My eyes eagerly soaked it all in.
The jagged dark to Hunter’s gentle light.
Carrot was skipping beside him, demanding attention. He picked her up and rubbed under her chin. “Hunter, I think this cat likes me more than you. Can’t blame her, I guess.”
Hunter snapped a reply. “Can you put some goddamn clothes on? There’s a lady—”
I tugged on his arm. I was steadily perfecting my puppy dog stare, as I said gently, “You promised.”
Dagger came closer. The bulge in his briefs suggested the two brothers were identical in every single way. Not that I was staring, of course.
He grimaced as he put Carrot on the kitchen counter and lowered himself onto a stool. She jumped back into his arms as soonas he was sitting. “Pants don’t work with the bandages, dickwad,” he said, clasping Carrot’s upright tail in soft strokes. “Serenity, you don’t mind, do you?”
I shook my head and stroked Hunter’s hand. “No big deal. I’m twenty-two, not twelve.” I met Hunter’s gaze, speaking without speaking. “Maybe you could fix a little breakfast for your brother? Hmm?”
Nodding, he pecked my cheek. “What are you hankering for?” he asked Dagger in friendlier tones.
Dagger paused a second, squinting, as if waiting for the barb. But it never came. “Uh, think you can do an omelet?”
Hunter lifted a large frying pan from its hook on the wall and turned on the gas stove. “What you want in it?”
“What you got?”
“Ham, bacon, French brie cheese, buffalo mozzarella, mushrooms, onions.”
“With the appetite on me today, I’ll take the Buddhist special.”
“What?” Hunter was speaking out the side of his mouth, drizzling olive oil into the pan from an ornate, hour-glassed green bottle.
“The Buddhist special, man.” He rubbed Carrot’s ears. “Make me one with everything.”
I knew virtually nothing about Buddhism, but I chuckled after his quick explanation. “Aren’t you a little young for awful dad jokes?”
“You’re right.” He grinned like a mischievous teen boy. “I should save them up for when I’ve made lots of babies.”
I grinned back, enjoying his playful side. I sat next to him and loved on Carrot with him.
Hunter ignored us, working quickly, and within minutes the omelet was starting to sizzle, the pan and flames puffing salty oil vapors upward as he shaped and flipped it. Then his phone went off. Pan in one hand, phone in the other, he held it to his ear and then offered it to Dagger. “Detective Jackie Eglauf. He tried calling you first. No answer. How’d he get my number?”
Dagger took the phone. “He’s a damn good detective.” Gently placing Carrot on the floor and clasping the phone in his jaguar-tattooed hand, he said to me, “Iaccidentallyswitched mine off. I’ve got enough pain without risking an earache from my ball-breaker of a lieutenant.” Focusing on the call, his face grew serious. “Good job, Teddy Bear. Thanks for that. Keep it up.”
He ended the call and handed the phone back to Hunter, who swapped him for a gigantic omelet platter, rippling with meat, cheese and onions. Tinkling a fork on the platter’s edge, Hunter raised his eyebrows. “Teddy Bear?”
Dagger shrugged as he picked up the fork. “It’s a nickname. An ironic one. Guy is the meanest grizzly in the whole department. Anyway, he was digging through that drug lab’s ruins for samples and the remains of that poor Fae kid. He found both. And the shit they were cranking out is what I suspected.” He hadn’t touched his omelet yet, instead he hunched forward, his cocky humor fading. “Our own lab tests have confirmed, it’s that new shit I’m trying to take off the streets.”
“The drug that nearly killed Rico?” I asked.
“Yep, exact same. That kid Rico was damn lucky. So far, it’s killed nearly every human or half breed I’ve seen take it.”
Hunter folded his arms, leaning against the opposite counter. “Those two vamp pieces of shit are behind it all then.”
Dagger shrugged as he cut a chunk of the omelet, spearing it on his fork. “They’re involved, obviously, but this thing may well go higher. With the victims we have, I keep thinking the Temple must be involved. We’ll see once I find those vamps again. All I know is, this is about more than just drugs for me now. They’re child murderers, they tried to kidnap Serenity and add snuffing me out into the bargain.” He munched on the mouthful of omelet, mumbling through lumps of egg and meat. “For all that, I might need Teddy Bear to hold me back.” He paused, contemplating. “Actually, I might have to hold him back.” He looked at me with kind eyes. “Either way,rest assured. I’m onto them. Those scum suckers are gonna haveseriousproblems next time we meet.”
“Then they’d better hope you see them before me,” Hunter said, strolling across and wrapping his arms round me tight from behind, which caused Dagger to stop mid forking, his mouth slightly agape.
He started eating again, staring at the omelet as he spoke. “Why’s that?”
“They put their hands on my woman. If I get hold of them, all their problems are gonna be over.”
