The Thief (Black Dagger Brotherhood #16)(137)

“Oh, God. The poor thing. Of course, bring her here.” Jane shook her head. “She may not live.”

“But at least we won’t have more documentation. We don’t need that shit. And I already stripped her memories—she was on to us, posting on this blog of hers. It’s supposed to be all taken down now, but yeah, she’s still doing it. At least I know where she lives. There isn’t time before sunlight comes, but at nightfall, I’ll go get her, even if she doesn’t like it.”

Jane traced the tattoos on his temple with her fingertips. “Good. I’ll help in any way I can.”

“You always do.” He smiled a little—which for her Vishous was like anybody else breaking out into a clown grin. “Hey. You wanna go have sex.”

Jane laughed. “Yes. I do.”

“OhmyfuckingGodthatisSOtherightanswer.”

As he stood up, he took her with him, carrying her down the hall as if she weighed nothing—except then he stopped for some reason.

Turning in his arms, she smiled and looked at the floor. “Hey, Boo. What are you doing here?”

The household’s black cat meowed up to her, as if in greeting, and then pawed like it wanted to be let into the tunnel.

“I think he wants to go down into—”

“I got it,” V said tightly as he leaned to the wall and released the lock on the door. “Go on, there—that’s it.”

As the cat disappeared, he shut things up and refocused. “Now. Where were we?”

“How’d Boo get in here?”

“I, ah…I let it in.”

“You don’t like cats.”

“I know.” He kept going. “Now let’s concentrate on us.”

When they got to their room, he kicked the door shut and threw her on the bed. Then he loomed over her like he wanted to eat her.

“You are so fucking hot,” he growled.

She eyed the enormous bulge in his leathers. “You are not so bad yourself.”

Except he stayed where he was. Clearing his throat, he said, “I think I’m going to get rid of the penthouse. You know, too many bad memories there.”

Jane stared up at him for a moment. “You love it there.”

“With you, yeah. But whatever. I don’t want you to ever wonder, you know. Ever.”

Her smile was slow and she held her arms out to him. “Come here.”

Vishous joined her, lying half on and half off her body. As his diamond eyes met hers, she felt no hesitation at all.

“I trust you,” she said.

V blinked a number of times—as if he were having a moment—and then he pressed his lips to her own with a smile.

“I love you, too, Jane Whitcomb. Forevermore.”





SIXTY-FIVE


Assail did not sleep. At all. Even as the post-feeding loginess settled in, he was wide fucking awake.

Because he figured out what Marisol and Vishous had been arguing about. He knew exactly what the subject had been, and why V had been so cranked off, and why his Marisol had, as always, absolutely refused to budge.

He looked across the wall at the clock and tried not to freak out that she had been gone nearly two hours. “Goddamn it—”

The door opened, and as his female stood between the jambs, he was at once overjoyed and ready to yell at her.

“I know what you did,” he said sharply. “You went to Benloise’s house, didn’t you. You went to see his sister.”

Marisol at least had the grace to look sheepish. “Now, Assail—”

“Don’t you ‘now, Assail’ me! You could have gotten yourself killed!”

“Didn’t we just do this, with different pronouns,” she muttered as she forced the door closed faster than its hinges appreciated. “And she was going to kill you—if we stay in Caldwell, she would have found you and—”

“Is she dead,” he demanded tightly.

“Yes. Someone is going to find her with a bronze statue on her head and a shattered teacup about six feet from the body in the rear promenade of her brother’s house.” Marisol put her hand up. “And, I was a good little assassin—I didn’t go in. I had a clean shot and I took it and made it count. Then I left and now I’m home, and we are never speaking of this again. You took care of Ricardo for me, I took care of his sister for you, and now we are both out of that life for good. Vishous and his people are going to have to buy all those bullets from somebody else. They’re not stupid. They’ll figure it out.”

Assail crossed his arms over his chest. “I do not approve.”

“Which was why I didn’t ask you.”

She sidled up to the bed, taking off her parka. Then her fleece. Then her…

As her naked breasts made a stunning appearance, and his sex punched out in an erection that could have jacked up the back of a car, he forgot all about being upset.

Which was not fair.

“You’re trying to distract me,” he complained as she started to take off her pants. “You’re…oh, God…”

No panties. She wasn’t wearing panties.

“Is it working,” she said with a slow turn back toward the door.

“Fuck,” he breathed as she sashayed over and locked things. “Yes.”