“When will I see you again?”
“You won’t…unless we’re at one of those hideous Valkyrie parties or I’m kicking your ass.” She pulled away from him and snatched his front door open, stumbling out into the hallway.
Neecy turned around and glared at him. “And remember our agreement, Yager.”
“Right. Twenty-‐four hours and you go. That was our agreement.”
“And we never discuss this again, we never meet again, and you stop looking at me that way you have…which you’re doing right now!”
“I didn’t agree to that.”
Neecy stared at him. “Yes you did.”
“No. I didn’t. We shook on the twenty-‐four hours. You mentioned these bullshit rules after we shook hands. All I did was shrug. I didn’t agree to anything. It’s not my fault you didn’t confirm the terms of our agreement.”
He wasn’t sure, but it looked like Neecy’s head just might blow off her body at any moment. Man, he’d pissed her off good, now didn’t he? A woman who didn’t get angry was suddenly seething. And dammit if she wasn’t cute even pissed.
“You lying sack of motherfuckin’ shit!” she bit out between clenched teeth. Of course, he could do without the name calling.
Yager glanced over his shoulder when his phone rang. “That must be Molinski. I gotta go.” He looked down into Neecy’s pretty face. “I’ll call you tonight, baby.”
“No! You will not call me tonight!”
Yager closed his front door. He couldn’t stop smiling. Because the woman had absolutely no idea what she’d gotten herself into.
Neecy stared at the closed door. That tricky, Odin-loving bastard! If he thought he could walk all over her, he was insane.
Neecy banged her fist against the door. “Open up, you lying prick!”
This wasn’t over.
Mike Molinski heard the yelling before the elevator doors opened. Although he would be eternally surprised to see who was behind it.
“Open this door, you lying sack of shit!”
Nice mouth on this one . Mike shook his head as he ambled down the hallway.
He’d known girls like the Crows in his old neighborhood. Girls he learned never to turn his back on.
Although Neecy Lawrence seemed much more dangerous than that. The quiet ones always were. While other neighborhood girls screamed and announced their plans, giving a person time to make a run for it, Neecy was all about the silent attack. Like one of those drug dealer–owned pit bulls with their vocal chords cut.
As he got closer, she finally kicked the door, turned, and stormed past him. He watched her walk by, fascinated by a grown woman muttering to herself like a psychiatric patient.
He wasn’t even sure she actually saw him, until she got right next to him. Then those black eyes nailed him with one look. “What the fuck you lookin’ at?”
Mike learned a long time ago never to answer that question.
Instead he went to Yager’s door and stuck the key in the lock. As he opened it, he saw Neecy Lawrence step in the elevator. As the doors slid closed, he could see her kicking the elevator walls.
Stepping into Yager’s apartment, “Hey, Yager. You here?”
“Bathroom.”
Mike walked into Yager’s master bathroom to find his mentor soaking in a steaming hot tub of water. “Feelin’ better?”
“Much.”
The man did look better. Calmer. Kind of happy. Yager never really looked happy. Polite. Friendly. When motivated, charming. But never happy. Until now.
And he definitely looked satisfied.
“I see you pissed Neecy Lawrence off.”
Yager, his head back against the rim of the enormous tub, shrugged those massive shoulders. “Probably.”
“That’s a major coup, pissing that cold female off.” Mike scratched his neck, walking back toward the door. “Of course, that’s what I was thinking before I noticed she was wearing the sweater I gave you two Christmases ago. You’ve been fucking her since yesterday, haven’t you?”
Not bothering to wait for an answer, he headed toward the kitchen and a glass of orange juice as Yager angrily questioned Mr. and Mrs. Molinski’s marriage status when Mike was born.
Chapter Eight
Neecy pulled off her helmet and headed toward the house. She usually only used her sport bike in the summer time, but it hadn’t started snowing yet and she needed the cold January air to control her almost overwhelming rage.
He tricked her…but why? What exactly did he want from her? A repeat of last night? No way.
Of course, as quickly as she thought “no way,” she remembered the feel of his mouth on her pussy and her entire body clenched with need.
Damn him! He did this to her, and she would never, ever forgive him!
She reached to open the front door, but someone snatched it open from the inside.
Neecy looked into the sweet, but always-‐expecting-‐the-‐worst, face of Arri Chang—one of the most nervous Crows Neecy had ever known. Arri had already died once. What could she be worrying about now?
“Hey, Arri.”
“Where have you been?”
To heaven . “In hell. Why?”
“I’m just glad you’re here,” she sighed.
Poor Arri. No matter what she did, she was having the hardest time fitting in with the other Crows. Neecy did her best to make her feel at home, but the rest was up to Arri and the girl was really struggling. Of course, it might help if her hair wasn’t fuchsia. She dyed that shoulder-‐length mess the oddest colors.
“Lawrence,” Didi called from the living room. “Is that you?”
“Yeah.”
“Well get your big ass in here.”
Big ass? Bitch.
Neecy looked at Arri. “When we’re done here, I wanna talk to you for a few minutes.”
“Why? What did I do?”
Rubbing Arri’s shoulder, she chuckled. “Nothing. Calm down.”
Arri braved a little smile as Neecy put her arm around her shoulders and walked with the kid into the living room. All the Jersey Crows were there and well into the middle of Didi’s meeting. Gee, nothing like waiting for their second in command.
“So what did they look like,” Didi asked as Neecy dropped her backpack and shrugged out of her jacket.
Delia’s crew looked at each other. “They were white guys,” Delia offered. “Just average white guys.”
“How is that helpful to me?”
Neecy looked around and suddenly noticed Rachel’s tightly bandaged shoulder; her pretty but pale face. The bandage not only locked her arm against her body, it covered her back. Which meant only one thing. Someone or something had wounded her wing. The only way to get a wing to heal on one of them or the Ravens was to keep it tucked inside their body for several days. Usually a few rune spells were enlisted as well, depending on how bad the wound. “What’s going on?”
Didi nodded toward Rachel. “Hunters.”
At that moment, Neecy felt raw almost overwhelming hate well up in her system. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” she spit out between clenched teeth.
“Hunters?” Arri squeaked out.
Didi glanced at Arri. Of all the Crows, for some unknown reason, Didi had very little patience for the pint-‐sized girl. “Every few decades some asshole Hunters find out about our existence and decide to come after us. Usually the very wealthy and the very well connected looking for new and more exciting prey.”
“It must be something about having Crows wings over their fireplace that really give these idiots hard-‐ons,” Janelle added.