I grunted. “That it?”
“That it,” he grunted back, attention on the large monitor on his desk.
Did Kyros just make a joke?
A grin and a joke in one night.
Next thing, a pig would fucking fly.
I strode for the door. First stop, Level 50. Then bed. Even with my three-hour nap, I was beat.
“Miss Tetley?” Angelica’s voice halted me.
She continued. “I thought you might like to know a woman named Tommy came by the office today.”
I tensed.
That wasn’t ideal. The last place I wanted my bestie turning up was Kyros Sky.
“And?”
“She wanted you to be informed that she’d return at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow.”
I swung the door open and muttered under my breath, “Fuck.”
18
Ding!
I ran on tiptoes to my open office door, listening for all I was worth. Not that any of the staff came to the office at 9:00 a.m.
“Hello?”
Crap, crap, crap. It was Tommy. She’d really come.
I took a steadying breath, smoothing my white pantsuit. The sober evening in my hotel room last night told me one thing—most of Angelica’s hand-me-downs were white and royal blue.
I ran over my lines. Lines I wasn’t sure I could say around the compulsion. I successfully wrote them down last night, but that could mean anything.
Showtime.
I stepped into the hall. “Tommy.”
She whirled from the reception desk to find me. My eyes drank in the sight of her, and my legs coiled with the need to go to my friend. But if I did, she’d drag me out of here by my hair.
Tommy ran my way, and I strode to meet her halfway.
She threw herself against me, and I wrapped my arms tight about her. My heart pounded against my chest and I rested my cheek atop her head. Too many times in the last six days, I’d thought I would never see her again.
“It’s only been a few days, right? I feel like I haven’t seen you in a month.” I joked to cover the blissful agony of seeing her.
She tried to pull away, and I tightened my hold. As soon as Tommy got free, the interrogation would begin and I’d have to start lying.
“Dammit, Basi. Let me go. I’m going to yell at you.”
“Shh.” I lifted a leg to wrap it around her. “Ouch! You pinched me.”
Tommy didn’t apologise.
Pointing at my office, she said, “That yours?”
I nodded and hung my head as I followed her inside.
“What the actual fuck?” She whirled on me as soon as the door was closed. Nice of her to be considerate about my workmates and keep this in-house. If only she knew everyone could hear.
“Shit really blew up,” I stalled.
Tommy balled her fists. “I don’t hear from you all weekend. Then I get some bogus text about camping that you didn’t send. There weren’t any heart emojis.”
I had to stop using those.
“I was minutes away from calling your grandmother.”
“Tell me you didn’t,” I blurted.
“No,” she exploded. “But only because you finally deigned to reply.”
Thank fuck for that.
“I asked Angelica to text you,” I told her, relaxing somewhat when the vampire’s name left my lips without issue. “I was swamped after the run-in with Clint.”
She was too smart to completely take my decoy. “We aren’t done with your glamping story by a long shot, but I want to hear about what happened with that bastard.”
I shuddered at the memory. “I was stupid last week, Tom. I thought I got paid weekly, but it was fortnightly. I fell short on rent money. I tried to negotiate a better deal with him, but I accidentally mentioned I had stuff in the house. He took the keys—”
“How did he take the keys?” Her eyes narrowed.
My lips pressed together.
“Strip, Basi.”
“No.” I fended off her grabby hands.
“If he fucking laid hands on you, I’m going to take a baseball bat to his motherfucking head!”
Yikes.
“Okay, okay. He grabbed me. I broke free. I ran and got lost. When I settled down, it was getting dark and I’d ended up in the city. I was too scared to walk back to yours in case Clint found me. I wasn’t thinking straight. The buses had stopped and my phone was dead. I had the key to work and decided to sleep here. But Angelica hadn’t left yet. When she heard everything, she invited me away with some of the other staff for the weekend. When we returned, Kyros offered me a place in his tower until I get on my feet.”
“I want to see where Clint grabbed you.” She’d calmly listened to my rambling. Which meant she didn’t believe a word. My girl was clever.
Her life could depend on me being cleverer.
Relenting in this instance, I shirked my white blazer. The silk blouse I wore beneath the white blazer was royal blue and sleeveless.
I held my arm out for Tommy’s inspection. She cursed when her eyes fell on the bruises. They’d faded from angry purples and reds to blues and yellows.
“I’m going to take an axe to his head. God, Basi. Why didn’t you come to me? You know Father and I would have helped.”
The hurt in her voice made me want to crawl under a rock. At least this answer was an honest one. “I just took off in a random direction, half out of my mind with terror. I’ve never run so fast in my life, Tom. I asked for directions back to Orange, but I must have looked insane. The woman I asked hauled ass and I mistook her arm swing for directions. I was in shock. And then the city was in sight.”
She released my arm, and I tossed my blazer onto the desk behind her now the game was up.
Tommy scrubbed at her face. “I feel like I’ve failed you big time. I promised to help you figure this out, and I haven’t done any of that. You were assaulted.”
“You can’t be responsible for me. I should have come to you when I couldn’t pay rent, but I was too ashamed after buying that stuff for the apartment. I couldn’t face you.”
“You can always come to me, Basil. Always,” she said softly. “I’m more offended that you thought you couldn’t.”
The last week had changed me. Because as we faced each other, I admitted something I’d always been too proud to speak aloud. “You’re so capable, Tom. I wanted to be like you. When I couldn’t, I felt stupid.”
And still did—even though being stupid shouldn’t mean shit when vampires existed and controlled me.
“… Is there more you aren’t telling me?”
Goddamn, she had a Basi Emotion Radar. “I’ve just missed you. Being around strangers for a few days has made me weepy.”
She snorted. “The day you’re weepy is the day I win the lottery. Back to the glamping.”
I held up a hand.
Tommy choked on a laugh. “Okay, Grandmother.”
Staring at my hand, I realised she was right. My grandmother totally did that. “Oh my god.”
When had I started copying her?
Tommy opened her mouth, and I held up a hand to stop her again, smiling wryly.
The truth was, my friend wasn’t a dumbass. She knew me better than almost anyone in this world. So I wasn’t going to treat her like a dumbass and crap on our relationship.
“Tom, do you remember my fourteenth birthday when Harriet stuck that note on your back? I grabbed it off as soon as I saw it and told you the note said gorgeous.”
Tommy rolled her eyes. “Such a terrible liar. I fished it out of the bin later and read it.”
The note had said poor, ugly bitch—because rich teens were about the meanest people out there.
“My point is that I lied to you to protect your feelings.”
She stilled. “What are you telling me, Basil?”
I had to be careful. “I’m telling you that if you ever need to know something important, I’ll tell you. If I don’t always tell you everything, it’s nothing to
do with who you are—because I will always love you. You were worried when I didn’t get in touch, and I wish I could promise never to do that again—but Beast might have other plans.”
I felt quite good about how successfully I’d buried a warning message in babble.
My friend didn’t immediately reply. She searched my face with her keen chestnut eyes. Had she read between the lines enough there? I was protecting her. I didn’t want Tommy to feel I was in danger because she’d do something about it—with the axe she apparently had.
My friend glanced away, scanning the room.
Was she searching for cameras? Shoot. Perhaps I wasn’t as subtle as I thought.
Tommy was nearly bang on—there were ears on this conversation, but the vampires didn’t require cameras and microphones to listen in. Which is why I’d tiptoed around the mention of the estate.
“So you’re living here?” she said at long last.
“Up top, yeah. It’s about one thousand times nicer than my apartment.”
“And the clothes?”
I peered down. “Angelica’s hand-me-downs. I lost my stuff to Clint, remember?” And a vampire tore one of my two outfits off me and let his minions see me naked.
“You’re coming to live with me.”
“No, Tommy. I don’t want to put you out.” I shut my mouth as tears sparked in her eyes.
“Something’s going on,” she whispered, rubbing her forehead. “You’re in trouble, I know it. And you’re in it deep. And you won’t let me help you. Or I can’t help you for some reason I don’t understand. You’re coming with me right now, Basi. Fuck this job. You had a bad feeling about it from the start. I’ll support you until you get more work. We’ll figure it out. Just please come with me.”
A tear slipped down her cheek.
Tommy wasn’t a blubberer. She did cry. But not easily. And I’d done it to her.
I stared, at a loss of what to say. What possible reason was there to refuse her plea?
A knock startled us both.
I turned as the door opened to admit Kyros.
I knew he’d listen in on this conversation, but I hadn’t expected him to butt in.
“Get lost,” I mouthed, faced away from Tommy. I didn’t want him to meet my friend or vice versa. No way.
He pushed the door open wide, and I scanned him from head to toe before remembering I hated him.
Kyros was in his usual suit get-up—a shiny charcoal number today—but his hair was mussed and his blinks were slow. Had he’d rolled out of bed and rushed down?
“Miss Tetley,” he said, voice husky.
Definitely asleep before coming here.
“Kyros,” I greeted, widening my eyes in a blatant hint to piss off. I heard Tommy’s grunt as I spoke his name.
He ignored my hints, passing a paper to me. “Your tenancy agreement. As discussed, you’ll have a discounted rate for three months. If you choose to stay beyond that, we will renegotiate.”
With Tommy at my back, I felt safe giving full force to my withering look. I glanced over the paper. It seemed like a legit tenancy agreement—but what did I know? The estate had a legal team to handle all contracts.
The paper was snatched from my hands.
“And this is?” he asked sleepily. Mussed-up Kyros was cute. It had to stop.
Think of him slicing his teeth into your neck. The heat in my stomach unfurled.
That’s more like it.
I rushed through the introduction. “Tommy, meet Kyros, my boss. Kyros, meet Tommy, my best friend.”
He stepped closer and reached around my body, hand extended to her. Doing so necessitated him brushing against me, and Tommy would pick up on that without fail.
Kyros was playing more games.
I put space between us as she shook his hand briefly.
She handed me the agreement. “That’s a good price for renting in Grey. Your wage covers it?”
“I made sure of that,” Kyros said, frowning slightly.
Tommy hummed, studying the vampire much like I used to when I’d had no clue he could kill me in a second.
“Guess who sold a house yesterday?” I said to divert her attention.
She smiled and lifted her arm for a high five. I grinned and slapped my palm against hers.
“Miss Tetley…”
I cut a glance at Kyros, inhaling sharply at the menace on his face. He crossed to me at human speed and lifted my arm, green eyes riveted on the blue and yellow bruises there.
Tommy hovered behind him, and I could only feel relief. Because if she’d seen Kyros’s blazing eyes at that second, she would have known he was other.
“Who the fuck did that to you?” he asked. His low voice shuddered its way through my body.
If Tommy wasn’t in the room, I would have said Kyros himself did it up on Level 66.
“A man named Clint,” my friend answered.
My heart sank. “Tommy, no.”
Clint was a bottom feeder, but Kyros fed on humans. I may have felt murderous toward Clint at the start, but I didn’t want anyone hurt on my behalf. Not when the punisher had powers the human didn’t. And not when it was Kyros. He wasn’t getting any more involved in my personal life.
“He was her landlord. The one who chucked her out and stole her stuff,” Tommy ignored me to say.
Crap. Kyros wasn’t home right now. His eyes were fixed on the bruises.
The silence extended.
Aiming for subtlety, I reached for the bottom of his charcoal waistcoat and tugged.
He lifted his head. “I’ll deal with it.”
Uh. “Not necessary. I’ve handled... it.”
“She hasn’t,” Tommy piped up, sidling around Kyros. It didn’t take a genius to see why. Her eyes were going full tilt between me and the vampire. A smile curved her lips.
“No,” I told her. “Absolutely not. One level.”
“But is the one level the penthouse?” she asked, her smile widening to a grin. “Because, if so, that’s the only level a gal would ever need.”
Heat crept into my cheeks. No, I wasn’t a blusher.
Kyros eyed my face and murmured, “Am I missing something?”
“Yep,” Tommy replied. “Probably not for long though.”
“Alright, time for Tom to go elsewhere.” I shooed her out of the room.
“He’s ducking dot,” she mouthed. At least that’s how I chose to interpret it.
Aloud, she said, “Wait, I have a couple of things to say to you.”
Dang. “Go on then,” I huffed.
“First, if you ever try this shit again, I’ll kill you so no one else can.”
I choked on my husky laughter. “You are such a psycho.”
“Love is a dangerous thing,” she replied, widening her eyes to highlight her craziness. “I might get confused if you test me. Second, you owe me a date. Tonight. It’s Fri-yay. We’re hitting the clubs to consume adult beverages.”
I wanted to go.
So badly.
Without consulting Kyros, I couldn’t say yes. Backing out on plans with Tommy so soon after disappointing her wasn’t an option. “I…”
“You already had plans to go out with Laurel, didn’t you?” Kyros interjected smoothly. “If you’re worried she won’t like more company, I assure you she’s one of my most sociable employees.”
“Oh.” Tommy’s face fell at the news we’d have company, then she perked up. “It will be nice to meet one of your workmates.”
No, it wouldn’t. Who the fuck was Laurel?
“If you think Laurel would be okay with that,” I mumbled over my shoulder to Kyros.
“I’ve known her a long time. I’m sure.” His eyes glinted.
Fucker. He was going to order one of his minions to like my friend.
“I’ll meet you here at 9:00 p.m.,” Tommy said, winking at me. “The strawberry mojitos are calling our name, girl.”
“Text when you arrive.” I’d meet her downstairs. “Beast will en
deavour to pass the text on.” And Kyros.
She rolled her eyes. “I hope the commission you made from selling a house is enough to get an actual phone.”
“I don’t. I set a new high score on Snake this morning.”
“Trust you to get involved with a shitty game like that.”
“Shitty game alright,” I agreed in a dark voice. Just not the game she thought.
Tommy propped up on her toes to kiss my cheek. “Catch you later, lovely.”
I wrapped my arms around her again and stole as much of her Tommy-ness as possible. “Miss you already.”
She patted my arm, searching my gaze again, a wrinkle between her brows. Then she looked past me once more, bobbing down to mouth, “Seriously ducking dot.”
Ugh.
Waiting until I heard the ding of the elevator taking Tommy away, I closed the door and turned to Kyros. “Thank you.”
I met his direct gaze briefly and tried to sidle past him.
He whipped out an arm, barring the way, his forearm resting against my stomach. “Why didn’t you tell me about that human? Clint.”
“You heard me telling Tommy before you interrupted our conversation.” The glimmer in his eyes confirmed his ears were that sensitive. “Is that why you rushed down here?”
“I came down because she wasn’t swallowing a word you said. Now, she thinks you’re in the middle of a sordid affair with your boss and reaping the benefits.”
It occurred to me to be angry over that. I ruined my outrage by snorting. “Just so you know, I wouldn’t sleep with my boss to get benefits.”
“You were going to lunch with that boy, Rhys, for a free lunch.”
What the hell? “How did you know that?”
“I’m one hundred and forty-nine, Miss Tetley.”
I rubbed at my cheek. “I was planning to do that. Touché.”
He didn’t budge, waiting.
I sighed. “I didn’t tell you about Clint because it’s none of your business.”
“Do you live in my tower?”
“Who even says that?”
“People with towers.”
Fell into that one. I humoured the egotistical maniac. “Yes, Kyros. I live in your tower.”
“I protect those who live in my tower.”
Blood Trial: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers Book 1) Page 21
