Night Huntress 02.5 - Happily Never After (5 page)

He met her gaze very steadily. "I've done this before. My sire trusts me. Your grandmother trusts me. You're going to have to trust me as well."

She gave him a hard look. One that said she wasn't used to trusting anyone but herself. Chance could appreciate that. He'd lived with it as his credo for most of his human twenty-seven years.

"Look at it this way," he urged her next. "Where are you now? Dependent on Robert's very questionable mercy that he won't kill your brother, that's where. You're using the only bargaining chip you have—yourself—to ensure Frazier's safety, but Robert still holds all the cards. You need to have an ace up your sleeve that Robert won't expect. Well, Isabella, I am that ace, and you can trust that Robert will never expect me at all."

"I'm doing okay," she replied with obvious defensiveness. "I didn't see
you
at the restaurant earlier deflating Robert's hard-on!"

A grin touched Chance's mouth. "Ah, yes.
Your
galloping yeast infection.
A very clever move.
I'm sure Mini-Mob won't be able to get it up for days."

"Mini-Mob?"
Isa
laughed. Chance enjoyed seeing her face light up with it. "An Austin Powers fan, are you?"

"Guilty as charged."

"Wait a minute."
Isa's
laughter cleared at once. "How did you know that? You
weren't
there. How could you possibly know that?"

Because I'd been on the roof of the building across the street, listening to you all night.
And I almost swooped down and ripped Robert's balls off with my bare hands when I heard him suggest that you were going home with him. Robert should thank his lucky stars you had your fake yeast infection as a shield, or he'd never become a father.

But Chance couldn't say that, of course. He couldn't tell
Isa
that he'd been watching her long past what his initial reconnaissance had required.
Or that while she'd been in the shower earlier, he'd lain in her bed just so her scent could wrap all around him.

Yes, whatever word applied to Chance's condition, he had it bad.

"I was following Robert for a chance to get him alone," was what Chance settled on. "So I was near enough to the restaurant earlier to hear what happened. None of them ever knew, and neither did you. I've had some practice with this, Isabella. You can trust me."

He so very much wanted her to trust him, because his deliberate vagueness and these multiple unfinished sentences were wearing. If there was one thing he'd learned in his century-plus of living, it was that honesty was a cornerstone in a relationship. Women would forgive many things, but lies were at the top of their list for unpardonable sins. If
Isa
demanded more direct answers from him, Chance would give them to her. No matter if she was ready to hear them or not.

She chewed on her lip again. Chance watched her and wanted to do the same.

He might be having that "so I'm a vampire," conversation sooner rather than later with her. Inhaling the fragrance of her arousal earlier had almost
outed
him from his coffin, because he'd felt his eyes start to change and fangs press lustfully against his gums of their own accord. Even now, his blood wanted to rush to a particular place, and Chance had to concentrate to send it elsewhere. He pitied human men who had no control over that. The ability to direct his blood where he wanted it to go was just another perk of being a vampire. It beat the hell out of walking around trying to conceal a hard-on, and on the flip side, no vampire
ever
had to worry about impotence.

"Okay,"
Isa
said finally. "I'll let you try to work your mojo on Robert to locate my brother, but if you find out where he is, you
call
me, understand? Because if something goes wrong—"

"Nothing will," Chance interrupted her firmly.

She gave him that look again. The one that said plenty of things had gone wrong in her life. Chance remembered reading that her parents died in a small plane crash while vacationing in the Bahamas when
Isa
was just thirteen. Her grandmother had been the one to raise her and Frasier. Yes,
Isa
would have learned young that life promised no happy endings, but in this case, Chance could at least promise he wouldn't make any mistakes with Frazier.

If he was even still alive.

Chance pushed that thought away. He'd assume Frazier was alive until he was shown his dead body. The fact that Ritchie and Paul hadn't known where he was when he asked them the other night—not that they remembered the body they'd wrapped in plastic had sat up and interrogated them, of course—concerned Chance. He would have thought Robert's top two meatheads would have been privy to that information, but maybe Robert played things closer to the vest. It would be smart of him, considering how weak-minded Smelly and Bowling Ball were. Robert himself was made of sterner stuff. Chance figured he'd have to drink his blood first to get what he wanted out of him, whereas Ritchie and Paul only required the light in his gaze to spill their secrets.

"Nothing will go wrong," Chance repeated, and meant it. If Frazier
Spaga
was still alive, he'd bring him back that way to his sister. If he was already dead… then Chance would see to it that everyone who'd had a part in his demise met the same fate as well.

Isa
gave him a level look. "I'm going to hold you to that."

Chapter 4

Isa
sat across from her grandmother and watched as she made tea. It was their Saturday afternoon ritual that
Isa
would have gladly done herself, but her grandmother was still fiercely independent and wouldn't hear of it. Her only capitulation to
Isa's
concerns about her health was to wear the
LifeCall
alert
Isa
had gotten her.
Isa
noted her thinness and the translucence of her flesh that was common with advanced age, and had to blink back tears.

She'll be gone soon,
Isa
thought with a stab of grief. It was doubly hard, since her grandmother had been both mother and father to her since
Isa
was thirteen, and Frazier even younger at nine. Then a mere five years after her parents had died,
Isa's
grandfather passed as well.

Some people would be broken from grief, but Greta
Spaga
dried her tears after her husband's funeral and said that death was simply part of life. That prolonged mourning only stole the good memories of the person who was gone.
Isa
doubted she'd have the same strength.

Now, over ten years later, Frazier was missing and
Isa
would have agreed to almost anything to keep her grandmother from facing another crushing family loss. The old woman might be strong as steel emotionally, but there was still only so much one person could take.

There was only so much
Isa
could take as well. Robert never said the words directly, but
Isa
knew that her brother wasn't the only collateral he was holding against her. She'd seen Paul and Ritchie drive by her grandmother's a few times when they knew
Isa
was there to spot them. Their actions screamed that more than Frazier would pay if
Isa
refused to do what Robert wanted.

"Here you are," her grandmother said, setting down
Isa's
cup of tea.

"So tell me about Chance," she said, trying to distract
herself
and genuinely wanting to know more about the sexy oddball.

Her grandmother smiled as she set her own cup down with more of a clatter.

"Downright tasty looking, isn't he?" Greta asked slyly.

Isa
almost choked on a swallow. There was no mistaking the wicked note to her grandmother's voice.

"I meant, where'd you meet him? What does he
do
for a living? And how long have you known about Frazier, while we're at it?"

"Hmm, where'd I meet Chance?
A long time ago in
Louisiana
.
What does he do for a living?" Greta paused to cackle. "He doesn't do anything for a
living,
dear. How long have I known about Frazier?
Since he didn't call me on Tuesday three weeks ago to check in.
Frazier always calls me on Tuesdays. He hasn't missed one in the past five years."

Isa's
mouth dropped. Her brother Frazier, who couldn't remember anyone's birthday and who hadn't held a steady job since
Melrose Place
was a hit, called their grandmother faithfully every Tuesday?

Greta
tsked
. "Don't look so shocked. Frazier's a bit high-strung, but so was I at his age. He's settled down a lot,
Isa
. You shouldn't judge him so harshly."

Now
Isa
did choke on her tea, lightly spraying herself with it. Once she'd regained her breath, she was glad it happened. Or she might have shouted, "High-strung? Associating with crime lords is a bit more than
high-strung!
"

But her grandmother didn't need the added worry of learning about how Frazier had cozened up to Robert these past few months. Hell,
Isa
had Frazier to thank for the fact that Robert had even stepped foot in her restaurant in the first place. Sure, Frazier tried to dissuade Robert once he saw the interest Robert immediately took in her, but by then, it had been too late.

"Tell me more about Chance,"
Isa
managed. Anything except how Frazier was a misunderstood softie.

Her grandmother stared at her without speaking for so
long,
Isa
repeated the question, thinking maybe her hearing was finally slipping.

"Oh, I heard you the first time," Greta said, still studying her. "You've always been such a serious child. Why, you stopped believing in Santa Claus
way
before your other friends did, and once your parents died, you stopped believing in a lot more things, didn't you?"

"What does this have to do with Chance?"
Isa
asked, squirming under that too-knowing pale brown gaze.

"A lot," her grandmother replied sharply. "Once your parents were dead, you stopped believing in people themselves. That's why you withdrew from all your friends. That's why you've never let any of your boyfriends get close to you, and that's also why I haven't told you certain things that otherwise, you would know by now."

Isa
stood, looking at her watch with a fake expression of regret. Yes, she'd wanted to find out more about Chance, but not at the price of ripping open wounds she'd tried so hard to forget were there.

"Sorry I can't stay, but I'm supposed to open the restaurant today. That's right, Frank… Frank said he had an appointment. I have to go."

Her grandmother snorted, as eloquent as a twenty-minute dissertation on how
Isa
was full of shit.

"Fine, go. But before you do, I'll say one thing about Chance: Don't think the world contains only what you've been taught at school. Oh no, my dear. That's just the first layer of it."

Isa
gave her a kiss and then got out of there as fast as possible. It would have been easier if her grandmother was wrong, instead of all too accurately nailing her with observations
Isa
would just as soon not acknowledge.

* * *

Chance was outside waiting for
Isa
when she locked up later that night. He saw her start in surprise when she spotted him leaning against the far side of her restaurant's building, and then the tension left her shoulders.

"You scared me," she said accusingly.

He cast a meaningful look around at the almost empty parking lot and the deep shadows where the streetlights failed to penetrate.

"As well you should be wary. You're a beautiful young woman walking without an escort at one in the morning. Why doesn't one of your staff at least see you to you car?"

"Because they're not sexist pigs who think women are incapable of taking care of themselves."

Chance rolled his eyes. "This has nothing to do with feminism. I'm all for gender equality, but the fact remains that women are targeted for more specific crimes than men, and the perpetrators of those crimes often look for circumstances such as these to attack."

"See this?"
Isa
pulled something dark and oblong out of her purse. Chance's mouth twitched.

"Turbo
Vagisil
?"

"No, it's a
taser
!"
Isa
said indignantly. "I can take care of myself, Chance. I've been doing that just fine for the past twenty-nine and a half years
before
you showed up, remember?"

He'd forgotten how hard it was to start a relationship. Casual dating, casual sex, or casual bloodletting was easy, but this? Chance figured it was a good thing he wasn't growing any older.

"Of course," he said, reminding himself that what was once considered polite concern for a lady's well-being was now obviously cause for insult. "But if it's all right with you, I'd like to walk you to your car. I mean no disrespect and I am fully aware that you can take care of yourself. May I?"

Isa
hesitated,
then
nodded. "Okay."