Danger Calls. Caridad Pineiro
his dislike for the handsome NYPD detective. His face hardened slightly and his gaze narrowed. “How do you know we can trust him? He and I are—”
“I know he had issues with you during the Williams investigation, but if I vouch for you—”
“He’ll be your willing lapdog?” Ryder asked testily.
Melissa uneasily shifted her glance from Ryder to Diana, then to Sebastian as she said, “Detective Daly doesn’t need to know much. Just that we want more details on the crash.”
“We may not even need Daly,” Sebastian added and wiggled his fingers as if he was busy typing on a keyboard. “Most records are electronic now. A little hack here, a little hack there—”
Diana angrily slashed her hand through the air. “Hermanito, don’t even think about it.”
Sebastian held his hands up in surrender. He knew his sister well enough to know she wasn’t kidding. “We do it whatever way you want.”
“Whatever way I want.” Ryder slammed his hands flat on the table. “It’s my secret—”
“But it’s my parents who were possibly murdered,” said Melissa as she jumped to her feet. “And it’s my neck that’s on the line if whoever took the journal wants more.”
She looked from one person to the other, and finally to Sebastian. “So unless there’s a risk that the good detective will nose around for info on Ryder, I don’t see why we shouldn’t ask him for help.”
Melissa glanced at Ryder, but he just muttered, “I have no problems with Daly so long as he keeps out of my business.”
Melissa coughed uneasily to draw attention back to herself after a too-long silence. “So we’re done, right? Diana, you’ll let us know when you have more news.”
“And I’ll get to work on the equipment and programs,” Sebastian said, jumping out of his seat and grabbing Melissa’s hand. “I think I owe you coffee and dessert.”
Once out on the street, Sebastian took a deep breath. “It was getting a little—”
“Tense up there,” Melissa said, buttoning up against the night chill and burying her hands in the deep pockets of her wool peacoat.
“Was it me, or was Ryder getting all alpha male?” Sebastian asked as they strolled westward.
Melissa rolled her eyes. “It was definitely getting run-with-the-wolves with him.”
Sebastian chuckled and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “And you. That was pretty alpha to call the shots.”
A broad smile erupted on Melissa’s face. “It was, wasn’t it?”
“Is Ryder generally so—”
“Jealous?” Melissa raised an eyebrow to underscore her query.
“Sí. Would he get, you know…all demony if Daly got in his face?” As he said it, Sebastian made a snarly face and curled his hands as if they were claws ready to scratch someone.
Melissa chuckled. “I’ve never seen Ryder get fangy except to feed.”
“Was it weird? To see him…What’s the right term? Change? Transform? Seems to me if I’m going to be dealing with this—”
“You don’t have to deal with Ryder, Sebastian. That’s my job.” Clearly uncomfortable with the new direction of their conversation, she said, “You did mention dessert, didn’t you?”
“I did, only I’m not really a sweets kind of guy.”
She paused in her walk, forcing him to stop and face her. “That’s a shame,” she said.
Puzzled, he asked, “Why?”
“Because dessert is the best part of the meal. It’s the reward after a hard day.”
Sebastian eyed her up and down and shook his head. “No offense, but it seems to me you don’t pack away dessert all that often.”
Melissa examined herself, beginning with the coat she wore. She realized for the first time that it hung loose on her. It had fit just right when she had bought it, but that had been before the death of her parents. Before her world had gone topsy-turvy. Meeting Sebastian’s gaze, she said, “You’re right. It’s been a long time since I’ve had the leisure of getting dessert. Or being able to take long walks with nowhere to go.”
He pointed at her. “Doc, don’t ever let it be said you’re not direct and to the point. So a mobile dessert is in order.”
Melissa grabbed his finger and gave it a playful shake. “Around the block. There’s a tiny coffee shop that has an awesome hot chocolate they drown with whipped cream and little drizzles of caramel.”
Sebastian grinned and looped his arm through hers. “Sounds like a plan.”
Sebastian was used to working alone. It went with the territory of being a computer programmer. Despite that, he had been a trifle uneasy as he set up the equipment in Ryder’s office. What could he blame it on? Maybe the fact that he was alone in an apartment with a vampire?
Not that he wasn’t used to working with night owls, being one himself. Only Ryder was…
A bloodsucking, possibly lethal night owl?
It was crazy, Sebastian told himself as he set up the computer and assorted peripherals so he could commence the scanning. His sister was involved with this thing and Melissa not only lived with him, but was obviously quite fond of him.
He’d wondered about Ryder for days as he worked in his apartment to create the program for saving the scanned images and made arrangements with friends to create a peer-to-peer network to securely hold all the data. He’d tried to concentrate on the technology, but in the back of his mind were questions about Ryder and his relationships with both Diana and Melissa.
Sebastian knew Diana could take care of herself, but Melissa…
Didn’t need a hero, he reminded himself, recalling how capable she had been the other night.
As he kneeled beneath the desk to check the connection of the scanner to the USB port, he reminded himself that all Melissa wanted from him was his techno-knowledge. Nothing else.
“Need anything?”
Sebastian jumped up, banging his head on the bottom of the desktop. “Shit.”
He eased from beneath the desk, rubbing his head as he glared at Ryder, who was standing almost on top of him. “Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
Ryder stepped away. “Not sneaking. I knocked. Repeatedly.”
Sebastian crammed his hands into his jeans pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. “Yeah, well. I didn’t hear you.”
Ryder narrowed his gaze. “You’re uncomfortable around me, aren’t you?”
Evasion was not one of Sebastian’s traits. “You might say that.”
Ryder gave an amused smile and sat down on the sofa at the far end of the room. “There’s no need to worry. I don’t bite humans.”
“You bit my sister,” Sebastian challenged. He leaned against the edge of the desk and tried to adopt a nonchalant stance.
“She told you about that?” There was a hint of surprise in Ryder’s voice.
“We’re close. Have been since before Papi was killed.”
Ryder rubbed his index finger across his lip as he considered the young man across the room from him. He’d sensed something between Sebastian and Melissa and had worried about it.
Sebastian was too young, with a rebelliousness that normally boded ill. Despite that, he’d helped when called upon and Ryder had no doubt Diana