Lover Avenged

Chapter TWENTY-NINE

I'm not just anyone.

As Ehlena stared into Rehvenge's amethyst eyes, she thought that was so right. In this quiet moment, with an explosive sexual vibe linking them and the scent of dark cologne in the air, Rehvenge was everybody and everything.

"You're going to let me kiss you," he said.

It wasn't a question, but she nodded anyway, and he closed the distance between their mouths.

His lips were soft and his kiss softer. And he pulled back too fast, in her opinion. Way too fast.

"If you want more," he said in a low, husky voice, "I want to give it to you."

Ehlena stared at his mouth and thought of Stephan-and all the choices he no longer had. Being with Rehvenge was something she wanted. It didn't make sense, but right now that didn't matter.

"Yes. I want more." Except then it dawned on her. He couldn't feel a thing, could he. So what would happen if they took this even further?

Yeah, how did you bring that up without making him feel handicapped? And what about this other female of his? Clearly, he wasn't sleeping with her, but there was something serious going on.

His amethyst eyes dropped to her lips. "You want to know what I get out of it?"

Man, that voice of his was pure sex.

"Yes," she breathed.

"I get to see you like you are now."

"What...am I like?"

He brushed a finger down her cheek. "You're flushed." His touch went over to her lips. "Your mouth is open because you're thinking about me kissing you again." He went lower with that soft stroke, going down over her throat. "Your heart is pumping. I can see it in your vein here." He stopped between her breasts, his own mouth falling open and his fangs elongating. "If I keep on going, I think I'd find your nipples are hard, and I bet there are other signs you're ready for me." He leaned into her ear and whispered, "Are you ready for me, Ehlena?"

Holy. Shit.

Her rib cage tightened hard around her lungs, a sweet, dizzying sensation of suffocation making the rush she suddenly felt between her thighs even more stunning.

"Ehlena, answer me." Rehvenge nuzzled her neck, running one sharp canine up her vein.

As her head fell back, she grabbed onto the sleeve of his fine suit, crushing the material. It had been so long...forever...since she'd been held by anyone. Since she'd been something other than a caregiver. Since she'd felt like her breasts and her hips and her thighs were anything other than parts to be covered up before she went out in public. And here this beautiful, not-just-anyone male wanted to be with her for the sole purpose of pleasing her.

Ehlena had to blink quickly, feeling as if he'd just given her a gift, and she wondered how far what they were about to start could go. Back before her family had fallen out of the glymera's graces and been torn apart, she'd been promised to a male and he to her. The mating ceremony had been scheduled, but didn't come to pass after her family's reversal of fortune.

When they had been together, she had lain with the male even though as a female of worth in the glymera, she shouldn't have because they had yet to be formally joined. Life had seemed too short to wait.

Now she knew it to be even shorter.

"You have a bed in this place," she said.

"And I would kill to take you there."

She was the one who stood up and put out her hand for him to take. "Let's go."

What made it okay was that this was all about Ehlena. Rehv's lack of sensation took him completely out of the equation, freeing them both from the nasty implications of him being involved.

Man, what a joy this was. He had to give the princess his body. But he was choosing to give Ehlena...

Well, shit, he didn't know exactly, but it was a fuckload more than just his cock. Worth so much more, too.

Palming his cane, because he didn't want to have to rely on her for balance, he took her to the bedroom, with its swimming pool-size bed and its black satin duvet and its view.

He shut the door with his mind, even though there was no one else in the penthouse, and the first thing he did was turn Ehlena to face him and take her hair out of its twist tie. The deep strawberry blond waves fell to just below her shoulders, and though he couldn't feel the silken strands, he could smell the light, natural bouquet of her shampoo.

She was clean and fresh, like a stream he could bathe himself in.

He paused, an unfamiliar spike of conscience reining him in. If she knew what he was, if she knew what he did for a living, if she knew what he did with his body, she wouldn't choose him. He was sure of this.

"Don't stop," she said, tilting her face up. "Please..."

With force of will, he compartmentalized himself, putting the bad things and the vicious life he led and the dangerous realities he faced away from the bedroom, locking them out, shutting them down.

So that it was just the two of them.

"I won't stop unless you want me to," he said. And if she did he would, no questions asked. The last thing he ever wanted to do was make her feel the way he did about sex.

Rehv bent down, put his lips on hers, and kissed her carefully. As he couldn't judge sensation, he didn't want to grind on her, and he had the sense she would press herself closer if she wanted more-

Ehlena did just that, wrapping her arms around him and melding them hip-to-hip.

And...shit, he felt something. From out of nowhere, a flare of sensation broke through his numbness, the radiating wave dim, but very definitely warmth he could sense. For a split second he pulled back, fear spearing into him...but his vision stayed in three dimensions, and the only red he saw was from the glow of the digital clock on the nightstand.

"Is this okay?" she asked.

He waited a couple more heartbeats. "Yeah...yeah, it totally is." His eyes traced her face. "Will you let me get you naked?"

Oh, God, did he just say that?

"Yes."

"Oh...thank you..."

Rehv unbuttoned the front of her uniform slowly, each inch of flesh a revelation, the act not so much dishabille, but an unveiling. And he was careful with his hands as he slid the top half of what she wore off her shoulders and down over her hips to the floor. When she stood before him in her white bra and her white stockings, with the hint of her white panties showing beneath the hose, he was strangely honored.

But that wasn't all. The scent of her sex lit off a buzz between his ears that made him feel like he'd been doing lines of coke for a week and a half straight. She wanted him. Almost as much as he wanted to serve her.

Rehv picked her up by wrapping his arms around her waist and hugging her to him. She weighed nothing at all, and he knew it by the fact that his breathing didn't change in the slightest as he carried her over and laid her out on the bed.

As he pulled back to look at her, Ehlena wasn't like the females he'd been with. She didn't stretch and part her legs, didn't play with herself, didn't arch up and do some whorish variant of come-and-get-me-big-boy.

She also didn't want to cause him pain and didn't have any interest in degrading him-there was no hot, erotic cruelty in her eyes.

She just stared up at him with wonder and honest anticipation, a female without artifice or calculation-who was one trillion times sexier than anyone he'd ever been with or been around.

"Do you want me clothed?" he said.

"No."

Rehv ditched his jacket like it was made of nothing more than shopping circulars, tossing the Gucci work of art to the floor without a care. Kicking off his loafers, he undid his belt and dropped his slacks, leaving them where they landed. His shirt came off quickly. So did the socks.

He hesitated at his boxers, his thumbs tucked into the waistband, ready to do the shuck, but failing to move.

His lack of an erection embarrassed him.

Rehv wouldn't have thought it mattered. Hell, arguably his limp cock was what made this possible. Still, he felt like less of a male.

Didn't feel very male at all, actually.

He took his hands out and put them over his flaccid sex. "I'm going to leave these on."

Ehlena reached for him, desire in her eyes. "I want to be with you any way you come."

Or didn't come, as the case was. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

There was an awkward moment, because what could she possibly reply? And yet, he waited anyway, wanting...something from her.

Reassurance?

Christ, what the fuck was wrong with him. All these bizarre thoughts and reactions were crisscrossing the landscape of his temporal lobe, blazing trails to destinations he'd only heard others speak of, places like shame and sadness and worry. Insecurity, too.

Maybe the sexual hormones she was stirring up in him were like the dopamine, hitting him in the opposite way. Turning him into a chick.

"You are beautiful in this light," she said in a husky tone. "Your shoulders and chest are so big, I can't imagine what it would be like to be that strong. And your stomach...I wish mine were that flat and hard. Your legs are so powerful, too, all muscle, not an ounce of fat."

As he moved his hand upward over his six-pack to one of his pecs, he looked down at her softly rounded belly. "I think you're perfect just as you are."

Her voice grew serious. "And I feel the same about you."

Rehv dragged in a breath. "Yeah?"

"You are very sexy to me. Just looking at you...makes me ache."

Well...there you go. And yet it still took a strange kind of courage to slip his thumbs back into the waistband of his boxers and slowly draw them down his thighs.

As he stretched out next to her, his body was shaking, and he knew it because he could see his muscles tremble.

He cared what she thought about him. About his body. About what was going to happen on this bed. With the princess? He didn't give a rat's ass whether she enjoyed what he did to her. And those few times he'd been with his working girls, he hadn't wanted to hurt them, of course, but it had been a transaction of sex for money.

Xhex and he had simply been a mistake. Neither good or bad. Just was and never would be again.

Ehlena ran her hands up his arms and over his shoulders. "Kiss me."

Rehv locked eyes with her and did just that, bringing his lips to hers and stroking, then extending his tongue and licking over her mouth. He kept kissing her until she undulated on the bed and closed her hands on him so tightly that the strange echo of sensation flared in him again. The feeling made him pause and open his eyes to check his vision, but all was normal, untainted by red.

He went back to what he was enjoying, being careful because he couldn't mediate the pressure of the contact, letting her come to him so he didn't crush her with his mouth.

He wanted to go so much further...and she read his mind.

Ehlena was the one who undid her bra, releasing the front clasp and baring herself. Oh...fuck, yeah. Her breasts were perfectly proportioned and tipped with tight pink nipples-which he promptly sucked into his mouth one after the other.

The sound of her moans flared up his body, replacing the cold with life and energy, warmth and need.

"I want to go down on you," he growled.

Her, "Please," was more groan than voice, and her body gave him an even clearer answer. Now her thighs parted, her legs falling open, all the invitation he could ever have asked for.

Those stocking of hers had to come off before he chewed through them.

Rehv was as slow and deliberate as he could stand to be, stripping her flesh free of its thin binding, nuzzling her all the way down to her ankles, breathing in deep as he went.

He left the panties in place.

Rehvenge's gentleness was what surprised Ehlena the most.

In spite of his great size, he was as careful with her as he could be, moving gently over her body, giving her every chance to tell him no or divert him or stop things altogether.

She had no intention of doing any of those.

Especially as his big hand drifted up the inside of her bare leg and subtly, inexorably inched her thigh out even farther. As his fingers brushed her panties, a shot of electricity sizzled in her sex, the miniorgasm leaving her gasping.

Rehvenge pushed himself up and spoke into her ear on a growl. "I like that sound."

He took her mouth and stroked her sex over the top of the modest cotton that covered her. Deep tongue thrusts contrasted with butterfly brushes, and she threw her head back, getting utterly lost in him. Tilting her hips, she wanted him to go underneath the panties, and prayed he took the hint, as she was too breathless and desperate to talk.

"What do you want?" he said into her ear. "You want nothing between us?"

As she nodded, his middle finger slipped under the elastic, and then it was skin against skin and-

"Oh...God," she moaned as a release pounded through her.

Rehvenge smiled like a tiger as he stroked her while she orgasmed, helping her ride out the pulses. When she finally stilled, she felt embarrassed. She hadn't been with someone in so long, and never someone like him.

"You're incredibly beautiful," he whispered before she could say something.

Ehlena turned her face into his biceps and kissed the smooth skin over the tight muscle. "It's been a while for me."

A quiet glow came into his face.

"I like that. A lot." He dropped his head to her breast and kissed her nipple. "I like that you respect your body. Not everyone does. Oh, and by the way, I'm not finished yet."

Ehlena dug her nails into the back of his neck as he tugged her panties down her thighs. The sight of his pink tongue teasing her breast arrested her, especially as his amethyst eyes met hers while he circled her nipple and flicked at it-like he was giving her a sneak peak at the attention she could expect down below.

She came again. Hard.

This time Ehlena let herself go with it completely, and it was a relief to just be in her skin and with him. As she recovered from the pleasure, she didn't even flinch as he started to kiss his way down past her stomach and to her-

She groaned so loudly there was an echo.

As with his fingers, the feel of his mouth on her sex was all the more vivid because he barely touched her. Soft strokes hovered over that vulnerable, hot place on her body, making her strain to feel him, turning each pass of his lips and his tongue into a source of both pleasure and frustration.

"More," she demanded, pushing her hips up.

His amethyst eyes lifted. "I don't want to be too rough."

"You won't be. Please...it's killing me..."

With a growl, he dove down and sealed her sex with his mouth, sucking her, pulling her into him. She came again, this time in hard, shattering blows, but he did her right. He kept going, riding out her jerks and arches, the sound of lips against lips rising up with her guttural cries as he worked her and made her climax over and over again.

When God only knew how many times she released, she stilled and so did he. They were both panting, his glossy mouth on the inside of her thigh, his three fingers buried tight in her, their scents mingling in the heated air of the-

She frowned. Part of the heady fragrance in the room was...dark spices. And as she sniffed deeply, his eyes lifted to hers.

Her shocked expression must have shown exactly the conclusion she came to.

"Yeah, I'm catching the scent as well," he said roughly.

Except he couldn't have bonded with her, could he? Did it really happen that fast?

"For some males it does," he said. "Evidently."

Abruptly she realized he was reading her mind, but she didn't care. Considering where he'd been, getting into her brain didn't seem half as intimate.

"I didn't expect this," she said.

"Wasn't on my list either." Rehvenge withdrew his fingers from her and licked them clean with deliberate strokes of his tongue.

Which naturally teed her up all over again.

Her eyes stayed on his as he repositioned himself upon the pillows she had thrashed around on.

"If you have no clue what to say, join the club."

"We don't have to say anything," she murmured. "It just is."

"Yeah."

Rehvenge rolled over onto his back, and as they lay in the dark with about six inches between them, she missed him as if he'd left the country.

Turning on her side, she rested her head on the inside of her arm and stared at him as he stared at the ceiling.

"I wish I could give you something," she said, leaving the whole bonding thing for a later time. Too much talk was going to ruin what they'd just shared, and she wanted to keep it going for a little longer.

He glanced over. "Are you crazy? Do I need to remind you what we just did?"

"I want to give you something like that." She winced. "I don't mean to make it sound like something was missing...I mean...Crap."

He smiled and brushed her cheek. "It's sweet of you, don't feel awkward about it. And don't underestimate how much all that pleased me."

"I want you to know something. No one could have made me feel any better or more beautiful than you just did."

He turned to her and mirrored her position, resting his head on his thick biceps. "See why it was good for me?"

She took his hand in hers and kissed his palm, only to frown. "You're growing cold. I can feel it."

She sat up and pulled the duvet over his body, wrapping him up first, then cuddling into him, while lying on top of the covers.

They stayed like that for a century.

"Rehvenge?"

"Yes."

"Take my vein."

She could tell she'd shocked the shit out of him by the way his breath caught. "Excuse...Wh-what?"

She had to smile, thinking that he wasn't the kind of male who stuttered much. "Take my vein. Let me give you something."

Through his parted lips she saw his fangs elongate, not so much inching as punching out of his skull.

"I'm not sure...whether that would be..." As his breath grew ragged, his voice got even deeper.

She put her hand to her neck and massaged her jugular slowly. "I think it's a great idea."

As his eyes glowed purple, she eased onto her back and cocked her head to the side, exposing her throat.

"Ehlena..." His eyes traveled down her body and returned to her neck.

He was panting and flushed now, a fine sheen of sweat slicking up what portion of his shoulders showed from out of the covers. And that wasn't the half of it. The scent of dark spices flared until it saturated the air, his internal chemistry reacting to the need he had for her and what she wanted to do for him.

"Oh...shit, Ehlena-"

Abruptly, Rehvenge frowned and looked down at himself. His hand, the one that had been tender on her cheek, disappeared under the covers and his expression changed: The heat and the purpose drained right out of it, leaving only a troubling kind of disgust.

"I'm sorry," he said hoarsely. "I'm sorry...I can't..."

Rehvenge scrambled off the bed and took the duvet with him, pulling it free from under her body. He moved fast-but not so quickly that she missed the fact that he had an erection.

He was hard. Big, long, hard as a thighbone.

And yet he disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door solidly.

Then locked it.

Chapter THIRTY

John told Qhuinn and Blay he was just going to crash in his room for the night, and when he was sure they'd bought the lie, he slipped out through the staff quarters of the house and went directly to ZeroSum.

He had to work fast, because sure as shit one of the two of them would check in on him and then form a damn search party.

Bypassing the front entrance of the club, he went around to the alley where he'd once seen Xhex crack the head of an asshole with a big mouth and a fistful of coke. Finding the security camera above the side exit, John tilted up his head and stared into the lens.

When the door opened, he didn't have to look over to know it was her.

"You want to come in," she said.

He shook his head, for once not bothered by the communication barrier. Shit, he didn't know what to say to her. Didn't know why he was here. He just had to come.

Xhex stepped out of the club and put her back against the door, crossing one steel-toed boot over the other. "You tell anyone?"

He met her eyes steadily and shook his head.

"You going to?"

He shook his head.

In a soft tone, one he'd never heard from her or expected to, she whispered, "Why?"

He just shrugged. Frankly, he was surprised she hadn't tried to take his memories from him. Neater. Cleaner-

"I should have taken your memories," she said, making him wonder if she was reading his mind. "I was just fucked in the head last night, and you left fast and I didn't do it. Of course, now they're long-term, so..."

This was why he came, he realized. He wanted to reassure her that he was going to keep quiet.

Tohr's departure had cemented the decision. When John had gone to talk with the Brother and found the guy had disappeared again, and without word again, something had shifted in him, like a boulder being rolled from one side of his yard to another, a permanent change in the landscape.

John was alone. And therefore his decisions were his own. He respected Wrath and the Brotherhood, but he wasn't a Brother and might well never be one. Sure, he was a vampire, but he'd spent most of his life outside of the race, so the symphath revulsion was something he'd never fully understood. Sociopaths? Hell, that shit started at home, as far as he was concerned, with the way Zsadist and V had acted before they'd mated.

John was not turning Xhex in to the king so she could get deported to that colony. No way.

Now her voice became hard. "So what do you want."

Given the kind of bottom-feeding, opportunistic, desperate people she had to deal with night in and night out, he was not at all surprised by the demand.

Holding her stare, he shook his head and made a cutting motion over his throat. Nothing, he mouthed.

Xhex looked at him with cold gray eyes, and he felt her get into his head, sensing the push against his thoughts. He let her probe to see where he was at, because that more than any words he might have spoken would be what reassured her most.

"You're one in a million, John Matthew," she said quietly. "Most people would leverage the shit out of this. Especially given the kind of vices I can get serviced here at the club."

He shrugged.

"So where you headed tonight? And where are your boys?"

He shook his head.

"You want to talk about Tohr?" As his eyes shot to hers, she said, "Sorry, but he's on your mind."

As John shook his head again, something touched his cheek and he looked up. Snow was starting to come down, little, tiny flakes swirling in the wind.

"First snowfall of the year," Xhex said, standing up away from the door. "And you without a coat."

He glanced down and realized all he had on was jeans and a Nerdz T-shirt. At least he'd remembered to put shoes on.

Xhex put her hand in her pocket and held something out to him. A key. A small brass key.

"I know you don't want to go home, and I have a place not far from here. It's secure and underground. Go there if you want, stay however long you need to. Get the privacy you're looking for until your shit's together."

He was about to shake his head no when she said in the Old Language, "Let me do right by you in this way."

He took the key without brushing her hand and mouthed, Thank you.

After she gave him the address, he left her in that alley with the snow drifting down from the night sky. As he got to Trade, he looked over his shoulder. She was still by the side door, watching him with arms crossed and boots planted solidly on the ground.

The delicate flakes landing in her short dark hair and on her bare, hard shoulders didn't soften her a bit. She was no angel doing a kindness to him for simple reasons. She was dark and dangerous and unpredictable.

And he loved her.

John lifted his hand in a wave and turned the corner, joining a parade of huddled humans who were walking quickly from bar to bar.

Xhex stayed where she was even as John's big body disappeared out of sight.

One in a million, she thought once again. That kid was one in a million.

As she went back in the club, she knew it was only a matter of time before his two buddies, or maybe members of the Brotherhood, showed up to try to find him. Her response was going to be that she hadn't seen him and didn't have a clue where he was.

Period.

He protected her; she protected him.

End of.

She was heading out of the VIP section when her earpiece went off. After her bouncer stopped talking she cursed and lifted up her watch to speak into the transistor. "Take him to my office."

After she was sure the floor was clear of the working girls, she entered the general-population part of the club and watched as Detective de la Cruz was led through the throng of clubbers.

"Yes, Qhuinn?" she said without turning around.

"Christ, you must have eyes in the back of your skull."

She glanced over her shoulder. "And you should keep that in mind."

John's ahstrux nohstrum was the kind of male most females wanted to fuck. And a lot of the guys, too. He had the black-on-black thing rocking, between his Affliction shirt and his biker jacket, but his style was all over the place. Grommet belt and the roll on the cuffs of his beat-to-shit jeans spanked of The Cure. The spiked black hair and the piercing of his lip and the seven black studs working their way up his left ear were emo. Four-inch-soled New Rocks were Goth. Tats on the neck were Hart amp; Huntington-ish.

As for the concealed weapons she knew damn well were packed under his arms? They were straight-up Rambo, and those fists hanging at his sides were all about the MMA.

The whole package, regardless of the derivation of the components, was sex, and from what she'd seen at the club, up until recently he'd capitalized on the appeal. To the point where those private bathrooms in the back had been like his home office.

After getting promoted to John's personal guard, though, he'd slowed his roll. "What's doing," she said.

"John been in here?"

"No."

Qhuinn's mismatched eyes narrowed. "You haven't seen him at all."

"No."

As the guy stared at her, she knew he was picking up nothing. Lying was second to murder on her skill-set list.

"Goddamn it," he muttered, glancing around the club.

"If I see him, I'll tell him you're looking for him."

"Thanks." He refocused on her. "Listen, I don't know what the fuck happened between you two, and it's none of my biz-"

Xhex rolled her eyes. "Which clearly explains why you're bringing it up now."

"He's a good guy. Just keep that in mind, all right?" Qhuinn's blue and green stare was full of the kind of clarity only a really hard life gave a male. "Lot of people wouldn't be cool with him getting planted on his ass. Especially me."

In the silence that followed, she had to give Qhuinn credit: Most folks didn't have the balls to stand up to her, and the threat behind the level words was obvious.

"You're okay, Qhuinn, you know that. You're tight."

She clapped him on the shoulder, then headed for her office thinking the king had been smart in the choice of ahstrux nohstrum for John. Qhuinn was a perverted fucker, but he was a straight-up killer, and she was glad he was the one watching her boy.

Watching John Matthew, she meant.

Because he wasn't her boy. In the slightest.

When Xhex got to her door, she swung it open without hesitation. "Good evening, Detective."

Jos¨¦ de la Cruz was sporting another downmarket two-piece, and he and his suit and the coat that was over it all looked equally tired.

"Evening," he said.

"What can I do for you?" She sat down behind the desk and motioned for him to take the chair he'd used last time.

He did not avail himself. "Would you be able to tell me where you were late last night?"

Not completely, she thought. Because at one point she'd been killing a vampire, and that was none of his bizniz.

"I was here at the club. Why?"

"Do you have some employees who could verify that?"

"Yup. You can talk to iAm or any of my staff. Provided you tell me what the hell is doing."

"Last night we found an article of clothing belonging to Grady at a murder scene."

Oh, man, if someone else had popped that motherfucker, she was going to be pissed. "But not his body?"

"No. It was a coat with an eagle on the back, something he was known to wear. His signature, as it were."

"Interesting. So why are you asking me where I was?"

"The jacket had blood splatterings on it. We're not sure whether it's his or not, but we'll find out tomorrow."

"And again, why do you want to know where I was."

De la Cruz planted his palms on her desk and leaned in, his chocolate brown eyes dead fucking serious. "Because I have a hunch you'd like to see him dead."

"I'm not into abusive men, true. But all you have is his jacket, no body, and more to the point, I was here last night. So if someone offed him, it wasn't me."

He straightened. "Are you giving Chrissy a funeral?"

"Yup, tomorrow. The notice went in the paper today. She might not have had a lot of relatives, but she was well liked on Trade Street. We're just one big, happy family here." Xhex smiled a little. "You going to wear a black armband for her, Detective?"

"Am I invited?"

"Free country. And you'd come anyway, wouldn't you."

De la Cruz smiled genuinely, his eyes losing most of their aggression. "Yeah, I would. You mind if I talk to your alibis? Get statements?"

"Not at all. I'll call them in right now."

As Xhex spoke into her watch, the detective looked around the office, and when she dropped her arm, he said, "You're not much for decorations."

"I like things stripped down to what I need and nothing more."

"Huh. My wife's into the decorating. She's got a knack for making places homey. It's nice."

"Sounds like a good woman."

"Oh, she is. Plus she makes the best queso I've ever had." He glanced over. "You know, I hear a lot about this club."

"Do you."

"Yup. Particularly from Vice."

"Ah."

"And I've done my homework on Grady. He was arrested over the summer on felony drug possession. Case is still pending."

"Well, I know he'll be brought to justice."

"He was fired from this club shortly before that arrest, wasn't he."

"For skimming cash from the bar."

"And yet you didn't charge him?"

"If I called the police every time one of my employees lifted some green, I'd have you guys on speed dial."

"But I heard that wasn't the only reason he was booted."

"Did you."

"Trade Street, as you said, is its own family-but that doesn't mean there isn't talk. And people are telling me that he was fired because he was dealing here at the club."

"Well, that follows, doesn't it. We'd never allow anyone to deal on our property."

"Because this is your boss's territory and he doesn't appreciate the competition."

She smiled. "There is no competition here, Detective."

And that was the truth. Rehvenge was top dog. Period. Any two-bit ass-wipe trying to pass small loads off under the club's roof got cracked. Hard.

"To be honest, I'm not sure how you've done it," de la Cruz murmured. "There's been speculation about this place for years, and yet no one's been able to get probable cause for a search warrant."

And that was because human minds, even those plugged into the shoulders of cops, were easily manipulated. Whatever was seen or talked about could be erased in the blink of an eye.

"Nothing shady happens here," she said. "That's how we do it."

"Your boss around?"

"No, he's out tonight."

"So he trusts you to run his business while he's gone."

"Like me, he's never gone for long."

De la Cruz nodded. "Good policy. On that note, I don't know if you heard, but there seems to be a turf war going on."

"Turf war? I thought the two halves of Caldwell were at peace with each other. The river isn't a divide anymore."

"Drug turf war."

"I wouldn't know about those."

"That's my other case right now. We found two dealers dead by the river."

Xhex frowned, thinking she was surprised she hadn't heard about that already. "Well, drugs are a rough business."

"They were both shot in the head."

"That'll do it."

"Ricky Martinez and Isaac Rush. You know them?"

"Heard of them, but then both have been in the papers." She put her hand on the copy of the CCJ that was neatly stacked on her desk. "And I'm a big reader."

"So you must have seen the article on them today."

"Not yet, but I was just about to take a break. Gotta have my Dilbert fix."

"Is that the one about the office? I was a Calvin and Hobbes fan for years. Hated to see that stop and haven't really gotten into any of the new ones. Guess I'm behind the times."

"You like what you like. Nothing wrong with that."

"That's what my wife says." De la Cruz 's eyes drifted around again. "So, a couple people said both of them came into this club last night."

"Calvin and Hobbes? One was a kid and the other a tiger. Neither would have gotten past my bouncers."

De la Cruz grinned briefly. "No, Martinez and Rush."

"Ah, well, you walked through this club. We have a huge number of folks in here every night."

"True enough. This is one of the most successful clubs in town." De la Cruz put his hands in his hip pockets, his coat falling back, his suit jacket pouching out around his chest. "One of the junkies who lives under the bridge saw an oldish Ford along with a black Mercedes and a chromed-out Lexus leaving the area a little after those two got popped."

"Drug dealers can afford nice cars. Not sure what to make of the Ford."

"What does your boss drive? A Bentley, isn't it? Or did he get a new ride."

"No, he's still got the B."

"Expensive car."

"Very."

"You know anyone with a black Mercedes? 'Cuz witnesses also saw one hanging around the apartment Grady's eagle jacket was found in."

"Can't say as I know any Merc owners."

There was a knock on the door, and Trez and iAm came in, the two Moors making the detective look like a Honda parked between a pair of Hummers.

"Well, I'll leave you all to talk," Xhex said with absolute faith in Rehv's besties. "See you at the funeral, Detective."

"If not before then. Hey, you ever think of getting a plant for in here? Could make a difference."

"No, I'm too good at killing things." She smiled tightly. "You know where to find me. Later."

As she shut the door behind her, she stopped fronting and frowned. Turf wars were not good for business, and if Martinez and Rush got done, it was a sure sign that in spite of the December weather, Caldwell's underbelly was developing another heat rash.

Shit, that was the last thing they needed.

Vibrations coming from her pocket told her someone was reaching out to touch her, and she answered the call the instant she saw who it was.

"You find Grady yet," she asked softly.

Big Rob's deep voice was full of frustration. "Fucker must be in hiding. Silent Tom and me, we been to all the clubs. Been to his place and also a couple of his buddies'."

"Keep looking, but be careful. His jacket was just found at another murder scene. The cops are on him hard."

"We aren't giving up till we have a bead on him for you."

"Good man. Now get off this phone and get back on the trail."

"No problem, boss."