by Bree Younger
Claire studied his face now, still half-concealed in shadow, looking for any hint of softness she might be able to use to her advantage, but she saw none. He had the strong, proud features of his Native American ancestors, his face a study of planes and angles. Blade-sharp cheekbones and a proud nose were offset by a wide, sensuous mouth. Dark brows arched above eyes that appeared black, though she knew they must just be very dark brown, and his hair had been pulled back from his face in a ponytail that fell halfway down his back. From one ear dangled a small chunk of turquoise set in silver. His shoulders were broad, barely contained by the expensive suit jacket he wore, and his waist was narrow. His wrist beneath the cuff of his sleeve was encircled by a delicate band of copper wires that should have looked effeminate but didn’t. Despite the seriousness of the situation she now found herself in, she couldn’t quite contain a shiver of feminine awareness as their gazes met and she became the focus of undivided attention.
She swallowed hard, forcing aside the instinctual need to submit to his potent masculine power. Drawing herself up as tall as she could, she lifted her chin and stiffened her spine. She might as well dive right in. Smiling slightly, she shrugged. “Look, Mr. Blackhawk, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I don’t think—”
“I said sit down, Miss Landry. I suggest you do as I say and not test my patience any further than you already have tonight.”
The cold menace in his voice sent a shiver of trepidation over her skin, and she automatically moved forward and pulled out one of the chairs. She glanced over at him as she sat, trying to read anything on that inscrutable face. He remained still and silent, his gaze penetrating, as if he intended to discover all her secrets but reveal nothing of his own. She knew he was good at his job and for the first time became worried that she might have gotten in over her head. But what choice had she had?
The silence stretched, making her more and more nervous. She knew that was probably the whole idea, but that didn’t make it any easier to bear his intense scrutiny. She considered speaking again, but one glance at his set expression had her thinking better of the idea. No, it was best to let him begin. At last, he stepped forward, completely out of the shadows, the angles of his face set in sharp relief in the brighter light. As he paced around the table and closer to her, she noticed for the first time that he held a folder in his hand. His long, narrow fingers stroked across the edge for a moment before he tossed it onto the table in front of her, and she could see her name typed across the tab in bold, black print.
She looked up quickly and met his dark stare. “Is that…”
“Your personnel file, Miss Landry. You see, I was curious as to why a woman would risk her job, and possibly even more, in order to access files that she had no right to. And quite frankly,” she saw his shoulders move in a minute shrug, “I still don’t understand.” He indicated the folder. “According to this, you’re a model employee. Your former supervisors couldn’t say enough good things about you. Even though you’ve been here only a short while, you seem to have garnered the respect of both your colleagues and your bosses here as well. You are considered rather quiet and shy but a good worker. Efficient and thorough are the adjectives most used to describe your work.”
“I didn’t try to access—”
He raised his hand in an imperious gesture. She closed her mouth with a snap, and he continued. “Additionally, you were turned vampire eleven months ago by person or persons unknown. At the time, you lived in a small town outside of Atlanta, Georgia. You have a younger half sister, Cassidy Landry, who is the child of your father and the woman he married several years after your mother died of lung cancer. Your sister is a college sophomore at Georgia Tech. After your parents were killed in a drunk-driving accident when you were in your early twenties, she became your only surviving family member, but I can’t find any record of any phone calls, letters, or e-mails to her since you were made vampire. Although that is not completely unusual. Many newly made vampires have difficulty retaining their human connections. You left home soon after you were turned and have traveled around in a rather bewildering journey to various towns in the Southeast, rarely staying for long in any one place, until you wound up here a couple of months ago. You applied for a job at the Midnight Moon and were hired soon after. All the references received about you were of a hard-working, honest employee. So tell me…how is it that you came to be trying to steal company secrets from the Buchanans?”
She took a deep breath and licked her lips. She’d never been much of an actress, but she had to be convincing right now or everything would be lost. “Please believe me, Mr. Blackhawk, it was a stupid mistake on my part to try to impress the Buchanans with my computer skills. I was simply attempting to demonstrate some of the vulnerabilities in their system and maybe offer some suggestions on improving their safeguards. I never intended to steal anything or try to blackmail anyone or anything. I swear. I can see now how it might have been misconstrued, but I’m telling you the truth.”
She tried to meet his gaze so that he would believe her, but she couldn’t quite do it. Then she remembered what was at stake and forced her eyes up and managed a weak smile that she hoped looked innocent and guileless. She couldn’t read anything in those black depths. Couldn’t tell if he was falling for her story or not. She tried again. “Honestly, Mr. Blackhawk, I would have to be crazy to try to steal from the casino. I know how closely the computers are monitored. Which was why I thought that showing the Buchanans ways that a hacker might find in would get their attention and possibly get me a raise. Like I said, it was just a demonstration of my computer skills. It was stupid. I know that now. It was only the one time. And I swear, it won’t happen again.”
“Just the one time, hmm?” He moved forward and finally sat down in the chair opposite her own, relaxing back into his seat. She couldn’t help letting out a breath in relief that he was no longer towering over her. Maybe he believed her.
“Yes. Just the once.” She gave a self-deprecating laugh. “I’ve never done anything so stupid before. And, believe me, I’ve definitely learned my lesson. It was just a crazy idea.”
He leaned forward, elbows on the table. “So, just to be sure I understand correctly, you were simply trying to see if you could get past the safeguards and maybe offer some suggestions on upgrading the security protocols? In the hopes that this might secure you a better position with the casino?”
“Yes.” She nodded eagerly. “That’s exactly right.”
“And the files that you were accessing…there was nothing in particular you were looking for. You were just trying to get as deep as you could into the system?”
“Correct.”
“And you are not acquainted with anyone named Simone d’Amboise? You’ve never met her? You weren’t looking for files related to her in particular? You have no interest in any bloodslaves who may have been rescued recently? Is that correct?”
“Who? Bloodslaves? You can’t be serious.” She almost lost it. She widened her eyes in what she hoped was a convincing portrayal of bewildered innocence, but she couldn’t control the shaky quaver in her voice or the blood that rushed to fill her cheeks with betraying color. He knew. Oh, jeez. He knew she’d been in the d’Amboise files. Damn it. That wasn’t good. Not good at all.
“Miss Landry, let me be frank.” He speared her with those dark eyes. “I don’t believe a word you’re telling me. I’m giving you a chance, right now, to come clean. This is a onetime deal. Tell me what you were doing in those files and who it is that you’re working for and maybe, just maybe, I might be able to keep Quinn Buchanan from separating your head from the rest of your body. Now, one more time”—his tone changed from one of sweet reason to one of cold demand—“are you working for the vampiress Simone d’Amboise?”
She jumped in her seat at that rough growl, and she felt the blood rush from her face, more at the tone of his voice than at the threat. What should she do? If she continued to lie, would he throw her in vampire jail
? Torture her? Kill her? She just didn’t know. Damn it, she was no good at this kind of shit. She frantically tried to think, to decide the best option, but she was out of time.
“My offer is going once, Miss Landry. Going twice—”
“Okay. Stop. Please.” She covered her face, briefly rubbing her hands over her cheeks, before looking up at him. “Just stop.”
He quirked an eyebrow at her and waited. She knew it was over. It was time to lay all her cards on the table.
“I’ll tell you everything. I swear. I don’t work for her. Please believe me.” Oh, God. This was really bad. If they thought that she was working for Simone—
He stood and confronted her across the conference table, obviously unwilling to give her an inch of wiggle room. “If you don’t work for her, why were you trying to access those particular files? And please, no more of the bullshit story about trying to help the Buchanans improve their computer security. That story has so many holes in it, it’s pathetic. The truth now. It’s your only chance.”
Claire knew she was running out of options. She’d gone through all sorts of possible scenarios when she had come up with this plan. She had considered the fact that she might get caught, and she knew that she was probably going to have to tell him everything. The question was, would he believe her? Would he help her? Or would he kick her out, or worse?
She ran her damp hands down the legs of her pants nervously as she considered what she should do. There was no question that her plan of hacking into the files was now a hopeless idea. They’d probably already begun resetting all the passwords and strengthening the weakness in the firewalls that she’d taken advantage of before. Plus, of course, there was the fact that they currently had her in custody and would never trust her within ten miles of their computers again, anyway. She’d just have to hope that once Hawk heard her story, he would not be able to ignore her request.
She took a deep breath and let it out. Standing to face him, she tried one last plea. “If I tell you the truth, you have to promise to help me.”
He raised his eyebrows at her demand. “Miss Landry, we both know I don’t have to promise you anything. You’re in absolutely no position to make demands.”
He was right, of course. Looking at his expressionless face, she didn’t feel very confident that he would be willing to do anything for her, but what choice did she have? None. That was simple enough. She was out of alternatives now.
Her shoulders slumped. “You’re right. But at least you’ll hear me out? Reserve judgment until I’m done?”
A long silent pause filled the room. Just when she was about to resort to begging, he nodded abruptly. “All right. I can agree to that. Now sit back down and tell me everything, and no more lies. The minute I think you’re trying to pull another fast one, this dialogue is over.”
She nodded. Once they were both seated again, her mind darted back and forth over the past several months trying to figure out exactly how to tell him her story so that he would understand her fears and agree to help her.
“Miss Landry?” he prodded, obviously having little patience for the continued silence.
She shook her head and clasped her hands together in her lap. “I’m sorry. I just don’t know where to start.”
“The beginning will do.” She thought she detected a thread of amusement in his answer, but surely she was mistaken. He didn’t look like anything ever amused him.
She tried to gather her thoughts. “It’s kind of a long story.”
“I’ve got plenty of time.” He leaned back, tenting his hands, and nodded at her. “Go ahead.”
She licked her lips nervously. “Okay. It all began last November. You already know that my sister Cassidy was in college, and we really didn’t get to see each other a lot. But she came home for Thanksgiving break so that we could celebrate the holiday together. The night before she had to go back, we decided to go for a walk—just around the neighborhood, you know, and talk. Catch up with one another. It was about nine o’clock and dark, but our neighborhood was really safe. Lots of people walked their dogs or biked that time of night, so I didn’t really think there would be a problem.”
She looked across to see how he was reacting so far. He was just sitting there, but she could tell that he was at least listening to her story. She tried to smile at him, wanting him to understand, needing him to believe her. “Cass and I, well, we didn’t always get along the greatest. You know how sisters are, and there are eight years between us.” She shrugged. “But things were going really well that night. I was so relieved. We got to talking and probably walked farther than we’d really meant to. Anyway, a van pulled up and this guy got out. I could see there were some other people with him, but they stayed inside, so I couldn’t really tell who they were. The guy who’d got out asked us for directions to the interstate.” A choked laugh escaped her throat. “What a fool I was. I should have known what was going to happen.”
She thought she heard him make a sympathetic sound, but she didn’t look at him. “Anyway, they took us. Just snatched us right off the street. It was ridiculously easy. We barely even fought back, we were so shocked. There were three of them. All big guys. At first, we thought they were going to rape us, you know? Maybe kill us somewhere and leave our bodies to be eaten by wild animals or something. Never in my wildest dreams could I ever have imagined…” Her throat tightened up. “It was my fault. What happened. I should have known better than to be out that late.”
“Blaming yourself now is pointless.” Hawk stated his opinion matter-of-factly, yet she still drew a small measure of comfort from it.
“Yes, well, I’m sure you can guess who they were, of course. Vampires.” She shook her head. “I was so scared, but I knew that I had to protect my little sister. I practically raised her after our parents died. I’ve always looked after her. She was crying. I fought them off as much as I could, but they were just too strong.”
* * * *
He studied her face carefully. It was obvious to him that what she was telling him was painful for her. So far, he believed her. It followed what he’d already learned, except for the fact that her sister had been with her. That hadn’t been in the reports. But it was something that should be easily verified.
“I could tell pretty quickly that there was no way we could get away, so I told them—” She licked her lips and dropped her gaze to her hands where they rested in her lap. “I told them that I’d do whatever they wanted me to if they left Cassie alone. So they agreed.”
He waited for her to continue, but the silence drew out. He could imagine what had happened next and clenched his fists at the overpowering rage he felt to kill those who had hurt her. From the first moment he had seen her, he had been drawn to her. Now all his protective instincts had risen to the surface. “They raped you.” It took all he could to keep his voice steady and unemotional.
But she shook her head. “I let them. It wasn’t really rape if I let them.”
He wanted to comfort her but wasn’t sure how. “You weren’t there voluntarily. That makes it rape. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t fight them. It was against your will.”
She let out a bitter-sounding laugh. “What would you say if I told you that I enjoyed what they did to me? That I liked it? Do you still think it was rape?”
Hawk was stunned into silence for a moment before understanding dawned on him. She’d climaxed when they’d forced her. “Did they bite you?”
She nodded. “That’s when I found out what they really were. It was…a shock.”
“Miss Landry—Claire—surely you are aware that a vampire’s bite makes humans feel sexual arousal. It’s an automatic reaction. It wasn’t that you enjoyed their rape. Believe me. It was the bite.” She lifted her gaze and met his, and he knew she was trying to figure out if he was telling her the truth or not. Whatever she saw on his face must have reassured her, because her eyes filled with tears and her body slumped forward.
“Really?”
; “I have no reason to lie to you.”
“No. No, you don’t.” She straightened up again. “Okay, then. Okay.”
“What else happened?”
Her face was pale and her eyes were dilated with remembered fear, and he had to hold himself back from taking her in his arms and offering her comfort.
“We were so scared after we’d found out they were vampires. It made everything seem so unreal. Like a bad dream that we couldn’t wake up from. They took us to this huge, old house out in the middle of nowhere and kept us there for a couple of weeks, I guess. They brought more girls in, too. Most of the time they kept us locked up in the bedrooms. Except when they brought me out for…you know. They kept me separate from the others.”
Hawk nodded. “They were drinking from you, too?”
“Yes.”
“How many of them were there?”
“There were three, most of the time, but sometimes only one or two. It just depended.”
“But the same three all the time? Do you know their names?”
“I only know their first names. Jimmy, Buck, and Wayne. I didn’t ever hear their last names.”