I turned to the sink and washed the blood off, then cleaned up the floor. Figured she needed a minute or two to process everything anyway. Once everything was spotless I moved to the sofa and sat a few feet from her. “That’s how what?”
She took a shaky breath, still staring at my arm. “That’s how Pietro and Brian walked away from the car wreck that should have killed both of them, isn’t it?”
Only a few months ago she’d had a broken leg, and Pietro had been sporting a wrist brace I knew damn well he hadn’t needed. “Yeah, it’s kind of hard to kill us,” I admitted.
She took another breath, deeper this time and much less shaky, visibly pulling herself together and regaining composure. “I don’t understand. What kind of medical condition is this? And why is it secret? It’s miraculous.” She shook her head. “Pietro could have told me.”
“It’s secret because . . .” I fidgeted. “Well, because the way we stay alive is kind of gross. The stuff in that baggie was—” I shot a desperate look at Victor and got a You’re on your own one in response. Sighing, I turned back to Jane. “It’s brains.”
The poor woman once again looked dazed. “What kind of brains?”
My shoulders hunched. “Human brains,” I said, voice small. “It’s why I work in a morgue—so I can get them and survive.”
She paled and pressed a hand to her stomach. “You eat human brains? Pietro eats human brains?”
“Only after they’re dead,” I insisted and tried not to think about the two times I’d helped someone along to being dead enough to be my dinner. “We call ourselves zombies, ’cause it kind of fits, y’know? But we’re not bad people. I swear.” Mostly. Shit. “Please, just try to think about what you know about me and Pietro and Victor.”
I realized my mistake the instant the name was out of my mouth, but by then it was too late. Jane’s gaze snapped to her bodyguard. “Victor?”
Oooh, if Victor’s look could have killed I’d have been a smoking pile of ash on the carpet. Jaw so tight I thought his teeth would break, he pulled his attention to his employer. “Yes, ma’am,” he said after only a small hesitation—no doubt while he was trying to decide if he could quickly wring my neck and then claim he had to do so because I was obviously stark raving insane and no, of course he didn’t eat brains because that was ludicrous, right?
At this rate I was going to get a gold medal at Fucking Up. “Sorry,” I mumbled to Victor.
Jane folded her hands into her lap and crossed her legs at her ankles, visibly donning her armor of Cultured Southern Woman. She had a spine of steel, this one.
“And the Sabers know about all of this,” she said slowly. “And they have Pietro. But,” her brow furrowed, “Brian was with them.”
“Brian managed to get to one of our other guys before Saberton did,” I explained. “He told me he was at the party trying to get info about Pietro. I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I’m pretty sure we can trust him.”
Her hands tightened in her lap. “I knew I had a good reason to hate Nicole Saber.”
“Yeah, well, she’s pretty cold-blooded,” I said.
“And of course you can’t go to the authorities, since there’s too much chance that the detail about, ah, human brains might come to light.” Her lips pursed as she put the pieces together.
I grimaced. “Pretty much.”
Jane lifted her chin. “I assume you’re in the city to find Pietro?” At my nod s
he continued, “How can I help?”
That took me aback. I hadn’t really thought past this point. “I don’t really know, though I’m sure you can.” Have a congresswoman on our team? It didn’t suck. “I should probably call Brian and let him know what the deal is.”
With her eyes still a tad glassy, she looked relieved to have a few more minutes to process all the weird shit I’d just dumped on her. As I moved over to the window, I gave Victor yet another apologetic look. His expression told me I probably wasn’t going to be on his Christmas list this year.
Brian answered on the first ring. “Archer.”
“Hey, it’s me. I just talked to Jane.”
“Angel.” He exhaled. “I’m sorry about being an ass on the phone earlier. It’s been, well . . . I’m just sorry.”
“Yeah, it’s cool,” I replied with a shrug.
“What happened with Jane?” he asked before I could feel too awkward.
“She’s on board,” I said. Crap. He might go right back to being mad at me after this.
“Okay, good,” he said, sounding relieved. “How did you leave it with her? She’s staying away from the Sabers, right?”