Blood Lily (Lilith Adams Vampire Series Book 1) (22 page)

“Don’t be a smartass, Lily.” He kept staring at her while she took a huge bite.

When she finally swallowed it down, and it was absolutely delicious by the way, she stared right back at him. “It’s just across the street. I had my pepper spray in my pocket. I think I can handle grabbing breakfast without an armed escort.”

“Yeah I bet Miriah felt the same way.” As soon as he said it she saw regret flash across his face, plain as day. She wanted to be angry but she knew he’d be harder on himself for the callous
comment than she ever could be. Still, logic or no, her feelings were hurt.

“You’re welcome, for breakfast.” Lilith rose from the bed, coffee and half eaten flaky delight in hand
, and sauntered toward the living room. “When you’re finished being an ass and then feeling bad about it, maybe we can talk over some things in the dining room.” She didn’t look at him, just walked out the door. The bottom line was she’d tried to do something nice and gotten her ass chewed for it. No matter how right Chance was, it still hurt. Logic doesn’t solve everything.

She grabbed a notebook from Miriah’s office and a couple pens before taking a seat at the dining room table. She
needed to focus and write things out. The timeline had so many different factors that she couldn’t keep it all straight in her head. Lilith was halfway through mapping out the timeline when Chance finally emerged with his cup of coffee. She watched him out of the corner of her eye and jotted down a few more notes.

He walked right up to her, grabbed the pen from her hand and set it on the table. She frowned
at the discarded pen and went to grab it, but he gripped her wrist first and lightly tugged her up from the chair. He held her hand against his chest and stared down at her with a softness that made her cheeks burn.

“Thank you for breakfast.” A smile crossed his tender lips that tugged one out of her even when she’d rather slap him than smile.
Dammit. How the hell was she supposed to stay mad at him when he looked at her like that? The cheating bastard. “Let me first say that green is an amazing color on you.” Her cheeks definitely burned a bright red at that. Definitely cheating. “Breakfast was delicious and the sentiment means a lot to me. I’ve never had a woman bring me breakfast in bed.”

“Oh so it’s usually the men, huh?” Humor was her
self-defense, even if her voice shook and lacked it’s usually confident tone. She wasn’t used to all this and when in doubt, you revert back to what’s familiar.

Chance let out a warm chuckle that made her tingle.
“Yeah. And somehow I’m the smartass.” His hand caressed up her neck to cradle her cheek and it felt like the world tilted. “Please, promise me.” His lips hovered over hers, just a breath away and it made her heart race in her chest. “I don’t want anything to happen to you. So please, promise me you won’t do something like that again.”

Her breath came in steady pants, the tension to fill the space between them pulling at every muscle. Her brain took a while to recognize what he’d said.
“Evil man.” Her whisper was breathy and secret. “This is extortion.”

He smiled then and pulled her closer.
“Only if it works.” His eyebrow arched in pure confidence. “Promise?”

“Yes, yes. I promise.”

“Good.” He leaned up and pressed a tiny kiss to the tip of her nose before walking right past her to the table. He took a seat with a brilliant grin. His arm draped across the back of the chair with such a casual, nonchalant air that she couldn’t figure out if she still wanted to kiss him or just slap the smug look off his face. “So what are we discussing?” His eyelashes batted innocently and she couldn’t help but laugh.

“You are such an ass!” She stomped over to her chair and slumped down.

“Oh don’t get those lovely lavender panties in a twist, kitten. Business now, pleasure later.” He winked and she knew her candy apple red face was pure embarrassment. “I won’t tell. Scout’s honor.” He held up two fingers in the Scout’s salute and she held up just one, the middle one of course.

Lilith grabbed her pen and forced herself to concentrate on the paper in front of her. It took a few minutes for her hands to stop quivering.
“Business. I’m trying to nail down this time line. I talked to Ida on the way up the stairs and she had some interesting things to say.”

“By all means, share with the class.” Chance leaned forward on his elbows, sipping at his coffee
and devouring a large croissant.

“Okay so she saw Miriah and
Malachi in a hurry on Monday night. Sometime Tuesday Spencer called Gregor. Tuesday night we left New York City and about 8 hours later Malachi was found at that Italian restaurant. It’s about a two to five hour flight from Knoxville to New York City, depending on connections.”

“Did Ida mention any suitcases
?”

Lilith shook her head, staring at the paper.
“Just that they were in a hurry. So wherever they went, at least Malachi had to come back to the apartment for travel supplies. Wait, Spencer said Malachi was gone on a trip and didn’t know where. Did he ever say when he left on the trip?”

Chance mulled that over for a moment, turning the coffee cup in his hands. “No I don’t think he ever said.”

Lilith frowned deeper at her paper. “If Malachi was still here on Monday night, he had to know that Duncan was missing. It was before Spencer called Gregor, but he would still know that Duncan needed to be found. Why would he pick up and leave his wife in the middle of all that to fly to New York City?”

“Now that is a very good question.”

Lilith jotted it down on her notebook. “Moving on with the timeline. We landed in Knoxville Wednesday morning. Now according to Spencer, he hasn’t been here to the apartment in weeks and he was chasing down that lead while Miriah was supposed to pick us up at the airport. Ida told me she saw Spencer Wednesday morning carrying a suitcase into the apartment. Another thing that doesn’t add up is the comment Spencer made back at the Madisonville house. Something about it bothered me but I couldn’t put my finger on it till now. He said he was on the phone and chasing down leads all morning, but we kept trying to call all day Wednesday and all Thursday morning and his phone always went to voicemail.”

“Well maybe it sent us to voicemail because he was on the other line?” Chance was frowning now, and even his voice sounded less confident.

“Then why did he tell you that he forgot to turn it back on? Speaking of which, you should try to call him. If we have the time, I really want to see if there’s someone at the lab during the day. I left a piece of evidence in there that I think I need to take a good look at.” Lilith sighed and slumped forward over the table. “Dammit, Spencer is family and I hate this, but it doesn’t add up. He knows something he’s not telling.” A thought popped into her head. “Suitcase!”

Chance was staring at her like she’d lost her mind as she leapt from her chair and tore down the hallway into the bedroom. There’d been a suitcase sitting on the floor of the closet when she first checked it. She swung the closet door open and sure enough, the squat black suitcase was still there.

Lilith pulled it out and opened every single zipper, which was a grand total of 12, but they were all empty. The excitement flooded out of her with a disappointed sigh. Something white on the handle caught her eye. She pulled the suitcase around and pulled at a fresh luggage tag. Depart TYS Arrive LGA. She couldn’t make out the date through all the scuff marks. Her mind whirled in confusion. What the hell? Whoever this suitcase belonged to flew from Knoxville to New York and they didn’t fly back. Airlines remove all the old tags before tagging your bag for a flight. It cuts down on the confusion as well as the amount of lost luggage. So how the hell did the suitcase get here?

Chance leaned in the door. “Hey, what the hell was that all about?” Lilith explained about the suitcase and luggage tag while his face fell into confusion. “That doesn’t make any sense at all.”

“I know. I feel like I’m trying to put together a puzzle that someone’s stolen half the pieces to. Nothing seems to fit.” She leaned her head back against the bed, closing her eyes and thinking through everything. “Did you ever get an address to that warehouse in Nashville Spencer was checking out?”

“Yeah, he wrote it down for me. I just tried to call him again.
Straight to voicemail.” Chance watched her carefully, like he was still deciding how to say something. “Do you think Spencer might be involved?”

Lilith opened her eyes and turned to look at him without taking her head off the bed. “He knows something. He’s definitely not precise enough to be responsible, but he knows something he’s not telling. The pain in his face, the anger, he definitely loves his family and hates what has happened.” She sighed again and looked at some random spot on the ground. “Maybe he did something, unintentionally that started all this and doesn’t want to admit it. I just don’t know.
All I do know is there was real pain in his face and he was definitely shocked when I called about Miriah.”

Chance nodded and the relief was obvious on his face. He didn’t like having to ask that question, but they both knew it was
one that needed to be asked. Lilith tore the luggage tag off the suitcase and stuffed it in her pocket. When Chance looked at her with a confused look, she shrugged. “It might raise some awkward questions with the police. “

She stowed the suitcase back in the closet and grabbed her list from the dining room.
She jotted down a note about the luggage tag and stuffed it back in her pocket. “Let’s go check the lab. Maybe they have some news about the tests I requested. Plus, I still want to try and figure out that piece of paper from Miriah’s pocket.”

“Speaking of paper, what about the one in the tin?” Chance grabbed his shoes, which were a cross between sneakers and hiking boots, and perched on the arm of the couch to pull them on.

“I stashed the tin at the lab, so I can check that out while I’m there.” Lilith slipped into her strappy tan heels and Chance just made a face at her. “What?”

“That’s practical
footwear.”

“Well, gee, I wasn’t planning on running from pure evil today. We’re just going to the lab.”

His eyebrows lifted and a smile crossed his lips. “You don’t exactly sit down with evil and discuss dates and times for meeting up. But hey,” He shrugged and finished lacing his shoe. “It’s your feet,
cher
.”

Lilith rolled her eyes and grabbed the door knob.
Before she could pull the door open, someone knocked sharply from the other side. The ferocity of the knock pretty much ruled out Ida. She exchanged a worried look with Chance and slowly opened the door.

The man standing at the door was about her height, stuffed into a cheap suit and a tie, complete with coffee stains. He looked to be about mid-forties with a thick, graying moustache. His dark
eyes hid behind deep frown lines that were currently creased into a vaguely confused look. He checked something on a flip notebook and looked back up at her. The frown lines took their natural course and it wasn’t a comforting look.

“I’m looking for
Malachi Sanders.”

It had to be the cops. She was hoping they’d have a little more time, but she knew it was coming eventually. “
Malachi is in New York right now.” Technically, not lying. “I’m Miriah’s cousin, Lilith Adams. Perhaps I can be of help?” She kept her face pleasantly neutral, it didn’t seem to help.

The man’s gruff southern drawl coupled with his very unfriendly face definitely pegged him as the bad cop of a duo. So where was his partner?
“Perhaps.” A younger man jogged up the stairs, taller, thinner and definitely a better suit. His eyes were big and a friendly warm brown color that stood out against his sandy blonde, short-clipped hair. He stopped next to the bad cop, obviously claiming his role as good cop.

“Sorry.” The younger man panted and bent to catch his breath. “Ida can chat your ear clean off.”

“You know her?” Lilith frowned at him. “While I’m asking questions, who are you?”

The younger one was almost handsome. His eyes were definitely a draw with thick lashes and his face was
all smooth nice lines. His only flaw was a classic trait in the south, a weak chin. He slapped his partner’s arm, interrupting the gruff old man and extended his hand to Lilith. There was definitely a charming genuineness to him that automatically made people want to trust him.

“Excuse my partner’s manners. I’m Detective
Cohen and this is Detective Whitmore. And you are?” Yep, this was definitely the good cop, and in her experience, they were the truly dangerous ones. Luckily she knew how to play the game too.

“Lilith Adams. I’m Miriah
Sanders’s cousin. Detective Whitmore was just about to tell me why you Gentlemen are looking for Malachi.” She kept her voice polite and neutral.

“Absolutely, Ms. Adams, or is it Mrs.?
May we come in?” The charming smile wasn’t completely work related she noticed. Well, it could have just been part of his ploy as a good cop, flirt with the prospective enemy, but somehow she doubted the flirting was completely devoid of personal interest.

“It’s Ms
., and of course.” She swung the door open and walked into the open dining room. “I would offer you some coffee, but apparently Miriah doesn’t believe in keeping groceries in the house. Would you like some water?”