Extreme Danger (McClouds & Friends #5)(114)

Blood drained from Becca’s face, and the warmth from her body disappeared into an invisible sinkhole, leaving her ice cold and shivering with fear, to hear that name invoked here.

“What do you know about that?” she whispered.

Tam smiled, and chucked Becca under the chin. “Ah, sweetheart,” she murmured. “I know everything.”

An uncomfortable silence followed, and after a few teeth-grinding seconds of it, Seth clapped his hands together heartily. “Uh, well, then. Moving right along. Raine made me promise not to ask any questions about that crazy shit, but since Tam’s already broken the ice—”

“Seth!” Raine said, in a warming tone. “I meant what I said.”

“But I want more details!” Seth complained. “Nick just gave us bare bones, and I mean, white, bleached, dry as dust bones. Tightlipped son of a bitch. Mr. Monosyllable. It breaks my balls.”

Becca floundered for a moment. “Ah, well, maybe after some more time has gone by,” she hedged. “It’s not something I want to dwell on.”

Not while she was on the man’s hit list, that was for sure.

“What did I tell you?” Raine tapped her husband’s chest with an admonishing finger. “Jerk. Now you pay the penalty.”

“Oh, no!” Seth turned a comically sad face Becca’s way. “She’s boycotting my second favorite sexual activity for a week!”

Becca held back giggles. “Oh, dear. That’s terrible. What will you do?”

“Oh, I’ll live,” he assured her. “There’s always my first favorite activity to fall back on, and there’s nothing I love more than—ow!” He turned to Raine, looking hurt. “Hey! Those stiletto heels are sharp!”

Raine shot Becca a sidelong, embarrassed smile. “Sorry about that,” she said. “He’s a wild animal. I told him not to bug you about it. I can well imagine why you wouldn’t want to talk about Zhoglo.”

“Don’t.” Nick’s adamant voice cut across Raine’s and silenced everyone at the table. “Don’t mention his name. He might hear you.”

Everyone turned to look at Nick, who was staring down at Tam, slit-eyed.

“So what’s Milla up to?” Davy asked quietly.

Nick shrugged. Tam smiled coolly back at him. “Plying her trade,” he said. “Nothing out of the ordinary. Hey, Tam.”

“Nikolai,” she cooed. “At last we meet. You’ve been avoiding me like a pro all day. And here I was, dying to meet the virgin sacrifice.”

“Yeah? Were you?” His jaw was taut. “And?”

“She’s absolutely succulent,” Tam said. “I congratulate you on your lovely acquisition. So my confidence was not betrayed in vain, hm? And my contact was not put in mortal danger for nothing. At least you’re finally getting properly laid. There’s an up side to everything, eh?”

Becca leaped to her feet. “It wasn’t his fault that I showed up and ruined everything! So you can just back off, lady!”

Her voice rang loud enough so that people from the other tables started to look around, intrigued. Nick gave her a startled look.

“Lay off, Tam,” Erin said, her face somber as she cuddled her suckling baby. “Don’t be a horrible bitch.”

“Sorry, Erin. Face reality. Unfortunately, I am a horrible bitch,” was Tam’s crisp rejoinder. “Let him defend himself. Our Nikolai, the constant f*ck-up. You’ll see what I mean, honey, when that inevitable day comes that you’re on the receiving end of one of his big, fat, mortal errors. If you live long enough to realize what happened, that is.”

Becca bristled. “He is not a f*ck-up!”

“No?” Tam’s crack of laughter had a brittle edge to it, like broken glass. “Ask him to tell you about Novak sometime.”

Davy’s chair scraped as he rose to his feet and glowered down at her. “Goddamnit, Tam. Leave, if you can’t bring yourself to be civil.”

“Civil?” Tam snorted. “Civility is just the denial of reality. I’m very bad at denying reality. I suppose that’s why I tend to be unpopular.”

Becca grabbed Nick’s hand. It was stiff and unresponsive.

The look on his face made her stomach clench. The man she’d been kissing and laughing with and dancing with was gone. His face was pale and his eyes had that dead flatness they’d had during the very worst moments of their deadly adventure this weekend.

She hated to see him like that. All the life drained out of his beautiful face, grim, iron-jawed endurance in its place.

“I think it’s time for us to take a break,” she said, to the table at large. “It was a fabulous party. Thank you for being so welcoming and sweet to me. It was great to meet you all.” She shot a cold glance at Tam. “Except for you.” She grabbed Nick’s hand. “Come on, Nick.”

He followed her like an automaton.

Chapter

24

N ick allowed himself to be towed along. His limbs felt stiff.

He was a fool for giving in to it. Letting himself go, getting mushy and mellow. After a lifetime of training, he oughta know better.

Well, hell. He was used to being a disappointment, after seeing that look on his father’s face for years.