The Viper's Nest (Kit Davenport #4)(81)

“I know,” I said softly, reaching across the table to take his hand in mine. “Would it help if I slept with you tonight?”

He gave me a watery smile. “It won’t save me while I sleep, but it’ll make me feel a whole hell of a lot better about going to sleep.”

My lips curved into a grin, and I held his gaze. “So, we’re going to Ireland.”

“We are going to Ireland,” he agreed.

A nauseous feeling pooled in my stomach, but I pushed it aside. Wesley needed me, and I’d stop at nothing to be there for him in any way I could.





Epilogue





As it turned out, my guardian’s idea of changing my mind included a whole lot of nudity and alone time. A few days into the week, when my resolve had started cracking, I realized I wasn’t as tough as I thought I was—not against all of them.

From there on out, I made a damn good point of staying busy to the point where they each had minimal amounts of time of persuade me to stay stateside with them.

The day for Wesley and me to leave had arrived though, and they’d had no further luck in tracking down anyone else to help. Not knowing what Wesley was didn’t help matters. Hell, we didn’t even know if this guy in Ireland could help, but he was the only person in the known supernatural community with any affinity to dreams.

We’d yet to find anyone at all with Wesley’s ability to borrow the eyes and ears of crows, so for now the focus was on the dreams.

Our flight wasn’t due to leave for a while yet, so the guys were all out doing fuck knew what, chasing down leads on Native American shamans that were supposed to have the dreamweaving magic.

As for Wes and myself, we were packing up our things. We had no indication of how long this trip would be or whether it’d be a dead end or turn into an extended stay, but the guys wouldn’t be staying on in Los Angeles anyway, so we were packing up everything.

The chime of my mobile phone echoed through the room, and Wesley tossed it across the bed to me so I could answer.

“Hey,” I said, upon picking up the call. Wesley continued to haphazardly throw clothes into his suitcase. No wonder he was always so rumpled. I’d asked him to fold a shirt earlier, and he’d looked at me like I’d grown antlers.

“Dead end,” Caleb grumbled down the phone at me. “Just some fraud in a made-in-China teepee in his backyard.”

“Well, I could have told you that,” I teased him, heading into the living area and tucking my legs up under me. “Will you be back before we leave for the airport? Vali and River said they’re driving us when they get back from sorting out your next safe house.”

“Yup, for sure. You don’t leave for another couple of hours, right?” Caleb double-checked, and I heard Austin murmur something in the background.

“Yeah, like just over three hours from now,” I confirmed, and Caleb made a noise of acknowledgement.

“Austin says we can be back in two if I let him drive. Cole called me a second ago and said he’ll be back around the same time.” Caleb sounded annoyed, and I smiled.

“Guess his lead was a dead end too, then?” I teased. “Don’t worry, Cal. We will probably get to Ireland and find this is a dead end as well and end up back here in two days.”

A knock sounded at the suite door, and I uncurled from my seat to stand up. “Cal, I have to go. Our room service just arrived. I’ll see you soon, though.”

A long sigh came down the phone. “Yeah, I’ll see you soon. Love you, Kitty Kat.”

“Love you too, Caleb,” I whispered back to him, “and your asshole brother who is probably listening right now. I’ll see you both soon.”

Hanging up the call, I tossed my phone onto the coffee table and went to answer the door. We’d both been too lazy to try and make ourselves lunch, so we’d ordered in. It was one of the perks to staying in a hotel, wasn’t it?

“Hi,” I greeted the smartly uniformed hotel worker who stood at the door behind a room service cart, “Just through here would be great. Wes! Food’s here!”

The man dipped his head and pushed the cart into our suite, parking it beside the dining table and offloading the tray carrying my pasta and bread and Wesley’s Thai beef salad. The smell of cheese sauce was already reaching my nose and making my mouth water. Ugh, yum. Carb goodness.

While he did this, I waited by the door, holding it open for him. Call me crazy, but it felt creepy to close the door with a waiter inside the room. Maybe that was just my own insecurities making me paranoid.

“Is that everything, miss?” he asked when everything was set on the table. “Just sign here.” He held out the leather bill folder with the room charge docket, and I scrawled a signature onto it. Not my signature, obviously, just a signature. I wasn’t that dumb.

“That’s everything.” I smiled, holding the door while he pushed his cart out into the hall and then closing it behind him. “Oh yes, cheesy pasta. Come to mama.” I groaned aloud as I rushed over to the table to dig in. I’d skipped breakfast, thanks to a wake-up call of a different sort courtesy of Cole and River—a valid reason to skip meals if there ever was one. But now I was starved.

“Did I just hear you dirty-talking your food?” Wes snickered, coming to join me at the table and giving me an amused smile.