Holy hell.
The man was even hotter in the daylight. And I didn’t mean temperature this time, even if my internal heat rose as well. He had rolled the sleeves of his button-down shirt up to his elbows, and the muscles of his tanned forearm shifted as he lifted his arm to remove black sunglasses. His eyes stared into mine as if he could see into my soul. He probably could, considering his job title. His irises were a shade lighter than the sky at dusk, although not by much, and I lost myself in them just as easily.
His hair still resembled Prince Eric’s, but today his face held a cruelty the prince most definitely did not have. It amazed me how alive he looked despite having died to get the gig he now held.
“Veronica Neill?” he asked again, a smirk pulling the corner of his lip up.
“Just V. And you are?”
He held up a badge. “Thane Munro of the Death Enforcement Agency. You and I need to have a chat.”
4
Saturday Afternoon
I knew I had been overly paranoid since finding the bulletin with my face on it that morning, but after speaking with Joe at the coffee shop, I realized I was paranoid for no reason. Very few people, reapers included, knew that Veronica Neill and the acquirer called the Falcon were the same person. I kept that list short, and there was a good chance this Thane guy had no clue.
Not unless the angels had gotten involved for some reason, but that was highly unlikely. They stuck to more critical matters like global warming and pandemics. Sophia was on her way to earning a set of angel wings, meaning she would be a fool to reveal my secret.
So, if that was the case, then what did he want to have a word about?
I already knew he was a grim reaper, one of the elite members of the DEA, when he failed to emit any ultraviolet light last night. But why was the agency sending a reaper to approach me on the street?
“You may speak,” I said in a steady voice—quite the feat considering my racing pulse.
“This chat will be better suited at the agency.” He motioned to an alley just a few feet up.
It took considerable effort, but I stopped myself from rolling my eyes or laughing in his face. You know, because walking into alleys with men you’ve barely met was such a great idea. At least it wasn’t night, and I knew he had a teleportation device, otherwise his creep factor would be through the roof.
“Send me a calendar invite.” I brushed past him.
“You were at Albert Renauldo’s home last night,” he said to my back.
I closed my eyes and bit my lip, but I didn’t stop walking. “So were you.”
“A man was murdered in his office,” his voice followed me. “One of the fae.”
I halted then and contorted my face into one of horror before turning to face him. Drama came naturally to me. “What?”
He smiled at me, that dastardly kind of smile that dampened my lady bits. When was the last time I had gotten laid? It might be time to take care of that, just not with a DEA agent. Dead guys weren’t my type, no matter how good they looked.
“Terrible, isn’t it?” he asked, though his tone made it clear it was rhetorical. He knew I was faking my response.
I mean, it was horrifying the fae had died, but it wasn’t by my hand.
“Very. I wish I could help you, but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I left soon after you and I parted ways.” Got to love the word soon. It made my statement totally true.
“See, that’s the thing.” He tucked his hands into the pockets of his crisp black slacks as he sauntered toward me. “We know you killed him.”
Turned out the angels did reveal my alter ego to the reapers—the bastards.
I narrowed my eyes up at him as he closed the distance between us. “I’m telling you I didn’t.”
As I turned away this time, his hand stopped me—a scorching hot brand on my arm. Now that I was close enough to feel his breath against my face, the hint of cardamom mixed with the sweet citrus of bergamot and made my mouth water. Complex yet alluring. I looked back up, my breath coming out short.
“It’s hard to forget eyes like yours,” Thane said, lowering his gaze to my lips. “And those lips.”
Fuck me sideways. Had I known someone would be murdered, I would never have gotten cocky enough to remove my brown contacts. The image the DEA displayed on the Community forum had revealed the color beautifully, which meant any number of Community members could connect the dots. Thank the gods Joe hadn’t.
But now the man the agency sent, one of the most attractive men I had ever seen, was tempting me like no other.
He leaned in, his lips brushing against mine, setting off an inferno-like chain reaction that lit me to my core. I might have lost all my control and thrown myself at him, pulling him into the alley, had I not heard the click.
“What the—” I jerked my head back and looked down. Handcuffs secured my wrist to his.
The few people close enough to see us on the sidewalk continued by without stopping or even glancing our way. Reapers on duty had a sort of repelling reaction on humans, which made their jobs much less complicated by not drawing any unnecessary attention. Too bad the repellant hadn’t worked on me with this guy.
“You’re under arrest for the murder of Broderick Ó Faoláin and the theft of Albert Renauldo’s personal goods,” Thane said, his smile sinister as he reached his hand up to his ear. “I’ve secured the target. En route to HQ momentarily.”
That motherfucking asshat. How dare he use my own desire against me. He had another thing coming if he thought he had secured his target.
The fire his touch set off in me was nothing compared to the actual living flame that writhed within me, even if his heat was the closest thing ever to come close. I called upon my inner fire now, focusing its attention on the cuff latched to my wrist. The metal turned white-hot within seconds.
When I pulled against the chain, my arm went right through the molten metal, not a mark left on my skin. The cuff fell against his pant leg, smoke rising as it burned a hole through the fabric.
He yelled and held up his arm, staring in shock at the dripping metal. Guess the reapers didn’t know everything about me.
“I am not a murderer,” I said, leaning sideways to kick him square in the chest as hard as I could. He flew backward and landed with a thud on the sidewalk, his breath whooshing out from the unexpected impact. I leaned over him as he wheezed. “And I didn’t steal anything last night except a glass of champagne. You’ve got the wrong gal.”
Before he could recover, I set off at a sprint, racing for the alley he had motioned to earlier and where I had been ready to drag him for some quick and dirty lovin’—before he tried to arrest me, of course.
As I ducked around the corner, his strained voice called out for me to stop and think about what I was doing. Instead of taking his sage advice, I shifted into my bird form, transforming in a heartbeat. I winged up to one of the three-stories-high roofs and settled beside some pigeons, who let out soft coos at the disturbance. My tiny heart thudded rapidly against my ribs, fluttering the bright orange plumage covering my chest.
That was way too close for comfort.
Thane ran into view a moment later, his face still in shock and his body casting light away from his entire being like a prism. If only I could see his refraction of light in my human form, then maybe he wouldn’t be so tempting.