Black Magic's Shadow by Kristin McTiernan

Author:Kristin McTiernan [McTiernan, Kristin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781093629125
Published: 2019-04-16T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

I don’t know how much sleep I got before the sun came up, but it wasn’t much. Between the uncomfortable back seat, the cold seeping through my fleece, and the occasional thought of driving off the nearest cliff, whatever nod-off sessions I got didn’t provide much rest.

It was somewhat satisfying to see Cesar hadn’t slept any better than I had, as the door to the Airstream popped open only a few minutes after sun-up. He emerged from the doorway looking haggard but not at all like he’d recently woken up. More like he’d been waiting for his moment.

At the sight of him, I sat up straight in my seat, rolling my neck around to work the kinks out as he approached the car, clearly rehearsing all the shit he wanted to say to me. Fine, let’s have it out then. Let’s lay it all out and see who fucked who over worse.

I unlocked the car doors and leaned back in the seat, working really hard to look blasé about the three hundred pounds of pissed off daddy coming at me.

He yanked open the door across from me but stopped short when our eyes met. “Jesus…”

“What?”

His forehead darted in concern and he stared at me. “I uh…. I’m sorry.”

I screwed up my face, confused as all hell about what he was talking about. He absolutely didn’t walk up to this car like someone fixing to give an apology. “What are you sorry about?”

He looked away, loosely pointing to his own face and said, “I didn’t think he squeezed that hard.”

Ah, the bruises. I leaned forward in my seat so I could see myself in the rearview and holy hell did I look a mess. Lobo had left a perfect hand-shaped bruise around my neck. So perfect, I half expected to see his fingerprints embedded in my skin. But it was the bruises on my face that had brought Cesar up short. Angry purple semi-circles and finger marks dotted my chin and cheeks.

I leaned back in my seat, exhaling hard. “Yep, he did.”

Cesar let out a sigh of his own, seeming to deflate as he sagged against the car door. He rested his head in the crook of his arm for a few seconds, breathing loudly, before giving himself a small nod and hunching over to get into the back seat with me.

It was a testament to how weird our relationship was that only seconds ago we were all wound up for a fight… and now both of us stared at the car ceiling trying not to cry. He hadn’t given me the bruises, but from his perspective, it sure felt like he did. And the sad, guilty look on his face—the same one he’d had when he killed his brother to protect me—was almost enough to make me want to slide across the seat and hug him. Almost.

“Does he do that often?” Cesar mumbled.

“Of course not. He’s not mad at me very often. I always do as I’m told.”

He closed his eyes and worked his face into a grimace.

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