He studied me to be sure I did. Then he nodded. “I’ll find more for you. Ones you can enjoy, guilt-free. The rest, you’ll have to make do with secondhand.”

I smiled. “I can live with that.”

“Good.” He sobered. “But remember, you’ll never be perfect. With a werewolf, there’s always the chance it can happen again. We cannot control every variable. I haven’t killed a human in thirty years, but I have to accept that I could. And you need to accept that you could too. And, if you do, as horrible as you’ll feel about it, and as much as you’ll suffer for it, if you’ve done what you could to avoid it, it isn’t your fault. You didn’t choose to be half-demon any more than I chose to be a werewolf.”

Silence fell.

After a moment, he said, “Have I put you to sleep yet?”

“No, not yet.” I reached up and kissed him. “Thank you, Karl.”

He pulled me closer, then turned out the light.

LUCAS 13

LUCAS

13

PAIGE RETURNED WITH COFFEES in hand, Griffin at her heels and a pained expression on her face.

“Your dad wants me to go with you,” Griffin said.

I shook my head. “He needs you. Someone has already tried to kill him tonight.”

“Yeah, but they failed, and no one’s tried to kill you…yet.”

I took the coffee from Paige. “I cannot imagine I’d warrant a place on anyone’s hit list—anyone outside a Cabal, that is. I’d like you to stay with him.”

“I know you would, but his orders trump yours.”

I hesitated, and contemplated the possibility of giving him the slip. Paige shook her head, as if reading my mind, then glanced at her watch. She was right, of course. We were wasting time. So we set out, bodyguard in tow.

WE MET THE team searching for Carlos and compared notes to construct a timeline. After I’d seen him at the office, he’d visited the restaurant, then arrived at Hector’s at nine-forty-five. Apparently, he’d been at the office shortly before nine-thirty, when he’d gone with William down to the fourth floor. Bella and the butler could easily be off by fifteen minutes, which would make the timeline tight, but plausible.

We needed to know exactly when Carlos had been at the office. A quick question to the guards had proved fruitless—they hadn’t seen him—but querying the security system would reveal whether his access card had been used. That still wouldn’t prove anything unless he’d gone to one of the top floors, which required his thumbprint.

I sent two of the six-member team to the office to check that. A further two would search and then stake out Carlos’s apartment. The final two were to review the security tapes at my father’s house.