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Captain Antonio Young lifted his chin and glared at him. “Who are you?” His hand still rubbed his wounded stomach.
“The guy who’s been watching her ass.” Simon let his lips curve into a feral smile. “And there’s no damn way you’ll be taking Dee out of here.” But if the cop wanted to try…
Come and get some.
“Simon.” Dee caught his hand. The cop’s eyes dropped at the move, then narrowed. Oh, didn’t like that, huh? Too bad.
She bit her lip. “Are you…are you okay, Tony?”
He instantly dropped the hand he’d been pressing against his stomach. “Fine.” Bit off. “I thought you were up here alone.”
Ah, so that’s why Lancelot had come bounding to the cabin.
“How did you know I was even out here?”
Dark eyes flickered over her face. Too much emotion there. “I know you pretty well, Dee. I knew where you’d go if you wanted sanctuary.” He held up a key. “And I stayed here with you before, remember?”
The hell he had. Simon’s vision bled to red. So what—Dee had a habit of bringing lovers here?
Not any longer she didn’t and if that pretty boy kept looking at her with his puppy dog eyes, he’d plant a fist in the guy’s face.
Dee glanced at Simon, then looked away quickly. “I remember. That was a long time ago.”
Good to know, and Simon didn’t want to hear any more about that. “Dee didn’t kill the woman.”
The cop blinked, then looked over at Dee’s left hand. Her fingers were clenched around a wooden stake. “Evidence says otherwise.”
“It was a setup,” Simon snapped. “The vamps want to take her down.”
“Why?”
Dee jerked away from him and marched toward the weapons cabinet. Some women collected figurines, Dee?—
Collected instruments of death.
“Why the hell would they go to all that trouble?” The cop, Antonio—Tony—shook his head. “Vamps don’t work like that. They kill, drain a vic dry, and?—”
“And some of them are sick freaks who get off on playing with their prey.” Not all, though. Not all were like that. Dee would learn that truth. Eventually. “They want to break Dee. Not just kill her. By setting her up, they rip her out of her nice, safe world.” Not that Dee was much for safety. “They tear her away from her friends, isolate her—” He broke off, shaking his head. No, he couldn’t say any more.
“I was fighting a pack of vamps behind Onyx.” Dee’s voice was flat. She crossed her arms over her chest as she faced Tony. “My head hit the pavement, and the next thing I knew, I was in some stinking, dark room. Blood was all around me and your victim?—”
“Lisa Durant.”
“Was dead.” Her shoulders tensed. “I don’t remember anything that happened in between that alley and that room. I just remember?—”
“I was there,” Simon spoke, holding the cop’s gaze and daring him for a challenge. “I saw the vamps kill the woman. They left Dee in her blood. I saw it all.”
“Bullshit.” Tony stepped forward. “I don’t buy that?—”
“It’s my story.” A brief pause. “The one I’ll tell everyone I see if you so much as even think about hauling Dee away from here.” Not going to happen. His temples throbbed in a sickening, painful rhythm.
No one could threaten Dee. She was too important.
“Oh, so you’re just gonna fucking out the vampires?” Disgust had Tony’s lips tightening.
“They outed themselves.” Maybe it was time for the whole world to stop pretending. Feeding rooms were cropping up in most cities—and dumb humans were stumbling inside, some quickly getting addicted to vamp bites. Some never making it back out. Lucky for the vamps, they’d perfected the body ditch over the years.
“There’s a Born Master coming to town,” Dee said, and she tilted her head. Simon’s eyes narrowed. Yes, that was his mark on her neck, and he knew the cop saw it. No blood drawn. No bite since Dee didn’t like that. But a sweet suck had done the trick. “I’m the best vampire hunter at Night Watch,” she continued flatly. “You take me out of this game, and there’s no telling what hell will come to the city.”
