Hugh’s eyes once again moved over her body in a far too possessive way before settling on her face. “Are you propositioning me?”

“What? No! Well, not the way you’re thinking.”

“How do you know what I’m thinking?”

She bit her bottom lip. “I don’t. But what I’m requesting is strictly professional, so quit thinking you’re something special, Hugh Langston.”

A warm Santa Ana wind blew by them, carrying the scent of steak and fries from the bar. Her stomach growled.

Hugh clutched his chest. “You wound me.”

“Yeah. I’m sure. So can we talk?”

“Hugh, I really—”

“Give me a minute, Dane.”

“I don’t want him listening,” she said in a low voice.

Hugh gave her a wink before turning his head. “Wait for me by my bike,” he said to Dane, nodding toward a couple of motorcycles parked across the street. “And don’t listen.”

Dane spun around and stomped across the street. He paced back and forth with his hands fisted at his sides.

Tess still spoke in a hushed tone. “I’d like your help with something, and in exchange I thought I’d help you find Trey.”

“I don’t need your help.”

“Oh really?” she raised her eyebrows to go along with her words. “You needed my help five minutes ago. And now that I think about it, back at the warehouse too.”

“I don’t want your help.”

“I don’t want yours either. But sometimes it makes sense whether we like it or not. If you want, I won’t call it help.”

His forehead creased and his eyes narrowed. “This isn’t a game, Tess. You’ve got no idea what you’re getting into.” He paused a moment and bore his eyes into hers. “I take that back. You’ve got some idea. But after what happened tonight, I’m not about to risk your life to help me find Trey. Your day job doesn’t qualify you as a sidekick, as you put it. So get in your car and go home.”

Tess realized she’d approached this all wrong. She needed to make it seem like she needed him more than he needed her. She’d been searching for Jason’s killer for five years on her own. Not even Kensie or Francesca knew what she’d been up to. The idea of having someone like Hugh in on her secret mission seemed like the right thing to do at the moment.

“I can’t. The truth is I need your help, Hugh. I’m trying to find someone too, and I believe you’re just the man to help me.”

“Is this a job you’re working on?” He moved from behind the car door to lean his hip against the inside panel, placing him inside her personal space.

Standing so close to him without support in the open doorway, she almost fell butt first into the driver’s seat. She still tasted his lips on hers, pleasure still wove a warm path inside her. Much to her dismay, her legs wobbled. “No. It’s personal.”

That got his attention. He rubbed his jaw, studied her with interest.

If she could read minds, she’d probably find him weighing how much he owed her. She had saved his life. Had fought beside him. He didn’t need to know she’d loved every second of it, felt a rush of adrenaline while fleeing the Banoth, and really had no regard for her own safety. He didn’t need to know she lived on the edge and didn’t want to slow down long enough to think too hard about her life.

“Why me?”

“It’s wolf-related.”

His eyes widened. The light from the street lamp above highlighted their azure appeal. He looked both surprised and curious by her admission.

“I can’t help you.” He sounded resigned to the fact.

“Can’t or won’t? Come on. I think I’ve proven you can trust me.” She put her hand on his arm. “I’m proposing a fair trade, so really it’s not like either one of us is—”

“I’m not sure I…” Commotion swirled in his eyes now, like he couldn’t decide between doing the sensible thing or taking a chance.

She took a deep breath. “You’re not sure what?”

“I’m not sure I can—”

“Hugh,” Dane called out, waving a cell phone in the air. “We need to talk.”

Hugh shifted his stance and looked like he’d rather rewind the night and do everything differently. “I’m not sure I can trust myself,” he said. “Around you.” A moment of silence passed before he added, “Give me a minute with Dane.”

Wow. That wasn’t what she’d expected to hear. Trust himself how? Tess wondered, watching him walk away.

Hugh wanted to kiss Tess again. And again. And again. He wanted to kiss down her neck to her breasts, take her nipples between his teeth and suck until they pebbled into tight, hard nubs. Then he wanted to lick down her stomach, spread her legs and taste her until her juices slid down his throat. Tess hadn’t just saved his life tonight—she’d made him think for the first time ever there was someone made for him. Someone he didn’t want anyone else having. Her kiss had gotten inside him. Made him feel better than anything he’d tried before. The notion scared the shit out of him.

He needed to keep walking and never look back. Get his ass on his bike, and ride away like nothing else mattered but getting to the checkered flag. After the evening’s events, Trey’s life depended on him thinking intelligibly. Acting swiftly. Tending to the present situation with a clear head.

Tess put a crater-sized crack in accomplishing all that.

She filled him with lust.

And so much more he didn’t want to think about it.

Talking to her was easy. Confiding in her easier. He wanted to find out everything about her. He wanted to help her. But he didn’t know if bringing her into his world was the right thing to do.

She wasn’t the first human to know about Veilers. But other humans treated their existence with a shrug, a Tooth Fairy mentality that meant they didn’t truly believe. The world was full of monsters. Some saw them. Some didn’t. Others pretended they didn’t exist. Hugh worked damn hard to blend in. He lived by his own code, did the right thing by his pack and humans. Tess hadn’t shied away from him when she found out what he was. She hadn’t freaked or cried or screamed. She’d accepted.

Her acceptance was his undoing, and suddenly she mattered to him. Suddenly he understood how his brother could fall so helplessly for someone.

“What is it?” he snapped, wishing the clatter in his head would shut the hell up.

Dane didn’t look pleased by his annoyed tone, which was tough shit. Friends one day, enemies the next—things hadn’t changed since childhood. Nowadays, they merely tolerated each other for the sake of the pack.

“Word on the street is Trey’s being held by the Wolf Seekers.”

“We figured that out already.”

“But the Wolf Seekers are denying it. They’re saying they had nothing to do with it.”

Headlights coming down the street prompted them to move to the sidewalk. Hugh looked over his shoulder to be sure Tess was still there. She’d closed the car door and leaned against it. When he returned his attention to Dane, a cackle of voices came from the bar entrance.

They’d need to take extreme caution from here on out. If the Wolf Seekers were denying their involvement in Trey’s disappearance, then perhaps there was a third party interested in the Night Runners. Or… “They could be lying.”

“True. Especially given what else I just found out.” He looked up and down the dark street, took notice in Tess’s direction, then fixed his eyes on Hugh.

“What’s that?” Hugh’s fingers drummed along the side of his leg. He wanted to get back to his conversation with Tess.

“There’s a hit out on you.” He said it like he’d told Hugh the sky was blue.

Anger bubbled up inside Hugh. Every muscle strained against his clothing. Who the fuck had ordered a hit on him? “Really?”

“I just got off the phone with a guy who’s got his ear pretty close to the ground with all this Wolf Seeker business. He says the call went out yesterday. P.I.E. is handling it.”

Private Investigations and Elimination. He’d known about them for years. Knew their reputation. They thought they were helping the human population by eliminating Veilers. But really they were helping the Veiler population by getting rid of the criminals influencing the balance of power between Veilers and humans.