LITMIR.BIZ

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if I was with the real Max now, or just another character. Maybe that was part of his practiced magic. I pitied the women who didn’t see it for what it was, because they could fall in love with a man like Max, who made them feel they were the most important woman he’d ever touched.

      Luckily for me, I couldn’t fall in love with him. I was already in love with a man who didn’t find me very important at all.

      As if on cue, the phone rang.

      Max glanced at me, half imploring. Then guilt crept into his expression, and I couldn’t look at him anymore.

      I groaned and climbed to my feet, more wobbly than I had been when I’d been plastered. The realization that I had been about to have sex with Max forced the rest of the alcoholic haze from my system, leaving awkwardness it its wake.

      “Hey, while you’re up, can you get that?” Max asked sheepishly.

      “Fine. But if it’s one of your girlfriends, I’m not going to be very good cover.”

      I was surprised anyone would hang on the line for as long as it took me to reach the telephone in the kitchen. Every ring seemed sure to be the last, until I picked up the phone and said tiredly, “Hello?”

      “Carrie?”

       Nathan.

       Two: Reconnected

      “Carrie?” Nathan repeated over the crackling of the line, his soft Scottish accent curling around my heart like a possessive hand.

      I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried not to focus on the fact I was standing in Max’s kitchen wiping his kisses off my neck. “Yeah, it’s me.”

      There was a long, heavy pause. “It’s good to hear your voice.”

      My throat went dry. I will not cry, I will not cry.

      But my emotions were too raw. The alcohol left me with nothing to buffer them. I wiped at my eyes and prayed my voice wouldn’t fail me when I spoke. “It’s good to hear from you, too.”

      “I tried to get ahold of you earlier. You must have been out.” He probed gently at the edge of the blood tie, and I shut him out firmly. He laughed softly. “Got something you don’t want me to know?”

      “I’m a little tipsy, is all. We just got in.”

      “Ah.” Nathan didn’t sound as though he believed me.

      He hadn’t yet offered any information about Bella. The suspense had me twisting the phone cord around my arm. It would be better to do it like a Band-Aid, I decided—as quickly as possible so the pain wouldn’t last. “I tried to call you earlier.”

      He cleared his throat. “Yeah, that’s what Bella said.”

      I rolled my lips over my teeth, pressing them until they were numb.

      “She said you hung up.”

      I managed a tight laugh. “Yeah, I thought I had the wrong number. I didn’t expect her to be there. Do I still have a room?”

      My chuckle sounded so lame, if it had been a horse, some farmer would have shot it.

      “Of course you do,” Nathan said, his voice so soft I had to strain to hear it over the static. “Listen, has Max heard anything from the Movement?”

      I tried to stay out of Max’s personal business, but I did remember the comment he’d made on the Ferris wheel. “No, he said he hasn’t heard anything lately.”

      “Bella has.” His casual use of her name sent spears of agony through my heart. “There’s too much to explain on the phone. We’re headed down there right now.”

      I imagined her in the seat next to his, looking gorgeous and out of place in the rusty old van. “I’ll tell Max. I don’t think he’ll be happy about her coming here.”

      “Why not?” Apparently, Nathan had gone brain dead.

      Then I remembered he’d been possessed by the Soul Eater’s evil spell the whole time, and probably missed the weird dynamic going on between Bella and Max. Still, she should have had the common decency to clue Nathan in. “No reason. Forget I said anything.”

      “Okay…” He cleared his throat again. “Listen, we’re about an hour out of the city. We’re hoping to get to Max’s before sunrise, but if we can’t, is there a parking garage or something nearby I can shelter in?”

      “Yeah, there’s parking under the building. If you buzz up from there you can get straight in.” I winced as I said those words. I should have told him he’d be better to stop in Gary, Indiana for the day. Better yet, he should have turned around and headed back to Grand Rapids.

      The kitchen door swung open behind me, nearly flattening me to the wall. Max strolled in and stretched his arms over his head. His shoulders popped and he groaned loudly. “You know what’s just as good as sex? Ice cream. Nah, that’s a lie. I’d rather have had sex.”

      I covered the mouthpiece, but it was too late.

      “Is Max having trouble getting reacquainted with the city?” Nathan asked, amused.

      “I think I’m cramping his style.”

      On the other end of the line I heard muffled talking. You’re on the phone to me, your fledgling, your blood, and you can’t wait a few seconds before you talk to her?

      Without being able to stop it, my annoyance filtered over the blood tie. Nathan got it, and I felt his relief at our renewed connection. “You’re right, that’s rude of me. Listen, I’m going to let you go. I can explain everything when we get there.”

      We. It was like he used the word as a weapon against me. “Fine. We will be here.”

      He hesitated. “Okay…well, goodbye, sweetheart.”

      Sweetheart. It was all I could take. I hung up the phone and crumpled to the floor.

      Max knelt at my side before I could draw two sobbing breaths. “Carrie? Are you okay?”

      I couldn’t speak. I could only cry against his shoulder.

      “What’s the matter? Is something wrong?” He sounded as alarmed as any man faced with a woman’s tears. It must have been doubly distressing, considering what we’d almost done in his foyer. “Is it me? Was it something I did?”

      Shaking my head, I wiped my nose on the back of my hand, but I couldn’t control my sobbing enough to make an intelligent sound.

      Max pulled me tighter to his side, as if trying to absorb my suffering through his skin. “You’re really freaking me out. What’s the matter? Is it Nathan?”

      It most definitely was Nathan. Anger roared to life in me, drying my tears. Nathan and Bella were coming here. I’d come here to get away from Nathan and clear my head, and he was bringing more pain my way? He was like the opposite of an ambulance; he brought portable disaster.

      “That was him,” I muttered. “He’s coming down here with Bella.”

      “Bella?” Max frowned. “I thought she was going back to Spain, like, a month ago.”

      I gave him a minute. Max was a smart guy. I was confident he would figure it out.

      He wasn’t as quick to believe as I had been, but the comprehension slowly crept over his face. “No. No way.”

      I nodded vehemently. “When I called the apartment this evening she answered the phone.”

      “Well, that doesn’t mean anything.” He was assuring himself as much as me. “Maybe something came up, she got reassigned. It happens all the time.”

      “She hasn’t been using my room.” I was half-glad. I couldn’t imagine going back there if she’d usurped

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