by M. J. Scott
“Does this human have a name?”
I shook my head. “We don’t know his name. I met him but he was using an alias. And, as I said, we haven’t been able to make much progress in this investigation.”
“What did he call himself?”
“Smith.”
Esteban’s mouth quirked. “Original.”
“Effective.”
He nodded. “Continue.”
“I think Smith might be the one who’s stealing from you.”
Leather creaked as Esteban shifted on the bench, expression thoughtful. “You think or you would like to think?”
I shrugged. “Call it accountant’s intuition. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that someone has started stealing from you at the same time that Smith and Tate and their cronies surfaced. Tate is dead but Smith isn’t. He needs money to keep doing whatever it is they’re doing. If they don’t have it themselves then—” I paused, trying to think of a diplomatic way to say what I wanted to say.
“Yes?”
“Sometimes it’s easier to steal from those who don’t do everything by the book.”
“Are you suggesting I am such a person?”
I smiled cautiously. “I would never suggest such a thing. Let’s just say you’re someone whom others might perceive that way.”
“So you think these conspirators are stealing from me?”
“I think it’s likely. You and maybe others.”
“And what do you propose we do about it?”
Deep breath, Ash. “I think you should let me freeze your accounts. Cut off their funding and see if that forces their hand.”
His eyes narrowed. “You want me to hand over my money to you?”
“Not hand it over. Just make it so no one can access it without all sorts of issues. For a limited time only. Say a week.” From what I’d seen at Infradark, money was being siphoned off daily. It wouldn’t take Smith long to catch on to what we’d done. Then he’d have to make a move. And we’d be waiting.
Esteban pulled at his cuff, smoothing the black silk. “How do you propose that I run my business in the meantime?”
“We can transfer some money to a clean account for your immediate expenses. And secure the cash flow in your clubs.”
“How?”
“Either we use agents—”
“Not acceptable.”
“Well, then we can use staff you know are not thieves. People you trust. Or perhaps Lord Marco could assist?”
His upper lip curled. “My business is my business. I do not need those of Marco’s lineage poking their noses around here anymore than I need the FBI.”
“There’s no point freezing just the accounts. They might be siphoning cash rather than accessing your funds.”
“Shouldn’t you be able to work out which it is?”
“Not in the next day or so.”
He rose, looming over me. “What’s the rush?”
I dropped my gaze. I couldn’t tell him about Rhianna. “I have reason to believe they’re getting ready to try something again.”
“Try or have tried?”
“Try.” That was true. Rhianna was an accident. A feint at me. But they wanted her, accident or no. She was proof their anti-vaccine worked—if they didn’t know already—and with that knowledge I didn’t think they’d hold off much longer from trying whatever it was they intended to do.
Esteban shook his head. “But you have no evidence at all? Why should I agree?”
“Because if I’m right, then your problems are solved.”
He eased back onto the bench, shaking his head. “And if you’re wrong, I will still be losing money and my business will be in chaos. It is hardly an appealing proposition, Ms. Keenan.” He tapped his fingers on his knee. “Would you advise a client to make such a bad business decision?”
“You are my client, and in these circumstances, yes, I would.”
“But you are acting out of self-interest. You wish to catch this man. He hurt you.”
My fingernails bit into my palm. Smith had done more than hurt me. He’d hurt those I loved. He’d killed. He’d turned my world inside out and upside down over and over. “I would say our interests are aligned. It would be unethical of me to give you advice that isn’t to your benefit.”
“Some people are not overly troubled by ethics. Not when the things they hold dear are at stake.”
“I’m not one of those people.”
“No?” His finger crooked at me. “Come here, Ashley.”
I stayed where I was. “Why?”
Another curl of his finger and in its wake a slide of heat passed through me like hot golden honey slipping under my skin. “If you don’t come, I will not agree to what you say.”
I fought the snarl burning in my throat. And stepped forward.
“Closer.”
Another few steps until my feet were a foot or so from his knees. I looked down at Esteban even as I struggled to keep myself from moving closer. My brain was foggy. The wolf thought being above him was a position of power but my human mind knew better. I was nowhere close to being in control of this situation. And I didn’t like that feeling one little bit. My hand flexed toward my gun.
“I don’t think so.”
Esteban’s hand closed over mine, tightening to the point of pain. I swayed as my nerves swamped with a dizzying mix of pleasure, pain and fear. Contact, it seemed, strengthened the effect he had on people.
“Kneel.”
I wanted to do what he said. Oh, yes. It would be so easy.
So right.
But the last time a vampire had made me feel this way, it had been Tate thralling me. I’d had no choice and ever since then I’d had to live with the consequences of what I’d let him do to me in the name of self-preservation and to save Bug. But I wasn’t thralled now and I had a choice. I reached again for the image of moonlight and glass, tried to imagine the silver caress of the moon against my skin. Suddenly I could see Dan’s reflection in that shimmering glass, silver eyes gleaming at me. Dan. For a moment I smelled his scent and it gave me enough strength to twist free of Esteban’s mental grip. “No.” It was almost a shout.
Esteban surged to his feet. “You refuse me?”
Dan’s image wavered then shattered with the glass. Another wave of desire wracked me, and I shuddered, my body wanting the release the sensations were promising even as my mind refused it. “Yes.”
“Even if it costs you my cooperation?” His finger stroked my lip. “Such a little thing to give for what you want so badly?”
Maybe before Tate I would’ve chosen differently. I hoped not. I’d like to think I’d never been the sort to kneel at the feet of a monster and do whatever it was they wanted. But the last few months had shown me things about myself that made reality less black and white. It’s harder to choose between shades of gray but in my mind, this particular choice was clear. I would not submit.
Not again.
I bared my teeth. “No. Not even for this.”
Esteban frowned and the fire eased a little. “Isn’t catching this man your heart’s desire?”
“It’s one of them.” Not bowing to Esteban was another right now.
“And if I insist?”
This time my hand did close on my gun. “Then we’ll both just have to be disappointed.”
The lines between his eyebrows deepened and his eyes glinted dangerous blue. “You think you can get out of here if I choose to keep you?”
“I think you’d have to kill me to stop me.” My voice shook but I didn’t care. He could tell from my heartbeat and my scent that I was scared. What mattered to me was that I was scared and still able to defy him.
“A woman of convictions.” To my relief, he stepped back.
“I like to think so,” I said. My voice didn’t shake quite so much this time. I couldn’t quite make my hand let go of the gun though.
Esteban studied me with an expression I couldn’t decipher. “Perhaps you’ve convinced me after
all.”
I stared at him. Did he mean what I thought he meant? I opened my mouth but before I could ask the question my cell rang, the noise shrilling into the silence like a fire alarm. I winced and jumped. “Sorry,” I said, rummaging in my bag. “I’ll turn it off.” I didn’t want to ruin everything, now that I was so close. “So do we have an agreement?” I switched the phone to vibrate, dropped it back into the bag.
He nodded. Relief swept through me. “Thank you.” I inclined my head, which was as close as I came to bowing. “How long do you need to set up a new account and transfer enough money to keep you going?”
“A few hours. I’ll use one of my personal accounts. Nothing’s gone missing from them.”
It didn’t surprise me that Esteban had accounts ready to go. In my experience, vampires believed in liquid assets and they embraced the ease and freedom of access to international finance provided by the internet. “And the list of accounts I have now for the clubs is complete?”
A nod.
“Then we’ll freeze them tonight.” I figured Dan should be able to pull that off if Esteban was cooperating. “Then we just need to secure the cash.”
“I can do that.
He sounded certain. I believed him. Cash fraud happens when people think the boss isn’t watching. Having Esteban or some of his nastier lieutenants prowling around each club and counting money would probably put an end to any delusions his employees might have that the money was easy pickings.
“Yes. You have one week. And I expect you to keep me informed of any progress,” Esteban said as I finally managed to make myself let go of my gun.
I nodded, mentally crossing my fingers that it would be enough time and that my crazy theory might be right. “One—” My phone buzzed to life. “I’m sorry,” I apologized again. “I have to take this.”
To my relief Esteban nodded and gestured. The door slid open. I stepped back into the corridor, hoping I hadn’t just ruined everything. The walls were all dark again, which improved the view, though the dim light didn’t make my cell any easy to find in my purse. I followed the vibrations and closed my fingers around it. “What’s so important?” I snapped as I moved down the corridor.
“We have a problem,” Esme said. “Rhianna went nuts again.”
My throat tightened. “Shit. What happened?”
“I’m not sure but she almost tore someone’s arm off before they got her under control.”
Not good. In fact, very, very far from good. And I didn’t think Esme was telling me the worst of it. “Will he survive?”
“I think so. But that’s not why I’m calling. They’ve kicked me and Marco out but I think they’re going to transfer her. That colonel went ballistic. Said they couldn’t keep her secure.”
Did the army even have the right to kick the FBI out when they were involved in a case? “Transfer her where?”
“I’m not sure, I’m trying to find out but someone mentioned Grayson.”
My heart nosedived. Grayson Prison. One of the government’s nastier innovations. Supermax for supernaturals. No. No. No. It would kill Rhianna to be locked up by herself twenty-three hours a day. “She hasn’t done anything wrong, how can they send her to jail?”
“It’s the military. I guess they can do what they want if they can convince someone national security is at stake. They’ve got her on assault at a minimum and I’m sure they can come up with more charges if they choose.”
I tried to think. “She’s not competent at the moment.”
“I don’t think they care.”
“Does Dan know?”
“Yes, he’s trying to pull strings right now.”
“Do you know when they’re going to move her?”
“No. But they were really pissed, Ash. They want her out of here. Marco and I are going to come back to Seattle.” Esme sounded pretty pissed herself. I wondered exactly what the army guys had done to her.
“No. Stay there. You can’t leave her.”
“Ashley, I’m not with her now. I’m sitting in a jeep outside the base. They won’t let us back in.”
In a jeep?“Where’s Marco?” He couldn’t be in a jeep. My mental image of army jeeps involved a distinct lack of roof. Even if the army was pissed off, I doubted they wanted to take responsibility for flambéing an Old One.
“They let him call a car. He left already.”
Leaving Rhianna alone with a bunch of soldiers who had less reason than ever to treat her well. “Can’t you stall and see if you can keep an eye on the place?”
“I’m looking at about eight guys with automatic weapons pointed at my jeep and my driver has one too. I don’t think they’re going to let me just sit here. Dan told me to come in.”
Damn. I had no say in that chain of command as far as Esme was concerned. She would follow Dan’s orders. So I needed to get to him.
Chapter Fourteen
As soon as I hit the street outside Maelstrom, I started shaking. Adrenaline overload is never a good thing. I staggered over to a handy bench and sat with a thump, breathing deep and trying to will away the feeling I was about to lose my lunch. Not that I’d actually eaten lunch.
The bouncers standing outside the doors watched me curiously but they were the least of my problems. So what if they told Esteban I fell to pieces when I’d gotten outside? The main thing was I’d actually made it out of there in one piece in the first place.
“Need a ride?”
My head shot up. Agent Ramirez stood next to the bench, looking unhappy.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Dan sent me to fetch you. We missed you at your office. Your assistant told us where you’d gone.”
Dan had sent a protection detail. I guess I should’ve expected it and, to be honest, right now, I was happy to have a few armed men around me. Plus it would save me cab fare back to the Taskforce.
I had to tell Dan that Esteban had agreed to my plan. Dan probably wouldn’t like it but he wasn’t going to turn down a chance to catch Smith. I’d deal with any fallout I had to in order to keep Rhi safe. She wasn’t going to prison if I could help it. Particularly not Grayson.
She hadn’t done anything except be in the wrong place at the wrong time. She didn’t deserve to be locked up with crazy vamps and rogue weres.
In fact, I couldn’t wait until I got back to the Taskforce. I needed to know what was happening now. As Andy ushered me to the waiting SUV, I called Dan.
He answered the phone after just one ring. “Is Ramirez with you? You know it’s not safe for you to be out on your own. You should have waited for a detail.” He sounded exasperated.
“I had my panic button,” I said. Which was true but I hadn’t actually remembered it was somewhere in my purse until this very moment.
“I’d prefer it if you didn’t go places where you’ll need it.”
“Me too. But that doesn’t seem to be working out right now. And, before you start yelling, I got Esteban to agree to let us freeze his accounts.”
“I hope the next words out of your mouth are ‘thanks to the power of vid-conferencing’.”
“No.”
“You went to see Esteban alone?” His voice dropped low.
Andy’s head swiveled to look at me from his position, riding shotgun. Clearly he could hear both sides of the conversation. Damn weres.
I ignored Andy’s half-amused, half-interested expression and focused on soothing the cranky werewolf on the other end of the line. “It was fine. No big deal.”
“Then why do you sound so nervous?”
“I’m worried about Rhi.”
“I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t be. How long will the paperwork take? Esteban says he can be organized by early tonight. Seven.”
“Something tells me he’s thought about this possibility before.”
“Maybe. But that’s not important. How long?”
“Seven is fine. I’ll get the team on it. There’s no issue if Esteban is con
senting.”
“And what about Rhi? You can’t let them put her in that place.”
“Ash, I’m trying but it’s out of my hands.”
“She hasn’t—”
“She almost killed someone. There are laws.”
“She hasn’t had a trial.”
“No judge would grant her bail right now, so a trial wouldn’t change much.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“That doesn’t change anything. And before you go nuts, I said, I’m trying. I didn’t say I agreed with what they’d done.”
Fury boiled through me but aiming it at Dan would be misdirected. I should save it for the man who deserved it. Smith. And his bitch of a vampirella sidekick. “Fine. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. You can give me an update then.”
* * *
When I got to the Taskforce, Dan was closeted in his office with the head of the Seattle branch. Not the sort of meeting I could just barge into, particularly not when I wanted to stay in the Taskforce’s good graces to get help for Rhi.
Instead I parked myself at my cubicle and then helped Andy fill out the seventy gazillion forms involved in getting the banking system to cut off someone’s funds.
By the time Dan got out of the meeting I was starting to go cross-eyed. When he appeared at my desk, bearing coffee, I shook my head. “No more caffeine. I’ll never get to sleep.”
“That would be the idea.”
“What does that mean? Do you have news about Rhi?”
He shook his head. “So far we haven’t been able to get any traction. She’s still scheduled for transfer to Grayson.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
“Tonight?”
“Probably.”
“Then we should go. We could meet her there.” I started to gather my things.
“They’re not going to let us see her straight away. New inmates are meant to be cutoff for the first few days. Help them adjust.”
“New inmates? Rhi’s not an inmate. She’s a twenty-one-year-old girl, who’s probably terrified, not to mention traumatized. She needs me.”
