Strangers of the Night

  “I spent almost my entire life locked away while people tried to get inside my head. Do you think, now that I’m out, that I’m going to allow anyone to lock me away again?”

  “They won’t,” she began, but stopped herself. In truth, she had no idea what Vadim planned to do with Jed.

  “There came a time when I knew I could get away from Wyrmwood at any time,” Jed said. “When there was nothing they could do to keep me. I could’ve killed them all, Samantha. Or just hurt them. I could have walked out of there at any time without anyone getting hurt at all. I didn’t for a long, long time because I had no reason to believe that anything beyond the walls would be any better. Until you came along.”

  “Let me take you to people who will help you,” Samantha said. “You don’t have to do this alone.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not going with you.”

  “Where will you go?” she demanded. “You don’t know how to drive a car, you have no money, no identification, nothing...”

  Jed shrugged. “You know what I can do. I’ll make my way. Maybe I’ll travel. See everything I only ever watched on television.”

  “I can’t let you go,” Samantha said.

  She didn’t mean only that she could not let him run away from the Crew. She meant more than that. He had to know it, she thought as the scent of lavender came up to surround her. She couldn’t let him go, because he’d come to mean too much to her.

  He had to feel it, didn’t he?

  “You don’t want to hurt me,” she said in a low voice. Time had slowed and the world around her had gone a little blurry.

  “I’m not going to hurt you, Samantha.”

  She woke up on the bare and lumpy mattress. Darkness outside. He had not hurt her, no.

  He’d left her.

  Chapter 19

  Persephone hadn’t seen her brother in months, but that didn’t mean much. Phoenix had a wanderlust and an inherent distrust of anything resembling settling down. The last she’d heard, he was somewhere in Europe, playing with a minor princess from some small country she didn’t remember the name of. So when she opened the door to a knock, seeing him on the other side was a surprise.

  She ought to have known better, because a day later, he’d managed to get her to write down all the login information for her bank accounts, all of them, even the hidden and secret one she kept for her shady business deals. Then he’d made her forget she’d done it, so when she woke up and found him missing along with a note of apology, he’d already wiped her out.

  He’d left her a gift card to the coffee shop, though. What a prince, she thought as she used it to pick up a coffee and a muffin. What a fucking prince.

  “Hi, Persephone.”

  She turned, already feeling a flush of heat in her throat because she knew that voice. Kane. He smiled at her. She couldn’t manage to give him one in return.

  He lifted his cup toward her. “This place makes the best coffee, huh?”

  “Yes.” She couldn’t stop herself from thinking about kissing him. She never saw any of the other men she went to bed with, and this was why, she reminded herself. It made her want to kiss him again, and that was too dangerous with anyone, but especially with him.

  Somehow they ended up sharing a table and he was making her laugh. Making her forget that Phoenix had screwed her over, or that her life was a long string of bad decisions and shady situations. With Kane, she didn’t feel like she had to put on a show...except of course she did, Persephone reminded herself with a shock when she looked at the clock to see that an hour had passed.

  They walked out together. On the sidewalk outside, a man wearing jeans and a coat too heavy for the late fall day watched them from the corner. A cigarette in his mouth. Assessing. Keeping her attention seemingly focused on Kane, Persephone created an illusion of a much older woman, heavier and dowdy, for whoever that guy was. When she looked again, he was gone.

  It didn’t mean he’d been looking for her, she thought. It could’ve been anyone. Or maybe he wasn’t working alone, and even though she’d sent the illusion his way, someone she hadn’t even seen might have been able to match her to a picture.

  “You okay?” Kane paused at the top of the concrete front steps of their apartment building. “You got quiet.”

  Persephone shrugged, knowing she seemed distant now and not liking it. But what could she do? Giggle and coo with him? Tell him she’d already seen him naked but he had no idea it was her?

  “Fine. Just need to get some things done.” She left him and went down into the basement to her own place.

  She should pack her shit and go. She had cash hidden away for that very reason, a stash her brother hadn’t seen, so hadn’t been able to steal from her. It would be enough to get her settled someplace else. Get her away from anyone who might’ve tracked her here, who was watching.

  Or she was being crazy, overreacting, she told herself and forced a breath, then another. She thought again of Kane’s touch, his mouth, but now she thought also of the way he’d made her laugh. He was more than good-looking—he was smart and funny, too. And, for whatever reason, he seemed to be into her.

  She should go, Persephone thought as she pulled out her laptop and started scrolling through her contacts to see what kind of financial business she could get going for herself, and quick. Run. Leave this behind.

  But the lingering flavor of coffee was nothing like the way Kane had tasted, and so even though she knew she was being crazy, she was still going to stay here for a while longer.

  Chapter 20

  Six months later

  It was time to stop looking for him. Jed had vanished as completely as any human being could, and considering the vast extent of the Crew’s reach, that said something about how insistent he was on not being found. Samantha had taken jobs that sent her all over the country and none of them had brought her close to finding him.

  He was not coming back.

  At first, she’d told herself it was because she was worried about him making it out there in the world, but she knew he’d have found a way to be okay. Later, when the search had continued, she had to admit there was more to it than her concern for him. She missed him. She...wanted him.

  It hadn’t been love, she told herself now, sullen and cranky as she dropped her bag on a chair in the Crew cafeteria. She wanted food first. Then a shower. Then her bed. She’d finished investigating the possibility of a werewolf attack in the middle of Montana, a gig that had meant a lot of long hours in the wilderness. She’d been cold. Hungry. A few times, scared. Whatever creature had been killing hikers, though, she had not confirmed it was a werewolf.

  The job had brought up a lot of her past. The final night with her father. The blood, the fur, her lack of memory. She’d return to Montana soon, but Vadim had called her back before the case had been completed, and she didn’t know why. Didn’t care, so long as the money came in.

  Now, all she cared about was getting something in her stomach.

  But there he was, standing in front of her. Eyes a little anxious, but a smile on his face. He’d put on some weight and muscle, and a bristly scruff of reddish beard covered his chin. He looked tired.

  “Jed!”

  He kissed her, and she let him even though she knew she really should pull away. Her arms went around his neck. Their teeth clashed; she laughed. He sighed. His hands buried themselves in her hair. People were staring, but she didn’t care. There was this, only this.

  “Shhh, shhh,” he said against her mouth. “I didn’t want to startle you. I was going to wait until you went to your room, but I couldn’t. I saw you, and I couldn’t wait. Samantha...”

  She broke the kiss then, breathing hard. “Where have you been? Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

  “I’m here now,” he said. “I’m sorry it to
ok me so long.”

  “I’m so damned angry at you,” she said.

  She kissed him again. Harder. His tongue stroked hers. She could not get enough. She wasn’t crying, not really, but the world had blurred with the force of her emotions.

  “You should be. I was wrong to ditch you. I just had to...”

  She cut him off with another kiss. Looked into his eyes. “I understand. I get it. You had to.”

  “I’m here, though,” he said. “I didn’t want to keep moving on around in the world without you. All the things I saw and did, everything I thought I wanted to do all those years in the hospital, none of them seemed to matter very much without you next to me.”

  Samantha drew in a slow breath, aware that everyone in the cafeteria was carefully pretending not to eavesdrop. Not caring what they heard. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

  “I don’t know a lot of things. It’s going to take me a long time learn them. But one thing I already know is there’s nobody else in the world I want to be with. First, last, only, Samantha. That’s what I want.”

  His expression made it clear he thought she was going to argue with him, and she knew that would’ve been the wise thing to do. She couldn’t make herself do it. Whatever they would have to deal with, the two of them could face it together, she thought as she kissed him again, this time to the slow round of applause from the people around them.

  “Yes. All right, then,” she said into his mouth. “Me, too. All of that, and anything else that comes along. I’m in.”

  * * * * *

  Passion in Disguise

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 1

  Staying up all night meant sleeping late the next morning, at least for most people. For Persephone Collins, it meant waking up when the light hit the sky even if her eyes were still gritty and her body aching, even if she wanted nothing more than to be lost in dreams for another hour or six. That was the price you paid for a life of crime, she told herself without even trying to stifle the jaw-cracking yawn. She needed coffee.

  She needed a lot of things.

  Last night’s haul had included enough cash to get her through the next few weeks, if she was careful, but Persephone hadn’t spent her life being careful. She counted it out carefully, though, separating the bills and tucking away the largest, a rare fifty, inside the hardbound copy of The Complete Ray Bradbury Collection that she kept on the top shelf of the basement apartment’s built-in bookcase. She’d picked up the book at a yard sale for a quarter, but it now contained easily several thousand dollars’ worth of paper money. Any time she found a bill bigger than a twenty, she tucked it inside. It was the only thing she’d be sure to take with her if she ever had to run.

  For today, though, she didn’t think she’d have to run. Today she was content to start the coffee brewing while she dispensed with the rest of the cash. At the stove, she made herself an egg and put it onto an English muffin before settling at the table with her laptop and a huge mug of steaming black coffee. She had a lot of leads to follow up on, more than a couple scams to continue.

  She wasn’t expecting a knock just before eight in the morning, but as the superintendent of a building that hadn’t exactly been lovingly tended over the past decade, she also wasn’t surprised by the rap of knuckles on her door. Mug in hand, she opened the door to find Kane Dennis on the other side.

  He grinned and held up two big cups of what smelled like perfect coffee from that place down the street. When she didn’t move forward, he held one out to her. “Here.”

  “I have some,” she said with a lift of her mug. “But thanks. Wow. What’s it for?”

  “For fixing my hot water...again.” Kane’s grin softened as he sipped, still holding out the insulated cup. He let out a long sigh. “Mmm. Man, I do not know what they do to that coffee there, but it’s so, so good. You sure you don’t want it?”

  Persephone knew that was true without taking a drink. That coffee shop was like magic. Her own mug, which had been filled with perfectly adequate brew, was no longer quite as appealing. She stepped aside to let him in, waving him toward the table even as she was thinking of excuses to get him out of her apartment without seeming too obvious that she was trying to get rid of him. “You didn’t have to do this. Fixing your hot water is my job.”

  “Does that mean I can’t show you my appreciation?” Kane set the cup he’d brought her on the table and looked around her apartment, those gray eyes noticing every detail.

  Because that was what he did. Paid attention. Put the pieces together to figure out the truth.

  Persephone put her mug on the counter to take a sip from the other cup. “God. So good. So fucking good.” She glanced up to see him looking at her. “What?”

  Kane shook his head with a small smile. “Nothing. Glad you like it. I figured you would.”

  For a moment, a long, long moment, she considered tossing the coffee into the sink and tossing Kane onto the table to have her wicked way with him. She could start at the bottom and work her way to the top, she thought with a glance at his heavy black work boots, then those long, long denim-clad legs, those muscled thighs... And she stopped herself before she could get herself into trouble. If Kane had seen her looking, he didn’t show it, but that small grin of his had widened.

  “Well, hey, thanks for the coffee,” Persephone said abruptly, guiding him by the elbow back toward the door.

  Kane paused in the doorway. His smile faded. He studied her. “Persephone...”

  “What?” Irritated and also a little flustered now at his perusal, she sipped. The coffee burned her tongue, and she winced. Scowling, she lifted her chin. “What?”

  “Is there something about me that you don’t like?”

  She paused, choosing her answer cautiously. “What do you mean?”

  “Have I done something to make you think I’m a jerk?” Kane shook his head before fixing her with a steely gaze. “Because it seems like no matter what I do, you look at me like I’ve somehow done you wrong.”

  Staring at him now, all she could think about was the way his bristly chin had felt against her throat when he was on top of her. Heat rose up her neck to paint her cheeks. She cut her gaze from his, not wanting him to see her blush—although, of course, he would. Kane saw everything about her.

  Everything but the fact she’d been fucking him, randomly on and off, for the past six months.

  “I don’t think you’re a jerk,” she said when so much silence had lingered that not saying anything had become awkward. “But...”

  “But what?” He eyed her over the rim of his cup.

  “We aren’t friends.”

  Kane’s mouth twisted. Not quite a smile. “Why not?”

  Because she got free rent for being this beat-up old building’s superintendent, but she paid her bills through a variety of grifting, scams and outright thievery. Kane was a detective who spent his days and nights putting people like Persephone in jail. Because every other week or so, Persephone used the twisted powers of her brain to make him think she was some other woman so she could pick him up at the local dive bar, take him home and have her wild, wicked way with him. Because she didn’t want to have to explain to him where she’d been born and raised and what had been done to her to make her into the freak she was.

  Without answering him, she took another sip of the coffee he’d brought her and tried to give him a hard stare. It didn’t work very w
ell, because doing that meant she lost herself in the soft gray depths of his eyes, and then she was remembering about the last time he’d been on top of her. How he’d felt inside her. How he’d made her come...and again, she forced herself to get her shit together.

  At the sound of Kane’s sigh, she waved a hand toward him. “I’m pretty sure your life isn’t going to suffer much harm if we aren’t besties.”

  Kane’s laugh sound a little stung. “What if I think that having you as a friend would make my life better?”

  At this, she took a step back with a lifted brow. “Right, and clearly, whatever you think or feel or want takes precedence over what I think or feel or want. Right? Because you’re a guy?”

  “Hey, that’s not what I—” Kane broke off at the sight of her expression. “Fine. Sorry. I’ll go. Thanks for fixing the water heater.”

  “Thank you for the coffee,” Persephone said crisply, leaving no more room for conversation.

  She waited until he’d let himself out before she flattened herself against the back of the door and closed her eyes. She listened for the sound of him moving away. For a hesitant, heady moment she imagined him on the other side of the wood, listening for her exactly the same way. Waiting for her to open it, to ask him inside. To take him to bed.

  Or to be buddies, Persephone thought with a small curl of her lip. Friends. Maybe they could kick back with a couple of beers and catch some type of sports on TV.

  There weren’t many things Persephone felt guilty about in her life. The scams? If anyone was stupid enough to fall for them, they deserved to be bilked out of the contents of their bank accounts. The stealing? Okay, so maybe she wasn’t quite Robin Hood, but she never took more from anyone than they could clearly afford to lose. And as for using men for their bodies to get her off so she could occasionally sleep longer than twenty minutes a night? None of them had ever complained.

  She did feel bad about the way she’d treated Kane, though. He was never anything but nice to her, and she did treat him like she thought he was a jerk. The coffee in her hand was far from the first kind gesture he’d made. It shouldn’t have mattered, but something about it did.