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she’d started chuckling
with him.
    “You’re priceless. Wow? After all that all you can come up
with is wow?”
    “Well, yeah. My mind is fried. You’re lucky I managed to say
anything at all.”
    He laughed even harder. “Gods, you’re beautiful.”
    “So are you.” After another fit of giggles Frankie fought to
suppress a yawn. “I should go.”
    “Stay. Please? Sleep here tonight. We still have a lot to
talk about.”
    “Okay, Kellen. But I have to go in the morning. There’s
something I have to do whether we’re done discussing things or not.”
    Kellen studied her for a moment. The seriousness had
returned to her expression, and her mind was once again closed to him. “All
right, Frankie. I won’t press you to stay when you say you have to go.” He
considered asking what it was she intended but the look on her face stopped
him. For now he would take her agreeing to sleep in his bed as a sign of
budding trust and do what he could to add to it.
    “Thank you,” she murmured tiredly.
    Kellen kissed her gently and loosened his hold a bit. She
looked exhausted, part of which he knew came from their recent activities and
part of which he guessed was stress. It made him wonder if she ever shut down
enough to sleep soundly. He watched as she drifted off. She seemed comfortable
for the moment, something else he decided was good. Hopefully she’d get a
peaceful night’s rest before she returned to her crusade in the morning.
    Frankie had told him the only help she wanted from him was
to change her into a vampire. It was still out of the question in his mind but
there had to be other things he could do. It was something for him to ponder
while she slept. He settled in, not at all tired himself, but more than willing
to lie there and hold her for however long she’d allow.

Chapter Four
     
    Frankie sat at a table in the upscale restaurant, picking at
the breakfast she couldn’t afford. She’d had to order something though. It was
not the sort of place one could linger without doing so.
    Over the past few months Frankie had made a habit of coming
there and being chatty with the staff. She showed up every Sunday morning just
before the hypocrite and his mother arrived after attending services at a
nearby church. The nerve of him, pretending to be so holy, all the while
supplying half the city with illegal poison.
    For a minute Frankie felt slightly bad about what she was
about to do. The scum’s mother was elderly. If she didn’t already have at least
some inkling of her son’s true profession this would surely be a shock.
    Frankie’s remorse lasted only a moment. How could the woman
be entirely clueless as to where the money came from? After all, he wasn’t all
that secretive about his activities. She had to have suspicions. She probably
knew but didn’t permit herself to dwell on it. In Frankie’s mind that made her
a coconspirator and therefore partly responsible for Kate and Amber’s deaths.
    The waitress left the check, telling Frankie not to rush
through her meal. Once the girl moved on to the next table she placed enough
cash to cover both the bill and a handsome tip in the folder as she did every
other week when presented with her tab. Then she pulled the photos of Amber’s
pale, lifeless, naked body lying in the ditch from the envelope she carried.
Waiting until the men who always accompanied the pair were preoccupied, Frankie
rose and headed for their table.
    “Excuse me, Mrs. Valdez?”
    The woman smiled at Frankie’s approach and again she felt a
twinge of guilt but it was too late to back down.
    “I’m sorry to interrupt your meal but I wanted you to see
the kind of man your son is.” She handed over the photos. “This is what his
drugs did to my beautiful niece. And my sister since she couldn’t continue to
live after her daughter was found that way, thrown out the same as trash by
your son after he let her die while he was entertaining.”
    Before any of them could react Frankie