"Already noted, bro."
He smiled. "Keep behind me, and wrap the shadows around you."
I did, and we made it down the stairs without mishap. Quinn was little more than a deeper shade of night, but I would have known he was there even if I wasn't using infrared. His rich scent warmed the night air.
"There's several cameras currently trained on us," he commented, opening the front passenger door for me. "I'm not sure if they're infrared, but I'll be dumping this vehicle as soon as possible."
"Good." Rhoan glanced at me. "Be careful."
He meant with Quinn. I leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "You too."
He waited until I'd climbed in, then handed me the bag. "If there's any trouble, call."
"I'll keep her safe," Quinn said.
"You'd better." Rhoan stepped back, and Quinn slammed the door shut. Five seconds later, my brother had gone back inside and we were under way.
"Where are we headed?" I asked, after a few minutes.
"After we dump the car? I'm open to suggestions. Neither my place nor yours would be safe right now, and hotel registers can be checked too easily."
And even signing in under a false name wouldn't be safe, as there wouldn't be many people checking in at this hour of the night.
I rubbed my forehead wearily. There was an ache behind my eyes, my head was beginning to pound, and I desperately needed some sleep. But more than that, I needed some sort of sanity back into my life.
My gaze went to the softly lit ship that was crossing the bay, heading toward the open ocean. Right now, I felt like that ship - gliding through the darkness, heading for ever more treacherous waters.
But that ship at least knew its final destination. I had no idea.
"Riley?"
Sighing, I said, "Let's find somewhere I can use the com-unit safely. I need to check a few things."
His gaze swept me, a heat I felt rather than saw. "Like what?"
It was so tempting to snap out something along the lines of "that's none of your damn business," but that'd be churlish and he didn't deserve any more of that. "Like, who the hell Kade really is."
"So you fucked - " He stopped abruptly.
"Yes," I stated, wavering between annoyance that he'd started to repeat the same old line, and amusement that he'd actually stopped it mid-sentence. A small improvement was better than nothing, I supposed. "I fucked him without doing a background check. And don't you dare try and tell me you check the background of every woman you bed."
"No." He paused. "I apologize."
"Oh, I bet that hurt."
He gave me his vampire look and simply said, "What has made you suspicious of him?"
"The fact that he's still here, helping us."
"Ah, so it's not suspicion as such, but curiosity." He glanced at me. "You know what curiosity did to the cat."
"Yep. And it so won't stop me."
"Nothing seems to stop you."
Given I wasn't entirely sure how to take that statement, I simply said, "Where are we going to dump the car?"
"Here?"