“We’re going to need to take her back to my clinic,” I tell him. “Make sure that she’s okay.”
“Yeah, yeah, of course.” Standing, he cradles her in his arms. “She’s everything to me. When Detective Astor said—” he trails off, voice cracking.
“She’s fine. We got to her in time to stop them.”
“Thank you. I owe you everything.” His words are damn near repeat of Deissy’s earlier ones to Tarnley, and it breaks my heart that he ever had to mutter them.
Especially when it’s our fault in the first place.
“You owe me nothing.”
“Let’s get going.”
“You can ride with me,” Rainey offers.
“Thank you.”
“See you at your place,” she says, clasping a hand on my shoulder before leaving the small ticket booth, Felix carrying Deissy right behind her.
After swallowing hard, I leave the booth in search of Tarnley. It doesn’t take me long to track him down since he’s standing beside the vamp I killed, Elijah and Brad with him.
At my approach, he holds out an arm, and I duck underneath it, tucking myself against his body.
“You all right?” Elijah asks.
“Just tired of all the damn fighting.”
He runs a hand over the back of his head. “I’m right there with you.” Headlights illuminate where we stand, and he glances over. “Better get going.”
“See you in a few. You’re headed to my clinic.”
“Ahh, okay. See you there.” Turning, he moves toward Rainey’s car, looking just as exhausted as I do.
“We’ll get this cleaned up, boss,” Brad promises. “You go and handle the human.”
“Thanks, Brad.”
“It’s my job, but if it weren’t, I’d still help ya out anyway.” He winks at us, and Tarnley offers a forced smile before guiding me back to the parking lot. The moment we’re in the quiet solitude of the car, he rests his forehead against the steering wheel.
“They went after Winnie because she works for you. And they went after Deissy because we were here.”
“I know,” I whisper.
“I wish they were still alive so I could kill them all over again.” He starts the car and pulls out into the street.
After withdrawing my cell phone, I tap Winnie’s contact. “Hello?”
“Get one of the clinic rooms ready,” I tell her. “We have a patient coming in.”
“What type of supernatural?”
“A human,” I reply after casting a cautious glance at Tarnley.
“Human?”
“Yes.”
“I will get right on it.”