Tempting Danger Read Online Free PDF Page B

the impression my alibi doesn’t cover the time Fuentes was killed.”
    “What alibi?”
    “I have numerous witnesses to my whereabouts from nine-thirty on, including several humans, which helps. But I was alone from late afternoon until I left for the club.”
    “Hmph. I can get you witnesses for that period easily enough, but they’ll be lupi. Cops and juries don’t trust a lupus’s testimony.”
    Rule’s lips twitched. “Maybe they have reason.”
    Isen chuckled. “Maybe they do. Okay, here’s what you do. First, find out if it really was a lupus who killed the man. Wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to pin his sins on one of us.”
    “That had occurred to me. I’ve spoken to a reporter who’s willing to exchange information, but he doesn’t have anything yet. Given what Cullen told us, though—”
    “Which may or may not be true.”
    “He was right about the attack on you.”
    “But his warning came too late, didn’t it? If he was trying to convince me of his bona fides—calm down, boy. I can practically smell you bristling over the phone. I know he’s your friend, and I’m not discounting what he said. But I’m not swallowing it whole, either. He’s clanless.”
    “But not outlaw.”
    “A rogue is, by definition, insane.”
    There was nothing Rule could say to that. “We know something is cooking.”
    “But not what, or who the cooks are.” Isen sounded weary. “Guesses, that’s all we have. I need facts. The cops may stumble across some. I need to know what they find out, and you need to stay out of jail. The obvious solution is for you to seduce that pretty detective.”
    Rule felt sucker-punched. It took him a second to get his breath back, and all he could think of to say was, “What makes you think she’s pretty?”
    Another deep, rumbling chuckle. “You can hide a lot of things from a lot of people, but I’m not just your Rho, I’m your father. Think I can’t tell when you’re attracted to a woman?”
    Isen had more questions and instructions. Rule answered with half his mind. The other half was screaming at him to tell his father he couldn’t seduce Lily Yu for such a reason, that she was . . . she might be . . . might be, he reminded himself. He didn’t know. One whiff wasn’t proof.
    “Attraction aside,” he said, “it would help if I could tell her some of our suspicions.”
    “Don’t tell her anything,” Isen snapped. “She won’t believe you. It would interfere with gaining her trust.”
    “You sound as if Nettie let you out of Sleep too soon.”
    “You all think you know more about my body than I do . . . yes, dammit,” he said to Nettie, whose voice Rule could hear in the background. “I know you’ve got a piece of paper saying you do. Think I’m impressed?”
    Rule could picture Nettie standing near her patient’s bed, arms crossed. He heard her saying that she did know a lot more about Isen’s body than he did, and he ought to be glad of that, since he was an idiot.
    “We think you have no idea of your limits,” Rule told him soothingly, worried by the querulous note in Isen’s voice. His father was not a querulous man. “Besides, I’m scared of Nettie. She’s already threatened me.”
    That brought a chuckle, but it lacked strength. “You should be. Damned tyrant . . . no, you will not,” he said, but the last was addressed to Nettie, not his son.
    Rule heard both sides of the argument that followed. Nettie won. A few minutes later, she came on the line. “I’ve put him back into Sleep. This time he’s staying under for twenty-four hours.”
    He ran a hand over his head. “He’ll be fuzzy after so long in Sleep. Of course, if he needs it—”
    “Rule, you saw his wounds. There’s nothing he can’t heal, but until he grows some of those bits back, his condition is not going to be stable. Unless you covet your father’s job—”
    He growled.
    “Don’t be so touchy. The plain fact is that you’re heir. If the Rho dies,