for what, a day? Thirty-six hours? Maybe you could cut yourself some slack.” He glanced at her. “Okay, sum it up for me. What have we figured out today?”
“That all four women were on film sets in the weeks before they were killed. That’s the connecting thread. They must have met the killer there.”
“Three different films, though,” he said. “Technical Black for Gina and Kelly, Six Corvettes for Ariel and Knock My Socks Off for Charlotte. So the question is, what kind of movie professional works several jobs simultaneously?”
“Actors can,” she said, “but Ariel’s dad said the man wasn’t an actor. Publicity people, or agents or managers with clients on all three films. Agents love to visit sets. Gets them out of the office, makes the actors feel loved.”
“I’ll buy the agent theory, but not the publicity team. Gina and Charlotte’s films were with competing studios and would have in-house publicists. Six Corvettes was low-budget. I doubt they even have a publicist.”
“Animal wranglers?” she asked. “On-set schoolteachers?”
“No kids in Technical Black,” he said. “No animals in Charlotte’s movie.”
Sailor leaned back in the passenger seat. “What else? Fight coordinators, dialect coaches, stunt teams? Maybe tomorrow, when I’m on the set of Knock My Socks Off, it will come to me. Because I’ll be on the lookout. You know how there are dozens of jobs in a movie but you only really pay attention to the ones that are directly working with you?”
“No, Sailor. I’m not an actor. Also,” he said, “I’m not sure I like the thought of your wandering around Knock My Socks Off without me.”
“Why not?”
He shrugged. “What if you have one of your...episodes? By the way, were you having one with Gary Kiel?”
“Nope. I’m feeling normal, in fact. I think my eyes are returning to normal.”
“I’ve been noticing that.” He paused. “But you were awfully friendly with Gary.”
Was Declan...jealous? she wondered. Aloud, she said, “That was just me being me. You know, using people. Exploiting them. Shamelessly.”
He smiled. “When did you last have one of these pathogen moments? Because you haven’t told me how handsome I am for an hour at least.”
“Missing it?”
He shook his head. “Not really. A shifter can look like anything he pleases. Compliments about looks...they don’t mean much.”
“Or maybe it’s that you’re a man.”
“Possibly.”
“I, however, am not a man.”
“True enough. And no one would mistake you for one.”
“And I am not able to shift.”
“Your point?”
“A compliment once in a while would be okay with me.”
“Good God.” He turned the wheel and pulled onto the shoulder of the road. “Have I been stupid? Have I not told you what a beauty you are?”
“No.”
“What I’d like to do with you?”
“No.”
“To you?”
“Uh-uh.”
“What a wanker I am.” He looked into her eyes, and by the light of the nearly full moon he let his convey to her everything she could imagine wanting to hear from him and a few things she hadn’t thought of.
She felt herself blushing. “I don’t think you’re a...wanker, whatever that is. And I want to do all those things with you. To you. And it’s got nothing to do with the Scarlet Pathogen.”
Declan peered at her in the darkness. She could hear him breathing, even feel it, feel herself breathing along with him. Finally he said, “What do you think we should do about it?”
“You could kiss me,” she said.
He smiled, then looked in the rearview mirror and pulled back onto the road. “Oh, I will,” he promised. “But this time we’re not starting something we can’t finish.”
“Then maybe you should drive faster,” Sailor said.
He did.
Chapter 11
Inside the Snake Pit, Declan took Sailor by the hand and led her through a door she’d never seen, through the back, down a hallway and up a private stairway to a loftlike room. His office, she realized. It had a waist-high wall, like a box at the opera. He showed her the vista below, of the Snake Pit in full open-for-business mode, crowded with people dancing and drinking. A blues singer crooned something into her microphone, a song in a language Sailor could only guess at—Portuguese?—but understood nevertheless. She was singing about love. Or sex. Or love and sex. And possibly heartbreak.
Declan stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. The sensation of his hands on her abdomen sent a thrill through her. Then one hand slid up and found her breast, and the effect was so electrifying she could hardly stand still. He kissed her neck, her shoulder, her ear. She turned