Blind Salvage: A Rylee Adamson Novel(45)

His eyes widened. “You’re asking me if I smell coffee?”
Around the corner was indeed a small coffee shop, and within ten minutes I had a hot raspberry tea cupped in my hands. Liam had two sandwiches and a large coffee.
“You need to eat,” he said between sandwiches.
I glared at him and sipped my tea. “You don’t find this weird?”
He shrugged and took a bite out of his sandwich, answering around it. “You and weird are tight like a fat kid in spandex. I’m getting used to it.”
I burst out laughing, stunned at the unexpected joke. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But even for me, going for tea after a fight like we just had is a bit much.”
He popped the last of the first sandwich into his mouth and leaned back. “I’m not the one to talk about normal, not anymore. Besides, there was another option.” His lips tipped upward and his golden eyes began to dilate. Heat flared between us and the lingering effects of whatever pheromones Sas had been throwing off reared up. He slid his hand under the table and up my thigh, massaging as he went.
I shook my head, took a deep breath, and pushed his hand back. Nope, not going there. At least, not today. “Ease up; after the salvage.”
The coffee shop was busy, humming with people, and I’m going to blame our stupidity on that. If you’d asked me, I would have told you that with that many humans around, another supernatural wouldn’t have shown up. Certainly not a supernatural we both hated. Not one that I had told on more than one occasion that I would be removing her head from her shoulders ASAP.
Milly slid into a chair at the table next to us, a drink in her hand. Frozen, that’s what I was, and Liam seemed about as stunned as me, his eyes widening and jaw dropping. Her brown locks flowed down over her shoulders, the bump on her belly the obvious show of her budding motherhood. Green eyes regarded me with no malice, but with a soft sorrow that ate at me; damn, she knew my weaknesses. Liam’s hands clutched the table, shaking it with the force of his fury. Not good, this was not good at all. Three seconds. That’s how long I was betting she had before he strangled her in front of all these humans.
“Liam, believe it or not, I am happy that Rylee brought you back. What I did, I did because I had no choice. But if I must, I will hold you down with a spell. Please don’t make me do that. It will scare the humans, and if you two are truly on a salvage, the last thing you need is human interference by way of a police tail. Or worse, your old boss showing up. I’ve heard that Agent Valley is hoping to keep tabs on you, perhaps trying to get you to work for him again.” Milly took a sip of her drink, and I just sat there and stared at her. Surely I’d drawn a smash to my head in the fight and this was some semi-conscious waking dream.
But no, the tremor in the table, the uncertainty in my gut, the smell of Milly’s rose perfume. Too real, this was happening whether I liked it or not. Liam held himself together, but the wolf was strong, and I could feel the rise of it along my skin like a forest fire gathering speed. We had to get out of here. I made a move to stand and Milly lifted her hand, palm out.
“Please, I know that you owe me nothing, but give me a moment to explain. Things have changed for me.”
“What are you doing here?” I managed to get out, lowering myself back into my seat. There had to be a good reason she was here, putting herself and her baby directly in harm’s way. With her, there was always a reason; the whole problem was just figuring out if the reason she gave would be the truth or another lie.
“I am trying to keep you safe. That has been my goal all along. Though you would be hard-pressed to see that, I suppose.” A tear slipped from her eye and trailed down her cheek, and I fought the twist of pity in my guts, seeing her cry. The pity was followed quickly by a spurt of anger I didn’t bother to repress.
“Enough of the fake waterworks.”
She nodded and wiped her tears away, her voice soft. “I have made a mess of things.”
“You can fucking well say that again.” I leaned back in my chair, to get a better look at her, but also to give me room to move. If she made one flinch toward Liam, I was going to tackle her. “Do you feel bad at all about killing Giselle, about almost killing Eve and Alex? About taking Liam captive and essentially trying to kill him by letting his wolf take over?”
“For all those things and more, yes, I grieve every waking moment. But I can change none of it; my soul was sold long ago, Rylee. Long before we ever met. There has been very little in my life that was because I decided it. Ethan was one of my few choices, and I loved him fiercely for that.” She lifted her eyes to mine, shimmering with intensity, as one hand dropped to cup her belly, Ethan’s child. I could see her desire to make me believe her one more time. But that wasn’t the worst of it.