Oh crap. I suddenly remembered who I was talking to, and realized what was coming. “Yeah?”

“I know you guys get rid of evidence, but she wouldn’t have taken a little girl’s body, right?”

I flinched. “Yeah, she would have,” I said soberly. “If a vampire really killed Emily Hess, and it looked obvious enough, Olivia would have taken the body to an incinerator and had it destroyed. The family would never have found out what had happened.” Plenty of bones had gone into Artie’s furnace over the years, and not all of them were from adults.

Jesse searched my face. “But you’ve never done that, right?” His voice sounded just like Corry’s had when she asked me if vampires and werewolves were evil. Like he was begging me to tell him it wasn’t true.

But I couldn’t. Oh, I could have lied, I suppose, but there was a part of me that had been eaten up by this, and that part thought I deserved what was coming to me. “Once. A teenage boy, maybe fourteen.” I cringed at the memory. The vampire hadn’t actually drained the kid’s blood, though just drinking from him was bad enough. Instead, though, the vamp had pushed too hard while he was feeding and broken the fourteen-year-old’s neck. Necks are delicate when you have enhanced strength; that’s part of why vampires don’t usually feed from them anymore.

The puncture marks were enough for Dashiell to call me in for body disposal. Then he had promised me that the vampire would die, too. I’d had nightmares about that one for months.

Jesse was leaning back in his seat, wincing as if I’d just slapped him. “Every time I think I’m getting to know you, it turns out I’m wrong,” he said, with quiet, exacting anger laced through his voice. “I’ve worked cases like that, where a child’s body was never found, and it’s excruciating.” He shook his head. “I just...I never would have thought you’d be capable of something like that.”

I said nothing, staring miserably into my tea.

He nodded to himself, as though that were an answer, and stood up, dropping money on the table. “I know we’re on a deadline, but I need...I need to take a walk. I’ll call you in a little while.”

“Jesse, wait—” I said feebly.

He turned and stiffly walked out. I sat there for a full minute without moving. And then I remembered that I hadn’t told him about the meeting with Jay.

Shit.

Chapter 27

Ignoring the huffy blonde, who was still glaring in my general direction, I pulled out my phone and hit Jesse’s number, but the call didn’t even go through to voice mail, which meant he was actively avoiding me. Great. Now what the hell was I supposed to do?

My phone rang in my hand, making me jump, but when I glanced at the caller ID, it wasn’t Jesse’s name that came up. It was my brother’s. Oh, great. My thumb automatically slid toward the Ignore button, but then stopped. Honestly, what did I have to lose at this point? Without Jesse, there wasn’t a hell of a lot I could do, anyway, and if this ended up being my last night on earth...I should probably talk to my brother. I flipped the phone open.

“Scarbo?”

The pet name twisted in my stomach. “Hi, Jack. What’s up?” I said with false cheer.

He coughed nervously, and I smiled despite myself, picturing him scrubbing his hand over his hair. “Uh...Wow, I guess I didn’t really expect you to answer. It’s been a while.”

“Yeah, I know. Um, is everything okay?”

His voice perked up. “Oh, yeah, everything’s great. Sorry if I, you know, worried you or anything.”

There was another awkward pause, and suddenly, I felt ridiculous. Were we really having this conversation? We sounded like strangers, for crying out loud. This was my brother, who’d driven across Esperanza at three in the morning to pick me up from my first drinking party, who’d punched the first boy who’d broken my heart. This was Jack.

Do better, I told myself sternly. Be better at this. “How are things with you, Jack?”

He laughed nervously. “Good, actually. Really good. That’s kind of why I’m calling. I got a job in the city. I’m moving to LA.”

For a second there, my heart stopped beating. Jack, coming here? Having an entry point into my life, and therefore my world?

Not. Good.

“That’s really great, Jack,” I said lamely. “Um...What kind of work is it?”

“Pretty much the same thing I’m doing now, but there’s a whole research aspect, too. It’s a private company that makes medical equipment, and they want some professional lab techs to put new designs through the specs, try it out with all kinds of testing. But here’s the best part,” he continued, and his voice was suddenly bursting with excitement, “they’re going to help me pay for med school. They want me to get my MD, you know, and then keep working for them. They have a whole bunch of education incentives....” He gushed for a while about 401K benefits and med school, but I wasn’t listening anymore. This was terrible.

Unless, of course, I didn’t live through the night, in which case it was fine.

“Sorry, Scarbo, I know I’m going on and on. I’m just really excited, you know, and I was hoping maybe you and I could get together soon. It’s been too long.” I actually heard him swallow. “I know that I wasn’t the best big brother or anything after the accident—”

“Jack, you don’t—”