Avenging Angel (The Fallen #4)(49)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Now she did go to him. Marna crossed to his side, and her hands curled around his arms. “But you’re not like him.”

“Brandt was. My brother was exactly like him. He enjoyed the pain and the rage as much as my old man ever did.”

She wanted to shake him. So she did. Hard. He barely moved. “You’re not like them!”

His head sagged forward. She needed to see his eyes.

“Tanner!” Marna snapped out his name. “You’re not like them!” He’d protected her. Helped her. How could he think that he’d ever be like his father or Brandt?

“Didn’t you see me in the swamp?” he demanded. “I enjoyed those kills.”

Her skin seemed to ice.

His head lifted. His eyes finally met hers, and there was a chill in his stare. “Baby, I’m my father’s son.”

No.

“I didn’t want to be. I tried so hard not to be, but deep down, I have the same rage. The same violence. I’m—” He stopped, but she knew what he’d been about to say.

I’m like him.

She leaned onto her toes in an attempt to get as close to him as she could. She wanted the shifter to understand this. “What you are . . .” Her gaze searched his. “You’re better than him.”

And she thought his father had known that. He’d beaten his boys, attacked them from the time they were only children. He’d tried to force them to become like him.

Tanner wasn’t.

Neither was Cody.

As for Brandt, the bastard who’d hurt her . . . were monsters born the way they were? Or were they made?

Voice dark, Tanner said, “You shouldn’t touch me. And you damn well shouldn’t let me touch you.”

He was trying to be all noble. Fine. The guy was always trying to pull the noble knight card. She’d be the lusty one for a change. Marna caught his face in her hands, gripping that strong, square jaw she loved, and she pulled him down for a kiss. Her tongue licked over his lips, then darted inside to rub against his. “I know,” she said against his mouth, “exactly what I should do.”

She was done letting others tell her what was right, wrong, and everything in between.

Tanner’s eyes seemed dazed, but he gave a slight shake of his head and said, “Don’t you know how dangerous it is . . . to make me want you so much?”

No, but then, Marna was learning that she liked a bit of danger. Danger had pretty much become her life, and the adrenaline rush had her body on a taut edge.

Tanner sucked in a deep breath. “I can always taste you now.”

She licked her lips and tasted him.

His gaze seemed to burn her. “I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he promised.

She smiled at him, but knew the curve of her lips was sad. “Every supernatural in this town is after me. They think I’m weak.” How did they know? How had they realized the truth?

Then it hit her.

The bar. The panther shifters. She’d gone there that night and she’d tried to kill them. Her touch hadn’t worked. “Someone was there,” she whispered as understanding settled heavily in her chest like a cold knot of dread. “Another supernatural.” Her eyes widened. The man who’d been setting her up, he could have been right there that night!

Only when she’d failed, he’d finished what she’d started. He’d taken out the two panthers.

Frowning, Tanner asked, “What are you talking about?”

But she knew now, and her heart was starting to race. “All of the paranormals coming after me . . . they all know I can’t kill with a touch.”

A grim nod. “They think you’re an easy target.”

She wasn’t going to be. “One of them must have been in that bar when I went after Michael and Beau that night. Someone saw me try to kill them—and fail.” She shoved back her hair. “That someone could be the same person setting me up for these kills.”

His eyes narrowed. “Or he could just be the prick who’s setting you up to get eaten by the supernaturals in town.” He headed for the door. “Either way, we’re finding him.”

Yes, yes, they were. Marna hurried after him. They rushed down the stairs and entered the small den just in time to see Cody stroll into the room, a bloody cloth held to his throat. He looked first at Tanner, then her, then back to Tanner. One dark brow rose. “Done are we? No more screaming and shouting? Gotta say, I’m impressed, but for a minute there, I was afraid the ceiling would fall on—”

Tanner sprang at him. He leapt across the room and shoved his brother against the wall. “Only living family or not, you don’t talk about her that way.”

Cody didn’t look particularly intimidated. He knocked his brother back. “I wasn’t talking about her. I was . . . just talking about how . . . enthusiastic you seemed.”

Tanner slugged him while Marna felt her cheeks burn.

But Cody just laughed.

We like the pain and the violence.

She crept down the last few stairs and rubbed her arms. Tanner was wrong. Yes, she’d been the one to originally think he was just like Brandt, but that had been before. Everything was different now.

No, not everything. Me.

Tanner eased away from his brother. “Now that we aren’t fighting for our lives, you wanna tell me just what that hell in the swamp was all about? Why’d you burn your own place down?”

Cody rubbed his jaw. “I knew Jillian was coming after me.”

“How?” Tanner asked. “And why the hell didn’t you tell me? If you knew I was working for a dirty cop, you should have passed that critical intel along.”

Marna’s fingers pressed against the wooden banister as she waited for Cody’s response.

“Jillian knew I’d helped you to make her”—a quick finger jab toward Marna—“disappear. The word I got was that Jillian was gonna force me to tell her where Marna had gone.”

Interesting. It seemed the captain had learned a lot about her, very, very fast.

But Tanner shook his head. “You’re lying,” Tanner said, sounding surprised. “To me.”

Cody swallowed, and his Adam’s apple bobbed. Had he flinched? Yes, it looked like he had. Now his eyes were darting nervously around the room. Liar, liar.

Marna cocked her head to the side and wondered how Tanner had known. Lies. What would it be like to tell them? Some people could lie so easily, but for others, you could always read the lies on their faces.

At that moment, Cody’s lie was clear to see.