Poisoned Kisses by Stephanie Draven Page B

heard her name on his lips, it was with such disdain. “How did you know?”
    “Because the man who called your creepy pink cell phone gave you away,” Marco replied. “Who is he? Another guy you lured into bed?”
    Bastard . Unable to look at him, she glanced out the window, her gaze turning as cold and hard as the ice that glittered on every surface outside. “If it was a man on the phone, it was Daddy. It was Ares.”
    “Right,” Marco said, then turned around and walked out.
    Kyra was too humiliated to chase after him. Instead, she sat there staring at the world outside the window. At the end of the driveway, in the ditch, she saw a large bird flapping around the crashed car. It’d been useless to try to explain herself to Marco and her mood was as black as that bird against the ice and snow. But the bird wasn’t all black, was it? Even at this distance and through the trees, Kyra was sharp-eyed enough to see a glimpse of red on the bird’s crest. Was that a vulture?
     
    Marco was halfway into his overcoat, already bracing for the cold, when Kyra came streaking half-naked out of thebedroom after him. What the hell was wrong with him that his first inclination was to admire her body and her athletic grace? It was only his second thought that Kyra was a dangerous harpy who’d already tried to kill him. Twice.
    “Don’t come any closer,” he said, raising his gun and aiming it at her. She was a few feet away and he was comfortable with this weapon. It was a Browning Hi-Power and there was no way he’d miss if he took the shot. But either she really was as immune to bullets as she claimed to be, or she had way too much faith in her sex appeal, because she didn’t even break stride.
    “Don’t go out there!” Kyra shouted, bracing herself against the wall. She peeked out the glass by the door, like she was getting ready for some kind of shoot-out.
    Now Marco wasn’t sure whether he should be aiming his gun at her or out the window. Not taking any chances, he dived to the other side of the front door using the wall for cover. “Why not? What’s out there?”
    “It’s not your ride. I’m pretty sure the woman outside doesn’t work for you.”
    There weren’t many women that worked for Marco, and nobody could confuse Benji’s roguish silhouette for a female’s, so she was probably right. “Who is it, then?”
    It was probably the police, he decided. In the light of day, someone could have reported the wrecked car. But even if the police were here to arrest him, Marco wasn’t about to get into a shoot-out with them. If it was the Russians or Chinese, on the other hand…
    “It’s a vulture,” Kyra said.
    Was that some kind of code? Marco wondered. “What’s that? An exterminator? Was she the one who was supposed to get rid of the body after you were done with me?”
    Kyra flashed him an exasperated look. “Just stay away from the door and give me your coat!”
    He didn’t like her bossy tone, but he was already warierof whatever was outside the door than he was of her. “Who is she?”
    “I told you. She’s a vulture. She belongs to Ares. If you don’t let me shoo her away, she’s likely to discover you here.”
    Was this supposed to scare him? “So what?”
    Kyra folded her arms in front of herself, covering up the lacy bra he’d been too distracted to study in any detail the night before. “Okay,” she said. “So you’re pissed at me for a lot of stuff, including the fact I planned to imprison you in the basement, right? Do you have any idea what Ares and his vultures could do to you? It’d make anything I’d planned for you seem pretty tame.”
    Nothing about Kyra was tame. Or normal. Nothing had made a damn bit of sense since his father’s funeral and Marco wasn’t sure he believed a thing she was saying. But for some reason, he could tell that she believed it, and until he had a better idea of what was going on, that would have to be good enough. It was as clear to him as it