“I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
“No, you shouldn’t have.” I struggled not to let her off the hook too easily. It set a bad precedent for the naughty vampire’s already questionable behavior. “You knew what you were doing was wrong, that I wouldn’t have consented, and you did it anyway.”
“You know how I get.” She poked out her bottom lip. “That’s no excuse, but I didn’t mean to ruin us.”
“I do know.” Leaning over, I rested my head on her shoulder. “You’re very much you, and it’s one of the things I admire most about you.”
Her cool fingers brushed the hair falling into my face behind my shoulder. “Are we still…friends?”
“Of course we are,” I assured her. “I find your lack of filters and utter disregard for personal space endearing.”
Boaz afforded us as much privacy as he could with us having a conversation across the table from him. I could tell he was curious about our relationship. Not in a jealous way, but as if he was pegging our dynamic and how he might fit in.
Typically, a necromancer only had contact with the vampires they had resuscitated. Even that was limited. Low Society necromancers didn’t have the juice to bring humans back to life, so there was no reason for them to interact with vampires socially. Cass and I were definitely an odd couple in that respect. I was lucky her master, Javier, found me amusing. And profitable. Otherwise, he could have put his foot down and prevented Cass from seeing me, let alone working with me, again.
Boaz, as my future husband, held the same power since I was marrying into his family and dependent upon him to provide for my dad and keep the house where I grew up from crumbling.
“Have you made your decision?” Cass eyed him with equal curiosity. “Will you work with us, or get out of our way?”
“I’m not going to tell you two how to handle your business when I have my hands full making bad decisions for myself.” He twitched a smile at me. “You’re a capable woman, Addie. I trust you to know your limits, and hers.”
“How progressive,” Cass demurred. “I expected more chest-beating à la Tarzan.”
“I’ve done that with women,” he confessed, his tone thoughtful. “It didn’t end well.” He shrugged. “I thought I would try something new.”
“He can learn.” Cass tipped her chin toward him. “Perhaps you chose better than I first thought.”
Given how low she had ranked him, she wasn’t saying much, but I applauded her effort to be nice.
“I would, however, appreciate it if you kept me abreast of new developments.” He spread his hands in a helpless gesture. “I’ll do my best to support your independence, but I’ll still worry.”
“I can respect that—” I held up a finger, “—if you agree to do the same.”
“I can do that.” He stuck out his arm. “Partners?”
“No.” Cass swatted his wrist. “She’s my partner, and you can’t have her.”
I stifled a snort at her territorial display, which earned me a hard stare from Cass and a smile from Boaz.
“Poor choice of words,” he amended, honoring my overprotective best friend’s claim on me. “How about we all agree to keep in touch with one another and not sweat the labels?”
“Works for me.” I regretted, a little bit, not having the excuse to hold his hand again. “Cass?”
“I won’t have to stay in touch,” she said loftily, “because I’m not leaving your side.”
A buzzing sound filled the room, and Boaz reached for his phone. “Pritchard.”
The slight tilt of Cass’s head confirmed she would hear every word and report to me later.
Holding up a finger, at her or me or both of us, Boaz mashed the speaker button and set his phone on the table between us. “Go ahead.”
“Angelo Willis didn’t make it,” said a woman’s smoky voice. “I just got the official word.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Clan Willis is reeling from the loss of two members.” She exhaled. “Things are about to get ugly.”
A subtler buzz drew my eye to Cass, who frowned at her phone. I raised my eyebrows in question, but she shook her head and jerked her chin toward Boaz’s cell.
“Thanks for the update, Honey.”
“No problem.” She hesitated. “I heard a rumor your lady friend might be involved.”
“Oh?”
“I can keep it quiet for a few hours, maybe, but you’re going to have to bring her in to make a statement. Her presence at the scene, plus her relationship to you, will make the brass twitchy otherwise.”
A quiver in my gut made me sick to think how close I was to all this blowing up in my—and Dad’s—face. He was a proper Southern gentleman and would be horrified by his daughter’s proclivities.
“I’ll take her statement.” He flicked his gaze up to mine. “But I want her name redacted.”
“That’s not going to fly, and you know it. You’re hardly impartial.”
“Then you come take the statement.”
“Anyone who knows us knows I’m hardly impartial where you’re concerned either.”
Fingers twitching like he wanted to mute the call, Boaz made a fist to steady them. “How about Parker?”
“I’ll see what I can do, but it won’t be tonight. Use the time between now and dusk to get your stories straight. I’ve got a video meeting with the heads of various investigative units in thirty. I don’t expect it to wrap up anytime soon.” She exhaled. “I’ll issue a temporary gag order. It won’t hold long, but it will stick for twenty-four hours. Tomorrow, I’ll ask Parker to go with me to get Adelaide’s statement. We can bring Abernathy and park him in the car. They’re the only two who overheard Ms. Nunez, as far as I know.”
“All right.”
The call ended, and Boaz found plenty of places to look that weren’t at me.
Cass, of course, waded into the breach. “Honey?”
“Jessica Honeywell.”
“And you two were an item?”
“For about a week, a few years back.”
“And you trust this fling to handle Addie like a dirty little secret?”
Boaz looked ready to spit nails at her
