I gripped his hand. His grip was tight—overly so—but I resisted the urge to press more heat into my fingers. “No attacks from either of us,” I said, “until this is over.”

He nodded and released my hand. “Agreed.”

I fought the desire to wipe the stain of his touch away on my jeans and simply watched as he rose.

“Tomorrow at ten,” he said, and then walked away.

Jackson waited until all three had left, then sat down and reached for his coffee. “That went better than expected.”

“Yeah.” I drained my tea in one long gulp. “I’m not sure we should trust the bastard, though.”

“They’ll stick to the terms agreed,” Jackson said. “He can’t afford not to, particularly in this case.”

I glanced at him curiously. “It sounds as if you’ve had some dealings with him.”

“Not Radcliffe specifically, but I’ve certainly dealt with rats on a few occasions.” He shrugged. “As Radcliffe said, there’s not much that goes on that the rats don’t see or know about.”

I frowned. “Is it possible Rinaldo has rats working for him? It might explain why they haven’t been able to trace him—and why Radcliffe got no warning about the attacks.”

“Radcliffe’s lair might be the most powerful in the city, but it’s certainly not the only one,” Jackson said. “It’s more than possible one of the smaller lairs has decided to work with Rinaldo in order to destroy Radcliffe and take his lair’s position.”

“I didn’t know rats were so competitive—I thought they all just basically stuck to their own territories.”

“Regular rats tend to. But we’re talking rat shifters here, and that comes with all the usual human vices such as greed and desire.” Jackson’s voice was dry. “And I’m not talking sexual desire.”

I raised an eyebrow, a smile teasing my lips. “You’re not? That would have to be a first.”

“Indeed.” He glanced at his watch. “If we leave now, we’ll have just enough time to go grab the car. And then, my dear Emberly, we can discuss the notion of desire to our hearts’ content.”

“I’d rather do than discuss.”

He grinned. “An even better idea—shall we go?”

I rose and followed him out the door. After donning one of the helmets attached to the Vespa, I climbed on behind Jackson and lightly held on to his hips as he started the thing and drove off. And although it wasn’t a particularly powerful machine, there was still something very pleasant about riding through the dead of night, with the stars bright overhead and the wind cool against my skin.