Broken Heart 07 Cross Your Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

ruckus, so it must have been a brief, if brutal, altercation.
    “He hit me,” answered Damian. “So, I hit him back, Liebling. His skull is like marble.”
    “Tez!” I studied his banged-up face.
    “I didn’t know who he was,” he said. He squinted at me. “Still don’t. He says you called him.”
    “Of course I did.” I supposed it might’ve helped matters if I’d thought to inform Tez about Damian’s imminent arrival, or had told the werewolf to expect to meet a were-jag. It didn’t occur to me that Damian would arrive so quickly. I really was off my game today.
    Well. Enough was enough. I needed to get control of the situation—and myself. I made up two bags of ice, and gave one to Damian. I slapped Tez’s hand out of the way and pushed the bag onto his bruised cheek.
    “Ow! Careful, princess.”
    I ignored him and focused on pressing the ice pack carefully against his injury. “Damian is the head of security. We must tell him about the skeleton I found and the attack.” I glanced apologetically at Tez. “I’m sorry I forgot to tell you”—I paused to look over my shoulder and smiled at Damian—“or you, about each other.”
    “You wearing the black ones?” Tez asked, as if he didn’t even hear me.
    I gaped at him.
    His gaze dropped to my waist and he spent an inordinate amount of time perusing my southern region. “ ’Cause I really liked those.”
    “Must you insist on embarrassing me?” I hissed.
    “I dunno. Are you really embarrassed?”
    I wasn’t. Not much. I was actually both irritated and thrilled that he flirted so outrageously with me and didn’t care who was watching. Then I had another flash of insight: He was letting Damian know of his interest in me. It was the testosterone-filled equivalent of yelling, “Dibs!”
    Now I was completely irritated.
    “Cotton panties, full-cheek coverage,” I said, plopping the ice bag into his hand. “Beige.
    With an extra-wide waistband.”
    “You are a cruel woman.”
    I sniffed, and turned toward the lycanthrope. If I didn’t know better, I’d say something like amusement sparkled in Damian’s eyes. But he smiled so rarely and seemed to take everything so seriously that everyone had decided he didn’t have a sense of humor.
    “I found a dead body last night,” I said.
    Damian’s eyes went wide.
    “Bones,” corrected Tez. “Old bones.
    Buried in the woods.” He reached over and patted the top of the skull. “See? She brought back a souvenir.”
    “Oh. That’s different,” said Damian. “You know we find graves every now and again—usually family plots that are unmarked or have lost their headstones. Eva told us that sometime in the 1920s, the town moved its cemetery to the current location. Not every body made it.”
    Tez snorted a laugh.
    I slanted him a look.
    “What? I like gallows humor.”
    Damian frowned, as if he didn’t quite get the joke. I sighed. “I think I should talk to Patsy.” I explained to him about the disembodied voice and the choking incident. He looked concerned, but I’m almost positive it was because he was worried about the security issues of an unknown and violent assailant. Damian was very good at his job, and didn’t let pesky emotion get in the way of performing his duties.
    “What about him?” asked Damian.
    We both turned to look at Tez.
    “I have an invite,” said Tez. He turned around and bared his shoulder, revealing a tattoo: a red heart with double swords piercing it.
    “It’s a temporary tattoo,” said Damian, “developed by Brady and Dr. Michaels. It allows prospective residents to pass through the Invisi-shield. After ten days, the tattoo dissolves”—he sent a narrowed looked to Tez—“and so does the invitation.”
    The Invisi-shield was a creation of technological genius and old-world magic. All the residents’ DNA codes were programmed within it, which allowed us to go in and out without problems. Anyone who didn’t belong in Broken Heart couldn’t get