Kristi could barely hear over her own thudding heartbeat. They were talking about her! About Lucretia’s original request for Kristi to check into some kind of vampire cult.

“I was worried! About them! About you!” Lucretia was nearly hysterical. “About…about us!”

“You should have thought about that before you decided to talk to your friend.”

“She’s not my friend,” Lucretia said quickly.

“A cop’s daughter, for crying out loud. And not just any cop, but a homicide dick. Homicide, Lucretia. As in murder. What the hell were you thinking?” Grotto was really mad now, his voice rising. “The last thing we need is any more attention from the damned police.”

“I—I just thought she could help.”

“How? By exposing everything? Jesus Christ, Lucretia, you’re supposed to be an intelligent woman. But talking to someone so close to the police, drawing attention to me, asking for help when you don’t even understand what’s going on?”

“Dominic, please—” Lucretia’s voice broke and Kristi almost felt sorry for her.

“I told you it was over,” he said more quietly, like a death knell. The declaration sounded cold and heartless, much worse than if he’d screamed at her, if there had been some tiny bit of feeling in his voice.

“You…you don’t mean it,” she said, sniffing.

Get over him, he’s a stone-cold loser, Kristi thought, inching closer to the doorway. Sexy yes, but cruel, and obviously mixed up in something dark and dangerous, ultimately illegal, something to do with the missing girls, quite possibly murder. She wondered how she herself could face him after this.

Lucretia tried to defend herself. “I—I told her you were…innocent. Persecuted.”

“But she didn’t buy it, did she?”

Silence.

Damning silence.

“Now I have to deal with her. I’ve tried to avoid her since the beginning of the school year, ever since I realized who she was, but she’s relentless and”—he drew a breath—“she’s coming to see me in a few minutes. On some pretense about her assignment.”

“Don’t meet with her,” Lucretia pleaded softly.

“I have to. So, go. Now. She’ll be here any minute. Use the back, in case she comes early. And call me in about twenty minutes. I’ll use the excuse to cut the meeting short.”

“Oh, no, please, Dominic—”

“Leave, Lucretia. Get the fuck out. Before you ruin everything for me.”

She gave a little squeak of protest and Kristi started backing up, faster and faster, down the length of the hallway. Her heart was racing, a cold sweat running down her spine. There was no place to hide, no closet to slip into, no stairway she could climb. She had to pretend that she’d just arrived and hadn’t overheard the argument. She reached the corner, backed around it and waited, running in place, already coming up with an excuse for being late.