Bad Blood: A VamPR Nightmare (Pisces Paranormal PR Agency Book 1)

by Bee Murray

  He struck it hard and I laughed as the pyramid broke apart and sent tires bouncing among the parked vehicles. I didn’t even care if they slammed into the closest SUV’s or dented the doors. All I cared about was the groan of pain that came from Baldwin as the tires fell down on top of him.

  Behind me, Frankie let out a whoop of victory as the garage door made a horrifying grinding noise that made me flinch.

  I kicked a tire out of the way and grinned as it bounced off the wall and left a black mark as it struck and veered away. “That’s our cue, pumpkin,” I said brightly.

  I reached into the pile of fallen tires and gripped Baldwin’s shoulder.

  He groaned thickly as I pulled him to his feet, but I didn’t treat him any gentler. He deserved every misery that came his way.

  “So, which one were you going to take?” I asked in a conversational tone.

  “Vinnie—” Baldwin choked out and I shook him.

  “What?” I pulled him close and bared my fangs. “Why shouldn't I just crush you like a cockroach right here?”

  A loud wail that I had only heard on one other occasion when I’d tried to get into the garage while drunk and couldn’t stay standing long enough to let the biometric reader get a clear picture of my eye… or maybe it was the code.

  “Is that the alarm?” Frankie yelled over the din.

  “Obviously!”

  I dragged Baldwin forward, but he stumbled and let out a scream of pain.

  “You big baby, I didn’t even pull you that hard,” I grumbled. But Baldwin wasn’t being melodramatic. The brightly printed shirt he wore under his khaki colored sport coat was stained dark with blood.

  “Seriously?” I groaned.

  Baldwin touched his side with a shaking hand and looked up at me with fear in his eyes. “I—”

  “Save it,” I growled and then whistled sharply to draw the attention of my babysitter. “Frankie, pick a car!”

  The big man nodded and grinned like a teenager walking onto a car lot for the first time as he ran through the rows of parked cars.

  “Any of them?” he shouted.

  I dragged Baldwin with me and tried to ignore his obnoxious groans as I approached the wall-mounted metal box that held the maintenance keys that Omar used.

  “Frankie,” I shouted as I punched the code that opened the box.

  Baldwin moaned and leaned against me, but I pushed him into the wall and held him there.

  “The Jag!”

  I closed my eyes and took a breath. “I am not letting this weasel bleed on my Jag! Pick again!”

  “Alfa Romeo!”

  “Which one?”

  “Blue!”

  “Fine,” I muttered, but I glared at Baldwin as I grabbed the key. “If you bleed on that leather, I’ll drop you off the Space Needle and I will not feel bad about it. Do you hear me?”

  The wail of police sirens put extra urgency in my steps as I pulled Baldwin away from the wall and shoved him ahead of me. He stumbled and cracked his hip off the hood of an SUV, but my growl in his ear kept him moving.

  Coward.

  Five years. Five years of working with me. Organizing every detail of my life.

  Only to betray me at the drop of a hat.

  He didn’t deserve any mercy.

  But our cover was about to be blown and we needed to get the hell out of there.

  Frankie stood at the driver’s side door of a beautiful blue Alfa Romeo Stelvio. I threw him the keys and told myself that I’d be able to get a newer model soon. That was my only comfort as I opened the door and shoved Baldwin into the back seat.

  Frankie slid behind the steering wheel and rubbed his hands over it with a reverence reserved for holy relics.

  “Nice, huh?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “This was my birthday present to myself last year,” I sighed. “I liked it so much that I bought two…” I pointed to the silver one beside us.

  “Good choice,” Frankie said as he hit the ignition. The engine revved to life, and the lines in Frankie’s face smoothed as he relaxed into the seat.

  “We have to go,” I urged.

  “Yeah…” Frankie glanced at the garage door he’d managed to raise just high enough to accommodate a vehicle. “Are you sure about this?”

  “Dead sure,” I replied gravely.

  He bit back a laugh. “Funny. Tuesday didn’t tell me you were funny.”

  “That’s rude. I’m hilarious.”

  Baldwin groaned from the back seat.

  “Shut up,” I snarled as Frankie eased the Alfa into drive.

  We only had a few minutes until the cops would be at the warehouse and I’d have a lot more explaining to do than I wanted. Seattle’s finest wouldn’t take kindly to being made to look like fools when they had already declared me dead only a few hours before.

  Frankie squared the Alfa up to the half-open garage door. I could see the lights of the approaching police cruisers on the overpass above us.

  “Frankie— Get moving!”

  “You got it,” he said through gritted teeth. He stomped on the gas and the engine roared and launched the car forward. Sport package. Of course.

  The door was too low, and we both winced as a shower of sparks rained down on the car and our ears filled with the sound of metal on metal.

  “Sorry,” Frankie muttered.

  “It’s fine,” I replied in a strangled voice. It wasn’t okay. Nothing would ever be okay after this. I needed to tell Tuesday to make sure that my cars weren’t impounded as evidence or anything.

  The Alfa rocketed through the gravel yard and hit the pavement hard. The tires squealed and spun and we took off through the darkened streets.

  I spun around in my seat to watch the cops scream past the sacrificial van and lurch to a stop in front of the mangled garage door.

  It would take a few hours for them to figure out what had been taken—that would buy us some time. We’d be at the cabin by the time they put the pieces together.

  Frankie dug into his pocket and pulled out his cell. He punched a meaty finger into the screen, but I couldn’t see who he was dialing.

  “Tuesday— Vinnie and I… We have Baldwin.”

  “Hey!” I grabbed the phone out of Frankie’s hand and pointed to the road. “You, drive.”

  “Vinnie!”

  Tuesday’s angry shriek echoed in the car and I smiled fondly as I held the phone to my ear.

  “You can’t do anything about this, Tues. I’ve got Baldwin, and I’m going to get the answers I need one way or the other.”

  “Vincent Quaker, you get back to Pisces HQ right now! Put Frankie on the phone! You’re being—”

  “An unreasonable bastard? A rockstar? I know. I’ll catch you later, cupcake.”

  I ended the call abruptly and tossed it back to Frankie. He caught it awkwardly and glared at me as the car swerved slightly before he tucked it under his thigh.

  “Tuesday has done enough,” I said by way of explanation. “She doesn’t have to have any part in this.”

  “And I do?” Frankie demanded.

  I shrugged. “You’re my babysitter. You’re being paid to be here. So… sit. Drive. I have work to do and we’re running short on time.”

  Frankie glared at the road while Baldwin groaned in the backseat.

  “Don’t bleed on anything,” I said in a bored tone. “We have a bit of a drive ahead of us, and if you keep it up, I’m going to give you something else to focus on, and you won’t like it.”

  Baldwin shut up and I smiled as Frankie turned the Alfa Romeo toward the Interstate. Everything was falling into place.

  24

  TUESDAY

  My phone buzzed in my hand and I glanced down at the notification.

  Motherfu—

  “What is it?” Anna had noticed my face. Carlyn and Ricardo turned to me in surprise. This could not have happened at a worse time.

  The Cainin Records CEO’s eyes were red-rimmed, and he was teetering on the
edge of a professional and personal breakdown. The funeral planning was not going well.

  This was just… not ideal.

  “Frankie. He just activated his location tracker.”

  Anna’s eyes widened slightly, and Carlyn leaned forward. “What?”

  I rose from my chair and smiled apologetically at Ricardo. “I’m so sorry, please excuse me.”

  His expression of sorrow was mixed with confusion now as he turned to Carlyn. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing you need to worry about,” Carlyn blurted. “Another case that needs Tuesday’s attention.”

  Ricardo’s eyes narrowed. “What could be more important than this? This funeral is a nightmare, and I need every available resource at my disposal!”

  “And you will have it,” Carlyn soothed as she waved me away. “Tuesday will advise on whatever we decide. You still have the full power of Pisces PR behind you. This funeral will be nothing but a good thing for Cainin.”

  I smiled gratefully at my boss and fled the conference room as quickly as I could without giving away the panic that gnawed at my guts.

  Anna caught the door before it could close and stepped out into the corridor after me.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  I pointed at the notification on my phone. “You heard what I said. This was one of our ‘just in case Vinnie is a predictable jerk,’ scenarios. I need to get to Olivia.”

  “It’s late, do you think she’ll still be here?”

  I tightened my grip on my phone. “She’d sure as shit better be.”

  The moment those words left my mouth, my phone rang and I answered it immediately.

  “Do you know where Frankie is?” Olivia’s stern voice was comforting and I willed myself to relax just a little. But high-alert Tuesday hovered just in the background.

  “Nowhere near the safehouse?”

  “Nowhere near the safehouse,” Olivia repeated grimly.

  “Where is the beacon?”

  “Heading northbound toward the 5. They’re in the… warehouse district right now? In Belltown?”

  “The garage,” I growled.

  “What?”

  “They will not be in the van anymore. Get your people updated, they’re not watching checkpoints for a shitty Astrovan anymore. Dammit, Vinnie!”

  “How long has it been since he’s fed?” Olivia asked suddenly.

  Oh, no. That hadn’t even occurred to me.

  “Way too long.”

  “Fantastic.”

  Olivia’s dry response was all I’d expected from the Pisces security officer.

  “I know.”

  “What are we looking for now?”

  I looked helplessly out the window at the city lights. It was late enough that Vinnie had time—but it wasn’t much time. “”A really fast car that shouldn’t be going fast through the city, with three morons on board.”

  Frankie was a great guy, and I’d known that he and Vinnie would hit it off—but I hadn’t expected one of Pisces’ best security agents to turn into my ex-finace’s road trip sidekick. I’d given Frankie one job: deliver Vinnie to the safehouse and make sure he didn’t leave until Baldwin had been located.

  He was not doing that job at the moment, but at least he’d had the presence of mind to turn on his phone locator.

  I could hear the excuses now, the justification for going against every protocol we’d set out for the mission. Did he still have his vial of Holy Water? Ugh!

  “This is fine. We’ll find them,” I muttered into the phone.

  “Tuesday, I’d prefer to take matters into my own hands on this one,” Olivia said.

  I leapt on her words immediately. “I’m coming with you.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “This is non negotiable. Meet me in the garage in five minutes.”

  Still in my suit, I dashed for the fire escape.

  “Where are you going?” Anna shouted after me. “Carlyn will want to debrief—”

  “Have her call me when she’s ready,” I called back. “I’m going to catch a vampire.”

  * * *

  ***

  * * *

  I had never left a meeting before, especially one as important as the one I’d just literally run away from. Our fake funeral for our fake dead rockstar was the center point of this whole debacle. The lynchpin to re-launching Vinnie’s afterlife career, and that moron had the balls to do something like this?

  If I could have burst into flames. I would have. Unapologetically.

  Unfortunately, self-immolation isn’t one of my strong suits. I’d have to settle for yelling in Vinnie’s face the moment I saw him. That would have to be enough for now.

  I slammed open the door to the parking garage and felt a wave of relief wash over me to see Olivia standing next to an idling SUV.

  “Have you got the tracker going?” I asked.

  She nodded shortly. “GPS tracker is already engaged. They’re moving fast.”

  “Of course they are,” I said through gritted teeth. Vinnie didn’t have a collection of sports cars because he liked to follow the speed limits.

  I jumped into the passenger side of the SUV as Olivia took her place behind the wheel. “I have other members of the security team en route,” she said. “They’re all following the same tracker.”

  “Good. We need to cut him off.”

  Olivia looked at me strangely. “Do you know where he’s going?”

  I nodded. “I have an idea.”

  The security officer rested her hands on the wheel and raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to tell me where that might be?”

  Right. I didn’t have to keep these things a secret from my team.

  “Vinnie’s headed back to the cabin in the Olympics. I’m sure of it.”

  Olivia nodded shortly and grabbed for her walkie. “Unit 17, unit 2—I need to you get to Location #450 immediately. Wait for the client to arrive and take them into protective custody. Separate Mr. Quake from whoever he is with and get him secured until we arrive.”

  “You don’t think we’re going to catch him?”

  Olivia clicked off the walkie as soon as the affirmative responses she needed crackled through.

  “I’m just covering my assets,” she said. “You’ve said that Vinnie can be unpredictable.”

  “Predictably so,” I said with a wry smile.

  “Then I’d say it’s necessary.”

  I focused on the tracker that displayed on Olivia’s GPS. “We might catch them before they get on the 5.”

  “We might.”

  Olivia shifted the SUV into drive and pressed her foot down on the gas.

  As we roared through Seattle's dark streets, all I could think about was wrapping my hands around Vinnie’s neck and giving him a good shake.

  He knew better than this. I thought we were a team. But I should have known that he’d be looking out for Number One. That had always been his game. His car. His apartment. His career. Everything for him.

  Fame hadn’t changed him.

  Hell, even becoming a vampire hadn’t done anything more than amplify who he truly was. A selfish asshole who was only concerned about his own needs.

  I hated how much a part of me still loved him and needed his touch. I’d spent five years running away from what I’d felt for him. It was easier just to shove it all into the freezer and pretend that I’d never cared—I hadn’t even taken any days off work when he disappeared. I just… kept on going. It was easier than giving in.

  But when we’d been together… in the cabin… I had given in. And it had felt so goddamn good.

  No.

  Shut up, Tuesday.

  “You’re thinking real loud over there,” Olivia said crisply.

  “Just preoccupied. There— we’re closing in on them. Why are we closing in?”

  “Because I know a few shortcuts, and they didn’t have too much of a head start on us, which is a good thing. Frankie did his job.”

  “Kind
of,” I muttered. “If he’d been doing his job we wouldn’t be on a wild vamp chase across the city. I feel like I’m in a badly written heist movie.”

  Olivia chuckled and turned the SUV sharply.

  The location tracker beeped and I stared at the screen incredulously. “How… how are they just ahead of us?”

  “I have my ways,” Olivia said primly.

  “I can see that.”

  “Which car is it?”

  I squinted in the darkness. It was hard to make out what cars were what in the orange glow of the streetlights, but I was looking for something expensive. Well, expensive for me, anyway.

  A silver BMW was a possibility and I pointed it out, but as we pulled up and an older man leered at me from the driver’s side window. Wrong-o.

  An Audi— no. Vinnie hated Audi. I couldn’t remember why.

  “Oh shit. There.”

  I pointed ahead of us to an electric blue Alfa Romeo. It was the newest model—a birthday present to himself. I’d seen the gossip articles about it. It was almost impossible to avoid seeing reminders of who my ex was everywhere in this town. Every ten minutes another “Vinnie Quake smash hit” played on the radio, which was why I only listened to podcasts. At least I could escape him there.

  I’d pondered leaving Seattle many times. But I stayed out of spite. I would not let him win. No way. I have an Olympic medal in petty and I’m not afraid to flaunt it.

  “That’s it.”

  “Only two people in the vehicle,” Olivia observed.

  “Baldwin is probably in the back seat.”

  The SUV pulled closer, and I saw the outline of Vinnie’s head… I’d recognize it anywhere. And the collar of his overpriced leather driving jacket.

  You brazen idiot.

  The moment that thought streaked through my mind, whoever was in the back seat sat up, and the figure in the passenger seat turned to push him back down.

  Subtle.

  Subtle as a freight train.

  “Gotcha,” Olivia muttered. She pulled up beside the Alfa and I rolled down my window with fury. Frankie glanced over and blanched slightly as he recognized my face.