And that horrible nightmare…it had been so real, he could still feel those bony hands locked onto his shoulders. Hell, as he thought about it, his cock shriveled behind his fly like the thing wanted to hibernate in his lower intestine.

You made a bargain and you’ve taken everything I brought into your life, you’ve eaten it, drank it, fucked it—I’m responsible for it all and you owe me.

Bargain? What bargain? As far as he knew, he’d made nothing of the sort with her. Or anybody else.

Whatever, he was arguing about what had been in a dream. Which was nuts.

Bottom line, he was going to end things with Devina as fast as he could—and not because his subconscious clearly had issues with her. The thing was, their relationship wasn’t based on love and it wasn’t even based on passion. Passion was sex with soul, and no matter how many times she’d made him come, only his body had been in it.

He’d thought that would be enough. He’d assumed that was what he wanted. But his first clue that something was off was when he couldn’t even ask her the big question.

And then looking into Marie-Terese’s eyes had sealed the deal.

Of course, it didn’t mean that he and Marie-Terese were going to ride off into the sunset together; his reaction to her just told him there was a whole lot missing between him and the woman he’d thought he was going to marry.

God, the past tense in that was as jarring as a slap in the face.

Refocusing on the road, he cursed when he realized where he was. Instead of driving to his office, which was what he’d intended, he’d ended up on Trade Street, and as he passed by the front entrance of the Iron Mask, he slowed. There were two cop cars parked across from the club and a uniform by the main door.

The smart thing was to keep going.

And he did. Sort of.

Vin went to the next street and hung a left, making a box around the club and heading for where the cars parked in back. Just as he came into the lot, he stopped. There were more police cars in the rear, and on the next block over, yellow crime scene tape was stretched between two buildings.

So that was where the murders had taken place.

The beep of a car horn brought his eyes to the rearview mirror. Behind him was a dark green Toyota Camry…and Marie-Terese was in the driver’s seat.

Popping the gearshift into neutral, he pulled the parking brake and got out. As he walked over to her car, she put down the window—which he took as a good sign.