years.
Thorn put his hand atop hers and squeezed.
Lexi slid her gaze to him and drew in a shaky breath. “Dad had driven her home so many times. Even I had. She always sat in her seat singing or laughing. I don’t know what made her reach over and jerk the steering wheel into oncoming traffic that night. I can still hear the crunch of metal.”