harm done, okay? There’s still time to get out of town. Just don’t—don’t do that, okay? I really can’t stand it when you—oh, Rache. C’mere.”
Then . . . miracle! He was hugging her and patting her and whispering to her and her head was on his shoulder and he—concern concern concern lust anger concern concern
—wasn’t hating her anymore. He was being nice again. He was being wonderful again.
“Just . . . calm down. Let me see your hands, you almost broke the table, you probably have splinters down to the second knuckle . . . there! You’re okay. Huh. There’s not a mark on—right, we covered that. We know how you can do that. And it’s okay!” he added hastily, as if worried she’d burst into fresh sobs. “Well, it’s not okay, but you know what I mean. Look, let’s talk about—let’s—okay. Say I believe you. Tell me how it happened.”
“How what happened?” she sniffed, surreptitiously wiping her nose on his shoulder.
“Well, I did see you over there, in your—in her driveway. We both know you were there. Tell me about it.”
“About what? You said you saw me.”
“Sure. What were you doing? If you’re not the vampire queen, why were you there? How’d you even know to go there? Let’s say I’m buying this bullshit you’re tossing . . .”
She straightened up, freshly pissed. “Bullshit I’m toss—?”
He put his hands up like a man being arrested. He’d turned, they had both turned so they were straddling the picnic bench, their faces only a foot apart. “So you were . . . what? Sent on a noble and sacred mission to spy out the land?”
“No, apparently, you were. Which reminds me! I’ve got a few questions for you, pal.”
“Focus, Rache.”
“You focus.” She sulked on her part of the bench, but he was apparently done with the comforting. Now he was like a bloodhound on the scent.
“How did you creep into town all unnoticed by the vampire queen’s sinister minions? Assuming you’re not her?”
“I didn’t creep.”
“What are you, a lawyer or a slammin’ hot accountant?”
“Oh, I never could have handled law school,” she said, appalled. She shook her head. “Too many gray areas. Accounting, at least, is black and white. One of the few jobs that is, really. Nothing like social work, or medicine.”
Edward sighed and ripped his fingers through his hair so fast she was worried he might accidentally scalp himself. Or give himself a friction burn. He took a deep breath—
Forced calm. Anxiety. Irritation.
—and started again.
“Okay, Rachael. From the beginning. You skulked into town . . .”
“I drove my rental car to the chamber of commerce, where I met with a . . .” Pack member, she’d been about to say, but her secrets were her own to share. She had no business outing any other Pack members to Edward without their permission. “. . . a woman who had sort of prepared the way for me. She’d set up my living arrangements and was trying to get some clients for me. I didn’t know if I’d be here for a week or a year or a decade, so I needed to try to build a bigger client base.”
He nodded, reached up, and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Okay . . .”
She loved that he did that. She loved that he didn’t know he did that.
“And then, once I knew where I was going to be living, I got settled in—didn’t take long, I can tell you.” She sort of gestured to the basement. “You’ve seen it.”
“Yup. And . . . ?”
“And I made note of the address from the newsletter. I kept it.”
“Which you had because . . .”
“My cousin is our Pack leader. He’s the boss werewolf. He had one and he made me a copy.”
“Unreal,” Edward muttered, passing his hand over his eyes as if getting a headache. “Vampires are either fearless or stupid or maybe both.”
“I,” she retorted, “am not arguing. So I had the newsletter, I had her address. I MapQuested it, walked there since my apartment is only two blocks away from her mansion—far enough away so I’m not in their line of sight, but close enough so I can get there in a hurry if I have to. Or leave in a hurry if I have to. It’s a huge neighborhood. It’s not hard to lose someone if you have to.”
“Logical,” Edward said, nodding. Then he jabbed a finger in her direction. “But still sinister.”
Rachael sighed and peeked at