LITMIR.BIZ

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by what I said.”

      Clifford added, “It sounds like you’ve run into some prejudice from people.”

      Jessie sniffed. “I don’t think I need psychoanalysis from a couple of vampire hunters.”

      “We’re not offering analysis,” Michael said. “Just commenting.”

      “Well, your comments aren’t welcome.”

      “I told you, you’re free to leave if you don’t want to talk to us anymore,” Michael said.

      He found himself hoping she wouldn’t go, though. He felt that if she walked out the door, something very important would be walking out with her.

      “Really? I was starting to think I was a prisoner here.”

      He shook his head. “No, not at all. We’ve answered your questions and told you the truth about everything that happened here tonight. You gave your word you wouldn’t write about it.” It cost him an effort to do it, but he crossed his arms over his chest and nodded toward the door. He couldn’t keep her here against her will, no matter how much he wanted her to stay. “I’d say we’re done.”

      The problem was, suddenly, Jessie didn’t want to be done. The feeling took her by surprise, but she didn’t want to leave yet. The idea of walking out that door and never seeing Michael Brandt again wasn’t acceptable for some reason. She wanted to spend more time with him.

      She wanted to spend all her time with him.

      Again, she had to force that thought out of her head. Sure, with those muscles and those rugged good looks and that hint of danger about him—well, more than a hint—he was undeniably attractive. He was hot as hell, in fact. But while she liked a good-looking guy as much as the next woman, she had never let such things interfere with her work.

      And she was starting to see a way around the promise she had made to him earlier. The thought of Nana Rose and the money she needed made Jessie realize what she had to do.

      “This is too big a story not to tell,” she said.

      Michael’s face hardened. “You gave me your word.”

      “If Max were here, he’d be talking about shutting you up again,” Clifford warned.

      “You can’t kill me,” Jessie said boldly. “You represent the forces of light, remember?”

      “What about the greater good?” Michael asked in a soft yet menacing voice, and for a second Jessie wondered if she had just made the worst mistake of her life.

      But she pressed on, knowing it was too late to turn back now. “I’m not going to expose your secret,” she said. “I can write about what you’ve told me without revealing who you are. You’ll be an anonymous, confidential source.”

      “You can do that?” Michael didn’t look or sound convinced.

      “Sure I can.”

      “And you won’t drop hints that will identify me in any way?”

      “Word of honor.”

      Clifford grunted, but Jessie ignored him. Her brain raced with possibilities. She said, “You’re going to bust that vampire summit meeting, right?”

      “That was the plan when we came here, yes,” Michael admitted.

      “Take me with you.”

      Both men stared at her in disbelief. Clifford was the one who finally responded. “Impossible! Utterly impossible!”

      Michael, though, looked at Jessie with a cool, speculative expression in his eyes.

      “Why is it impossible, Michael?” she asked him. “Max and Clifford go with you, and they don’t have your special powers.”

      “They’ve made this their life’s work,” he replied. “They’ve trained for years.”

      “And we have some of the same edge as Michael,” Clifford added.

      Jessie looked at him and said, “I’ve been fighting against one thing or another all my life. Try growing up on a reservation if you want to be tough. And I’ve been studying tae kwan do for the past five years.”

      Clifford snorted as if he wasn’t impressed.

      “What happens if we don’t take you with us?” Michael asked, his eyes narrowed. “You’ll expose us?”

      “Expose you to whom? You said it yourself. The cops would never believe any of this. And according to what you told me, the vampires already know who you are. So exactly how can I blackmail you?”

      Michael crossed his arms and frowned in thought. “All that is true,” he admitted. “So why should we even consider the idea?”

      “Because it’s the right thing to do. Because you owe me.”

      His eyebrows went up. “How do you figure that?”

      She fingered her bruised throat. “Ted Carlisle is hurt and I nearly got killed, because of your war.”

      “No one invited you to horn in,” he said.

      “Maybe not, but if you’re going to live in this world and carry on your fight here, you’ve got to expect it to spill over sometimes into the lives of innocent people.”

      Clifford said, “We do everything we can to see to it that doesn’t happen.”

      “But it still does,” Jessie argued. “Tonight proved that.” She came to her feet as emotion gripped her. “Trying to keep innocents safe isn’t enough. People ought to know what’s going on so they can protect themselves. I need to write this story. I need to tell the world the truth.”

      “We go to considerable lengths to keep the truth from coming out,” Michael said.

      “Maybe you need to stop doing that. Maybe if you did, fewer people would die at the hands of those…those creatures. And in the long run, there would be fewer of them for you to have to fight.”

      “That argument sounds noble, but it won’t work,” Clifford said.

      Michael said, “I’m not so sure.”

      Clifford looked at him in surprise. “You can’t actually be considering—”

      “Ms. Morgan might be right. Over time, a little education might make our job easier…and save some lives.” He turned to Jessie.

      “I’m not saying that we’ll let you in on everything that’s going on,” Michael told her, “and you’ll have to do as you’re told. But if what you want is the inside story of what we do, I think we can accommodate you.”

      “That’s exactly what I want,” she told him. She didn’t like that bit about doing what she was told—that had always rubbed her the wrong way—but they could work that out later.

      Michael held out a hand to Jessie. “Welcome to the team, Ms. Morgan.”

      As she took his hand and felt his cool, strong touch, an unexpected thrill crackled through her. That spark she had thought about earlier…it was there, all right. Lord, was it ever!

      “If I’m joining forces with you, don’t you think you ought to call me Jessie?”

      He smiled. “All right. And I’m Michael.”

      She didn’t tell him that in her mind she had already begun to think of him that way.

      Nor did she mention how her heart started pounding harder in her chest the instant his skin made contact with hers, even though just their hands touched, not their lips or bodies or—

      Stop that, she told herself. She had to remember this relationship was all business.

      Vampire-killing business.

      Chapter

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