Chapter 21

“Whoa!” Everett said, following her into the room.

“What is all of this?” Reyna mused aloud.

The room was stark white and as clean as the Visage hospital she had first been tested in. One wall was full of gray containers stacked waist-high, filled with packets of blood. The other wall had blood hooked up to some kind of strange system. A blood packet dripped into another packet and then into a third packet from the ceiling to the floor. The room hummed softly with the machinery directing the operations.

“I heard rumors of this, but I didn’t think it was true,” he whispered.

“Thought what was true?”

He turned to look at Reyna with a drawn expression on his face. “Black market blood banks.”

Her mouth dropped open. “That’s a thing?”

She lifted her camera back out of the bag. She would surely never remember what this room looked like exactly if she didn’t take a picture. She wouldn’t post them. Not knowing that people were watching her images now. She would keep these for herself.

“A rumor. I didn’t think it was possible that they would be doing this.”

“They who?” she asked, suddenly scared. She pulled her camera down to look at him.

“Anyone. Visage has a monopoly on blood for vampires. These people must be against them to have all this blood. This could be an Elle operation.”

Reyna paled. “Then we should leave. I don’t want to be part of anything, even if by accident. Someone could be watching.”

Her eyes searched the room for some kind of recording device, but it was difficult to see anything through the rows of blood drips. She didn’t like being here anyway. It gave her the creeps. Blood meant needles.

“I don’t want to be here anymore,” she said.

“All right. Let’s find our way back out.”

Reyna stashed her camera again and they backtracked into the hallway. A man in a white coat and two nurses came out of an adjoining room.

“Hey!” the man yelled. “You two aren’t supposed to be here.”

“Sorry, we got turned around,” Everett said, trying to be placating.

“Security!”

“Let’s go.” Everett grabbed her arm again and dashed down the stairs.

A man followed after them, down the first flight of stairs, and then a second. She was panting by the time they reached the base level and Everett shouldered open the door. She was disoriented when the door deposited them out on the streets. Where were they? They were supposed to be back in the warehouse.

But she didn’t have time to think, she just followed Everett. The guy behind them did not look happy that they had accidentally broken into the blood bank. She didn’t know if Everett knew where he was running to or if he was winding them through the backstreets aimlessly until they lost the guy. But eventually, he yanked her hard into a tiny alcove and covered her mouth with his hand.

The guard rounded the corner and ran right past them. After a few minutes when they were sure that he was gone, Everett released her.

“This way,” he said. He opened a side door and they went up two flights of stairs.

“Where are we? I’m so lost,” she admitted, still panting from exertion.

He opened the first door on the right. “Home sweet home.”

They walked into a small apartment, and he quickly closed the door.

“This is where you live?”

He nodded, color touching his cheeks. “It’s not much, but it’s mine.”

It really wasn’t much. With his impeccable appearance at work and the nice car he drove, she thought he would have lived in a slightly nicer area of town. Reyna didn’t know how far they had run, but it couldn’t have been that far away.

“Do you live here by yourself?”

“Yeah. Just me and Hopper,” he said as a dog promptly hopped out of the bedroom and ran right into Everett. A smile split his face, and he picked up the tiny puffball of a dog and let it lick his face.

“Oh my goodness, how cute!” she cooed.

“Here. He loves everyone.”

Everett handed her the dog, and she plopped down onto his couch. Hopper nuzzled her and forced her to pet him the whole time. After the previous incident, it was actually really relaxing. She couldn’t believe that they had gone to an underground fighting ring, found a black market blood bank, and were chased by some scary-looking security guard.

“When you said we were going somewhere exciting…I didn’t expect all this.”

He sighed and sank down next to her. “Me either. I never would have taken you there if I had thought all of that was going to happen.”

“What do you think they’re doing with that blood?” she asked.

“Selling it?” he guessed. “I think the more important question is—where are they getting it from?”

Reyna shuddered. “Ew. I don’t want to think about that.”

“And you shouldn’t. You should forget everything that just happened. You don’t need to be mixed up with anything like that. You have your own life.”

“What about you?”

He cracked a smile. “I’m too smart to get mixed up with anything. I don’t share my friends’ belief that all vampires are bad, by the sheer virtue of them being vampires.”

“Right. Just like all humans aren’t good, because they’re humans.”

“Right.”

They sat like that on the couch until Reyna’s breathing evened out. She felt like she could pass out right then and there from exhaustion. It all hit her at once.

“I like your place,” she murmured drowsily.

He laughed. “I’m sure it’s nothing compared to where you are.”

“This feels more like home,” she told him. “I grew up in the Warehouse District.”

Everett cringed. “Really? I heard it’s awful out there.”

“It’s awful everywhere. But at least at home I had my brothers. They made it all worthwhile.”

“Where are they now?”

“They’re still there.” Tears sprang to her eyes unbidden and she quickly swiped them off her face. “I miss them a lot. It feels like an eternity since I left.”

“But you’ll get to go home to them soon, right? Isn’t that how the program works? One month and then you switch?”

Reyna closed her eyes and swallowed hard. “That’s how it normally works, but they rolled out a new program. Better pay, better benefits, and you live with the Sponsor permanently.”

“What?” Everett asked in shock. “Can they do that?”

“They’re already doing it. I’ll be with Beckham until…well, I don’t know until when. Indefinitely.”

Everett was stunned into silence, which was the only reason Reyna heard her phone vibrating in her giant purse. She fished it out of the bag and sighed when she saw that Beckham was calling.

“Ugh! It’s Beckham. Sorry.”

“It’s my fault really. We shouldn’t have ditched your guard.”

“I shouldn’t have to have one,” she muttered irritably.

“Take the bedroom,” he offered, pointing behind him.

“Thanks.” She walked into the bedroom and answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Reyna!” he said, sounding out of breath. “Where are you? What happened? Are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“You lost your guard.”

“I know,” she said softly. “I know it’s against the rules, but there weren’t really a lot of options.”

“God dammit. This is why I didn’t want you in places where anything could happen.” He actually sounded worried…not pissed like she thought he would be.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. I’m fine.”

“Where are you? I’ve been trying to get ahold of you. I just got to the warehouse. The fighting bosses were not pleased to see me,” he told her.

He had driven all the way out to the warehouses for…her?

“Just tell me where the hell you are! Last time this happened you almost died.”

“I’m at Everett’s place,” she finally admitted. She hadn’t wanted to tell him since she was still pissed at him. She knew he wouldn’t approve. He didn’t really approve of anything she did.

“You’re at another guy’s apartment?”

Her anger flared up all over again. “Yes!” she said defiantly. “Don’t you go to Penny’s place?” She drawled out his nickname for the woman.

“That’s none of your business.”

“And neither is this!”

“Your whereabouts are my business. Send me the address so I can have a car swing by and get you.”

“What if I don’t?”

He said some choice words under his breath. “I have ways of finding out where he lives. Don’t make me use them.”

“Empty threats,” she muttered.

“Don’t test me.”

The life was draining from her again. This afternoon had been more eventful than she had anticipated and all she wanted to do was curl into a ball on her bed and go to sleep.

“Fine. I’ll get it from Everett.” She hung up the phone before he could reply and returned to the room. “Did you hear that?”

He looked up at her sheepishly. “Yeah. Sorry. Everything okay?”

She shrugged. “I guess.”

“You know…you can stay here if you want.”

“I appreciate the offer, but no.” She couldn’t do that. It would be the same as when she had lived with her brothers. She couldn’t get another job any more than she could have gotten one at home. Just another mouth to feed here too. At least Beckham could take care of her and she could send the rest of her money back home.

“Oh okay…”

“It’s not you. Really. I need to help my family, and this helps. So, I need the address to your place.”

She handed over her phone and he texted the address into it for her.

“Thank you for the exciting afternoon,” she said. “Oh! Your car! Do you want me to take you back?”

“No,” he said immediately. “I mean…I don’t think Beckham is the first person I want to see right now after I endangered your life a second time. He was kind enough to save my life and pay my hospital bills…I don’t want him to put me back in there. I’ll take the subway or catch a ride with someone else.”

“Okay. Sorry about all this.”

“It was fun hanging out with you. Can’t seem to do it without risking your life, but hey, where’s the fun if you don’t live on the edge?”

She laughed and gave him a hug. “See you later.”

When she made it down the stairs to street level, Beckham’s car was already waiting for her. The driver opened the back door, and she slid into the darkened interior with a sigh.

They were halfway home before Beckham said anything. He had been so fixated on his damn phone she wasn’t sure if he had even paid attention to her getting inside.

“I’m glad that you’re safe,” he said.

“Yeah.” She kept staring out the window.

“Did you get the shots you were looking for?”

She thought about the images she had taken tonight and smiled. “I think so.”

When she wasn’t looking, he reached out and removed her baseball cap. She had forgotten she still had the thing on. She turned to look at him in surprise. He released her ponytail, threading his fingers through her dark hair and letting it fan out.

“You never came out of your room.”

She swallowed. “I know.”

“I waited for you.”

“Why?” He had been pissed at her, and her even more infuriated with him. Not to mention the mixed signals driving her insane.

“I don’t know. It didn’t feel right to leave things like that with you,” he admitted.

Reyna’s mouth dropped open. “Oh.”

“Then I heard where you were and what happened…” He almost looked vulnerable, but that was the absolute wrong word for the formidable man in front of her. “If I’d known you wanted to go explore like that, I would have taken you.”

“Really?” she asked, flabbergasted. “You would have taken me to the fights? Would you even have been allowed inside?”

Beckham laughed, and it was the best thing she had ever heard. His laugh was electric, lighting up his entire face even in the briefest of moments. It was like a glimpse into the past. Before he had turned, before he had let the monster take over, before he had closed himself off from feeling. She would do anything to see it again.

“Nowhere is barred to me. All you had to do was ask.”

“Forgive me, but asking you for anything is a bit like pulling teeth, Becks. You don’t make any of this easy.”

“I know. I am not an easy man to be around.”

She frowned and nodded. That was true. And also…false. He was so easy to be around at times. When he let his guard down. When he didn’t hide his relationship with another woman. As much as she wanted to claw his eyes out for that one…and for kissing her despite it all…she knew that she didn’t really have the right.

Part of her wanted to hold on to her anger and remember how it had flared up when he kept pushing her aside. She didn’t want to be taken advantage of if he was with someone else, but she also didn’t want to be away from him. She liked being near him. She liked his broody company. Even though she hated never knowing exactly where she stood.

But staring up into his eyes as black as night wrapped a spell around them both, and she was not going to be the one to break it.

“Will you take me?” she whispered.

Their shared gaze turned heated. Her words held more than one meaning and until they left her mouth, she hadn’t realized how much she wasn’t talking about the photographs. She might have wanted to close her heart off to him, but her body certainly wasn’t listening. The backseat of the car suddenly felt stifling hot, and the short distance between them crackled with desire.

Beckham broke her gaze and stared down at his silent phone. She let out a strangled breath, and tried to pull herself together.

Jesus, Beckham…

“By the way,” he said, “what the hell are you wearing?”