Nathaniel said, “Was Peter a bed-wetter when he was younger?”

“No.”

“Does he have a history of starting fires?”

“No.”

“Torturing animals?”

“No,” and that last no sounded more relaxed than the first two.

“Peter is missing the serial killer trifecta, so he’s not a born serial anything. He saw a werewolf kill his father in front of him when he was eight, and he picked up the gun his father dropped and killed the beast, saving his mother and baby sister. That’s traumatic, but it was also brave and heroic. Maybe it made him more prone to violence in other parts of his life, or maybe the violence was always in there; maybe that’s what helped him be able to pick the gun up and use it to kill the monster that killed his father. Being good at violence isn’t always a negative. You should know that better than most people.”

“You’re right. I should, but it’s always different when it’s your kid.”

“I hope to find out how different someday,” Nathaniel said, then turned to give me a look that was far too serious.

“Don’t look at me. I’m not planning on breeding, thanks.”

“Kids are great, Anita,” Edward said.

“Don’t you start.”

“I can’t imagine you pregnant and doing our job, but I can’t imagine you never wanting kids either.”

“I really thought you’d be on my side on this one, Edward.”

“I’m not on anyone’s side. I just want my best friend happy, whatever that means for her.”

Nathaniel smiled at me.

I pointed a finger at him. “We are not having this talk again. Especially not while we’re planning the big wedding to Jean-Claude and an only slightly smaller ceremony with you and Micah.”

“I’m helping plan both of those, plus helping Donna with her and Edward’s wedding, but I’m not complaining.”

“Bully for you, but I mean it, Nathaniel. The baby talk is shelved until we’ve survived all the nuptial bliss.”

“Fine. Babies are shelved until after all three of the weddings are over.”

“That is not what I said.”

“It sort of is,” Edward said.

“Damn it, you are on his side.”

“I’m not. I mean, if you got pregnant, who would come play cops and robbers with me?”

I rolled my eyes, which made Nathaniel smile, but it was lost on Edward. “Yeah, you’d lose me as a playmate.”

“You and I play the best games together.”

“No,” Nathaniel said. “Anita and I play the best games together.”

“And we’re done,” I said. “The two of you are not comparing notes on anything like that.”

“Would we do that, Anita?” Edward said, his voice teasing.

“I’m not finding out, because this conversation is over.”

Edward laughed, Nathaniel joined in, and after a minute of trying to pout at them both, I gave up and joined them. When the laughter stopped, Edward asked again for Damian to come to Ireland and help find the vampires that were plaguing Dublin. Nathaniel asked more questions then, because he’d want to give as much information as possible to the vampire when he finally woke for the day.

“He’s your vampire servant. Just order him to come with you to Ireland,” Edward said.

“You know I won’t do that, Edward.”

“You complicate your life, Anita.”

“If I didn’t complicate my life none of the men I love would be in it, and that includes Nathaniel.”

Edward couldn’t argue with that, so he didn’t try. “If we have a vampire who knows the city, it could make all the difference, Anita.”

“I know, Edward.”

Nathaniel said, “What haven’t you told us?”

“Anita has more details about the actual murders.”

“What about your mysterious friend Brian, and where you met?”

“No.”

“What about the person behind the new project who isn’t Van Cleef, but is like Van Cleef? Who is he? How dangerous is he to Anita?”

“If I thought he was dangerous to her, I wouldn’t ask her to come.”

Nathaniel tried a few more questions. I knew better. Once Edward had decided the amount of information he would share, then he was done.

We left it like that, because being besties with Edward meant I had to be all right with the fact that I might never know everything about his past. I could live with that, and so could Edward. I suspected that he had some secrets that if he shared them with me, we might not be able to live with them, because someone would find us and make sure we didn’t. Maybe it would just be jail time in a government facility, but I was betting that the mysterious Van Cleef was more a final-solution type of guy, and nothing says final like being dead.

20

I PICKED MY phone up and looked at Nathaniel across the small table. “I didn’t know you’d been talking to Peter in that much detail.”

“Donna and Edward—Ted—suggested Peter call me for help planning the bachelor party. We talked about things for the party that helped him know I wasn’t embarrassed by certain topics and he started talking to me.”

“You never mentioned it to me.”

“Peter spoke to me in confidence.”

“I get that, but still it feels like I missed something important.”