Della didn’t know whether to be relieved that they weren’t alone, or offended that Burnett thought they might need help. But after another quick glance at the undesirable characters here, she decided Burnett might have been right to send them.

“You okay?” Chase asked.

“Dandy,” she answered.

A couple of glasses of blood landed on their table. The server was a young female vamp. She gave Chase a good look up and down, and the swipe of her tongue over her lips said she liked what she saw. Panty perv smiled at her, and Della had no doubt that under different circumstances he and server would have ended up bumping uglies. Then again, Chase didn’t look like the type who had to pay for it, and Della would bet the girl’s services didn’t come free.

“I think she likes you,” Della said, when the girl walked away..

He looked up at Della, beneath his dark lashes. “She’s not my type.”

“You have a type?” she asked, and holy shit if she didn’t wish she could swallow the words back into her mouth.

“I like a challenge. Or so it seems lately.” The corners of his eyes crinkled ever so slightly with a smile, leaving no doubt of what he meant. “Dark hair is nice, too. Someone who speaks her mind. I don’t even mind someone a bit stubborn. A good argument every now and then just gets the blood flowing. And making up is fun.”

Damn, she’d started this, but how could she squash it? “Well, there’s a lot of girls out there like that.”

“I’m not so sure,” he said, and arched one brow. “You got a type?” He turned his glass in his hands.

“No.” She looked down at her blood.

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“Liar,” he said.

She lifted her gaze. “Stop acting as if you know me, you don’t.”

He shrugged. “You like dark hair. Someone strong enough to stand up to you, but not too headstrong. Tall, a little muscular. The good-looking type.”

“You really have an ego the size of Texas, don’t you.”

He smiled. “I was describing Steve. But thank you.”

She growled.

His grin didn’t waver. “I might be a little too headstrong for you.”

“You got that right.”

“But you could probably convince me to work on it.”

She rolled her eyes. Another couple of bar customers walked through the door. Chase causally looked around, and she saw his shoulders stiffen ever so slightly. Then he started a conversation about some of the places he’d visited. Paris, Germany, China. Della knew he was just making conversation so they wouldn’t stand out. Knew he suspected someone was eavesdropping.

She still listened with interest, and forgot to study his face to see if he was lying.

“What part of China?” she asked, her gaze now on his left eye.

“Sang Hi, Beijing, Wuhan,” he said, and it didn’t sound like a lie.

“You’ve obviously been, right?”

“A couple of times.”

Chase glanced slightly to the right as if telling her something. Only then did she hear the footsteps.

A guy—a big guy, about twenty-one, shaved head, tattooed up, with enough piercings that a refrigerator magnet could take him out—came to a stop at their table.

“I hear you’re asking questions about one of mine?” The guy posed his question to Della. From his words, she supposed he was the leader of the gang. She couldn’t help but wonder if the one with the most piercings got to be the leader. She counted eight pieces of metal just on his face.

“Yes,” Della said, trying not to stare at the ring that dangled off his nose. Man, wouldn’t that be a hazard when fighting? “I heard you had a fresh turn recently join. I’m looking for a guy with short dark hair.”

“And just why are you looking for him?” he asked, his tone abrupt.

Time to lie or skip around the truth. “Actually, I had a brief encounter with him.” That was true. He’d flown over her at a low range.

“But you don’t have a name? Isn’t that kind of strange?”

“Not really all that strange,” Chase, with his lying abilities, spoke up. “She met him right after he turned, and you know how overwrought a vamp can be during that first forty-eight hours. Anyway, she never got his name. Crazy, right?”

Mr. Piercing didn’t look convinced. “I thought she was your girl. I heard you nearly choked a guy to death for touching her.”

Chase shrugged. “Well, let’s just say I’m trying to convince her to be my girl. She thinks she might have something with this other guy. Chance meeting and all that—one night with someone doesn’t mean crap. I don’t care how good he was in the sack.”

Say what? Had Chase just basically called her a ho? He might as well have when he’d said she’d had a one-night stand and done the hump-and-bump with a crazed stranger. He couldn’t think of a better cover story than that?

“And,” Chase continued, still eyeing the vamp, “I think as soon as she sees him, she’ll realize I’m the better choice.”

The pierced gang leader stared at Chase. “Maybe you’re interested in joining up with us?”

“I’m not much of a joiner,” Della put her two cents in.

The gang leader looked at Della. “Actually, we’re more interested in your friend here. But if you’re willing to put out that easy, you might convince me.”

She growled.

“Hey,” Chase intervened; sounding a little perturbed, but how could he? He’d started this.

“She hasn’t given it up to me,” Chase said. “That’s why I’m sort of curious to meet this guy and see what he has that I don’t.”

The gang leader seemed to buy it. Della didn’t know whether to be happy or pissed off. “Well, I’m curious to see what kind of muscle you got. See if you’re as strong and quick as rumor has it.”

Chase leaned back in his chair. “Tell you what. You hook us up with a meeting with your new kid on the block, and you and I’ll go for a little innocent one-on-one in the ally.”

“How about we do that right now?” The pierced vamp extended his fangs, and Della sensed that his idea of a one-on-one sparring match wasn’t all that innocent.

Oh, double damn! This wasn’t going to end well.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Della cut her eyes to the table of agents. At least they wouldn’t be alone.

“Nah,” Chase said, keeping his cool, but his eyes grew brighter. “I like my idea better.”




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