“Any video pick him up?”
“You’re not going to like the answer to that.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“Every security camera in that entire area mysteriously went out tonight.”
“Of course they did.” Campbell resisted the urge to throw his phone as hard as he could. The thing might end up in Queens.
He did a quick calculation of the sun’s location. “We’ll have to check there tomorrow night.”
After the call ended, he sat for a few more minutes, hoping to catch a glimpse of Olivia. When he didn’t, he told himself it was for the best. Seeing her would only make it harder to leave. It was enough that she was safe, asleep in her bed.
He imagined lying beside her, watching her sleep, holding her close. The reality that such a scene would never happen hit him as hard as any bout with bloodlust ever had, like a sucker punch to the gut.
He slid from the hood of the car to stand firmly on his booted feet and stared hard at Olivia’s window. This would be the last time he came here, because each time he did, it got more difficult to leave.
With one final glance, he turned his back and started walking away, each step taking him deeper into his vampire eternity and farther away from the glimpse he’d had of the life he’d once lived.
* * *
As Olivia dragged herself through the preparations for another day of solo work, the sound of a motor in the alley behind the diner surprised her. When it stopped right outside her door, her heart started thudding extra hard. She tried to force the fear down and remember all the self-defense techniques Mindy had taught her. She grabbed a heavy wooden rolling pin in one hand and the cordless phone in the other then hid next to the refrigerator. If someone broke in the back door, they were in for a rude welcome.
The doorknob rattled as someone slid a key in the lock. No one besides her had a key but Mindy. She was trying to tie Mindy to the sound of the motor when the door opened. Olivia raised the rolling pin, ready to strike with full force as Mindy had taught her.
Mindy stepped into view and yelped when she spotted Olivia. She put her hand over her heart as if she could stop it from racing. “Damn, you scared me half to death.”
Olivia lowered the rolling pin and felt like collapsing after the spike of adrenaline. “Ditto. I heard a motor and then the door rattling.”
“I got a scooter.”
Olivia crossed to the door, opened it and looked out. There chained to the drainpipe was a black scooter. “Is that a Vespa?”
“Yeah. Guy in my building is moving to the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma, where they drive pickup trucks and not scooters. I got a good deal on it. Wanted something a little faster than my feet.”
Olivia closed the door, hating that the world was changing again to one where even Mindy didn’t feel safe walking the streets alone in broad daylight. “It’s cute.”
Mindy didn’t acknowledge her compliment, instead taking off her jacket and slipping into the familiar morning routine.
“I didn’t know you were coming back today,” Olivia ventured, hoping she wasn’t swatting a hornet’s nest.
“Gotta make a living.”
Olivia sighed as she placed the rolling pin back on the prep table. Mindy obviously didn’t want to talk about why there was a boatload of tension between them. Honestly, Olivia didn’t either. After all, it might all be a moot point now anyway.
Mindy interacted with the customers throughout the morning the same as she always did. It was only when she stepped into the kitchen that she grew quiet. By the time the breakfast customers vacated for work, school and whatever else filled their days, the tension had Olivia wanting to be the one to flee through the back door.
She stopped scraping the grill when Mindy came into the kitchen with the last of the dirty dishes. “I really am sorry.”
Mindy kept walking and didn’t say anything until she’d loaded the dishes in the washer and started the cycle. When she finally turned around, Olivia saw how tired she looked. She wondered if Mindy hadn’t slept well since she’d stormed out of the diner.
“I know you are. I just don’t understand what you’re thinking. I’ve never known you to be so careless.”
“I can’t explain it beyond saying I’ve just gone with my gut feeling.”
Mindy looked away, obviously wishing Olivia had said something different, that maybe she’d finally cut ties with Campbell while Mindy had stayed at home.
Screams suddenly filled the silence. Olivia stared toward the back door as the frantic sound increased. She and Mindy made eye contact a moment before they each grabbed the nearest weapon—the rolling pin for Mindy and a butcher knife for Olivia—and raced for the door.
When they reached the alley, Olivia saw a white van at the far end. A guy in dark clothes was trying to force a young woman into the back. When the woman screamed again, he punched her in the face.
“Oh, hell no,” Mindy said, and started running.
Totally agreeing with the sentiment, Olivia pointed the knife behind her and followed Mindy. The guy looked up at the sound of their approach and reached for his waistband.
“Gun!” Olivia yelled, and raced past Mindy. She stopped and threw the knife with as much force as she could. She didn’t have perfect aim, but it did cut his upper arm enough to halt his reaching for his gun. It was enough time for Mindy to reach him and get in a kick to the side of his knee.
He roared in pain, but he still managed to wrap his hand in Mindy’s hair and yank hard. Mindy cried out and struggled to free herself.
All of the lessons Mindy had given Olivia clicked into place in her head. While Mindy kicked and clawed, Olivia saw her chance. She grabbed the rolling pin Mindy had dropped and brought it down hard on the guy’s arm. When he released Mindy, Olivia rammed the heel of her hand up into his nose. This time he was the one to go down as blood flowed from his broken nose.
Mindy gave him a swift kick in the ribs for good measure.
By then all the noise had brought other business owners out the backs of their shops. “Call 911,” Olivia yelled at Han, the guy who owned the Chinese place at the end of the block.
“Already did,” he said.
When the attacker tried to get to his feet, Mindy gave him another jab to the nose. He howled but stayed down.
Olivia lowered herself next to the woman who’d nearly been the city’s latest kidnapping victim and realized it was the granddaughter of the old lady who lived above the dry cleaner’s. She was dazed and her mouth was bleeding, but she was alive. When she spotted the guy on the ground, she started crying and turned her face into Olivia’s chest. Olivia wrapped her arms around her and rubbed her hand over the girl’s long hair. “It’s okay. It’s over. He can’t hurt you now.”
Sirens approached, and it didn’t take long for the alley to be filled with medical and police personnel.
“What happened?” a police officer asked.
“This bastard tried to kidnap this girl,” Mindy said, and kicked the guy in the side again.
The officer guided Mindy away from the guy before she could do more damage.
The girl in Olivia’s arms flinched when the paramedic tried to examine her. “It’s okay. They’re here to help you.”
Reluctantly, the girl let the paramedic help her stand and walk toward the ambulance at the end of the alley. She stopped in her tracks and looked back at Mindy and Olivia. “Thank you.”
Olivia smiled. “You’re welcome.”
For the next half hour, Mindy and Olivia answered the police officer’s questions and told him exactly what they’d done when they heard the screams.
“You should have called the police,” he said.
Olivia got the impression that he had to say it but that he was actually impressed with what they’d done. “If we’d waited, that girl would be on her way to a blood den now.”
He nodded.
“What was she doing out here?” Mindy asked. “Shouldn’t she be in school
?”
The officer nodded to where the paramedics were headed up to the grandmother’s apartment. “She said her grandmother was sick last night and wouldn’t answer the phone this morning, so she skipped school to come check on her. She noticed the van following her about a block before she got here.”
“Her grandmother okay?” Olivia asked.
“Looks as if she has pneumonia, so they’re taking her to the hospital.”
Once the officer headed back to his car, Olivia and Mindy walked to the end of the alley to check on the girl and her grandmother. The older woman gripped Olivia’s hand in hers. “Thank you for saving my granddaughter.” Tears streamed from the woman’s eyes.
“We were happy to do it. Now you just concentrate on getting better.”
She nodded. “I will. And then Tracey and I will come down and have lunch at your diner.”
“Sounds like a good plan. Speaking of, we better get back to work.” She smiled at Tracey and her grandmother and turned to head back to the diner.
But when they turned, they found their way blocked by a gaggle of reporters with microphones and television cameras pointed their way. They answered a few questions before insisting they had to get back to work.
On the way back up the alley, Olivia flexed her hand. “You know what? That felt good.”
For the first time in what felt like forever, Mindy smiled at her. “It did, didn’t it? We make a pretty good ninja team.”
Olivia laughed as they stepped through the back door to find the diner full of curious customers.
“Looks as if we’ll be serving up a tale with lunch,” Mindy said.
“As it happens, we have one to tell.”
* * *
“Hey, Campbell,” Travis called from his spot in front of the TV. “You might want to see this.”
He was up for anything to get him away from his desk, so he wandered across the room. What he saw stopped him in his tracks. There on the TV screen were Olivia and Mindy.
“Two women are being hailed as heroes today after they thwarted the attempted kidnapping of a teenage girl,” the studio anchor said. “Olivia DaCosta and Mindy Kemp heard the girl screaming and raced to her aid. Our Sierra Carnes has more.”
Campbell was vaguely aware of the rest of the team filtering into the room as he watched the reporter interview Olivia and Mindy.
“We couldn’t just do nothing,” Olivia said. “We knew what might happen to her if the guy got her into the van.”
“Damn, I knew she was a fighter, but evidently the girl’s got skills, too,” Billy said.
“Both of them,” Colin said.
“Yeah, and they just painted huge bull’s-eyes on themselves,” Campbell said. He spun and stalked back to his desk and picked up the phone.
“Comfort Food Diner,” Olivia said when she answered. “How can I help you?”
“You can start by not taunting the Nefari on the news,” he said.
“Campbell?”
“Yes. What were you thinking?”
He heard a loud thump and wondered if she’d just slammed something down.
“I was thinking I was saving a girl’s life,” she said.
“And you had to talk to the reporters about it?”
“It wouldn’t have made a difference if we’d said no comment. They already knew who we were and what we’d done.”
He growled in frustration. “So you decided to just bask in your fifteen minutes of fame?”
“You know, last time I checked, you weren’t the boss of me. In fact, I got the distinct impression you didn’t even want to talk to me. So I’d appreciate it if you’d keep your opinions to yourself.” With that, she hung up on him.
He slammed his own phone down. Damn fool woman.
When he looked up, he noticed everyone had left the room. Good move.
He stared at the door that led to the street and cursed the fact he couldn’t go over to Olivia’s right now. As he paced the length of the room and slowly calmed down, he realized that it was a good thing he couldn’t go outside at the moment. Instead of racing to the diner to try to continue his tirade, the truth had time to soak through the crevices of his brain.
Olivia was right. He didn’t have the right to tell her what to do, even if he only wanted to make sure she stayed safe.
Chapter 13
As he normally did when he wanted to push something from his mind, Campbell focused his energies on work. It didn’t totally keep his argument with Olivia from his mind, but at least he had something to do besides pace the Bat Cave like a caged panther.
He and the rest of the team spent the night scouring nearly all of the six-block radius to which Travis had traced Rico’s phone call, both inside and out. Not surprisingly, no one seemed to have seen anything. Chances were one of the people standing in line for one of the trendy vampire clubs had seen Rico, but they knew what the Nefari did to vamps who were a little too loose with information. Rico was proof enough of that.
He spotted Kaja and Travis going into yet another club across the street and Billy keeping watch from a nearby rooftop, gun and stakes at the ready. Campbell and Colin stepped to the front of the line at Universal Donor.
“The names of these places get more stupid every time I come down here,” Campbell said as they approached the beefy bouncer.
“Hey, stop cutting!” someone yelled from somewhere back in the line that stretched to the end of the block.
“Pig!” Yeah, that one never got old.
The bouncer pointed behind Campbell and Colin. “Back of the line.”
Campbell wasn’t in the mood for attitude. He stepped into the guy’s personal space. “You want to try that again?”
Colin stepped up beside them. “Official V Force business.”
The guy didn’t look happy, but he nodded toward the inside of the club. When they stepped through the entrance, it was almost comical how many pairs of eyes looked in their direction, narrowed then went back to whatever had held their attention before. Campbell scanned the interior. As expected, there were lots of reds and blacks, and the walls were frosted glass lit from behind. Red liquid had been made to look as though blood ran in a constant stream behind the glass.
“You’d think one of these places would try something a little out of the box. You know, bright colors or something,” Colin said.
“At the moment, I don’t give a flying rat’s ass about the decor. I’m more in the mood to knock heads until someone talks about Rico, about the abductions, something.”
Colin nodded, linked his fingers and popped them. “I can do that.”
Movement at the back of the club caught Campbell’s attention. His gaze landed on a familiar face just before the guy darted into the crowd. Campbell smiled.
“I think we’re about to get some answers. That little weasel Charlie Benson doesn’t look as if he wants to talk to me.” Charlie was the type of vampire who would do anything for a buck, or a pint. He had expensive tastes, ones that a legal job wasn’t likely to fund. If bad crap was going down in the vampire community, chances were Charlie had at least heard about it.
Campbell ignored the yelps and objections as he pushed his way through the crowd. Charlie glanced back over his shoulder, saw Campbell and Colin in pursuit and made a run for it.
They caught him a few steps into the alley that separated the line of clubs from the row of buildings behind them. He stood staring up at where Billy was aiming a gun modified to shoot stakes.
“Good thing you stopped when you did,” Billy said with a crooked grin. “I’m pretty good with this.” He waved the barrel of the gun. “Lots of hours of video games as a kid.”
“Stopped in your tracks by a puppy,” Colin said to Charlie as he shook his head. “The shame of it all.”
Campbell slammed the pimped-out vampire against the wall of the opposing building.
“Where you going in such a hurry, Charlie? Aren’t you glad to see me?”
“No one’s ever glad to see
you guys.”
“Now, that’s just rude,” Colin said from where he lounged against the club’s wall, one booted foot propped against it.
“I can’t be seen with you,” Charlie said.
“Why not? Are we hazardous to your health?” Campbell asked. “Like Rico, perhaps.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Campbell stepped closer to Charlie and spoke so close to his face that Charlie would have felt his breath if he’d had any. “Now, see, Charlie, I just don’t believe you. You wear lies like you do that slick suit. You’re going to tell me everything you know, and you’re going to tell me now.”
“I’d listen to him, dude,” Colin said.
“I don’t know what you think I’m supposed to tell you. I’m not a mind reader.”
“How about you start with who killed Rico and why.”
“How the hell am I supposed to know?”
Campbell growled low in his throat. “Don’t mess with me. I am not in the mood. I doubt there’s anything going on around here that you don’t know about. You like to keep your fingers in a lot of lucrative pies.”
Charlie tried to squirm loose with no luck. When he couldn’t break free, his attitude changed from innocent and clueless to defiant.
“I’m not telling you anything,” the slimy bastard spit back at Campbell. “They’ll kill me.”
Campbell knew who “they” were—the Nefari, kings of the black market in blood slaves and every other nasty business in Manhattan.
“I will kill you if you don’t.”
The guy’s mouth stretched in a taunting smile. “You can’t do that, break your own laws.”
Campbell leaned in even closer to the guy’s face and tightened his fingers around his throat. “Then I’ll make you wish you could die.”
The harder he squeezed, the purpler the scumbag’s face grew, the wider his eyes. He’d fed recently to have any color. And though he didn’t have to breathe, having his throat crushed wasn’t pleasant. Instincts held over from his human existence told him that throat crushing meant death.
“Okay, okay,” he managed to squeak out through his constricted windpipe.
Out of the Night (Harlequin Nocturne) Page 15
