Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

that
     they’d be using wolfbane. They assured me he’d be treated gently, that he’s no use
     to them dead.”
    Cullen snorted his opinion of that.
    “Don’t get fancy,” Lily said to Machek. “Find out anything you can about the location
     and means of the proposed exchange, but don’t go beyond that.” She looked at Rule,
     wondering where he wanted this to go. He met her gaze, but his was shuttered, telling
     her nothing.
    When in doubt, ask questions. Lily did, coming back to the same ones in multiple ways,
     until Machek politely suggested she could either arrest him or leave, but he hoped
     they’d agree to the exchange. And at last Rule spoke again.
    “We can’t agree to anything without more information,” he said, standing. “When you
     know the where, when, and how for this proposed exchange, call me and we’ll discuss
     it.”
    “I have your number,” Machek said calmly, rising like a good host whose guests were
     departing.
    He hid differently than Rule did, Lily thought. He used lightheartedness for a shield.
     “And mine,” she added, taking out one of her cards and setting it on the cluttered
     coffee table. “Just in case.”

NINETEEN

    T HEY were gone. At last they were gone. Thank God.
    Jasper closed the door and scrubbed his face with both hands as if he could erase
     some of the lies he’d told. No point in dwelling on it. He’d done what he had to do.
    No, that was lying to himself, a sin at least as bad as lying to others and often
     far more destructive. He’d chosen to put Adam’s life above these strangers’ welfare.
     However terrible a choice it might be, it had been his to make, and he had to admit
     that. If one of those strangers was his half brother, did that matter?
    Not enough, he thought as he headed back to the couch where he’d snatched a few hours
     of sleep last night. He’d cleared away the pillow and blanket before Rule Turner and
     his entourage arrived. It was the first time they’d been put away since that bastard
     took Adam. Funny how his innate tidiness had fled ever since he got that phone call.
     He’d been deliberately leaving clutter around as if that would create a homing beacon
     for his messy partner. Adam would laugh when he saw…
    God, he hoped Adam would still be able to laugh.
    He sank onto the couch and picked up the card thatRule’s fiancée had left. Lily Yu. He turned it over as if he might find a clue on
     its blank back. She sure didn’t look like an FBI agent…she had the serious part down,
     but she was so little. Pretty, too, though somehow that word didn’t seem to fit. Flowers
     were pretty. She was…compact, he decided. As if something much larger had been crammed
     into a deceptively small size.
    Odd choice for his brother to make. He couldn’t picture Lily Yu putting up with a
     partner’s roving eye, but what did he know? Nothing, really, about the lady, and not
     much more about the man who shared half Jasper’s genetic inheritance. No more than
     however many zillion others who occasionally read a gossip mag. Jasper didn’t pick
     them up ordinarily, but he’d been curious. Now and then he’d toyed with the idea of
     meeting Rule Turner. Like when his mom was dying and he learned how much Isen Turner
     had paid for over the years. Or when he first came out. He’d come boiling out of the
     damn closet, pissed at the world, and that had seemed like a great target for his
     anger—the overwhelmingly hetero half brother who was sure to be disgusted.
    If he’d been disgusted today, he’d hidden it well. But he’d hidden everything well,
     hadn’t he? Jasper had seen a certain intensity, but he had no idea what the man was
     feeling intense about. Maybe Rule wasn’t the heedless tomcat he’d been made out to
     be. Maybe he used to be, but had changed. Now and then people did.
    The resemblance had startled Jasper. It had never seemed that strong in photos or
     on TV, but when he looked into his brother’s eyes…and just why did Rule look so damn
     young? He was six years older than Jasper, but he looked fifteen years younger. The
     best surgeon in the world didn’t give you back young skin. Could it be a lupi thing?
     Maybe in addition to being preternaturally strong and sexy, they didn’t age.
    That was an unsettling thought. But what about this day wasn’t unsettling, grim, terrifying—
    His phone buzzed. His heart jumped in his chest, loathingand longing coupling promiscuously with fear,