“Gee, thanks.”
His eyes opened again. “I’ve seen her . . . pick up on stuff. It affects her physically. And somehow, I swear to you, she just knows when shit happens.”
It was Ann’s turn to look away. “Maybe she knows because she takes part in some way. No, I’m not saying Gaby is bad. I wouldn’t. There’s something about her . . . ”
“The same something that draws you to Mort?”
“Maybe.”
“But only after his involvement with Gaby. I saw him before that, Ann, and I swear, you’d have felt nothing but pity for him.” He let out a long breath. “You’ve seen the change in Bliss, right?”
Ann smiled. “She’s a darling girl. It breaks my heart to think of anyone abusing her. Somewhere she has a family who threw her away. Their loss.”
“Bliss is bright and cheerful and she’s getting her life together—because of Gaby.”
“How did they meet?”
Luther smiled, though the first acknowledgment of the tale had filled him with rage, both at Gaby’s audacity and the danger she’d put herself in. “Gaby saw a guy abusing Bliss, and she stopped him.”
“Dare I ask how?”
He shrugged. “Nothing worse than what you’re already imagining. She sank her knife into his shoulder and then threatened to castrate him if he ever again hurt a woman.”
“Wow.” Ann took a moment to assimilate that, then she, too, shrugged. “Effective.”
“Gaby does what we’d like to do. And somehow she always gets away with it. But that particular time, she’d only happened onto the conflict. She hadn’t . . . ” He refused to say she hadn’t been summoned. “She didn’t have any intuition or anything. She was strolling with Mort and saw what was happening.”
“Mort was in on this?”
“If you haven’t already figured it out, Mort always covers for Gaby. They have a special bond of sorts.” Luther studied Ann. “And Mort is a better man for it.”
“Maybe.” Ann flattened her mouth in consideration. “She does seem to inspire him to improve himself. Not that I approve of her methods—”
“Insulting him with ease.”
“Yes. But Mort cares deeply for her.” She tipped her head. “As do you.”
No longer in denial, Luther just nodded. “As do I.”
“So that brings us back around to where we started. How do you think you’re going to work a relationship with Gaby when you’re still a cop, and she gets on the wrong side of the law with alarming regularity?”
Unwilling to share all of Gaby’s secrets, Luther didn’t mention his affect on her perception of evil. Gaby detested any form of softness or weakness, and she wouldn’t want others to know how his nearness blunted her ability to focus on malignant immorality.
But if he could keep her near enough to him, if he could get her to trust him, then maybe they could work together. Gaby would point him in the right direction, and he would handle things for her—within the boundaries of the legal system.
He said only, “I have a few ideas.”
“That you won’t share?”
“Not yet.” Time to quit stalling. Getting his sack of purchases from the floor of the car, Luther opened the door and got out. He didn’t want to acknowledge the dark windows and apparent emptiness of his house. “Just know that I’m on it, okay? I won’t let you get caught in the backlash, I promise.”
Bending to see Luther through the open door, Ann huffed out a breath. “I’m here if you need me, Luther. I have a feeling that this is going to be an uphill battle all the way.”
Luther knew she was right, just as he had known all day that Gaby wouldn’t be there when he returned.
And still he’d held out hope.
After checking the entire house and the backyard, he went in, slammed the door, and threw the bag on the kitchen counter. Purchases spilled out, including two videos and a boxed cell phone with extra charging cords.
It was only eight o’clock. Not late, but later than he’d intended for his return. Had Gaby been here, and then left? Or had she been out and about, doing God only knew what, all day long?
He’d called her at least a dozen times, but she hadn’t answered at the house, and she didn’t have a cell phone.
That’s why he’d stopped on his way home and bought her one. She’d be pissed, but for him, it was like a leash, a way to stay in touch with her for his own peace of mind. If she liked it half as much as she liked the digital music player, she’d carry it with her always.
The two popular horror movies had been an impulse buy. He figured they would entertain her.
For certain, he wasn’t enough to do the job.
His head hurt and his guts cramped. He needed to get a handle on himself before she got in.
She would return tonight.
She had to.
He needed her to come back to him.
Hands fisted, Luther went upstairs for a shower. When he saw the closed door to the room Gaby had commandeered, he hesitated.
But if he so much as stuck a toe in there, she’d know it. Then what little headway he’d made would be shattered, and he’d have to start all over with her.
Storming past the room, he went into his bedroom, threw off his clothes with an uncharacteristic lack of concern, and turned on the shower in the bathroom. The evening was cool enough that steam immediately fogged the air.
Luther stepped under the spray, hoping it would help to dissipate his disgust.
Praying it would help to ease the awful gnawing worry.
A fucking bloodsucker.
That’s what Gaby had claimed, and of course she was right—as always. Some sick fucks were playing vampire, preying on the innocent and . . .
He squeezed his eyes shut. God, to even think it made him feel foul. He’d seen a lot in his lifetime, but now, knowing Gaby’s involvement, it all felt worse, more dangerous. Scarier.
How could he keep her safe, from herself and her warped sense of duty, if she wouldn’t even give in enough to be at his house when he got home?
Head back, Luther let the hot water pound on his skin, easing his cramped muscles but not doing shit for his oppressive mood.
Come home, Gaby.
But she didn’t miraculously appear.
And Luther accepted that it was going to be a very long night.
Staying in the shadows, Gaby kept hidden until it was time for Sin Addictions to close. At nine o’clock, the daylight had long faded, aided by the ominous storm clouds that skirted an eerie half-moon. The wretched chill in the air would bring gooseflesh to most, but not to Gaby.
Her honed senses had fashioned a hermetic shield against mundane matters.
This place was her only lead, the only clue she could follow. One way or another, she would protect the child that Bliss saw in her vision and that Gaby had produced in her novel.
In a small, secret, pathetically wimpy and female part of her, she wished she had Luther with her. But that was an impossibility. His presence fucked with her instincts in a big way, and as much as she wanted him, she couldn’t risk that.
She had to move forward with care. Demanding particulars on cannibalism would only alert the fruitcakes to her involvement. If that happened, they might scuttle off to places unknown, possibly out of her reach, to carry out their sick plans unhindered.
She’d die before she let that happen.
Her eyes burned as she stared at the shadows through the closed shades over the big front window. When the light in that room went out, Gaby slipped around to the back entrance. A young man came out, laughing at a comment said by someone unseen. He had tattoos everywhere, including his shaved head.
He wasn’t the one Gaby wanted.
She made no move to detain him as he got on a motorcycle and drove away.
Hell of a night to be on a bike, Gaby thought, watching without concern as taillights faded into the foggy darkness and the rumble of the engine grew dim.