by Zoe Allison
She shook her head.
“Me either,” Vale said. He looked away and she was relieved that line of questioning might be over. But then he opened his mouth again, fiddling with the book on his lap. “So you are not seeing anyone just now?”
Her mouth went dry. There was only one person she wanted to be involved with and he wasn’t interested in her. “No.”
He glanced over. “I thought you and Gareth might be together. You seem close.”
“We’re just friends,” she said. He’s not my type, romantically speaking.”
Vale was studying her. “No?”
Vic’s pulse picked up. She hoped he wouldn’t ask her what her type was, because if she answered, ‘loyal, kind, brave, hot guys with sandy hair and caramel eyes,’ then it might give the game away. She cleared her throat and smiled, covering her nerves. “He has his pick of the ladies anyway—especially with that polished English accent.”
Vale raised his eyebrows. “I suppose he would be popular with the opposite sex. He is dark and handsome after all…and confident.”
She laughed. “Yeah. He’s sweet though, not arrogant.”
The corner of his mouth twitched, and he looked away. “When we arrive at HQ, we should check in with Lorenzo in case he has found any more details from the pathology lab in Berlin.”
“I hope we can get this thing blown open soon,” Vic said, sighing. She was just as desperate as Vale to get it over with.
She glanced over and he was watching her. She had a strange feeling that he might be able to read her thoughts.
“I hope you do not mind me saying,” he said, “but you have not been yourself since The Shard.”
Her heart rate quickened. He noticed everything, even what she didn’t want him to. She steadied her nerves. The reason she had been rattled wasn’t something she could disclose to anyone—though Vale was the first person she had really struggled with not confiding in. “Honestly, I’m fine,” she told him.
He seemed conflicted, but he glanced away. Vic let out a slow breath. She needed to be more guarded around him and the others. No one could know what she was hiding.
She studied Vale’s profile out of the corner of her eye. At least when it came to reading how she felt about him, his intuition seemed less astute.
* * * *
Back at the London HQ, Vale explained to the others what they had witnessed at the Berlin morgue as Vic observed.
“That proves the events are linked,” Priyanka said. “They intended for the bodies to be destroyed by the blast in order to disguise the cause of death. They slipped up by leaving one body in a fire-proofed area.”
As the two of them conversed, an awareness again crossed her mind. There always seemed to be something not quite right about their relationship. Not that they weren’t a good team, but sometimes they didn’t behave as if Priyanka was Vale’s boss. She treated him like her equal. Vale touched Priyanka’s hand as they spoke. Is there something romantic going on between them? Vic glanced at Gareth, who was also watching Priyanka and Vale. His expression appeared strained, which wasn’t like him. He was so cool and unflappable. She looked away. This mission was clearly getting to everybody.
Priyanka moved the information around on the virtual screen so that an image of the preserved body from Berlin was in front of Lorenzo. “Your hack worked well,” she told him. “We’ve proven the link between the Berlin and London attacks, and the similarities to the way the other bombings were carried out makes it very likely that they all have the same perpetrator.”
“But who?” Lorenzo said. “The Glassmarsh sibling?”
“That, we do not know yet,” Vale said. He lifted his hand to scribble something onto a notepad, and Vic’s gaze was drawn to the flex of the muscles in his arm. He glanced up and caught her eye. Heat rose in her cheeks and she looked away quickly.
Priyanka continued to scroll the information. “This has come through from the CCTV footage at the Berlin mortuary.” Images of two people appeared on screen, an older man and woman, entering the building, then another stream of footage showing them with Dr. Walter examining the preserved body.
Lorenzo pointed at the stills. “Those images are of the parents, identifying the cadaver.”
Priyanka keyed in some more details and emails appeared on the screen. “And yet,” she said, “this data says that the identification was not successful.”
“That’s correct,” Lorenzo said. “They haven’t managed to identify who he is.”
Vic examined the images in front of them. The most recent email caught her eye, so she zoomed in on it. “Guys,” she said, “look at this.”
“That one is new. It must have just come through,” Lorenzo said. “It says that the family confirmed the body didn’t facially match their family member.”
“Wait,” Vale said. “She means the next part… The DNA analysis that they ran did match their son.” He looked at Vic. “So the DNA matched, but the face didn’t.”
Lorenzo frowned. “How is that even possible?”
Gareth leaned back in his seat. “It isn’t.”
They all sat quietly for a moment before Vic broke the silence. “Could the parents have been in shock? Or estranged from their son and didn’t recognize him after years apart?”
Priyanka leaned forward. “We need to check it out further. Lorenzo, can you hand over access for everything regarding the Berlin mortuary to me, please, so that I can go over it with a fine-tooth comb—phone, IT systems, the works.”
“Of course,” Lorenzo said. “I’ll continue sifting through the CCTV footage from The Shard prior to the explosion, unless you want my help with the Berlin investigation?”
Priyanka shook her head. “If you could concentrate on The Shard, that would be great. Widen the net and go right back a few months before the attack. Catarina will help me with Berlin and liaise with our team there.”
Lorenzo smiled. “I’m on it.” He stood and left the room.
Vic mulled over the latest developments. It must be that the family had made a mistake. There was no way the face of that poor man had changed after he’d died. That just wasn’t possible.
Priyanka shut down the virtual screen.
Vic stood. “What about the rest of us? How shall we proceed?”
Priyanka got up from her seat. “You and Valentino are dismissed. You should get some rest after your trip.”
“We can stay and assist if you need us,” Vale said.
Priyanka shook her head. “That’s okay. I’ll reconvene with the two of you in the morning for an update on what we find.” She turned to Gareth. “Can you come to my office for a moment? There’s something I want to discuss.”
“No problem,” Gareth said.
Vale moved toward the door and held it open for Vic. The two of them headed for the elevator, leaving Priyanka and Gareth to their discussion.
Vale appeared pensive as they rode down to the lobby. The elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open and he indicated for her to go ahead of him. As he drew level with her, she caught his gaze. “What’s wrong?”
He hesitated for a moment. “Nothing. I am just puzzled by the facial mismatch issue. Why?”
“You’ve withdrawn a little again. You seem like you’re thinking quite deeply about something,” she said, continuing to appraise him. “Like you’re conflicted.”
He took a breath, then smiled. “No conflict, just confusion.”
Vic raised her eyebrow. Why wasn’t she convinced?
They came to a stop just inside the glass doors at the front of the lobby. “So,” Vale asked, “what are you doing now?”
She gestured toward the street. “Going home I guess, to unpack and stuff. You?”
“Same,” he said. He glanced briefly down at her mouth then cleared his throat. “I need to phone Amber and Hayden. I missed a call from them on the flight home.” Vale looked away, his expression troubled. He ran a hand through his hair, then smiled and met her eyes again. “Okay,
well, I guess I will see you in the morning.”
“See you,” she said. He made to move toward the door, then hesitated and glanced back at her. It appeared as if he wanted to say something, but then he just waved and carried on walking out of the building and onto the street.
Chapter Four
Vale busied himself around the flat, tidying away the things he had taken to Berlin. When he finished, he went into the refrigerator and shifted the stacks of food from the back wall. He pressed a small, indented area and the hidden section opened, revealing his blood bags. After selecting one, he shut the compartment and covered it once more.
Vale took a glass tumbler from the cupboard and decanted the blood into it before taking a sip. Some vampires drank straight from the bag, but he considered that unrefined.
He took a larger drink, depositing the used blood bag into a sharps’ container. Once sealed, it would be taken straight for incineration so nobody would ever see the real contents. Vale leaned against the kitchen counter, breathing in deeply and trying to steady his thoughts. Priyanka would probably sort out the facial mismatch issue. There must be a logical explanation, and in the morning all would become clear. He closed his eyes. His inner turmoil wasn’t dissipating. There was something else troubling him, but he was trying not to think about it. He opened his eyes and drank again, wondering what Victoria was doing right now. He shook his head. Why am I thinking about her again? He had nearly asked her to go for a drink just before they’d left HQ—not very professional behavior on his part. Luckily, he had managed to suppress that urge. Though of course he would only have meant it as friends.
His phone started ringing and he cursed. He’d forgotten about Amber and Hayden. Sure enough, it was a video call from them. He answered it.
“Ghosting me now, are you?” Amber said.
“No,” Vale replied. “I was still in the air when you called earlier.”
She raised her eyebrow. “Mm-hmm. And since then?”
He smiled. “Working.”
She rolled her eyes. “Surprise, surprise.”
Vale laughed. “Well, what am I supposed to be doing?”
Amber sighed. “I don’t know. Having fun. Booking your flights to come up here.”
He shook his head. “I would if I could, sorella. But things are getting more complicated over here.”
She frowned. “How come?”
“It does not matter,” he said. “You do not need to get involved. You should be relaxing.”
“We want to help you if you need us,” she replied. Just then, Hayden appeared behind her, shirtless. Looking distracted, she turned to him. “Put some clothes on, Hayden.”
He shrugged. “Why? It’s just Vale.” He peered into the screen. “Unless he’s hiding a woman in there with him?”
Vale smiled. “Certainly not, brother.”
Hayden grinned. “That’s a shame. Womankind is missing out. So when are you coming out here, bud?”
Vale took a seat. “Not at the moment. Things are—”
“Complicated.” Amber finished for him.
Hayden frowned. “I thought you guys were making good progress?”
Vale sighed. “We were. But things have changed.”
“Okay,” Hayden said, “tell us about it.”
Vale shook his head. “You two do not need to get embroiled in this.”
“We can help by supporting you, “Amber said. “We don’t necessarily need to get involved.”
Vale hesitated. “I will think about it.”
Amber and Hayden glanced at each other.
“Listen,” Vale said. “I can look after myself. You two need to stop worrying and just enjoy yourselves. I will update you once we know more.”
“Fine,” Amber said. “But you need to spill it soon or else I’m getting on a flight to London to talk some sense into you face to face.”
“No,” Vale said. “Do not do that. I promise I will tell you the details as soon as I know a little more.”
Amber sighed. “Okay.”
Hayden smiled. “You can rely on us, you know. You don’t have to shoulder everything on your own all the time.”
Vale’s heart thudded in his chest. Yes, I do. He managed to give Hayden a nod.
Hayden lifted his hand in a wave. “Take care.”
“You too,” Vale said.
They signed off.
Vale leaned back in his seat and finished his drink. He pondered what Hayden had said about him having a woman in the house and wondered what they would have thought if he had. He smiled. There was no time for women with his job. There was far too much at stake with the mantle of Mr. X. The problem was that he couldn’t tell them that—or anybody else, for that matter. His thoughts turned to Vic again.
She had mentioned not having anyone in her life either—no family and no significant other. Why was that? She was so beautiful and accomplished. She must have many interested parties. Perhaps men found her capable nature intimidating? More fool them, if so. She was certainly the sort of woman that he would go for if he were interested in a romantic relationship—which of course, he wasn’t.
He eyed the scenery through the glass-fronted apartment. On the balcony, the noise of the city would be evident. Vale found himself longing to be in a location where the outside of a dwelling was as still and peaceful as the inside. Amber and Hayden had been right when they’d suggested that he would love the highlands of Scotland. That place represented peace and tranquility, the things he craved more and more with each passing year in The Organization.
Vale rubbed the tight area in his neck. There was a restlessness inside him, one that hadn’t been present before but had grown more and more troublesome ever since the Glassmarsh case. He had previously assumed that the cause was the loose end regarding the mysterious sibling and that closure of the case would extinguish the feeling. However, he was becoming convinced that there was more to his unease than work. Was it that he missed his family? Partly. Plus that he needed a change of pace, but he also wanted something else. The trouble was that he didn’t know exactly what that ‘something’ was. Years of putting his professional role first had taken a toll. He could no longer read his own desires, only suppress them. He sighed. There was something to be said in Amber’s assessment of him being work-obsessed and perhaps needing to relax more.
He decided to undress and listen to an audiobook in bed. Maybe that would switch his mind off. He got up and placed his glass in the dishwasher, then went into his en suite. Unexpectedly, the memory of being in the bathroom in Berlin came back to him. He remembered those thoughts about Victoria having been in there prior to him, undressing. He shook his head, attempting to rid himself of such unprofessional ruminations, concentrating hard on what he was doing to distract himself, then left the area quickly before stripping off and climbing into bed.
Vale selected something to listen to and tried to zone in on the voice in his earphones. He had deliberately chosen something lighthearted because he didn’t want any more heavy-duty issues in his head. His efforts to forget about Vic proved successful, but his mind wandered onto the case in hand. Where was Glassmarsh’s brother? Was he the malevolent linked to the bombings? What was the meaning behind it all? Gradually his exhausted mind started to drift and the voice in the earphones became more and more distant.
He sank further into sleep and an image appeared in his consciousness. It was a tiled corridor. He knew this place. He walked along, toward a heavy set of double doors, which opened to reveal Priyanka behind them. She beckoned him to take a seat in the middle of a deserted room.
Vale looked around. In his dream, he knew that he had been here before but couldn’t remember why. The outline of a genderless person appeared behind a screen in front of him, and a distorted voice spoke to him over a speaker.
The room dissolved away and an image came to mind, a beautiful woman with yellow-blonde hair. He tried to follow her, but he was rooted to the ground. She moved away, out of his reach. Then the
scene evaporated and another woman appeared, also beautiful, but in a cold and unsettling way. She stared through the glass front of a prison cell, her white-blonde hair framing her clinical expression.
* * * *
Vale awoke the next morning with a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He deliberately didn’t examine it because he didn’t want to face up to what his subconscious was telling him.
He showered, trying yet again to soothe the ache in his neck under the hot water. He remembered his dream from the previous night and realized it wasn’t the first time that he’d had it. Now that he thought about it, the dream had been a common occurrence of late. But why would he have started dreaming about the day that he’d been summoned to speak to the anonymous Mr. X and the mantle had been passed to him? He had been in the role for nearly two decades.
Vale left the shower to get dressed, deciding he’d figure it out later. He poured himself a coffee to take along with him on the walk to HQ.
Vale had considered calling Priyanka the previous night to find out if she had discovered any more detail about the Berlin body. In the end, he had resisted the temptation, mainly due to his being affected by Amber’s opinion that he couldn’t distance himself from his job.
He was the first to arrive. Maybe Priyanka would be a bit late after pulling an all-nighter. He settled into his chair and sipped his coffee, then started typing on the keyboard in front of him. Images representing the evidence so far started appearing on the virtual screen.
The door opened and Vic came in, flicking his pulse up a notch. She did a double take. “Vale. No matter what time I arrive anywhere, you’re already waiting for me.”
He smiled. “You are worth waiting for.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted them. Why did I say that? It had been meant in a friendly manner but might be misconstrued. Luckily, Vic didn’t seem to have noticed anything. She was placing her jacket on the chair across from him and taking a seat.
“Priyanka not here yet?” she asked him.
He shook his head.
