Page 65 of Bitter Spirits

“It would make sense.” He slowed as a sedan cut across three lanes to make the upcoming left. “Changing the delivery time means you’ll be at the bar at a set time.”

“Which makes it easier to snatch and go,” she finished in a tone of self-disgust. “I didn’t even think about it.”

He didn’t like her self-directed criticism. “We’re thinking it through now. So, you got your delivery.”

“I was putting it away when I heard something out front. I thought it was you.”

He ignored the flash of guilt. “Zev and I were checking Paisley into the clinic. I should have texted you earlier.”

She set her hand on his thigh and gave it a squeeze. “Hey. If I can’t beat myself up, neither can you.”

He dropped his hand to hers and held it. Fine. He’d just keep the self-criticism quiet, then. “So you thought it was me.”

“And I walked into an ambush.” A fine tremor ran through the hand he held, but her voice remained steady. “There were two of them, and they nailed me with a knockout spell.”

“They made you bleed.” It came out between clenched teeth.

“They did?”

He managed a nod.

“Well, I managed to hit them with a bottle of vodka.”

“Yeah. Found that shattered on the floor. You got one, not the other.”

“How did you—” She stopped short. “I totally forgot about the security cameras.”

“Wasn’t the cameras. Those were on the fritz. One of your abductors was an electro mage. Des had a chat with Al.”

“Al?”

“Your resident alcoholic ghost with voyeur vibes?”

She giggled. “Alphonse. I’m surprised he was paying attention.”

“Seems he likes to watch you, something Des wasn’t happy about.”

“Des never has much patience with the dead.” She resumed her story. “The two idiots dumped me at Angel’s.”

Locke kept his territorial anger locked down. “What did he want?”

“To gloat.” She pulled his hand to rest on the console between them and threaded their fingers together. “And to find out why we were nosing around. Don’t worry. I stuck to our story.”

“That isn’t what worries me.”

She lifted their joined hands and pressed a kiss to the back of his before lowering it back down. “I’m okay, Locke.”

He risked looking away from the road for a moment to find her studying him. “You’re more than okay, Isa, but that doesn’t mean I like his attention on you any less.” He turned back but not before he caught her mysterious, feminine smirk.

“He kept asking who sent me to look into him.”

“So no doubt he’s involved.” He let her go to hit the blinker.

“None.” She shifted in her seat so she could face him more fully. “Since I didn’t get a chance to tell you yesterday, thank you.”

Not sure where she was coming from, he frowned. “For what?”

“Finding me so fast.”