Todd’s control snapped. He could still smell that woman’s blood. See Cara’s face. And he wasn’t in the mood to be jerked around by a demon. He lunged at Niol, grabbed him and slammed the guy back against the bar. “Don’t f**k with me!”
“Why? Aren’t you f**king with one of my singers?”
He’d break him apart. He pulled back his fist, ready to wreck Niol’s face and—
“Stop, Todd!”
Cara’s voice.
His head snapped to the left. There she was. Standing just outside the door Niol had exited moments before.
His arm shook with the effort of holding back his punch. “What are you doing here?” He didn’t release Niol and didn’t drop his hand, though part of him was surprised the demon wasn’t using his mojo to send him flying across the room.
Cara glanced down at Niol, then back to him. “I work here, remember?”
“Not today, you don’t.” Wednesdays through Saturdays. He’d confirmed her schedule long ago.
“Um, good memory, cop,” Niol murmured.
Cara’s chin lifted. “I still have to come in and get my check and—talk with Niol about the band.”
And spout lame-ass lies to him.
“Take off your shirt,” he snapped.
Cara blinked. “Uh, Todd—”
“Not you!” She’d damn well better not think of stripping in front of Niol. His fist dropped and his hands clenched the front of Niol’s black shirt. “Him!”
Niol’s eyes—eyes that were just as dark as Cara’s when she dropped the glamour, but lacking the warmth he saw in her stare—
narrowed. “Despite what you may have heard, Detective, I really do prefer to be wined first. And I prefer my partners to be female.”
Fucking ass**le. “Cut the crap and take off your shirt.”
The scent of sex and lavender floated around him as Cara scrambled to his side. “Niol didn’t kill that woman. He didn’t even know about her until I told him—”
“What? ”
“Demon hearing—”
“Another part of your lacking education,” Niol said at the same time.
“It’s much stronger than a human’s. Not shifter strong, of course, but…” She shrugged. “I heard everything you said to Niol.”
Hell.
“And I heard everything that woman told you on the phone.”
“I know.” And that part, he did know. Cara had been right beside him when he got the call—even a human would have heard the conversation. “What I don’t understand is why you would have come running to him.” That she had done so made Todd angry.
Furious. Okay, f**king pissed.
She shouldn’t have turned to Niol, she should have turned to him.
“Cara and I go way back.” Niol’s voice held the intimate tone of a lover and it made every muscle in Todd’s body stiffen. “She trusts me.”
The guy didn’t have to say the rest. It was implied. And she doesn’t trust you.
“Take off your damned shirt.” He wasn’t there to find out which of them knew Cara better. He wasn’t there to play the jealous lover, though he sure as hell could have nailed that part.
“Take your hands off me,” Niol snapped, and the mask that he’d been wearing began to crack as shards of anger pierced his words.
Todd stared down at him. Waited one beat, two.
Then he released him. “Your turn. Get the shirt off.”
Niol glared at him. “I don’t have to do a damned thing for you—”
“For me.” Cara touched his arm and the move had Todd biting back a snarl. “Just show him, for me.”
Niol caught her hand. Brought it to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Only for you.” Then he rose, yanked the black T-shirt over his head, and exposed a chest that was completely unmarred. He lifted a brow at Todd. “That good enough for you, or do I need to drop my pants, too?”
The phone booth had been small. The blood splatter marks had been high on the glass—so the perp must have been injured in the upper portion of his body.
Not below the waist.
“Not necessary,” he growled.
Niol winked at Cara. “And what about for you, my love?”
“Not necessary,” Todd answered for her.
Cara shook her head, mouth tightening. “Look, stop acting like a jerk. Niol did what you wanted, he’s shown you every courtesy—”
And just how many courtesies had he shown her? “I found a woman’s body less than an hour ago. A woman who looked almost exactly like you.”
She flinched.
“Her body was in a phone booth outside of town. She’d been left there, like some kind of broken doll.”
“The woman who called you—she’s really dead?”
“Yeah, I think it was her.” Odds were damn high that it was.
Her eyes squeezed shut for a moment, then she opened them and said, “You don’t understand what’s happening here, Todd.” She licked her lips. “You’ll think it’s crazy, but I-I believe someone’s trying to set me up for murder.”
Not crazy. “And you came to Niol?”
“He hasn’t told anyone to lie for me! My alibis were good. That woman,” she swallowed, “if-if that’s the one whose body you found, she was lying. And there’s only one reason she’d call like that and lie to a cop.”
“Because she wanted to take Cara down,” Niol said, making no move to put his shirt back on. Instead, he reached for his drink, and took another slow sip. “The vics were all linked to Cara, weren’t they, cop?”
All but the last one. Thomas Monroe—and his murder hadn’t fit the MO.
“So you’ve got these bodies, these men who are all somehow tied to Cara, even if she didn’t know them, and they wind up dead.
Men in the peak of health. Dead.” He tapped his fingers on the bar. “And they bear the mark of a sex demon.”
“Succubus,” Todd snapped.
Niol quirked a brow. “Interesting, isn’t it, that all the clerks at the hotels just happened to see a blond woman fitting Cara’s description—”
“How the hell do you know about that?” Todd demanded.
Niol blinked. “You do realize that demons make up a good third of your force, don’t you, Detective?” Another sip of his drink, then, “Where was I? Oh, yes, the clerks all described a woman like Cara, the victims are all killed by the touch of a sex demon, and at one scene, well, damn, you even find Cara’s ID, all nice and neat and just waiting for you.”