“Cupcake, we have to talk.”
“Ten… nine…” She heard the partygoers chanting with the emcee.
“I have nothing to say…”
“Three… two…”
Mason swooped in and caught her in an uncompromising embrace. He planted an intense kiss on her lips as the crowd indoors screamed in celebration. Anna broke the kiss. “Happy New Year, Anna Banana.”
The tension between the trio boiled. Anna shoved Mason away, staring hard at the men. Rick arched his brow and shook his head. Mason stood, flummoxed.
“I’m done. Good night, gentlemen, and I use the term loosely.”
* * * *
Rick returned to the farmhouse at dusk. The setting sun threw shades of gold that cast lengthening shadows on buildings. He stomped the snow off his boots as he walked up the wide porch steps. Jerry swung open the door. “Mr. Hiatt. Nice to see you. I hope you slept well after last night’s celebration?” Did he detect a cool reserve in his host’s greeting that had not been there last night?
“I didn’t have the opportunity to speak in depth with Anna last night. I wonder if I may have a word with her now?”
Anna leaned over the staircase railing. “Let me get my coat. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
Rick rocked on his Chukka boots, jiggling his pocket change. Jerry stood impassively blocking the door.
This is not the awkward I enjoy.
Rick and Jerry stared at each other for uncomfortable moments until Anna appeared behind her father. “We’ll talk in the barn, around back. I’ll meet you there.”
Rick circled the old house following the partiers’ footsteps from last night. This was not getting off to a good start. Rick formulated and cast off a hundred versions of arguments for her return. In the end, they all boiled down to ‘I love you.’ It wasn’t looking good for her loving him in return.
He walked from twilight into the darkness of the barn. The mixed scents of hay, earth and livestock greeted him as he waited. Rick loved this smell. It was home, family, grounding.
He heard the protesting squeak of the barn door as Anna joined him. She marched toward the tack room and pulled out a grooming kit. Dismissively, she glanced at Rick as she slipped into the horse’s stall and began grooming Major. Rick followed.
“I’ll ask you again, Rick, why are you here?”
“Your words stunned me. I don’t understand what happened.” Rick smoothed the horse’s winter coat with his hand, following her harsh brush strokes.
“Those were hard words to write.” She brushed furiously at the horse.
“Then why did you write them?”
She brushed harder. “It was how I felt.” The horse shifted away from her, uneasy.
Rick caught the brush from her hand. “Don’t take it out on this poor horse. Talk to me.” His voice was low and commanding. The horse stomped. “If we talk and you want me to drive away, I will. At least give me the courtesy of an explanation.”
Anna turned to face him, arms folded across her chest protectively. Rick scented her regret. At last, she spoke. “I can’t live with a murderer.”
“I haven’t murdered anyone in eons. What are you talking about?”
Anna ducked under the huge horse’s belly and put his bulk between them. “I heard about the murder at the beach house.”
Rick ducked under the horse’s neck to confront her. “Excuse me?”
“The murder, the cover-up. I had two days on the train to research public records on the reassignment of the house number. What carnage occurred there?” Anna ducked under the horse’s neck again.
“There was no carnage. It was a dark night...” Rick followed her. She retrieved a hoof pick from the grooming kit.
“Aren’t they all?” She picked up a rear hoof.
“Anna, I will tell you in confidence, but ask you to not speak with Matt and Cat about this.”
“Right, because it’s never Richard Hiatt’s fault.” The horse pulled his hoof away. Rick grabbed her wrist.
“Stop dancing around this horse, and stop the goddamn sarcasm. You have something to say to me? Say it. You want an explanation, I’ve got one.” He removed the pick from her hand, gathered the kit, and set it outside the stall. Anna brushed past him and headed for the tack room. By the time he caught up with her, she was shakily opening a bottle of water as she leaned against a massive trunk. Her angry complexion contrasted greatly with the whitewashed walls.
“Enough with the passive aggression. Do I proceed?”
Anna nodded silently, dribbling water down her chin, her eyes huge.
Rick dialed back his irritation and continued his explanation. “That night at the beach house, we had what mortals would think was a terrible accident. Matt was on a drug that masked vampirism, you’ve heard us mention it before.”
Anna nodded.
“The effects wore off and Cat was injured trying to feed him. It required a biohazard clean up.” Rick paused to read her reception. “It was Matt’s idea. He had terrible memories.”
He fingered the supple leather of the horse’s harness. “Matt is my brother, Anna, you know that. I’d do anything for him. He wanted the house remodeled, it was remodeled.”
“What about Colombia?” she asked in a mortified whisper.
Rick produced two photographs from his breast pocket. “Do you recall seeing her on the security monitor?
“Sort of.”
He held up a publicity shot of Vivi Morrison. “How about this one?”
“That’s the woman from the beach who told me about the murder at the house.”
“Congratulations, you’ve been duped by Veronique Moreau, both photos are the same woman. You survived, lots of vampires and mortals haven’t.”
“But I met her during the day, she was on the beach drinking coffee, walking a dog.”
“She’s using the drug, same drug Matt was on.”
“What about my memories…. Who was pretty boy?”
“Sterling was taunting me, I was trying—”
“I remember Sterling was killed.”
“Yes, you’re right, Sterling was killed. I wasn’t the one who killed him.”
“Who else was there?” Her hand closed tightly around the plastic bottle. Rick shook his head slowly, his lips a thin, grim line. He said nothing, waiting. “But, I…”
“You were defending me,” he explained gently. “Sterling suckered me, would have killed me if you hadn’t swung five pounds of marble at him.” Rick swept his hair off his forehead and sighed at the revelation. “You only wanted to disable him. His death was accidental.”
Anna collapsed to the hay bale, her elbows on her thighs and her face in her hands.
“I had you thralled. I believed it would save your sanity. Why didn’t you come to me?”
“If it were true, I thought you might have me killed.”
“What have I ever done, or said, or demonstrated in any way, that I would harm you, ever?”
“But vampires are killers.”
“We’re all killers, if put between threats and the people we love. My kind once killed to feed. I’ve gone to considerable lengths to eradicate that.”
Anna painfully looked up at him. “I feel like a jerk.”
“After that stinging note, I’d say you kinda were.” He listened to her inhale and exhale. “Were you coming back to California?”
“No.”
“What about your car?”
“The blue one is still in your garage. I haven’t had time to think that far.”
“I’m sorry Veronique got to you. If I had placed restrictions on you, we would have argued, you would have hated me. At least this time Veronique let you live. Frankly, you should stay the hell away from me, she may try again.”
“I guess I’m safe here in the snow.”
“At least you’ll see her coming. As a mortal, you’re vulnerable. If you were a vampire you would have defenses.”
“You could always turn me.”
> “You just told me vampires are killers.”
“You just told me I’m a killer. I’d be a double threat.”
“It’s true, you would be far less vulnerable.”
“Then I should join your Family?”
“Oh, Cupcake, do you know what that means?”
“I do. Cat and I talked about it.”
“Why didn’t you talk to me?”
“I wanted an unbiased opinion. Did you think Matt would tell me the truth? I couldn’t ask Lawrence. Adam is a shape-shifter. Cat was my only resource.”
“I’m curious, what did she say?”
“Cat said not to jump into it. That I needed reasons other than you.”
“You need better reasons than surviving Veronique too.”
“The man I love is a vampire, we are all being threatened and the only strength we have is together.”
“You’re pretty smart for a kid. I won’t deny I want to live a thousand lives with you. I would be the world’s most deliriously happy vampire. I’ve had long enough without you. Together…we can never be too close.”
“I love you too, Fitz.”
“Then I will be the one you die to love?
“Evidently, seems its working out this way. What are you going to say to my parents?”
“First, we have to discuss the dowry. I like that horse, he’s a nice gelding.”
“He’s twenty years old.”
“He’s a good boy. Got any other land? Cows? Chickens?”
“Just me. I do know how to thaw blood.”
“Will you go to Ireland on business with me?”
“Business?”
“I can consult with your father about our personal merger at a later date. It might be better long distance.”
“You know how hard-headed I am. Where do you think I learned it?”
* * * *
Jerry sat at the breakfast table, eating a piece of dessert left over from the party. Susan spied through the blinds at Anna and her dancing boss. “They’re leaving the barn…”
Jerry’s head didn’t come up from the cobbler. “Is there a hoof pick in his eye?”
Susan shook her head.
Jerry’s head snapped up at her silence. “Is he carrying his head under his arm?”
“They’re smiling.”
Jerry consulted his watch. “Does she look tumbled?” He drained the glass of milk and set it down, still holding his fork.
Susan laughed. “She’s not crying anymore, and I don’t see hay on her backside.”
Jerry shook the fork at his wife. “I guess I can put this in the dishwasher, then. What are we bracing for? You didn’t go into much detail last night. Lose her job?”
Susan shook her head.
“Engagement? Elopement?”
Susan shrugged and grimaced.
“Well, as long as we don’t have to worry about their living in sin or a bun in the oven, I can be a reasonable man.” Jerry carried his dirty dishes to the sink and turned to Susan with a fisheye. “Don’t let him charm you.”
“Never.”
* * * *
Rick scuffed off the snow on his boots, mindful of the highly polished floors. He removed his cap as he stepped through the door. Anna slipped her hand through Rick’s elbow as they approached her parents.
“Mr. and Mrs. Curley, good evening. Thank you for welcoming me this weekend. I’m sure you’ve been wondering about the high drama I brought with me. I’m sorry about that. Is this a good place to talk?”
“Here around the kitchen table is fine,” Jerry invited. “This is where we have most of our family discussions.”
Susan moved to the sink. “I’ll put some coffee on. Anna, why don’t you get out some of those Buckeye candies you love?”
Anna shifted uncomfortably. “Mom, please don’t go to any trouble.”
“Nonsense, say what what’s on your mind, Rick.”
Rick pulled a chair out for Anna and sat next to her. He began with his hands folded on the table, as if in casual prayer. The glint of the overhead lights played on his watch face, and he self-consciously pulled his sleeve over his ornate, antique, hand crafted gold watch. It was his habit to straighten his family crest ring, proudly displaying the crest built over a slab of emerald.
Rick observed Jerry and Susan inspecting his hands and jewelry. Their eyes met and they politely looked at him to begin the discussion. They want their daughter well cared for.
“I might have come in here last night and played the rich son of a bitch. I want you to know that’s not who I am, well, most of the time. Before Anna left L.A., she was given some unflattering misinformation about me from a competitor. It was libelous. I regret she wasn’t able to consult me before she left for the holidays. It would have saved everyone a great deal of pain.” Rick reminded himself to take breaths between sentences.
Jerry levied a look over his eyeglasses. “That competitor wouldn’t happen to be a former admirer, would it?”
Yea, Jerry, being open-minded. “No, as a matter of fact, she was my business partner’s ex, but I won’t deny she has an axe to grind. I came very close to putting her in prison. And if I put it kindly, I would have to call her unbalanced.”
“Or psychopathic…” Anna muttered.
Rick shrugged. “You say potato…”
Susan poured coffees and placed them on the table. “Is our daughter in danger?”
The coffee smelled delicious and it would give Rick something to do with his hands. He picked up the cup and thought for a second. “I have extensive security and the threat has been distanced from us. Anna’s safety is my primary concern.”
Susan fastened him with an accusing look. “That sounds like a fancy way of saying she’s in danger.”
“I run an international business conglomerate. I travel the globe. Anna has accepted a position to supervise a project in Ireland. Just flying back and forth across the ocean can be considered a danger. If you’re asking if she’s in imminent danger by that woman’s hand, I’d say no.”
Susan gave a satisfied nod, and Anna let go a breath she probably didn’t realize she’d been holding.
Rick stifled a laugh at Anna’s over-enthusiastic tone of voice as she spoke: “Speaking of Ireland, Rick was headed there when his jet was grounded in Kentucky. It’s been moved to Columbus and I need to be on that flight.”
“So, Mr. Hiatt, you’ve got my curiosity piqued.” Jerry scratched his beard. “You cut into the dance last night, and had her rattled pretty good. She wouldn’t walk you through the house to the barn an hour ago, but now life is good? Everyone is smiling and she’s getting on a plane smaller than my barn to travel across an ocean…”
“Well, Mr. Curley, it’s a very safe jet. You’re welcome to inspect it before we leave.” Please don’t open the aft door or the refrigerator.
Anna hid behind her hands in mortification.
Susan shook her head. “Jerry, say what you’re thinking. These kids probably have a schedule.”
“Speaking plainly, I have one daughter. What are your intensions?”
Rick felt embarrassment roll off Anna. If truth be told, even a vampire could blush.
“Mr. Curley, I welcome your question. I understand your concern, and if Anna were my daughter, I’d ask the same.” Rick took Anna’s hand and placed it flat on the table. Gently, he rested his on top. “My intensions toward your daughter are entirely honorable—in the long-run. She initiated our meeting because of her concerns for my safety and the safety of my employees. We haven’t personally known each other very long. We’ve seen quite a bit about how we react in different situations. Right now, she seems to like me, when she’s not mad at me.” He winked at Anna. “We enjoy working with each other and I respect her expertise. I’m not in it to break her heart.” He opened his mouth to say more and shut it with a snap. The next person who speaks, loses. He read the satisfaction in the room. If I had a contract, they would sign.
Susan beamed. “Do you have to pack?�
�
Jerry pushed his chair away and came around the table to Rick who stood in response. “Does that jet have a telephone? I want to know when you’ve arrived safely.”
“Yes, Sir, it does, and we’ll be happy to check in.”
“I’ll just run upstairs and get my things.” Anna turned on the stairs. “Daddy would it be okay if Player stayed here with you for a few weeks? If we take him to Ireland, he’ll be quarantined.”
“Of course.” Jerry smiled. “We’ll make him a good farm dog. He’ll keep Bonkers on his toes.”
Rick dug his hands into his pockets, he felt absolutely airborne. “Cupcake, if you don’t see it upstairs, we can pick it up in New York.”
Susan threw Jerry a pleased look and when Rick turned his back, he caught a hint of the word “Cupcake?”
* * * *
Amazing what becomes commonplace, Anna thought as she climbed aboard the jet and found her favorite seat next to the window. She watched Rick in conversation with the pilot and settled back. Fragmented half-thoughts chased themselves around what she considered her fractured mind. When her scattered thoughts about killing Sterling darkened and began to frighten her, she repeated I do not know exactly what occurred, but it cannot hurt me and I’ll confront it with help. She realized dwelling on it threatened her sanity.
Rick buckled the now familiar briefcase into a seat. “We caught a break and we’re in line for takeoff in fifteen minutes.” He dropped into the seat next to her. “Need a pillow or a blanket or a drink or a kiss?”
Anna reclined parallel to him and reached for his hand. “I need to be un-thralled. If I got this way from thralling, certainly your people can undo it. Do you know how awful it is to have these terrible, vague memories?”
Rick pushed the armrests between their seats up and out of the way. He slid his arm around her and pulled her close. “I’m sorry, Cupcake, that must be unsettling. Time for Vampire 102. You see, it’s something of a talent most of us employ. Personally, I don’t need to thrall. I talk my way in and out of things, but the responders…”
Blood Emerald Page 28
