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THIRTY-EIGHT
MAX BROKE HIS SILENCE ONLY AFTER BONES let me up from his kiss. He raked me with a glance and then smiled. Chillingly.
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Do you believe that, little girl? I do. You and I will have our day, mark my words.”
“Is he threatening her?” Bones asked Ian with a cold pleasantness as I met my father’s steely gaze. “Perhaps you need to remind him that anyone who comes after my wife-or anyone belonging to her, such as her uncle-is in fact declaring war on me as well. Is that your position, Ian? Does he speak for you?”
Ian gave Max a truly menacing glare. “No he does not, and he has nothing else to say on the matter. Do you, Max?”
Max gave a glance around at all of Bones’s people, who were watching him with threat as well.
“No, I have nothing else to say about that,” he replied in a tone that said he’d have plenty to say under other circumstances. “But I do have something to say about her mother.” He fixed his eyes back to me. “You’ve been misinformed. I fucked her, oh yes. But I didn’t rape her.”
Bones tightened his grip on me, sensing I was about to explode. Ian saw it as well.
“You gave up your chance, Cat, and it works both ways. Max is mine and under my protection. If you lay a hand on him, it’s an act of war.”
I got ahold of myself. Another time, another place. Not here where it would turn into a bloodbath between Bones and Ian’s people.
“You’ve probably raped so many women that you don’t even remember who she was,” I settled on evenly.
Max smiled. “You never forget your first, and she was my first after I’d been changed. She was a beautiful brunette with big blue eyes and nice round tits. So young and eager. So fresh. I had such a great time fucking her in the backseat of that car, and the only time she objected was after I was done. She opened her eyes, saw mine glowing green, saw my fangs…and started to scream her head off. Started to cry, too. Just bawled hysterically and said I was a hell spawn or something like that. It was fu
“Liar,” I spat.
His smile turned cruelly knowing. “Ask her.”
Max was obviously capable of lying. Anyone who could conspire to murder his own daughter wouldn’t be above lying his ass off if he wanted to, but somehow…somehow…I wasn’t sure if he was lying now. My mother had vehemently stated from as far back as I could remember that all vampires were demons. I’d thought it was just a general term of repugnance, but maybe there was more to it than that. If Max had told her he was a demon, that all vampires were, it would certainly explain her mixed feelings toward me as well as her outright refusal to consider vampires as anything but evil.
“You remember her mum that distinctly, do you?” Bones asked in a conversational tone while I wrestled with this.
Max didn’t lose that hateful smirk. “Isn’t that what I just said?”
“What was her name?” Again, blandly.
“Justina Crawfield!” Max snapped. “Going to ask me what color panties she wore next?”
Bones suddenly smiled, but it was far from pleasant. “When Ian figured out you were her father, I also wager he mentioned that she very much wanted you dead. Scared the stones off you, didn’t it? Finding out someone strong enough to get the drop on him was coming after you. You remembered her mum-clearly, as you’ve proven-and it would have been simplicity itself to look up the name of the child she’d given birth to all those years ago. You gave that information to a hit man named Lazarus, didn’t you? Had him murder that couple in her old house to draw her out, yet even when she walked into his trap, he didn’t succeed in killing her. You must have been really scared then, so you decided to go after her through the one source you had. Your brother. You knew he’d sent her after Ian, who else would have, and so you dug around until you found a mole in his operation. One who could give another hit man her location and more importantly, her weaknesses. Good plan, mate, but I’m here to inform you that your little rodent and his accomplice have been exterminated.”
“You prick!” I gasped, seeing it all fall into place.
“What’s this?” Ian asked suspiciously.
“Max found her long before I did, but he kept that to himself. He’s been going behind your back for months, Ian, trying to murder her to protect his own miserable arse. Not very loyal of him, is it?”
“I don’t know what he’s talking about!” Max insisted.
I stared at the man who was my father and knew that now, unequivocally, he was lying. Ian wore a look on his face that said he knew it, too.
“You have any proof of this, Crispin?”
No one was fooled by his cool demeanor. Ian’s eyes had gone flat green.
Bones nodded. “I have copies of bank records and transactions from the most recent attempt. Stupid sod used a personal account to pay the informant at her uncle’s operation, and I reckon if you look, you’ll find that account can be traced to Max. You’ll also no doubt find another large transfer of funds in April, when the people living in her old house were murdered.”
Ian whitened around the lips. I gri
“Uh oh. Looks like someone’s in trouble.”
Granted, it wasn’t his head on a stake, but from Ian’s expression, Max might soon be wishing I’d chosen to kill him earlier instead.
Ian gave Bones a last, long look, and then he turned away, gesturing curtly for Max to follow him.
“Hey Max,” I called out as he stalked after Ian. “Watch your back. You never know when someone might stick a knife in it.”
I saw his shoulders tense, but he didn’t turn around. He went right through those big double doors and then was gone. I’ll see you again, I promised him silently. I know who you are now, and you can run, but you can’t hide.
Perhaps my greatest shock was when the other vampires began to disperse as well, without even so much as a muttered threat among them. Guess they were taking Bones’s warning seriously that anyone starting trouble with me would get a piece of him and his people, too.
Spade made his way down to the arena to give Bones an affectionate slap on the back.
“Bloody hell, mate. You a married man? Now I’ve seen it all.”
The tension visibly drained from him as he smiled at his friend. “Charles,” he said, calling him by his human name. “I believe we’re in need of a lift.”
We hitched a ride with Spade, who drove us to the airstrip where the same helicopter that had brought me here would now take all of us back to the warehouse. Once we got there, Bones let Ian’s six men loose and told them they were free to go. They looked stu
When we arrived, the five of us went straight to Don’s office. My uncle’s forehead creased in what might have been embarrassment, and he quickly ceased his examination of my attire. Oh yeah. I’d forgotten I was barely dressed.
“Uh, Cat, would you like a lab coat or…something?”
Bones took off his jacket. “Here, luv, put this on before your uncle turns red. Best do that anyway, since I’m about to flog Juan for trying to memorize every curve of your arse.”
I took the proffered coat and glared at Juan pointedly. He smiled, unrepentant as always.