Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
Tai had already bid goodnight to the people he knew best at Dr. Gerald Levine’s quarterly consortium when Lieutenant Fred Grunbock approached him from across the room with a low wave.
Tai met him in the middle of the expansive foyer, where several others had also stalled in conversation on their way out the door.
“Hey, Fred.” They hadn’t yet spoken personally this evening, so Tai thrust out a hand, and Fred shook it firmly. “How have you been?”
“Never better, man. You?”
“You know what, I think that applies to me too.”
Almost four months with Claire. Real acceptance of himself as a bloodfiend. New coping skills that eased the symptoms more than he’d thought possible. New friendships. Fred’s description really did sum it up. Tai’s life had never been better.
“Good to hear, good to hear. Listen, I’ve been trying to make the rounds tonight, but somehow I missed you.
” He reached into the pocket of his jacket and brought out a glossy printed photograph.
“You remember that female vampire I mentioned last quarter, the one who’s been trying to do our job for us? ”
“Sure,” Tai said.
Fred gave a low laugh. “Of course you do. You almost slugged it out with Broderick.”
“Well, he’s disgusting.” Tai had come tonight prepared to deal with him if the man resumed his comments, but Broderick had kept his distance.
Fred sobered as he held Tai’s gaze for a long moment. Slowly he nodded. “I know, man, I know. For the record, he won’t be seeing this.”
“Seeing what?”
Fred pulled out a glossy printout…from a security feed?
The angle was high, and the woman striding down the hotel corridor clearly didn’t know she was on camera.
He handed the picture to Tai and said in a low voice, “She’s been flawless until now, but this hotel deliberately hides their security cameras. Even a vampire would miss them.”
Tai’s brain shorted all the way out. He kept staring at the picture, because it made no sense.
“I’m showing this to people I trust,” Fred said. “If anybody recognizes her, it would help us out.”
Tai still couldn’t move, couldn’t respond. The woman was blonde. Her eyes were brown. And she was Claire.
No, she wasn’t. Claire’s eyes weren’t brown. Except this was a vampire, so her eye color wasn’t real. Probably her hair wasn’t either. What was he thinking? This wasn’t Claire.
But it was her face. Her straight, elegant nose. Her slightly wide mouth, her lips that disappeared when she pressed them into a thoughtful line. Her eyebrows, still espresso-brown in defiance of the blonde wig.
“So?” Fred said. “She look familiar?”
This could not be Claire. If she were prowling night clubs on the lookout for human male predators, Tai would know about it.
But then he thought about Laura. A woman who got to live, who got to strike a blow for justice against an obsessive, possessive man.
As strongly as his brain had denied recognition two seconds ago, now it did the opposite.
This was a picture of the woman he loved.
“I don’t think so,” he said. He’d been staring at the picture too long for casual certainty. He forced himself to hand it back. “Is she a suspect in a crime?”
“Not so far. She still hasn’t broken any laws. But my captain wants to talk to her, hopefully convince her to stop risking her safety like this.”
Fat chance. He barely silenced the thought in time.
Fred tilted his head to study him. “I know it doesn’t seem risky, her being a vampire. But she’s not trained law enforcement, and there’s always risk for a civilian, that something could go bad.”
“And you think she doesn’t know that?” Tai said.
Fred tucked the picture away into his jacket. “I’m sure she does. She’s been too careful not to have thought this through. Honestly, we owe her, and my captain knows it too. Did you see anything on the news about Max Forton?”
“Never heard of him.”
“He’s her most recently apprehended suspect, and he’s not getting out any time soon. His DNA matched to some extremely violent crime scenes against women.”
“So if you owe her, then leave her alone.”
Fred propped one hand on his hip and did his head-tilt again. “You know who she is?”
“No.”
A long look passed between them. An agreement. Fred wouldn’t call him on the lie.
“What’re you going to do, Fred? Bring her into the station for a commendation? You’ve got at least one Broderick in your own squad, and you know it. Guys like him are everywhere. So stop showing that picture around. That’s how you can help keep her safe, man.”
“Maybe.” Fred nodded slowly. Listening, mulling Tai’s words.
When they said goodnight and walked separately to their cars, Tai’s body began to buzz from the inside out, adrenaline colliding with stunned confusion.
Four months together. So much of himself revealed to her…
so much pain. So much trust. More than he’d ever opened up to another person.
And all the time, she’d kept this to herself.
The imbalance of it left Tai utterly lost, pausing at the driver’s door with a hand on the car frame to steady himself as even his physical balance fell away from him.
He drove home on autopilot, still feeling fractured. He called her on the way. Once. Twice. The second time her phone went to voicemail, he couldn’t keep himself from leaving a message.
“Claire, it’s me. We need to talk. Please, tonight, any time you get this, I’ll be home, and we need to talk.”