I pointed a finger at him. “We are not having this talk again. Especially not while we’re planning the big wedding to Jean-Claude and an only slightly smaller ceremony with you and Micah.”

   “I’m helping plan both of those, plus helping Donna with her and Edward’s wedding, but I’m not complaining.”

   “Bully for you, but I mean it, Nathaniel. The baby talk is shelved until we’ve survived all the nuptial bliss.”

   “Fine. Babies are shelved until after all three of the weddings are over.”

   “That is not what I said.”

   “It sort of is,” Edward said.

   “Damn it, you are on his side.”

   “I’m not. I mean, if you got pregnant, who would come play cops and robbers with me?”

   I rolled my eyes, which made Nathaniel smile, but it was lost on Edward. “Yeah, you’d lose me as a playmate.”

   “You and I play the best games together.”

   “No,” Nathaniel said. “Anita and I play the best games together.”

   “And we’re done,” I said. “The two of you are not comparing notes on anything like that.”

   “Would we do that, Anita?” Edward said, his voice teasing.

   “I’m not finding out, because this conversation is over.”

   Edward laughed, Nathaniel joined in, and after a minute of trying to pout at them both, I gave up and joined them. When the laughter stopped, Edward asked again for Damian to come to Ireland and help find the vampires that were plaguing Dublin. Nathaniel asked more questions then, because he’d want to give as much information as possible to the vampire when he finally woke for the day.

   “He’s your vampire servant. Just order him to come with you to Ireland,” Edward said.

   “You know I won’t do that, Edward.”

   “You complicate your life, Anita.”

   “If I didn’t complicate my life none of the men I love would be in it, and that includes Nathaniel.”

   Edward couldn’t argue with that, so he didn’t try. “If we have a vampire who knows the city, it could make all the difference, Anita.”

   “I know, Edward.”

   Nathaniel said, “What haven’t you told us?”

   “Anita has more details about the actual murders.”

   “What about your mysterious friend Brian, and where you met?”

   “No.”

   “What about the person behind the new project who isn’t Van Cleef, but is like Van Cleef? Who is he? How dangerous is he to Anita?”

   “If I thought he was dangerous to her, I wouldn’t ask her to come.”

   Nathaniel tried a few more questions. I knew better. Once Edward had decided the amount of information he would share, then he was done.

   We left it like that, because being besties with Edward meant I had to be all right with the fact that I might never know everything about his past. I could live with that, and so could Edward. I suspected that he had some secrets that if he shared them with me, we might not be able to live with them, because someone would find us and make sure we didn’t. Maybe it would just be jail time in a government facility, but I was betting that the mysterious Van Cleef was more a final-solution type of guy, and nothing says final like being dead.

20

   I PICKED MY phone up and looked at Nathaniel across the small table. “I didn’t know you’d been talking to Peter in that much detail.”

   “Donna and Edward—Ted—suggested Peter call me for help planning the bachelor party. We talked about things for the party that helped him know I wasn’t embarrassed by certain topics and he started talking to me.”

   “You never mentioned it to me.”

   “Peter spoke to me in confidence.”

   “I get that, but still it feels like I missed something important.”

   He smiled. “You didn’t miss anything you’d want to know.”

   I puzzled through that for a second and then shrugged. “I don’t understand what that means, Nathaniel.”

   “It means that he confided in me and he talked to me about things that would embarrass you coming from Peter. You’ve known him since he was thirteen or fourteen, so to you he’s a little kid. What he needed help with was grown-up stuff that he couldn’t have talked about with any woman, let alone you.”

   “Okay, what does that mean?”

   The smile faded around the edges and he shook his head. “I am not going to talk to you about what Peter and I discussed. It’s private and it would bother him a lot if I broke his confidence to you.”

   “And what does that mean?”

   “It means the topic is closed, because I am not going to let you ask questions until you figure out things from my answers. We’re done talking about Peter.”

   “So serious all of a sudden.”

   He raised both eyebrows and looked at me very steadily.

   “What?” I asked.

   He pushed his chair back, stood, and offered me his hand. “Let’s go find Sin and the rest and find out if Pierette knows as much about Ireland as Damian does.”

   “You really don’t want him to go with me.”

   “Damian feels he barely escaped She-Who-Made-Him once. Sending him back where she could physically touch him again seems like a bad idea.”

   “He didn’t escape. She let him go, because she was done with him. If he’d escaped, I wouldn’t take him back there.”

   “I still hope Pierette can give you intel about Ireland so you can leave Damian at home.” He waggled his hand at me.

   After a moment’s hesitation I took his hand in mine. Yes, I did think about not taking it, but that would have been childish. I was trying to be better than that. We walked through the door together this time. The gym was still empty and seemed very quiet without all the hustle and bustle of other people.

   “Edward may talk to Peter about what you said,” I said.

   “No, he won’t,” Nathaniel said.

   “How do you know that he won’t?”

   “Because he’s relieved that Peter has someone to talk to about this stuff.”

   “If he tells Donna, she’ll pester Peter about it.”

   “If he tells her.”

   “You think he won’t?”

   “I think Edward will do what he thinks is best for Peter.”