A hint of a grin gave him an almost boyish charm. A swirl of desire wound through me. Leftover adrenaline, no doubt.
Get it together. Hot or not, he was still a vampire. A fucking bloodsucker! I wasn’t going to be seduced and bitten.
Even mosquitoes had more integrity than that.
The Alpha was not amused. “Lose the knife and say hello.”
I gritted my teeth. If Finnegan was okay with the vampire, he must be working with the pack.
“Hello, Lucien.”
I couldn’t quite bring myself to put away the knife. Not yet. He was easy on the eyes. In fact, he reminded me of Iceman from Top Gun. He had that look, and that cool confidence.
“How did you do it?” he asked, his eyes raking over me.
“McPhee’s power is a pack secret,” Finnegan said, as if he knew how I did what I did. Hell, I didn’t even know. Finnegan stood his ground in front of the vampire, who was a full foot taller than the Alpha. “Do you want us or not?”
Lucien gave a long, slow grin. “All right. I’ll take her.”
My head hurt for a whole new reason. “Take me?” He couldn’t take me. I had a pack. I had a home.
Sensing my urge to bolt, Finnegan laid a hand on my shoulder. “It’s only temporary. We need someone to go undercover.”
I’d never been undercover.
Lucien drew too close for comfort. “I need a were to pose as my wife.”
“Hell, no.”
Finnegan continued as if I hadn’t said a word. “You two will be the newest couple to move into Eternal Life Estates.”
“I’d rather eat glass.”
Finnegan’s hand tightened on my shoulder. “You’ll be going to Malibu, McPhee. Haven’t you always wanted to see Malibu?”
“No.” I had everything I needed right here in the canyon.
“Nevertheless, your skills are required,” Lucien said. “We have a window of opportunity. A new couple was set to move into Eternal Life Estates. We’ve commandeered the house for the investigation. However, it will be tight. Mr. and Mrs. Duke are scheduled to arrive tomorrow evening.”
“You and Detective Mead will pose as the Dukes,” Finnegan said.
“Detective?” I stared at the vampire. “What are you, some sort of undead Columbo?”
Lucien grinned. “You could say that. I report to the Vampire Council.”
Lovely. Even if the man was some kind of an eternal cop, he couldn’t just drag me into this. “Aren’t there protocols? Rules?”
“Yes,” Finnegan growled. “Obey your pack master.”
Had he lost his mind? “In case you two haven’t noticed, I’m not the trophy wife type.”
“Lower the dagger,” Finnegan snapped.
Oh yeah. I hadn’t noticed I’d been waving my knife. I pulled it back and used it to clean a wedge of dirt out from under my ring fingernail.
This was ridiculous. How was I supposed to be a Sunny clone? He’d better not make me wear a girdle.
“You’re going to help Detective Mead sniff out Sunny’s murderer,” Finnegan said, by way of a rah-rah speech.
Fuck a duck.
“You’ll get the truth out of the were wives of Vampire County.”
As if I wanted to know.
“You’ll blend,” he insisted.
I snarfed out loud. Had he taken a look at me lately?
“We’ll get to the truth,” Finnegan continued, nodding to Lucien, “or else the pack has no choice... .”
“Wait,” I didn’t like the sound of that. “No choice in what?”
“We need closure by the full moon,” Finnegan said.
“Or?” There had to be an alternative. That was only three nights away.
“Or,” Lucien said, as if it were obvious, “your pack will avenge the death.”
Of course. We’d declare war on a county full of vampires. And if the rest of them were like this solid blond wall, we didn’t have a chance. It’d be suicide for pack pride. And I really didn’t want to die. Not for Sunny anyway.
“Okay.” I threw up my hands, remembered I was holding the knife, and sheathed it before Finnegan yelled at me again.
As if I was the one causing the problem.
“I’ll do it. I’ll be the good wife.” Ick. It even hurt to say the word. “We’ll start with Sunny’s old crowd. The Predators. We’ll learn the truth.”
“Good,” Finnegan said, a victorious glint in his beady little eyes.
“But I’m not wearing heels,” I added.
Lucien leaned in from behind, his breath tickling my ear. “You’ll have to do a lot more than that.”
CHAPTER 2
I stared out the tinted glass of the Lincoln Town Car at the even darker night outside and wondered how on earth I was going to pull this off.
No. Don’t think that way.
My newly manicured fingers fiddled with the obnoxiously large diamond on