Volos cleared his throat. “Thank you, by the way.”
I jerked my head up. “For what?”
His color was high and he couldn’t quite meet my eyes. He rubbed his chest in an unconscious gesture. “For shooting me.” His lips lifted in irony.
“My pleasure.” I smiled to let him know I meant it. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you survived and all because of Danny, but I kind of enjoyed it.”
“I guess I deserve that.” He sat next to me on the bench. I scooted over. He looked at me with a raised brow. “If you’d been able to, you would have killed me when I was freaking on that potion, wouldn’t you?”
I looked away quickly as the memory of his snarling face flashed behind my eyes. “No, but only because it would have meant Danny died.”
He was quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“Whatever. I did what I had to do.”
“Regardless, I know what it cost you.”
I clenched my jaw and said the words I’d been fighting. “Thank you for saving Danny. I wasn’t sure you’d send the antipotion.”
“I’m not all bad, Kate. Maybe one day you’ll accept that.” He rested an elbow on the back of the bench. Tipped his head back and watched the tracers of light from the rides overhead for a moment before answering. “You didn’t tell them about Abe.”
I turned toward him fully. “I didn’t have a choice, did I?”
“Sure you did. You just didn’t like the alternative.” He turned his head to look at me. “Besides, you know I would have sent that antipotion anyway. I wouldn’t screw the kid over like that.”
I glanced away. Maybe deep down I had known, but I didn’t want to admit that Volos was capable of that much humanity. It was too confusing. “No, I didn’t.”
“I have a theory.”
“Oh?”
“I think you didn’t tell them because you’re curious to find out what I’m going to do to Abe.”
I licked my suddenly dry lips. “That’s ridiculous. I’m a cop, John.”
“A detective now, right? Congratulations, by the way.”
I grimaced because I wasn’t about to let him wriggle out of this conversation with flattery. “Cut the shit. What are you planning?”
“What makes you think I’m going to do anything?” At my don’t-bullshit-a-bullshitter look, he shrugged. “I can’t tell you that, detective. But rest assured, Uncle Abe’s going to experience a reckoning.”
I looked down at my hands. A sort of shameful excitement filled my midsection at the idea of John’s exacting vengeance on Abe. I told myself the feeling was a normal reaction for someone who’d almost lost a loved one because of a bad man’s actions. But something deeper inside me whispered that I’d just plain enjoy watching that bastard burn.
Still, as a cop, I couldn’t exactly condone a citizen’s targeting another citizen for murder. Even if I thought the target deserved it. “If he dies, I’ll have no choice but to report that you’ve threatened him.”
“I’d actually love to see you try to fast-talk your way through that discussion.” His lips quirked. “But you can relax, Kate. Having Abe killed isn’t on my agenda. It’s far too easy a punishment for the crimes he’s committed against me and people I care about.”
People I care about. I cleared my throat, trying to exorcise the spike of pleasure that comment conjured, but it didn’t do any good.
John brushed my arm in an almost caress that could easily be written off as an accident. “Forget Abe for the moment. There’s something else we need to discuss. A favor.”
I didn’t want to talk about Abe anymore, but I knew we’d have to eventually. But I also knew pressing him would only earn me a brick wall of silence. “What is it?”
He crossed his arms, as if he was uneasy. “I need you to be my trump card.”
I didn’t bite. Just raised my brows and tried to look bored by his flair for drama.
“It won’t be long before the MEA task force turns its microscope on me. I need you to warn me when that happens.”
“Why, Mr. Volos, I thought you were a legitimate businessman.” I raised my brows. “A pillar of the community.” I batted my eyelashes like a Southern belle and used my best sweet-tea voice. “Why on earth would the MEA investigate you?”
“Cute.” His lips stretched into a tight line. “I’m not interested in playing coy here, Kate. The bottom line is that if you want to keep your job on the task force you’ll tell me what I need to know.”
Boom.
There it was. The other shoe I’d foolishly convinced myself would never come just dropped like an anvil into my lap.
The ride Danny and Morales had been on stopped and people started weaving out of the gate like drunks from a bar. Eventually I saw Morales’s dark head looming over the group. His lips were spread into a wide smile as he teased a very green-looking Danny.
I crossed my arms over the raging bile in my stomach. “What do you mean, keep my job on the task force?”
I kept my eyes on the pair exiting the ride. When Morales’s eyes landed on me sitting next to Volos, he jerked and started over. I shook my head. The last thing I needed was for him to add his gas to the already highly flammable situation. He nodded and steered Danny in the other direction, toward another ride.
Apparently, Volos saw Morales spot us, too. “What do you think your new partner would do if he found out that you lied about the reason you were at the brewery that night? Or that you willingly performed illegal magic? Or that you intentionally omitted information about your uncle’s involvement in the case?”
Our eyes met and held. Electricity zinged between us. Unlike a decade earlier when that look would have resulted in a passionate kiss and a roll in the sack, this time the energy made me want to put a gun in his face and finish the job I’d started back in that warehouse. His bulletproof magic wouldn’t stop a shot to the forehead.
I snorted. “Your word against mine.”
“Wrong. Your word against the security footage of you reading Gray Wolf’s energy signature in my lab.”
“You fucking filmed me?” All around the bench, passersby jerked their gazes in the direction of my raised voice. I cringed and slid down a little. “Your video also shows you helping me.”