My fists clenched at his double entendre. Damn him.

Adam shrugged. “Fine by me.”

Slade smirked and raised an eyebrow at me. I wanted to kick both him and the mancy. But instead of hitting either male, I leaned over and slapped a wet, sloppy kiss on Adam. “Be right back,” I whispered, pulling away. He looked a little dazed by my enthusiasm, but managed a nod.

As I exited the booth, I took my frustration out on Slade’s foot. He gave me the devil’s own smile and stepped back with a slight limp.

Giguhl looked up to shoot us a nasty glare for disrupting his enjoyment of Pussy Willow’s show. But when he saw me standing next to Slade, his eyebrows shot to his horns. He was the only one I had told about my indiscretion with Slade, so he had cause to speculate. Luckily, he covered his reaction smoothly and turned to engage Adam with some comment about the show.

4

As I climbed the metal stairs, Slade’s presence loomed behind me. Even though I had no interest in him as a lover anymore, it was hard not to appreciate his hotness. Auburn hair combed into a carelessly expensive style. An easy smile backed up with steely confidence and charming opportunism. His white dress shirt was open at the neck, exposing corded muscles and a thick, blue vein. Looking at him was like being a kid presented with candy from a handsome stranger.

Luckily, I’d outgrown my sweet tooth for that particular confection. Plus, the lie I’d told Adam hung around my neck like a lead scarlet letter.

Once we reached the office, he closed the door behind us. The muffled strains of Pussy Willow’s rendition of “Crazy for You” filtered into the room.

“I’m surprised to see you here,” I said, leading the way into the office. “I thought you were still in California.”

He leaned against the edge of his desk and crossed his arms. “Been keeping tabs on me, Bina?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Please. Everyone knows you’re Tanith’s man now.”

Tanith was the new leader of the vampire race. She used to share that role with two other vampires, the three making up the triumvirate we called the Dominae. My grandmother, Lavinia Kane, had been the Alpha Domina until Tanith conspired with the mage Hekate Council to have her killed to prevent a war between the races. Now that Lavinia was dead, Tanith had maneuvered herself into being named Despina of the race. From what I’d heard, the third former-Domina, Persephone, had been demoted to little more than Tanith’s lapdog.

As the leader of New York’s vampire population, Slade was a good ally for the Despina to have in her pocket. It didn’t hurt that he had good relations with the Hekate Council—or that his support for her new regime was easily bought.

“I just returned from Los Angeles last night,” he said. “The Despina decided to come to the Big Apple early to finalize some of the finer points of the treaty with the Hekate Council.”

My eyebrows shot up at this news. I hadn’t heard Tanith was already in town. But then, it’s not like the Hekate Council felt the need to keep me updated. Besides, I was hoping they’d keep the new Despina so busy I wouldn’t have to see her at all until the night of the treaty signing. I just wanted to keep my head down and the drama out of my life until that damned thing was finalized.

But Slade hadn’t called me to his office to discuss the Despina. “I need to talk to you about a delicate matter.” Tension braided through his words like piano wire.

I crossed my arms and tilted my head. “Why do I sense I won’t enjoy this conversation?”

“Now, now. Don’t go getting all defensive.”

“Who’s defensive?” I said, unclenching.

He smiled knowingly. Then he went in for the kill. “See anything interesting on your stroll through Central Park earlier tonight?”

Shock rippled through me. Slade’s knowledge of my activities shouldn’t have been a surprise. As the leader of New York’s vampires and mob boss of the Black Light District, he had eyes all over the city. I forced a casual shrug. “Oh, you know, the usual. Joggers, muggers, a dead body.” No point in denying I’d seen the murder scene. He already knew.

“You want to explain to me why you didn’t come to me with the information?” His paternal tone set my fangs on edge.

“It’s none of my business.” Slade’s face tightened into a disapproving frown, but before he could launch into a lecture, I had a question. “Who told you they saw me in the park?”

He crossed his arms. “One of Michael’s packs was on patrol. They saw you.”

Fucking werewolves. Slade’s main duty was keeping the vamps in line, but he also had influence over the local fae and werewolf packs to keep peace in the city. To prevent territorial disputes, he’d divided the boroughs into separate feeding areas. A pack that called themselves The Lone Wolves got most of Central Park. The pack’s Alpha, Michael Romulus, and I were friends, but this wasn’t the first time The Lone Wolves had caused me trouble.

“Did they also tell you there was another vampire chick there?”

Slade frowned. “No, they didn’t mention it. Who was she?”

“Never seen her before.” I shook my head. “I only got a quick look from far away, but her red was lighter than mine, so she must have been young. You might ask the pack again. See if any of their guys spotted her.”

Slade smiled. “Does this mean you’re going to help after all?”

“No. That’s as far as I’m going down this path. Just look for that chick and you’ll probably find your killer.”

Slade shifted on his desk and his face took on a devil’s advocate slant. “You know, her presence at the scene is no more proof of her guilt than it is of yours.”

“What the hell do you mean by that?”

He shrugged. “Some might speculate that you hung around to admire your own handiwork.”

I choked out a laugh. “Give me a fucking break. Even if I was still feeding from humans—which we both know I’m not—I’m smart enough to clean up after myself.”

His expression cleared and he pushed away from the desk. “I know that. Which is why I want you to help me find the idiot who did this.”

“Why?” I didn’t even try to hide the suspicion in my tone.

“Why do I need help? Or why you?”

“Why everything?”

I’d worked for him on a job months earlier—before Maisie was taken and shit went down in New Orleans. He’d asked me to rough up a strip club owner named Tiny Malone who owed Slade some money. I’d delivered the threats but then Tiny turned the tables on me and I barely escaped. The altercation had sparked off some emotional shit for me and I’d ended up calling Slade for help. Which is what led to us sleeping together. So needless to say, his request made all my warning bells shriek with alarm.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not asking you to come on my payroll permanently or anything. I know you’ve got your own… stuff going on.” The undertone in that one sentence was strong enough to give me pause, but he kept talking. “This is more of a favor that I’m willing to pay you for. But I need you to promise you won’t tell any of your mage buddies about it for now.”

I swirled my hand through the air so he’d continue. I wasn’t promising not to tell anyone about it until I knew everything. Slade was notorious for “forgetting” to mention important—and damning—details.

“It worries me that the cops are involved.” He spat this out like a gunpoint confession. Like he hated admitting he worried about anything. “Usually we’re able to clean up these messes and put the mortals off the scent of vampire involvement. But they’re all over this. Right now they’re calling it a murder, but once the press gets ahold of the details we could have trouble.”

I leaned back and crossed my arms. “So you’ve got a vamp who sucks at covering her tracks. Why do you need my help?”

He hesitated. “It’s complicated.”

I rolled my eyes. Since when weren’t things complicated with him? “Save your breath, Slade. I’m not looking for complications in my life right now.”

“Hmm.” He pursed his lips.

He was baiting me. I knew it. “Whatever.” I started to rise. “I’ve given you my answer.”

“I have a bad feeling about this, Sabina.” He stepped forward, his eyes pleading. Something about his tone told me he wasn’t bullshitting me this time. I paused and crossed my arms, ready to listen. “If word gets out that I can’t control the local vamps, the Despina might find someone else to take over here.”

Satisfied I wasn’t about to walk out the door, he approached the bar and held up a decanter filled with amber liquid. I shook my head and took a swig of the drink I’d forgotten I had. “I know you want to stay out of this, but if the Despina appoints some West Coast vamp to take control of the local population, the results could be potentially explosive. Especially since most of the local vamps escaped L.A. because they didn’t want to live under the Dominae’s dictatorial laws anymore.”

The words “potentially explosive” had been used on purpose. He knew me well enough to know that no matter how much I claimed to want peace in my life, part of me would never fully be out of the game. On the other hand, working with Slade again had its own potentially explosive ramifications. Ones I was determined to avoid at all costs.

“New York’s vamps are right to be wary. I don’t buy Tanith’s new kinder, gentler vampire party line. But none of that’s my business anymore. I’m done with vampire drama.”

Slade snorted and dropped a piece of ice in his glass. “Sabina, please. Let’s not bullshit each other. You might have everyone else convinced you’re cool with domestic bliss, but I know you better than that. I left the assassin life behind once, too, remember? Even tried to live the straight life for a few years. But the boredom almost killed me. Luckily, I wised up and got into organized crime. Otherwise I’d probably be a serial killer by now.” He chuckled at his own joke, but we both knew he wasn’t far off the mark. He took a casual sip of his drink. “How long has it been since you killed anyone?”