Edge of Midnight (McClouds & Friends #4)(77)

Liv took a deep breath, and shoved the car door open. All she needed. Another challenge. Chatting up the beautiful bad Bond girl.

Sean slid his arm around her waist. “Relax,” he whispered. “What’s with the gun, Tam?” he demanded. “Lighten up.”

“The day I lighten up is the day I get killed.” Tam’s voice was low and husky. “I know your face, but I don’t know hers. She could have been holding a gun to your ribs, for all I knew.”

“I don’t do things like that,” Liv announced.

“I can see that.” Tam took another deep drag on her cigarette and sauntered towards them, hips swaying langorously, keeping Liv’s face in the light and her own in the shadow. “Oh, God, look at you. Looks like I’ll be doing some emergency shopping in the morning.” She grabbed the flapping T-shirt Liv wore and twisted it, to reveal the shape of her body. “Nice tits. Thirty-six double D, size…twelve?”

Liv jerked away, hackles rising. “On a good day. But please don’t bother. I’ll manage.”

Tam took another drag. “I can’t let a sister with a figure like yours dress like that. It’s a crime. Follow me. And take off those shoes.”

Liv stopped on the threshhold, stepping out of her ruined sandals. “Do you have a no-shoes rule in your house?”

“I have a no-ugly-shoes rule in my house,” Tam said coolly.

Sean made a smothered laughing sound, and turned his face away. Liv privately vowed to make him pay for that lapse. In blood.

“Look, lady, I’ve been on the run for my life,” Liv told her, through set teeth. “I’ve had way more important things to think about than—”

“On the run for your life is all the more reason to look your best, cupcake.” Tamara tucked her gun into the back of her jeans, and waved them on ahead of her. “Believe me, I know what I’m talking about.”

Liv stared as Tam tapped in codes to reset the alarms.

“I’ve never seen you with brown hair and yellow eyes,” Sean said.

“Enjoy it while you can,” Tam said. “You may never see it again.”

Tam was slim, muscular, and curvy, a triple combination which Liv took as a personal affront, it being so unfair. Her brown hair was braided, long wisps dangling around the sharp line of her jaw. She had the most astonishingly beautiful face Liv had ever seen. Everything was perfect; high cheekbones, full lips, straight, perfect nose. Her eyes were huge; golden brown, with curling lashes and winged brows. There were smudgy circles beneath them, but what would make another woman look tired and frazzled made Tam look dramatic and mysterious.

She was dressed in faded, low-slung Levis and a tank top that showed off several inches of taut belly. No makeup. Barefoot. Her only jewelry was a gold horn stuck through one ear that tapered to a point, like a fang. Anyone hugging her would probably bleed to death, stuck through the carotic artery. Maybe that was the idea.

Liv felt fat, frumpy and outclassed. She couldn’t stop staring.

Tam ignored her, evidently used to it. She shooed them into a huge kitchen, and turned on a bright overhead light. Liv blinked as the light refracted off an uncountable number of gleaming reflective surfaces. Tam gave Sean a brilliant smile. “Your brothers will be here to kick you around, first thing in the morning.”

Sean groaned. “Shit. Tam, I told you not to—”

“I didn’t have to. Any idiot would guess that you would go to ground here. Let’s just hope that no other idiots know about me.”

Sean gave her a smile that was equally toothy. “Just us idiots.”

“And no one followed you?”

“No.” They eyed each other, like alpha wolves circling.

“Hmm,” she murmured. “Come on, come on.” She grabbed Liv by the arm, and shoved her on one of the stools in front of a big bar.

Her kitchen was amazing. Acres of black gleaming marble counter space, endless expanses of shining silver toned appliances, an enormous double-sized silver refrigerator. A knife block that would be the envy of a professional chef, racks of hanging copper bottomed pans. The place looked like a showroom. It had clearly never been used.

Tam opened the refrigerator, and took out a clear plastic box with several hypodermic needles. “Always prepared.”

Liv blinked at them. “What—hey!” She squawked, struggled, but Tam had already yanked her T-shirt over her head and tossed it. Liv tried to slide off the stool, but Tam’s hand clamped onto her shoulder.

“What the hell? Do you mind?” Liv hissed. “Give me my shirt!”

Tam’s perfect brow tilted. “Sean said you had cuts, and a bite wound. I want to take a look. Allergic to any antibiotics?”

“No!” Liv glared at Sean, who gave her an apologetic shrug. Ineffectual twit. “And I’ve had enough of people ripping my clothes off today to last a lifetime. It is rude!”

Tam examined the bite mark, which was sore and red. “But you have great tits. Sit up straight and show them off.” Tam swabbed Liv’s arm with disinfectant, and stabbed the needle in without warning.

“Ouch!” She jerked, but Tam held her arm firmly in place. “What are you doing to me, anyway? What the hell is that?”

“Broad-spectrum stuff,” Tam said. “Human bites can go bad.” She spun the twirling stool around, swabbed the other arm.