Making the Rent the Hard Way - 51

 

"It took my almost dying to make you decide to move in with me?" Luca asked.

He was lying in a bed in a shifter-run hospital—still very pale from all the blood he'd lost, but alive.

My moving in was one of the promises I'd made in the basement of Bracco's house while I was begging, praying, for Luca's life.

I smiled, leaning in to kiss him. "A last resort, but yeah. If I'd said yes the first time you asked, I'd have been there when Bracco arrived, and he wouldn't have been able to kidnap you."

"Not really," Rocky said from the other bed in the room. He was there, recovering from the wounds he'd received before he finally killed Bracco. Orchid had insisted on it, over his protests that he'd heal on his own. "You were out of town when Bracco took him," Rocky pointed out.

"True, but—"

"It's the thought that counts," Orchid said, smiling at me. "I'm sure you'd have fought tooth and nail to save Luca. Well, if you had fangs and claws."

"Damned straight I would have." I was holding Luca's hand, so I squeezed, getting one in return. "What I want to know is, how the hell did he get his hands on you to begin with?"

Luca sighed. "My stupidity. I was at The Lycan Den when someone called me. He said he was an old friend of yours who had just gotten into town, and that he'd called you only to find out you were off on a case."

"Okay. Then what," I asked when Luca didn't continue.

"The reason he wanted to get in touch with you, he said, was to pay you back some money you'd loaned him. He said when he talked to you, earlier in the evening, you told him to get in touch with me, since you wouldn't be back before he had to leave."

"You believed that cock-and-bull story?" I said in disbelief.

Luca grimaced. "He was very convincing. Anyway, he asked if I could meet him at his hotel. I did. He had the money in cash, which he gave me to give you. Then he offered me a drink while asking how you were doing and…you know, idle chatter. I accepted. That's the last thing I remember until I ended up here."

"Next time, don't take drinks from strangers," Rocky said acerbically. "There isn't a bartender in the world who won't caution customers about that when they see it happen."

"Yeah. In my defense, I'm not a bartender, and I wasn't in a bar," Luca protested. "But you're right, and I should have known better."

"Was he a shifter?" I asked.

"Nope. Human, like you, which made his story more believable, I guess."

"Never trust a human if you don't know them," Orchid said, then laughed. "Just kidding, Cade."

"Better be," I grumbled, smiling at her.