Chapter Eight
EVE PARKED DOWN the block from Quinn’s house, just as she had the night before, but she wasn’t sneaking around this time. And she wasn’t climbing any trees either. She’d worn a skirt and sweater, and her stiletto-heeled boots. She figured if she was going to face down a badass vampire, then she should wear her badass uniform. It might not be as effective with Quinn, since, well, he already knew what was under the clothes, but it couldn’t hurt. He might not want her as mindlessly as those other vamps had—the ones she’d killed, she admitted to herself—but he wanted her. The sex between them had been flaming hot, and she hadn’t been the only one feeling it.
She tugged on her skirt to straighten it, then smoothed her sweater down and pulled on her short jacket. She told herself she wasn’t dithering; she was cold. But she’d never been very good at fooling herself. Shutting the car door with a muted click, she crossed the street and followed the wall along Quinn’s property until she reached the wooden gate. One half of it stood open. There weren’t any big vampire gang fights tonight apparently. She didn’t get within two feet of the open gateway, however, before she was confronted by a pair of very dangerous-looking males. They didn’t point their weapons, but they didn’t conceal them either. They were both wearing matte-black machine guns on slings around their necks, their hands resting with deceptive ease on the weapons. She had no doubt they could fire and shoot faster than she could say the words. Just as she had no doubt they were both vampires. They weren’t obvious about it—no fangs or gleaming red eyes—but it was dark, and they were guarding Quinn’s house. After five years of studying and stalking vampires, she could make a good guess at Quinn’s position in the hierarchy. He was powerful enough to have this house, even though he’d only just arrived in Ireland. Powerful enough that other vampires were trying to kill him, because they felt threatened by him. Trying and failing, she added. She didn’t know exactly how vampire power worked, but she knew what she’d seen during the fight in Quinn’s yard the night before. And that had been some serious shit.
“Hi,” she said to the guards cheerfully. “I’m here for Quinn?” She said it as if unsure of her information and hoped they’d assume she was a blood whore. Or whatever they called the women who could be ordered like take-out food. Probably something nicer, like “date,” maybe.
The two vampires didn’t change their expressions, and they didn’t say a word. They just simply stared at her. She was about to repeat her request when the front door opened, and Quinn’s cousin appeared in the doorway. Giving her a long look, he exited the house and walked toward the gate, his heavy boots crunching on the thick gravel drive. Unlike the other night, when he’d claimed to be the nicer cousin, the look he was giving her held nothing but deep hostility as he came up behind the two guards.
“What do you want, Eve?”
“I want to talk to Quinn.”
He snorted. “Yeah. Like that’s going to happen. I know about your hobby, darling.”
Eve bit back her frustration. She’d hoped Quinn had kept quiet about her hunting activities, but she should have known better. He and his cousin were close, and she was the enemy. Of course, he’d told Garrick. He’d probably told the big bodyguard, too. Or maybe not, she considered. That guy would have killed her by now if he’d known.
“Look,” she said, trying to be reasonable. “I get that you don’t like me much.”
Garrick snorted again.
“Or at all. But I need to talk to Quinn. Can’t you at least ask him if he’ll see me?”
He stared at her a moment longer, then spoke to the two guards. “Hold her here. Don’t touch her. If she makes a move, shoot her.” With a dark glance in her direction, he spun on his heel and crossed back to the house.
“Bastard,” she muttered, then gave the two guards a sweet smile. “He didn’t say I couldn’t talk.”
QUINN SAT IN HIS very comfortable office, with a lovely, warm blaze dancing in the stone fireplace, staring at the facts and figures filling the computer screen in front of him. Leaning back in his chair until it tipped nearly to the wall, he switched his gaze to the gargoyle occupying one corner of the high ceiling and muttered, “Why the fuck didn’t I stay in Maine? I liked it there. Raj left me alone, and the whole state was essentially mine. I could’ve—”
His pointless musings were interrupted by a flurry of activity out in the drive, followed by footsteps and the front door opening, then voices—all of which he recognized. The front door closed and the footsteps came up the stairs to his office.
“Come on in, Garrick,” he said, before his cousin could knock.
The door cracked open a fraction and his cousin slipped inside. “Eve is here.”
“I know. Where is she?”
“Better question, how’d she find this house?”
“That is a good question. Why don’t you bring her in here so I can ask her? Where’d you say she was?”
“I didn’t. She’s out at the gate, where you should leave her. Or send her on her way.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“Because I know how you feel about her.”
Quinn sighed. “Let her in. And, no, you can’t search her. But I will,” he added before Garrick could protest. “And you can watch, just in case she overpowers me.”
Garrick studied him a moment longer, clearly unhappy and deciding whether there was anything he could do about it. There wasn’t. “I’ll be right back,” he said finally.
Quinn waited. He thought about getting up. It was the courteous thing to do. But he was too well-versed in power plays. She’d all but kicked him out of her house. But this was his. Fuck courtesy.
Eve walked in ahead of Garrick, shooting a dirty look over her shoulder before turning to give Quinn a warm smile. As if she hadn’t been telling him she hated him just last night. The smile dimmed a little when he didn’t get up and didn’t smile back.
She bit her lip nervously, and he watched, thinking he’d like to bite it himself, but he was careful to keep the thought off his face.
“Quinn,” she said, hesitantly breaking the silence, “we should talk.”
“So, talk.” He stood and walked toward her, while Garrick stood in the doorway, watching. He’d been joking about that, but apparently Garrick had taken him seriously. “Take off your jacket,” he told Eve.
“What?”
“Take off the jacket and drop the purse.”
She hugged her purse to her chest. “What? Why?”
“Because I’m no fool, and you carry a knife.”
Her eyes widened in shock. “I’m not letting you pat me down!”
“Why not? I’ve done it before. Although, this time, it will probably be less pleasurable. For you, anyway.”
Her pretty eyes narrowed in irritation. “Fine,” she snapped. She would have dropped her purse to the nearby table, but Garrick caught it up first. He raised one eyebrow before she could protest, then chuckled as he opened the bag and pulled out a small Sig 9mm. He held it up for Quinn to see, then set it aside and went through the rest of the purse, before tossing it onto the table.
“Your turn,” Garrick told Quinn, crossing his arms with a stubborn look.
Quinn smiled. “Lift your arms out to the side, Eve. Hold them there.”
She glared daggers at him, but did as he asked.
“Love this sweater,” he crooned, running his hands over her back and sides, grazing the swell of her full breasts, and meeting her eyes the entire time. He slid his hands down to her hips, following the line of her skirt to her bare thighs, grinning at her outraged look when his fingers slipped briefly beneath the hem and between her thighs. “I think she’s safe, Garrick,” he said, speaking over her head.
“What about the boots?” his cousin demanded. “Those heels—”
“Would make a damn fine weapon,” Quinn agreed. “But I like to think I could stop her before she managed to take them off. I’m not totally helpless.” His voice hardened just enough on the final sentence that Garrick understood his forbearance had limits.
“As you say, my lord. I’ll be nearby if you need me.”
“Not too nearby,” he said, with a lascivious wink for Eve. She made a disgusted sound, which only made him laugh. “I’ll be fine, Garrick.” He waited until the door closed, then walked around his desk and sat. He gestured at the chairs in front of the desk. “Have a seat.”
“Can I put my jacket back on?”
Quinn gave her a careful look. “I don’t think so. Who knows what you’re hiding in there. If you’re cold, I’ll warm you up.”
She scoffed wordlessly.
“I meant the fire, Eve.”
Her blush was a vivid wash of color on her pale skin. “Why’re you being such a wanker about this?”
He leaned back in his chair. “I don’t know what this is.”
“We need to talk.”
“So you said. About what? You killing vampires?”
“Sort of. I mean, we both want the same thing . . . sort of.”
Quinn couldn’t help laughing. “How do you figure that?”
“We both want to kill vampires,” she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and couldn’t understand why he didn’t see it.
“No. You want to kill vampires. I want certain vampires dead, but not shot from a distance or stabbed with their dick in their hand. I kill my opponents in a fair fight, and only if they refuse to submit. That’s the difference between us.”
“Only because you’re strong enough to win. Look, I’ve seen you fight. I know—”
“When was that?” he interrupted, scrolling back over the fights he’d had since arriving in Dublin. There weren’t that many, and none that Eve should have witnessed.
“Oh, um. . . .” She looked around, refusing to meet his gaze.
“When you said ‘talk,’ I assumed you meant telling the truth,” he said dryly.
She scowled, as if irritated that he wasn’t going to play along. Asking pesky questions and demanding answers. How unreasonable of him.
“Okay, look,” she said.
He tensed. Nothing good ever followed a lead-in like that.
“I saw what you did last night. The fight and everything, I mean.”
Quinn’s attention sharpened abruptly. “Did you?” he asked, coming smoothly to his feet and circling around to sit on the edge of the desk in front of her. “And how did that come about, darling Eve? For that matter, how did you find this house?”
She drew a deep breath, then spoke all in a rush. “I put a tracker on your car the other night, and downloaded the app to my phone. It led me here.”
He studied her. She was telling the truth. Adorjan was not going to be happy to learn he’d been outwitted by a human female. Particularly not this human female. Garrick’s suspicions about Eve had infected the other vampire, though Quinn was confident Garrick hadn’t told Adorjan about her vampire hunts. Because if he’d known that, Eve would be dead already.
“Spying on each other, Eve? Is that the sort of alliance you had in mind?”
“No. I only did it because you were being such a jerk about my rifle. You had no right. But then, after. . . . I started thinking about what you said, and I decided we needed to talk. So, here I am.”
He settled against the desk, arms crossed. “And if I refuse? What will you do with your ill-gotten information then? Sell it to the highest bidder? Do I need to worry about some grainy video turning up on YouTube?”
“There’s no video,” she muttered, seeming finally to have found her sense of guilt.
“Too bad. Still, a first-hand account must be worth something to the local news. Or were you going to sell it to someone else? Sorley maybe?”
“No!” she snapped, her head coming up. “I wouldn’t do anything to help that asshole. And, besides, the last thing I want is to draw attention to myself, or my connection with vampires.”
“Oh, right. Because under Irish law, you’re guilty of murder. Of course, there aren’t any bodies, so that’s convenient. Although there is a witness.” He smiled slowly and pointed at himself. “Where do you suppose they’ll put you?” he asked thoughtfully, then answered his own question. “Dóchas Centre, if you’re lucky. Limerick, if they decide to send a message. Very unpleasant. You might even get out in a decade or so. Maybe less, since you were only killing monsters. Isn’t that right?”
She jumped to her feet and stormed closer, her dark eyes flashing with anger when her boots hit his, and she leaned in to snarl, “They killed my brother. I watched them kill him and could do nothing. What was I supposed to think?”
“That the two who killed him were guilty of murder, not every fucking vampire in Ireland.”
“And then what? Where’s my justice?” she demanded.
“Justice, is it? Is that what you call murdering random vampires? Justice? You’re killing my people. Should I now go out and kill random humans? Is that my justice?”
She glared at him, breathing hard, her breasts heaving, and face flushed. She looked so fucking sexy. Except for the glare, it was very much the way she’d looked after he’d fucked her.
“I saw them leave Sorley’s house the other night,” she said finally, speaking quietly and straightening enough that she wasn’t in his face. “The two who killed Alan.”
“Tell me you didn’t approach Sorley about it.”
“No. He wouldn’t care, and I wouldn’t stand a chance. I know that.”
“You shouldn’t be in the game at all, Eve. You’re going to end up dead. If you have a problem with Sorley or any of his thugs, I’ll take care of it.”
“You’ll take care of it,” she repeated flatly. “Look, even if you’re right about—”
“I am right, and you know it.”
She gave him a narrow-eyed glance and continued, “—about regular vampires, I deserve the right to kill those two.”
He studied her silently. “All right. You have IDs on them?”
“Why?”
“So suspicious. You’re the criminal here, not me.”
“Just answer the question, wise guy. Why do you want their IDs?”
He shrugged. “I’ll round them up, and you can kill them. Face to face.”
“And why would you do that?”
“Maybe I like you.” He stroked one finger down her cheek.
She shied away at the gentle touch. “Maybe. But that’s not the reason.”
“Actually, that is the reason. If you keep trying to kill vampires, you’re going to end up dead. I happen to like you alive.”
“I’m not going to let you bite me.”
He laughed. “Your loss, sweetheart. But I still don’t want your death on my conscience. This is a limited time offer, by the way. Take it or leave it. But know this, Eve. I won’t tolerate anyone hunting vampires in my territory, not even you.”
“You won’t kill me,” she said with smug confidence.
Quinn leaned close. “I won’t have to,” he murmured.
Eve pulled back to stare at him for a confused moment as she worked out the meaning of his quiet words. Her eyes went wide. “You’d mess with my mind?” she breathed.
“If you give me no choice. . . .”
“Bastard.”
He tsked. “I already told you that doesn’t apply. So what’s it going to be. I need an answer.”
“If you’re so all fired up to protect vampires, why let me kill those two?”
“Why do you care?”
She frowned. “I don’t. You’re right. Can I get my phone? It’s in my jacket pocket.”
He gave her a knowing look, then walked over and pulled her jacket off the chair. Digging through her pockets, he came up with a short, thick switchblade, which he held up for her to see, tsking loudly. Going into the other pocket, he found a pink cell phone.
“Pink?”
She snatched it from his hand. “What’s your number?”
Quinn rattled off a number. It was one of several burner phones, nothing to connect it to him in case sweet Eve got a bug up her ass to frame him for some made-up crime.
She tapped a few keys, then waited, eventually looking around the office with a scowl. “How come it didn’t ding?”
“Because it’s not in this room?” he asked facetiously.
“What kind of businessman doesn’t have a phone in his office?”
“The kind who doesn’t want to be bothered. Don’t worry, the number’s good.”
“Fine. I sent you pictures of the two killers. Can I go now?”
“Hey, you knocked on my door, not the other way around.” He moved fast, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her close. “Unless you’d like to stay,” he whispered against her ear.
She shivered, leaning into his touch before putting her hands against his chest and, after a long moment, pushing away. “I really—” She drew a deep breath. “I really have to get back.”
“You could stay.” As he said the words, Quinn knew he meant them. Despite everything, he wanted her to stay. He wanted Eve.
She looked up, and he saw the matching desire in her eyes, the remembered heat from the times they’d fucked. And for a moment, he thought she’d stay. But then she shook her head and said, “I have to go home. To Howth. You’ll call me? When you know something, I mean.”
He stepped away from her, both hands in the air in front of him. “Sure thing. Garrick will see you safely to your car.”
“That’s not necess—”
“Actually, it is. This is my world, Eve. I call the shots.”
The look she shot him had a little of her fire back, which made him happier. He didn’t want his Eve to be sad or confused. He wanted her pissed off and ready to rumble. As long as the rumbling didn’t involve killing more vampires.
“What about the Sig? You going to steal another one of my guns?” she demanded.
Quinn picked up the gun, popped the magazine and emptied it. Then racked the slide. It was empty. “You should keep a round in the chamber, in addition to a full mag,” he said as he handed her the now-empty weapon. “It gives you an extra round. And with such a small gun, you can use it.”
“Doesn’t do much good if you keep taking all my weapons away from me.”
“Self-preservation, sweetheart.” He winked as the office door opened on silent hinges, and Garrick stood there. “Make sure Eve gets to her car safely, please.”
“Sure thing, my lord.”
“You make your own cousin call you that?”
“He doesn’t make me do a damn thing,” Garrick snarled. “It’s a matter of respect. Something you wouldn’t understand.”
“Garrick,” Quinn said quietly, then turned to Eve. “My world, Eve.”
She blushed and headed for the door, while Garrick gave him a questioning look.
“Make sure she leaves the neighborhood, then we’ll talk,” Quinn told him.
EVE STAYED TWO steps ahead of Quinn’s cousin. He was nearly as bad as that bodyguard, Adorjan. Both of them hovered over Quinn, as if he couldn’t protect himself. From her, for God’s sake. She’d seen him take down that gang of vampires without breaking a sweat, and Garrick was worried about her? She reached her car and climbed inside. Granted, she had killed a few vampires over the last five years. But she didn’t want to kill Quinn.
She locked her car doors, then turned and raised her middle finger at Garrick. Asshole.
No, she thought as she drove away. She didn’t want to kill Quinn. She wanted to fuck the beautiful bastard. Fangs and all.
GARRICK WALKED into Quinn’s study and closed the door softly behind him. “So?” he asked.
Quinn threw down the iPad he’d been making notes on. “She wants the vampires who killed her brother.”
“And?”
“And I told her I’d deliver them, but that’s it.”
Garrick walked over and slumped onto one of the chairs in front of Quinn’s desk. “Can I speak candidly for a minute?”
“For fuck’s sake, Garrick. Talk.”
“Q, you know I’ll support whatever you do. Unless, you know, you become a mass murderer or something, then all bets are off.”
“That’s reassuring.”
“Yeah, well, I just wanted to set limits before I continue.”
Quinn rolled his hand in a signal to move on.
“I’m worried about this girl. We’re vampires, we’re territorial creatures. You’re a vampire lord, or you soon will be, which means your territorial instincts, your possessive instincts, are off the charts. And when it comes to women . . . hell, we’ve all seen the lengths to which powerful lords will go to protect the women they love.”
“I don’t love Eve.”
“Not yet, maybe. But you could. I’ve seen you with a lot of women over the years, and there’s not one of them you’d have made that deal with. Any other woman would be dead by now. She’s a killer, damn it.”
“And so are we,” Quinn said quietly. “We’ve both killed vampires, me more than you.”
“In challenges, in defense of our lives.”
“But that’s what Eve thinks she doing. Defending herself and others against the kind of vampire who killed her brother.”
“Except she’s not, damn it. She’s killing whoever crosses her path.”
“Not anymore.”
“If you can believe her.” Garrick sighed. “So, what’s the plan, my lord?”
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to rush out and hunt down Eve’s vamps, just so I can deliver them tied up like hogs on her doorstep. My first priority is getting rid of Sorley. As for the rest, I’m sure some of his inner circle will choose to make a stand with him. And I’m sure those two will be included in that circle.” He tossed the burner phone over to Garrick. He’d retrieved it from his desk after Eve had gone. It had been in the office the entire time, just muted.
“We’ve met these two,” Garrick said, studying the images. “Or, not met so much as seen. They were at Sorley’s that first night, part of his close guard.”
“They were. I’m betting they’re his enforcers, which means they like beating up other people, especially people who can’t fight back, like humans.”
“What if they decide not to go down with Sorley’s ship?”
Quinn took the phone back when Garrick offered it. “I’ll be making changes once I become lord, bringing in my own people, vampires I can trust. These two don’t strike me as the trustworthy kind.” He lifted his gaze to meet Garrick’s. “They won’t like being sidelined. I expect them to protest forcefully.” He leaned back in his big chair, until the springs creaked with strain. “Ireland will soon be mine, Garrick. Every vampire on this island will live by my sufferance. Or they will die.”