"I am tired,” she said, yawning widely and curling up on the bed.
He leaned down, pulled the covers over her and touched her shoulder. “Good night, Jennifer."
He stood upright and found Sarah standing right next to him, almost vibrating with anger. “What—” he began.
"Outside,” she said furiously.
He gave her a narrow look, not used to anyone giving him orders. “What is your problem?"
"Out f**king side."
"Look, Sarah, if you want to leave, go ahead. I need to make sure that—"
"I'm not leaving you alone with her."
Raj felt his own anger rising to meet hers. He grabbed her arm, holding on when she tried to yank away, pulling her from the room and down the battered stairway, not letting go until they stood next to his BMW.
"What the hell is wrong with you?” he demanded.
"Me? What's wrong with you?" she demanded. “You practically raped that girl!"
"Are you out of your f**king mind?” he said, every word enunciated clearly. He was holding onto his rage by the thinnest of threads. That she would accuse him of—
"Why? Because you didn't touch her? You think rape only happens to the body? Guess again. I know what it's like to—"
"You don't know shit because I would never hurt a woman,” he growled, stepping so close he could feel her body trembling. “Don't you ever accuse me of something like that. Never. You got it?"
Sarah stared at him. “Fuck you, Raj,” she whispered. She spun around and stomped away through the parking lot, pulling her cell phone out of her purse.
Raj used his vampire speed to place himself in her path. “Get back in the car. I'm not leaving you here."
She laughed. “Well, I'm not getting in the car with a r**ist, so tough luck for you."
Raj stared at her, not quite believing what she was saying. How could she think that of him? How could any woman think he was that kind of a monster, much less this woman?
She was talking on the phone to someone and he realized she was calling a cab. He considered picking her up bodily and throwing her back in his car. Hell, he could erase this whole f**king nightmare from her mind and she'd never remember a thing. But he wouldn't do that. Not again. And not to Sarah.
He watched her storm across the parking lot, heading for the street where, presumably, the cab would meet her. Maybe it was better this way. He'd wanted an excuse to walk away from her. To make her walk away from him. To get her as far away as possible from vampires in general and him in particular. This wasn't what he'd had in mind, but it would do. It would do nicely. And they'd both be better off in the long run.
He strode back to his car without another word, sitting there until he saw the cab arrive, until Sarah was inside and safe. And then he drove into the night alone.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Raj pulled up to the warehouse and twisted off the ignition key. He sat there for a while listening to the ping of the cooling engine, the occasional whine of a big truck on the nearby Genesee Road. The airport was silent. The last passenger flight came in from Chicago around midnight. After that, the terminals pretty much shut down until morning and the first cargo flights at six.
He had the connection he'd been looking for. Jennifer, sweet Jennifer, had given it to him. It was the blood houses. Trish Cowens had never made sense to him. Why would any vampire stalk a victim on the streets, when he could find plenty of women at the blood houses who were willing to spend an hour or a weekend if that's what he wanted? But it wasn't Trish Cowens the vampire had been after. It was Jennifer Stewart, who looked so much like her roommate and who'd worn a leather jacket the night she'd gone to visit a blood house. The same jacket Trish was wearing the night she was taken.
But what was the connection between the kidnapped women and Estelle Edwards's vampire research project? Would she need human subjects to test her research? And what about Krystof? Even if he was behind this scheme, he certainly hadn't been the one who'd danced with Jennifer Stewart at the blood house or, for that matter, the one who'd taken Trish Cowens off the street. And he kept coming back to the fact that it was Krystof who'd brought him to Buffalo to figure out what was happening.
Raj swore and shoved open the door. Too many damn questions and not enough answers. He strode over to the warehouse, expecting it to be empty. But when he stepped inside, he found Em heading for one of the big SUVs, the only one left in the warehouse bay.
"Raj,” she said, veering toward him. “I didn't expect you here."
"Do we have any human assets in town, beyond these guards?"
She blinked, obviously taken aback by his cold demeanor, but he wasn't in a friendly mood.
"None I would trust, my lord, but I can have someone here by daybreak."