I stab him with my finger. “Listen here, I was hacked.”
“Oh no,” he says, clearly being sarcastic. “I’m sorry that happened to you.”
“It was an invasion of my privacy and you’re making fun of it.”
“Man, I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks.”
“You want me to hunt the person down who would think to write up something so ridiculous like that?”
“Yes, please. I only write sexy things like ‘Yo, dude. Wanna see me shirtless?’”
“Huh. I’ve never gotten any of those.”
“The hacker, man. He took them all.”
“Took all your shirts or your shirtless pictures?”
“Both.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
I grin at him before remembering that I’m supposed to be freaking out because he’s a detective. “So… are you guys here just for fun?”
“Actually, for work and you’re currently my cover.”
“Oh? Am I going to get pulled into some special ops mission or something? I have to warn you, I have a wicked uppercut. I only broke my finger once while performing it on my brother by accident.”
“No special ops mission. We’re watching someone here just to see what he’s up to but that sounds concerning about your brother and your finger. How do you accidentally uppercut someone?”
“Easy. You trip over your own shoe and then when you fall, you strangely put your hand into a fist and drive it up into your brother’s face as he tries to catch you.”
Why does that grin of his get me every time? “Makes sense,” he says as he glances up, and I realize he’s looking in the direction of Huang. Is it him? Or someone he’s with? What if I took the man out tonight like I’d been planning and the VRC had been tailing him? Or did they figure it out already? Do they know who I’m targeting? Did someone confess and give up the names?
“So who are you stalking?” I ask nonchalantly, like he’d just give it up.
He smiles at me. “An evil vampire.”
“That one?” I ask as I point to the one named Marcus.
Bentley laughs. “Thankfully, no. That man’s a powerhouse. I’m not sure any of us would survive against him.”
I look around and try to pinpoint the vampires. It’s not always easy to tell who is what until you’re close enough to feel their aura. “The one that’s dancing there with the girl in red?”
“Nope. I’m not supposed to tell you!”
“What about that guy surrounded by all those chicks? He looks suspicious as hell.”
His eyes flicker over to Huang and he just says nothing, confirming it.
Fucking dodged a bullet, but what now? Now, I have to stop seeing Bentley. I knew it before, and I know it even more now. I can’t do this. I can’t do this to him or to myself.
“You alright?” Bentley asks.
“Yeah… no… I don’t know. Just some life stuff that sucks, but it’ll be better soon. Do you need me to leave so I don’t ruin your special ops mission?”
“You’re making me sound so much cooler than I am, but no. I’d like it if you’d stay if you want. I wish I could help you with what’s going on, but I feel kind of the same way. We could be miserable together.”
“Why are you miserable?” I ask.
“Family drama. You?”
“Same.”
“Let’s drink our worries away,” he says as he holds up his glass of blood and I hold up my Coke.
“Let’s get drunk on Coke and blood!”
He laughs as he clinks his glass against mine and takes a sip.
“He’s getting up. Are you going to like arrest him or something?” I ask hopefully. If they get him out of the picture, it’d just be one less person for me to deal with.
“Right now, we’re trying to catch him screwing up.”
“Doing what?”
He grins at me. “Secrets.”
“I hate secrets.”
“Alright. So we’re trying to catch him doing something.”
“I bet if the scary one just looked at him, he’d give up all his secrets. I’m pretty sure I almost started confessing all my wrongs when he glared at me.”
“Marcus isn’t too bad, I promise.”
That’s when I realize I never took Hanna her drink but when I look through the crowd, I see she’s talking to some other guy she’ll have much better luck with. The moment I saw Bentley, I was sucked right into forgetting about everything else.
Bentley pulls his phone out and checks it. “Okay, Alexei and Marcus are tailing him. I’m supposed to go with Finn to check out his car. I’m sorry to leave you, but I should be working. I’ll give you a call later? Our plans still good for Sunday?”
I nod even though I don’t know why. Everything about this man tells me I need to turn away. I need to stop while I’m ahead—not only to protect myself but to protect him. When did I become such a fool? Is this what loneliness does to you? Is this what it’s like when you start to give up?
Fuck.
I’ll just have to call him later and tell him I can’t.
I watch Bentley walk away, knowing it should be the last time I ever see him.
Chapter Six
RIVER
I debate going home. I shouldn’t continue my operation when the VRC are literally breathing down Huang’s neck. I should consider this one a loss and move on. But I’m already behind schedule. My plan to have this all done in a month is slowly becoming a joke. And what if something happens that keeps me from having that full month? I never know what’s going to happen.
I know that if I went to the VRC and told them what I know, they might look into it, but these monsters have protected themselves for years. They have so much in place to keep themselves from ever getting caught that I’m positive there’s someone on the inside protecting them. How else could they have gotten away with this for years? And as soon as they figured out I was behind it, I’d be dead.
Because I’m a human, they probably think this whole thing is nothing more than a joke. They’re not afraid of me, so I have to show them that they shouldn’t write off a human, and then I have to get them to confess. I have to show the world proof that these people are monsters who have ruined countless lives including my own.
Once Huang leaves the club, I realize the VRC don’t follow. Instead, they all head off in opposite directions, making me wonder if there was something about Huang at the club that they were looking into. Since he seems to be alone, I head toward his home, taking a different route than him and speeding to beat him there. It’s not what I had in mind, but I have to do this tonight.
I park not far from his house on the side of the road about twenty feet from his driveway and apply my heavy cologne. Once I’m in position, I pop the hood and wait.
It’s about an hour before he shows and I’d almost given up since I started to assume he went home with someone and wasn’t planning on coming back. Just when I’d almost headed for home, his car comes rumbling down the road in the dark of the night. I wave my arms this way and that, really hoping it’s him and not someone else in a vehicle that looks similar to his. He immediately slows and rolls the window down before getting a look at me, which instantly has him smiling.