by Lynde Lakes
Her direct stare represented a challenge. Her eyes glinted with the threat, the promise. “Are we talking to Lazar now?”
“I get it. But we can’t accuse him of murder. As far as everyone outside this family knows, there’s been no murder. A woman has merely disappeared.” He looked at the nosey trio standing just inside the den door. “Hey, guys, can you stick around for lunch? I just had another emergency come up. After lunch, I’ll give you a briefing and we’ll come up with a plan.” He hoped he lived through this showdown. With Angela on her high horse, anything could happen.
Rick, Hugh, and Deeto wandered out by the pool. It was good-sized, eighteen-by-forty. It was fenced with natural stone columns with wrought iron inserts to afford an unobstructed view of the valley below. While it was a top-notch pool with a great view, Rick’s gaze zeroed in on the girls. The shapely imps attacked the pool as though they were conquering it, making it their own water haven. Their exuberance as they splashed and romped about made him think of carefree wolf cubs. When Victoria noticed him, she lifted herself up onto the poolside with muscled arms and got out of the water. Her cascade of dripping, long, onyx ringlets swished across her back. He watched the ripples of water slide down her golden skin, caressing it like a lover’s touch. The slight sway of her hips in that red bikini—clinging to her curves, exposing gorgeous tanned and very shapely thighs—stirred memories of her slender, firm body in his arms as he rolled in the soft grass with her.
He didn’t have to imagine a thing about her body. He’d seen her slim form when he caught his first glimpse of her, hiding in the bushes at the side of Mt. Baldy Highway. She’d been a goddess then and was a goddess now. She sent him a sly smile as though she’d read his thoughts. Then, she bent slightly, turned on the hose and put it up to her mouth like a bubbling fountain and drank deeply. It seemed it required a large quantity to satisfy her thirst. He wondered if she was that insatiable in bed. Oh, God, if this job didn’t kill him in one way, it would in another.
He found himself moving toward her, unable to ignore the lure. Her gold-flecked eyes were ablaze with amusement. A trickle of water slid between her breasts. “Hi, Victoria, looks like you’re back to normal and enjoying the beautiful sunny day.” The huskiness in his voice probably gave away his forbidden desire. When she traced her fingers down his arm, heat rushed to his lower extremities.
Damn. She was toying with him, but he didn’t really want her to stop. He wanted to play, too, and see how she liked it. He bent toward her and paused inches from her lips. He ached for the dangerous pleasure of her warm, searching mouth on his. He hovered there, certain his breath was caressing her lips, tantalizing her.
The satisfied glint in her eyes for what she expected to happen made him determined it wouldn’t. Not today. Not ever.
Then she laughed in his face and dived into the pool. Damn her.
Damon put his arm around Angela as they entered the lab. “Remember, let me do the talking.” Lazar was surrounded by labeled vials in varied sizes and shapes. Damon detected the smell of blood and the scent of wolves as they paced their cages.
“Excuse me, Lazar. We need a few minutes of your time. It’s important.”
Lazar looked up and met Damon’s gaze, his piercing ice-blue eyes masked.
“Angela’s friend Kat is missing and she mentioned she had a date with you last night.”
He sighed. “Unfortunately, she stood me up.”
“Did she call?”
“Not a word. She must have chickened out at the last minute and was ashamed to tell me. I think she’s living with a guy with an anger management problem and was nervous about cheating on him.”
“Where were you supposed to meet?”
“Her pick. She was supposed to call me and let me know.”
Damon had the address of Lazar’s apartment complex and planned to check it out.
“Lots of luck finding your friend. Since I haven’t heard from her, I’m afraid I’m of little help. You might check with her hot tempered boyfriend.” Lazar went back to recording his findings. When they just stood there, he said. “I’m pretty busy. Is there something else?”
“Yes, have you heard of the moon poppy cure?” Damon asked.
“As a matter of fact, I have. It’s a temporary cure. It’s good for a day on some people, only hours on others. But I’m working on a blood extract that, combined with the poppies, might lead us to the permanent solution we seek.”
Damon folded his arms across his chest. “I’m thinking of moving the lab into my industrial park in L.A. We don’t really need to be here on site anymore. My family is looking forward to its relocation and to regaining their complete privacy.”
“I understand fully.” He glanced at Angela for the first time and met her gaze with those icy eyes of his. “If you can just allow me three more weeks, I can achieve my goals…our goals,” he said, correcting himself. “And guarantee unparalleled success.”
“Don’t disappoint me,” Damon said. “Because a month from today, this place is being relocated. I owe that to my family. They’ve been extremely patient.”
Lazar’s smile didn’t meet his eyes. “Rome wasn’t built in a day, Mrs. Lamont. But I’m grateful for the extra time. If I work diligently, I may bring your discomfort to an end even sooner.”
Angela’s glaring, narrow-eyed expression told Damon she wasn’t buying any of it. The best thing he could do was get her out of there before she let loose on Lazar. Damon took her arm and headed out the door. At least there wouldn’t be a full moon out for another month—unless a freakish moon phase happened and a blue moon appeared. After all the elements that had gotten out of balance in the last sixteen years, nothing would surprise him.
Angela closed her eyes in frustration, feeling the blood pounding in her temples. It took everything in her power to wait until they were back in their bedroom before she let loose on Damon. He tried to draw her into his arms. She desperately needed to be held, but she couldn’t weaken on this. “Nothing is solved,” she said, as her simmering rage consumed her. “I didn’t swallow one word that slimy, white-coat weirdo uttered.”
“Look, we struck a compromise and kept him off guard. Now we can check out his apartment and keep an eye on him without alerting him to our doubts. Please, Angela, for our girls’ sake, and in Kat’s memory, work with me on this.”
She stiffened. “Don’t you dare use our girls and Kat to soften me up. I watched Lazar’s eyes and every sense in my body tells me he lied about Kat not showing up. And that phony louse trying to switch the blame to Deeto is ridiculous. He’d never harm Kat, even if she walked across his chest wearing razorblade heels and carried a whip. And she’d never let Deeto stop her from anything she wanted to do. And he liked their set up too much to rock the boat. No, I’ll bet you a trip to Paris that she showed up and that they got it on. Then he killed her.”
“Even if part of what you say is true, don’t forget a werewolf killed her.”
“Maybe Lazar is a werewolf or somehow used a wolf to rip her throat out.”
“What’s the motive?”
“Give me time. Damn it. I’ll find one.”
Damon’s expression tightened and his eyes blazed. “No! You’re staying out of this. I mean it, Angela. Hugh, Rick, Deeto, and I will find the fiend who did this. And because you have such strong feelings about Lazar, we’ll start with him.”
“And I’ll bet you finish with him. Did you see his eyes? The man is evil.
Chapter Ten
When Damon and Rick arrived at the apartment Lazar had listed as his home address, they found a little old lady living there. Threadbare white baggy sweats hung pitifully on her boney frame. Her leathery-wrinkled skin, uncombed, long gray hair and dissipated, hard-living look gave her the appearance of a homeless person.
“Ma’am. This is my security advisor, Rick Tanner, and I’m Damon Lamont.” Rick flashed a temporary badge. Damon reminded himself to get his private secretary to order a permanent one for him.
“We had some problems at my place of business and we’re doing an investigation on one of my employees. How long have you been living here, ma’am?”
“Two months, but I was away for six weeks at rehab. Just got back this morning.” Damon took in the well-maintained luxury apartments. “I’ll bet the rent here is high.”
She snorted. “You mean too high for the likes of me?”
“No, ma’am, I—”
“That’s okay, mister, it is too high. No shame in calling it like it is. This place was a gift from heaven.” She wiped her nose on her sleeve and, in her whisky voice, said, “One of the regulars at a bar I used to go to, Dudley was his name, well, he was some kinda cocky rich dude who always wore cowboy boots. I was a li’l afraid of him and his squinty blue eyes, but he turned out to be my guardian angel. He tol’ me I could have this place rent free for a year, furniture and all.”
Dudley, generous? Damon doubted it. “What was the catch?”
She shrugged. “He tol’ me he’d signed a lease and paid a year in advance then found a two-bedroom he liked better. I didn’t buy his story, but this place was too good to pass up. I asked the manager and he said it was okay for me to live here.”
Damon heard the TV blaring inside. “Do you have someone staying with you?”
“Nah, but the manager says my nephew camped out here while I was gone. But I ain’t got no nephew. Can you imagine the guts? Just taking over my place while I was gone? I told Mr. Jenks to run off anyone from now on. Don’t want any intruders digging around in my basket, so to speak.”
Damon wanted to ask her name, but he had a feeling the less questions asked, the better. Instead, he decided to stick to queries that were crucial to him and financially beneficial to her. He handed her a hundred dollar bill. “May we come in and look around?” He wanted to give the place a once over—and a luminol scan.
She frowned. He handed her another hundred.
“Okay. But don’t touch anything.” She quickly tucked the money into her pocket and led the way.
The place was neat except for the stack of clothes dumped on the couch. He scanned the entry rooms quickly while explaining the luminol process. He omitted exactly what he was looking for. He worked slower in the bedroom and wasn’t surprised when he found blood.
Buoyed by his findings, he moved on to the next step. He talked to the manager to get a description of the phony nephew. He described someone who resembled Lazar. The prickles at the back of Damon’s neck strongly suggested that Angela might be right about the guy. If she was, what the hell was he dealing with?
The sun hung low in the sky when Lazar pulled from the paved employee parking area behind Damon’s three-car garage and headed down the winding lane for the highway.
For this important occasion, he’d worn his grey pinstripe suit and his super glossy black dress boots. Dress for success, his granny had told him. He pressed harder on the accelerator, not wanting to arrive late for his appointment with Dr. Fritz Hummel—two million for the cure for lycanthropy was nothing to trifle with. Closing the deal was the first step to regaining what was rightfully his when he had been Reeves—then came revenge. He laughed. Damon had fronted all the costs but he, Lazar alias Reeves, got to reap all the profits and settle old scores.
Up ahead, he spied Damon’s sexy twins. He slowed. The timing was all wrong, but he couldn’t pass up this opportunity. He stopped the car, leaned across the seat, and rolled down the window. “Need a ride girls?”
“No, we’re good,” Victoria said, tossing her long, onyx hair.
Her flippant toss reminded him of the gesture his sister used to make before he chewed her throat out. Unfortunately, when he planted evidence against Damon, his dear half-brother slipped the noose. But all that happened in a past lifetime when he was Reeves. Now, he was cleverer. Lazar slid his tongue across his teeth to assure himself they were even. Then he flashed a smile. “It’s at least a half mile to the highway. And several miles down the hill. I hope you girls aren’t thinking of hitching a ride.”
Victoria shrugged and gave him a sassy look. “What are you, Dad’s spy?”
Lazar laughed. “Hardly, but I think he’d rather have you ride with someone he knows and trusts than a stranger.”
“A tourist bus comes down from Mt. Baldly twice a day,” Valerie said. “The last one is due in about thirty minutes. We know the driver and plan to hitch a ride with him.”
Lazar studied the twins. Both girls’ features were basically the same, but there was something about Valerie that reminded him of Angela. It wasn’t the hair or her more timid voice. Maybe it was the gentle curve of her throat. He still recalled the softness of Angela’s flesh in another lifetime when he sank his sharp incisors into it. Unfortunately, the orderly stopped him before he could steal away her life.
“How about this deal? I’ll take you right to the door of your destination.” Lazar glanced at his watch. Damn it, girls, just get in the car. I don’t have time to fool around. “Come on, we can get to know each other better.” He’d never done twins.
The evening shadows darkened the room and added to Angela’s near panicky mood. She breathed in and out, trying to fight the emotions swamping her, but she couldn’t. Dear God, according to Kyle, her girls got into a car with Lazar! She flicked on the bedside lamp and hurriedly finished dressing. Then she grabbed her keys from the nightstand. She wished Damon was here. But she couldn’t wait. She tensed when he entered the bedroom, brimming with excitement and smelling like sweat and his woodsy aftershave. He approached quickly and kissed her temple. “Where have you been?”
Damon wrinkled his brow, no doubt wondering why she’d spoken to him so sharply. “Rick and I were doing some investigating so I had my cell off.”
Tension knotted her nerve endings. She leaned against the dresser and folded her arms to hold herself together.
“We talked to the present occupant of the apartment Lazar listed as his home,” Damon said. “And we acquired some additional and very interesting information from the apartment manager.” Damon reached past her and turned off the sad melody playing on the radio. “And you’ll want to hear this—”
“No! Listen to me first! I have another newsflash about your friend Lazar. Kyle took a call from the girls while I was in the shower. The message: Don’t worry; we caught a ride down the hill with Lazar. He’s dropping us at The Ruse Room on Foothill.”
Damon froze. “Dear God, no! Stay put in case they call again. I’ll go get them.”
“Kyle can take the calls. I’m going with you.”
As they headed down the stairway, they met Rick. Damon gave Rick a quick once-over. Perhaps having a young-looking guy along would get them past the bouncer easier. Rick was tall and twenty, but with his young face, he could pass for eighteen or nineteen. His black plaid, long-sleeved Wrangler sports shirt and black jeans and boots added to the image. And the diamond earring in his ear completed the wild-seed appearance. “Come with us to the Ruse Room.”
“Don’t tell me the girls went to that shady, drug-infested teen hangout,” Rick said, looking worried.
“Unfortunately, they did. I might need you if there’s trouble.”
When they arrived at the club, Damon forced himself to breathe in and out slowly. “I have to find my girls,” he said to the bouncer. He flipped open his wallet with the photos of the girls. “It’s a matter of life and death.”
The muscled bouncer in his fifties said, “Lots of luck buddy. Your girls are with a couple of bad dudes who love to get their dirty hands on the innocent ones.”
“Where?”
“Pool room, in the back.”
Rick brushed past the bouncer and took off running. Damon and Angela followed.
“Hey, you can’t go back there,” the bouncer said. But, apparently, the noise of a gang of bikers roaring up to the curb in front of the club stopped him from coming after them. Damon figured it was Deeto and his gang, ready to provide backup if needed. He’d just talked to them on
his cell.
Damon felt Angela’s grip tighten on his arm as they weaved their way through the crowded teen hangout with blaring music and writhing dancers. Damn it. His girls hadn’t been using good judgment lately. He shuddered. The risky behavior was probably because of the feral wolves residing within them.
Sweating and frantic, he tried not to look at his watch and reveal his rising panic. What if his girls weren’t even here and the bouncer was just pulling his chain? It was absurd that he preferred to find his girls with a couple of bad dudes in the backroom than have them be off somewhere with Lazar, a Nobel Prize winning scientist.
Rick slipped into the pool room, lowered his sunglasses, and scanned the place. He sighed in relief when he saw the twins. Victoria looked mind-blowing, if one liked the hot, wild type. She wore a black hip-length jacket over a clinging white shirt and black skinny cargo pants that revealed every slender curve. She tossed that long, full, wind-blown onyx hair provocatively and handled the pool cue like a pro. Her ankle boots reminded him of a line in a song. Damn it. And she was just the girl who could walk all over him with her boots.
Valerie stood across the room by an old-time juke box, reading the selections, her long blonde hair shading her face. Her jeans and top were clingy too and certainly too provocative for a room full of tattooed thugs who looked like the only school they’d ever attended was the school of hard knocks. They were no doubt the owners of the Harleys Rick saw parked outside when he came in. He suspected they were sizing her up to be their next blonde bimbo.
Since she was in no immediate danger, Rick sauntered over to Victoria. “Looks like you’ve played before.”
Victoria stroked her lips with the tip of the pool cue. “Yeah, baby, wanna play?”
He tried to convince himself her tough, lustful attitude came from having a feral wolf living inside of her. Whatever lit her fuse, a persistent impatience at her blatantly sexual gestures in front of these hungry toughs warned him his feelings went beyond desire. His growing concern for her was so strong that no matter how much she irritated him, the caring failed to fade. And those feelings could cost him.
