Addict (Hunter #2)(42)

I stepped out from behind Jamie’s truck. I was surprised he hadn’t smelled me. It took him a moment to even register that I was standing in front of him.

“Kelsey?” he asked hesitantly.

“Hey, Scott, what’s up?” Jamie was waiting inside the cab of his truck. I didn’t want Scott to feel like I was ganging up on him.

Scott’s brown eyes went all kinds of suspicious. “I thought you were gone.”

We weren’t big on conversation, Scott and I. “I came back.”

Scott stilled. “Are you here to kill me?”

I sighed. I should get used to it. In the past, the Nex Apparatus had pretty much been an executioner. If I wanted people to not start crying every time I showed up, I better start rehabbing my image. “Scott, if I was going to kill you, you’d already be dead.”

I probably wouldn’t try very hard.

“You should get out of here.” Scott nervously took a drag off his cigarette.

As much as I wanted to get home to my cozy bed and cuddle up with my vampire, I had a job to do. “Come with me. Liv wants you to come home.”

“So she sent you after me?” Scott frowned, his face hardening. “Tell her to move on, okay? I’m done with her.”

I didn’t buy that for a moment. Scott wasn’t energetic enough to find another girlfriend. He was completely dedicated to making Liv’s life miserable ’til death parted them. “Tell her yourself. I’m under strict orders to bring you home. Do you know how much Liv will bitch at me if I come back empty-handed?”

Scott’s eyes closed, and I could have sworn he was in pain for a moment. When he spoke, the words were ground out of his mouth. “I can’t leave. Tell her I don’t love her anymore, damn it. Tell her I have another girl.”

He was lying, and that pissed me off. I decided to throw him off his game. I knew he only gave a shit about two people in the world. Liv wasn’t doing it for him at the moment, so I tried door number two. “Alan Kent tried to kill me tonight.”

The garbage bag dropped and the cigarette hung precariously off his slack lips. “He did what?”

I shot him a fairly sympathetic look. “Alan’s in trouble. He’s on something called Brimstone. It caused him to attack me tonight. Lucky for me, my boyfriend is better than a first aid kit. Alan’s in the vampire version of a hospital. I don’t think it’s a pleasant place to be. Why don’t you come with me so you can visit him?”

Scott stood in the concrete lot as the snow drifted down. After a long while he shook his head. “I can’t leave, Kelsey. You have to go. There’s nothing you can do. Just watch out for Liv.”

I was going to argue when the door from the back came open again. The man Gray had called Kall stalked out, his face set in stark lines. Anger seemed to radiate from him. At least he wasn’t dragging his girl by the collar anymore. He was alone and dressed to leave from the looks of it. His thick body and large arms were encased in a well-tailored suit that had likely been chosen to fit into the high society he was moving through. He had some issues with the whole blend-in portion of his costume since he was rapidly losing control of his form. I couldn’t tell if he was a halfling, like Gray, or simply a young demon. I rather thought the latter. I also bet he wasn’t high up on the royalty scale. Gray never lost control of his form. His fangs came out when he was mad or horny, but that happened with all demons. This guy’s horns were peeking through his dark hair.

“You.” He pointed a clawed finger at Scott. “Explain why the incredibly expensive bottle of Scotch I left with your staff is now half empty.” He had the bottle in his hand.

I read the label, but it didn’t matter. I wouldn’t know the difference between it and a bottle of rotgut. I drank what the bartender put in front of me. I wasn’t a connoisseur.

Scott sighed. “Sir, I run the bar in the club downstairs. You want Martin, who runs the VIP floor.”

I got the feeling Scott didn’t like dealing with the VIP guests. Knowing him the way I did, he would definitely be more comfortable with the shifters and weres in the regular bar. It made me seriously wonder what they promised him to get him to take this gig. He always wanted to run his own bar, but it would have nothing in common with the elegant club at the top of this building.

“Don’t you f*cking tell me what I want, you piece of shit slave,” Kall said, throwing the bottle at Scott. It hit him squarely across the jaw and made his head swing back.

I’d been hoping I could get through this whole evening without a fight. Okay, another fight. When Kall walked up to Scott and slapped him, I knew that wasn’t happening. Asshole needed to learn a lesson about how to treat staff. I might not love Scott, but I wasn’t going to let him get his ass kicked over something like this.

“Don’t touch him again,” I said quietly.

“Stay out of this.” Scott was looking down at the ground, his head held in a submissive position. His voice was low, almost pleading.

Kall was anything but submissive. He leered at me and smiled, his fangs on display. “Now why would we want the lovely lady to stay out of this? She’s the only thing that’s gone right all evening long.” Kall lost interest in beating up the help and walked up to me. “What happened, honey? Sloane can’t get it up, can he?”