Along Came a Spider (6 page)

At this, his chiseled jaw tightened, the muscle twitching. “Not at first,” he said, his terse tone contradicting his shrug. “I went looking for Sebille Fenwick’s body first. My gut told me things weren’t over yet with that bitch.”

“You were right,” I told him, the image of Sebille’s fetid, maggot-ridden face flashing through my mind.

“Yeah, I heard about that.” He gave me a nod. “I owe you one.”

I shook my head. “It wasn’t me. It was Lavender Seelie. All I did was stick my nose in where it didn’t belong and nearly get myself killed.”

“Yeah, well, no offense, doll, but I’m getting the impression that’s your MO.”

There was no judgment or censure in his voice, but still I felt the heat rising in my cheeks. He was obviously referring to my colossally stupid decision to go chasing after strangely undulating shadows earlier that night. Nothing says dumb-ass quite like walking straight into a vampire ambush. “If I waited to call in for backup all the time, I’d lose my lead.”

He laughed full-out this time, the sound a deep rumble so velvety and soothing it brought goose bumps to my skin. “I think you’ve been hangin’ out with Red too much. She’s rubbin’ off on you.”

“So, why don’t we get back to the part about you breaking into my apartment on a regular basis,” I snapped, not entirely sure why his comment about Red had made me angry. She was rubbing off on me. Over the last couple of years I’d become more reckless, more headstrong, and much less willing to take anyone’s shit. Plus, I’d become an unrepentant potty mouth, casting aside my milder curses for the much harsher, more colorful versions she used and finding it completely and utterly liberating.

“What about it?” Nicky asked.

“Why didn’t you just tell Red what you’ve been doing and ask to help in our investigation?”

He gave me a wry look. “Same reason you’re doctoring your reports so she doesn’t find out that Vlad Dracula’s been a very busy boy.”

“Point taken.” I cleared my throat a couple of times before adding, “So, why the whole alter-ego thing? They’re calling you the Spider, you know.”

He grunted but was grinning. “Yeah, I know.”

“I won’t give you up,” I assured him. “You saved my life tonight, so I figure I owe you. But the Agency has your number. It’s only a matter of time before they make the connection and track you down.”

He grunted again, but this time there was no mirth in it. “Those fuckin’ guys couldn’t find their asses with both hands and a compass. I’m not worried about them.”

“You should be,” I protested. “They’ve been chomping at the bit to get their hands on a Tale to carve up and study. Al’s been able to protect us all so far, but if they find out one of us is a criminal—”

He sent a dark look my way.

“—who’s interfering with their investigations, I don’t know that Al will be able to do a whole lot.”

His jaw went tight again, the muscle twitching ominously. “Don’t worry about me, doll. I can handle myself.”

Well, I couldn’t really argue too much with that after what I’d seen tonight, but I had a feeling Nicky’s skill would only take him so far. Statistically, at some point he’d slip up. And the Agency was good at waiting.

“You know, you can’t keep doing this alone,” I told him, trying a different tactic. “It’s not safe. You should’ve come to me sooner.”

He grinned. “I did.”

“You broke into my apartment,” I pointed out. When he glanced over at me expectantly, I added, “While I was sleeping.”

He shrugged. “Yeah. So?”

“So that’s not the same thing as asking for my help! Listening to me talk in my sleep . . . well, that’s just creepy.”

He immediately stiffened, casting a dark look my way. “You got a small apartment, doll,” he said as if that was a completely valid defense. “Can’t help it if I overheard everything you had to say.”

I shifted a little, trying to fight the heat I felt rising in my face. “So . . . uh, what kinds of things did I say?”

His full lips curled up at the corners. “Why? You worried?”

Hell, yes, I was worried! I’d been dreaming about that stupid grin on his face nearly every night since we came over. And some of those dreams were a little . . . speculative. But I forced a laugh, trying to shrug off the question. “No, no, of course not,” I lied. “I was just curious.”

He chuckled. “I’m just messin’ with you, doll. I never heard you say much of anything that made sense. Mostly just nonsense about spiders.”

A shiver passed through me, knowing well which dreams he had overheard.

“So, that whole ‘along came a spider’ thing is true then?” he asked.

I nodded, my fingers gripping the leather seat as the fear came rushing in on me. I pushed back and took a deep breath and then another, shoving the images away. Dreaming about them was bad enough. I sure as hell didn’t need them intruding upon me while I was awake.

“You don’t really strike me as the kind of dame who’d be afraid of a little spider,” Nicky continued.

I gave him a wry look. “You ever get a peek at what’s going through a spider’s head?”

He sent a perplexed frown my way. “No. Can’t say that I have.”

I shuddered again. “Yeah, well, it isn’t pretty. If you had seen what I had, you would’ve been frightened, too.”

We sat in silence for a long moment before he said, “Sorry. I didn’t know about that.”

I glanced over at him, pegging him with a pointed look. “Well, I’m sure there’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

“I probably know more than you think.”

Part of me wanted to test that theory, but I wasn’t quite ready to break into a rousing rendition of “Getting to Know You”—especially where I was concerned. Before he could ask any potentially uncomfortable questions, I said, “Thank you, by the way. For saving me tonight. Twice.”

“What the hell was goin’ on at your apartment anyway?” he asked, turning off the main street and driving through a set of electrified gates that opened onto a long, winding driveway lined with trees.

I hugged myself, remembering that horrible face. “I don’t know.”

“Was it one of the vampires from earlier?” Nicky probed. “Was one of them coming after you?”

I shook my head. “No, it wasn’t one of those women. Nate took their souls.”

“Did you recognize the ghost at all?” he pressed, his voice taking on a harsh edge of urgency.

“No.”

“Maybe a dame you busted who wants to take you down?”

“No.”

“Are you sure? I mean—”

“I don’t know, okay?” I yelled. “I have no freaking clue who that woman was or why she was trying to scare the shit out of me! What part of that do you not understand, for chrissake?”

Nicky let out a long sigh as he came around the final bend in the drive and pulled up in front of a sprawling two-story mansion with a beige stone facade. I blinked in disbelief.

“This is your house,” I murmured. There was no way I could mistake the place, not after what I’d seen there.

He put the Escalade in park and sat staring at the front door for a long moment, a far-off expression on his face. I studied his angular profile, watching his attempt to control the emotions that played across his face. When he finally spoke, his voice was tense with barely restrained rage. “Yeah, well, as it turns out I got plenty of room.”

Instinctively, I reached out and touched his arm, feeling the tension in his muscles through his sweater. “Nicky . . .” My voice trailed off.

I wasn’t sure what I’d intended to say. There wasn’t anything I could say to take away the horrors of the night Juliet died. I didn’t have to imagine how it had happened. I’d seen it all in Nicky’s eyes when he’d thought he was dying: They’d fought earlier that night—Juliet hadn’t been happy to see Red at the party—and was even less thrilled to find out Nicky had brought his former flame to stay at their home. But he’d charmed his wife back into good spirits on the car ride home, and when they opened the door they were chatting about the party they’d just come from, complaining that the music had been too loud, the conversation too dull.

But then it all happened so fast. . . . Red screaming, Nicky shooting at the beast coming at him, Juliet getting knocked to the floor so hard by the beast that her skull shattered, splattering her gray matter all over the foyer floor. . . .

Nicky’s arm trembled ever so slightly beneath my fingertips, but when he turned to me, he forced a cockeyed grin and winked. “Come on, doll, let’s get you inside.”

I coaxed Sasha out of the backseat and into my arms before following Nicky into the house. As soon as I stepped into the foyer, my own images of walking in that night and seeing Nicky lying on the floor, bleeding out quicker than his almost indestructible Tale body could heal itself, made me shiver. Sasha yowled in protest and hopped from my arms to go explore her new surroundings.

“Sorry!” I called over my shoulder as I took off after her. “I’ll catch her before she gets into anything!”

I heard Nicky calling my name, telling me not to worry about it, but the last thing I needed was my cat peeing on Nicky’s carpet or clawing up his curtains. I was already imposing enough as it was.

Sasha shot up the stairs like a bat out of hell. I tried to follow, but my clunky snow boots were making pursuit difficult and I quickly fell behind. “Damn it, Sasha! Come back here!”

I finally made the landing and pulled off my boots, tossing them aside. I caught a glimpse of her shooting into one of the bedrooms and ran down the hall after her. When I reached the room, I flipped on the light and gasped, wondering if I’d just stepped back in time. The room was the size of my entire apartment and decked out with heavy wooden furniture and opulent crimson and gold brocade. In the center of the ceiling hung an intricately designed gilded chandelier that looked like it belonged in an Italian palace, not a mansion along Chicago’s North Shore.

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and turned my head just in time to catch a glimpse of a woman hurrying into an adjacent room. Thinking Nicky must’ve already started replacing his staff since returning to town, I hurried after her. “Excuse me!” I called. “I’m looking for my cat. Have you seen—”

I was surprised to find myself standing in a massive closet nearly the size of the bedroom. Alone. I turned in a slow circle, looking for another door where the maid might’ve exited before I came in, but there was only the one way in or out. The closet was filled with
beautiful—and expensive—clothes, some with the tags from Saks and Burberry still attached. Blouses, jackets, skirts . . . and enough shoes to make Kim Kardashian green with envy. Oddly, though, everything in the closet belonged to a woman. There wasn’t even the slightest indication of a male presence. This had been Juliet’s room, I guessed—and Juliet’s room alone.

“Trish?”

I gave a little yelp, nearly jumping out of my skin. I whirled around, grasping my chest, where my heart felt like it was about to burst out, and let loose a vivid tirade of curse words that was positively inspired.

Nicky held his arms out, crouching a little as if he expected me to attack him. “Whoa, whoa—it’s just me.”

“I saw a woman come in here,” I barked at him. “Where the hell did she go?”

He shook his head. “There’s no one else here, honey. It’s just you and me.”

I glanced around the closet again, searching the racks of clothing still hanging in neatly color-coordinated sections, fully expecting to see someone peeking out from between cocktail dresses or silk blouses. “B-but . . . I swear I saw someone. . . .”

Nicky came to me and took hold of my shoulders. “There’s no one here,” he assured me, enunciating each word as his gaze locked with mine. “Just you. And me.”

I felt a little tug between us, that initial hitch that told me a connection was starting. But it was different from anything I’d felt before. Instead of originating deep inside my psyche, this one started in the center of my chest, pulling me closer to Nicky. Perplexed by the new sensation, I tried to resist, but it jerked me back with a sharp tug, making me stumble forward and right into his arms.

“Oh, God,” I mumbled, clumsily trying to extricate myself from his hold. “I’m so sorry.”

He chuckled. “Forget about it,” he said with a shrug. “I thought maybe you were just taking me up on my offer.”

I frowned up at him. “Your offer?”

He hit me with that grin of his and spread his arms wide, gesturing toward himself with his hands. “Throwing yourself into my arms?”

I rolled my eyes, trying my damnedest not to blush to the roots of my hair but probably failing miserably. “Oh, that offer.”

He chuckled, bringing a sleepy smile to my lips as I tried to stifle a yawn. “I think it’s time you got some sleep,” he said, putting an arm around my shoulders and leading me out to the bedroom. “It’s been one hell of a night.”

The presence of his arm around my shoulders and the warmth of his body so close to mine was making it hard to concentrate—and breathe—so the best I could manage in response was a slight nod.