Finale

Patch’s smile widened.

I aimed my best sulky look at him. “This isn’t funny. Marcie is destroying my life. Whose side are you on anyway?”

Patch raised his hands in surrender. “I’m staying out of this.”

“I need a date for the stupid thing. I need to upstage Marcie,” I added on a spark of inspiration. “I want a hotter guy on my arm, and I want a better costume. I’m going to come up with something a million times better than Tristan and Isolde.” I gazed at Patch hopefully.

He merely looked at me. “We can’t be seen together.”

“You’d be in costume. Think of it as a challenge to be really sneaky. You have to admit, all this sneaking around is kind of hot.”

“I don’t do costume parties.”

“Pretty please with a cherry on top?” I batted my lashes.

“You’re killing me.”

“I know of only one guy who is better-looking than Scott. . . .” I let the idea tempt his ego.

“Your mom isn’t going to let me step foot inside this place. I’ve seen the gun she keeps on the top shelf of the pantry.”

“Again, you’ll be in disguise, silly. She won’t know it’s you.”

“You aren’t going to let this go, are you?”

“Nope. What do you think of John Lennon and Yoko Ono? Or Samson and Delilah? Robin Hood and Maid Marian?”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Ever consider Patch and Nora?”

I laced my fingers over my stomach and eyed the ceiling deviously. “Marcie is going down.”

Patch’s cell phone rang, and he looked at the readout. “Unknown number,” he murmured, and my blood chilled.

“Do you think it’s Blakely?”

“One way to find out.” He answered the phone, his voice calm but not inviting. Right away, I felt Patch’s body tense beside mine, and I knew it had to be Blakely. The call lasted only a handful of seconds.

“It’s our guy,” Patch told me. “He wants to meet. Now.”

“That’s it? It almost feels too easy.”

Patch locked eyes with me, and I knew there was more. I couldn’t quite interpret his expression, but the way he watched me made anxiety bubble up inside me. “If we give him the knife, he’ll give us the antidote.”

“What antidote?” I asked.

“When he stabbed you, he infected you. He didn’t say with what. He only said if you don’t get the antidote soon—” He broke off, swallowing. “He said you’re going to regret it. We both are.”

CHAPTER 17

HE’S BLUFFING. IT’S A TRAP. HE’S TRYING TO make us panic so we’ll be too busy concentrating on whatever fictitious disease he put inside me to play this smart.” I jumped out of bed and paced my room. “Oh, he’s good. Real good. I say we call him back and tell him he’ll get the knife after he swears an oath to stop using devilcraft. That’s a trade I’ll agree to.”

“And if he’s not lying?” Patch asked quietly.

I didn’t want to think about that. If I did, I’d play right into Blakely’s hands. “He is,” I said with more conviction. “He was Hank’s protégé, and if Hank was good at one thing, it was lying. I’m sure the vice rubbed off. Call him back. Tell him there’s no deal. Tell him my wound has healed, and if there was anything wrong with me, we’d know by now.”

“This is devilcraft we’re talking about. It doesn’t play by the rules.” There was both worry and frustration behind Patch’s words. “I don’t think we can make assumptions, and I don’t think we can risk underestimating him. If he did anything to hurt you, Angel . . .” A muscle in Patch’s jaw contracted with emotion, and I feared he was doing exactly what Blakely wanted. Thinking with his anger and not with his head.

“Let’s wait this out. If we’re wrong, and I don’t think we are, but if that’s the case, Blakely is still going to want the knife back two, four, six days from now. We’re holding the cards. If we begin to suspect that he really did infect me with something, we’ll call him. He’ll still meet us, because he needs the knife. We have nothing to lose.”

Patch didn’t look sold. “He said you’d need the antidote soon.”

“Notice how vague soon sounds. If he was telling the truth, he’d have a more specific time frame.” My bravery wasn’t an act. Not one part of me believed Blakely was being forthright. My wound had healed, and I’d never felt better. He hadn’t injected me with a disease. I wasn’t going to fall for that. And it frustrated me that Patch was being so cautious, so gullible. I wanted to stick to our original plan: drag Blakely in and curtail the production of devilcraft. “Did he set up a meeting place? Where did he want to make the switch?”

“I’m not going to tell you,” Patch answered in a calm, measured tone.

I flinched in confusion. “Sorry. What did you just say?”

Patch walked over and cupped his hands around the back of my neck. His expression was immovable. He was serious—he intended to hold out on wopeuo; me. He might as well have slapped me, the betrayal stung that bad. I couldn’t believe he was going against me on this. I started to turn away, too enraged to speak, but he caught me by the wrist.

“I respect your opinion, but I’ve been doing this a lot longer,” he said, his voice low and serious and heartfelt.

“Don’t patronize me.”

“Blakely isn’t a nice guy.”

“Thanks for the tip,” I said bitingly.

“I wouldn’t put it past him to infect you with something. He’s been messing around with devilcraft far too long to have any sense of decency or humanity left. It has hardened his heart and put ideas into his mind—crafty, malicious, dishonorable ideas. I don’t think he’s making blind threats. He sounded sincere. He sounded dead set on carrying out every threat he spoke. If I don’t meet him tonight, he’ll throw away the antidote. He’s not afraid of showing us what kind of man he is.”

“Then let’s show him who we are. Tell me where he wants to meet. Let’s grab him and bring him in for questioning,” I challenged. I glanced at the clock. Five minutes had passed since Patch ended the call. Blakely wouldn’t wait all night. We had to get going—we were wasting time.

“You’re not meeting Blakely tonight, end of story,” Patch said.

I hated how infuriatingly alpha he was being about this. I deserved an equal say, and he was brushing me aside. He didn’t care about my opinion—that was just a thinly veiled platitude. “We’re going to miss our chance to catch him!” I argued.

“I’m going to make the trade, and you’re staying here.”

“How can you say that? You’re letting him call the shots! What has happened to you?”

His eyes locked with mine. “I thought it was quite obvious, Angel. Your health is more important than getting answers. There will be another time to get Blakely.”

My mouth hung open, and I shook my head from side to side. “If you walk out of here without me, I’ll never forgive you.” A strong threat, but I believed I meant it. Patch had promised we were a team from now on. If he cut me out now, I’d view it as a betrayal. We’d been through too much for him to coddle me now.

“Blakely is already on edge. If anything feels off, he’ll run, and there goes our antidote. He said he wanted to meet me alone, and I’m going to honor his request.”

I shook my head fiercely. “Don’t make this about Blakely. This is about you and me. You said we’d be a team from now on. This is about what we want—not what he wants.”

There was a knock at my bedroom door, and I snapped, “What?”

Marcie pushed the door open and stood in the entrance, arms folded snugly over her chest. She was wearing