He waved off my words. “Forget them. Considerme your new freelance bodyguard.”
“You’d do that?”
“Of course I would.” He glanced around the street and then met my eyes. Well, our dark sunglasses met each other, anyhow. “If you really trust Thierry, then I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I’ll look elsewhere. See what I can dig up. And if you want to learn some self-defense, I can teach you. That’s sort of what I do, you know.”
“Well—”
“In fact, I think that’s an excellent idea. If you insist on putting yourself into these dumbass situations . . .”
I frowned. “Dumbass?”
“Let me rephrase that.” A smile twigged at his lips. “Stupidsituations . . . ”
My frown deepened. “Hey!”
“Then you should at least know how to protect yourself.” His smile got bigger. “And I’m an excellent teacher.”
“You’re willing to teach me self-defense.”
He closed the distance between us with a step and reached out to stroke the side of my face. “Of course
I would. And we can start whenever you—”
Lenny appeared out of nowhere and tackled Quinn to the sidewalk. He had a knife out, pressed to
Quinn’s throat.
“Lenny, no!” I grabbed his huge python of an arm. “He’s a friend of mine.”
Lenny eased the pressure of the blade off Quinn’s neck, leaving behind a thin line of red. Quinn bared his fangs and growled angrily at his attacker, pushing him off so he could stand up.
We’d attracted a bit of attention. People were passing us—at a safe distance—with their mouths open in shock. Cars slowed on the street as they drove by.
“He grabbed you,” Lenny explained.
I frowned at him. “He didn’t grab me. And besides, where were you a while ago when I got dragged into the alleyway by the hunter?”
“I . . . uh . . . had to . . . um. Nature called.” He touched his right ear and I noticed that he wore one of those tiny communication earpieces. “Janie said it would be all right.”
I felt frustration welling up inside me. “Quinn, are you okay?”
He gingerly touched his wounded neck. “Never better.”
I shook my head. “You probably regret coming back to Toronto, don’t you?”
He tore his narrow-eyed gaze away from the bodyguard to look at me. His expression softened. “Not at all. Shit like this just makes life a little more interesting.” He turned back to Lenny. “Touch me again,
asshole, and it’ll be the last thing you do. And if you’re being paid to watch Sarah’s back, I suggest you pull your head out of your ass. If she comes to any harm, you’ll have me to answer to.”
Lenny smirked. “Oh, yeah, and who in the hell do you think you are?”
“I’m a lot of things, depending on my frame of mind. And right now, I’m thinking I could be your worst nightmare.”
Lenny’s eyes narrowed. “Funny, you just look like a nobody to me.” He glanced at me. “Ma’am, I think it would be best if I saw you home. I’ve called a taxi.”
He didn’t wait for an answer, instead moving away to give us a little privacy.
I glanced at Quinn. “I guess I’ll go back to George’s for now. That’s where I’m staying. I’ll be okay.”
He didn’t say anything, instead nodding stiffly, his arms crossed in front of him.
“Listen,” I said after a moment. “Don’t pay any attention to Lenny. He was just being a jerk.”
Quinn snorted. “Lenny? Is that his name?” He shook his head and sighed slowly, a long exhalation that froze the cold air in front of him. “He’s right, you know.”
“About what?”
“About me being a nobody.”
“What are you talking about?”
He was quiet for a moment. “I deserve it. I . . . ” He absently rubbed a hand over his mouth. “I thought coming back to Toronto, looking into the murders, would give me purpose again, but I’m just . . . I don’t know what I’m doing anymore.”
I touched his shoulder. “Is everything okay?”
“With what? Adjusting to my new status of being a little long in the tooth?” He took a shaky breath. “I’m managing.”
“No cure for what ails us, you know.”
Quinn had been my partner in trying to find the cure for vampirism. Unfortunately, the trail led us to a dead end. Emphasis on the dead. And that was the end of that pipe dream.
“No, there isn’t. So I guess we don’t have much of a choice in the matter, do we?”
“No, I guess we don’t.”
He adjusted his sunglasses and managed to smile a little at me. “That’s why people like us have to stick together. We’ve got a lot in common, you and me.”
“Yeah, I guess we kind of do.”
He looked at me fiercely. “That’s why I don’t want you to do anything stupid and get yourself killed.
You hear me?”
The cab pulled up alongside us. Lenny approached and stood, arms folded, beside me.
Quinn helped me get all my bags into the backseat. I was about to get in, but he grabbed my hand to stop me.