by Мишель Роуэн
His words worked like a splash of cold water in my face. “Oh, my God. I can’t believe I forgot!”
“Forgot what?”
“I wanted to grab Gideon’s BlackBerry tonight in his hotel room, but it totally fell through,” I said, choosing to limit the details, including being pressed up against the wall by the BlackBerry owner in question as my inner nightwalker rubbed against Gideon like a cat. “I’d hoped it would show me who his contacts were—the men he’s assigned to do his dirty work. If I could get that we’d definitely have an advantage.”
“But you weren’t able to get it?”
“Not then. But in the alley when I was…” I chewed my bottom lip as I flashbacked to what happened earlier. “… doing my Gideon Chase taste test I managed to grab it.”
“You did?”
I leaned over the side of the bed and grabbed my jeans, pulling the small black device out of the front pocket. “Ta da!”
He raised his eyebrows. “Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”
I shrugged. “I was a bit busy dealing with the Red Devil dying on George’s living room carpet. And then I was distracted by—” I smiled at him “—other things.”
“Definitely the highlight of the evening for me.” He slid his warm hand along my arm before he frowned. “The ‘other things’ you speak of, not dying on the carpet.”
I grinned. “I figured that’s what you meant.”
He took the BlackBerry from me, pressed the on button, then scrolled to the list of sent and received messages.
I saw a long line of my cell-phone number from when Gideon had contacted me or I’d contacted him.
“You have been in constant contact with him, haven’t you?” he said unpleasantly.
“He is blackmailing me.”
“Of course.”
There was only one other number listed several times.
It was a number I recognized all too well.
I shook my head. “No, there has to be more.”
“This is all there is. The device has only kept a record of the past five days.”
Breathing was beginning to be difficult as my heart slammed against my rib cage. I couldn’t believe that number. I knew it. I’d dialed it myself many times before.
“He holds a clue in his hand,” the demon possessing the teenaged wizard had told me. “Of a betrayal you would never expect.”
“No, it’s not possible,” I managed.
Thierry regarded my stricken expression. “What’s wrong?”
I tried not to throw up right then and there.
A betrayal I’d never expect.
He frowned and touched my face with concern. “Sarah, who is it? Who is Gideon’s informant?”
I swallowed so hard it hurt. “It’s George.”
Chapter 13
It was nearly two o’clock in the morning when George got home.
He jumped when he saw me waiting on the couch for him and put a hand to his chest.
“Okay, that was creepy. Are you lying in wait ready to pounce on me?”
“I’m like a ninja.” I eyed him. “A dangerous, pissed-off ninja.”
“I’m glad you’re still up.” He threw his coat into the closet and untied his black bow tie, which, along with his tight black pants, was the sum total of his new waiter’s uniform. “I think I was fired. I’m officially morbidly depressed and I really need a friendly face right now.”
He’d come to the wrong place for that. “Why would they ever want to fire a great guy like you?”
He didn’t seem to notice the seething sarcasm attached to the words.
He rubbed his temples. “It’s very possible I spilled an entire tray of drinks on a bachelorette party who then decided to take up their squelchy disappointment with the manager. She, in turn, yelled at me for being distracted on the job and threw me out. It wasn’t pleasant.”
“I bet.” So he was distracted, huh? I guessed not telling your friends you’re spying on them had a tendency to weigh heavy on one’s mind.
“I’ll find another way to make some extra cash.”
“Oh, I’m sure you will.” I patted the seat next to me. “Come sit. I want to have a little chat with you.”
He looked at me warily. “Everything okay? You seem a little, what’s the word? Freaky?”
“I’m queen of the freaks right now.”
His brows lowered. “You’re still wearing your chain, right? Not feeling like biting anybody?”
“I’ll keep my fangs to myself. Promise.”
Hesitantly, he did as I asked and sat down next to me. I searched his handsome face for a definite sign that he was a liar and a traitor—like somebody I trusted more than almost anyone else in the whole world, but who would betray our friendship like a dirty rat bastard.
He had his hands clasped together tightly and a tense, frozen smile on his face. “So… what’s up?”
“Is there something you’ve been keeping from me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Something important that has been affecting your moods and causing you to spill drinks on unsuspecting women?”
He let out a shaky breath. “Yes. But, I can’t say anything.”
“Really?” I cocked my head to the side. “Why? Is it a surprise? My birthday isn’t until
October.”
His bottom lip wobbled. “Look, I know I’m acting strangely. But you… you just have to trust me. And don’t ask me any questions.”
“Trust you?”
He nodded. “Sometimes I have to keep secrets. If I don’t, then people will get hurt.”
This wasn’t exactly the reaction I’d been expecting. “What are you talking about?”
He grabbed my arm. “I love you, Sarah. In a completely nonsexual way, of course. But whatever happens, I want you to remember that. And I love Amy. And I love Barry… although not nearly as much as I love you and Amy.” He glanced off to the armchair next to where we were seated. “Oh, hi, Thierry. I love you, too.”
“Hello, George,” Thierry said.
George must really have been distracted to not see him sitting there the whole time.
His frown deepened and he looked at me. “What’s he doing here? I thought you broke up.”
I shrugged. “That was actually a lie. We’re still together, but nobody knows.”
George clasped his hands over his ears and his eyes widened. “Do not tell me things like that! Please!”
“Why not?” I glanced at Thierry. “It’s good gossip, isn’t it?”
Thierry nodded. “I’d say so.”
“That’s the problem!” George got up from the couch and paced to the other side of the room where he peeked through the curtains to the street outside, before spinning dramatically around to face us again. He wrung his hands. “Okay… I can’t believe I’m going to do this, but I have to. I’ve been keeping a secret so big that it’s literally been killing me.”
Thierry leaned forward a little. “Do you mean the secret that Gideon Chase is still alive and you’ve been working as his informant?”
I tensely studied George’s reaction. It didn’t come right away.
“You know?” His voice sounded strangled.
I nodded. “We both do.”
Instead of immediately trying to escape the house or explain it away in a rush of words, he let out a long, loud sigh of relief. “Thank God you know! I’ve been dying inside a little bit each day with this. You don’t know what it’s like to keep a secret this freaking big!”
“Actually—” I began, but George rushed back to the couch and grabbed me in a tight bear hug that squeezed the breath right out of me. He kissed me hard on the side of my face.
That was not the reaction I’d expected. At all.
George then hugged a very reluctant Thierry before sitting down hard on the floor and crossing his legs. “Gideon has been blackmailing me. He said he’d kill you, Sarah, if I didn’t keep him informed about everything you’re up to.”
<
br /> Even though I’d already mostly figured it out, the confirmation still managed to stun me.
George was Gideon’s spy. That’s why he always knew where I was going and who I was with.
But, hold on a minute…
“He said he’d kill me?” I asked, surprised.
“Yes! And he said he’d kill Amy, too. I swear, I never would have helped him if I had any other choice. But I had to protect my girls.” He paused. “And myself, of course.”
Thierry stood up and came to sit next to me. He took my hand in his. “So you’ve been in touch with Gideon daily about Sarah’s whereabouts and activities?”
George nodded. “I only told him the bare minimum. Things like Quinn being back in town and dating Sarah.” He glanced at us each in turn. “Two men again, Sarah? Still impressed.
I’m currently mortified, humiliated, and unemployed, but I’m very impressed.”
“Forget about Quinn,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps I should be telling you the same thing.”
“Why didn’t you tell me what was going on?” I’d been so ready to hear the worst—that
George had betrayed me over a stack of money, or something petty like that, but he wasn’t a good liar. He was telling the truth right now. I knew it. And it was such a total and complete relief I nearly burst into happy tears.
“Gideon said if I breathed a word he’d kill you and Amy.”
I shook my head. “I can’t believe he said that.”
“Gideon Chase,” George said the name shakily. “The leader of the vampire hunters?
Hello? He’s crazy. Certifiably insane, I think. And angry. And tall. And he had a lot of scars and then, poof, he didn’t have any scars anymore. What’s that all about? He threatened me and, based on his history of death and destruction, I wasn’t exactly in a position to argue with him.”
I nodded in agreement. “He’s desperate, sure. The pain from the hellfire made him do some fairly crazy things in the beginning, but I don’t know if I’d call him insane. Nicolai was insane. Peter was insane.” A vampire and a hunter, respectively, who’d both died when trying to kill me. “But Gideon is just… I don’t know… focused.”
George, who didn’t have any idea of my connection to the hunter, just stared at me with confusion. “What in the holy hell are you talking about?”
“Why are you defending him?” Thierry asked me quietly.
“I’m not defending him.”
“It sounds as if you are.”
I swallowed. “I’m just saying that he’s made a lot of mistakes in his life and the rich, hunting family he was born into didn’t exactly help. Maybe this situation—getting burned and now being turned into a vampire—is what he needs to finally change his ways.”
“You witnessed him kill two hunters tonight in cold blood. And he almost killed me.”
“I know that.”
“And even though he’s obviously lied about having any assassins or spies on call—other than his connection to George—he’s threatened the people you love with death.”
Thierry’s face had gone expressionless.
George’s eyes were very wide. “What’s going on here?”
Thierry raised a dark eyebrow. “It’s obvious. Despite what she might want me to believe, Sarah is smitten with the hunter.”
“I really hate that word,” I said, feeling sick to my stomach. “And I’m not. At all.”
“Gideon is very intelligent. He knows how to manipulate others to get what he wants. In
George’s case he wanted to use fear against him with threats. With you, Sarah, it began with threats, but obviously changed into something else he found more effective. Perhaps gifts? Compliments? Did he use his infamous charm on you? Is that why you enjoyed the kiss you shared the other night?”
“Hold on,” George cut in. “Sarah kissed Gideon? What the f—”
“Forget it, George.” I crossed my arms, feeling very uncomfortable suddenly at how perceptive Thierry could be. “It was nothing.”
“This is why you wouldn’t do the eradication, isn’t it?” George said. “Maybe you didn’t want to forget the softer side of Gideon?”
“Eradication?” Thierry repeated.
“Didn’t you tell him?” George asked. “Yeah, Sarah and I went to see this wizard kid a couple of days ago. He could remove her curse, but it would also have made her human again and wiped six months of memories out of her pretty little head.”
My face felt frozen. “Did I neglect to mention that?”
“It didn’t come up.” Thierry’s voice was cold. “But perhaps you discussed it with Gideon instead.”
I glared at him. “I don’t need this right now.”
“What?”
“This jealousy bullshit. I don’t feel anything toward Gideon. Just let it go once and for all, would you?”
He nodded and stood up. The warmth I had seen in his eyes when he looked at me before had been replaced by something frostier. “I think I’m going to go now before I say something I might regret. There are things I need to take care of.”
“In case I need to remind you,” I looked up at him, “you haven’t exactly been around lately. Who was I supposed to share my problems with? The Red Devil?”
Thierry’s eyes narrowed at the mention of his alter ego.
“I will see you tomorrow, Sarah.” He didn’t give me another look as he left the house.
George also stood up and went into the kitchen where he fixed two quadruple martinis made from his dwindling supply of moonshine—a mysterious liquid that helped to inebriate even those unfortunate creatures, like vampires, whom regular alcohol no longer affected. He downed one glass in a long gulp and handed me the other. I tossed it back.
“That’s a start,” I wheezed.
“Please tell me that you’re not in love with Gideon Chase,” George said. “I don’t have enough moonshine to get me through that revelation.”
“I’m not.” I hissed out a long, frustrated breath. “I love Thierry, even though I want to punch him sometimes. But—”
“But what?”
“I can’t help that there’s a part of me that cares what happens to Gideon even after everything he’s done. I’m supposed to sire him at midnight tomorrow. And yes, he’s used his charm as well as a whole bunch of threats to get me to agree to what he wants. But—”
“But what?” he persisted.
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
“That’s not very helpful.”
I sighed heavily. “Tell me about it.”
I slept. Dreamlessly, except for a nightmare about Thierry trying to stake me before I staked him first. Pretty standard stuff, lately. Terrifying and disturbing, but totally standard.
I remembered when I used to dream about shoes. Like, literally, trying them on to find that they all fit me perfectly. I think Prince Charming was in those dreams as well. And, possibly, a chorus line of cute, singing mice.
The unfortunate reality was that the shoe didn’t always fit no matter how perfect it looked on the shelf. I could squeeze my foot into it and wear it, but it would be uncomfortable and binding.
Hard to run for your life when your feet hurt. Even vampires got blisters.
I woke to a strange sensation—a buzzing by my cheek. It took me a while to figure out what it was and in my half-conscious state I thought I had a pillow full of friendly bees.
But it was Gideon’s BlackBerry. I’d taken it to bed with me for safekeeping like a cold black teddy bear.
I eyed the screen.
UNKNOWN NUMBER
After a few more moments it went silent. I sat up quickly. Who would be calling Gideon?
Thierry had seemed convinced now that he didn’t actually have any assassins on speed dial. I knew it wouldn’t be George—not if he knew what was good for him.
And it definitely wasn’t me.
When it buzzed again, I moistened my dry lips with the tip of my tongue and pres
sed the answer button. I held it to my ear with a trembling hand.
There was silence on the other end. And then, “Sarah? Are you there?”
The chipper female voice was immediately recognizable. “Amy?”
“Yup. It’s me.”
“Where are you?”
“No idea whatsoever, actually. I’m supposed to talk to you for a moment. How’s it going?”
I felt incredibly confused. “Why are you calling me at this number?”
“It’s the number Gideon gave me.” There was a pause. “You know, after everything I’d heard about him I was expecting something totally different. But he’s actually super nice, isn’t he?”
My throat closed and I found it difficult to breathe. “Gideon has you?”
“He picked me up yesterday when I took a break from work. I was a bit surprised at first.
I may have screamed a little bit when he grabbed me, but then he gave me something to relax me.”
I had a death grip on the phone. “He drugged you?”
“Dunno what it was, but I’m all mellow and groovy now. Totally chilling. Tell Barry I’m okay, okay? I know he worries.”
There was a shuffling sound. I waited, my hand twisting into the bedsheets until my knuckles were as white as the linen.
“Sarah—” Gideon’s deep voice greeted me. “How are you this morning after our exciting evening?”
“What are you doing? You grabbed Amy yesterday morning? That was way before what happened last night.”
“I like to cover my bases just in case. As you can hear, she’s perfectly fine.”
“Only because she’s drugged.” I struggled to breathe normally. “Let her go.”
“Why would I do something like that?”
“Because it doesn’t have to be this way.”
“Unfortunately, it does. You proved last night once and for all that even though I want to, I can’t trust you.” I could hear a strange edge of disappointment in his voice. “I can’t let anything get in the way of what I need. And if I must use your little blond friend to ensure that everything runs smoothly tonight, then that’s exactly what I’ll do.”
I shook my head. “You can trust me.”
“You tried to seduce me in my hotel room to steal my BlackBerry—”