“Well, it’s kind of like an odd jobs company. We do a little of this, and a little of that. Get paid on a job-to-job basis. That can be good, it can be bad. If you get a good reputation, more jobs will come your way with bigger paydays attached to them. Get a crappy reputation, and not so much.” He pointed at a big motorcycle propped up against the curb. No helmets on it that I could see.

“Safety first, I guess?” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

He grunted. “I don’t break if I fall. And the cops won’t bother us. They know me.”

But I would break. I had a moment there on the sidewalk where a rush of panic bit at me, reminding me that I was not twenty. I wasn’t even thirty. I’d been out of this world a long time, and it could be dangerous.

One of Gran’s friends had been a cop back in the day. He’d done a little work with me. Taught me a few things about clearing spaces, guns, basic safety around bad guys. Or, in my case, the shadow world. Officer Jonathan would have a fit if he saw me riding without a helmet.

Sarge sat first, and I snapped myself out of it and scrambled up behind him, feeling every bit as self-conscious as one does when pressing her rapidly overheating lady parts against the backside of a very hot guy who is easily ten years her junior.

He leaned the bike so that he was taking the balance and I got my feet up on the footrests.

“You better hang on!” he said as he started the engine. It rumbled up through my butt and along my spine in a not unpleasant way. I reached around his very tight waist and locked my fingers together, my nose pressed against his back. I turned my face to the side and found myself looking up at the windows of Corb’s loft.

Corb was standing there in shorts and not much else. Yup, he could give Sarge a run for his money. I kissed my fingers and wiggled them at Corb as Sarge’s bike rolled forward. I leaned my cheek against his back and hung on as tightly as I could as we rode away, and just about every dirty fantasy I could think up rolled through my less than virginal mind.

Yes, it was going to be a good day. That’s what I thought.

Except that’s not what the fates of Savannah had in store for me.

7

The store that Sarge took me to was not really a store so much as a bazaar down on the waterfront along the river. River Street was loaded with tourist shops, and it was not where I’d expected to go.