“Sweetie, it’ll happen,” she said, striding into the kitchen for a little privacy. If Hector took off without her, fine, she’d deal. She knew where Brenda Marks would be in an hour, and she’d go it alone if necessary. “I promise. And you know I always keep my promises.” As she spoke, she looked through Dallas’s cabinets. Soup cans sat alongside fallen boxes of cereal. What a sloppy, disorganized man. Soup should be next to bread mixes, and cereal next to bags of chips. Everyone knew that.
“Yeah, but what if it doesn’t?” Ava said. “I mean, this is one thing neither of us can control or force. And what if McKell stays young and I start aging, and then I become a wrinkled hagbag of bones?”
When Ava worried, Noelle worried. She twirled a lock of hair around her finger, daggers in her chest, determination in her veins. “Do you want the God’s honest truth or a sweet, soothing lie?”
No hesitation. “Give me truth. Hardcore.”
“Okay, here it is. You’re an idiot.”
Ava got her second round of sputtering on.
“Remember when he turned Hellina?” Noelle’s dog. “He told us hours passed before she experienced even the slightest change. Besides, we’re talking about grumpy, possessive McKell. If he could, he’d keep the world’s supply of oxygen to himself. Like he’ll really let time have you. Time he can manipulate, I might add.”
The sputtering slowed, stopped. “You’re right.”
“Of course I am. I’m always right.”
She heard banging in the background.
“McKell’s trying to bust into the bathroom,” Ava said with what sounded like a shiver of excitement. “I maybe might kinda sorta have told him that his inferior blood wasn’t working and stomped off.”
Oh, to have video feed of that. “Go soothe the savage beast and call me back when you have fangs. I want to make fun of your lisp.”
“Done and done. And Noelle? Thanks.”
“Anytime, tiger.” Noelle returned to the living room and found the guys exactly as she’d left them. Scowling at her. She flopped back into her chair. “So—”
“Who the hell was that?” Hector demanded.
Him and his demands today. At least his arms had stopped smoking. “That was some random guy I once banged asking me if I was sure Corban was my baby daddy. Oh, and I almost forgot.” Her cell was still in her hand, so she quickly sent all three men the same email attachment. “Check your in boxes. You’ve now got a copy of Bobby’s financials, as well as his daily planner for the last month, as well as his mother’s schedule for the month.”
Because Hector hadn’t left her behind, he had earned a reward. Information.
Stunned silence met her pronouncement.
Hector palmed his phone, fiddled with the buttons. Then he gaped at her. “How did you get these so quickly?”
Was he kidding? “If you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying. A few taps of my keyboard, and magic happened.”
“So you hacked into his system?” he sputtered, reminding her of Ava.
“And his attorney’s and his mother’s. You’re welcome. Now you don’t have to wait for answers.”
“AIR can skirt a lot of things, Noelle, but not the paperwork needed to obtain this kind of info from a rich human.” Chastising words, but there’d been … dare she think it … pride in his voice.
“So arrest me.” When he made no reply, she added, “Anyway. Guess who inherited everything?” She didn’t give anyone a chance to answer. “The mother. Yeah, that means she had motive to pay for Bobby’s eternal good-bye, but I’m still not buying it. We do need to talk to her, though, because she was the last person to see Bobby alive. They had dinner last night.”
“The wife confirmed that dinner,” Hector said, massaging the back of his neck. “He introduced them, and Margarete said she was pissed. But like you, I’m still not buying. She would have been more likely to kill the otherworlder, even with the payoff for her son’s demise.” He pushed to his feet, and faced the still somber-faced Dallas. “I can’t make that call to Mia now. You understand that, right?”
Dallas gave a choked, “Yeah.”
“Call me if you … envision anything else.”
A nod as stiff and reluctant as Hector’s had been. What was going on between them? And what had Hector meant by “envision”?
He breezed over to her. “Up.”
Only place she would have let him tell her what to do was in bed. Now? He could suck off! “Ask nicely.”
He shrugged as if he didn’t care what she did. “Stay behind, then.”
Bastard, calling her bluff like that. She was on her feet in an instant, and he nudged her out the living room with his shoulder. His skin was warm, almost too warm, the heat seeping past his clothes and into her skin, but oh, it was delicious.
“Your technique for guiding a lady out of a room needs work,” she told him.
“Just move your ass.” “Hector,” Devyn called just before they reached the door.
Hector paused, stiffer than before, definitely angrier. “What?”
“Remember what you were told today, and don’t do anything stupid. I’d hate to resort to Plan B.”
Twenty-six
NOELLE QUESTIONED HECTOR ABOUT “Plan B” the entire first half of the drive to the restaurant. He did his best to ignore her and succeeded, his thoughts in turmoil. No way in hell could he tell her the Targon’s plan involved a disappearing act on her part.
Devyn would do it, too. Off her, without any hesitation. Anything to protect Dallas. Worse, the Targon king knew how to hide bodies. So if Devyn wanted Noelle’s death to be a mystery, it would be a mystery. No one would be able to find her or prove Devyn had been involved.
Just the thought made Hector want to vomit.
He should be trying to distance himself from Noelle, but f**k it. She should have worn a bra. Instead, the thin swath of white she called a blouse did nothing to hide the hard outline of her ni**les. Nipples that had been pointing at him, practically begging for his attention the entire time they’d been with Dallas.
Attention Hector could have given her without (much) fear. If Dallas’s vision was true, and they always were, Hector could have had her without hurting or killing her. How, he wasn’t sure.
And okay, now that a little time had passed, he realized Dallas hadn’t provided a timeline for when the sex would supposedly happen. A year from now? Two? Nor had a location been mentioned. His home? Hers? Or some shitty motel while they were on stakeout? Had Hector been drugged out, to keep himself mellow? Or had he and Noelle just fallen asleep on a bed together and never actually made love? Dallas claimed he’d seen them wake up naked together, but he hadn’t expounded on the sex itself.