Page 126 of Vampires and Violas

“You,” I hiss. “Iknowyou.”

He’s the thug who blocked my escape when I tried to get out of Ethan’s house with Olivia. The man is easily six-four and muscular, with an ample amount of padding protecting his vital organs. He appears to be of Hawaiian descent, and he looks like he’s happier to see me than I am him.

Hilo nods like I said hello, and then his eyes pass to Noah. “You’re not really a firefighter, are you?”

“And you’re not really throwing a birthday party,” Noah answers, though his attention is on Sam.

“Nice to see you again, Montgomery,” Sam says, looking less pleasant than usual.

“You two know each other?” I whisper, edging closer to Noah, still holding these ridiculous flowers.

“That’s Ethan’s assassin,” Noah says.

“The man who tried tokillyou?” I gasp.

“Yeah.” Noah glances at the men who are moving up behind us. “Apparently, he brought more backup this time.” He smiles at Sam. “You fought me twice and decided you needed to recruit seven more guys to take me down? That’s flattering.”

“Maybe don’t antagonize the murderer,” I suggest quietly, making Noah chuckle.

Though he appears unconcerned, I feel his tension. He’s like a coiled spring.

My eyes move to Sam’s bruised jaw, and I realizeIdid that when I head-butted him. That was me. I maimed the assassin.

“You tried to kidnap me,” I accuse. Sure, we weren’t close, but still. It’s rude.

“I was hoping you’d go out with me, and we could make it easy. But you turned me down.”

“Your employer taught me I should never date customers.”

“You’re a final-stage vampire,” Noah says, interrupting our conversation. “How are you out in broad daylight?”

Maybe he’s genuinely curious, or perhaps he’s buying time to figure out how we’re going to get out of this.

“I stole the daylight drugs off your porch in Denver,” Sam says, like it should be obvious. “You really shouldn’t leave those lying around.”

Noah grunts, and I realize Sam was the guy Marissa saw snooping around my mailbox. He was hoping to intercept Noah’s prescription.

“When will NIHA share that with their black-market partners?” Sam asks. “They work great.”

Noah narrows his eyes. “Excuse me?”

Sam grins as he strolls up to us, probably thinking he’s safe since he has us surrounded. “Don’t play dumb. You’re the chief of investigations. You know we’re not getting our meds from the pharmacy.”

Noah smiles again, his eyes sharp. “Tell me more about your black-market contact at NIHA. A name would be great.”

“I’d love to chat, but I have a birthday party to get to, and we’re running out of time.”

“There’s actually a birthday party?” I ask.

“Yeah, for my niece,” Sam says slowly, like he’s worried I’m having trouble keeping up. “You made the flowers.”

“When we came back here and saw your thugs, I figured it was a setup.”

“No, the party is real. I’ll take the flowers when we’re done here and send you the money tonight.”

“Why would you send me money?” I study him. “Aren’t you going to kill us?”

“No, we’re only going to kill him.” He nods to Noah. “But I really do need to get going, so let’s get on with things and discuss how this is going to work. If you don’t give us any trouble, Noah, we’ll let Piper walk out of here.”

---