by Jenna Black
I rolled my eyes. One of the reasons everyone likes Steph is that she’s so good at turning a blind eye to peoples’ flaws. Which is why I should know better than to let her set me up with anyone.
“You honestly think he’s a nice guy?” I asked. “Have you ever talked with him?”
She looked annoyed. “Of course I talked with him. I wouldn’t set you up with someone if I didn’t know him well enough to think you’d get on.”
I bit back a caustic response, realizing that Jim might not have shown Steph the side of him I’d seen at dinner. After all, Steph was a sexist jerk’s idea of feminine perfection, so she wouldn’t have elicited the kind of reactions I’d gotten. She was beautiful, and put a lot of time and effort into keeping herself that way. She was sweet-natured enough that people who didn’t know her might think her weak or submissive, though they’d be wrong. And because she didn’t have my hang-ups about living off her trust fund, she’d never had a career to inconvenience a man who wanted her full attention.
“The problem with you,” I told Steph, “is that you like everyone. I’m a little more particular.”
She laughed. “To put it mildly.”
“No more blind dates, okay? It never turns out well.”
“You never give it a chance to.”
“Please, Steph,” I said, suddenly feeling exhausted again. “I don’t want to fight.”
Steph leaned across the table and squeezed my hand, smiling gently. “We’re not fighting. I’m trying to give you sage, older-sister advice.”
The advice might have been more convincing if Steph’s love life had been any more successful than my own. Beauty and wealth attracted a lot of men, not all of them for the right reasons. Not to mention the men who made the mistake of thinking that because she was nice, pretty, and blond, she’d be a pushover and put up with crappy behavior. The door hit those guys on the ass pretty hard on their way out.
“Since when has giving me advice been a productive use of your time?” I asked, returning Steph’s smile with a wry grin.
“Good point.”
The rest of the meal was much more relaxed. Steph and I stayed away from sensitive subjects and just enjoyed our food. Steph talked about her upcoming charity project, a dinner and auction to support the American Cancer Society, and extracted a promise from me that I’d be there. Steph might not work a paying job, but with the stable of charities she actively supported, she worked a hell of a lot more than most of the nine-to-fivers I’d ever met.
Things didn’t go to hell until we were sipping our after-dinner coffee and picking at the remains of the slice of cheesecake we’d shared. Steph’s phone rang, and she frowned in annoyance.
“I should’ve turned the damn thing off,” she mumbled, but I knew she couldn’t quite bear to do that. The big auction was less than two weeks away, and she had to be available for crisis management at the drop of a hat.
I smiled as I took another sip of my rich, dark coffee. “Don’t mind me,” I assured her. “It could be important.”
She acknowledged my point with a nod, then dug her phone out from her tiny designer handbag. She looked at the caller ID and frowned.
“I have no idea who this is,” she said, but she answered anyway.
Her frown deepened at whatever the caller said. I don’t know what it was about her expression that made me sit up and take notice, but the hair on the back of my neck prickled.
“Who is this?” Steph asked, her voice tight with what sounded like alarm. Our eyes met over the table, and the prickle at the back of my neck turned into a chill of fear.
Steph lowered the phone and covered the microphone with her thumb. “He says his name is Alexis, and he wants to talk to you.”
My hands clenched so hard it was a wonder I didn’t break the coffee cup I was holding. How dare that bastard drag my sister into this? Even without talking to him, I knew his decision to call on Steph’s phone had been a deliberate threat. I used my cell phone for business all the time, so if he’d learned my identity—which he obviously had—he’d have had no trouble finding my number.
I put my cup down so hard that coffee sloshed out and spilled on the table, but I didn’t care. I reached for the phone, ignoring the combination of alarm and curiosity on Steph’s face. There wasn’t anywhere I could talk truly privately, but I got up from the table and moved a few paces away anyway. I was painfully aware of Steph’s eyes boring through the back of my head as I tried to calm myself down enough to talk. The last thing I wanted was to let Alexis know he’d gotten to me.
“What do you want?” I asked, and despite my best efforts, no one could have missed the fury in my voice.
“We didn’t get to finish our conversation this afternoon,” he said, and I could hear how much he was enjoying my reaction.
“I was finished with it even before Blake showed up.”
“But I wasn’t, and that’s all that matters. You are not living in Anderson’s mansion, therefore you’re not covered under our agreement with him. I tried playing nice with you this afternoon, but you made it clear that playing nice wouldn’t work.
“Meet me tomorrow at twelve noon in the lobby of the Sofitel. Konstantin requires your services. If you cooperate, you’ll be rewarded more than generously. I doubt you’ve ever had a client who can pay you the sums we can.
“But make no mistake, Nikki Glass: you will do what we ask, whether it’s to gain the financial rewards of cooperation, or to avoid the consequences of refusal. Are we clear?”
I wanted to crawl down the phone line and kill him right then and there. This afternoon when I’d shot Blake, I’d felt bad about it even though Blake was a jerk. Right now, I wouldn’t have hesitated a moment to shoot Alexis. And no, I would not have felt bad.
I couldn’t help sneaking a quick glance over my shoulder at Steph. She was chewing her lip with worry as she watched me. If Alexis or one of his cronies laid so much as a finger on her…
I must have been taking too long to answer, because Alexis spoke again.
“Your sister is truly a lovely woman,” he said, his voice oozing slime. “I’m sure Konstantin would be delighted to make her acquaintance. He can be a little rough with his women, but I’m sure she’ll still be at least marginally attractive when he tires of her and passes her on to me.”
My blood boiled in my veins, and I bit down, hard, on my tongue to keep from giving him any more satisfaction than I already had.
“I’ll see you tomorrow at noon?” he asked, back to using the pleasant, friendly tone he’d first tried on me, as if he hadn’t just made such an ugly, revolting threat.
“Yes,” I said through gritted teeth, because what else could I do? I had no clear picture of what Alexis and the Olympians were capable of, but I knew they had more power and resources to draw on than I did. I was under no illusion that I could single-handedly protect Steph.
“I knew you would make the right decision. I’ll look forward to chatting with you again, without the interruptions.”
Luckily for me, he hung up before I said any of the stupid, vitriolic things that came to mind.
NINE
I stood with the phone against my ear, my back turned to Steph, long after Alexis hung up. I needed time to regain control of myself, to tamp down the toxic combination of rage and fear that bubbled in my gut. I wished the earth would open up and swallow every one of the Liberi. With the exception of myself, of course.
Eventually, I could stall no longer, and I turned around to face Steph.
What the hell was I going to tell her? I couldn’t possibly pretend nothing was wrong, but I couldn’t tell her the truth. And I knew there was no way in hell Steph was going to let me go without an explanation of some sort.
I returned to the table and sat down, handing Steph back her phone. She took it from me in silence, tucking it back in her bag without looking. It must have taken a lot of willpower, but she managed not to question me, instead giving me a little more time to pull myself t
ogether. She could obviously see I wasn’t ready to talk yet.
The problem was I would never be ready. I usually think pretty fast on my feet—again, an important trait for a P.I.—but I couldn’t think fast enough to keep up with this mess.
“I’m … sorry about that,” I said, figuring that was a safe place to start.
Steph raised her delicately curved brows. “Care to tell me who that was? And why he was calling me when he wanted to talk to you?”
Steph sometimes likes to play the spoiled, rich socialite, but there is a sharp mind under her fluffy exterior. I could see in her eyes that she’d made a number of assumptions—including the one that she’d just been subtly threatened. I didn’t want to scare her, but I supposed it was better that I tell her something so she’d be extra careful. Alexis obviously knew Steph and I were together right now. I was damn sure no one had followed me here, so either someone had followed Steph, or the Oracle was more reliable than Blake had led me to believe.
“It was a wannabe client,” I told her, which I supposed was something close to the truth. “I turned down his case, but he’s not taking no for an answer.”
“Have you called the police?”
I swallowed the urge to laugh. Somehow, I didn’t think the police were going to be much use against the Liberi.
“He hasn’t done anything the police would be interested in.” Which was also true, even if it wasn’t really the reason I didn’t call the cops.
Steph frowned and chewed her lip. “You could report him as a stalker, couldn’t you?”
I dismissed that with a wave. “He’s being a pain in the ass, but he’s not technically stalking me.”
She leaned forward, resting her arms on the table and dropping her voice. “I know you’re not telling me everything, Nikki. Come on. Spit it out.”
“I told you before, I can’t.”
Anger sparked in her eyes. “That man just threatened me, didn’t he? That’s why he called my phone instead of yours, right?”
I winced, which pretty much precluded the possibility of bluffing my way out of this.
“If people are threatening me, I have a right to know what’s going on, don’t I?”
I rubbed my eyes as a headache threatened to form behind them. “It’s complicated, Steph. Please trust me that I have good reasons for not telling you more.” I forced my hand back down to my side and met my sister’s angry stare. “I won’t let anything happen to you. No matter what.”
She shook her head and looked disgusted. “That’s not good enough.”
“I’m sorry, but it’s the best I can do.”
Steph glared at me, but I was unmoved. I wasn’t in a position to tell her the truth, and in all honesty, I didn’t know if the truth would have done her any good. I didn’t know a whole lot about the Liberi and what they could do yet, but if even half of what I’d been told was true, Steph was no match for them. Hell, I was no match for them, and I was supposedly one of them.
I walked Steph to her car on the pretense of being sociable when in reality I was looking for lurking Liberi. I didn’t spot anyone, nor did I see any mysterious cars following when Steph pulled out of her parking space. I returned to my hotel, still trying to figure out how I was going to keep Steph safe. Too bad I didn’t have the faintest idea how to go about it.
A good night’s sleep failed to miraculously solve my problems, although I did feel fresher and more optimistic when I woke up the next day. For all that the Liberi were dangerous, and for all that I had no idea what their range of power was, they operated in secret, doing their best to blend in with the mortal population. That had to put some limits on their actions, and it suggested I’d be relatively safe meeting with Alexis in a public place later. Not that I was looking forward to it by any stretch of the imagination, but maybe when I talked to him again and got the details about what he wanted me to do, I’d be able to form a plan.
I’d turned off my phone for the night, but when I switched it back on in the morning, I found that I’d received another couple of calls from Anderson. I briefly considered calling him back and giving him an update on my upcoming meeting with Alexis, but thought better of it almost at once. I had no more reason to trust Anderson and his people than I did to trust Alexis. Though I might at some point find it to my advantage to play one against the other, right now I wanted to face one problem at a time.
I arrived at the Sofitel an hour before the appointment with Alexis. Not because I was anxious to meet him, of course, but because I wanted to give myself every possible advantage. I’d never been inside before, but I knew it was one of the more luxurious hotels in D.C. Of course, Alexis struck me as the kind of man who insisted on the best of everything.
I’m sure Alexis picked the place specifically for its lavish décor, but if he’d been looking for a place ideally suited for surveillance, I’m not sure he could have done better if he’d tried. The lobby was large, but there were a number of secluded nooks that were almost cozy. There were also a fair number of rectangular pillars, greatly cutting down on visibility, especially for someone coming in the front doors.
I took a seat on a not particularly comfortable sofa in one of the sitting areas. My seat was in a corner, where a pillar conveniently blocked me from view. Alexis would have to walk down a long hallway past the elevators before he’d be able to see me. I then pretended to drop something—not that anyone was paying particular attention to me—and positioned a small spy camera under the legs of the chair across from me. The camera gave me a perfect view of the hall leading up to the front desk.
Sitting once again in my secluded position, I opened my laptop and pretended to work as I scrutinized the feed from the camera. I watched every person who came in the front doors, without ever having to lift my head from my computer screen. If I saw anyone who tweaked my radar, there was room for me to retreat down another hallway, and I could leave another spy camera right next to my current position so I could keep up my surveillance. But carefully though I watched, I saw no sign that anyone was getting into position for an ambush.
At noon exactly, Alexis strode through the front doors of the hotel. He was not alone, although I didn’t recognize his companion, a tall, imposing guy with olive skin and a neat black beard. I couldn’t tell much from the somewhat grainy surveillance video, but it looked like his suit was as expensive as Alexis’s, and he carried himself with the confidence of a man used to being in charge. Konstantin, I wondered?
The two of them stopped halfway down the hall, both standing there with expressions of impatience. A few more steps and they would see me, but I guess they figured it was my responsibility to come to them; they weren’t about to expend the effort to look for me.
I watched them for another five minutes. Their body language got progressively more impatient as they waited. I didn’t see anyone else come in after them—not anyone who acted like they were slipping in on the sly, that is—so I closed my laptop and shoved it back in my backpack. Then I took a deep breath and stepped into the main part of the lobby, where they could see me.
“Oh!” I said in feigned surprise when Alexis caught sight of me. “Have you been standing here the whole time? I was right over there waiting.” I jerked a thumb toward the seating area.
Alexis narrowed his eyes at me. I had to resist the urge to glance at the spy camera, which I would have to come back later to collect. It was inconspicuous enough that I doubted Alexis would notice it unless I drew attention to it.
“You must be Ms. Glass,” Alexis’s companion said, and I took a closer look at him. He wasn’t particularly good-looking in a traditional sense, but he fairly reeked of power, and I suspected women fell at his feet in droves. I saw no sign of a glyph on him, but perhaps it was hidden by his clothing, or even by his beard. His Mediterranean dark hair was just starting to gray at the temples, and there were the beginnings of crow’s-feet at the corners of his eyes. On another man, they might have looked like laugh lines, but not on him. His smi
le was warm as he reached out his hand for me to shake, but I couldn’t miss the hint of danger in his eyes. This was not a man to mess with, those eyes said, and I was inclined to believe them.
“I am Konstantin,” he said as I reluctantly placed my hand in his. Not surprisingly, his handshake was crushing, though I gave back as much as I could before I remembered I’d decided not to mess with him. “It is truly a pleasure to meet you.”
He released my hand, and I had to resist the urge to rub my now-sore knuckles. The predatory amusement in his eyes told me he was quite aware of his own strength; the crushing grip had been no accident. I hate bullies with a passion, and it took some serious willpower to keep myself from going on the offensive. I wasn’t in a position to fight back, not yet, so for now I was determined to keep my cool and not be any more antagonistic than necessary.
“Alexis was quite insistent I make this meeting,” I said, which was far more diplomatic than what I wanted to say.
Konstantin’s face showed regret, but I had the strong suspicion it was only skin deep. “I apologize for the Draconian tactics, but I understand Anderson has attempted to poison you against us already. I think it only fair that we be able to argue our case, which is difficult to manage if you refuse to meet with us.”
Oh, yeah, right. He’d forced me into meeting with him because it was the fair thing to do. I’d convinced myself I had to stay as civil as possible, but that didn’t mean I had to roll over and show him my belly. “You’ve done a better job of poisoning me against you than Anderson could ever have done. Hasn’t anyone ever told you that threatening someone’s family is a sure way to get a relationship off to a bad start?”
Konstantin shot a quick look in Alexis’s direction. There was no missing the reproach in that glance. Alexis looked away. “Again, I apologize. Alexis can be rather impetuous at times. He should have cleared it with me before making threats. We have had a long talk, and he’s assured me nothing like that will happen again.”
