Page 36 of Bitter Spirits

He checked the rearview mirror. Darkness stared back. “If he puts a tail on us, we’ll be able to clock them on the freeway.”

“If that’s the way he decides to play it.” She toyed with the charm at her neck.

He considered how focused Angel had been on Isa, almost to the point of ignoring the threat Locke presented. Someone with that kind of obsessiveness didn’t like to lose. “Will he come after you?”

“Probably.”

That wasn’t reassuring. His fingers tightened on the steering wheel, and he fought back the possessive growl grumbling in his chest. “You’re staying with me tonight.”

“Um, no, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No, I’m not,” she shot back. “I’ve been playing this game with Angel for years. I’ll be fine.”

“Ever brought another man into his territory?”

Frustration fairly hummed in her stubborn silence.

Figuring his point had been made, he continued. “Either you come home with me, or I follow you home. Pick one. Because if that dick is stupid enough to come after you, he’ll have to get through me.”

He could literally feel her rolling her eyes as she said with exaggerated patience, “It’s not like you can be with me twenty-four seven.”

“Wanna bet?”

“Oh, come on, Locke. We both have lives, jobs, responsibilities⁠—”

“You get what I do, right?” he asked, unrelenting. This was too important. She was too important.

“You go after prey and bring them back to your master.” Her familiar derisive edge was back in full force.

He let her resentment of the Families roll off him because whatever her issues were, they would deal with them later. “I take care of threats before they become problems, and Angel is more than a problem.”

“You can’t go after him.”

He caught the worry underneath her statement. “Can’t I?”

Her lack of faith was easy to ignore, considering he knew his own strengths. Besides, one narcissistic asswipe would not be much of a challenge. Even if he was a magical leech.

“Oh my gods! Whatever. It’s your funeral.”

“Won’t be mine, babe.” He turned onto the exit to the freeway. “Now, your place or mine?”

She didn’t answer right away, but he waited her out. Finally, she gave in. “Yours, but you’d better have clean sheets for your bed.”

Content that she was coming back to his place, he drawled, “Why? You planning on sharing it with me?”

“Asshole,” she muttered, and he tried not to grin.

Over an hour later, Locke pulled his Charger into his garage and hit the button to bring the door down behind him. Isa, asleep in the passenger seat, didn’t stir. He released his seat belt and turned so he could study the woman next to him. Events from the last two days had obviously caught up with her. Ideally, whatever respite she found during the ride would help lighten the smudges under her eyes.

She shifted in her seat, and a lock of hair fell over her face. Her nose wrinkled, and her hand went to bat it away, but he was already there, drawing her hair back gently. As their hands met, her lashes rose, revealing a mesmerizing mix of green and gold that stared at him in sleepy confusion.

“Locke?”

“Hey, reinita, we’re home,” he said, matching her quiet tone. He trailed a finger along the side of her face and over her jaw.

She turned into his touch as awareness sparked deep in the drowsy gold, exposing a rare vulnerability normally hidden by mile-high walls. “Why reinita?”