Page 62 of Born Wicked
“Oh, we can hope, but I can guarantee we will,” I say. For some reason, I fight the urge to reach for Roman’s hand and walk away. What the hell is wrong with me today? Instead, I just turn on my heel and walk out the door into the chilly mid-day sun, shades firmly pulled into place.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Patrick is waitingat the curb, and as soon as he sees us, he opens the door. I climb inside, immediately reaching for a bag of blood from the refrigerator. I need something to calm me down, but even as the liquid coats my throat and mouth, it isn’t quite doing the trick.
“Pass me one of those,” Roman says with a little bit of a desperate growl in his throat, climbing inside right after me. I pull out two more and hand them over as he takes a seat next to me.
Ugh. Why is Roman’s scent comforting now? He always smells damn good, and the man literally just walked out of prison. But it wraps me up, and all the anxiety, all the anticipation I’ve been feeling today melts away at that scent.
“Okay, I know we need to have a council meeting, pretty immediately,” Elena says once we’re all inside and the door is closed. “But I feel completely disgusting, and honestly, I’m totally exhausted and want my own bed. And Roman, it’s obvious you need a change of clothes. So, break and meet at the Nocturne just after dark?”
I nod without really thinking about it. I probably have something I need to be doing today, but my mind is too much of a mess at the moment to think like an adult.
It’s almost as if knowing there are a million things to talk about has the opposite effect. Hardly anyone says anything the entire ride back Downtown. My eyes keep staring at Roman’s hands. They rest on his thighs, slightly flexed, ready to snap. His tattoos spill down onto the back of his right hand. There’s what I think is a constellation of stars and some words in a language I don’t recognize. Latin maybe?
His presence is solid. Firm. Real. I’ve been a wreck for the past four days. From the moment I watched Superintendent Day cart Roman out of his club in handcuffs. And now he’s here. Free. Finally.
Patrick pulls up to the curb, and I look outside to see we’re at the club.
Roman gets up from his seat and climbs out after the door opens.
I didn’t plan it. I didn’t give it two seconds of thought. But I spring from my seat and follow Roman out of the limo. “I’ll see you guys tonight,” I call without looking at either of them. “Can one of you make sure you get in contact with Sigrid?”
“Sure,” Mason answers, and Patrick closes the door between us.
I look up to see Roman watching me. I can’t quite read the look in his eyes. He doesn’t seem surprised exactly. Curious maybe? And I swear, there may even be the tiniest of smiles in the corner of his mouth.
“Sebastian called me,” I say as, together, we walk to the doors to the club. “That was the evidence that got you released. I recorded the call, and we played it for Superintendent Day. It meant we had to explain things. But, it worked.”
“Any clues where Sebastian is?” Roman asks as he holds the door open for me.
His darkness, his rage, and his violence is becoming familiar now. Some people just have built-in traits. It’s who they are. I’ve learned to appreciate Roman’s darkness. It’s not as terrifying as I once thought it to be. It’s protective. In the strangest way, it’s born out of love. Love for this city and the people in it.
“No,” I answer, feeling annoyed by the answer. We walk down the snakeskin-lined hallway until we break out into the main area. I don’t hesitate, and maybe it’s a little presumptuous of me, but I walk right up the stairs that lead to Roman’s apartment. “He didn’t give anything away, and Mason’s private investigator still doesn’t have anything. But the call… It was basically what you’d expect. Accusations. Anger. Apologies that weren’t apologies.”
There’s a little sound in the back of Roman’s throat. A growl. A threat.
“But he did tell me where to find the antidote that woke up all the vampires,” I say, having to give him a little credit. “And it seems to be working on the gifted as well. Turns out, it was hiding in the hospital all along.”
“Bastard,” Roman says in a low voice as I push the door to his apartment open.
“Pretty much,” I say simply.
I stop just inside the entryway. It looks like a crime scene in here. There is tape and fingerprint dust. Dirty shoe tracks go every direction. And everything has been tossed. They turned his place completely inside out, looking for anything and everything tying Roman to Sebastian’s disappearance.
“Double bastard,” I curse.
“Doesn’t matter,” Roman dismisses the mess, and truly, he doesn’t seem like he cares in the slightest. “So long as the shower works, that’s all I care about right now.”
Truly, I don’t even think twice about it when I follow him into his bedroom. I sink down on the edge of his bed as he steps into the bathroom. He leaves the door open a sliver. I hear the shower start, and then the sound of clothes dropping into a hamper.
As I look around Roman’s space, I feel so damn guilty. First, Sebastian trashed this apartment because he was looking for me. And then the police made it a wreck looking for evidence of Sebastian’s murder.
Will I ever stop causing Roman problems? It feels like I’ve brought one difficulty after another into his life since the moment I met him.
“So, Sebastian just called you out of the blue?” Roman’s voice comes from the shower. Thanks to vampiric hearing, it’s not a struggle to catch every single word.
“No,” I admit. I look down at my hands in my lap. “I called him. After everything that’s happened recently, with Mason dying, and then you getting arrested…” I shake my head. My chest feels tight again, thinking back to that night. How scared I was. How overwhelmed I felt. “I kind of fell apart. I called him and left him a message. I think he felt sorry for me. I was a bit of a pathetic, blubbering mess. It was embarrassing.”