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Bones caught the short, stout Caucasian fellow before he reached the second set of doors in the Pathology lab. Cloud-blue eyes widened with terror as Bones lifted him off his feet.
“Well, now, what have we here?” Bones purred.
Those eyes snapped shut at once. Bones pinned him to the wall with one hand and pried the man’s eyelids open with the other. “No, you’re not turning away. Look right here.”
“Bones has someone,” he heard Cat say, followed by the sound of her rapid stride, but he kept staring into those blue eyes while the stench of the man’s fear overpowered the tinge of vampire that still clung to him.
“Brad Parker,” Cat whispered as she entered the room. “He’s our head pathologist’s assistant.”
And their traitor, from the guilt that leaked into Brad’s scent as he heard Cat’s voice. None of the other people had smelled like guilt no matter how terrified they’d been, and if Brad’s heart beat any faster, he’d be in cardiac arrest.
“Calm down,” Bones said, “and tell me what you’ve been up to. Specifically, which vampire you betrayed her to.”
Brad’s heart rate slowed down while he stared into Bones’s eyes. “One. He looks just like her.”
Cat was now so close that Bones felt her recoil in shock. He stifled his urge to comfort her, calling forth his ice.
“Indeed? Now, tell me everything else about him.”
Max had used an alias, but the swiftness in which he’d found Don’s operation told Bones that Max must have been keeping tabs on Don. Once Max had located Don’s base of operations, he’d done what Bones had-compiled a list of its employees. Bones had been doing it to protect Cat, but Max had been looking for someone corruptible. Brad Parker had fit that bill.
“He offered me fifty large to poison her, but I told him poison wouldn’t work,” Brad said in a monotone. “So, I sold him her information plus the manner needed to kill her,andthe surveillance hotspots to avoid. This compound is one of them. So is her house, which means the hit couldn’t happen until she’s away from both for personal reasons instead of work, but that doesn’t happen much. She hardly has a life-”
“That’s insulting,” Cat muttered, but her voice held the tiniest quaver that said Brad hadn’t been wrong.
“-until this week, when Don ordered a stat analysis of her blood to check for increased abnormalities. I didn’t know why, but the day before yesterday, I heard she was fucking a vampire. Sellingthatinformation netted me another fifty large, and it also provided the perfect cover. No one would question her death now. They’d assume her fanged fuck-boy did it.”
“Account information,” Bones said through gritted teeth.
Brad Parker gave it. Tate and Juan had been taking notes, not that they needed to. Bones was memorizing everything because Max had just become his next target.
“You have any questions for him?” Bones asked Don when he was finished.
Don shook his head. “I think you covered it. Tate? Juan? You have anything to add?”
They didn’t.
Only respect for Cat allowed Bones to force his next question out. “Fancy locking him up, then?”
Don looked startled. He should be. Bones didn’t give a rot what Don wanted, but for Cat’s sake, he’d allow Don to make the call since Cat was determined to find a path forward with him.
Don recovered and gave Bones a sardonic look. “You know we’re not letting him live. Not with what he knows. Go ahead. Just don’t make a mess.”
“No!” The word burst from Tate. “We can take him below andshoothim!”
Don turned cold gray eyes to Tate. “Don’t be childish. Bullet or bite, the end’s the same. Besides, he found him. We didn’t, so he earned it.” Then, Don’s gaze shifted to Cat. “You’d be dead if not for your vampire, and despite what you think of me, I don’t want that to happen.”
Cat said nothing, but the brief spikes of longing marring her scent solidified why Bones had made the concession. After everything, she still cared for Don. Bones could almost understand why, too. She had a murderous father and a hateful, emotionally manipulative mother, so Don’s betrayals probably paled by comparison.
Finally, Cat looked at him, and a grim smile played about her lips. “Make it fast, Bones. I know you want to take your time, but don’t. He’s not worth it.”
Tate walked away with a muttered curse. Juan shifted uncomfortably when Bones snatched Brad close and bit his neck, but he didn’t leave. Neither did Don, and Bones could feel the other man’s eyes on him as he drained Brad Parker of his treacherous, worthless life. He’d rather the man died while slowly choking on his own blood, but Cat had requested fast, and this was indeed that. When Brad’s heart was silent, Bones released his body and resisted the urge to kick it.
“There you are, old chap. Not a drop on the floor.”
Cat stepped into his arms. Feeling her against him softened the rage that still fired his senses. His lips grazed her forehead in a brief kiss before he met Don’s eyes above her head. Her uncle shuttered his gaze at once, but Bones caught Don’s contemplative look. The wily spider was no doubt assessing the maximum usefulness of Bones’s feelings.
Yes, I love her,Bones thought while staring at Don.But don’t gloat. I know your weakness, too.
