“Glad to help,” he said, and hung up again.
“Fantastic,” Jak said as I put the phone away. “What time do you want me to pick you up?”
“It’s supposed to be a chance meeting, remember? I’ll meet you there.” Besides, he and I confined in a car was not a good idea if he was going to continue radiating desire so strongly. My brain and emotions might want to keep their distance, but my hormones remembered the good times, and they were more than willing to take the chance and dance with him again.
“Not because of any ruse, but because you don’t trust me,” he commented, amusement crinkling the corners of his dark eyes.
“Not one iota. You, my friend, have seduction on your mind.” I finished my drink and stood. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
“Bring your dancing shoes,” he said.
I snorted in disgust, and his laughter followed me out the door. Damn him to hell, I thought, and fleetingly wished I hadn’t argued with Lucian. It would have been nice to ease the ache of desire in his arms. I could always go to Franklin’s, a discreet up-market wolf club I often used at times like this, but even as that thought crossed my mind, my nose was wrinkling. The club had lost some of its appeal lately—mainly because Lucian had a sexual repertoire my usual partner at Franklin’s had no hope of competing with.
Azriel appeared beside me as I walked up the road to the taxi stand. “The face-shifter theory is an interesting one.”
His voice was still very formal, and irritation swirled. But did I really want the easygoing, warm version when desire raged so badly inside me? Yes, that insane part of me whispered. Most definitely. I ignored it and said, “It would certainly explain why no one can find Nadler.”
“If he is being so cautious with who sees him, it is also probable that he is not only keeping an eye on his lawyer’s movements, but he would have ensured that the lawyer could not actually describe him.”
I stopped and looked at him. “Mind tampering?”
He nodded. “It’s possible.”
“But that implies our fake Nadler is more powerful than we’d thought.” And probably more dangerous, although his actions with the soul stealer gave more than enough warning about the lengths to which he was willing to go.
“Exactly,” Azriel said. “I do not think it wise for Jak to accompany you to this ball.”
“There’s no way in hell he’s going to remain behind. He wants this story, Azriel.”
“Maybe so, but that is neither here nor there. Do you agree that it would be better for him not to appear?”
I frowned. “Yes, but if we stop him, he’ll be furious.” And knowing Jak as well as I did, I had no doubt he’d pursue the story without us, and that, ultimately, could be even more dangerous. At least this way we had some control over his actions.
“He can be stopped and yet still think he was there,” Azriel commented.
My gaze searched his for a moment—although why, I have no idea, given that he was still in retreat mode. “So you’ll keep him at home somehow, but feed him false memories afterward?”
“Yes.”
“Won’t work. He’s a reporter, and reporters talk. He’ll discover soon enough that no one can remember seeing him there and he’ll suspect I’ve done something.”
Azriel raised his eyebrows. “But what if—as far as everyone was concerned—he did appear?”
Meaning he’d become Jak? “How is that going to keep him safe? I mean, for all intents and purposes, everyone will think he was there.”
“True. But remember, Ilianna warned you that more trouble could be headed your way tomorrow night, and the timing coincides with this gala. It’s possible the face-shifter we know as Nadler is ready to react at the slightest hint of a problem.”
A taxi pulled into the rank up ahead, and I started walking again. “I’m not sure you could pull something like that off convincingly.”
He fell in step beside me again, his hands clasped lightly behind his back and the warmth of his presence doing more damage to my breathing than Jak’s excitement had. “Why not?”
“Because—” Because he’s warm and real, and you’re not. Not in a flesh-and-blood sense, anyway—even if he felt altogether too real right now. “You can’t inhabit the personality of a person you hardly know.”
“I am as real as you, Risa,” he said softly. “And you’d be surprised at just what I can do.”
No doubt. I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “If you think you can be convincing, then it’s worth the chance. As much as I hate what Jak did to me and my mom, I don’t want to see him hurt.”
“This will at least keep him safe from whatever trouble Ilianna has seen coming tomorrow night.” He hesitated, then added, “But it has a second benefit.”