Lover Avenged (Black Dagger Brotherhood 7)

Tension threaded through her reply. "Yes?"

"Honesty, right?"

"Right."

"Something did go down. It involves Rehvenge...his life...but I don't feel comfortable telling you the ins and outs because it's his biz. Not mine."

She exhaled. "If it doesn't involve you or the Brotherhood-"

"It does only because it puts us in a difficult position." And Beth would be in the same tight spot if she were in on the info. The thing was, protecting the identity of a known symphath was only half the problem. Last time Wrath had checked, Bella didn't have a clue what her brother was. So Beth would have to keep the secret from her friend, too.

His shellan frowned. "If I ask exactly how it presents an issue for you guys, I'm going to know what it is, right?"

Wrath nodded and waited.

She ran her hand down his jaw. "And you would tell me, wouldn't you."

"Yeah." He wouldn't like it, but he would. Without hesitation.

"Okay...I'm not going to ask." She leaned up to kiss him. "And I'm glad you gave me the choice."

"See, I'm trainable." He held her face and pressed his mouth to hers a couple of times, feeling the smile that lit her lips by the way the stroking sensation changed.

"Speaking of training, how'd you like some food?" she said.

"Oh, how I love you."

"I'll deliver."

"I think I'd better clean you up first." He whipped off his black shirt and carefully stroked up her thighs to her core.

"You're doing more than cleaning me up," she drawled as he let his hand rub between her thighs.

He surged up, making a move to mount her again. "Can you blame me? Mmmm..."

She laughed and held him back. "Food. Then more sex."

He nibbled at her mouth, thinking that eating was so overrated. But then her tummy rumbled, and he was instantly all about getting her fed, his instinct to protect and provide overriding the sexual one.

Putting his wide palm on her flat belly, he said, "Let me get it for-"

"No, I want to wait on you." She touched his face again. "Stay here. I won't be long."

As she got to her feet, he rolled onto his back and stuffed his well-used, but still very stiff c**k in his leathers.

Beth bent down to pick up her jeans, giving him a hell of a view and causing him to wonder if he could wait even five minutes before getting into her again.

"You know what I feel like?" she murmured as she pulled her Sevens into place.

"Like you've been making love with your hellren and are about to do some more of that good ol' bump-and-grind?"

God, he loved making her laugh.

"Well, yes," she said, "but when it comes to food...I want homemade stew."

"Is it already made?" Please let it be-

"There's beef left over from-Look at that face!"

"Rather have less of you in the kitchen and more of you on my..." Okay, he so wasn't finishing that sentence.

She seemed to filled in the blank just fine, though. "Hmm, I'll be fast."

"You do that, leelan, and I'll give you a dessert that'll make your head spin."

She showed him some serious hip sway as she went across the room, a sexy little dance that left him growling, and in the doorway, she paused and looked back at him, the brighter light from the hall illuminating her.

And what do you know, his blurry vision gave him the loveliest parting gift: In the glow, he saw her long dark hair down over her shoulders and her flushed face and her tall body with all its curves.

"You are so beautiful," he said quietly.

Beth positively glowed at him, the scent of her joy and happiness intensifying until all he smelled was the fragrance of night-blooming roses that was hers alone.

Beth brought her fingertips to the mouth he'd ravished and blew him a soft, slow kiss. "I'll be right back."

"And I'll see you then." Although considering how sexed-up he was, they were both likely to just see more under-the-desk time.

After she left, he lay for a bit, his keen ears listening to her going down the grand staircase. Then he dragged himself off the floor, put the pansy chair back where it had been, and parked his ass behind the desk. He reached for his wraparounds to spare his eyes the dim light of the fire and let his head fall back-

The knock on the door made his temples sting in frustration. Man, he couldn't get two seconds of peace, could he...and by the scent of Turkish tobacco, he knew who it was.

"Come in, V."

As the Brother entered, the scent of that tobacco joined the subtle smoke of hardwood burning across the room.

"We have a problem," Vishous said.

Wrath closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose, hoping like hell his headache wasn't pulling in for the whole night, like his brain was a TraveLodge. "Talk to me."

"Someone e-mailed us about Rehvenge. Gave us twenty-four hours to deliver him to the symphath colony or they're going blow his cover to the glymera and make it clear that you and all of us knew about his identity and failed to take action."

Wrath's eyes popped open. "What the f**k?"

"I'm already digging around on the e-mail addy. With some broken-field running through IT land, I should be able to access the account and find out who it is."

"Shit...so much for that document not being read by anyone else." Wrath swallowed hard, the pressure in his head making him nauseous. "Look, contact Rehv, tell him what was sent. See what he says. The glymera's scattered and scared, but if that kind of shit gets out to them, we'd have no choice but to do something-otherwise we could have a riot on our hands not just of the aristocracy, but of the civilians as well."

"Roger that. I'll report back."

"Move fast."

"Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah. Go call Rehv. Goddamn it."

After the door closed again, Wrath groaned. The gentle light of the fire made the agony at his temples worse, but he wasn't into putting the flames out: Total darkness was not an option, not after this afternoon's little wake-up call, when midnight was all he had.

Shutting his lids, he tried to get past the pain. Little rest. That was all he needed.

Just a little rest.

Chapter FIFTY-ONE

When Xhex returned to ZeroSum, she went in the back door to the VIP section and kept her hands in her pockets. Thanks to her vampire side, she didn't leave fingerprints, but bloody hands were bloody hands.

And she had Grady's shit on her pants as well.

But that was why, even in these modern times, the club had an old-fashioned, fire-breathing furnace in the basement.

She did not check in with anyone, just slipped into Rehv's office and headed through to his bedroom beyond. Fortunately, there was plenty of time to change and clean up, though, because it was going to take the CPD a while to find Grady. The command she'd given to de la Cruz was to leave for the whole night-although with a guy like him, it was possible that his conscience could override the thought she'd planted. Still, she had at minimum a couple of hours.

In Rehv's apartment, she locked the door and went directly to the shower. After she turned on the hot water, she disarmed and put all of her clothes and her boots down a chute that dumped directly into the furnace.

Fuck the Maytag man. That was the kind of laundry bin people like her needed.

She took her long blade under the water with her and washed her body and the knife with equal care. Her cilices were still on, the soap stinging where the barbed bands dug into her thighs, and she waited until the pain faded before releasing one and then the other-

The wet agony was so great it numbed her legs cold and shot up into her chest, causing her heart to palpitate. As an exhale barreled free of her mouth, she sagged against the marble, knowing there was a good chance she was going to pass out.

Somehow she kept conscious.

Watching all the red bloom around the drain beneath her feet, she thought of Chrissy's dead body. In that human morgue, the woman's blood had been black and brown under her mottled gray flesh. Grady's had run the color of wine, but sure as shit he was going to look just like the girl he killed in a couple of hours-dead on a stainless-steel table with what had once drummed through his veins setting like concrete.

She'd done her job well.

The tears came from nowhere and everywhere, and she despised them.

Ashamed of her weakness, Xhex covered her face with her hands, even though she was alone.

Someone had tried to avenge her death once.