Undead Or Alive (Bad Things #3)(17)

He was yanking open the door, she was standing there in her bra—so Amber gave a quick cry and yanked the shirt back on as fast as she could. But she hadn’t needed to worry, he never let the guy at the door inside. Instead, Cass yanked a vase full of roses from the visitor and shoved a wad of bills at him.

“Thank you, sir, I—”

Cass slammed the door shut.

“That is so rude,” she muttered as she hurriedly put on her shoes.

Cass stared down at the flowers. “They…are?”

“Not them. Roses aren’t rude. Slamming the door is rude. You were supposed to thank him, and then nicely shut the door.”

“I gave him money and I did shut the door.” He paced toward her, the vase and those beautiful flowers held out in front of him.

“Yeah, but…” Her words trailed off. “Have you ever ordered room service before?”

“No.” He had his arms fully extended and the vase was right in front of her.

She looked at the blood-red roses then up at his face, then back at the roses. She frowned. “Is that…chocolate in there?”

“It better be.”

He was giving her chocolate and roses. He was holding the vase as if it were some sort of bomb, but the guy was actually giving her what she’d asked for…and despite everything, Amber found herself laughing. “Cass…is this your seduction routine?”

His cheeks heated. He glared at the roses. “You don’t like them.”

“I do, actually. Roses are my favorite.”

His gaze shot back to her. The big, bad Reaper. He looked so uncertain as he held those flowers out to her. She started to take them from him, but then her gaze fell on the gloves once more. Such powerful magic.

Almost like the magic she’d once possessed.

Sadness slid through her. Goosebumps rose on her arms.

“Amber?”

Her breath whispered out as she confessed, “I may have lied to you—”

She didn’t get to say anything else. The big window to her right suddenly exploded inward, sending chunks of glass flying toward her. Amber lifted her arms, instinctively trying to cover her face from the assault, but she knew it was useless. Too much glass. Too fast. Too—

Cass was in front of her. He grabbed her, pulling her face against his chest and shielding her with his body as that glass battered at them. She could smell blood in the air—knew it had to be his—and she struggled to look up at him.

“Well, well…” A low, growling voice filled the room. “Look what I found.”

That voice wasn’t familiar to her. Not Luke. Not Leo.

Cass turned, still holding her tightly in his arms. An alarm was going off all around them—probably because the window had just exploded inward. And some guy—some guy with brown hair and dark eyes and a smirk on his face had just walked right out of the night and into their room.

He shattered the window. We’re on the freaking fourteenth floor—the guy flew up here and shattered the window.

The stranger’s smirk stretched and she saw his fangs. Vampire.

Cass’s hold tightened on her. “Gregory.”

“Holding out on me, old friend?” Gregory shook his head. “Because the word on the street is that you took another job for the Lord of the Dark.”

This was bad. This was so bad. She tried to ease from Cass’s grip. Her shoe crunched down on glass, but…not broken glass from the floor-to-ceiling window. Broken glass from the vase. It had shattered. Cass must have dropped it when he’d reached for her. The flowers had spilled onto the floor, and the roses looked like blood.

“Is she the bounty? She must be…Amber, I believe her name is. After a little persuasion, a friend down in New Orleans told me a bit about her.”

Persuasion from a vampire generally meant he’d drained some poor fool and forced the guy to talk. Amber wondered who’d told this guy about her. Maybe one of her regulars at the bar?

“Gregory, get the f*ck out of here before I stake your ass.” Cass turned to confront the vamp, pushing her behind him and Amber had to gasp. There were at least a dozen shards of glass in his back. Big, thick shards.

They looked so painful. Her hand lifted and her fingers curled around the biggest chunk of glass—the one that was about an inch from his spine. She grabbed it and slowly pulled that chunk out. His blood soaked the glass and she tossed it to the floor. Then Amber reached for another piece.

“Cassius, you have an unfair advantage when it comes to bounty hunting. I mean, where’s the danger when all you have to do is touch your prey in order to collect? Too easy. Hardly sporting of you.”

“Gregory…”

“But when the prey has to be brought back alive, then things are different. That’s the hard part for you, right, my friend?”

Cass gave a bitter laugh. “Is that what we are? Friends?”

She dropped another glass chunk to the floor and reached for a third.

“We used to be family,” Gregory said. “We could be again.”

Amber did a double-take. Cass’s family included a vamp?

Gregory made a low, humming noise. “I’m guessing that pretty little piece behind you is one of those Bring-In-Alive bounties…or else she wouldn’t still be standing. Tell you what…how about we split her bounty? I know Luke is the one who wants her, and I’ve been trying to get an in with him for quite some time.”