A Taste of Love and Evil (6 page)

“So, we meet again.” Biff straightened and clapped his phone shut, eyes narrowed. Without an emergency to distract him, he was a different man. “Smile for me, baby,” he said in a voice both sexy and deadly. Ah, this vibe she recognized. This she could handle.

Biff chuckled nastily. No wonder he felt familiar, considering the number of mobsters she’d met while she was Lou’s mistress. “You’re a vampire, aren’t you, sweetheart?”

Rose flashed her fangs and sashayed closer.

The old man creaked off the bench and shambled toward them, knuckling his eyes. “Well, I declare. Never seen such a thing in my en-tire life.”

“That explains it,” Biff said. “Poor old Stevie couldn’t help himself. You even had me going for a second there at the hotel.” Rose moved closer, undressing him with her eyes, and the guy put up his hands and whistled sadly. “Sorry, baby, but I’m not available just now.” He reached in his shirt pocket. “But hey, when I’m free, I’d be happy to oblige. Call and ask for Biff.” He handed Rose a business card with nothing but a phone number.

“What the hell?” She glared at him, scrounging up more allure.

“Call me. Please.” He tsked. “Damn shame. Meantime, where’s the girl?”

Rose ripped the card in two and tossed it to the ground. She whammed all the allure she could muster straight at the gunman.

“Fuck.” Biff staggered against the van. “I told you, I can’t oblige just yet.”

“It’s now or never, butt head,” Rose said, pissed off at him, at herself, and especially at Jack, who was witnessing her failure. She thought she’d gotten good at managing her allure. She’d grown up without help or guidance from other
vamps, and if it hadn’t been for Lou letting her practice on him…

Seemingly, she hadn’t done as well as she thought. She couldn’t crack this dude, and she’d almost made Jack pass out earlier. What if she’d really harmed him? Shouldn’t he sidle out from behind the van any second now?

The old man toddled steadily forward, and a flurry of pigeons took off whickering from the gutter that edged the roof. Rose searched for a stupid line to hand the blond.

She didn’t have to think hard. “I don’t give second chances.”

The blond groaned. “Sorry, baby. I just can’t. Where’d you hide the girl?” He pushed a button on his phone and sauntered toward the building.

Panicking, Rose stormed past him and planted herself in his path. “She went with some trucker. What girl could possibly be more interesting than me?”

“Don’t get me wrong. She ain’t interesting at all.” He grinned at the old man and trailed a finger lightly down Rose’s hair toward her breast. “Ain’t she something, Grand-paw? Yum.”

Rose slugged him. He laughed and fended her off.

“If I’m so tasty, why not take a bite?” Rose smashed herself against him, running her free hand under his jacket. “Better yet, I’ll take a bite of you.” She let her fangs slot all the way down.

“Hot diggity,” the old man said. “This is better than the movies.”

“She sure does have pretty fangs. Watch it, baby, you’re getting too close to my gun.” He pushed her hand away. Set her aside.

Jack didn’t want her, either. Was she losing her touch? “That’s not the kind of gun I’m interested in,” she said. The old man hobbled closer, a long, bony finger leading the way.

“I don’t think you’re her type, Grandpaw.” Biff indicated
the truck stop with his chin. “Seen a girl in there? Bratty sixteen-year-old?”

“Yep, she tried to stab some guy with her comb. The waitress took her away to the kitchen.” The old man twisted his head upward, leering horribly. His finger inched toward Rose’s fangs. “An honest-to-goodness real-life vampire.”

“Do not
touch
me!” hollered Rose, swatting his hand away, and then finally,
finally,
she saw Jack. She jerked the old man aside as Jack leaped off the roof of the truck stop and knocked Biff flat into the pavement.

Jack landed neatly without looking at Rose or the old man. “Sorry it took me so long.”

An apology? From Jack?

“It was a slow climb with only one good arm, but you stalled him perfectly.”

Approval? A compliment?

Still not looking her way, he searched the thug, taking the gun, the cell phone, and one of Biff’s business cards. “Thanks very much for the ride. I’ll take Juma the rest of the way. You’re free to leave.”

Rose steadied the old man and plunked him back on the bench. So what if Jack had apologized? So what if she’d done something right? It was over.

While Jack and Walt dumped Biff in a laundry cart and rolled it into the eighteen-wheeler, Rose dug an oversize T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants out of her suitcase and went inside the truck stop to change.

Juma stomped up to her. “Jack says he’s taking me the rest of the way in his Jeep. I don’t want to go with just him. I want to go with
both
of you.”

“But he can take you somewhere safe.” Rose led the way to the ladies’ room. “I’ve never been to Bayou Gavotte before. I don’t even know where I’ll stay. He can protect you from those thugs, and I can’t.”

“That’s what I thought at first, but you’ve been doing good so far,” Juma said eagerly. “Both of you together. Cindy says you and Jack make a great team.”

Rose stripped and changed clothes. “Maybe, but he’s going his way and I’m going mine.”

“Then I want to go with you.” Juma bit at the peeling polish on her nails. “I don’t trust him. If I tell him my name and address, he’ll dump me someplace to wait like a sitting duck while he goes straight to my grandma, and she’ll put on her helpless-old-lady act and be all shocked about how Stevie treated me, and then she’ll make me come home.” When Rose hesitated, Juma’s expression darkened into bitterness. “I get it. You don’t really want to help me, either. Jack said you weren’t mad at me, that you were just pissed off at him, but obviously he was wrong. I’m better off on my own. I’ll take care of myself. It’s not like I haven’t been doing it my whole life.” She sulked her way back down the hall.

“For cripes sake, give me a second to think things through,” Rose said, following her. “Maybe we can work something out.”

In the kitchen, Jack tossed back another coffee. A dozen hundred-dollar bills in a secluded corner had persuaded Walt to drop the thugs near Jackson. Another hundred had sent the transmitter to Texas in another eighteen-wheeler. Now that the adrenaline rush was over, Jack’s headache and lassitude had returned.

Meanwhile, Cindy laid into him. “I’d keep my mouth shut
because it’s none of my business, but I owe you, so I have to tell you when you’re acting dumb.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” Jack said.

She wouldn’t leave it alone. She shoveled their breakfast into Styrofoam containers and bitched. “Rose is so nice, and incredibly brave, and yet you’ve been rude to her ever since you met.”

“Did she tell you that?” he asked, on the defensive and supercilious because of it.

“Don’t be a jerk, Jack! Don’t even pretend to be a jerk.”

“Cindy, don’t make me out to be anything special.”

“You are special! You have a responsibility not to be messed up. There aren’t enough good people around. I don’t know what Rose has done to deserve your being so unkind, but—”

“Exactly. You don’t know, so butt out.” Oh, shit. He handed her a napkin. “Cindy, don’t cry. You don’t understand.”

“You’re right, I don’t.” Cindy blew her nose. “Tell me, and maybe I will. What has she done to you?”

She forced me out of camo. She helped herself to my blood.
But he couldn’t tell Cindy that. Fortunately, she was perfectly ready to keep on talking.

“You and Rose work so well together. Look how you took those two guys down.”

A fluke. Two flukes. Three, counting this morning. Besides, he worked alone.

Cindy poured orange juice and coffee and kept on trucking. “You know who gets the credit for that? She does, because she put up with your crap for a good cause.”

“Hey,” he said feebly, “I have to put up with her, too.” But Cindy only narrowed her eyes, so he said, “I’m sorry, but it’s none of your business. It’s between Rose and me.”

“Then do something about it, you big dope,” Cindy said.

Back in their booth, Rose watched Juma unearth a bottle of truly horrible nail polish from her bag. The girl had a sense
of style—her clothing and artfully cut black hair showed that. But the purple polish was ghastly. Still, fresh ghastly was better than chipped.

Juma shook the bottle. “I’m scared of Jack.”

“Don’t bullshit me,” Rose said. “I’m already on your side. There’s nothing scary about Jack.”

“There is too! You heard what he said. One measly chance! Nobody can be that perfect. Even a little white lie for a really good reason doesn’t get past him.” Juma grimaced as she repainted her nails. “And those harsh eyes of his totally creep me out.”

Huh,
Rose thought.
That’s one thing I really like about Jack.
But there was no point liking anything at all about him, so she told Juma, “Lies get complicated. It’s better to stick with the truth.”

“Not when nobody cares what you think, or feel, or want. Not when they think the truth is impossible.” Her eyes met Rose’s and dropped again. Doggedly, she coated each dreadful nail.

Rose said, “If I promise not to think it’s impossible, will you tell me what’s going on?”

“Maybe,” Juma said.

“I am doing something about it.” Jack hovered inside the kitchen door, itching to be gone. “I’m going to thank her for the help, say good-bye, and move on with my life.”

Cindy stuffed the containers into paper bags and flung cutlery, salt, and pepper in after them. “I believe in giving people a second chance.”

“Look where that got you,” Jack said. It was a low blow. What was up with him today?

She rammed the cups of coffee and orange juice into cup holders. “I said a second chance, not a hundredth. I know where I went wrong, and I’m not afraid to admit it. I’m not afraid to change.” When he said nothing, she put her nose
in the air and pushed through the swinging kitchen doors into the restaurant. “Suit yourself.”

“I’ll do exactly that,” Jack said, “if those trucker friends of Rose’s hurry up and bring back my Jeep.”

“What do you mean, you disabled the Jeep?” Rose shot a glance toward the kitchen doors. Jack still hadn’t emerged. “I asked you to hide it, not hurt it.”

“Whoops,” the burly trucker said. “Does this mean I won’t get my kiss?”

“What did you do to it?” Rose demanded, hands on hips, frowning him down.

“Well, ma’am, we figured the bad guys wouldn’t be able to take the kid if their vehicle didn’t work.”

“That’s Jack’s Jeep. They stole it from him. He needs it so he can leave.”

“Whoops,” the burly guy said again, grinning now. “It’ll only take him an hour or two to get road service and make it operational again. It’s just a couple of flat tires and the battery.”

“The battery still works,” said his lanky friend. “He can have it back if he asks real nice.”

“Serves him right,” the burly trucker said. “He wasn’t treating you the way he should.”

Rose flung up her arms. “That’s why I want him to leave in his own vehicle.”

The burly trucker said, “Don’t I get my kiss?”

Rose glowered at Jack as he came out of the kitchen. “We have a problem.” She plowed right into the explanation.

Cindy dumped the bags of breakfast on a table and broke out laughing, and Juma joined in. The two truckers sniggered at the entrance to the restaurant, still hoping for their kisses, and Rose bit her lip, because it
was
funny, or would have been if it didn’t kill Jack to utter a kind word now and
then. If he didn’t detest her for no reason at all. It wasn’t her fault the truckers were so eager to help her. It wasn’t her fault she was a vamp. It hadn’t been her fault when she was born, it hadn’t been when she hit puberty, and it wasn’t now. She folded her arms and waited, daring him to dis her again.

He sighed and shook his head. His lips twitched ever so slightly. He snorted, and then he laughed, and suddenly his face was open and almost cute. “Looks like the joke’s on me.”

Then he caught Rose’s eye. The openness vanished and the fleeting sweetness was gone.

Cindy stopped laughing. “Look, Rose, if you really can’t stomach another minute of Jack, he’ll stay here until he gets his Jeep fixed.”

“It’s not that simple,” Rose said. “Juma wants to come with me, which is fine, but I’m not equipped to protect her on my own.” She took a bracing breath and looked squarely at Jack. “I have to pick up the supplies my boss is shipping to your place. How about you give me directions, and I bring Juma to a safe house and stay the night with her, and come pick up the supplies tomorrow? We’ll find a more permanent solution for Juma then.” She felt Juma stiffen and put an arm around her. “Calm down. We’ll work it out.”

Jack bored into her with those hard, beautiful eyes.

“Fine,” she said after she’d given him way too long. “I’ll handle it myself. Come on, Juma. Let’s go.” She dug into her purse. “How much is the bill, Cindy?”

Jack put up a hand. “I’ve already taken care of it. Let me call Gil before we decide anything.”

Rose offered him her phone, challenging him with her stare. Then the phone rang, and she flipped it open.

“Rose?” Urgency overlaid the soothing sound of Gil’s voice. “I waited as long as I could before calling, but it’s an emergency now. Is Jack all right?”

“He’s fine,” Rose said. “Talk to him yourself.”

“Wait,” Gil said. “I need to speak to you first.”

Rose flicked a glance at Jack, but ignored the crease between his eyebrows. “Go ahead.”

“There’s a woman, Linda Dell, who’s in constant danger from an abusive husband, on the verge of leaving him for months now, and she’s finally made up her mind. I’m afraid if Jack doesn’t go get her immediately she’ll lose her resolve, and perhaps her one and only chance of a new life.” Gil paused. “Would you mind taking a short detour in a good cause?”

Shit, thought Rose, her heart, her whole psyche sinking. “Sure. I’m happy to help.”

Intolerable tension emanated from Jack. Rose’s insides twisted into a knot.

“Thank you so much,” Gil said. “You’re obviously a caring person, and Jack won’t ask for help because he hates being beholden to anyone, especially a vampire. If anyone owes you for this, it’s me.”

“Nobody owes me,” Rose said. “And now you need to speak to Jack.”

Jack took the phone and stalked hurriedly away from the others. Gil said, “Go ahead, cuss me out, but I had to ask Rose for help. She didn’t need any convincing, so you can’t blame it on my damned voice.”

“I’m not blaming anyone.”
Except myself.
Jack watched Rose hug Cindy good-bye and head smiling toward the two truckers. Judging by his past experience, Rose should be a conniving bitch, and yet she seemed so consistently nice. So goddamned fine. As for his own behavior—

He wheeled for the men’s restroom and a small measure of privacy. “What’s going on?”

“Linda Dell is finally ready. You have to go there now. Rose said she’d take you, no problem. Oh, and your mother
called again. She’s going to the Caribbean to spend a month with your father.”

Momentarily distracted, Jack said, “At this rate, my parents will be spending all their time together soon.”

“That’s great, after twenty-something years mostly apart.”

“I guess.” Maybe in later life, his father’s libido had subsided to a normal level. The vampire who’d had him in her clutches all through Jack’s childhood had left years ago, and he’d run through a string of both vamps and ordinary women after that, but lately he seemed happier doing without.

But, by God, if the old bastard started cheating on his mother again, he’d—

He’d do nothing. He’d never been able to do anything about it, not when he was seven years old and not when he was full grown. His mother wouldn’t thank him for butting in now any more than she had back then.

“Maybe you’ll finally learn to forgive your father. I told Rose if anyone owes her, it’s me.”

“I wish it were that simple,” Jack said, back in hell. One measly apology wasn’t enough to right the balance.

“She said nobody owes her,” Gil insisted. “If you can just be polite for a few hours—”

Jack interrupted. “What’s the plan?” He sorted through Gil’s instructions automatically with half his mind, while the other half processed the transactions between himself and Rose. Snippets of conversation dropped through the cracked-open window high in the restroom wall. The querulous voice of the old man, who sat on a bench in the winter sun and raved about seeing a vampire. The amused responses of his blissfully disbelieving audience.

No wonder Rose was so angry. With her acute vampire hearing, she must have heard every insulting word Jack had said earlier about vamps, even if the window in the women’s
restroom was closed. Which meant one more huge discourtesy in the appalling tally he’d run up in only a few hours.

Rose hugged and kissed her two truckers chastely on the cheek, laughing off their protests and pleas. “My kisses are dangerous. But you guys are the greatest!”

“Would you like me to drive?” Jack sounded as if the polite offer took an effort. “This isn’t a short detour. She lives in a place called Calico, at least an hour and a half each way.”

“Maybe later,” Rose replied. Once they reached the highway, she said, “I don’t know the first thing about rescuing people, but I assume we don’t just up and knock on her front door.”

“She’s meeting us at a store,” Jack said.

Rose accepted an egg and toast sandwich from Juma. “You don’t sound so sure about that.”

“Of course I’m not sure.” Jack spoke caustically, but then his tone shifted abruptly to neutral. “She’s been shilly-shallying for a long time.”

“Gil said she finally made up her mind.”

“Let’s hope so,” Jack muttered around a mouthful of scrambled eggs. “Otherwise we’ll have wasted your time and gas. We’ll pay you for both, of course.”

Rose swallowed hastily. “I don’t care about the gas. Or the time. This is someone’s life we’re talking about!”

“Unfortunately,” Jack said, caustic again, “you’re absolutely right.”

“Cindy says you’ve rescued a lot of abused women.” The interstate stretched ahead, lined by stands of pine trees and farms, green even in January. “For someone who does that sort of work, you’re mighty unfeeling.”

“I have no tolerance for people who screw up over and over again,” Jack said.

“Some people don’t know how not to,” Rose said. “They have emotional problems.”

“Sure, but those are their problems, not mine,” Jack said. “I give them a chance to start over, and if they screw that up, too, I’m gone.”