and you react, because you've already made your decision to hurt them before the fight starts. If I killed Bennington, would they be professional and just stop all this, or would they kill at least one of my lovers as an object lesson? Until I had an answer to that question, did I dare kill Bennington if the chance came?
Jacob sat down on the couch beside me, arm on the back of it, like we were a couple. I leaned just out of touching of the arm. He could think I was being unfriendly, but I didn't want him to feel the knife hilt under my shirt. Thanks to the lions being overly friendly I had one weapon left; I didn't want to lose it.
He leaned in and spoke low. "Whatever you are thinking, it won't work. We have a sniper on all three of them. They'll call in as each man goes outside for the first time today. They'll follow them and if we don't call in periodically, they'll kill them."
"I understand that," I said, but part of me filed away the fact that he'd said we. Jacob didn't have to be the one to make the phone calls to the shooters. Nicky could do it. I only needed one of them alive and on my side. I tried to breathe past the anger and that edge of fear that wanted to scream through me. I had to think, which meant neither anger nor fear was my friend. Fear will keep you alive, and anger will help you in a fight sometimes, but when it came to planning action you needed no emotions. Be empty, be still, and think.
"I am sorry, Ms. Blake, to force you, but I want the woman I love back, you understand that."
"I'll do my best, but it will still only be a zombie. No matter how lifelike she looks when you first see her, it can't last, Mr. Bennington."
"I've been told that there is one set of circumstances where the recently dead can be raised as a zombie but stay intact."
"If so, it's news to me." I was leaning forward a little, trying not to let Jacob touch me. For some reason that made him move closer to me so that our hips touched on the couch. Great, it was like one of those dates where the guy doesn't respect your personal space.
"Mr. Bennington," Jacob said, "I wouldn't overshare with Anita. She's cooperating, and once Silas does his part we'll head to the gravesite. We don't need to talk about the details."
Then Bennington gave me a look. It was hostile. "You know, I wasn't certain I could go through with it. I actually thought I might lose the first half of the payment and not do this, but then I saw the pictures of your lunch with your lovers. I watched your Mr. Schuyler and your Mr. Graison flirt. My Ilsa liked to flirt; in fact, she loved it. She loved attention and she had a fascination with shapeshifters."
So he knew she was a fur-fucker. I just looked at him, not sure what emotion he wanted from me. I gave him a blank face and waited for him to talk. He was in that villain speech mode that only the amateurs do.
"I watched them comfort you, and then watched you flirt with the waiter. You wouldn't give me back my flirt, so I took yours, and if you take my Ilsa away from me again, I will take your men away from you forever."
I must have tensed forward, not on purpose, because Jacob put his arm across my shoulders just in case, but I'd been too intent on Bennington 's words. I'd forgotten for a second that I didn't want him to touch my back.
I tried to stand up, and he grabbed me, but I managed to get to my feet, but Nicky was there behind me, arms hugging me from behind, and this time he wasn't distracted by lion hormones. "What the hell is that?"
"Something big that you missed," Jacob said.
I forced myself not to struggle in Nicky's grip, but I couldn't not tense up, or stop the lioness from not wanting them to manhandle her, us. I had a moment of pronoun loss, and that growl trickled out from between my lipsticked lips. Heat came with it in a rush over my skin like a sudden fever. I was suddenly so hot, so hot, but I wasn't sweating.
"Her skin is hot to