Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Collection 6-10 by Laurell K. Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page B

said.
    I thought about that for a minute. “You’re right. One of the reasons we’re still dating is you don’t pull macho crap on me. I apologize. I should have warned you.”
    He glanced at me with eyes that were still pale and wolfish. “Did I just win an argument?”
    I smiled. “I admitted I was wrong. Is that the same thing?”
    “Exactly the same thing.”
    “Then give yourself a point.”
    He grinned at me. “Why can’t I stay mad at you, Anita?”
    “You’re a very forgiving person, Richard. One of us has to be.”
    He pulled into my parking lot for the third time that night. “You can’t stay at your place tonight. The door is in pieces.”
    “I know.” If I’d been kicked out of my apartment because it was being painted, I had friends I could stay with, or a hotel, but the bad guys had proven they didn’t care who got hurt. I couldn’t risk anybody, not even strangers in the next room at a hotel.
    “Come home with me,” he said. He parked in an empty space closest to the stairs.
    “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Richard.”
    “The shotgun blast wouldn’t have killed me. I’d have healed, because it wasn’t silver shot. How many of your other friends can say that?”
    “Not many,” I said quietly.
    “I’ve got a house set back in a yard. You won’t be risking innocent bystanders.”
    “I know you have a yard, Richard. I’ve spent enough Sunday afternoons there.”
    “Then you know I’m right.” He leaned towards me and his eyes had bled back to their normal brown. “I have a guest room, Anita. It doesn’t have to be more than that.”
    I stared at him from inches away. I could feel his body like a force just out of reach. It wasn’t his otherworldly wolf powers. It was simply sheer physical attraction. It was dangerous agreeing to go to Richard’s house. Maybe not to my life, but to other things.
    If Jimmy the Shotgun had had a partner inside the apartment tonight, I’d be dead now. I’d been so busy concentrating on killing him that a second perp could have blown me away. Edward had told his contact no by now, and it takes a little while to find another hitter of Edward’s caliber. So, instead of waiting, they hired cheap and local, taking the chance that cheap might take me out and they’d be saved several hundred grand. Or maybe they wanted me dead really quickly for some reason that I didn’t understand. Either way, they wanted me dead pretty damn badly. Usually, when someone wants you dead that badly, they succeed. Not tonight or tomorrow, but unless Edward and I could find out who had put the contract out on me, the line of talent would just keep coming.
    I stared into Richard’s face, almost close enough to kiss. I thought about never seeing him again. About never touching him again. About never satisfying that growing hunger that perfumed the air whenever I was with him. I touched his face, lightly running my fingertips down his cheek. “Okay.”
    “You look so serious. What are you thinking, Anita?”
    I leaned in and kissed him. “Blood, death, and sex. What else is there?”
    We got out of the car. I filled my automatic fish feeder full of enough food for a week. In a week’s time, if the assassin was still after me, and if I was still alive, I’d have to comeback. All the bad guys had to do was stake out my fish tank, and they had me if they were patient enough. Somehow I didn’t think they would be.
    I packed a few things, including my stuffed toy penguin, Sigmund, every weapon I owned, a few clothes, an outfit for tomorrow’s date with Jean-Claude. Yeah, probably I wouldn’t be going, but I didn’t want to come back to the apartment, not for anything. I left a message on Ronnie’s machine. We usually worked out together on Saturday morning, but I didn’t want Ronnie in the line of fire. She was a private detective, but Ronnie wasn’t a shooter, not like I was. She had a certain respect for life that could get you killed.
    Richard waited