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floor. Go get a bucket and clean it up and next time be more careful.”

    The guy looked to floor and saw the mess. “Shit, I can’t believe I did that. Sorry, I’ll clean it up right away.” Then, he scooted to the back of the room where a steel sink was located.

    I spun on my heel to find Chase holding my panties and slacks in his hand. A look of shock filled his face. “So, Kellen isn’t the only one who can do that. Care to explain that?”

    “It’s just something I can do,” I replied with a shrug. Taking my clothes from his hand, I quickly got dressed. When I looked up, he didn’t look settled.

    “Not getting off that easy.” He gave me a firm look. “What the hell was that?”

    Okay, so I’ve never really shown him what I could do as a vampire. He knew the basics. I didn’t like the sun and garlic didn’t really kill me—only a sword to the neck could do that—and I needed to drink blood to survive. But this was one thing I kept from him. I thought it might scare him if he knew that I had the ability to warp his mind. “It’s just a talent vampires have. We can alter…um…mortals’
    minds.”

    “Anytime?” His face became a mask of disbelief. “You can just walk up to a person, say anything, and they will obey you?”

    I nodded with a slight grin on my face. It amused me to see him at a loss.

    “I thought when Kellen did that maybe it was just something he could do.” As he finished, his expression shifted to a rebuked look. “You had better not ever attempted that with me.”

    “Of course I haven’t.” I leaned up to kiss his lips, which were very firm. Backing away from him, I turned, headed toward the door and whispered under my breath,

    “Maybe once.”

    “Hadley,” Chase called out behind. “What was that you said?” When I ignored him, he grabbed my arm. I turned back to him to find his expression serious. “What was that?”

    I giggled. “Go, on…Mike’s waiting for you. You don’t want to make him suspicious.” His eyes narrowed, but I continued anyway. “I love you.” I leaned up to kiss his lips, but only firmness met me. No soft kiss in return.

    “If I find out you’ve warped my mind…” His voice held a serious threat. “I will punish you for it.”

    “Ooo…punish me.” I winked. “I might like that.”

    His resolve wavered, the corners of his mouth ever so slightly curved up. “I’m not going to forget this conversation.”

    “I wouldn’t think you would.” There was so much to discuss, including how he truly felt about it all, but now just wasn’t the time. And the intense look in his eyes said his thoughts lingered along the same lines that mine were. His mouth parted obviously to say more on the matter. I put my finger over his lips. “Later.”

    He closed his mouth, his lips firmed into a tight line, and he sighed. “You’re right.”

    He leaned forward and opened the door. “We’ll talk later.”

    We would have the talk. The one I had long avoided. I wasn’t quite sure if I’d be able to explain it all to him. Nor was I sure I knew the answers myself. How was this going to work between the three of us? All I did know was that I had just about everything in this moment that I ever wanted.

    I had Chase. I had Kellen. What else could a girl want or need?

Chapter Six

    With Chase off to filter through the investigation with Mike and Nick, Kellen and I—well Kellen watched while I worked—called the nutty bins in the area. After my tenth call, I knew I was getting nowhere. I slammed down the phone, ran my hands across my face in frustration.

    “Got nothing then?” Kellen asked in a bored voice.

    I lowered my hands from my face and shook my head. My gaze fell back to the phone book. The yellow pages had eleven phone numbers marked. The last— Aurora Psychiatric Hospital. If this wasn’t the one we needed, it meant we had to do more research into Chad McKinney’s life. Truthfully, with the weight of the missing