“You were there to help Kelley make the decision, weren’t you? But now you’re looking to do a lap dance with Larry when you couldn’t be bothered with him before? Why? Because he asked Sarah Gott to go to the movies with him this weekend? The moment he’s interested in someone else you’re hot to have him?”

“That’s crude, Zeke.”

“You’re damn right it is. Did you play the ‘how married is he?’ game where you were from? Well, you don’t play that game if you want to work for me. We don’t need any trouble here, and I don’t want to work with someone who wants to see if she can get past the zipper of every married man in town. And don’t think I’m not aware of how much you’ve been taking out of the houses on the sly.”

She’d given him her “I’m not a vanilla-sex kind of girl” smile. “But you haven’t told anyone.”

He’d looked angry and sad and, so much worse, disappointed. “Yeah, Dina, I have. I gave Tolya Sanguinati a list of the houses you’ve worked in case the attorneys reviewing the inventories of valuables report something missing that we should have turned in.”

Fucking bastard. It was tempting to start a rumor that the only reason Zeke and Fagen weren’t interested in sleeping with her was because they were banging each other, but Fagen was interested in Lila Gold and not keeping it a secret, and there were too many other Intuits in town who would contradict her and accuse her of trying to start trouble.

But if she had to turn in everything on the official jobs, she needed to boost her income at the houses Zeke wasn’t touching.

She turned into a driveway, got out of the car, and surveyed the house.

She liked Kelley. She did. He was a nice guy. It wasn’t her fault that he thought adding a little chocolate sauce to vanilla sex was totally adventurous while she liked a little rough and just a touch of mean. Since she wasn’t going to get that from Kelley, why couldn’t she scratch that itch with someone else? It was only sex, after all. And hadn’t he strayed with her, so what was the difference?

Taking two banker’s boxes out of the back seat, Dina studied the house again. Then she looked at the house across the street and two doors down—and knew that’s where she’d find what she was looking for.

* * *

* * *

Hearing a car pull into a driveway nearby, Judd went to the front window and eased the curtain aside. Recognizing the logo painted on the front doors, he swore quietly. Salvagers. He’d chosen this location because he’d had a strong feeling that the salvagers wouldn’t stray this far after finding Charlie Webb’s body, but it looked like he’d been wrong this time.

He watched the woman—one woman—get out of the car. Watched her retrieve boxes from the back seat. Watched her look at the house he’d chosen—and head his way.

No other cars. No other people. Dumb thing to do, coming out here on her own.

But even dumb people knew things. Besides, too many eyes could spot him during the day, and there were a lot of hours before nightfall.

He could think of a few ways she could entertain him. Afterward, he’d take the car and choose another house a couple of streets away. The car, with its logo, would provide him with camouflage and help him slip into town unseen when Parlan challenged the vampire for leadership of Bennett.

This fight for dominance was a risk, sure, but Judd had worked with Parlan long enough to know the man had considered the odds, had calculated the best approach that would give them the winning hand.

Besides, they were stacking the deck with every outlaw gang they knew who could reach Bennett in time for the showdown.

As he heard the woman working on the front door’s lock, Judd looked around the room to make sure he’d been careful. Nothing out of order, nothing to disturb the dust and alert anyone that someone was staying there.

He moved silently, returning to the kitchen and taking out the supplies he’d need from the drawer where he’d stashed them. Plenty of rope. A gag he’d made by threading a thin collar through a small ball that must have been a dog’s toy. A corkscrew. A knife. A lighter and a fork. He put them on the kitchen table, then took up position in the exact spot that would keep her blind to his presence until it was too late.

The front door opened and closed. Stealthy movements, which meant she wasn’t supposed to be here. Wasn’t that perfect? If she wasn’t supposed to be here, no one would think to look for her here.

When she came within range, he moved, striking fast and just hard enough to stun her, just hard enough to keep her confused while he dragged her into the kitchen and secured her to the kitchen table’s legs. The moment she tried to scream, he shoved the ball gag into her mouth and secured it behind her head.

Grabbing her hair, he turned her head so that she could see him over her shoulder. “Are you clean?”

She stared at him, terrified.

“I’m going to play with you for a while. There are plenty of things I can use besides my cock if you have any diseases. So I’ll ask you once more. Are … you … clean?”

She nodded.

“Good.” Judd ran a gentle hand from her shoulder to her hip. “It’s been a long while since I’ve had a chance to indulge like this. A long while.”

* * *

* * *

Dina didn’t know how much time had passed. A few minutes? Hours? He’d done … things … to her. Terrible things. She had a feeling that places inside her were broken now, maybe forever.

She heard him return to the kitchen. She wanted to wail, wanted to scream out the fear. But she knew better than to make a sound, knew what he’d do. What he’d done.

She heard him move to the sink. Heard water running.

His hand came in sight, and in his hand …

“Want it?” he asked.

Water. A dog’s bowl filled with water.

He let her lap some water before setting the bowl on the floor, just out of reach. Another kind of torment.

“Time for us to talk.”

She said nothing.

He laughed softly. “Good girl. I’ll ask questions. You have permission to answer. You raise your voice … Well, you won’t be as valuable to me without your tongue, will you? You understand?”

Dina nodded.

“Say ‘Yes, sir.’ ”

“Yes, sir.” Her voice cracked.

She barely held on to the questions long enough to give him answers. Couldn’t remember what she’d said a moment later. But she told him everything she knew about the Sanguinati and the Wolfgard and that female deputy.

“Anything you want to say?” he asked. “This is your chance.”

Odd how she hadn’t remembered the rose quartz and turquoise pendant until that moment, hadn’t noticed the chain, which now felt like it was slicing into her neck.

“Abby was right,” she whispered.

He leaned toward her. “Say it again.”

“Abby was right. She said this pendant would draw dark things to me.”

He sighed, a sound so filled with satisfaction she hoped—oh, how she hoped—that he was done with her, that he would let her go so that she could find help because there were things inside her that were broken.

“Tell me everything you know about Abigail,” he said. “Everything.”

As his hands performed tiny tortures, she told him everything she knew about Abigail Burch. When she couldn’t think of anything else, he gagged her. Just before he left the kitchen, she felt a sharp pinch on the inside of her thigh. She heard the shower as she watched a red puddle slowly form under her.

He came back and crouched beside her, careful to avoid the puddle. “Still here?” He sounded … cheerful. “You know, I have a feeling that, except for the last cut, if this had been your idea instead of mine, you would have enjoyed it.”

A door opened and closed. A car started.

The light faded.

* * *

* * *

“I wondered when I would hear from you,” Parlan said, struggling to strip any hint of impatience or anger from his voice. No one scolded Judd McCall.

“Had things to do today,” Judd replied. “Found a reliable source that confirmed the law consists of two Wolves and a female deputy. One of the Wolves was injured in a fight not too long ago and is still gimpy. And most of the human residents think the female deputy is a joke, but my source didn’t like the deputy, so that opinion might be skewed.”

“So we have the three cops of sorts and six Sanguinati.” That tallied with what he’d observed.

“There’s also a Panther and a feral boy who might join the fight. And a Wolf runs the bookstore.”

And there was that creature running the saloon. “You think the Panther and bookworm Wolf will be a problem?”

“I think they’ll need to be eliminated to make sure you stay in power,” Judd replied. “Most of the people living here have never handled a gun, let alone know how to use one. If they didn’t object to a bloodsucker running the town, they won’t rebel against you.”

“Well, I know you’ll keep everyone in line, Sheriff McCall.”

“That I will. When do we go?”

“Tomorrow. Lawry is here with my boy, staying out of sight in one of the abandoned houses. And the Bonney boys are here and looking to inflict some hurt on anything that gets in their way.”

“Who else came in?”

“Sleight-of-Hand Slim and Durango Jones have taken rooms at the hotel. William and Wallace Parker are also here. Jones brought some of his men. They’re gathered north of town. The Parkers were supposed to meet up with their men, but the men never showed.”

“Parkers’ men may not have shown up, but there are plenty of others who have, and they’ll join us. Settling down for a while is looking better and better for most of these boys. So the numbers are in our favor.”

The numbers were in their favor. So why did he feel like someone else was dealing the cards? Nothing he could do except play the hand he was dealt.

“We’re going to treat this like a human election with a lot of chest beating and bluster, only nobody gets to vote. The Others wave their weapons; we show ours; they back down because they’ve learned what guns can do—and we take the pot.”

Judd snorted. “They aren’t going to yield.”

“Probably not. But we’ll be seen as issuing a fair challenge and giving the Others a chance to leave town. Whatever happens after that is their fault, not ours.”

“Well then. Sounds like we’ll be sleeping in our own town tomorrow night.”

“Yes, we will.”

* * *

* * *

Abigail left the office building with the rest of the cleaning crew. After seeing her father at the hotel, she’d heeded Jana’s advice to stay away from the town square, but she didn’t like cleaning the houses, and there weren’t that many open businesses that weren’t on the square or on the streets just off the square. Since she didn’t want everyone knowing she was Parlan Blackstone’s daughter, she couldn’t explain why she couldn’t work in the buildings she’d specifically asked for when she’d joined the cleaning company. The woman who ran the company was an Intuit and had started giving her funny looks, as if the sweet Abigail persona was starting to unravel.