“Just stupid stuff,” he was saying, his voice high but light. “Your favorite ice cream, what color your eyes are after a shower, how old you were when you lost your virginity. God, Rachel. I didn’t tell him anything that could hurt you.”

Outraged, I pushed into his neck, then rebounded to stand two steps away. “How could you do that to me?” I whispered.

Nick rubbed his throat and moved from the door, trying to hide that I’d hurt him. “I don’t know why you’re so upset,” he said sullenly. “You wouldn’t believe the information I got in return. I didn’t tell him anything important until I thought you were dead.”

My eyes widened and I reached for the wall before I fell over. “You were doing this before we broke up?”

His hand still on his throat, Nick looked at me, his own anger growing. “I’m not stupid. I didn’t tell him anything important. Ever. What is the big deal?”

With an effort, I unclenched my teeth. “Tell me this, Nick,” I said. “Did the demon look like me when you kissed it? Was that part of the deal? That you pretended it was me?”

He said nothing.

My finger trembled as I pointed to the door. “Get out. The only reason I’m not handing you back to the Weres is because they have to see you die, and right now I’m thinking of taking the pretend part out. If you ever tell another demon anything about me, I’ll…I’ll do something bad to you, Nick. So help me God, I’ll do something very bad.”

Furious, I yanked the heavy side door open. The sound of the metal scraping shocked through me. God! He had been buying demon magic and favors with information about me. For months. Even while we were together.

“Rachel—”

“Get. Out.”

My voice was low in threat, and I didn’t like the sound of it. At the scuff of his feet hitting the pavement, I shoved the door shut. Breath held, I clasped my arms about myself and just stood there. My head hurt and the tears welled up, but I wasn’t going to cry.

Damn him. Damn him to hell.

Twenty-two

Miserable, I wouldn’t leave the van, afraid if I saw Ivy or Jenks I would blurt out what Nick had done. Some of my reticence was because I needed him to finish this run, and if they leaned on him hard, he might leave. Some of it was shame for having trusted him. Hell, most of it was. Nick had betrayed me on so many levels, and he didn’t even get why I was upset. I hadn’t been prepared for this. God! What an ass.

“I ought to give him back to the Weres,” I whispered, but they had to see him die with the focus. There was no guarantee that he’d stop telling Al where I was ticklish, or that I sometimes hid the remote from Ivy just to get a rise out of her, or any of the hundreds of things I had shared with him when I thought I loved him. I shouldn’t have trusted him. But I wanted to trust. Damn it, I deserved to be able to trust someone.