Gaslight (Crossbreed #4)(43)
“Sorry this happened,” he said.
“You don’t have to apologize. It wasn’t your fault.”
“Maybe it was. Remember what I said about choices? If I hadn’t run off to flirt with that brunette, you wouldn’t have gone off with that guy.”
“Did you get lucky?”
He gingerly held my wrist and ran the antiseptic wipe across the wound. “She wanted me to buy her a drink.”
I laughed. “Serves you right. Don’t you ever get tired of this?”
“Of what? Looking for love in all the wrong places?”
“Something like that. Why not meet a girl through friends or in a café?”
“This is the only place where there are no strings attached. Sometimes all a man wants is company. I come here knowing exactly what I want, and I don’t have to look hard. The world is my oyster, Simone. I’m just looking for the pearl.”
“Or trying to make a pearl necklace.”
He gave me a cross look.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” I said with a laugh. “You don’t like strings attached, and it doesn’t sound like you’re looking for just one pearl.”
He placed a large bandage over the cut and smoothed the adhesive around the edges. When he finished, he switched on the radio and turned the volume all the way up, but nothing played. Chase grimaced and closed his door.
One thing I’d learned during my trips to the club was that I needed to brush up on my conversation skills. I got along with humans fine but sometimes lost my filter.
“Well, I should get going. Thanks for the first aid. I hope you find whatever it is you’re looking for.”
He smiled warmly at me. “Already have.”
I held his gaze, transfixed by his hazel eyes. “You’re sweet, but I’m not your type.”
“You’ve always been my type. Would you like to leave this place?”
I felt a strong urge to get as far away from the club as possible. “Yes.”
“Buckle up, and I’ll be your driver.”
I leaned in, my thoughts hazy. “Do I know you?”
Chase laughed and peeled out of the parking lot. “You always ask me that.”
Chapter 12
Christian watched Raven strutting away from the bar toward the plonker with wraparound shades. Clearly the dolt was interested, but Raven got impatient and moved in on her prey.
What he couldn’t figure out was why the feck she walked away from him. But when Boomer rose from his chair, Christian realized it was all part of the plan. Women were devious like that. They must have all attended secret classes on how to drive men wild.
While listening to their conversation in the parking lot, he almost stepped in when Raven agreed to get in the fellow’s car. Being confined in a vehicle with a Vampire reduced her chances of escape, but Raven was a clever girl, and he wanted to see where this led. Christian dipped into the shadows, allowing her to do what she did best—lure men into her trap.
As the scene unfolded, it turned out that Boomer was human.
Dead end.
Christian heard the disappointment in her voice. Raven’s insatiable need to punish her own kind baffled him. It unquestionably had to do with her maker tricking her into this life and then abandoning her, but why couldn’t she have hated her Mage side instead? Some people were wired that way—blaming the one they trusted more than the abuser. The child hating their mother for turning a blind eye on an abusive father. There was no right or wrong way to hate, and what Raven couldn’t spare for her Mage Creator, Christian would happily donate.
What he wouldn’t give to get his hands on that shitebag who’d kept her prisoner. Because she’d taken his surname, that meant her Creator was Fletcher Black. Either it wasn’t his true name, or he worked under an alias, because Christian’s search came up empty. The Breed world was a monstrous place, and those not fortunate enough to be recruited through the Council’s approval process were often brought in illegally as slaves. The man had wounded Raven’s soul in a way that couldn’t be undone, but her fears kept her searching for a parallel enemy.
A human trying to play hero stopped his car in front of Raven and Boomer before getting out and shooing off the cross-eyed dunderhead. Christian was about to follow Boomer and charm him into thinking he was a cartoon mouse named Speedy, but then Raven mentioned she’d left her purse inside.
He cursed under his breath and went to grab it so they could be on their way. Viktor would murder them if they lost another phone.
Christian passed a few women he’d wasted hours flirting with—women he didn’t find attractive. And wasn’t that astonishing? Surrounded by gorgeous, desperate women, and all he could think about was Raven in those delicious leather pants, all covered up with just her bare shoulders visible. Shoulders he wanted to put his mouth on and taste.
Jaysus. He hadn’t felt this tortured over a woman in ages. Perhaps he was a glutton for punishment.
After a thorough search around the bar, he called over the bartender. When Christian described the sparkly clutch, the young fella reached under the bar and handed it over. Just as he turned away, a piercing sound filled the room like a steady fire alarm. Something must have gone haywire with the sound system. It was so penetrating that voices around him muffled. Tuning out the noise proved impossible without muting everything. With one finger plugged in his ear, he staggered toward the front door. As he took a final look over his shoulder, his hair stood on end.