Bitter Blood (Blood and Moonlight Book 3)(53)

Jane.

Roth glanced to the right, to the images that he had pinned to his cork bulletin board. Shots of Mary Jane Hart were up there. Mary Jane with her gun drawn as she faced a thief. Mary Jane as she prowled through a cemetery. Mary Jane as she stood outside of Hell’s Gate with that big, dangerous bastard Aidan Locke at her side.

Roth quickly glanced away from those photos even as he edged closer to the bulletin board. Without looking directly at the image of Jane again—for some reason, he just didn’t want to do that—he reached out and grabbed the photos. He tossed them into the trash.

“What the actual f*ck are you doing?” The man who’d followed him home demanded.

Before Roth could speak, the fellow had grabbed him and shoved him against the wall. The guy held him there, far too easily. And Roth found that he didn’t want to look the fellow in the eyes, not directly.

Because…

Because I know he’s not human, no matter what he might want me to think.

“You let Aidan Locke get to you,” the man snarled. “I told you he was dangerous. That you could never get f*cking close to him. I gave you the lotion to use in order to hide your scent from him. He wouldn’t have known you were ever close…”

Roth hadn’t wanted to talk to the guy at the coffee shop, and, honestly, he’d been kind of dazed when he first walked in the place. It had taken him a few moments to even recognize his employer of the last year.

The last year.

Yeah, he’d met the secretive * a long time ago, long before he’d ever encountered Mary Jane for the first time. The sly bastard had offered him one thousand dollars a week to watch her.

A thousand dollars? When he’d barely been bringing in anything with his art work? Hell, yes, Roth had jumped at the chance. Especially since Jane was just the type of pretty brunette he liked to watch, anyway.

And I’d gotten paid for the gig. I thought it was my lucky f*cking day.

He wasn’t feeling so lucky any longer.

“Aidan Locke is an alpha werewolf,” his boss snapped. “He can play with your head and you wouldn’t even know it.”

Actually, he did know it. His temples were throbbing. Nausea rolled in his stomach.

“What did you tell him about me?”

“N-nothing,” Roth said. That was the truth, he hoped. He hadn’t told the guy anything about his boss. At least, he didn’t think he had. The whole scene was kind of blurry in his mind.

“Why don’t I believe you?” His boss dropped his hold on Roth and paced away.

Because you’re not a very trusting bastard?

“Aidan could have made you forget every single f*cking thing you said to him.” The boss peered out of the blinds that covered Roth’s windows. “He could be hunting me, even now. Dammit, I needed more time.”

His boss was seriously pissed.

“Aidan won’t forget you,” his boss said. “He’ll start digging into your life. He’ll want to learn everything he can about you. And if he digs too hard into your world, he’ll find me.”

Roth’s heartbeat was racing in his chest. The job had taken a far darker turn six months ago, and yeah, the money had increased to go along with the new orders. First his payment had increased to five grand a week, then to ten grand recently, and the money had been so good that he hadn’t cared that some people were getting hurt.

When you went so long without money, getting it…well, it could change a man.

The boss's rage wasn't a good thing. It was very, very bad, and Roth tried to defuse the situation before it headed to hell. “I gave the other wolf the blood!” Roth said quickly. “Just like you said to do!”

“At least you did something right.” A dark mutter.

Roth notched up his chin. “More than just something. I’ve been doing exactly what you told me, all along.” Maybe the boss needed a reminder. “I-I broke into the ME’s lab the night it caught on fire, remember? The night Jane changed? I snuck in there while Jane was still out cold on the ME’s slab. Heider had samples of her blood and I took them, without him even noticing me.” And one of those samples had been given to Paris. See—I was following orders.

“Yes,” the man acknowledged. “That night, you did very, very well.”

Roth blew out a low breath. Damn straight, I did well. “And when I gave it to the other wolf, to Paris, I was doing exactly what you wanted. I’ve always done what you wanted.”

This time, a soft smile flickered over his boss’s face. “You have.”

Roth began to relax. This was good. He was going to be okay. “I’ve done all the tests, monitored Jane’s progress exactly as you wanted.” Hell, maybe by the time he was done talking, the boss would even give him a raise. “Look, I won’t make the mistake of getting near Aidan Locke again, okay?” It had just been a screw-up that night. He’d taken pictures when he shouldn’t have lingered. “I’ll keep doing my job and no one will know what’s happening.”

His boss nodded as he came closer. “It is important for no one to understand what’s happening. At least, not yet.”

“I won’t breathe a word—”

The boss’s hand flew out and locked around Roth’s throat. “I know you won’t. After all, it’s incredibly hard for the dead to speak.”