but not his own father?
The car nosed out to the blare of a horn, and then bullied its way into the slow stream moving toward the traffic light.
“Where to?” the driver asked.
Custo didn’t answer. His gaze hovered on the door handle, distracted. His shoulders and chest rose and fell with great, unsteady breaths. His skin, usually a very pale gold, had reddened with feeling.
Annabella sat forward. “Umm…” She had no idea where Segue was, and her place was definitely out of the question. She never wanted to go back there again. The wolf could find her anywhere, eventually, so why not…
“A hotel,” she said. Give Custo some space to breathe and get a grip on himself.
The cabdriver scowled. “Which one?”
Her credit card had about $300 left on it. Her bank account had half that. “Somewhere inexpensive, but close.”
In the corner of her eye she saw Custo shift. “Scratch that. East Thirteenth Street and Broadway.”
“Where are we going?” Annabella ventured, sitting back.
“Nowhere,” Custo answered. “I’m sorry about your party.” His voice had mellowed, but he still wouldn’t look at her.
“I didn’t want to go anyway.” Not the time to needle him about their length of stay. She needed him back in the present, ready to face whatever came out of the shadows. If the wolf were looking for a weak moment, this was it. Anna-bella glanced around nervously.
Custo shook his head. “You should be there.”
“Yeah, well, I prefer to remain dramatically mysterious. I don’t think my rep will suffer; the other dancers already think I’m a diva.”
That got a wry, sidelong glance. “Diva?”
“I am very dedicated to my craft. Maybe too dedicated.”
“I noticed,” he said. “A little more balance might be in order.”
Annabella let him change the subject for the moment. “Doesn’t work that way.”
“I imagine not,” he said, then fell silent again.
She chewed a lip wondering how to help him. Passing street lamps were a slowly modulating strobe of sharp light, dazzling her eyes. “I don’t want to meddle, but”—she took a deep breath—“seems to me like you have some family history that needs to be resolved.”
Custo’s expression turned sick. “Don’t go there. My head is still full of him; I don’t think I can take much more.”
Annabella waited a beat, considering. No, it was too important. She knew from personal experience. “It’s just that…It’s your
He shook his head in denial. “I spent a lot of wasted time growing up imagining a happy future with my father. The kind of life that Adam had with his family.”
“Seems like you have another chance now.”
“I don’t want it.” His voice was rough. “And I don’t want him meddling in your life either.”
She shrugged. “I don’t even know him.”
Custo strained toward her. “He’s going to find out everything he can about you. He’s going to give your company more money. He’s going to use all his influence to surround your life. He’s going to try to talk to you to get to me.” He swallowed hard. “Promise me you won’t have anything to do with him.”
“Why would I?” Though it wasn’t like she could tell the company to give back the man’s money.
“When he calls you tomorrow, promise me you’ll hang up on him.”
Custo was trying to save her from the Shadow wolf. Her side wasn’t hard to pick. “Okay, fine. I’ll hang up or whatever if he tries to get in touch with me.”
It was too bad about his relationship with his father. Not everyone is so lucky to have a chance at reconciliation, and he was throwing it away. She’d give anything for five minutes to understand hers. Five freaking minutes, but no…
“He will,” Custo insisted. “It was all he could think about when he saw you.”
“I’m pretty sure he was thinking about you.”
Custo put the heels of his palms to his eyes. “No. He’s thinking about you as a way to get to me. About how he finally has a connection to exploit. I can’t get him out of my head. Nothing my whole life, and now he’s entrenched in my mind. He’s already got a list of people he’s going to contact tomorrow morning. He’s going to talk to your director, Mr. Venroy, right now.”
A chill washed over Annabella’s body. Custo kept saying things like that. She hadn’t thought much of it before, but now…“What do you mean out of your head?”
“I mean I can hear my old man in my fucking head.” His hands moved to grip his skull. The muscles on his jaw rippled as he clenched his teeth.
Annabella darted a glance at the cabdriver only to see him drop his eyes from the rearview mirror to the road.
She shifted closer to Custo. “You mean you can hear what he’s thinking? You can read people’s minds?”
“Some better than others.”
Annabella was pretty sure she was part of the “some.” He’d said, done, too many things to be merely observant. Damn it—she’d been practically begging him to touch her since they first met. Imagining his hands everywhere…No wonder they seemed to have danced right over the preliminaries and got right to the heavy stuff. Simple flirting was nearly impossible when all she could think about was—
Her gaze flew to his face, body rapidly flushing from chilled to heated embarrassment.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of,” he said, voice rough and strained. “I’ve wanted you just as bad, and I showed as much this morning.”
And did he know about the sick thrill she got from the wolf? From the Shadow magic?
Custo looked outside his window.
The burn in her face intensified. This was
She sat back against the door, putting as much distance between them as she could. She didn’t want to be cold about his whole dad thing, but this was…was just…not okay.
The rest of the freak show stuff she’d handled, not well, but she’d handled. She’d seen and been told some scary shit, and she hadn’t run screaming from any rooms or been drugged happy and drooling. Of course, the wraith thing she’d known about. They were all over the news and online. She’d never seen one, but the authority of the nightly news had, in a little way, prepared her for the idea of the existence of other spooky beings.
He should have told her.
“Annabella, please…”
She didn’t answer. Didn’t know how. And, she didn’t even know if he needed her to. Not when he could lift her responses out of her head.
“I can’t help what I am,” he said.
The cab pulled to a stop and the driver flung a number over his shoulder at Custo.
She opened the cab door and got out, leaving Custo to pay. She took a deep breath; the air here had the flat overlay of dust and concrete. The imposing buildings, facades quaint with old-world architectural details, were well kept, the street semiclean. A tall silvery block to her right looked over the rest of the neighborhood, all very gray and businessy, with little character in comparison.
Custo got out, paid, and joined her on the sidewalk. He looked up at the tallest building. “Come on.”
If she decided to walk the other way, would he head her off?
He walked to the entrance and punched a code into a numbered pad. A tiny light turned from red to green. He pulled open the door, the inside a black rectangle of darkness, and looked over at her. “Whenever you’re ready.”
