I glance back at the night club building. “No way am I going back in there. Eliza just about tried to punch my lights out earlier.”
Tension and anger fill Ethan’s eyes. “What?” The word comes out low and whispery, like he’s so pissed off he can’t even make a proper sound. I gulp.
“Yeah, I kind of referred to her dad as a creepy bastard. She didn’t like that.”
Some of the tension leaves Ethan’s face. “You can’t say things like that about Jeremy Whitfield, he’s the Governor of South Tribane, Tegan.”
“I’m shaking in my fucking boots,” I mumble sarcastically in a low voice.
“He’s a dangerous man, but he is also a close ally of mine. In fact, I am directly below him in rank. That means we rely on each other in many respects. You will not speak badly of him again.”
At the moment I’m standing directly in front of Ethan. I slowly fold my arms across my chest and raise a cynical eyebrow. “I don’t think I like this side of you Ethan. And come to think of it, I don’t want anything to do with a man who associates with people like Whitfield.” I turn and begin to walk away from him.
“Get back here, Tegan. You are not leaving.”
I don’t know where it springs from, but suddenly I’m completely pissed off with Ethan. Perhaps it’s because I really wish he was nobler than he actually is. If he and Whitfield are as thick as thieves the way I think they are, then Ethan is definitely not the man/vampire I’d hoped he was.
I turn around then, facing him but walking backwards and say, “Watch me,” before giving him the finger and disappearing out of the car park.
Chapter Nine
Burn Your Life Down
Inside my head there is a voice of sanity, telling me that I’m making a big mistake walking away from Ethan so rudely, but I ignore it as best I can. I’m too angry to act rationally. I stand across the road from the club and dig my phone out of my pocket, surprised that Ethan didn’t come after me. Then again, he did have somewhere important he needed to be, he made that point very clear.
I scroll to Finn’s number on my speed dial and it rings three times before he picks up.
“What’s the story?” Finn asks.
“Where are you?”
“Look right behind you, the black van.” He answers laughing.
I roll my eyes and hang up, making my way to the van. The door slides open when I get to it and I hop inside where I find only Finn and Wolf. I’d expected there to be a bunch of slayers in here.
“It’s just you out tonight then?” I ask.
Finn frowns. “If you hadn’t noticed, we’ve had an awful lot of casualties lately. Most of our best men have either been killed or dangerously injured.”
“Right, well keep an eye on Crimson’s car park,” I say, climbing into the front seat beside Finn. “Ethan should be leaving any minute now.”
Finn’s expression is questioning. “You got a lead on Pamphrock’s kid?”
“Just follow his car, I think that wherever he’s going it’s where they’re keeping Rebecca. I overheard one of Ethan’s phone conversations, he hadn’t been speaking English, but I managed to glean enough to know he was referring to a little girl.”
Finn’s gaze suddenly fills with determination, and a minute later Ethan’s Cadillac pulls out of the night club. We follow a few cars behind him as he drives through some of the more upper class residential areas of the city, a little close to where Ethan himself resides.
Finn curses under his breath. “Fucking leeches always like to live in luxury.” He’s glancing out the window at the fancy houses we pass by. Houses that probably cost several million to buy. Wolf rests his head on my shoulder and I rub him on the nose.
“Where do you think he’s headed?”
“I’ll give you three guesses,” says Finn, just as Ethan’s car stops at a pair of big black gates that lead into a huge mansion. He rolls down his window to talk into the speaker, and a minute later the gates slowly open and close once Ethan’s car has gone inside.
“Whose house is it?” I ask, glancing at Finn.
“Whitfield’s, did you even have to ask?”
“Fuck.”