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“So, um, where do we go from here?” she asked, though her gaze was busy following my fingers’ path across her breasts.
“Why don’t you start by telling me all there is to know about Raven Ferrari—including what got you into vampires—while I see if I can find out some of your secrets on my own,” I said, turning my attention to kissing the mesmerizing red marks on her body.
She scoffed. “All right, let’s see, she had an ordinary childhood, moved to California with her uncle after her mother passed away. She grew up with an awesome best friend, graduated near the top of her class, set her sights on becoming a nurse… and the rest is history. Oh, and a… friend let her watch Bram Stoker’s Dracula with him when she was nine years old, and she’s been fascinated with vampires ever since.”
It was a pretty straightforward life, read like a script she’d rehearsed a thousand times, except for the sadness that seemed to resonate in every word she spoke.
“You don’t seem happy with your life thus far?”
“Are you?” she countered.
I paused. I had everything money could buy. I didn’t pine for a life I couldn’t have. Yet I couldn’t muster up a clear resounding yes.
“I know I’m happy with my liferight now,” I hedged.
It was a shitty move, but this woman was still the enemy, even if I couldn’t quite figure out her game.
She was silent again, watching my fingers move across her body. Her breathing picked up. If I laid my hand flat against her chest, I would feel her pounding heartbeat. Instead, I leaned down and suckled her nipple into my mouth, her quiet moans rippling through my veins.
Three consecutive knocks thumped at the door.
Raven’s breath hitched in her throat.
Whoever was pounding at the door better have had a death wish.
“Nico, you’re needed,” Gabe’s voice called from the other side of the door.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
If it had been anyone else, I would have ignored them, making a mental note to rip off their hands and tear out their tongues later, but Gabe knew better than to bother me down here without good reason.
“What?” I called back, reluctantly slipping off the bed and away from Raven.
“There’s a dead guy on fire upstairs. Someone threw him in through the window.”
Raven’s eyes went wide.
“Did you put out the fire?” I asked, getting dressed while Raven scrambled off the bed and yanked on her dress.
“No, I’ve got everyone roasting marshmallows,” Gabe said, his tone so serious Raven’s expression looked like she couldn’t figure out whether to be horrified or to laugh.
Fully dressed, she followed me toward the door, eyeing it like the guy on fire might just come crashing through it.
“Stay here,” I told her, kissing her forehead. “I’ll have a man guarding the door. Lock it, and don’t open it for anyone but me.”
***
I strode up the stairs with Gabe at my side and my gun in hand, trying to keep my shit together. It was bad enough when someone messed with me out there, but Onyx was my territory. I cracked my knuckles. I’d been itching for the feel of my knife in the palm of my hands for a while now.
At the top of the stairs, I threw open the door, not surprised to find the place had been cleared out but for a dozen Costa men. I took a breath and then regretted it. The putrid smell of burning flesh and hair had replaced the oxygen-heavy air in the large room.
“Barbecue, anyone?” Gabe joked, looking over where Tommaso stood over a smoking mound with a fire extinguisher in his hand.
Gabe had turned a little green around the edges. The scent in the room was bad enough to make our eyes water.
The crack of a gunshot rang out.
“Down!” I hollered, crashing into Gabe and sending us both to the floor in a flash.
