He kissed me, long and searching. Then he pulled away with a noise of resignation. “We need to get out of here, luv. Soon someone will stumble across us.”

Yeah, and with a dead body across the parking lot, if it was a police officer, we’d get charged with a whole lot more than indecent exposure.

“Bones.” I paused. Okay, I had no right to ask, since I’d dumped him and given him written instructions to get on with his life. But I couldn’t stop myself. “I’ll say the same thing, it doesn’t matter, but…what about you? I’d rather know than wonder.”

He met my eyes squarely. “Once. Close enough to count. I’m not going to be all Clinton about it and call it by a different name. After Chicago, when I left you that watch but you didn’t come to me, I was very out of sorts. Thought perhaps you’d truly forgotten me, or didn’t care. At the same time, an old lover of mine was in town. She invited me to her room, and I went.”

He stopped at that, but I couldn’t let it go. How typical of me.

“And then?”

Even though his gaze didn’t waver, his expression tightened. “She and I were in bed, I’d tasted her, and then I stopped before it went further. I’d been imagining she was you, and I couldn’t pretend any longer. So I apologized and left.”

Tasted her. I knew he wasn’t referring to feeding. Scalding jealousy filled me, and I closed my eyes against the mental image of his mouth on another woman in that way.

“It doesn’t matter,” I managed to say, and I meant it. But, oh God, it still hurt.

“I’m sorry,” he said. I could hear the remorse staining his voice. “I should have never allowed it to go that far. I was angry, lonely, and feeling rather entitled. Not an honorable combination.”

I opened my eyes. The moon was in white relief against the night sky, and its rays seemed to make Bones’s skin glow.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said again, with more strength this time. “And for the record, I didn’t find out about that watch until after the fact. I’m not saying I would have run off with you had I found it sooner, but-I would have pressed that button. I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself.”

He smiled. Seeing it eased some of the hurt from his earlier confession. “I’ve never been able to stop myself either when it comes to you, Kitten. But we really do need to leave now.”

I cleared my throat. “Um, on foot?”

“No,” he snorted as he pulled up his pants. “The faster way.”

“I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me you could fly,” I complained. “I can think of a few times back in Ohio when it would have saved me some gas money!”

“I didn’t tell you about it back then because I was afraid to show you even more ways that I wasn’t like a normal man.”

Considering my many prejudices at the time, it was hard for me to blame him for such caution. “Can you also leap tall buildings in a single bound?” I asked after a pause.

He enfolded his arms around me, breath from his laughter tickling my neck. “We’ll try that tomorrow night.”

I nodded at the dead hit man across the parking lot. “What are we doing with him?”

“Leaving him. I’m sure your blokes will come along soon enough, so he’s their problem. We’re going back to my house to find out who employed the late Ellis Pierson.”

His arms tightened, and there was expulsion of air as he vaulted upward like his feet had invisible rockets. This time I didn’t squeeze my eyes shut, but I welded myself to him as the distance grew between us and the streets below.

“You don’t ever crash, do you?” I managed to ask breathlessly.

He chuckled, the sound snatched away by the wind.

“Not lately.”

TWENTY-TWO

BONES HAD LEFT HIS LAPTOP AND OTHER POSSIBLE incriminating information back at the house he was renting, which is where we went. For another piece of luck, his cell phone was safely inside the leather coat he still wore. We wouldn’t go back to my house anymore, for obvious reasons. With how much of a rush the mysterious source behind the attempt on my life was in, there could be another hit man waiting for me. I’d have to send someone else over to feed my cat for the next day or so.

Once we were safely inside the house and I could concentrate on more than “Eek, too high, too fast!” my mind spun with possibilities.

“Do you think Ian was behind the hit man?”

“Not a chance,” Bones said without hesitation. “Ian wants you alive so he can add you to his collection. Be a bit hard to do that if your head was in pieces.”

I remembered those three tight-knit holes in the window. “How did you know to knock me out of the way?”

“I heard the shots go off. He didn’t use a silencer.”

My head had been less than four feet away from the window at the time. Holy shit, he’d moved fast.

He read my look. “Not fast enough. One touched your skin. That’s far too slow for me.”

I gave a humorless chuckle. “That’s faster than I even knew was possible. And the flying trick blew me away as well. Still, we can never go back to that restaurant again. You destroyed the place and didn’t even pay for our wine.”

“We both know what it has to be, Kitten,” Bones said, ignoring that. “Obviously Don decided not to trust you.”

I thought it over, and then shook my head.

“It’s not Don. It doesn’t make sense. Ellis said that he had originally been given the contract a week ago. That means the hit was planned before anyone knew you came into my life. Don had no reason to want me dead then. I was playing by all his rules.”

Bones got up and began to pace. “You’re right. I’m still so bloomin’ unsettled about almost wearing your brains, I’m not thinking clearly. Right then, Don looks clean. Perhaps. But then that means that there’s a traitor at your compound. This isn’t just some random contract by an undead bloke who wants the mysterious Red Reaper eliminated. This is someone who’s privy to who you are, what you are, and your whereabouts. How many people does that equate to?”

Reflectively, I rubbed the wound near my hairline. “My entire unit, Don’s scientists, some of the guards…about a hundred people.”

He frowned. “That’s a large number of suspects, and that means it won’t take Ian long to pick up on you, either. I’ll have to pay a visit to your work. Sniff out the potential Judases one by one.”

“Bones.” I marched over to him. “You don’t understand. That place is heavily armed and heavily guarded. I should know, I helped design the security! There are only two ways a vampire can get inside the compound without a massive bloodbath. One way is shriveled. They store those vampires on ice for study. The other way is nearly as unpleasant-pronged with silver near the heart and transported inside our capsule. We keep those vampires alive for their blood to supply the Brams. That’s it. End of story.”

Instead of being discouraged, he tapped his finger on his chin and then picked up his cell and dialed.

“Yes, thank you, I’ll hold…Right, one large pizza, extra cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms. Two liters of Coke also. Um hmm, cash. Forty minutes? Here’s the address…”

When he hung up, I blinked at him in confusion. “Is that code for something?”

He laughed. “Yeah, it’s code. For a large pizza and soda. You never did have a bite to eat, and we can’t have you starving on me. Don’t fret; it’s all for you. As you know, I’m full. Now tell me about this capsule.”

“This is the worst idea you’ve ever had.”

My jaw ached from grinding my teeth. I was practically hoarse from arguing, but Bones was unperturbed.

“This is the only way I can get within sniffing distance of whoever’s trying to take you out. If they’re a vampire or ghoul’s lackey, I’ll smell it on them. Or they’ll try to run, or stink like fear. Either way, we’ll know.”