“I am asking you, not Marguarita,” he said quietly, once again a command in his voice.
“Charlie Diaz has a drinking problem, señor. He’s good for months and then he falls again, goes off and stays drunk for three or four months before coming back.”
Zacarias narrowed his eyes. “Knowing this, Cesaro kept him on? He is a danger to all of you. Ricco Cayo would have died without medical attention. Had Ms. Eldridge not been here to fly him to a hospital, we would have lost him.” The censure in his low voice was as alarming as his ice-cold eyes.
15
Marguarita felt the tension rise in the kitchen. Zacarias looked more intimidating than ever. Lea moved a little closer to Julio and looked as if she might cry. The air in the room became very heavy. She threaded her fingers through Zacarias’s and smiled at Julio in an attempt to ease the sudden tension.
What’s wrong?
Zacarias’s focused gaze continued to bore into Julio, demanding an answer.
Julio’s face darkened. “My father and I have had many talks about Charlie and how best to handle his situation. We thought he would make it this time.” He ran a hand through his hair. “No one’s seen him for days.”
“And neither you nor your father thought this might be something I should know?” Zacarias’s voice was very quiet.
Not in front of Lea. Don’t do this, Zacarias, Marguarita pleaded. Julio would be more embarrassed than ever to have his boss take him to task over something he knew was wrong in front of both Lea and Marguarita. Julio is a proud man and very loyal to you . . .
He is loyal to his fellow worker. And he endangers both of us.
Zacarias never took his predatory gaze from Julio’s face, staring him directly in the eye, locked on, focused and very frightening. Marguarita felt her stomach begin to churn. She hadn’t realized just how tense she was getting.
“Yes, señor, you should have been told. Charlie has a family, children. We hoped drying him out would work this time.”
“He is a liability to everyone on this ranch. Cesaro should have known that.”
Julio’s face flushed nearly crimson. “He’s aware of it.”
“I want this man found and brought to me.”
Lea cleared her throat. “My brother talked about a man named Charlie he met in a bar.”
A chill went down Marguarita’s spine. Her gaze jumped to Julio’s. If Charlie was drinking heavily and he was talking to Lea’s brother in the bar, had Esteban’s friend been there as well—the one so interested in the De La Cruz family?
Connected so deeply with Zacarias, he couldn’t fail to read her concern. His mind slid against hers in a brushing caress that shocked her. He didn’t often show tenderness and the gesture felt just like that—tender and caring.
“Tell me about that conversation,” Zacarias commanded, his voice a low velvet persuasion.
Marguarita recognized the buried compulsion. The Carpathian blood flowing in her veins heightened every sense and she knew immediately that Lea would be unable to resist that gentle push to obey Zacarias. She wasn’t certain how she felt about the manipulation, but above all, she wanted Zacarias safe so she pressed her lips together to keep from protesting.
Lea rubbed her temples as if she had the beginnings of a headache. Marguarita actually felt the pressure slowly exerted on her. Zacarias was trying to be gentle, a concept new to him, she realized. Ordinarily he would have ripped the information from Lea’s head and never looked back. His gentle touch was in deference to Marguarita.
She glanced at him. He looked so incredibly handsome and dangerous. It was no wonder both Julio and Lea were intimidated by him. Even trying to be friendly, Zacarias looked what he was and in total command. No one would ever fail to notice him.
He sent her a wave of reassurance, but kept his gaze on Lea, wanting her to remember details she probably didn’t think were important.
“Esteban came in very late, about three in the morning, and he’d been drinking, more than I’ve ever seen him. He just doesn’t do that. I had to help him into the house. He couldn’t make it up the stairs to the porch. DS had just shoved him out of the car.”
“You were waiting for your brother?” Zacarias asked.
Lea nodded. “I was worried.”
She rubbed her temples again, and then twisted her fingers together anxiously. Julio reached up and covered her hands with his in a gesture of comfort. His eyes met Marguarita’s. He knew exactly what Zacarias was doing and he was ashamed that he’d put Lea in such a position. Cesaro and Julio ran the ranch. The men and their conduct were their responsibility. Charlie had been a liability for a long time, but for his family’s sake, they had kept him on.
“I sat outside on the porch steps waiting for him. Dan—DS—laughed when he pulled up the drive and saw me sitting there. I stood up and started for the car and DS leaned across the seat, pushed open the car door and shoved Esteban out onto the ground. I could hear him laughing and he looked right at me . . .” She trailed off, shivering.
More. Tell it all, Zacarias pushed relentlessly.
Marguarita couldn’t help frowning at him. Lea was obviously scared of Esteban’s friend. Anyone could see that. She started to reach for the notepad, frustrated that she couldn’t find a way to comfort her friend. Very casually, Zacarias’s hand got there before hers. He pocketed the notepad leaving Marguarita feeling cut off from the others in the room and a little hurt. The notepad was her only means of communication and Zacarias had just declared it off limits to her.
Lea cleared her throat and twisted her fingers to meet Julio’s as if for strength. “DS sort of grabbed his crotch and yelled ‘later’ to me. He pushed out his tongue and made several suggestive gestures. I hesitated, not wanting to get too far from the house in case I had to run, but he drove off laughing.”
Clearly she’s humiliated for having to tell us this, stop now.
Zacarias shot her a warning glance. His eyes focused for a moment on her. There was no ruby red indication that the predator was riding him hard. There was no midnight sapphire their lovemaking brought out, there were only hard black diamonds glittering at her. A chill went down her spine. She didn’t understand the driving need in him to interrogate Lea, but nothing was going to stop him, certainly not Marguarita.
She tried not to feel hurt. She didn’t understand him yet. He had never answered to anyone and he believed she should trust him and follow him in all things, but he didn’t understand the rules of polite society and how what he was doing could hurt Lea and Julio. She feared they would never be comfortable looking at one another again if he continued to force things from Lea. In the end, Julio would forever be upset and distrusting of Zacarias and it would color her relationship with him.
Marguarita looked into her teacup. She didn’t really feel like drinking tea when she’d always loved it. Nothing tempted her, other than water the last few days. She was losing her world and going into his, little by little. She had made that choice, but she wasn’t quite prepared to give up everything she loved so fast.
“My brother was on the ground, facedown in the dirt. I could hear him laughing and it really upset me. I’m pretty certain he didn’t see DS, and he probably didn’t hear him, but I didn’t like him laughing, not when I’d been so scared,” Lea admitted.
Julio shifted his body toward her. “Of course you were scared. Who is this man, DS?”
Lea shook her head. “Don’t go near him, Julio. He’s bad news. Ever since my brother met him, we’ve had nothing but trouble. He persuades Esteban to do things that are wrong.” She ducked her head, avoiding eye contact. “I’ve barely managed to keep Esteban out of jail more than once.”
“That night,” Zacarias prompted, keeping her on track. His voice was pitched very low, a velvet persuasion no one could resist.
“I helped Esteban into the house. He was really drunk and he kept talking about Charlie and how DS had recruited him. He bought him drinks all night. Esteban bragged how he kept up with
Charlie who was knocking them back. He kept talking crazy, making no sense at all. They played some crazy game. A shot for truth or a dare.”
“What do you mean, he talked crazy?”
Marguarita’s mouth went dry. Suddenly her heart began to pound. She was very, very afraid. It was the purr of Zacarias’s voice, a stirring of a dangerous predator, one who clearly had caught the scent of prey and was locked on.
Drink your tea, mića emni kuηenak minan—my beautiful lunatic. Allow your heart to follow the rhythm of mine. Zacarias shifted slightly, the movement subtle and probably impossible for any other to track, but his body was closer to hers, his heat seeping into the cold of her skin. There is no need to be afraid. Your friend is safe from me. There is no evil in her.
“Crazy things.” Lea rubbed her temples again. “Staking vampires. He kept calling himself Van Helsing. It’s a name from the book Dracula. He said he was going on a hunt. That he needed a stake and garlic. And then he’d laugh like a maniac and tell me to make necklaces of garlic.” She covered her face with her hands, shaking her head. “The next morning he acted like he didn’t remember anything at all, but then he told me not to tell DS that he’d said anything about vampires and garlic and stakes, so I knew he was lying to me again.” She looked at Julio a little pleadingly. “Honestly, insanity doesn’t run in our family. He was drunk. I have no idea what he’s into, but Esteban likes the idea of secret societies and gangsters. He’s very susceptible to bad influences.”
“What did Charlie tell them?” Zacarias persisted.
Marguarita felt tears burning in her eyes. The penalty for betrayal was death. Everyone knew that. You could ask to leave and memories could be removed, but if you were part of the families serving the De La Cruz for generations, the barrier in the mind, the shield protecting the brain from invasion was present at birth and removal was a difficult thing to endure. Charlie had talked in his drunken state to Esteban and his friend DS.
Lea frowned and this time rubbed at the little lines on her forehead as if that would help her remember. Power stirred in the room. It was so strong, Marguarita was shocked that neither Julio nor Lea seemed to notice the crackle of energy in the air.
“Esteban said Charlie drew maps to the sleeping chambers and it would be easy to stake the vamps during the day because they wouldn’t be able to move.” She blinked rapidly and looked around the table, embarrassed. “He was really drunk and he wasn’t making sense.”
Again Marguarita felt Zacarias probing Lea to insure she was an innocent and not probing for more information. She didn’t believe in vampires and thought DS and her brother had likely taken drugs along with their drinking. She was certain Charlie was having drunken hallucinations. She was very humiliated and didn’t understand why she couldn’t quit talking about a subject very painful to her. She wanted to go home and pull the covers over her head.
“Thank you, Lea,” Zacarias said quietly. “I know that was difficult. Charlie is responsible for the lives of his coworkers and we needed to know how ill he really is.”
Marguarita drew in her breath. She heard the soft note of a sentence pronounced. Charlie was likable when he wasn’t drinking, but how did one tell a man like Zacarias that? Zacarias had lived centuries in a stark, lonely unbearable existence, but with honor, never breaking his code. He wouldn’t understand weakness. In his world, the weak didn’t survive.
Zacarias suddenly reached out and wrapped his arm around her, bringing her into him, under the protection of his shoulder. His chair was beside hers that fast, with no one the wiser that he had moved again to cover the short distance between them.
My world is difficult for you. I am sorry, Marguarita. You should not have to know these things. I cannot keep them from you. Charlie gave my family up to this man. He talked of our sleeping chambers and revealed locations at several of the ranches. I will make certain before I destroy him, but he has put my entire family—and you—in danger. I will not permit that. He cannot be trusted.
She knew that. She knew that a few of the members of the main families—Chevez, Santos, Fernandez and Diaz—all knew that the sleeping chambers lay beneath various rooms in the ranches. They were used only when the De La Cruz family kept up appearances of being human and living in human society. Zacarias was the one member of the family that rarely showed himself at any of the ranches, yet if Charlie had given any forbidden details—and it sounded suspiciously as if he had—Zacarias would be in danger because of her. He was only staying at the hacienda because she was there.
You have to go, Zacarias. It will be safer for you.
She could feel her eyes burn. He wouldn’t listen to her. She knew he wouldn’t leave. He would hunt his enemies. She tried again.
You already have vampires hunting you.
Very gently now, knowing Lea was pushed close to her limit, Zacarias murmured softly into her mind. Tell me what else your brother and DS have discussed.
Lea pressed her fingers to her mouth, guarding a secret. She looked at Marguarita guiltily. Ashamed.
Marguarita could feel triumph rising in Zacarias. He didn’t feel it, he only kept pressing Lea, peeling back the layers until he found the secret she guarded so carefully.
“I’m sorry, Marguarita. Esteban made us come here because of you. It wasn’t just because this hacienda is owned by the De La Cruz family. I feel like such a fraud. According to my brother, there is a worldwide agency called the Morrison Agency, or something like that . . .”
Marguarita’s heart jumped. She pressed her hand tight over her mouth. My father heard of such a place several months ago. They test for psychic ability. He thought my gift with horses was a psychic talent.
He was correct. Did they test you?
I filled out their questionnaire but I never did their follow-up because my father died and I . . . Marguarita touched her scarred throat. I lost my voice and how could I explain it anyway? You have to feel the connection. There is no other way.
“We know of the agency,” Zacarias said. “Marguarita did initially begin the interview process, but went no further than filling out a questionnaire. What did that matter to your brother?”
Marguarita realized that by Zacarias answering for both of them, he appeared to know all about her, as if she’d shared all the details of her life with him.
Lea looked confused. “I’m not certain exactly, but it is the reason we chose this remote area. Esteban was avoiding the law, but I’d never really heard of this place. I overheard him on the phone talking about Marguarita and this Morrison Agency and he agreed with whoever he was talking to . . .”
“Was it this DS character?” Julio demanded.
She nodded. “I think. They thought it likely that if Marguarita did have a psychic talent then the chances of a De La Cruz showing up was much higher than on any of their other properties. Esteban was to come out first and strike up a friendship with her.”
“So you weren’t really friends with her.” Julio’s voice turned hard. He glared at Lea.
Tears immediately sprang to her eyes. “That’s not true.” Lea reached out for Marguarita imploringly. “I swear to you, the friendship between us is real. I felt at home here. For the first time in a very long while, I was happy.”
Marguarita took her hands, her gaze flicking to Zacarias. I don’t have my notepad. Please assure her we’re good, that I understand and am her friend.
Zacarias smiled at Lea, a mere baring of his teeth that was obviously supposed to serve as a smile. “Marguarita knows your friendship is real. Have no worries.” He pushed a small compulsion at the woman.
I don’t understand what Esteban would want with me just because I filled out a questionnaire. What does this mean?
I will explain later.
“It sounded so silly to me,” Lea continued. “I knew you were good with horses, but really, psychic? I didn’t care why we came, just that we had. Even Esteban seemed happy for a while—until DS showed up. It doesn’t take long before he ruins ev
erything. Now our house is just plain scary.”
“You shouldn’t go back to that house,” Julio told Lea. He glanced at Marguarita, pointedly prompting her to invite Lea to stay.
“You are welcome to stay, Lea,” Zacarias said for both of them, surprising Marguarita. He brought her hand up to his mouth and brushed his lips lightly over her knuckles. She will not stay here. She still believes she can save her brother.
But you don’t think she can?
I am sorry, sívamet. He is too far gone.
You don’t know that. But he did. Zacarias had been in the world too long. He had seen too many friends, family members, humans fall. She saw it all in his mind. She felt his terrible sorrow like a weight pressing on his chest, on his heart—yet he refused to acknowledge it.
She closed her eyes, allowing herself to take it on, that weight that never left him. What would it be like to spend her days hunting people who had meant something to him at one time? Having to kill the people that had mattered? To know you could never make a friend, trust anyone, love anyone or be loved? She wanted to understand him and it was here, in this sorrow, in the memories he refused to acknowledge she would find her courage to stand with this man.
“Take me home, Julio,” Lea said. “It’s very late and I need to sleep. I’m glad Ricco is going to be all right.”
Marguarita signed thank you and blew her a kiss.
Julio rose with her. “Thank you for the tea, Marguarita.”
Zacarias kept his hand on Marguarita’s shoulder as he rose, too. “I will see you out.” I have to remove her memories of the conversation with us about Diaz. It could put her in danger.
She was surprised that he had added the last after a brief hesitation. In his memories, she had never found an instance where he explained himself to anyone.
I am a fast learner. You need reassurance that your friend will be all right.
She felt as if he’d wrapped her in a protective cloak of warmth—more than warmth—he surrounded her with protection and filled her mind with love. She hugged herself, trying not to smile. She wasn’t even certain if he knew what he was feeling toward her, but she knew and, right then, when she felt a little out of her depth, she needed him just the way he was.
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