trade. Connections don’t get higher than that.”
Spade snorted. “Nice story, but where’s the proof? Anyone could say they’re one of Web’s. I could claim it myself to someone who wouldn’t know better.”
Now Black Jack looked frustrated. “What proof do you want? You’ll meet him once I tell him about this. Believe me, he’ll want to collect her personally.”
“Ring him. Right now. Let me hear his voice. Otherwise, I walk out with her and find someone else to partner with.”
Black Jack didn’t like being threatened; it was clear from the fury that crossed over his expression. But just as quickly, his face smoothed into another smile.
“No problem.”
He picked up the phone on his desk and dialed, whistling. “Give me Web,” Black Jack said to whoever answered. After a few minutes of waiting, his smile widened.
“Master. I have the
Spade’s hand shot out, grabbing the phone. Black Jack went to snatch it back, but stopped at the glare Spade gave him.
“What is it?” Denise heard an annoyed voice bark from the phone. Then, “Black Jack? Can you hear me?”
“I hear you just fine,” Black Jack said, almost whooping. “And so does my new pardner, Henry—”
Spade clicked the phone off and then, to Denise’s surprise, ripped the base from the wall. Black Jack’s whoop turned into a curse.
“What the fuck you’d do that for?”
Spade handed Denise his own cell from his jacket. “Go up to the main hotel entrance and call for our ride. I’ll meet you there.”
Glad to get out of this drug-infested vampire under ground, Denise snatched Spade’s phone and headed for the door.
Black Jack immediately tried to block her, but Spade was faster, grabbing him by the collar. “No, mate, we have some further business to discuss whilst she gets the car.”
The other vampire relaxed, letting out a snicker that made Denise’s skin crawl. “Right. See you soon, sweetie.”
“Yeah, sure,” Denise muttered.
She made her way up the metal staircase to Drai’s main room, then up the nicer staircase that led to the ground floor of the Barbary Coast hotel. The hotel driver answered on the first ring—a perk of staying in a penthouse, she assumed. She’d just given their pick-up instructions and clicked the phone shut when a cold premonition slid up her spine.
Spade had never before sent her off by herself to get the car. He was militant in his chivalry, not to mention his protectiveness. Yet he’d just sent her unaccompanied through two floors of vampires with a shallow cut on her arm. Something wasn’t right.
Denise swung around and practically ran back into the hotel. She darted past the people and raced down the stairs. A few heads turned in Drai’s when she continued with her frantic pace, but she ignored them, focusing on getting down that last staircase to Spade. Right as she reached the narrow hallway, Black Jack’s door burst open and Spade appeared. His jacket was ripped, he had blood on his shirt, and there was a redsmeared silver knife in his hand.
Denise didn’t need to see the inside of the room to figure it out. “You killed him,” she whispered.
Spade put the knife in his jacket, giving her a frustrated look. “You weren’t supposed to be here.”
Denise stared at Spade, taking in the lethal aura coiling around him. Her growing emotions had blinded her, but nothing had changed. Spade was a vampire, so he lived in a world dominated by violence.
She opened her mouth to voice her repugnance at what he’d done, but Spade grabbed her, moving so fast everything blurred. Shouts sounded behind them, doors banged, there were popping noises, and Spade shoved her head against his chest, cutting off her vision. Then, a few frenzied moments later, that nauseating lift of her stomach followed by a whooshing everywhere told her they were flying.
Chapter Nineteen
Spade set them down in the desert several miles from the shining lights of the Strip. Denise pushed him away as soon as her feet touched the ground. He let her stomp off without trying to stop her.
“Do you understand I had no choice?” he said, following behind her.
She tossed a snort over her shoulder. “Right. Because with your world, death is the only choice. No other option exists.”
He flexed his jaw when she stumbled over a dip in the sand she couldn’t see, but he didn’t try to steady her. She’d only smack his hands away.
“Black Jack had no intention of letting me leave that room alive. Did you notice the gunfire behind us, or the other vampires rushing the room? He’d summoned them, and not to welcome me as his new partner.”
She paused at that, but then kept walking. Spade didn’t point out that she had no idea where she was going. He reckoned she realized that herself.
“You sent me away so I wouldn’t know you were going to kill him.”
“Yes.”
She finally quit walking. Spade stayed back several paces, giving Denise her space.
“What was he so excited to talk to you alone about?”
Rage coursed through him at the memory, sharpening his tone. “He was mostly stalling until his mates showed up with weapons, but he talked about all the quid we’d make with package deals on you.”
Denise might not be able to make out his features in the blackness around them, but he could see hers, and her expression hardened.
“What sort of package deals?”
“Selling shagging and biting at the same time,” Spade replied bluntly. “That’s why he was so pleased that you were a beautiful woman. The opportunity of an unfiltered taste of Red Dragon combined with sex would go for top dollar—and be very addictive, he wagered.”
Giselda’s ravaged, blood-drained body flashed in his mind. The idea of Denise going through something similar, and for decades or more, almost made Spade’s control snap. Even if he hadn’t needed to kill Black Jack out of defense, he would have slaughtered him anyway just for intending such a fate for Denise.
She rubbed her arms, reminding Spade how chilly it was during the early morning hours in the desert. He took off his jacket and slid it around her shoulders, but she jerked away.
“It’s got blood all over it.”
“Better his than yours,” he countered, but took his jacket back.
“I get now why you had to kill Black Jack,” Denise said after a few silent minutes. “But I can’t lie and say I’m okay with how murder seems to be the most common solution whenever there’s a problem with vampires and ghouls.”
“And humans,” Spade replied at once. “You only need to watch the telly to see murder on the news every night. Violence isn’t something the undead have a monopoly on. You could avoid vampires and ghouls for the rest of your life, but you’d still live in a world filled with violence.”
“There’s less violence in my world compared to yours,” she insisted.
Spade sighed. “No, darling. There are only different reasons for it.”
“Randy
