Shade's Lady

God, but I wanted that.

Unfortunately, the only thing my niece Callie knew how to cook was chocolate. There were three little girls waiting for me, along with a sister who was probably in agony and almost certainly at risk of losing her job for missing yet another day of work. Pulling away from that kiss was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but I managed somehow. Shade’s eyes were dark and hungry. Full of fire. For once that didn’t scare me.

“I need to go home,” I whispered. “My sister is sick and I’ve got to watch the kids. Will you give me a ride?”

Shade met my gaze steadily.

“This isn’t over,” he said, and he wasn’t talking about the situation with Rebel.

“My oldest niece is only five, and she already microwaved them a candy bar for breakfast.”

Shade cocked his head at me. “No shit?”

“No shit,” I replied solemnly.

“Then I guess I’d better give you a ride,” he said slowly. He glanced toward Rebel and his face hardened. “Get in your truck and go away.”

Rebel looked to the truck, almost comical in his confusion. “But the tires are all flat.”

“So drive on the rims,” Shade told him. “Make yourself disappear or I’ll do it for you.”

Rebel nodded quickly. I watched while he staggered to his feet, clutching his side as he lurched toward the Chevy. Then Shade caught my hand, tugging me toward the line of bikes. I turned toward him and he froze, reaching up to touch the side of my face.

“You’ve got a bruise starting here. Rebel hit you,” he said, his voice like ice. I shook my head.

“Technically, he threw me into the truck.”

Shade’s face went hard. “I’m gonna kill him.”

“No,” I said, catching his arm. “You’re gonna give me a ride home. I don’t care about that fucker, but I do care about my nieces. If you want to help me, take me home.”

Shade turned to Dopey, who stood watching Rebel. “Follow him.”

Dopey nodded sharply and a chill ran down my spine, because as much as I hated Rebel, I had a bad feeling about this—if Shade wanted to throw him into a truck, I was totally down with that. The whole disappearing thing, though… That sounded like some seriously bad karma.

“Shade—”

“Rebel’s not your problem anymore,” he said, glancing down at me. “He touched what was mine on my property. That’s a problem between him and me.”

I opened my mouth to argue, then closed it again because he’d gone back to scaring me, way beyond Batman level. Rebel was a piece of shit, but Shade was a whole different level of badass. I’d gotten so caught up in his kiss that I’d forgotten how dangerous he was.

Big mistake.

I needed to get home and get away from him. Maybe find a new job where I wouldn’t have to see him again. I didn’t care how sexy he was—I’d had enough dangerous men to last me a lifetime.

 

 

Chapter Seven

 

The ride home was anti-climactic.

Last night it’d felt like Shade was kidnapping me away to another world. In the daylight, I recognized the highway curving around rolling hills and clumps of forest. The same mountains that I saw above Hannah’s trailer stood over us, watching.

Just like our first trip together, I held Shade tightly around the waist, taking in his special scent and feeling the play of his stomach muscles under my hands. Everything about him felt sexy and right, scarily enough. I refused to relax into him, though, because I couldn’t afford that. When I’d met Rebel, I’d decided it was safe to have a boyfriend so long as I didn’t trust him with my heart.

Now I knew better.

By the time we pulled up in front of the trailer I shared with my sister’s family—and Shade knew exactly where it was, which was a little creepy in and of itself—I was utterly resolved. Whatever chemistry we might have, I wasn’t interested in acting on it. Self-preservation and all that.

That didn’t stop the strange twinge I felt, seeing the place as it must look through his eyes. Our home was quite literally on the wrong side of the tracks. Violetta only had nine hundred residents, with the poorest ten percent living on the flat behind the old grain elevator and rail yard.

My sister’s battered old minivan sat up on blocks and the trailer itself was frayed and stained from too many winters. A cheap swing set sat in the tiny yard, which was well-maintained because my sister took the whole mothering thing very seriously. She didn’t want the girls stepping on any rusty nails.

Two more Reapers—including Dopey—had followed us from the clubhouse. Shade gave them a wave and they passed, circling around the block as he pulled his Harley to a stop in the driveway. He turned off the big engine and my entire body quivered from a mixture of phantom vibrations and suppressed tension. I climbed down, determined to head off any ideas he might have about following me inside.

“You working at the Pit again tonight?” he asked, reaching up to touch my cheek. His touch was gentle, but it still hurt. I ignored his question.

“Don’t do anything to Rebel,” I told him seriously. “If you do, the cops will come talk to me, and the last thing I need is more cops in my life.”

“Whatever business Rebel has with the Reapers, it won’t roll over on you,” Shade said. “I wouldn’t put you in that position. You didn’t answer my question, though. You workin’ tonight?”

“Yeah, but I’m going to ask Bone to have someone else wait on the Reapers in the future. I’m out, Shade. I don’t want to be part of your world.”

Shade’s eyes narrowed.

“This thing between us isn’t over,” he said firmly.

“It is to me,” I replied, ignoring the way his hand had slipped into the hair at the back of my neck. I wanted to lean into him and purr like a cat. A very stupid cat. “There’s nowhere we can go with this personally. And the last time I served you at the Pit I busted ass all night and didn’t even get a tip. So far as I’m concerned, it’s a dead end.”

Shade cocked his head and smirked. “So I was supposed to tip you on top of the five hundred I gave Rebel to fuck you?”

“I never agreed to that,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, you made that pretty clear.”