Free For Love or Vengeance by Caridad Piñeiro Page A

expression—” he raised his hand and circled a finger around her face—“that’s all we’ll ever be, because there’s another man in your life.”
    With a puff of breath, she chuckled at his comment. “Another man? Can you see a mortal handling me?”
    Gently, he brushed some curls back from her cheek. Just as Miguel had done earlier. “He’s already touched and tasted, Helene. I imagine you’d let him do it again if he tried it again.”
    Which, unfortunately, he wouldn’t.
    Foley stepped away, picked up a bottle of Cuervo and a shot glass, and returned to where she sat at the bar. He set the glass beside hers and refilled both of them.
    He motioned to the shots. “Let’s drink to our confusion.”
    Confusion. An apt way to describe the storm of emotions she’d been experiencing lately. And as peaceful as Daniel seemed on the surface, she’d realized from their night of shared secrets that beneath the calm, he was still troubled.
    “To new…friends, Daniel.” She raised her glass and he picked up his, but leaned forward and whispered, “It’s Foley in here. Don’t want the locals getting too familiar.”
    “Foley it is, then,” she said, and downed the shot.
    The heat of the liquor warmed a path down to her stomach, though the alcohol didn’t do much to her system. Like vampires, there was little that truly affected her. It was more the camaraderie of it, sitting there watching the world go by. Finding a friendly face and sharing with an unlikely ally.
    She enjoyed sitting there talking with Foley and having a drink. Listening to one of his tales of woe—namely that he was thirsting after another bite from the lover of a friend. A woman who had saved his life, but belonged to someone else.
    “Love’s a bitch, Foley,” she said, and he reared back in surprise.
    “Love? You think I love her?” he asked, looking seriously disturbed by the possibility.
    “I think it’s about more than another bite of something tasty. There are lots of tasty bits in here.” Helene swiveled in her seat and waved in the direction of the dozens of women in the bar who would surely satisfy Foley’s blood lust.
    Foley glanced around, but with a shrug he said. “Girls, one and all. Once you’ve had the taste of a real woman…”
    She understood. She’d had her taste of a real man tonight and the flavor lingered. So strongly that, as Daniel had guessed, anything else was second best.
    This time she was the one who grabbed the bottle and refilled the glasses. “Drink up, my friend. Maybe we can wash the taste from our mouths with this fine liquor.”

Chapter Ten
    The elevator doors opened and even from across the room Miguel felt Helene’s presence.
    Didn’t she ever sleep? Then again, he could ask himself the same thing. Lately, the answer would be, “No.”
    His lack of sleep last night had not been about guilt-filled nightmares, but about the current case—and Helene. A lot about Helene. And the craziness of their kiss. After that brief encounter, it had taken him hours to drive her from his thoughts. When sleep had finally claimed him, so had nightmares about the case, sinking their teeth deep into his mind and refusing to let go.
    Miguel had thought about their kiss as he pounded the pavement during a quick jog in the early morning hours. He had wondered how she’d be this morning—playful or withdrawn? Open to moving into another phase in their relationship?
    Or would she reject him? He could understand if she did. They were working on a difficult case and needed to focus.
    Which he’d somehow managed to do during his jog, pushing away thoughts of Helene to concentrate on the investigation. His mind had been tattooed with pictures of the victims and their poses. Poses he knew were a key to finding the killer, if they could only unlock their meaning.
    “G’morning,” he said as he approached her desk.
    A slow, calculated raise of her head communicated her state of mind even before the words left her