Strangers of the Night Read online

  “I spent almost my entire life locked away while people tried to get inside my head. Do you think, now that I’m out, that I’m going to allow anyone to lock me away again?”

  “They won’t,” she began, but stopped herself. In truth, she had no idea what Vadim planned to do with Jed.

  “There came a time when I knew I could get away from Wyrmwood at any time,” Jed said. “When there was nothing they could do to keep me. I could’ve killed them all, Samantha. Or just hurt them. I could have walked out of there at any time without anyone getting hurt at all. I didn’t for a long, long time because I had no reason to believe that anything beyond the walls would be any better. Until you came along.”

  “Let me take you to people who will help you,” Samantha said. “You don’t have to do this alone.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not going with you.”

  “Where will you go?” she demanded. “You don’t know how to drive a car, you have no money, no identification, nothing...”

  Jed shrugged. “You know what I can do. I’ll make my way. Maybe I’ll travel. See everything I only ever watched on television.”

  “I can’t let you go,” Samantha said.

  She didn’t mean only that she could not let him run away from the Crew. She meant more than that. He had to know it, she thought as the scent of lavender came up to surround her. She couldn’t let him go, because he’d come to mean too much to her.

  He had to feel it, didn’t he?

  “You don’t want to hurt me,” she said in a low voice. Time had slowed and the world around her had gone a little blurry.

  “I’m not going to hurt you, Samantha.”

  She woke up on the bare and lumpy mattress. Darkness outside. He had not hurt her, no.

  He’d left her.

  Chapter 19

  Persephone hadn’t seen her brother in months, but that didn’t mean much. Phoenix had a wanderlust and an inherent distrust of anything resembling settling down. The last she’d heard, he was somewhere in Europe, playing with a minor princess from some small country she didn’t remember the name of. So when she opened the door to a knock, seeing him on the other side was a surprise.

  She ought to have known better, because a day later, he’d managed to get her to write down all the login information for her bank accounts, all of them, even the hidden and secret one she kept for her shady business deals. Then he’d made her forget she’d done it, so when she woke up and found him missing along with a note of apology, he’d already wiped her out.

  He’d left her a gift card to the coffee shop, though. What a prince, she thought as she used it to pick up a coffee and a muffin. What a fucking prince.

  “Hi, Persephone.”

  She turned, already feeling a flush of heat in her throat because she knew that voice. Kane. He smiled at her. She couldn’t manage to give him one in return.

  He lifted his cup toward her. “This place makes the best coffee, huh?”

  “Yes.” She couldn’t stop herself from thinking about kissing him. She never saw any of the other men she went to bed with, and this was why, she reminded herself. It made her want to kiss him again, and that was too dangerous with anyone, but especially with him.

  Somehow they ended up sharing a table and he was making her laugh. Making her forget that Phoenix had screwed her over, or that her life was a long string of bad decisions and shady situations. With Kane, she didn’t feel like she had to put on a show...except of course she did, Persephone reminded herself with a shock when she looked at the clock to see that an hour had passed.

  They walked out together. On the sidewalk outside, a man wearing jeans and a coat too heavy for the late fall day watched them from the corner. A cigarette in his mouth. Assessing. Keeping her attention seemingly focused on Kane, Persephone created an illusion of a much older woman, heavier and dowdy, for whoever that guy was. When she looked again, he was gone.

  It didn’t mean he’d been looking for her, she thought. It could’ve been anyone. Or maybe he wasn’t working alone, and even though she’d sent the illusion his way, someone she hadn’t even seen might have been able to match her to a picture.

  “You okay?” Kane paused at the top of the concrete front steps of their apartment building. “You got quiet.”

  Persephone shrugged, knowing she seemed distant now and not liking it. But what could she do? Giggle and coo with him? Tell him she’d already seen him naked but he had no idea it was her?

  “Fine. Just need to get some things done.” She left him and went down into the basement to her own place.

  She should pack her shit and go. She had cash hidden away for that very reason, a stash her brother hadn’t seen, so hadn’t been able to steal from her. It would be enough to get her settled someplace else. Get her away from anyone who might’ve tracked her here, who was watching.

  Or she was being crazy, overreacting, she told herself and forced a breath, then another. She thought again of Kane’s touch, his mouth, but now she thought also of the way he’d made her laugh. He was more than good-looking—he was smart and funny, too. And, for whatever reason, he seemed to be into her.

  She should go, Persephone thought as she pulled out her laptop and started scrolling through her contacts to see what kind of financial business she could get going for herself, and quick. Run. Leave this behind.

  But the lingering flavor of coffee was nothing like the way Kane had tasted, and so even though she knew she was being crazy, she was still going to stay here for a while longer.

  Chapter 20

  Six months later

  It was time to stop looking for him. Jed had vanished as completely as any human being could, and considering the vast extent of the Crew’s reach, that said something about how insistent he was on not being found. Samantha had taken jobs that sent her all over the country and none of them had brought her close to finding him.

  He was not coming back.

  At first, she’d told herself it was because she was worried about him making it out there in the world, but she knew he’d have found a way to be okay. Later, when the search had continued, she had to admit there was more to it than her concern for him. She missed him. She...wanted him.

  It hadn’t been love, she told herself now, sullen and cranky as she dropped her bag on a chair in the Crew cafeteria. She wanted food first. Then a shower. Then her bed. She’d finished investigating the possibility of a werewolf attack in the middle of Montana, a gig that had meant a lot of long hours in the wilderness. She’d been cold. Hungry. A few times, scared. Whatever creature had been killing hikers, though, she had not confirmed it was a werewolf.

  The job had brought up a lot of her past. The final night with her father. The blood, the fur, her lack of memory. She’d return to Montana soon, but Vadim had called her back before the case had been completed, and she didn’t know why. Didn’t care, so long as the money came in.

  Now, all she cared about was getting something in her stomach.

  But there he was, standing in front of her. Eyes a little anxious, but a smile on his face. He’d put on some weight and muscle, and a bristly scruff of reddish beard covered his chin. He looked tired.

  “Jed!”

  He kissed her, and she let him even though she knew she really should pull away. Her arms went around his neck. Their teeth clashed; she laughed. He sighed. His hands buried themselves in her hair. People were staring, but she didn’t care. There was this, only this.

  “Shhh, shhh,” he said against her mouth. “I didn’t want to startle you. I was going to wait until you went to your room, but I couldn’t. I saw you, and I couldn’t wait. Samantha...”

  She broke the kiss then, breathing hard. “Where have you been? Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

  “I’m here now,” he said. “I’m sorry it to