on the phone tonight,” he recalled carefully. “Something I didn’t tell Paige.”
She frowned and cast another curious glance at her mate. She wasn’t certain what the subject was, but she sensed it wasn’t good. Reaching out with her right hand, she caressed his left cheek with her fingertips. “You can tell me, my love,” she encouraged. “Perhaps I can help.”
He swallowed, glanced at her, and looked out through the passenger side window at the darkness permeating the glow of the street lamps. “Gil told his friend that he thinks Paige is ’carrying a torch’ for someone else. He was pretty upset about that. He said as much to me at the bar the other day, but I tried to reassure him that wasn’t the case. I told him that she and I were just close friends, like family, and that I didn’t present a threat to him for her affections.”
Katrina remained silent as she considered Caleb’s revelation. She wasn’t hearing anything that hadn’t already crossed her mind. The situation was rather complex and required careful handling on her part. Multiple serious relationships were at stake if the issue were allowed to be mismanaged, and she didn’t want that to happen, either for Caleb or for her best friend.
“Paige is quite fond of you,” she explained carefully. “She cares for you a great deal, Caleb. I’m not naïve about her affections for you, you know. It bothered me at first, but I’m confident she poses no threat to our relationship. Would I be mistaken about that?”
He felt a surge of concern run through him, and he replied hastily, “No. I’m yours, Kat. You’re my mate, and I’ve never been happier in my life. But I also care about Paige. I love her, but not in the same way that I do you.”
Katrina sensed the sincere and honest nature of his response, and a feeling of reassurance coursed through her. “She’s an attractive, and yet playfully quirky woman,” she ventured. “It’s easy to see her allure.”
He reached out to grasp Katrina’s hand as she gripped the console gear shift. “You’re beautiful, intelligent, kind, and generous, Kat. How could I ever ask for more?” he insisted before drawing her hand to his lips and softly kissing her skin. He resolved there was nothing he would ever do to tarnish his commitment to her.
She nodded, sensing the earnest nature of his declaration. It sent a warm, reassuring feeling through her. “I’m happy to hear that, my love. Though I don’t doubt your intentions.”
He continued to hold her hand while casting a quick glance at the profile of her face as she drove. The muscles appeared taut across her high cheekbones. “I love you, Kat.”
They continued down the highway in silence for a time longer, until Katrina exited the highway near Mableton.
“Do I need to mention this to Paige?” he asked warily. He was adrift in foreign territory like a boat on an open ocean and needed guidance.
Katrina paused. “No, there’s no reason to now. It would only upset her further, I think. She has to focus on getting Gil back to California and addressing him and his friend --”
“Skeet,” he prompted.
She looked sidelong at him with a darkly amused expression. “Yeah. Skeet.”
The car wound its way down the sparsely lit county roads as Caleb silently contemplated the grim task that was before Paige. But then, she was a vampire; the very act of killing was second nature to her. He tried to imagine himself killing Gil in a measured, calculated manner, and found that he was having trouble envisioning that. Does that make me weak or cowardly?
“A planned killing would be hard,” he whispered absently.
Katrina squeezed his hand supportively as their car entered through the gates of the Pine Valley addition. She didn’t want to tell him that such things got easier with time, given an appropriate motivation or necessity. She also didn’t want to tell him that most vampires, herself included, actually enjoyed aspects of killing. It was a predator’s pleasure and part of their very nature. And yet she would have added that his own life was never safer around either her or Paige, despite the constant desire for taking blood that always lay just beneath the surface. Instead she let her grip on his hand speak of her concern.
“I wish Paige didn’t have to go,” he murmured. He reflected on how much easier life had been with Paige around. She was a part of their extended family unit, not to mention