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"Don’t worry," I said "She won’t get hurt Not by me But Randall Dekes is another matter, and we both know it"

"I talked to Donovan in the restaurant," Bria said "He’s been investigating Stu Alexander’s death, trying to find some way to connect it to Dekes and put the va into proble heat from their superiors, because the vamp is so chummy with all the muckety-mucks on the island"

I snorted "Well, that’s all well and good, but what’s Donovan going to do, exactly? Go out to Dekes’s fancy house and threaten to arrest hih in his face Or worse, he’ll keep Donovan there long enough for soo out and hurt Callie Is that what you want?"

"Of course not," Bria snapped "But you can’t just go around killing everyone you don’t like, Gin There wouldn’t be anyone left in the entire city of Ashland if you did that"

I thought about telling her that I was getting tired of killing people all the tiet away from all of that, but I kept ht And I didn’t think that she really wanted to anyway She couldn’t do that and hold on to her anger at me at the same time

"Donovan and I deal with rich sleazeballs like Dekes all the time," Bria continued "Donovan will handle him"

"Like you handled Elliot Slater when Mab sent him to your house to murder you?"

Bria flinched, and old memories darkened her eyes

"Because the way I reutshot, and Slater was about ayou to death when I showed up and took out hisBria of how Slater had almost killed her, of hoould have killed her if Finn and I hadn’t intervened, but it was a necessary evil I didn’t want Bria to make another tear-filled trip to the cemetery to bury her best friend, but that’s ould happen if Dekes was as deterht he was

Bria pushed away frolittered as brightly as the stars above

"I told Callie I would co," she said in a low voice "That I’d help her and Donovan find some way to deal with Dekes"

My eyes narrowed "You didn’t lared at each other, neither of us willing to coht have a valid point Maybe, just et Dekes to back off, at least for a little while But ould happen when Bria went back to Ashland? What would happen when Donovan was called away on a case? Callie would be alone and vulnerable at the restaurant A moasoline, and Bria’s friend would be just as crispy and deep-fried as the food she served up That’s how I’d play things, if I were Dekes, along with planning a convenient alibi for myself Hell, it sounded like the vamp was so connected and so powerful that he wouldn’t even have to go to the trouble of doing that

But I couldn’t make Bria understand that, any more than I’d been able toback in Ashland Maybe they didn’t want to understand Hell,they’d seen on the job, Donovan and Bria still wanted to believe in the good in people, whereas my faith in the inherent decency of others had been shattered a long ti, but I couldn’t let go of my cynicism, any more than they could relinquish their hope

Stale to bed," Bria ?"

"In a little while"

Bria stalked back inside the suite without another word I heard herdown the covers, and even brushing her teeth before shutting the bedroom door behind her, but I made no move to follow her Better to let her cool off

Instead, I stayed outside for a long ti to the endless ebb and flow of the ocean and wishing the soft waves could carry my worries and fears out to sea with theain

Chapter 7

Eventually, the lights around the pool dimmed, the band packed up their instruments, and the bar closed down The swilers went back inside the hotel to finish their nights with a shower, a fresh drink, and perhaps a quick fuck or two in their soft, co and locking the glass doors behind h the suite, fa froht switches to the coffee tables to the butcher’s block full of knives on the kitchen counter

Given what had happened earlier at the Sea Breeze, there were things I would do now if I were Randall Dekes, things that were best taken care of in the dark of the night, and I wanted to be prepared just in case the valy Paranoid? Perhaps But I hadn’t lived this long by not being ready for the bad guys when they decided to co I did was open the front door and ease , wide hallway, although soe cart next to the elevator I stepped out and studied the wall that fronted the suite The Blue Sands wasover the stacks of bricks, the designers had leftthe hotel an elegant but sturdy air