Page 83 of Cold Sacrifice

“Okay,” I agreed. “I have to clean up and have some dinner, and then I’ll be there.” I hesitated. “Max, Jolene isn’t gone. She’s just changed.”

“What did you just say?” he asked, his voice getting higher and louder with each word. “She’s dead. Bastien killed her. Zach told me. You told me.”

“She’s a ghost,” I said, hoping he’d calm down before he reached Joe. “She didn’t cross over. I have to make her do that.”

“Um,” he said. “You could have led with that?”

“She’s still dangerous,” I told him. “She’s still going to cause trouble.”

I could smell food cooking and hear the comforting clatter of dishes and pans coming from the kitchen, but it wasn’t time to eat yet. I kept walking.

“But only for you,” Max said somewhat smugly. “You’re the only one who can see her. Joe is safe from her awful clutches.”

“Max, you work at a place where clients come in constantly to get help with their ghosts. And you still believe that only the ones who see them can be troubled by them?”

He was silent for a moment, then, “Get her out of here, Kait, so we can get back to working in relative peace.”

Jared met me on the landing as I was sliding the phone back into my pocket. He pulled me into his arms. “I was coming to get you.”

I leaned back in his arms and stared into his face, my breath catching at the look in his eyes. “These stolen moments with you,” I murmured, “are the best moments of my life.”

His eyes crinkled as he smiled. “Then let’s make it last a while.”

In the shower, he washed my arm carefully, frowning at the way the wound from Jolene’s whip had failed to completely heal with my shift. “I didn’t stay shifted long enough,” I told him. “It doesn’t matter.”

It was just another scar among the many scars I’d collected over the years. He traced the scars left by Anika Draper’s blade, though those scars had faded so much they were barely visible now.

The water beat down around us, and the alpha traced every scar on my body with his fingertips, his lips, his tongue. “Each one of them tells a story,” he said. “Each one is a piece of what made you who you are.”

Why would I hate my scars when he loved me like that?

And he didn’t neglect the places where there were no scars.

I did the same to him. There was nothing better than touching the alpha’s perfect body. Nothing better than knowing it was mine. He was mine.

In the end, when we had teased each other almost beyond endurance, he picked me up, pressed me back against the tiles, and gave us both relief.

I wanted to fall into his bed with him afterward and snuggle under the covers against his warm body, but I resisted the urge. There was too much work to be done.

And too much food to eat.

So I kissed him, held him for a minute more, and then went to see what the rest of the night held.

Chapter Thirty-One

To the delight of the watching clients, Joe scooped me up and spun me around, then pulled me into a bear hug that nearly snapped my spine.

“You weren’t that excited to see me,” Max grumbled. “I didn’t get a spin.”

Joe set me on my feet and then growled and started toward Max, who hurried to hide behind his desk. “Don’t you dare, Joe Patrick. Not here.”

Joe only laughed, then slapped his hands together and turned back to me. “I could use a little excitement, but I take it we’re working the office tonight.”

“For a while,” I said, leading the way into my office. “I don’t know when Jolene might show up and decide to cause trouble. I have to find out what’s tethering her here so I can chop it up into a million pieces and send her away forever. She’s just so fucking…pesky.”

He laughed. “She is that. But you know, Kaity Bug, she could have been a hell of a lot worse.”

“Yeah,” I admitted. “But she’s not done yet, Joe.”