When he met her eyes, he could see it clearly: the lust and passion he’d awakened in her.
What the hell had come over him? He couldn’t even remember why he’d kissed her in the first place. But he knew why he had to stop: he had to stay away from women. A woman had been his doom once, and he wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.
“Go!” he demanded roughly, breaking eye contact. “Go home.”
“No fucking way!”
Her resolute answer made him snap his head back to her. He narrowed his eyes. “What did you say?”
“You heard me.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, drawing his attention away from her face and to her luscious breasts, which only moments ago had been crushed to his chest. Such softness, such comfort they’d provided him.
“I’m not leaving until you tell me what you know about the guy who wrote those letters.”
Luther’s nostrils flared. “You’re not in a position to make demands. Besides, I have no idea who wrote the letters.”
He turned on his heel, ready to leave, because the longer he stayed in her company, the harder it would be to extricate himself from it. He knew himself too well; twenty years alone in a cell had made sure of that. Katie was the kind of woman who could get to him, and he wasn’t going to allow that.
“But you have a suspicion.”
He hesitated for a split-second, but it was enough for Katie to add, “I knew it!”
Luther pivoted and glared at her. “Listen to me. I think it’s better you go home and stay out of my business. And for what it’s worth, I apologize that I kissed you. Chalk it up to the fact that I was in prison for twenty years.” He paused for a moment, before adding a lie to his statement. “Frankly, I would have kissed anything with tits at this point. Nothing personal. Wrong place, wrong time.”
Katie pressed her lips together in obvious displeasure. Good, she’d finally gotten the message. Already relaxing, he made a motion to turn.
“Not so fast, buddy!” she said rather calmly. Much too calmly for a woman who’d just been told that the passionate kiss they’d shared meant nothing. “Samson is going to find out about this. I’ll show him the letters, and then he’s going to hunt you down like a dog.”
Luther tilted his head to the side, looking at her for a long moment, before opening his mouth. “May I point out one thing?”
Katie raised her eyebrows in curiosity.
He lifted his hand. “I’m the one who’s got the letters. So it appears you have nothing to back up your allegations.”
For an instant he thought he saw something flash in her eyes, but then it was gone again, and she even smiled. “Oh, I have copies at home. So do with those whatever you want.”
He growled in displeasure.
“Help us find Isabelle. You have the key. You know things we don’t,” she continued.
“Even if I had any information that could help you find her, Samson has made it clear that the next time he sees me, he’ll kill me. This time he won’t stop to ask questions. He’ll strike first. And despite everything, I rather value my life. So the answer is no.”
“If you don’t want to help us, I’m going to tell Samson that you lied to him. That you’re hiding the fact that you know who’s behind this.”
“I passed their fucking lie detector test!”
“I know for a fact that the machine isn’t all that accurate,” she claimed.
Luther narrowed his eyes, but couldn’t tell if she was bluffing or not. “Gabriel looked into my memories. He cleared me. So you’ve got nothing.”
Katie brought one hand up and pretended to inspect her fingernails. “You forget that I’m a witch.”
“What’s that got to do with my innocence?”
“What if I put a spell on you that makes you confess to the crime?”
He sucked air through his nostrils. Had he heard correctly? She was threatening him with witchcraft? No vampire had any defenses against it, and he feared it as much as the next guy. “You devious, little—”
“—bitch?” she offered politely. “Oh please, I’ve been called worse.”
“I was gonna say tramp,” Luther corrected her.
Katie pushed herself away from the car and came toward him. “Now here’s how this works: you’ll lead me to the man who wrote the letters, I’ll play bait, and you’ll catch the guy. If you don’t do it, I’ll set all of Scanguards on your tail.”