Page 73 of Touch of Evil

My guess is she wants me to say something,anythingabout us. Except that I can’t.

We hop up on the front porch and wait together at the door.

Ordinarily, I’d walk inside with her, shoot the shit with her family, and maybe sit and catch a movie with them. But in one night, everything changed. I don’t see myself hanging like I used to with my girls, and I swear to Christ, it breaks my damn heart.

Emme shuffles her feet. “We’re planning a late dinner tonight to celebrate being home as a family again.”

“Hmm,” I say.

“I’m cooking,” she says when I keep my trap shut. “And I’d like you to come.”

See? This is what I mean. Before yesterday, she wouldn’t need to ask. She would just tell me what time dinner was and I’d be there. Now, hell, I don’t know what to say.

“If you don’t want to, I’ll suppose I’ll just see you around,” she says. She glances down, like girls do when they’re trying not to cry. “But if you do come, then I’ll know you want to give us a try.”

My knuckles crack and a sting pricks along my eyes. I hate this. All of it.

“Em?”

“Yes, Bren?”

“I don’t think you’ll see me tonight.”

She nods, quickly, trying to be braver than I can scent she feels. “All right,” she says.

Emme takes a step back when I try to kiss her, and I swear it’s the last punch in the gut I need. I try to tell her how sorry I am, but then the door swings open and I know I’m in trouble.

I jolt. There, as clear as day, is the head of the Wird Family.

Celia prowls through the door, her big mane of waves fluttering as she moves and the green eyes of her tigress flashing. Emme never quite understood how wickedly terrifying Celia can be.

“All right, maybe she’s killed demons, vampires,weres, and a couple of humans, but otherwise she’s really sweet,” Emme always asserted.

No. Celia isn’t sweet. Not when I just banged her little sister like a drummer at the Fourth of July parade.

“Hey,” she says.

“Hey, Ceel.” I clutch Emme by the shoulders and shove her into Celia’s arms. “Well, here she is. Safe and sound.”

Celia shoots me a look, it’s similar to the one Emme and Dan gave me earlier. Still, she embraces Emme. “I would expect no less,” she replies. “You were together, weren’t you?”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I snap.

Celia releases Emme slowly. She turns to me, arms crossed and eyebrows raised. Oh, and look, there’s that killer predator poking through again. “What do you think it means, Bren?”

“Nothing.” I back away, my hands up in surrender. “Well, gotta go.”

I peel out of that neighborhood like Celia already knows. More than once I look back to see if she’s following. I’m a dead man. Jesus God, I am dead.

Chapter Twenty

Bren

It’s official: Dan has transformed me into a nerd. I might as well tear up my alpha male card in exchange for a library card.

I arrive back at my apartment to find Dan waiting like the mother hen that he is.

He stands, his eyes peering at the paper grocery bag in my grip. “What did you buy?”

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