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“I’m not what he needs. Or what he wants.” Sadness filled her voice. “I saw his future. She’s not me.”
“You’ve been wrong once already,” Dee reminded her, and she tore her gaze from Simon. Catalina couldn’t just leave. She belonged with them.
But Catalina didn’t look back and her head shook once, slowly. “Didn’t you hear me, Dee? The night’s not over yet.”
Her lips parted, but Dee had no idea what to say. What more could happen?
“I saw you.” Catalina’s voice drifted back to her. “Surrounded by vampires. No way out. No. Way. Out.”
Understanding finally hit. Catalina had never said that Grim took her out.
The others—they were the ones she needed to fear.
* * *
They went back to the same seedy motel. They could have stayed at the scene, made sure Pak’s team arrived, but screw that. Dee was about to fall on her face and taking care of her was Simon’s priority.
She’d taken blood from him at the scene. Not too much. Just enough to kickstart her healing, and then she’d stared around at the darkness with worry in her eyes.
The big, bad bastard was dead. What did she have to worry about?
She shuffled into the room and wrinkled her nose. “I smell like death.” Common, for many vampires, but not for her.
Never her.
She stripped, right there, even before he’d slammed the motel room door shut, and Simon just took a minute to enjoy the show. World class, really.
Then she headed for the bathroom and his gaze followed her ass. Dimples. Nice, lick-me dimples right at the top of that curving ass.
He took a step to follow her.
The lady kicked the door closed.
Okay.
The shower blasted on. The roar of the water easily penetrated through the thin door. Simon hesitated, his eyes on that door. She’d shut him out, so that clearly said she didn’t want him stripping and joining her for some water fun.
But there’d been something in her eyes since Grim’s death. Not fear. Worry, but?—
Pain. More than just the physical wounds. A pain that cut much, much deeper.
He locked the motel room door and strode toward the bathroom. His knuckles rapped against the door. “Dee?”
No answer.
His hand dropped to the doorknob. If she told him to fuck off, he’d leave her in peace. But if she was in there, hurting, he wasn’t going to walk away.
He turned the knob and stepped inside. Steam had begun to rise and to drift lazily in the air, but Dee hadn’t entered the shower yet. She stood near the tub with her head bowed and her shoulders hunched.
“Dee?” Simon said her name again, louder.
She glanced back at him and the sight of tears on her face was a punch right in his gut. “It didn’t make any difference.”
What? Fuck, but now he hurt. He captured her arms and pulled her against his chest. “Babe, what’s?—”
“I thought killing him would make some of the pain stop. That it would give me some peace.” A hard swallow. “But when I close my eyes, I still see them.”
Them. Her family. Simon blew out a breath and held her even tighter. “I know.” He did. Because there was still a hole in his heart for his family. A hole that vengeance hadn’t healed.
