Ghostwalker 03 - Night Game

don’ want to know anything. It’s better to be ignorant.”

    Flame found herself laughing at his horrified expression. She put her arms around him and leaned her body against his. It was impossible for her to resist Raoul when he turned into a confused male. “It will be all right. You’ll get over it.”

    “I don’ think so, cher . This whole conversation just isn’t right.”

    “We don’t have much time so you can seek sympathy while you’re driving me to the corner where Saunders sends his men to pick up a woman. I intend to be that woman.”

    “I’m asking the others to back us up,” he warned her. “I don’ like this at all, Flame.
    Saunders is a straight-up killer. He likes to hurt women and he’s bound to be really confused about now. He doesn’t have a clue what happened and doesn’t know whether there’s proof against him or not. He’ll be looking to kill somebody.”

    “Men like Saunders get away, Raoul. You know that.”

    “He isn’t Whitney,” he reminded gently. “Even if you bring him down, cher , Whitney is still going to be shadowing you. Dead or alive, he’ll always be there. You don’ have to do this.”

    She raised her chin. “Yes I do. I won’t be able to live with myself if he walks away unscathed after what he did to both Burrell and Joy. Maybe I do equate him with Whitney, but it doesn’t make him less guilty.”

    “He’s surrounded by civilians and he has a small army,” he reminded.

    “You don’t have to come with me.”

    His dark eyes glittered at her and Flame felt a shiver run down her spine. She turned away from him, refusing to be intimidated, refusing to back down. He caught her chin in his hand. “I think we need to get something straight, cher . I love you. Straight out and I’m not afraid to say it. But you have this idea of me that isn’t quite on the mark. I’m not always nice, Flame. I don’ get pushed around, not even by the woman I love.”

    She wasn’t going to react to his declaration. It was a hell of a time for him to make it and she just plain wasn’t going there, although she couldn’t stop the way her heart and her treacherous body responded. She loved him goofy and she loved him when he went all alpha on her. God, she was pathetic. “I wasn’t trying to push you around, Raoul. This is important to me. I have to do this.”

    She ducked her head, looked away from him so he couldn’t read the real reason in her eyes. She was dying, and she wanted to leave something behind. She couldn’t leave children, and if Raoul was telling the truth and he loved her, he was the only one. And he’d be the only person to remember her. She was going to rid the world of one more monster before she allowed the disease eating her up to take her.

    “Let’s go then,” Gator said. “I’ll send the others out to his house to back us up.”

    They said little as he drove through the streets to find the Bourbon Street address she gave him. Most of the time he spoke on his cell, issuing instructions to the other GhostWalkers. The street corner was deserted with the storm battering the streets, filling them with water so fast the pumps couldn’t keep up.

    Flame leaned across the seat to give Raoul a kiss, her hand on the door. The slight brush of her mouth against his sent a small jolt of electricity through him. Angry or not, he couldn’t resist her. He framed her face with his hands and held her still, kissing her the way he wanted, letting her taste his anger, the bite of his teeth, the dance of his tongue.
    He was wearing his damn heart on his sleeve and she gave him so little back. He was going to have to watch her walk away, stand on a corner to entice a killer to pick her up.

    “The car’s shaking,” she said.

    “Fuck the car.” He kissed her more. Long, drugging kisses. Hot, sizzling kisses. Dark, angry kisses. Every kind of kiss he could think of to hold her to him.

    “I love you,” Flame whispered, her voice so low that even with his acute hearing, he barely heard. “I’ve never loved anyone, Raoul and I’m not very good at it.” It was a confession, the best she could give him and she could only hope he understood what she was trying to tell him.

    He rested his brow against hers. “You’re good enough at it,” he said. “Don’ get yourself shot or I’ll be really pissed at you. I didn’t throw the paddle away, you know.”

    She laughed the way he knew she would, the sparkle returning to her eyes.