Authors: Lauren Dane
“You’re crazy!”
Rowan shook her head. “No, I’m
determined.
Now that you understand just how determined I am you need to start answering my questions. Playtime is over. I have stuff to do.”
“I won’t use magic.”
Which wasn’t that much of a promise, but it was enough for the moment. Rowan nodded at Donna, who took the other towels David had provided and used one to press down on Ernesto’s side to halt the flow of blood.
“She can use her magic to help block the pain,” the prisoner said.
Rowan shrugged. “She could. But she’s not going to. You’re in the hole when it comes to your credit with me. Do you understand that saying?”
He nodded, pale but a little calmer.
“Who from Hunter Corp. hired you? Feel free to add details you know I’m going to ask you. If you make me work too hard for this I’m going to conclude you need some more lessons. I have more than one knife with me.”
“I don’t know his name. He got in touch with some others who refused to do what he wanted, but they gave him my information.”
Rowan waited, looking at him expectantly. When it was clear he was still going to make her work for it, she stabbed him near his shoulder joint. Slicing through tendons.
He howled in pain and then went very white. Rowan wiped the blade on his shirt and stepped back.
“We didn’t always talk to the same guy. It was two different men and one woman. At first they wanted us to watch you. We couldn’t get to you inside the Keep. But when you left for Las Vegas and then when you headed off to Prague someone would contact us to let us know where you were headed.”
“First they wanted you to watch me and then?”
“She had to leave Prague. We knew where you were. In the house belonging to the Nation. Can I have some water? Something for the pain?”
“I find pain is a really good motivator. You have to get along to go along, Ernesto. Keep talking. You knew where we were in Prague how?”
“The Blood Front had someone in place at the Keep. He’s been giving us information for several years. He showed up a few days ago. Said he’d left the Keep for good. Had some stuff with him. She was pretty excited about that. Then the orders from the people from Hunter Corp. changed. We were supposed to take you from the villa here in Venice. Kill everyone else. The shutters were rigged to open at full day and flood the room with light.”
And totally violating the Treaty because Hunter Corp. had given them safe harbor and it had been violated. That, so close to the attack on Rowan that had been a violation of the same kind, only from the Vampires and Theo’s shaky constitution and things would descend into full on war soon enough.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Rowan was already up when Clive surfaced at sundown. But she hadn’t gone far. He found her sitting in the adjoining room, wearing the robe he’d given her, a phone pressed to her ear, her fingers flying over the keys of the laptop at the desk.
He paused to kiss the top of her head then checked his voicemail and in with his human secretary back in Las Vegas. And what he heard had him waiting not so very patiently for her to end that call.
“The Lacoste family has a smaller offshoot, the Berns. The Berns have been in service to The First for four generations. One of them, Giancarlo, was a house guard at the Keep. I often trained with him when I was young. His cousin is on Theo’s staff. His mother was actually born at the Keep, as was his grandfather. He’s been giving the Blood Front information for the last four years. It may have gone on longer, but that’s what we’ve been able to verify for sure so far,” Rowan said as soon as she hung up.
Clive knelt in front of her, taking her hands, kissing her fingertips. “Is your father all right?”
Rowan nodded and told him the story of how she’d walked into that room and recognized Giancarlo immediately. “I called right before sunrise and caught Nadir. The human staff took everyone Giancarlo is related to into custody and they’ll be questioned shortly. I spoke with Nadir’s human chief of staff earlier. I expect she’ll check in with me in a few hours depending on what she’s learned.”
She closed her laptop and rose. “We’re going to need a meal for the telling of the rest of this.”
He stopped her, needing some private words. She looked tired and sad. The tired was one thing, but the sad broke his heart. “Last night you did what you needed to do. And you were remarkable. I have no doubt that you’ve spent all day out at that estate, ordering people around, gathering information. When did you come to bed?”
“I got three hours’ sleep. That’s not bad. I need less sleep now. When this is over—” She halted mid sentence. “I used to say that and think I meant after I’d killed Enyo but now that I’ve killed her it’s still not over.”
“No it isn’t. But we’re all better off with her gone.”
“Come on. I’m starved and I need coffee. I heard David out on the landing about ten minutes ago so he’ll have left us some.”
Relief settled in. He’d thought she meant to go downstairs and be with everyone. He wanted her to himself for a while longer. Wanted to talk with her privately about all that’d happened.
He opened the door and indeed, David had left a tray with a carafe of coffee and one of citrus juice of some type. Under a dome there were several sandwiches and Rowan wasted no time making herself a plate and going back into the bedroom with it and her cup of coffee.
“You knew I eat in bed before you bound yourself to me. Too late to cry now,” she called over her shoulder.
“You have other qualities to make up for it.”
“You’re talking about my ass, huh? That’s better,” she said with a happy sigh after her first drink of coffee. He settled in bed with her, both on top of the duvet with food between them.
“Before you fill me in on what you found out today, I wanted to talk about this entire mess with Hunter Corporation and the recent developments with Roth.”
She sighed hard, taking a few bites of her sandwich while he had some melon.
Clive knew she’d found shelter in Hunter Corporation when she’d run from the Keep when she’d been sixteen. They trained her and she’d bonded with them in a way he was quite certain she had no idea she had.
“Roth betrayed you. He betrayed the Hunter Corp. He betrayed the oath he took to uphold the Treaty. That’s untenable and it won’t continue. He tried to harm David, also untenable. The move to table this issue while you’re out in the field risking yourself on their behalf—again—that’s different. That’s betrayal on a wholly different level.”
Her breath had gone shaky for a moment. He took her hand, running the pad of his thumb over her ring. “You understand my fealty to your father. To the Vampire Nation and my people. You have your own loyalties and allegiances. Despite all that, you and I belong to one another. I wish to be your safe harbor. It hurts to see you so devastated over this.”
She frowned, her brows knitted. “If you know I’m devastated why are you making me talk about it?”
“You don’t always have to be strong. You don’t always have to pretend you’re impervious to getting your feelings hurt.”
“It hit me as I was getting ready to kill Enyo just how much pain and near deathing I’ve been dealing with and how it could have been avoided, at least most of it, if Hunter Corp. had truly had my back. I have been loyal to them from the moment they opened their door to me in Paris all those years ago. I lost count of how many bones have been broken. How many times I’ve been bruised and battered to do my job. And I accepted that because it was part of the deal.” She held her coffee cup close enough to breathe in the steam to comfort herself.
He got a little closer, close enough to brush his thigh against hers.
“I never could have imagined this. Not then. Not even before the Joint Tribunal. It’s just sad because I’m going to London when I’m done mopping up the mess here and I’m going to throw down with these assholes once and for all. And I don’t know if I’m staying either way.”
“Because you shouldn’t have to go to London. They should stand up for you as you deserve.”
She rolled her eyes, but he was right.
“You’d leave Hunter Corp. then? And go out on your own?”
“I just know that Hunter Corp. made me feel like
nothing.
Like my life wasn’t worth it to make someone else on the staff uncomfortable. ‘Oh that Rowan, she’ll make due. We’ll just ask her to not force us to face this horrible problem at her expense. She always does that.’”
He kissed her shoulder.
“I sound like such a petty whiner. Ugh.”
“Darling, you’re not a whiner. You can be petty, I won’t lie to you about that. But you’re not being petty with this situation in any way. That you’re still here despite this situation speaks volumes about you.”
She harrumphed.
“Being on my own would work. I don’t much like taking orders or having to run my activities by other people. I have training. I have the contacts. I might lose my staff like Carey and David, who are both paid by Hunter Corp. That would be...they’ll have to make that choice. But this is all just talk until I get there so I can look them in the face when I present all my evidence.”
Clive just wondered if anything Hunter Corp. could do or say would make this enough for her to stay. “I’m just waiting for you to realize they need you a lot more than you need them. And I doubt very much that Carey or David would leave your employ. You have the resources to pay them yourself.”
She polished off one of the sandwiches, not saying more about it for another five minutes or so. “I need to brief the Vampires on everything we’ve learned today.” One corner of her mouth tipped up as she put her plate and empty coffee cup on her bedside table. “I need to shower first. You should come with me.”
“Are you trying to avoid the discussion?”
She got up and let the robe drop to her elbows as she stood at the doorway to the bath. She gave him a look back over her shoulder. “I’m quite capable of telling you I’m done with a topic. I just wanted you inside me before we then have to spend time dealing with more politics, betrayal, death threats and other assorted bullshit.” She let the robe drop, bent to pick it up but he was there, handing it to her, ushering her inside.
It took a bit but by the time he’d gotten undressed and she’d retrieved towels and made sure they had toiletries, the water was hot.
“I’m not sure if you noticed, but the water tank here is very large.”
“The reasons I love you are myriad.”
She ducked her head under the water and he joined her, the heat of the spray loosening his muscles. “The first time I had you was in the shower.”
She put shampoo in her palm and slid up the front of his body to massage it into his hair. He closed his eyes as his soap slick palms gripped her ass and held her close.
“I remember. You were so mad that you wanted to fuck me. Which made you even more irresistible. I’m a terrible person.”
He laughed, getting close enough to kiss her. “It is uniquely Rowan to get aroused when I’m annoyed. I was mad because I knew once I gave in and tasted you everything would change.” He switched so that he massaged her scalp, her head tipped back, exposing her neck to him.
She smiled, her eyes closed. “And did it?”
“Indeed. To coin one of your phrases, you rocked my world. You continue to do so every day. My greatest challenge and my finest possession.”
* * *
The warmth his words left behind seemed to soak into her skin as his fingertips dug into her scalp. He stood so close he blocked out the lights in the ceiling behind him.
Avarice was sensual to Vampires. They surrounded themselves with beautiful things, beautiful people, lived in beautiful places. Their clothing tended to be of incredibly high quality. A delight to wear against the skin.
Rowan hadn’t fooled herself into believing part of her appeal wasn’t related to that. She was unusual. In Vampire terms, she was desirable. Vicious. Powerful. Connected to the most influential being in their world.
But it was more. In Clive’s tone she heard pride. Tenderness. Concern. That possessiveness was acceptable. It neither harnessed nor silenced. Rather it was nice to belong to him. In the very real way he belonged to her.
He backed her to the tile, the water hitting them from both showerheads. He poured soap into his palms and then drizzled it over her breasts and belly.
“Oops, I suppose I shouldn’t waste that,” he murmured and began to lather her up.
She hummed her delight. “My nipples must be really dirty.”
“My thoughts about them are.”
He made her laugh and then that laugh strangled into a moan as he tugged and rolled her nipples between his thumb and forefingers. She gasped, disappointed when he let go. Until he repositioned his hands at her waist and lifted her, rinsing her off and then licking to make sure she was extra clean. He kept her pinned here, his mouth on her breasts and her legs wrapped around his torso, hands on his shoulders as she writhed.
He let her slide down the wall, his cock entering her as he thrust up. She hadn’t expected it to happen so fast but she was coming hard around him as he snarled a curse but kept his pace slow.
“Warn a girl next time,” Rowan gasped, licking up his neck as he continued those long, delicious strokes up into her body.
“I fail to see the fun in that,” he said, nuzzling her neck, drawing his incisors down her veins, driving them both to distraction.
She laughed, moaning when he changed her angle so the stream from one of the showerheads hit her pelvic bone. A few adjustments and her moan deepened when he got it directly on her clit.
He was so good at that stuff.
She slid her fingers into his hair, pulling to get purchase as she met his thrusts. Her inner muscles tightened as another climax began to build.
“You first, darling.”
“I already did.”
“You’re aware you’re arguing with me about coming. Just be quiet and have an orgasm, Rowan.”
Fine, then.
She concentrated and let it happen, the pleasure building at her toes, slowly taking over until she nearly shouted his name when she came. He wasn’t too far behind her, groaning as he slammed hard and deep.
“I’m going to remind you this is what you have to look forward to if we live together.”
“Rousing fucks in the evening or constant danger?”
He laughed, turning off the water.
“Both, I have a feeling.” He kissed her again, pleased with himself.
“There’s no way I’m living at
Die Mitte.
” The pretentious opulence of that entire Vampire Nation owned hotel casino would drive her to something drastic before the end of the first week there.
He got out, handing her a towel before getting himself one.
“I won’t always be in Las Vegas. The capital city the Scion of North America holds court in rotates every five years. In any case, we don’t have to live at the hotel. I suppose your penthouse is fine.”
She toweled her hair dry, got dressed and then braided it back. “If I leave Hunter Corp. I’ll have to give the penthouse back. And I don’t know if I trust them enough to keep living there even if I did stay. Though, as I say that, I feel like that’s the answer to the should I stay at all question.”