Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [69]
“Ms. Maxwell, do you have anyone else we can call? Family, maybe? Someone who can help us make sense of what you might be going through?”
“I’m not going through anything.”
“Seems to me like you are. I think you’re confused. You know, sometimes people invent things to help them cope with other problems.”
Gabrielle scoffed. “I’m not confused. Lucan Thorne is not a figment of my imagination. He’s real. These things that have been happening around me are real. The murder I saw last weekend, those…men…with their bloody faces and sharp teeth, even that kid who was watching me the other day at the Common…he works here at the station. What did you do, send him to spy on me?”
“Okay, Ms. Maxwell. Let’s see if we can work this out together.” Evidently, Carrigan had finally found a scrap of diplomacy underneath the crust of his boorish nature. But there was still a big dose of condescension in the way he took her by the elbow and tried to guide her toward one of the lobby benches for a seat. “Let’s just take a few deep breaths, here. We can get you some help.”
She shook him off, pulling away. “You think I’m crazy. I know what I saw—all of it! I’m not making this up, and I don’t need any help. I just need the truth.”
“Sheryl, honey,” Carrigan said to the receptionist who was staring at them with apprehension in her eyes. “You wanna give Rudy Duncan a quick call for me? Tell him I could use him down here.”
“Meds?” she inquired lightly, the phone already hugged between her ear and shoulder.
“Nah,” Carrigan replied, looking back to Gabrielle. “No cause for alarm just yet. Ask him to come down to the lobby, nice and easy, have a little talk with Ms. Maxwell and me.”
“Forget it,” Gabrielle said, rising off the bench. “I’m not staying here another second. I have to go.”
“Look, whatever you’re going through, there are people who can help you—”
She didn’t wait for him to finish, simply gathered what was left of her dignity, then strode over to the receptionist desk to retrieve the cup and bag from the countertop, and pitched both into the trash on her way out the door.
The night air was crisp against her flushed cheeks, soothing her somewhat. But her head was still spinning. Her heart was still pounding hard with confusion and disbelief.
Had the whole world gone mad around her? What the hell was going on?
Lucan had been lying to her about being a cop, that was pretty much a no-brainer. But just how much of what he’d told her—God, how much of what they’d done together—had been part of that deception?
And why?
Gabrielle paused at the bottom of the concrete steps leading out of the precinct house and took deep lungfuls of air. She blew it out slowly, then looked down to find her cell phone still clutched in her hand.
“Shit.”
She had to know.
This strange ride she was on had to stop right now.
The Redial button brought up Lucan’s number. She sent the call, then waited, uncertain what she was going to say.
It rang six times.
Seven.
Eight…
CHAPTER
Fifteen
Lucan grabbed his cell phone from out of his leather jacket, a curse rolling hard off his tongue.
Gabrielle…again.
She had called him earlier as well, but he’d had to let it go unanswered. He’d been stalking a drug dealer whom he’d first spotted selling crack to a teenaged streetwalker outside a seedy tavern. Lucan had mentally steered his prey down a quiet back alley, and was just about to lunge in attack when Gabrielle’s first call of the night had rung like a car alarm going off in his pocket. He had clicked the device into silent mode, berating himself for the uncustomary lack of sense that had made him carry the damned thing on his hunt in the first place.
Hunger and injury had made him careless. But the sudden bark of noise in the darkened street had proved a benefit to him in the end.
His strength was subpar and the cagey dealer had scented danger on the wind, even though Lucan had kept to the shadows, trailing his quarry unseen. The guy had been twitchy,