but I didn’t have that long. As much as my heart wished otherwise, my obligations would force my hand. Until I put a ring on his finger, and he made a deposit into my account, I was the sole provider for my family.
I could not mess up with him. Could. Not.
Twitchy from the murder, and cold from the bargain I had made, I didn’t give Cass’s car a second appreciative glance. I had been brought too low for it to be more than transportation, too mad to care it was a dream to drive.
I startled when my phone rang through the speakers, the number familiar. “Hello?”
“Where are you?” Boaz laughed softly, I think at himself, but I didn’t get the joke. “I brought takeout and a movie. I guessed on both. I hope you like dim sum and Keanu Reeves.”
The strain in his voice from trying caused a sympathetic twang in my chest. It’s not like arranging a marriage was his idea of a good time either. Neither of us had much say in our engagement, not with our families in such rough shape.
His little sister had gotten into trouble in Savannah. He didn’t want to talk about it, but it was bad. Bad enough he wanted to give her Hadley’s name to start over fresh somewhere else. Bad enough he was willing to court a woman far beneath him. Only the scandal had brought him so low, and wasn’t that depressing? Not half as grim as me agreeing to his terms in order to save what I had left, but still.
“You’re here?” I squeaked. “In town?”
“Surprise! I figured you’d be home this late.”
“I went for a drive.” My palms slipped on the steering wheel. “I have no objections to dim sum, but which Keanu are we talking here? Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure? Speed? A Walk in the Clouds? The Matrix? John Wick?”
“You recited those like you’ve got a list in front of you.” He chuckled and seemed to mean it. “I might be in over my head here.”
“My best friend watched Bram Stoker's Dracula one too many times and fell in love with Jonathan Harker. Well, the actor who played him. Not the character.”
Cass viewed movies as falling into one of two categories: vampires and Keanu Reeves.
“Since you’ve already seen John Wick, I can download something else—”
“John Wick is fine.” I almost smiled. “I can respect a man who goes on a killing spree over his dog.”
“Bloodthirsty,” he teased. “I’m going to chalk Keanu up as the first thing you and I have in common.”
Common ground? He cared about that? It was more than I expected from him, and I couldn’t tell yet if it made me happy he cared or downright terrified I would flub this on some compatibility component.
“I thought you were already home.” I noticed an incoming call but didn’t know how to switch lines without dropping him, and the car didn’t provide any helpful pointers. “Did something happen?”
“That was the plan.” He sounded tired all of a sudden. “I stopped by the sentinel outpost to say hi to an old friend and got drafted for a project. Looks like I’ll be in town a few more days.”
Dread swam the backstroke through my gut, and its form was perfect. “What kind of project?”
“A vampire was killed here three days ago. A young one. His remains were found this morning.”
Cass and I hadn’t checked the news like we did on slow days. We had the Ron Willis case waiting on us, and we jumped on it. Otherwise, we might have heard the gossip from one of our sources and connected the dots sooner. Or at least been curious if there were dots to connect.
“It resembles a case I’ve been working on and off in Savannah,” he continued, “so I’ll be consulting.”
On and off? Existing case? Crap. Despite there being an entire genre dedicated to vampire hunters and slayers, vampire killings were rare.
“Oh.” I searched for my voice. “That’s horrible.”
And it was about to get worse once he found out there had been another murder.
“It’s a worry for tomorrow.” He tied off that conversation with a deft twist in topic. “We didn’t get much time to really talk. We just got down to brass tacks. My schedule is clear until I report in officially at dusk tomorrow, so I thought I would drop in to see you in a less formal setting.”
Part of me wondered if this date night was Dad’s doing too, but it was more