Page 67 of Bad Luck Vampire

“Derek Winston,” Sophie answered unhappily.

Tybo immediately turned away again and she heard him repeat the name into the phone.

Sophie lowered her gaze and shifted unhappily in her seat. She’d lost so many loved ones over the years. She’d known that of course. But now that she was having to list them out... there were so many, and not one of them had been by natural causes.

“Tell us about Derek,” Connor requested gently.

Sophie forced herself to sit up and said, “He was an agent at the insurance company where I work. We hit it off and started dating. But we kept it quiet at first because... well, office romance, hello? I was afraid Papa—Mr. Tomlinson—wouldn’t approve,” she explained. “We dated for nearly a year, and things were going great, and then Derek proposed.”

She lowered her head unhappily. “I said no at first because I was afraid everyone would be upset, not just that I’d dated someone in the office, but that we’d snuck around to do it. We fought about it. He wanted to come out in the open with our relationship. I didn’t. Finally, he convinced me to accept his proposal and the ring with the caveat that I’d wear it on a necklace under my blouse until he figured out a way to make our relationship public without upsetting everyone.”

Her hand moved automatically to her chest where the ring used to lie nestled between her breasts. It wasn’t there anymore. She’d stopped wearing it last year, a year after his death.

“Derek’s figuring it out was to look for a job elsewhere,” Sophie continued finally. “About a month later he’d found one, and gave notice at the insurance company.” She smiled faintly at the memory. “We were going to wait a couple weeks and then ‘start dating,’ or at least let everyone think that was when we started dating. The plan was to ‘date’ for a couple of months and then come out as engaged. We felt that shortened timeline would be accepted because we’d known each other for so long before supposedly starting to date.”

Her hand dropped from her chest. “But none of that happened. The day after Derek gave notice, he was in a car accident on the way home from my apartment. He was T-boned. It was early morning. No witnesses.”

“The killer’s developed a pattern,” Connor commented thoughtfully.

The men all grunted, but Sophie raised her eyebrows and shook her head. “Other than their all ending up dead, I’m not seeing a pattern.”

“Because ye’re no’ includin’ Alasdair and Colle,” Inan told her.

Sophie stiffened, her gaze shooting to Alasdair. He peered back silently and covered both of her hands in her lap with one of his to squeeze reassuringly. It was Connor who pointed out, “Alasdair was hit by a car last night while leaving your apartment. A hit and run.”

“Oh yes,” Sophie murmured. She hadn’t forgotten about that exactly, but he hadn’t been hurt in the accident. He hadn’t even had any of the bruising he’d suggested he’d got away with. She knew that for a certainty, she’d seen the man naked. There wasn’t a mark on him. That being the case, she hadn’t thought to include him in the count.

“And then today, the tow truck Colle was riding in was T-boned when they left here,” Inan added.

“What?” Sophie asked with shock. She knew he’d got the keys from Alasdair and had accompanied the tow truck towing the SUV back to work for him. Alasdair had told her that. But this was the first she was hearing of a crash taking place. She turned to look at Colle, who was sitting on the other side of Ludan in one of the chairs along the end of the island. From what she could see he looked fine. There was no sign of injury.

“You were in an accident?” she asked with a frown.

“There was nothing accidental about it,” Colle said grimly. “Someone came out of a side street and plowed into my side of the tow truck on purpose.”

“How bad was it?” Sophie asked with concern, her gaze sliding over what she could see of him again.

“The driver was killed,” he said quietly.

That just confused her. If they’d been T-boned on the passenger side, Colle should have been the one killed, yet he seemed unharmed. Besides—“Why would anyone try to kill Colle? I mean, if someone is killing off people in my life, why go after Colle? I barely know him.”

“We think whoever ’twas mistook him fer Alasdair,” Connor explained, and pointed out, “They’re identical, ye ken.”

Sophie’s eyebrows rose. She wouldn’t say they were identical. They were close, but Colle smiled too much and Alasdair... Well, there was just something different about him. The way she felt when he was near... She didn’t experience anything close to that around Colle.

“Maybe it was just an accident. A coincidence,” she suggested.

Inan shook his head. “There was nought accidental about it, lass. The SUV wouldn’y start when ye two were goin’ to leave because the cables on the battery had been detached. It was deliberately disabled, which forced it to be towed.” He let that sink in and then said, “And the vehicle that T-boned the tow truck was able to drive away. We think it must ha’e had a reinforced front, or that it had a snowplow blade or somethin’ o’ the like on the front that took the impact.”

“Ye’ve got a murderin’ bastard on yer tail, lass,” Connor said grimly. “They’re goin’ after anyone ye love, and Colle took an attack meant for Alasdair.”

Sophie gave a start and protested, “I don’t love Alasdair.”

Twenty-Three

Sophie’s own words echoed in her head in the silence that followed.

I don’t love Alasdair.

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