The Killing Dance - Laurell K. Hamilton [17]
“You’re mad about something,” I said.
He eased out onto the street. He always drove carefully when he was angry. “What could I possibly be mad about?” The sarcasm was thick enough to eat with a spoon.
“You think I knew there was a hit man in my apartment?”
He flashed me a look that was pure rage. “You knew, and you let me go inside and set that damned TV up. You got me out of harm’s way.”
“I wasn’t sure, Richard.”
“I bet you had your gun drawn before he fired.”
I shrugged.
“Dammit, Anita, you could have been killed.”
“But I wasn’t.”
“That’s your answer to everything. If you survive, it’s all right.”
“It beats the alternative,” I said.
“Don’t make jokes,” Richard said.
“Look, Richard, I didn’t go out hunting this guy. He came to me.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“And you would have done what? Go through the door first? You’d have taken a chest full of buckshot and survived. How would you have explained that? You’d have been outed as a lycanthrope. You’d have lost your job, at the very least.”
“We could have called the police.”
“And told them what? That Custard sniffed at the door? If they had investigated, they’d have gotten shot. The guy was jumpy as hell. He shot through the door, remember? He didn’t know who he was firing at.”
He turned onto Olive, shaking his head. “You should have told me.”
“What would it have changed, Richard? Except maybe you’d have tried to play hero, and if you survived, you’d have lost your career.”
“Dammit, dammit.” He smashed his hands into the steering wheel over and over. When he looked at me, his eyes had gone amber and alien. “I don’t need you to protect me, Anita.”
“Ditto,” I said.
Silence filled the car like ice water. Nobody but the bad guy had died. I’d done the right thing. But it was hard to explain.
“It wasn’t that you risked your life,” Richard said, “it was that you got rid of me before you did it. You didn’t even give me a chance. I have never interfered with you doing your job.”
“Would you have considered this part of my job?”
“Closer to your job description than mine,” he said.
I thought about that for a minute. “You’re right. One of the reasons we’re still dating is you don’t pull macho crap on me. I apologize. I should have warned you.”
He glanced at me with eyes that were still pale and wolfish. “Did I just win an argument?”
I smiled. “I admitted I was wrong. Is that the same thing?”
“Exactly the same thing.”
“Then give yourself a point.”
He grinned at me. “Why can’t I stay mad at you, Anita?”
“You’re a very forgiving person, Richard. One of us has to be.”
He pulled into my parking lot for the third time that night. “You can’t stay at your place tonight. The door is in pieces.”
“I know.” If I’d been kicked out of my apartment because it was being painted, I had friends I could stay with, or a hotel, but the bad guys had proven they didn’t care who got hurt. I couldn’t risk anybody, not even strangers in the next room at a hotel.
“Come home with me,” he said. He parked in an empty space closest to the stairs.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Richard.”
“The shotgun blast wouldn’t have killed me. I’d have healed, because it wasn’t silver shot. How many of your other friends can say that?”
“Not many,” I said quietly.
“I’ve got a house set back in a yard. You won’t be risking innocent bystanders.”
“I know you have a yard, Richard. I’ve spent enough Sunday afternoons there.”
“Then you know I’m right.” He leaned towards me and his eyes had bled back to their normal brown. “I have a guest room, Anita. It doesn’t have to be more than that.”
I stared at him from inches away. I could feel his body like a force just out of reach. It wasn’t his otherworldly wolf powers. It was simply sheer physical attraction. It was dangerous agreeing to go to Richard’s house. Maybe not to my life, but to