to check on you shortly.”
Turning his back on her protests, he made his way to his bike, careful to keep an eye out for pursuit. The others would be as curious about what his fiancée was doing at the murder scene as him.
Dialing Addie as he mounted his bike, he clenched his jaw, working to modulate his tone when she did. “Where are you?”
“At home.” She sounded breathless, and he couldn’t shake the mental picture of what else she and Cassandra could be doing to make her that way. “I’m cooking dinner. If you’re not here in an hour, I’ll put yours in the fridge.”
Emotion scraped his nerves raw. Jealousy or fear or both. He couldn’t tell, and that bothered him. “I’m on my way now, actually.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll, um, get moving then.” Pots clattered in the background. “See you soon.”
After the call ended, Boaz rubbed his thumb over the screen, wondering what he was about to walk in on and how he was going to handle this conversation. He had never cheated on a girlfriend. He could say that much for himself. He might not stick around, might not get serious, but he was honest about his intentions from the start.
Just like you were honest with Grier?
Shame and disgust twisted his gut into knots, but this was bigger than potential infidelity. The Society wouldn’t look kindly upon their union if Addie was carrying on an affair—in public—prior to their wedding. Their union had to be above reproach in order for them to each get what they wanted from the other.
The drive to the old Whitaker place blurred, his thoughts twisting as much as his stomach, and he took a moment to compose himself before he dismounted Willie and entered the house.
“I’m in the kitchen,” Addie called cheerfully. “Do you like onions on your pizza?”
“Sure.” He strolled in, the smells leading him by the nose. “I’m not picky.”
Popping a slice of pepperoni in her mouth, she smiled over at him. “How do you feel about ham?”
Easy, so easy, to imagine this scene as his life. Him, coming home from work, grim and sour. Her, bustling around the house, bright and happy, dressed in pajamas. How he felt about that, he couldn’t say, but he could picture it. “As long as it’s not served with green eggs, I’m good.”
Her laugh was throaty and pleasant as she began the meticulous arrangement of their homemade pizza, using a ratio of vegetables to meat known to her alone.
The domesticity of it all cut him down to the bone, and he asked, “How was Zumba?”
He got his tone wrong. He could tell by the way she froze, the slice of ham trembling in her fingers, and then she dragged her gaze up to his. He had let his temper get away from him when he knew he couldn’t afford to blow it, but she was still selling him on some idyllic version of their future he knew as false.
“I didn’t go to Zumba,” she confessed, fussing with her toppings. “I went with a friend to a football game instead.”
Yep.
He had overplayed his hand, and she was lying to him with the truth.
Might as well give up the pretense then. “Do you know a vampire by the name of Cassandra Desmond?”
Palms braced on either side of the stove, she studied the pizza for design imperfections. “Yes.”
“Did you attend the game with her?”
“Yes.”
“Did you kiss her?”
Boaz made a fist at his side, but it was too late. The question was out there, and her answer shouldn’t have mattered so much. Their engagement was a business proposition, not a love match. He had no right to her heart. As long as she played by the rules, they could make it work. He had to believe that.
The alternative was too miserable to contemplate, but it would be no less than he deserved.
“No.” She exhaled hard, rustling the shredded mozzarella. “She did, however, kiss me.”
“Addie…” he began, unsure where to go from there. “We have to talk about this.”
A warning tingle coasted down his spine as the presence of a vampire registered to his senses.
“You might as well tell him the truth,” a female voice called from what sounded like the head of the stairs. “He might arrest you otherwise.”
That was yet to be determined, but he had to question Addie for sure. Cassandra too. He was almost glad she was here. Almost. Because he wasn’t sure how he felt about finding her in his fiancée’s house, calling orders to her in