“Just as I told you.” His voice didn’t sound particularly happy. Resigned, maybe, as if he couldn’t have expected anything other than me trying to get away from him. “It’s a little late for coffee, and I don’t think wine is a very good idea, either. Pellegrino? Juice?”
“I don’t want anything from you.”
His expression hardened. “Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”
“Difficult?” I demanded. “Difficult? When you broke into my house, killed Adam — ”
“We didn’t kill anybody,” Connor cut in. He went into the kitchen and got two glasses out of a cupboard, then poured some sparkling water into each one.
“What?” I’d been through too many shocks that night. My brain felt as if it had given up trying to process them.
Without answering me immediately, he took one of the glasses and held it out in my direction. Just as wordlessly, I took it from him. My throat was dry, so I went ahead and drank. Maybe he was trying to drug me or something, but I sort of doubted it. I’d just watched him break the seal on the bottle of San Pellegrino.
“I doubt it was out of the goodness of his heart, but Damon only knocked your cousin out. Murder is hard to cover up, even for a warlock. There would be too many questions. Possible repercussions. He just wanted to get in, get you, and get Adam out of the way. Simple enough.”
I didn’t think it was all that simple, even though I let out a mental breath, and the tiniest bit of the tension in my throat seemed to ease. Adam was still alive. He wasn’t dead because of me. Hardening my voice, I said, “There are still going to be repercussions. If you think my clan is just going to sit idly by — ”
“And how much can they do, deprived of their prima? Not to be rude, Angela, but even with you there they weren’t exactly a match for us Wilcoxes. And with you gone….”
He let the words trail off. There wasn’t much need for him to say anything else. I loved my clan, loved each and every one of them for their quirks and their odd little habits, but I knew they weren’t strong enough to take on the Wilcox clan. Not by a long shot.
If I dwelled on that, I knew I might break down. It was so late, and I was so, so tired. I set down my glass on the counter and decided to move to another subject. “So it was all a lie — grad school, and Tempe, and final projects. Everything.” I looked up at him, at those painfully familiar green eyes. Maybe I should have been on guard against such a simple glamour, but again, that wasn’t the sort of thing the McAllisters did. We were who we were, with no need to hide it. “Even your eye color.”
“It was necessary.” He shook his head. “Anyway, a lot of what I told you wasn’t exactly a lie. I did go to school in Tempe, but that was a few years ago.”
“But you did want to know about our trip to Phoenix so you could report back to your brother.”
His shoulders lifted. He didn’t bother to deny it.
“And you were stalking me, showing up at the Day of the Dead festival like that.” Angry tears pricked the back of my eyes as I recalled how nice he had seemed, while the whole time he was just collecting data for his brother. Stupid for me to be upset about that part, but I couldn’t help it. I’d had an image of this Chris Wilson person in my mind and my heart, and it hadn’t been real at all, only a mask he’d put on to conceal himself from me.
He ran a hand through his hair. It needed cutting, and fell back over his forehead. “Look, Angela, it’s almost four. Do you think we can hash this over later? Like, in the morning after we’ve both gotten some sleep? I promise that I’ll try to explain things to you then, but you’ve been through a lot today, and I think it’s better if you get some rest. I swear you’ll be safe here.”
Despite his attempt at reassurance, panic washed over me at the thought of sleeping here in his apartment with him. Even now, angry and frightened and weary as I was, I could still feel the electricity sparking between us. But I couldn’t get out. The place was as locked down for me as a vault at Fort Knox.
What he saw in my face, I couldn’t say for sure, but his expression softened. “I have a guest room. You’ll be fine.”
“I highly doubt that,” I retorted.
“Okay, then you’ll survive.” Bending down, he retrieved a dark duffle bag from where it had been sitting on the floor, halfway hidden by the kitchen cabinets. “I have some stuff here for you.” He extended his arm, clearly intending for me to take the bag.
“What is it?”
“Some clothes. Boots. Underwear.” His eyes glinted, and for just a second he looked a little too much like his brother for my comfort. “It’s the stuff you picked out in Phoenix, and some extra. Damon took it with him that day. He needed to know your sizes so he could have some of the women in the clan get some things together for you.”