She felt uneasy as she prepared for the day. She’d already decided to extend her stay in Agnes’s compound for a few more weeks. Roche’s abduction of Mary had changed things for her, even though she had no idea what his present intentions might be. It wasn’t just that she wanted to be safe, either. But she also didn’t want to put anyone else in harm’s way because of Roche’s fixation on her.
As she rubbed her temple, she wondered absently if Roche was trying to mess with her in the dreamglide. She didn’t have a real concern, not after she’d built up her block as thoroughly as she had. Still, the headache bothered her.
She crossed to her closet, and pushed hanger after hanger aside, most bearing her usual gauzy loose clothes. Some were dressy club gear she hadn’t worn in the four years she’d been in Five Bridges. She and her husband had enjoyed going out a lot. The black dress she’d worn at the White Flame was the first time she’d gotten dressed up since her alter transformation.
She was restless, something that had to do with Brannick, yet didn’t, not really. This was more about her and how her time with Brann had changed her, made her want something different from her life in their tough alter world.
She missed Brannick like crazy, but he’d made no effort to contact her. She was pretty sure he’d moved on or was at least trying to. Her gaze dropped to the floor and she saw Brannick’s duffel, the one he’d left here when he took off the last time. She missed him so much.
But he wasn’t here anymore, and like him, she needed to get on with things.
She sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at her clothes. She’d always been on the artsy edge of things and part of that had been in an attempt to
work around her curly hair. Loose clothes and her philosophical attitude toward life, seemed to jive with her, at least up until now.
She rose from the bed and started pacing. The cottage bedroom took up the entire distance, from one window on the north side back to the window near the bed at the opposite end.
Something else had to change, she just wasn’t sure what.
~ ~ ~
Well over a week after he’d left Juliet for good, Brannick had another three vampire prostitutes in the back of his SUV. All of them had been drinking and one of them showed the red marks of blood flame on her throat and cheeks.
He was still on shit-job duty and getting sick of it.
The loose-tongued women started flirting with him, asking if he wanted one of them to blow him. They were a noisy bunch, which set his nerves on fire.
His temper had gotten worse, and his dreams had been full of Juliet. To her credit, she never once tried to snag him in her dreamglide.
When the woman addicted to blood flame asked him how many inches he had, something inside him snapped.
He was done.
He put on his siren and sped back to the Crescent station. He called on a couple of rookies to process the women, then went inside. He lifted a hand to Lily who called out a greeting, but he didn’t stop to chat.
He wasn’t in a chatty mood.
He went straight to Easton’s office, but the corrupt chief wasn’t there. Brannick thought for a moment, then unclipped his Glock and holster and placed them on the middle of the desk.
He was done being a border patrol officer, done cleaning up the sour mess of his messed up world, done taking orders from a man who took his from the three drug cartels that ran Five Bridges.
When he left the office, Lily met him in the hall, her eyes wide. “Did you just do what I think you did?”
“Yep. I quit.”
“Just like that?”
He searched her eyes. “You ever have one of those moments when you know you can’t keep going, or if you do your head will explode?”
Her lips quirked. “I did, right before I threw my second husband out of the house. It was either get rid of him, or kill him. Since I didn’t want to go to prison, I kicked his lazy ass to the curb and never looked back.”
Brannick’s lips curved, then something caught his eye—light brown curls. He looked past several officers. The woman was staring at something on the wall.
It couldn’t be …
“Lily, excuse me.”
“Sure. I’ve got to get back to my desk anyway. I can hear the phone ringing.”