“My name’s Sherry not Cathy,” she said defiantly.
“Yeah, but clumsy Cathy sounds better than stumbling Sherry, don’t you think?”
Glowering, Sherry ignored the question and asked, “How did you get in my office?”
Leo raised his eyebrows and said, “There’s this little thing called a door . . .” He tilted his head. “You should really lock yours. I mean I know you have to keep the front door unlocked for customers, but the back door? Into an alley, no less. You really should have locked it behind Justin and your daddy.”
“You saw them leave?”
“Yeah. I was hiding in your Dumpster. Fortunately, you don’t sell foodstuffs, so I was only crouching amidst cardboard boxes and stuff. Still, it’s a pretty undignified thing to have to do,” he pointed out. “However, when I heard Bricker say the SUV was in the alley and realized he’d be coming out that door, there was nothing for me to do but jump in your blue bin.”
“You heard him?”
“I heard loads of stuff. You people do like to talk, and I’ve been out there ever since Decker gave up his position watching the back of the store and ran around to the front,” he informed her. “In fact, I was about to come in after Basil and Lucian left, but then Elvi—is that her name?—she came in, so I waited. I must confess, though, that I was losing patience and considering taking both of you when she finally left.”
He glanced past her and clucked his tongue. “Speaking of Elvi, I do believe she’s about done making out with her husband and is about to come up here. We should go. Otherwise, we’ll have to take her with us.” Using the hold he still had on her arm, Leo swung her toward the door leading out to the alley. “And you know that old saying, two’s company and three’s mass murder.”
“And here I thought it was three’s a crowd,” Sherry muttered, pulling uselessly on her arm to distract him as she grabbed the letter opener off her desk in passing and concealed it against her side.
“Only when you’re talking Argeneaus. Three of them is definitely three too many,” he assured her as he dragged her down the stairs. “Speaking of which, I hear you’re a life mate for my mother’s uncle Basil.”
“Wouldn’t that make him your great-uncle?” she asked as he paused to crack the door open and peer warily out into the alley.
“Nah. I am not an Argeneau. At least not by blood. A great disappointment to my mother, I’m sure.”
Sherry glanced at him curiously as he pushed the door wide-open now and dragged her out. His voice had gone tight with either pain or anger when he’d said that.
“Speaking of disappointing your parents.” Pausing outside the door as it swung closed, Leo arched an eyebrow at her. “Smoking weed, Sherry? Really? Naughty, naughty.
“I was a kid,” she said through her teeth as he turned to start moving again.
“Actually, you were twenty,” he corrected. “News flash, it’s ridiculous to lie to a man who can read your mind, so don’t bother.”
“Fine, I was twenty. That’s still a kid,” she said defensively.
“Only to someone over thirty,” he assured her, and then pointed out, “After all, the army thinks eighteen-year-olds are old enough to take a life. Personally, I started killing much younger. So twenty is definitely old enough to know better.”
“Whatever,” Sherry said wearily, giving up on her tugging. “What does it matter anyway?”
“It doesn’t,” Leo assured her. “It’s just nice to know I’m not the only one who disappointed my parent.” Grinning, he added, “The good news is you can do all the drugs you want now that you’re with me. I like feeding off stoned women. Much less screaming that way, and as much as I enjoy the terror, the screaming tends to give me a headache. Besides, I do like the buzz I get when their drugged blood hits my system. But drugs are so bad, really. Don’t you think?”
Sherry shook her head, finding it too much work to follow his conversation and try to think of a way to get away from him at the same time. “I thought you liked drugs.”
“Well, sure, but it always leads to bigger and not always better things. Like for you, it’ll start with drugs and move on to finding yourself tied up in a dilapidated building with big nasty me slicing you up and slowly draining away your life.” Pausing again, he turned to smile at her and added, “Oh, and don’t bother trying to use that pig sticker you grabbed off your desk. I’ll stop you, and it wouldn’t do much good anyway. I may not have fangs like the others, but I heal just as quickly as any immortal.” Leo winked and then added, “Hold onto it, though. I’ll get a kick out of using your own letter opener on you.”
“You’re a sick puppy,” Sherry said grimly, trying again to free her arm.
“Surprisingly, you aren’t the first woman to say that,” Leo told her, and then turned to glance toward the end of the alley, a frown suddenly pulling at his lips. “Speaking of puppies . . . where the hell are the boys?”
Sherry followed his gaze to the mouth of the alley some ten feet ahead of them. Not only were his boys not there, but no one was there, she noted with a frown. The alley opened onto a busy side street. There should have been people passing and—
“Mummy!”
Sherry blinked at that startled cry from Leo as Basha suddenly stepped out in front of them. She then gasped with surprise as she was tugged behind Leo as if she were a chocolate chip cookie and he was trying to prevent Basha from seeing he’d nipped her from the cookie jar.
It was a ridiculous reaction, of course. She wasn’t a bloody cookie and Basha could see her, especially when she leaned to the side to look around Leo’s arm.
Basha wasn’t alone, she saw with relief. Marcus, Bricker, and her father—Alexander—had stepped out behind Leo’s mother.