“Davina.” Emily had remembered her prim and proper standards. She looked nauseous.
I arched an eyebrow, ready for whatever Bennett threw back, but Adam caught my hand and dragged me from the table.
“What is going on with you?” Adam tried to be nice, but he still sounded aggravated. It was somewhat endearing. He was like a gentleman that needed to ask something ungentlemanly, but couldn’t figure out the words.
“I don’t like him.”
Adam sighed and scratched the back of his head. A surge of warmth speared through me. He really was unlike everything else in my life. Stable. Honest.
“Hey.” I caught his hand and pulled it between us. “I like you.”
He was startled, but delight spread over his features. “Really?”
I squeezed his hand and moved closer. “I know that it’s sudden and fast and this is our first date, but… I just wanted to tell you that. I like you.”
“I like you too.” An anchor seemed to have lifted off him. “Wow. That feels good to have that off my chest.”
This is what I wanted, right? I wasn’t sure, but I held tight to his hand anyway. Adam glanced from my eyes to my lips and back again. I held my breath. I knew what he was going to do—he waited for a signal, any signal. If I moved just an inch he would’ve been a happy boy. I was stricken. Adam was what I wanted. I’d taken one look at him at the hotline and knew he would be mine. I enjoyed the chase and now the chase was done. Adam was mine. So why wasn’t I happy? Giddy? I was just…nothing.
Then I glanced over Adam’s shoulder and knew it would have to wait. Kates was at our table.
“What the—?” I straightened away from Adam and stepped around.
“What?” He looked too and froze in place.
I wasn’t sure why he seemed paralyzed, but I know that the sight of Kates whispering into Bennett’s ear wasn’t going to make my life any easier. What in the hell was she doing here? I didn’t wait to ponder and marched across the room. “What are you doing here? And with him?”
Kates gasped, “What are you doing here?”
“I’m on a date.” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder. Adam looked like he was caught in a pair of headlights.
“With him?”
Why was this so surprising?
“Yes. That’s Adam. I told you he was mine.” My chest puffed up a little bit.
“That’s Adam?” Why was Kates so incredulous?
“Yes.” I felt like a broken record.
A myriad of emotions flashed across her face. Shock, bafflement, disdain, and horror. I didn’t care about the others, not really, but the horror caught me. I zeroed in and felt inside of her. What I felt made my toes curl.
Kates had a secret, a very shameful end-your-life type of secret. Bennett had told me that she was one of them, but I hadn’t given him credit. I did now. The Lu— that she was loyal to wasn’t Lucas. It was a vampire named Lucan. I remembered that two Families that had arrived in town, ready for a war. Lucan and Raitscliff. I highly doubted it was a coincidence. There were no coincidences when it came to the supernatural or to anything that regarded my life.
“Kates.” It was all I could mutter. I was still dumbfounded by what was planned and I saw the veil fall over her eyes. She knew that I knew. She knew how I knew. That’s when she grabbed my arm and held tight. Each of her fingers tightened over my elbow, but I couldn’t look away.
“What are you going to do?” The question choked me.
“You weren’t supposed to be here. You weren’t supposed to be a part of this.”
“But I am.”
Her fingers tightened again. They would’ve hurt if they’d been from anyone except my best friend. “Don’t.”
She hung her head, but her fingers still held my arm immobile. Then she made a decision and barked at Bennett, “Take him.”
Bennett nodded with an eager look in his eyes and rushed around me. He grabbed Adam and hauled him out of the restaurant.