Olivia took a deep breath and met his eyes. “You won’t.”
“While your confidence in me is flattering, it’s not wise. I may be a Souled vampire, but I’m still a vampire. You know what I’m capable of.”
She knelt beside him and unhooked the handcuffs that had been dipped in holy water, her hands shaking. “I see a lot of people every day who nobody believes in, so I’ve become a good judge of character.” She snapped the handcuffs gently around his wrists in front of him then met his eyes. She lifted her hand to his burned face and gently caressed the outer edge of the damaged area. “Anyone who is willing to face a horrible death to protect someone else is the very best kind of person.”
He tried to smile but stopped when it pulled his tender skin too much. “But I’m not a person.”
She touched his shoulder, hoping it wasn’t burned beneath his shirt. “Yes, you are.”
Something moved in his chest. His heart hadn’t beat in years, but he’d swear he felt it do exactly that.
“Olivia!”
She jerked at the sound of another woman’s frantic voice. “Stay here,” she said as she jumped to her feet and headed for the freezer door.
As if he had any choice.
* * *
The moment Olivia emerged from the freezer and quickly shut it behind her, Mindy screamed and pointed a gun at her.
Olivia threw up her hands. “It’s me!”
Mindy lowered the gun and pulled her into a one-armed embrace. “Oh, thank God you’re okay!” Mindy was shaking as she stepped back, dropped the gun into her purse and grasped Olivia’s upper arms. “There are two dead bodies outside the back door.”
Nausea and dizziness hit Olivia simultaneously, and Mindy guided her toward a chair. Once she was seated and out of danger of falling on her face, she took a long, deep breath. “They broke in this morning. They...” Her voice faltered and she had to stop to collect herself and try to bring her shaking under control. “They were trying to take me.”
“God, humans working with vampires. Just when you thought life couldn’t go down the crapper any more.”
Mindy marched to the refrigerator, pulled out a beer and downed half of it before she faced Olivia again. Olivia didn’t point out that it was a little early in the day for a beer, because, honestly, she wanted one herself. But she had to keep a clear head and figure out what she was going to do about Campbell. What would happen when night fell? Would he leave? Or was she now facing having to walk away from the diner and her home? She’d told him she believed he was a good person, but his nature might trump those good intentions if he got hungry enough.
“Olivia.”
She looked up and realized she had more immediate problems—helping Campbell and convincing Mindy to not kill him while he was vulnerable.
Mindy nodded toward the back door. “Did you kill them?”
Olivia shook her head. “No.” She hesitated. “It was Campbell.”
Mindy took another swig of her beer.
“He saved my life. Again.”
Mindy started to take yet another drink but stopped with the bottle halfway to her lips. She scanned the scattered dishes, the busted sack of flour. Olivia knew the moment she figured out what had happened.
“You invited him inside?”
Olivia swallowed. “I had to. I couldn’t break free of those guys. I couldn’t let them drag me away to... I wouldn’t survive a blood den. And Campbell was...burning.” Tears stung her eyes at the thought that she could have been forced to watch him go up in flames.
Mindy’s eyebrows shot up. “He was here after daylight?”
“He wouldn’t leave, not while those men had me.”
Mindy sank onto another chair, looking as if she’d been given a good jolt to her core belief system. “Nothing makes sense anymore. Humans working for vampires. Vampires saving humans.” She looked one surprise short of a nervous breakdown, and Olivia was afraid she was about to send her over the edge.
“Min, I need your help, and I need you to stay calm.” She paused. “He’s still here.”
Mindy’s eyes went impossibly wide. “What! Where?”
“The freezer.”
Mindy’s gaze shot to the freezer door. “Oh, my God.”
“It’s okay. He’s cuffed.”
“As if a pair of handcuffs will hold him.”
“He said they’ve been blessed with holy water. As long as he wears them, his fangs can’t descend and he can’t feed.”
“But he’s still strong. He could kill us both in the blink of an eye, break our necks.”
“He won’t.”
“How do you know that?”
Olivia let the question sit there in the air for several seconds. “Because he just risked himself to save me.” She was either crazy or naive—or something beyond her understanding was happening here. It made no sense how her attitude toward vampires had changed so quickly, but it had. And she needed to make Mindy understand.
Mindy stood. “Let’s get out of here while we can. You can move into my place.”
“I can’t leave. This is my home, my business.”
“And he can waltz in anytime he wants now and kill you.”
“You can leave if you want to. I’ll understand. But Campbell has saved my life more than once. It’s time I return the favor. The least I can do is let him hide here while he heals and the day passes.”
She could see the argument in Mindy’s eyes, but she kept quiet. Though her entire body was so tense she might pop soon.
“I’ve got to call the police,” Olivia said. “I’m begging you not to say anything about Campbell.”
For a horrible moment, she thought Mindy wouldn’t agree. But then she gave what was obviously a reluctant nod.
After Olivia called the police about the bodies and told them a story about hearing a fight in the alley the night before, she and Mindy righted the kitchen.
As the police examined her attackers and questioned her about what she’d heard, she noticed one of the officers looking at her with an odd expression on his face. He approached her as the officer in charge of the scene finished his questioning.
“Olivia DaCosta?”
“Yes.”
“You were one of the women who helped stop that kidnapping.”
“I was.” She did her best to look confused, as if she didn’t know there might be any connection between her ticking off the Nefari and the two dead guys outside.
The officer nodded behind him. “You think the two events are connected?”
“Why would they be? To my knowledge, they didn’t even try to get in here.”
“Someone thought you were in danger even before your moment in the spotlight. He called the police requesting a protection detail for you.”
Shock jolted her, but she couldn’t bring Campbell into this. Not when he was inside her freezer and vulnerable.
“You seem surprised.”
“I am.”
She hoped the officer chalked it up to disbelief that had nothing to do with a vampire. But Campbell had been serious enough about protecting her that he’d reached out to the human police. She fought the urge to run to the freezer and pull him into her arms.
