Blade Song - By J.C. Daniels Page 0,48
calling me baby girl, asshole.”
Sidestepping away, I jerked the door open. It slammed into his midsection. He grunted a little and I smiled as I wiggled into the car through the narrow opening. “We need to get going. I want to go by my place and pack a bag.”
Somehow, I didn’t think we’d find all the answers we needed in a couple of hours.
Ninety minutes into the drive, the phone rang.
The ringtone was Aerosmith’s Crying. An old classic. I used to love the song, then I made the bad mistake of programming it for any and all numbers associated with Jude.
Sighing, I put it on speaker. Since Damon would hear the conversation anyway, I might as well keep my hands on the wheel. That way I wouldn’t have to fight with him for control of the damn phone if he decided to join in on the conversation as he’d tried to do several times.
Bad enough on city streets but when I speeding down the interstate at over ninety miles an hour? Even worse.
“Colbana,” I said.
“Kit…”
Jude. He’d deigned to call me himself. Wow. Wasn’t I special?
His voice rolled over me like a hand sheathed in a silk glove and I hated the fact that goose bumps broke across my skin.
“Hello, Jude, bane of my existence,” I said sourly.
“Darling Kit, the sweet nothings you whisper to me…I treasure each and every one.”
“Oh, bite me.” Then I snapped my mouth shut and mentally swore.
Next to me, Damon closed his eyes and shook his head.
On the phone, Jude laughed. “Kit, I count the days until I do just that. Tell me…is that miserable bodyguard of yours there? I hear another person breathing.”
“What do you want, leech?” Damon said, his voice flat.
“Pleasant as always,” Jude murmured. “Are you taking care of my Kit, Damon?”
“I’m seeing that a contracted employee of the Cats stays safe.” He shot me a narrow look. “I couldn’t care less about taking care of anything of yours.”
Ouch. “As much as I love being talked about like I’m a toy or something, can we please not? Jude, what do you want?”
“I sent Evangeline to your office to speak with you, but you weren’t there.”
“I’m often not there.” I cut around a truck and arrowed back into the right lane. “My job involves me leaving the office a lot.”
“But I don’t feel you so strongly…”
I hissed as I felt that whisper in the back of my mind. Faint. Very faint. But there. “How can I protect you when you don’t let me know you are leaving…?”
I wanted to snarl at him. Wanted to hang up the damn phone and tell him not to call. To stay out of my damned head.
But Damon was staring at me oddly and Jude was talking—
“Are you going to be back in the office today? I had information about the upcoming job,” he said, his voice cool, polite. So very Jude.
“No. I’m out of town, probably for a few days.”
“Where?” Out loud, he said, “When can I anticipate your return? I need to get this information to you.”
Blowing out a breath, I said, “I’m following up a lead I received on earlier about my current job. I’m not going to be available for your case for a while yet, so Angie is just going to have keep her britches on.”
“You’re going south…very well. I’ll keep watch.”
I curled my lip and disconnected the call.
“He seems a little too protective of you,” Damon said.
“I’ve noticed,” I said dryly. And you have no clue.
“Why is that?”
“Apparently he finds me as amusing you find me irritating.”
“Not possible,” he muttered, settling low in his seat and blowing out a sigh. “Not possible at all.”
Chapter Eleven
The outer house of the Green Road met at a ramshackle old place that looked like it had been built to withstand hurricanes, wild witchcraft and werecreatures of all kinds.
And it looked like it had done all of those things and more.
I slid my sword into my sheath before I started toward the house.
“You think they’ll let you take that in there?”
“Yep.”
The disbelieving look in eyes was enough to have me biting back a laugh.
“The Green Road witches are crazier than most of them,” he said, keeping his voice low. “They only allow combat if you’re one of their warrior-trained ones, and everybody else is expected to be a pacifist. You carrying a blade in there is practically a declaration of war.”
“Really?”
He dragged his hands up and down over his face. “You just like seeing me have to fight