Total pages in book: 163
Estimated words: 154735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 619(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
“I didn’t sense anything. I’m sorry.”
Turning away, he caught the one with the goatee narrowing his diamond eyes—and nearly said, Well, what the hell do you want me to do. We don’t belong here and we have to go—
“You’re lying.”
Eddie froze. Looked over his shoulder.
The King had lowered his chin, and holy fuck, for a moment it was like Dracula was alive and well—and about to work some fang action.
Then the male touched the side of his nose. “I can smell it. You didn’t lie when you first came to my home.” That forefinger shifted away from the harsh face to point to the door the blond mountain was still leaning against. “Out there, in my courtyard. You were surrounded by my private guard, but you did not lie. What’s changed.”
Fucking hell, Eddie thought.
He pivoted back around. “I told you why we came. It’s not to get involved with your business, it’s to finish our own.”
“As of tonight, the two can’t be disentangled.”
“Sure they can. All we did was leave our car by your garage down in town. With your permission.”
“You have intel that is pertinent to that property. Tell me what it is, and you’re free to go.”
Eddie glanced back at the blond. “No offense to what he can bench-press, but your boy—or boys—aren’t going to stop us.”
“Oh, I’m aware you can leave right now.” On that note, the blond made a gallant bow and stepped aside with his ice cream. “You’ll just have to deal with your conscience. And given that you’re immortal, you’ve got a long runway ahead of you to carry guilt-related baggage. Probably already have some weighing you down. More the merrier, though, right?”
“You don’t know me,” Eddie snapped.
As there was a collective growl around the room, like a pride of lions had woken up hungry all at once, the King made a dismissive swipe with his hand.
“Relax, ladies. The angel is just getting defensive because he doesn’t like a stranger walking around the inside of his skull. And now he’s going to take his little buddy and go out our front door. Maybe even return to that house of mine in town and squeeze into his car. Drive off—and pretend that not sharing material information with people who treated him with respect doesn’t bother him because he’s a fucking tough cookie.”
Eddie muttered to himself. And then glanced at Ad.
When the angel just shrugged, all what-can-you-do, Eddie wondered why—why—everything on earth had to be such a G-D struggle. Three years of searching, they finally find Lassiter… and now this sh—
Stuff, he corrected.
“You know what it was,” he said roughly to the males who had searched the house. “Why are you going to make me put a label on it.”
None of them moved—which told him that they still had slim hope, very slim hope, that the conclusion they hadn’t yet put into words would somehow remain invalidated. Provided no one talked about it.
Funny, he felt the same way.
“You fucking vampires,” he muttered as he let his head fall back in defeat. “Why you gotta be like this.”
“Can I shoot him?” someone asked. “Just on principle—”
“No,” the King snapped. “You can’t fucking shoot him. Fritz has enough going on tonight without having to shop-vac silver blood off the fucking carpet.”
Well, excuse me if my arterial breach ruins your butler’s night, Eddie thought.
“I bleed red, for one thing.” He re-leveled his head, having found no cogent advice in the ornate ceiling. “And fine. I believe you call him the Omega. Ad and I know him by another name, but that doesn’t matter for your purposes.”
There was no argument from anyone. And the King didn’t move a muscle, that face composed as a mask.
“That’s not what you’re really worried about, though, is it.” Eddie nodded at the door. “The butler’s fine. There’s nothing in him that shouldn’t be in there, in a spiritual sense. But I’ll tell you this: If you hadn’t showed up when you did?” He glanced at the goateed vampire, and then the other two who had been there first. “I can’t imagine what would have happened.”
“I let the cat check him out,” Vishous added. “As soon as Fritz pulled up in the Ranger Rover. Boo went right over to him. I figured he had to be okay.”
“He is.” Eddie inclined his head. “And if the evil had tampered with him in any way, I would know. I’ve seen it before, and no matter how cleverly disguised, I always know. So does that feline, apparently.”
The King’s obvious relief broke through all that composure, and the guy leaned to the side and stroked his golden retriever’s flank.
“See,” Wrath said as he straightened. “That wasn’t so bad.”
Actually, it was. Because the goddamn long-haired, widow’s-peaked bastard was right. Eddie’s conscience was getting to him. For a bunch of tough guys, there was something about them that just made you want to roll up your sleeves and help row the frickin’ boat.