The Curse (Belador #3)(62)

“You must have seen Isak more than once for him to bring you to the warehouse.” Kit could probably play poker with the pros in Las Vegas. She had an unreadable face.

“We’ve crossed paths a few times.”

That drew an indulgent twist of Kit’s lips. “Isak called to tell me he was bringing a friend here. That’s enough alone to pique my curiosity since Isak hasn’t exactly been social since losing his best friend since high school to an Alterant. Then you show up … and he finds out the truth about you.”

Things had been going pretty good until Kit reminded Evalle of Isak’s loss.

She needed to convince Kit that she presented no threat to humans. “Just so we’re clear, I did not come here to harm anyone or to sabotage your operation.”

“I can accept that.”

That sounded promising. Almost too easy.

Then Kit asked, “What are you to Isak?”

“We’re friends.” Evalle said that before she’d thought about it, but they were friends, at least from her point of view. She doubted Isak would agree at the moment. Worse than angry, he’d been disappointed when he found out he’d been associating with an Alterant, as if her being dangerous wasn’t nearly as bad as her lying to him about her identity.

Questions buzzed silently through the room until Kit snagged one from the air. “How long ago did you two meet?”

“Couple months back, not long.” Evalle preferred questions about the demon, the forklift-driver Rías in Kit’s lockup or the weapon Evalle had come here hoping to borrow.

Evalle would disappoint a string of men today. First Isak, now Tzader and Quinn, who had put their faith in her returning with a weapon for the team.

The door between the office and the warehouse opened and closed behind her on a soft hush of air, but she didn’t hear footsteps. No doubt one of the men had stuck his head in, realized Kit had a meeting in progress and withdrew just as quietly.

“What kind of friend of Isak’s are you?” Kit asked with enough steel in her voice that Evalle caught the protective warning.

How do I answer that? I haven’t had so many friends that I’ve had to break them down into categories. I thought you were either a friend or not.

Evalle gave Kit the best answer she could. “The kind who has eaten dinner with Isak and who told him about how to see the Rías in a dangerous fog that covered parts of the country a few weeks ago. I fought a Rías on my way through Atlanta and was forced to kill it to protect a human, then I ran into Isak and gave him a tip about the fog camouflaging the shifted beasts.”

“Dinner?” Kit mused aloud. “You went on a date with Isak?”

Of course Kit picked up on that and not Evalle’s point about helping her son. Evalle had never been on a date and doubted what Isak had done that night qualified as such. “Not exactly.”

“How exactly?”

Evalle wouldn’t win any points with Isak’s mom by saying he’d sent a team to kidnap her, but that’s what had happened.

“We had dinner at the hangar,” Isak said, entering Kit’s office.

Had he been standing in the other room behind Evalle all this time? She angled her head up so she could assess his mood when he stopped next to her chair.

He glanced down at her with ice-blue eyes that could drop the temperature ten degrees before he looked away to address his mother. “She missed a meeting. I sent the men on a ‘snatch and grab.’”

Kit’s poker face fell away with a scowl. “You kidnapped her for dinner?”

Isak moved one stiff shoulder in a half shrug. “I had to interrogate her … it.”

He what? It? Evalle had originally thought he’d hauled her into his hangar for a browbeating, but that had been before he’d acted like the perfect gentleman and served her a mouthwatering Italian dinner he’d prepared.

Then he’d kissed her.

She turned all the way to face him. “Interrogation? Really? That’s not how I remember it, Isak.”

“I’m not speaking to you, Alterant.” He crossed his arms, eyes staring straight ahead, refusing to look at her.

“Well, I’m talking to you, buster.” Evalle stood up with her hands balled at her sides and stepped in front of him, turning her back on Kit.

That should have forced Isak to face her, but he stared over her shoulder.

She would not tolerate his attitude. “Okay, the secret is out. I am an Alterant and there’s no twelve-step program to cure it. But I’ve also put my life on the line many times to protect humans. You can be mad at me for not telling you the truth, but you cannot stand there and judge me for things I haven’t done.”

His jaw muscle clenched, but he made no sign of listening to her.

She wanted to pound on his chest to make him see her again like he had before. As a woman. But he only saw a beast, so she stuck to facts. “I’m sorry you lost your friend to an Alterant, but I didn’t do that.” She nodded when his eyes finally shot to hers. “I can understand how you feel about losing someone who’s important to you. That was one reason I tried to avoid you, but you wouldn’t stay away from me.”

That square jaw of his moved when he ground his teeth. Blue eyes turned thunderstorm gray, but he didn’t say a word.

She unballed her fingers, dragging as much calm from her next breath as she could before she spoke.