The Vampire’s Mail Order Bride

by Kristen Painter

  Hugh got out of the car and went around to open Annabelle’s door. He’d had issues with some of his exes before, but nothing like this. He was going to put an end to this business with Piper once and for all, because if he was tired of it, he could only imagine what Annabelle must be feeling.

  He helped her out of the car. “I will take care of this, I promise.”

  She nodded. “Be firm but kind. The poor woman is clearly not over you.”

  Stanhill met them at the door. “We have company.”

  Hugh frowned. “I saw her car. What room?”

  “Library. I’ll be in my quarters.”

  “I’d rather you come in with us,” Hugh said.

  “You would?”

  “In case I need her bodily removed.”

  Stanhill gave a quick nod. “All right then.”

  Hugh led the way into the house, Annabelle behind him and Stanhill bringing up the rear. Hugh marched straight to the library and yanked the pocket doors wide. His ex stood there in all her tiresome, blond glory. “Piper, what are you doing here?”

  She stood, oblivious to his irritation. “You may not want me, but you’re going to want to listen to what I have to tell you.”

  Her expression reeked of accusation, but there was no wavering in her movements. If she’d been tipsy at the pub, she was sober now. “I did a little investigating on your new girlfriend. Found some very interesting things.”

  Annabelle stiffened. “You have no right to pry into my life.”

  Hugh held up his hand. “I already know what you’re going to say.”

  Piper frowned. “You do?”

  “Yes. Ms. Givens is a client of Eternamate, a match making agency. I know that because my grandmother is the one who contracted Eternamate to find me a match.”

  Piper’s eyes rounded. “Oh, I knew about that. Not the part about Elenora setting it all up, though.” Her drawl thickened when she was drunk, this time on power rather than alcohol. “That is rich, I tell you. Rich.”

  Annabelle tugged on his sleeve. She looked slightly green. “Hugh, we need to talk.”

  “As soon as I get Piper out of here, but if you want to leave, I understand—”

  Piper’s laugh cut him off. “This really is turning out better than I expected.” She snapped her fingers at Annabelle. “Stay, sweetie, y’all gonna want to hear this.”

  She sauntered toward Hugh. “I wasn’t talking about the match making thing, but that is a nice little tidbit. What I was referring to is your girlfriend here, this Annabelle Givens”—she made finger quotes around the name—“she’s an impostor. A big ol’ phony.”

  “Hugh.” Annabelle’s voice sounded on the verge of a sob.

  “Enough of your games, Piper.” Anger clouded Hugh’s vision for a moment. He was sick of her petty jealous and ridiculous accusations.

  She splayed her fingers over her chest and grinned. “It doesn’t take a newspaper reporter to use Google, Hugh darling. You really ought to do a little more checking up on the women you invite into your home.”

  “I’d say,” Stanhill groused. “Perhaps Annabelle and I should leave—”

  “Stay, both of you. Piper wanted an audience. Now we can all see what a liar she is. Are you done, Piper? Because I am.” Hugh was on the verge of throwing her out. Or maybe he’d call Sheriff Merrow and see if he could have her arrested.

  “I’m not lying, Hugh.” Piper’s smile widened. “Annabelle Givens is from upstate New York.”

  “I already know that—”

  “Where she is currently at home.” Piper inspected her nails. “I know this because I spoke with her before arriving here. She told me all about Eternamate and how her match with you was canceled by the agency.”

  Her smile disappeared, and she pointed at Annabelle. “Which means this woman cannot be Annabelle Givens.”

  “I’m sure there’s been some kind of mix-up.” He looked at Annabelle. “Tell her she’s wrong.”

  “I can’t.” Annabelle shook her head slowly, almost dislodging the line of tears clinging to her lower lashes. “I’m so sorry.”

  A pit opened up in his stomach. “What? Who the hell are you?”

  She twisted her hands together. “I’d rather not say in front of—”

  “Your name. Now.” He could feel the darkness within him rising up, a heated wire coiling around his spine.

  “Hugh,” Stanhill started forward.

  Hugh put his hand up to hold off his rook. “I’m waiting.”

  “Delaney. James.”

  Stanhill took another step. “Hugh, you need to—”

  “Get Piper out of here.” His gaze stayed fixed on the impostor who’d been taking advantage of his hospitality. “Delaney and I have a lot to discuss.”

  Stanhill’s earlier admonition not to say anything to Annabelle about being a vampire came ringing back. He glared at his rook. “You knew about this.”

  Stanhill had Piper by the arm, but the woman wasn’t putting up a fuss. She seemed to be content to go now that she’d dropped her bomb. He gave Hugh a nod, which was answer enough. “Don’t do anything rash. I’ll be right back.”

  Hugh returned his attention to Delaney. If that was even her real name. “You want to explain why the real Annabelle isn’t here?”

  She looked deflated but a little defiant, too. “She’s at home, just like Piper said. I called her and pretended to work for Eternamate and canceled her match, also just like Piper said.”

  “Why? What’s your game? Are you after my money?” Or worse, maybe she’d been sent by another vampire to steal his formulations. There were many who’d go to great lengths for the ability to walk in the sun. Except he wasn’t there yet. Of course, with the amulet’s power, it must seem to other vampires that he had indeed cracked the code.

  The blasted thing was nothing but trouble.

  She shook her head. “I didn’t know a thing about you except where you lived until I got here. You could have been a pauper for all I knew. And that’s the truth.”

  “Then why?”

  “To save her neck,” Stanhill answered as he walked back in.

  “So you did know,” Hugh snarled. “Bloody hell. To think I can’t trust you after all these years.”

  “You can trust me just fine. I only found out this afternoon. I told her not to tell you until I was sure you were in a good mood.”

  “Well, that worked out beautifully.” He took a moment. “What do you mean to save her neck?”

  Stanhill looked at Delaney. “Tell him exactly what you told me.”

  She inhaled before she began. “My boss shot a man and I saw the whole thing.” She explained how she’d been in the kitchen of the restaurant she’d worked at and how the whole affair had gone down. Fear tugged at her mouth as she spoke. “He knew I was there.”

  She sat on one of the couches and wrapped her arms around her torso. “Stealing Annabelle’s file wasn’t a plan so much as a way out that presented itself. I was only thinking about staying alive. I apologize for lying to you. That was wrong and I’m sorry.”

  She put her head in her hands and sighed deeply.

  Her story had taken most of the fight and the anger out of him. It certainly explained why she’d come with so few things and why she didn’t seem in a rush to get married.

  Stanhill went to her side to comfort her, and Hugh felt the slightest pang of jealousy. Which was just another type of chemistry.

  Bloody hell.

  “Stanhill, if you could give us a moment.”

  The man looked up, surprise in his eyes, perhaps at the softness of Hugh’s tone. “Of course.” He patted Delaney’s shoulder. “It’ll be all right, miss.”

  After he’d left and closed the doors behind him, Hugh approached. He sat on the coffee table in front of her. “In the time you’ve been here, have you been pretending about anything else besides being Annabelle?”

  She looked up at him. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”

  “H
ave you…been yourself? Or have you been the woman you thought I expected?”

  She made a face. “Sorry, just me. I suck at lying. Usually.” She sat back, her chest rising and falling with a slow inhale. “This whole mess is…I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you sooner but Stanhill told me to wait.”

  He nodded. “The thing is…if that really was you I was getting to know…” He couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “I like that person.”

  Some of the angst left her eyes. “Thanks. I like you too. And since we’re being honest, you’re all right for a rich guy who doesn’t seem to have an actual job.”

  “I have a job.” It just wasn’t one he could talk about.

  She crossed her arms. “You mean filling in for Julian on occasion?” She shook her head. “You don’t exactly strike me as the sexy vampire type. Sexy, yes. Vampire, no.”

  She thought he was sexy. He almost smiled but the thought of her reaction when and if she found out he really was a vampire stopped him. “Delaney suits you a lot better than Annabelle.”

  “That works out for me then, doesn’t it?”

  He wasn’t quite sure where her attitude was coming from. After all, she was the one who’d been lying. “Is there something else going on that I don’t know about?”

  She stared at him for a long, hard second. “I’m just waiting for you to say whatever you have to say so I can get going. Finding a cheap motel that takes animals isn’t going to be easy.”

  “You’re not going to a motel. So long as you swear you’re not lying to me about anything else, I see no reason you and Captain shouldn’t stay here.”

  Her mouth opened slightly. “You mean that?”

  He nodded.

  “I swear I’m not lying to you about anything else.” The honesty in her eyes confirmed that.

  “Good. I do have one condition for you staying here.”

  She raised her brows. “And that is?”

  “I expect you to stick to our pact. Thirty days.”

  She frowned. “Is that why you want me to stay? So you don’t lose your inheritance?”

  “I don’t care about the inheritance. I don’t need it.” It wasn’t the truth anyway, which was ironic considering he’d just asked her if she was lying about anything else. His omissions were far greater than hers.

  He paused. And added to the lie. “I just want to make my grandmother happy.” Actually, he just wanted keep his amulet. But the idea of Delaney leaving seemed far worse than losing his ability to daywalk.

  He hesitated. That wasn’t the only reason he wanted her to stay. “I also don’t want you to get hurt.”

  Her mouth bent in the smallest of smiles. “Thank you.”

  “I’m going to call Sheriff Merrow.”

  The smile vanished and alarm bracketed her eyes. “Why?”

  He took her hand, reveling in the warmth of her skin. “Because I want to make sure you’re not in any danger. You said you called the cops, but their apparent lack of response concerns me. This is a murder we’re talking about.”

  “I know. Something should have happened by now. I’ve seen no report about a body. Maybe Rastinelli didn’t really shoot that guy.”

  “No body. No evidence. That could explain the lack of action.”

  “They have some evidence. I sent them the video I took.”

  “Then your suspicion about Rastinelli having a man on the force is very likely correct. Even more reason to talk to Merrow about this.”

  Plus, it never hurt to have a werewolf in your corner.

  Delaney gave Captain a kiss on the head and inhaled his sweet kitty smell. “We dodged a bullet there, Cappy.” Which was a totally apropos statement considering the circumstances.

  She was relieved that the truth was out. Hugh had handled it far better than she’d expected. Of course, he still needed her or he’d lose his inheritance. She was okay with that. She was using him. He might as well get something out of the deal.

  His decision to call the sheriff on her behalf was unexpected. And caring. It made her feel even worse for lying to him in the first place. Maybe she’d find out from Stanhill what kind of sweets he liked and whip him up a batch of something. It was the least she could do.

  “Delaney?” he called upstairs. “Sheriff Merrow’s here. We’re in the library.”

  She left Cappy on the bed and ran down the hall. “Coming.”

  When she got downstairs, Stanhill was serving coffee to a beast of a man barely contained in a cop uniform. Sheriff Merrow’s resting face looked permanently unimpressed. His thick dark hair was on the long side of short. Probably as long as he could get away with, being a sheriff. She guessed if he smiled, he’d be pretty handsome. She also guessed smiling wasn’t big on his list of things to do.

  Hugh introduced her. “Delaney, this is Sheriff Hank Merrow. Sheriff, this is Delaney James.”

  Sheriff Merrow nodded and put his coffee on the side table as they all sat. “Mr. Ellingham tells me you witnessed a murder?”

  “And recorded it.” She explained everything she’d seen, heard and captured in as much detail as she remembered, including her less than satisfactory call to the Brooklyn PD. “That’s really all there is to it. Anthony Rastinelli, my boss—”

  “Ex-boss,” Hugh corrected. “You’re not going back to work for him.”

  She nodded. “That’s for sure.” She looked at the sheriff. “He’s never done anything to frighten me before, but seeing that side of him scared me to death.”

  Sheriff Merrow nodded. “I’ll find out everything I can about the man. Has he tried to contact you?”

  “No—actually, yes. He texted me. Offered me a promotion.”

  Merrow snorted. “Anyone else tried to contact you since you’ve been here?”

  “One of the girls I worked with at the restaurant, Samantha. She said if I didn’t show up, Rastinelli was going to call the cops. And my ex-boyfriend.”

  “Your ex texted you?” Hugh’s eyes narrowed.

  “Yes. But I haven’t responded to any of the texts.”

  “Good,” Sheriff Merrow said. “I’d like the contact information and full names for those people as well. I’ll need a copy of the video, too. Wouldn’t mind looking at the texts, either. If this Rastinelli is involved in some kind of crime syndicate, you have no idea who’s on his payroll.”

  The idea sent a new shockwave of fear through Delaney. “Wow. I never even thought about that.” She stood. “I’ll run upstairs and get my phone, then I can give you all that info.”

  Hugh and Sheriff Merrow both got to their feet as she left. She flew up the stairs and grabbed her phone, then hustled back down. It was nice to have powerful men like Hugh and the sheriff get all proactive about helping her out. It was a new feeling, and one she liked very much.

  As she rejoined them in the library, another voice sounded from the front of the house. “What’s going on? Why is the sheriff’s car out front?”

  Stanhill came in with Elenora in tow, his face a mask of consternation. “Your grandmother is here. In case you hadn’t heard.”

  Sheriff Merrow stood.

  Hugh got to his feet as well, sighing softly. “Good evening, Grandmamma. What brings you by?”

  Without Hugh’s asking, Stanhill slipped a tumbler of amber liquid into his hand. Whiskey of some kind.

  Elenora lifted her chin in a very grandmother-knows-best sort of way. “I saw the patrol car. I was concerned.”

  Hugh’s eyes narrowed. “How did you see the patrol car? You live miles away from here.”

  She pursed her lips in frustration. “Alice has a police scanner.”

  Sheriff Merrow rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Civilians.”

  Elenora put her hands on her hips. “She’s the head of the coven. She needs to keep abreast of what’s happening in the community.”

  The coven? As in witches? Did no one else think that was odd? Delaney glanced around. Nope.

  Sheriff Merrow snorted. “You mean you need
to keep abreast of what’s happening in the community.”

  “Sheriff.” Elenora’s smile belied the warning in her voice. “Let’s not start the second vampire—”

  “Grandmother,” Hugh barked. “Enough.”

  “—werewolf war right here in my grandson’s home.” She frowned at Hugh. “What is the matter with you? Yelling at your grandmother that way. You’re going to make Annabelle think horrible things about you.” She returned her attention to Sheriff Merrow. “Now why are you here again?”

  Delaney only vaguely heard what was being said as ice sluiced down her spine. Vampire-werewolf war…what? “Repeat what you just said.”

  “Which part, dear?” Elenora’s smile once again brightened her face.

  Delaney stood. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest. “Vampire-werewolf war?”

  “It’s nothing,” Hugh said. His eyes were wide with apprehension. “Old inside family joke.”

  “Absolutely.” Elenora waved a hand through the air. “I was just teasing.”

  Delaney didn’t get the joke.

  Stanhill tried to offer Elenora a drink, but she ignored him, oblivious to Delaney’s rising panic. “The vampires and the werefolk put away their differences years ago.”

  “Didi.” Hugh glared at her. “Enough.”

  Delaney stared at Hugh. “What the hell is she talking about?”

  He started to speak, but Elenora cut him off. “I realize you’re not actually a vampire yet, but when that day comes”—she smiled conspiratorially—“you’ll have to learn our history. Of course, it’ll be your history then too.”

  Hugh put his hand on Delaney’s arm. “Delaney, listen to me.”

  She backed out of his grasp. “You have five seconds to explain.”

  Sheriff Merrow furrowed his brow. “I take it you don’t know about Nocturne Falls.”

  She looked at him. “Know what?”

  He went silent, his gaze shifting to Hugh.

  Elenora clucked her tongue. “What’s the meaning of all this? I was told the agency had informed you of exactly who we were.”

  On the verge of a very serious meltdown, Delaney looked at the older woman. “I’m not from the agency.”

  Hugh took her hand and whispered, “I can explain everything.”