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Ana shrugged and went to untie her horse. They rode single file for a while, then Ty made a right turn. After a while longer, they came out past tilled land that hadn’t been planted.

Ty stopped his horse under an ancient oak whose massive branches nearly touched the ground, providing a perfect hiding place. “Look at that,” he muttered when Ana stopped beside him. “I was thinking there’d be a pumping station.”

There was a paved lot. And a nondescript cinder-block structure painted white, big enough for small trucks to drive into. There weren’t any.

But there were several armed guards.

“Looks like a storage facility.” She narrowed her eyes. “And that has to be a loading bay. Those doors roll up.”

“I don’t think Salvation’s Crossing is selling spring water, do you?” Ty asked in a low voice.

She scowled. “They’re not pumping blood through pipes that size, either,” she said.

“Maybe not blood in its liquid form, but what about containers, vacuum tube propulsion—”

Ana’s response was tense. “That’s quite a theory. The question is can you prove it. The answer is no.”

He glanced at her and sighed. Fuck. He’d known this was coming. Could see with every day that went by, each time he came back from a scouting mission without incriminating evidence, she was convincing herself she’d been right—that Miguel and Gloria were innocent of wrongdoing. That there was no cult. That Belladonna was wrong. “Give me a chance,” he urged. “We haven’t been here long enough to rule anything out. They’re vampires. They work with vampires. Where there are vampires, human blood is bound to be a big business.”

“I want to go.”

“Ana, listen to me—”

Only she didn’t. She dug her heels into the chestnut’s sides and galloped away. It was Ty’s turn to follow.

Once they were over the large hill and into a grove of oaks, he yelled, “Stop, damn it.” When she didn’t, he galloped up to her and grabbed her horse’s reins, bringing it to a gradual stop. Both their horses’ flanks were heaving from the hard run.

Ana immediately bounded off her horse and began walking back toward the compound.

Ty dismounted and grabbed her arm. “I need to tell you what I learned from Carly—”

“Fuck you. Fuck her.”

He shook her. “You might be interested in what she had to say. She had news about Ramona and Becky Montes—”

“What? That Ramona’s husband has been arrested for abuse? Because from what they’ve told me, he should be.”

“He can’t. He’s dead. And so are his wife and daughter.”

Ana froze then jerked away from him. “Wh—what are you talking about?”

“The women claiming to be Ramona and Becky Montes are imposters.”

She backed several steps away from him. “You’re crazy.”

“I’m not.”

“They look just like the pictures you showed me.”

“Then they had damn good plastic surgeons. At least, that’s what Carly suspects. I talked to her earlier via my satellite phone. The signal’s encrypted.” When she glanced at the horses, and more specifically their saddles, he shook his head. “No bugs. I checked.”

“Fine. Then tell me—how can you and Carly know these women are imposters?”

“Because two women, burned beyond recognition, were ID’d from their dental records. Ramona and Becky were killed weeks ago, right around the time they left to join the Crossing.”

“Oh, God,” Ana whispered. “I didn’t even know them and—” She shook her head and took a deep breath. “So fine. The Ramona and Becky I’ve been talking to are imposters. That doesn’t mean Miguel or Gloria know it. Or that they’re conspirators in anything illegal.”

“No, it doesn’t,” he conceded, “but—”

“But nothing, Ty,” Ana said. “I want out.”

He’d suspected it was coming but her bald statement still shocked him.

“Gloria is happy here,” she urged. “Salvation’s Crossing is what she wants.”

“And the vampire thing?”

She shrugged. “It’s the new reality, right? Have you seen any vampires besides Miguel and Gloria? Even if
some are hiding out here, that doesn’t mean there’s blood slave trafficking going on.”

She was right, damn her. As far as he knew, Ty himself was the only vampire to have entered Salvation’s Crossing since they’d arrived, and he’d only been served animal blood. But something was going on. They just needed to snoop around, find out more. The what and the where. And to do that, they needed more time.

Time she didn’t seem willing to give him any longer.

“What happened, Ana?” he asked quietly.

“Nothing! That’s the point. Nothing’s happened. Salvation’s Crossing is doing some good. You saw it for yourself. All those happy kids—”

“We saw what someone wanted us to see. People are surprisingly cooperative when guns get pointed at them.”

“I haven’t seen that happening, have you?”

Ty didn’t have to mention the armed guards. She couldn’t have forgotten them—or the car that had followed them. “Something’s going on,” was as much as he wanted to say. “I know it. And on some level, so do you. That’s why you’re scared.”

She raised a hand to her forehead and rubbed it. “You’re confusing me.”

“No. I’m challenging you. You want so badly to believe nothing’s going on here, but you’re starting to have doubts. Why?”

“I—I don’t know. Nothing concrete. Just a feeling. And I can’t suspect my family … my
friend
 … based on a feeling.”

The way she emphasized “friend” had him narrowing his eyes. “You’re talking about Miguel?”

She looked like she was going to deny it, then sighed. “It was what he said—or maybe the way he said it. It made me think … maybe he does love me … too much. Only nothing’s happened.”

“Let’s keep it that way.”

She seemed to think about what he was asking. “How long are we going to stay here if nothing shows up? How long is it going to take until you’re satisfied?”

“I don’t know. I—”

“Well, I do,” she said. “I’ll help you. We’ll scour this place from top to bottom. And we’re going to start with your theory about the pipes. If someone was going to take human blood, bottle it, and use the pipes to transport it to that loading bay, where’s the most likely place they’d draw the blood?”

“The infirmary,” Ty said immediately.

Ana nodded. “Then let’s start there. We’ll start tonight and I’ll give you two days, Ty. If we don’t come up with anything after that, we leave. Deal?”

Ty hesitated, then nodded. “Deal.”

Ana turned to head back to their horses.

“Hold on a minute,” he said with a hand on her arm. “We have a few minutes before the place locks down and we can search the infirmary, right?”

“Yes. So?”

He pointed to a patch of new grass surrounded by wild lilies. “Have you ever made love surrounded by nature?” He couldn’t believe he actually had the gall to suggest it. They were both frustrated as hell. They’d been talking about underground systems to transport bottled blood for sale.

None of it mattered.

Two days. Ana had given him two days to find something or they were leaving. That meant he had two guaranteed days left with her and he wasn’t wasting any opportunity he had to be with her.

She frowned. Then, just when he thought she was going to walk away, she asked him a question instead. “What exactly do you have in mind?”

*   *   *

It turned out Ty had a lot in mind. Not all-out sex, but close enough to it so anyone looking would think they had. By the time they returned the horses to the stables and got back to the main house, she hustled back to their suite in hopes of avoiding anyone in her state of flushed disarray. It was just her luck that she ran into Gloria.

Her sister looked her over and laughed. “Look at you, doing the Walk of Shame. Ty is hot stuff, huh?”

Ana cleared her throat. “Yeah. He is. I can’t lie.”

Gloria’s gaze strayed to Ana’s throat, where Ty had deliberately left his mark on her. To her surprise, Gloria stepped forward and lightly touched the small puncture wounds. Ana forced herself to hold still.

Gloria smiled. “He seems to make you happy.”

But was it just her imagination or did Gloria’s eyes harden?

“He does,” Ana replied.

“So are you and Ty going to marry? You’d have cute kids.”

The question floored her. She tried to imagine what a child of hers and Ty’s would look like. All she could picture was a little vampire baby with silver hair and silver pupils. It didn’t matter. It was still adorable. And Ana knew that if she was ever to have Ty’s baby, vampire or not, she’d love it just the same.

Because she loved Ty.

Funny how Gloria didn’t ask any questions about that.

Her sister reached toward her and Ana flinched. But all Gloria did was push aside the collar of her shirt and pick up the delicate gold chain Ana kept hidden beneath her clothes, the one that was supposed to prevent her or
any other vampire from reading Ana’s mind or exercising persuasion over her.

Gloria rubbed the chain between her fingers. “Pretty,” she murmured before releasing it.

Ana tried to swallow past the guilt clogging her throat. She told herself there was no reason to be guilty. That her deception was for the purpose of proving Gloria’s innocence to Ty.

Her sister turned when she heard Miguel calling her from downstairs. Then she looked into Ana’s eyes and walked away without saying good night.

Later that night, Ty and Ana searched the infirmary but found no evidence of anything suspicious. Silently, they’d returned to their room and made love once again. Since then, a thin moon had risen and set. Ana had been sound asleep for a long time, her arm draped across his chest. Ty refused to disturb her, even though his body was half paralyzed by hours without moving. Even though he could still hear the echo of that strange male voice in his head.

I know your weakness
.

It had only been said once, but Ty heard it over and over again. Because he knew exactly what the statement meant.

His weakness was the woman sleeping in his arms.

And someone—someone Ty suspected had to be a powerful vampire, maybe the same vampire that had been protecting Ana all this time and wasn’t Miguel as Ty had initially suspected—knew it.

Beside him, Ana stirred and murmured his name. Ty turned his head and pressed a kiss to her sleep-flushed cheek.

“Shh,” he whispered. “I’m here. I’ll always do my best to protect you.” He tried to say he’d keep her safe. That
nothing would harm her. That he wouldn’t let anything harm her.

But he couldn’t say the words.

He wanted them to be true, but part of him doubted his ability to actually protect her.

How could he win a fight with a vampire powerful enough to invade his mind yet remain unseen? Unidentified?

Ty wrapped his arms tighter around Ana. He might not win but …

“I’d die for you, Ana. I love you.”

CHAPTER
THIRTY-SEVEN

The next day, Ty sat at a picnic table across from the compound
laundry facility. The wood was smooth and new. No carved initials, no emblems. He didn’t know why he’d expected to see any.

The laundry workers seemed to be mostly women from what he could see through the steamy windows. Red bins trundled toward the low building on a noisy conveyor belt, holding what looked like towels and linens. The women shoving the bins from a truck onto the belt didn’t look his way, calling to each other in Spanish.

He slipped the encrypted phone out of his pocket and checked his messages. Carly had texted him the results of the drone images he’d requested.

Second pipe inactive. Leads to portion of the main house next to kitchen. Check it out then plan your exit strategy
.

That last part surprised Ty.

?
he texted back.

Have a bad feeling. Need to regroup. Over and out
. Which was Carly’s way of saying the conversation was done.

Shit. She was spooked. Carly didn’t spook easily. Now Ty was spooked even more than he had been.

But he also had a new lead.

An area next to the kitchen to check out.

He just needed Ana to help him with his cover.

*   *   *

“Cherry pie?” Ana said in an amused voice. “Honestly, Ty, you get the weirdest cravings.” She turned to Mrs. Tobia and smiled. “Thank you so much for letting us use the kitchen. Cooking together is
one
of our favorite activities,” she said in Spanish.

The older woman laughed at Ana’s joke.

As she left, Ana fiddled with various supplies until she and Ty felt they were alone. Ty pointed to a hallway to the left of the kitchen. “Stay close,” he mouthed.

She did. Methodically, they searched each room off the kitchen. Eventually, they came to the final room and still hadn’t found anything.

After scanning the room for bugs with his smartphone, Ty cursed. “I was sure we’d find something!” Ty explained. “Those pipes …” He shook his head. “You were right, Ana. Maybe there isn’t anything bad going on here. Let’s get back to the kitchen and make that pie in case Mrs. Tobia returns.” With a defeated sigh, he left.

Ana was about to follow him, but she paused to look around the room. The walls were bare, without pictures or a single piece of furniture or wall sconces. It was essentially wasted space. Why?

After a brief hesitation, she left, too, but the question stayed in her mind. She thought about it the rest of the day. By sunset, she still didn’t have an answer. But she did have a plan. One that involved retrieving the bottle of luminol she’d brought with her.

Twenty minutes later, she and Ty were back inside the bare room by the kitchen, staring at what she’d discovered.

The luminol revealed latent blood on the room’s floor. Not just traces of blood, but lots of it. The spatters outlined
black squares, evenly spaced. Ty visualized the chairs that had been there. An irregular shape in one corner. He could almost see the curled-up corpse of a victim who’d bled out on the floor, neglected until it was too late by the ghouls in charge.

The outline was big and blocky. A man. Had he tried to pull out the needle draining every drop of his blood? Tried to escape?