Ghostwalker 03 - Night Game

people because they piss you off, not even when you have reason to be pissed off.” His fingers brushed bare skin. Soft skin.
    Her belly was firm, but so damned soft he wanted to lean forward and press his mouth against it.

    She stiffened, her hands covering his, stopping the movement but holding his fingers against her stomach. He could feel the tremor running through her. “I’ll do it myself.”

    “And I was having such fun.”

    “Look the other way. I’m not putting on a show for you, perv.”

    He closed his eyes obediently and lay back on the bed again, suddenly tired. It had been a long, frustrating day. He had more questions than answers. Burrell was dead. He was no closer to finding Joy Chiasson than the day he’d arrived in New Orleans, and he was certain when Flame peeled off her jeans, and he got a good look at her injured leg, he wasn’t going to like what he saw.

    She wiggled against him as she dragged off the jeans. Twice he heard a gasp escape as she tried to be careful removing the garment. He opened his eyes just as she dragged a sheet around her.

    “ Fils de putin !” He bent closer to inspect her leg. “ Maudit !”

    “You’re looking.”

    “Hell yes, I’m looking.”

    “Stop swearing. It’s not that bad. A few bruises, a little swelling. What did you expect?
    The bike was going fast, so was the Jeep and I kicked him as hard as I could. It wasn’t all that soft when I landed either.”

    “How did you manage to make it back through the swamp on this leg? You were running full-out, I saw you.”

    She shrugged. “I found out a long time ago, you can endure anything if you have to.
    Whitney didn’t defeat me, Raoul. I learned a lot of very valuable lessons.” She looked him straight in the eye. “He isn’t going to get me back. I’d rather die. If you or anyone else managed to get me there, I’d take down his house and everyone in it. I mean it.
    Think long and hard on that before you decide to try bringing me back.”

    He looked down at her mottled leg. From knee to hip her thigh was black and blue with ugly swollen blotches that might indicate internal bleeding. “ Fils de putin.” He swore again under his breath, his hands going to her leg, lifting it onto his lap as if he could magically take the pan away.

    “Are you listening to me?”

    “I heard you. You need to see a doctor, Flame.”

    “I meant it. I can’t go through that again. I really meant it.”

    “I know. What the hell are we going to do about your leg?” His palm stroked down her skin, his touch feather-light, barely there, but she felt it all the way to her bones. I’m taking you to Grand-mere . She knows the treateur —the healer. They’ve been best friends for years.”

    “Take me tomorrow. I can’t be around anyone tonight.” Her chest hurt. She felt as if someone had dropped a hundred pound weight on her. A part of her wanted to scream and scream, another part wanted to flood the world with tears, but the worst part of her, something cold and dark and ugly, wanted to go hunting. “Did you tell Lily you found me? She’s the one who sent you after me, didn’t she? If you or your friend told her…”

    “Lily doesn’t know we’ve had any contact. No one told her anything. If Whitney is alive and he’s aware of your presence here, it didn’t come from any of us.”

    She believed him. She rarely believed anyone, not really. Not all the way. But with Raoul, she felt almost as if she knew him intimately, the real Raoul, not the one every one else saw. And God help her, she actually believed him. “Maybe I’m just tired.” She murmured the words aloud.

    “You didn’t do this, Flame. You didn’t cause Burrell’s death.”

    “How do you know that? Whitney’s capable of anything, even killing a kind old man just to get the end results of his experiment. He must have changed a lot over the years to have you think he wouldn’t do it, or he hid that side of himself well.”

    “I didn’t much like him. None of us did. He was cold. Inhuman.” He shifted her as gently as possible until they were turned around in the bed. “Lie down.” He waited until her head was on the pillow before he pulled a blanket over her. “I never could understand how Lily loved him. She didn’t know he wasn’t her biological father. She found out after he died.”

    “He isn’t dead.”

    “Maybe he isn’t. In all honesty, you’ve got me halfway believin’ the man is out there