Yet, to win, I wasn’t sure a defensive strategy would work. Surely an offense, to hinder the other player’s movements, was necessary too.
“We aren’t restricted by rules,” I murmured over the rim of my glass. We didn’t need to purchase properties on a certain day or to sign contracts purely on our roll. That opened the board dramatically.
“The number of properties not owned by either us or the clans are dwindling, Basilia. They will dig deeper into privately-owned properties, trying to figure out the puzzle. They cannot be allowed to discover the truth. Trust my inner circle of friends. Trust the butler. But trust few others unless you can be sure they will hold the lives of those around you with equal solemnity. Fight for our legacy, Basilia. Go forth with the courage I have seen in you since birth. Go with my forever love, Basilia, and my sincerest apologies.”
I knocked back the rest of my wine and reached forward to fill it again.
“Pocketful of Sunshine” blared from my back pocket. I put Tommy on speaker. “Awake at last.”
“Where are you?”
“In the office. Sorry I got caught up with business stuff. I’m drinking wine now. Wanna join?”
Her breath caught. “Like the office on the other end of the house?”
She’d have to leave the room sometime. Her behaviour was going to raise difficult questions if she didn’t suck it up. Harsh as that was.
“That’s the one. See you soon? We have some catching up to do.”
Remembering that I wasn’t speaking into Beast, I exited the call screen and tapped out a quick message:
The office is soundproof <3
None of the vampires here will hurt you. I swear it.
They’re the good ones <3 <3
There was a chime on her end. Then silence.
“I’ll see you in a bit,” she mumbled.
That’s my girl.
“Will do. And text your dad to tell him you’re okay.”
The line disconnected and I tossed the phone on the chaise next to me. Shoot.
I had a whole heap of decisions to make. Fast. There were fifty emails in the Ingenium inbox to catch up on. A team to introduce myself to. Modifications to the strategy to brainstorm and implement. And the legal face of the estate to manage on top of that.
My mind whirled… though not with dread. The challenge excited me. Not because of the game. For what I could get back by playing it. My dignity, for starters. And if one of the clans did kill my grandmother, then her plea for me to move on without seeking revenge would be ignored. I wasn’t as classy as Agatha Le Spyre and perfectly fine undertaking a trashy vendetta.
Did a part of me mourn the entire situation?
Absolutely.
My grandmother’s part in it. The strain that nearly three decades of this must have placed on her life. Yes, I’d left this estate because of rich games, and now was actively choosing to play a far worse game. That did feel like a sacrifice to who I’d been.
But it felt right. Good.
Tommy slid in, slamming the door shut behind her.
I crossed and pushed the button at the back of the third shelf. Each time the door was opened, the noise-proof seal broke.
My ears popped. “Alright. No one can hear us. Go wild.”
Her eyes flared as she sucked in a massive breath, shaking her hands. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. That was the scariest fucking thing I’ve done in my life.”
She paced the room, shuddering at intervals.
Stepping around her, I grabbed a second wine glass and returned to the chaise.
“Fill it right up,” Tommy said. “If there’s not visible surface tension, it’s not enough.”
Okay then.
I emptied the rest of the Carignan into her glass. She bent down by the table and sucked the first sip without lifting it.
“How are you travelling, Tom?” I asked quietly.
She picked up the glass. “I feel like those people who are paranoid about every single person killing them. Except now I know they’re right.”
My stomach panged. “The only way you come to harm—unless it’s through sheer bad luck—is if your connection to me is discovered. There are bad guys from—” I gurgled and felt Kyros’s focus in response. Shit.
I tried a new approach. “Bad guys who are after me. Or if the… things… figure out you know about them.” Ugh, that didn’t make sense. Stupid blood compulsion.
She licked her lips. “What do you mean by the bad guys part?”
I sighed, guilt coating my insides. “I’m being hunted by triplets.” Woohoo. Apparently I could say that.
“That’s why the seven women are here,” I added. “For protection.”
“Triplets sound hot.”
I thought of them and shivered. “Believe me, kissing them would be the last thing on your mind. They’re fucking psychotic.”
She took a sip that was far more like a gulp. “Who sent the seven women?”
“Kyros.” I still had no trouble saying his name. Made sense that his ego wouldn’t allow it.
Her face dropped into a dark scowl. “I hate that d-bag.”
My heart twisted. “Join the club.”
Tommy’s phone chimed and she drew it out, breaking into a smile.
“Anyone I know?” I asked, trying to steal a peek.
She shrugged a shoulder, typing out a reply. “Theodore. He’s worried about me. We usually see each other every other day.”
Hold the front door.
“Theodore, the same Theodore as before I started work for Live Right?”
Tommy smiled again. “Yeah. We’re dating now. He ended things after we first started seeing each other but turned out he just had some shit to deal with. We reunited the week after in a big way. If you know what I mean.”
“Oh.” My shoulders drooped. “That’s awesome.”
“Awesome is generally said sincerely.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I feel like I missed out on a huge milestone.”
“FOMO is a disease, bitch. If it makes you feel better, he was my Basi rebound at first, but things haven’t become boring or angry. I really like him.”
My friend had some commitment issues and dating someone wouldn’t have been an easy jump to take whatsoever.
I gripped her knee. “You sound happy, so I’m happy. Your first boyfriend, Tom. Cheers to that!”
We clinked glasses, guzzling the blessed nectar of our sacrificial grapes.
“What about you then? With Kyros.” Her face screwed up.
I copied her expression. “It’s complicated.”
Tommy’s eyes widened. “Holy shit, really? Then stop right there. You should just change your status and not actually talk about it.”
“Your sarcasm is appreciated, friend.” I saluted her with my wine glass. “You know about my mind, uhm, chains?”
Ha! I could say mind chains.
“The blood exchanges. You’ve had three. He can feel where you are, and you can sense each other’s emotions. That must be torture. As if being held captive in his tower wasn’t enough. He got inside you.”
Well… nearly.
I pursed my lips. “Yeah, it’s weird. Foreign and invasive. I mean, I’ve lost privacy to my own feelings forever.” I frowned as the words left my mouth. “That’s really shitty.”
Tommy set her half-emptied glass down. “What’s he feeling right now?”
I frowned, concentrating. “He’s relaxed, contemplative. He woke an hour ago.”
Her eyes rounded. “Far out, girl. That is cray. Bulk cray. How is that possible?”
I borrowed Angelica’s explanation. “A mouse looking at us would think we possessed magic.”
“A mouse?” she said doubtfully.
I nodded sagely. “A mouse.”
“You so didn’t think of that yourself.”
Laughter bubbled from my lips. “Tom, I am so glad you’re here.”
She sobered. “How do we free you from this blood thing then
? Surround you with candles in the sewers or some shit? The personal GPS signal he has on you has to go. After that, we can get the fuck out of Bluff City. Except there are more of them—everywhere. Crap. Hey, can you afford an island?”
I closed my eyes. “We don’t do anything.”
She laughed. “You’re not serious. Wait, you don’t want the blood thing with him?”
“No,” I spat. The utter rage I’d felt upon reading my real name on the blood donor bag struck me with full force. “He fucking lied to me.”
Tommy stilled, lowering her voice. “I’d say that’s about the least worrying thing he’s done, really.”
I shook my head. “You don’t understand.” I tried to tell her he’d known who I was from the get-go. Angelica probably alerted him after mind compelling me during the interview. He didn’t coincidentally happen to nearly run me over. It was all fucking staged.
I gurgled and tried a different approach. “Surname.”
Tommy was fluent in Basi.
She gasped. “He knew you were a Le Spyre the entire time?”
I stared at her.
“That motherfucker. I mean, it’s a speck in comparison to the rest, but it just makes him even more cold and heartless.”
A speck compared to the rest?
Hmm, I suppose she was right.
Then why did Kyros lying feel like the worst part? My chest tightened suddenly, and I took a half-hearted sip of wine as my breath quickened.
“I just can’t believe he’d do that to me. After everything,” I said into the silence.
“What do you mean by everything?”
Being together in the basement. Him waiting for me at the theme park. Losing his shit when the triplets attacked Rhys and me. His struggle over his alpha power was a constant thing, but somewhere along the line, I’d thought other feelings were pushing him toward me. Now, I knew otherwise. All that bullshit was plain possessiveness, nothing more and nothing less. He did those things for his family, to win Ingenium. I was just human collateral.
I forced down the lump in my throat.
It came back double force, and I dragged in a painful gasp of air.
Tommy’s face dropped. “Basil, did he touch you?”
Did he ever.
“Yes, but it wasn’t that. It’s just.” I didn’t know. The bond between us made things so unclear—trying to gauge what I magically felt and really felt was nearly impossible.
“You don’t love him, do you?” Tommy’s hazel eyes were wide and fixed on me.
My horror echoed her own, but it was accompanied by a stinging burn behind my eyes. “God, no,” I answered hoarsely. “It was just an extra low blow when I discovered the truth. He played his part well, girl.”
The lump wasn’t going away.
My heartbeat took off as my chest clamped.
My rasping voice faded to a whisper. “I’ve done a lot of stupid shit, Tom. Believe me. I’ve had to wake up real quick. When I found out the truth, he made me feel like I was waking up on the street again.”
Powerless. Weak.
I tipped my head back and blinked rapidly as the crushing betrayal of what he’d done rolled over me. For the first time, I allowed myself to feel the sting without fury or shame overriding my hurt.
When all was said and done, I was upset because he betrayed me.
He’d taken off my clothes, telling me I was perfection while knowing he was stabbing me in the back.
My vision blurred as my eyes filled.
“I’d kill him if I could,” she forced out. “With my bare hands.”
I reached to set my glass down, searching blindly for the lip of the small table I’d dragged from the corner.
“Basi?”
“It’s okay.” The words didn’t come out.
“Basil, if you’re hurt. You can tell me.”
A choked sound tore through my clamped lips.
Then another.
I was so hurt.
I clutched my chest, incapable of holding in the pitiful sobs and harsh, raking inhales between. Being terrorised, tortured, controlled, and toyed with. Rhys’s death. The mass grave of the Indebted.
Lying to Tommy. Watching her walk away.
Losing my grandmother forever. Staring down at her corpse knowing I wasn’t there. That she’d never speak again.
I’d never let the tears get so far. Not in so long.
There were too many to call back.
One slid down my cheek. Dashing it away, the tear was replaced by another. More came until they flowed freely.
“Holy fuck, Basi—” Tom whispered. “You’re crying.”
This is what crying felt like? I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think through the pain filling my chest.
Yep.
Turned out twelve years of practice couldn’t stop the tears now.
10
“Let me get this straight, Miss Tetley,” Angelica said from across the wrought iron table. “You wish to return to Live Right?”
I arched my brows. “It’s Miss Le Spyre.”
“Your real name is hard to get used to.”
Uh-huh. I bet.
“We both know that’s not the case.”
Angelica’s polite smile dropped. “It’s safer to go by Tetley outside of the tower. Especially if you mean to stay with Live Right. Clan Fyrlia is uninformed of your true identity. Kyros desires to keep it that way.”
With the spies in his tower, that desire would last about half a second.
We sat at one of my favourite brunch haunts in Green. One of those Instagram-worthy places with plants hanging everywhere and heaps of cute nooks.
I sipped at my hazelnut green tea. “If I return—”
“—Which is why exactly?”
My answer would be important in determining how closely they watched me for the next few weeks. “I’m not sure you deserve an answer, really. But I appreciate the voice recorder, so I’ll be extremely honest with you this once. This doesn’t get back to Kyros. I mean it, Angelica.”
She’d tell him immediately. The vampire was a dark horse, but her matchmaking ways made her predictable.
Angelica took a dainty sip of her jasmine tea. “Of course.”
Pfft.
“I left my estate for a reason. I hate the rich bastards I have for neighbours. I need to be onsite there now to manage estate affairs. A lot of people rely on me for income, but my loathing for the rich will not ever change. Added to that, my last family member just died. The house is empty without her. Despite my greatest efforts, I have become an idle rich woman.”
Angelica hummed. “Why not take up pottery?”
“Do I look like the pottery type, Angelica?”
She smirked and made no answer. “The blood bond has nothing to do with this decision?”
No, but I wanted her to think so. I’d just waited for her to bring it up.
Pressing my lips together, I narrowed my gaze. “Nothing.”
Her smirk widened. “You’re one of our best realtors. I’m certain Kyros will accept your return.”
Oh, goody.
“And,” she added. “He’ll stop moping around the tower. His temper has been shocking the last two weeks.”
He’d stop moping, alright. In fact, Kyros would be freakin’ ecstatic when he realised what I had in store for him.
Angelica finished her tea. “We’ll see you tomorrow then?”
I finished my drink and set the porcelain cup down. “I have a few conditions.”
She froze, already standing.
I waited patiently as she resumed her seat.
“I have the Le Spyre estate to manage.” It was true. Even with the string of CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and other senior management titles between my presidential position and other employees, and even though my major companies were established and the teams well-oiled units, video calls and emails occupied several hours each day.
“I will work for Live Right twenty hours a week. Secondly, I will not live in the t
ower. Each day I will return to my home with my Vissimo guards.”
Angelica shook her head. “If you return to the estate each day, Clan Fyrlia will find out.”
I had to have access to the office and soundproof working conditions. “So be it.”
“Kyros won’t accept that.”
“He can come to me with a counter-offer then,” I informed her.
The vampire regarded me coolly. “Are those all your terms, Miss Tetley?”
I ignored the jab. “I’ll need my bank account and tax numbers changed, of course. And there will be no 2:00 a.m. calls to drag me into the office.”
Placing my empty cup down, I stood, grabbing my purse. “Get in touch if that works for Clan Sundulus.”
Angelica’s mouth bobbed.
I smiled down at her. “I’ll get the bill.”
Weaving to the counter, I dropped a hundred dollar bill there and winked at the pimply teen manning the register. “Keep the change.”
She beamed back. “Thank you!”
“Don’t do drugs, kiddo,” I replied sagely.
After evading the many hanging plants, I waited as Laurel drew the SUV to the front. Josie got out and I clambered into my middle seat, rearranging my powder-blue shirt dress once situated.
Laurel sped off as soon as Josie shut the door, but no one spoke for five minutes.
“You’re going back to the tower,” Laurel said without inflection.
Her eyes glimmered, and as far as I could tell, they only did that when she disagreed or wanted to say something.
Meeting her gaze in the mirror, I replied in the same tone. “I am.”
The glimmer intensified.
Hmm, what did she want to say? “Only if Kyros agrees to my terms. If he does, would you all like to stay at the estate? I just realised that I’d be dragging you guys out of the tower.”
Laughter burst from Kelsea’s lips. “You’ve seen where we live, right?”
I grimaced. “True.”
Josie touched the back of my hand. “Thank you for checking. But I speak for everyone when I say that we’re more than happy to stay in your massive fucking mansion. Our sisters and brothers are happy about our new situation.”
“Okay, if that changes—let me know.”
Laurel indicated, pulling out onto the freeway. “Kyros will assign you more Indebted. I’ll recommend at least twenty of our best to contend with the Tonyi triplets.”
Vampire Debt: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers Book 2) Page 12