Blood Trinity (Belador #1)(49)

“This job?”

Oops. She’d forgotten how sharp Rambo was. “No, uh, my other job. I do some courier work and had to make a run up to Chattanooga on short notice.” Good thing Storm wasn’t here or his lie detector needle would be buried far in the red.

“Must have been pretty damned important for you to get a call that early on a Sunday morning.”

You have no idea. “More like an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

He didn’t appear convinced, but neither did he call her on the lie. “Doesn’t change the fact that you were a no-show.”

“Sue me.”

“That wasn’t what I had in mind.”

Just the way he said that ruffled her skin and made her nervous. She swallowed before she could stop the telling motion.

His lips curved up on one side, not quite smiling, but enough that she didn’t think he was angry. His eyes were blue, a deeper blue than she’d expected.

She still needed to find out what he knew about the Birrn, if he’d share. “We were just meeting for coffee. How about we reschedule for a meal and I pick up the tab? Your choice.”

He took his time making up his mind on how to answer. “Okay. How about lunch tomorrow?”

Lunch? She couldn’t do that, nor did she want to explain why she really didn’t want to come out in the daylight to a man who had no compassion for something unnatural. “I’m on a different body clock schedule because of working nights here.”

“In that case, what about tonight?”

She had less than thirty minutes to make Piedmont by midnight and to find that rock. If they didn’t get their hands on the Ngak Stone, her problems would become moot in comparison to the coming Armageddon. Even more important, she couldn’t bail on Storm without drawing additional suspicion.

Isak didn’t crack a smile, but his voice was full of humor. “Is there a decision coming out of all that heavy processing I see going on?”

“Tonight’s a little busy. I was just trying to find a break in my schedule. But I can definitely meet you at four thirty in the morning.”

He looked a little doubtful that she’d make it again. “Where? Since you have a busy schedule, you pick the place.” He heavily emphasized “busy schedule,” questioning the validity of her words.

“There’s an all-night diner on Peachtree just south of the Fox Theater.” Since they seemed to be back on good terms and she had the patience of a gnat, she went for a quick bit of intel. “Find out anything about what brought that Birrn to the city?”

“Few things.”

She waited, hoping he’d expound, but no. Instead, he took a step forward and wrapped two fingers around her wrist, gently, and lifted her hand, turning her wrist into view.

The casket-shaped IC stamp glowed in the narrow dark space between them.

She should be pulling her arm out of his grasp and giving him reason to keep his hands off her if he’d like to continue using them. That would show more self-preservation than standing here drinking in how delicious he smelled.

“Girls’ night out?” His question had come partnered with a smile that warmed his appeal even more.

She shrugged. “I don’t have girlfriends.” On second thought, she did have one female she considered a friend, but Nicole was a witch and Evalle had never done a girls’ night out with anyone. No point in recanting that now.

“Boyfriends?”

“No.” She’d answered too quickly and realized too late how that sounded. No girlfriends. No boyfriends. No human friends. “I mean I have friends that are male but not like a boyfriend.”

That answer pleased him, which left her feeling the need to explain her lack of social life. “I work a lot.”

“At night.”

“Yes. Never been much for the daytime.”

“Why’s that?”

The more she said right now the easier it would be to hang her later. She lifted her watch into view just for show. “I’d love to finish this conversation, but I’ve got somewhere I have to be in the next twenty minutes.”

He studied her face and hair, his gaze pausing on a detail, then roaming again, intimately, like a visual caress that made her shiver even in this heat.

Being the center of that intensity bumped up her heartbeat in a funny way. Part suspicion and part attraction.

Neither made her comfortable.

She took a step to the side, then busied herself with checking that everything was ready to go when her bike was always ready to go. “See you at the diner, okay?”

“I’ll be there.”

She could feel him thinking. If he was Tzader or Quinn, she’d just demand he tell her what was bothering him, but she hesitated with Isak. He was an unknown entity.

He had a gleam in his eye that made her wonder if he picked up on her thoughts. “There’s one thing I haven’t figured out about you.”

She’d pulled on her helmet, but the face shield was up as she straddled the bike. She laughed derisively. “Just one thing you haven’t figured out? I can’t wait to hear what.”

“I’m curious about your aura. Yours is … different.”

He can see auras? Crap. She’d anticipated a lot of questions, but not that one.

“Different?” she asked, hoping he missed the slight quiver in her tone. “How so?”