“Yeah, I saved myself by screwing over my brother. What a hero.’”

“You be careful with all that guilt,’” Lowe said. “It’ll pound you down. Your parents were the ones who should have stepped in, and you know it. Anybody willing to let their kids become toys, just to get ahead…’”

Claire reached out and took hold of Eve’s hand. Eve, surprised, looked up—she wasn’t crying, which was kind of surprising because Eve cried a lot. Her eyes were dry, clear, and hard. Angry.

“Why do you think I left?’” she asked. “As soon as I could. Between my parents and what Brandon made out of Jason…’”

Claire couldn’t think of anything to say. She just sat there, holding Eve’s hand. She’d never been through any of that…. She’d grown up warm and safe in a house where her parents loved her. In a town where there were no such things as vampires, where child abuse and molestation were something that happened on the evening news, and if anybody had brothers who killed people, it happened in big cities, to people she didn’t know.

All this was just…too much to take in. And much too painful.

“It’s going to be okay,’” she finally said. Eve smiled at her sadly, but her eyes were still fierce.

“No,’” she said. “Don’t think so, Claire. But thanks.’”

She took a deep breath, let go of Claire’s hand, and turned back to the two cops. “Right. You guys hang out here while I get dressed.’”

“Oh, sure,’” Hess said, and raised an eyebrow. It made his face look crooked, but maybe that was just the way his nose was; Claire wasn’t sure. “Not like we’re protecting or serving or anything.’”

“You’re not even on duty,’” Eve said.

“Busted,’” Lowe said, smiling. “We’re on our own for this. Hurry up, kid—I’d like to get to sleep sometime today before I have to fight for truth and justice again.’”

Eve padded up the stairs, one hand on the railing, and Claire let out a slow, careful breath. Eve was kind of like an unexploded bomb right now. Claire ached to make it all better, but there was no way she could do that…and no way that Eve would even let her try, she thought.

She wished Shane would wake up. She needed…well, something. A hug, maybe. Or one of those deliciously warm kisses. Or just to look at him, all rumpled and grumpy with his hair sticking up at odd angles, sheet creases on his face, his bare feet looking so cute and soft…

She had never thought of a guy’s feet as sexy before. Not even movie-star feet. But Shane…there was no part of him that wasn’t sizzle hot.

“More coffee?’” Hess asked, and waggled his empty mug. Claire sighed and took his and Lowe’s into the kitchen for refills.

She had just set the two ceramic cups down on the counter, and was reaching for the coffeepot, when a big, thick, sweaty hand closed over her mouth, and irresistibly strong arms yanked her backward. She tried to scream, and kicked, but whoever had her, really had her. She squirmed, but it didn’t do any good.

“Quiet,’” a rough male voice whispered in her ear. “Shut up, or this gets ugly.’”

It was already ugly, at least from Claire’s terrified side of things. She went still, and the man holding her lowered her down enough to let her sneakered toes touch the floor. Didn’t let her go, though.

She’d already figured out who it was—the speaker, not the one holding her—before Shane’s dad stepped out into her view and leaned forward, scary-close. “Where’s my son?’” he asked. His breath was nasty, and stank of booze. Breakfast of Collins champions. “Just nod. Is he in the house?’” She nodded slowly. The hand muffling her mouth let her do it. “Upstairs?’” She nodded again. “Those cops in the living room?’” She nodded vigorously, and tried to think what she could do to get Detective Hess’s attention. Screaming wasn’t doing any good; the kitchen door was pretty solid, and it was useless to try to get sound past a hand that was about two inches thick. If they’d grabbed her when she was holding the mugs, at least she could have dropped them….

“My kid likes you,’” Shane’s dad said. “That’s all that keeps you alive right now, you get me? So don’t push your luck. I could always change my mind, and you could get buried out back with your little friend Michael. Now, my buddy here is going to let go of your mouth, and you’d better not scream, because if you do, we’re just going to have to do some killing, starting with you and ending with the cops. And that vampire-wannabe girlfriend of yours. You get me? My son is all that matters to me.’”

Claire swallowed hard and nodded again. The hand pulled slowly away from her mouth.

She didn’t scream. She pressed her lips together to hold in the urge.

“Good girl,’” Shane’s dad said. “Now tell me what the cops are doing here. They looking for us?’”

She shook her head. “They think you’re gone,’” she said. “They’re here to take me and Eve to school.’”

“School.’” He poured contempt into the word. “That’s not a school. It’s a holding pen for cattle.’”

She licked her lips and tasted the sweat of the guy who was holding her. Disgusting. “You need to go. Right now.’”

“Or?’”

“You can’t do what you’re here to do if everybody’s still looking for you,’” she said. She was making it up, but suddenly it made sense to her. “If you have to kill me, and everybody here, they turn the town upside down until they find you. And they’ll put Shane in jail, or worse. If you let me go and take Shane, I’ll just tell them everything anyway, and they turn the town upside down—’”

“Are you trying to scare me, little girl?’”

“No,’” Claire whispered. She could barely get the word out. “I’m trying to tell you what will happen. They’ve kind of given up looking for you, but if you kill me, you lose. And if you let me go, I’m going to tell them everything.’”

“Then why shouldn’t I kill you?’”

“Because I’ll keep my mouth shut if you promise to leave Shane alone.’”

He glared at her, but she could see he was thinking about it.

“Boss,’” said the man holding her. He had a deep voice, rough like his throat was lined with gravel. “Bitch got no reason to keep her word.’”

“What makes you think I like the vamps any more than you do?’” she shot back. “Did Shane tell you about Brandon? I saw you in Common Grounds—were you looking for him? Because if you weren’t, you should be. He’s a dick.’”

Frank Collins’s eyes drifted half-shut, and she was reminded sickly of Shane, somehow. “You telling me which vamps to kill now?’”

“No.’” She swallowed again, acutely aware that at any second the kitchen door could swing open, and someone could come stumbling in, and everything could go to hell on the express train. “Just a suggestion. Because as far as I can tell, he’s just about the worst one. But you’re going to do what you want, I know that. I just want me and my friends out of it.’”

Shane’s dad smiled at her. Smiled. And it seemed, for the first time, like a mostly genuine expression, not just a freaky twist of his lips. “You’re tougher than you look, kid. That’s good. You’re going to need to be, you stick around here.’” He looked past her, at the biker (or so she thought—she could feel leather squeaking behind her when she struggled). “Let her down, man. She’s okay.’”

The biker released her. She jerked forward, spun, and set her back to the refrigerator. She scrambled for a knife in the drawer next to her, found a wicked-looking cleaver, and held it out in front of her. “You need to go,’” she said. “Right now. And don’t come back here, or I swear, I’ll tell them everything.’”

He wasn’t smiling anymore. Well, not as much. The biker behind him, though, was grinning.

“Girl, you don’t know my son at all, do you?’” he asked. “I don’t have to come back here. He’s going to come to me. Eventually.’”

He made a Let’s go gesture to his six-foot bodyguard, and together they went back out the side door of the kitchen. Claire ran to pull it shut and lock it, both locks plus the newly installed sliding bolts.