The guard’s surprise and confusion was genuine. “We always check IDs before anyone signs in.”
“Were you working the desk when this woman signed in?” J.L. asked.
The guard frowned and studied the log-in sheet. “It was after eleven. I was on lunch break. It would have been Joe.”
Olivia’s heart rate sped up. “We need to talk to him.”
The guard nodded and punched a button on a walkie-talkie. “We need Joe Kitchner at the front office.”
“Look at this.” J.L. had flipped back a few more pages in the log-in book. Four weeks earlier someone calling herself Olivia Sotiris had signed in. He kept turning pages. Every four weeks, Olivia had supposedly visited Crump.
“Check November,” she said.
J.L. found an entry for the eighteenth of November. “You weren’t even in the country. Harrison should have caught this. The moron spent more time threatening Otis than actually investigating.”
Olivia motioned to the surveillance camera in the corner. “Whoever impersonated me was recorded when she signed it.”
The guard groaned. “It’ll take a while to find the right tape.”
“We’ve got all day,” J.L. muttered.
The guard’s walkie-talkie made a clicking noise. “Crump is ready,” a voice declared. “He’s in Visitation 3.”
“Is that you, Chip?” the guard asked over his walkie-talkie. “Where’s Joe?”
“I don’t know,” Chip replied. “He told Bob and me to move Crump, then he left. Do you need me to escort the visitor?”
“I know the way,” Olivia said.
J.L. dragged his gaze away from the log-in book. “Do you want me to come with you?”
“I’ll be okay,” she said. “You find out who’s been impersonating me.”
“I think I already know.” He grimaced. “I hope I’m wrong.”
Olivia hoped she was wrong, too. No doubt she was suspecting the same person. There was only one woman in the office who had access to her ID and her signature.
She strode to the visitor door and waited to be buzzed in, then walked down the plain hallway, her steps echoing on the shiny linoleum floor. She halted outside the door labeled VISITATION 3 and took a deep breath.
Otis Crump was a master at detecting weakness and exploiting it for his own sick pleasure. She needed to be calm and stay in control. If all went well, she’d never have to see the bastard again.
He was standing in the small room, plain walls on all four sides and a fortified Plexiglas wall dividing his half of the room from hers. There was a metal door behind him, and beside him, a plain metal chair was bolted to the floor.
The guards had started the videotape and agreed to wait outside. They could watch what transpired on the monitor in the hallway.
Otis must have been using the prison’s fitness room, for he’d put on some muscle. His jumpsuit was clean, his hair combed; his face shaved. In his narcissistic way, he’d always considered himself exceptionally handsome.
Olivia had always found his features too mellow. No doubt it was his soft look that had encouraged his victims to trust him. Brown hair, brown eyes, average height, good bone structure. But there was nothing striking about him. Nothing overtly masculine and memorable.
He made up for that with his personality.
He smiled as she entered the divided room, and she could sense he was genuinely happy to see her.
“Come in, Olivia. Sit down.” He sprawled in the metal chair. “I’ve been expecting you.”
Predictable. He’d started off with commands in an attempt to establish dominance.
“I’ll make this short.” She strode inside and stopped beside the metal chair in her half of the room. “I have a few questions—”
“And I have all the answers,” he interrupted her with a smirk.
“I expect your full cooperation.”
“Really?” He rubbed a hand up and down his thigh. “What can you give me to make it worthwhile?”
“I can make sure you stay alive.”
He grinned. “Oh, a threat. I like it. Strong women are so much more fun. They fight back and struggle till their last breath. Makes the final victory much more satisfying.” He held up a hand. “Don’t worry, darling. I would never hurt you. We’re destined to be together.”
She could point out that he was serving three consecutive life terms, but he never seemed to grasp that concept. “Since you’re so fond of me, I expect you to answer my questions honestly.”
“And I expect something in exchange. A token of your affection for me.” He lowered his hand to his crotch. “I want an eight-by-ten glossy of you so I can masturbate to it.”
“You’re wasting my time.” She strode back to the door.
“Wait.” He jumped up and followed her on his side of the glass. “Don’t go, Olivia. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you.”
She paused at the door, sensing his desperation. His emotional attachment to her always made her queasy in the stomach. “Are you ready to answer my questions?”
He smiled slowly. “You’ve learned to play the game well. I’m a good teacher, don’t you think?”
He was such a narcissist. Even when she took control, he took credit for it. She sauntered back to the center of the room to force him to follow her.
He did. “Did you enjoy your vacation on Patmos?”
“I’m asking the questions.” She rested her hands on the back of her metal chair. “Who is your accomplice? Who’s sending the apples?”
He lounged in the chair. “Don’t you enjoy the apples? You had so much fun peeling them for me. You could make it all around the apple in one long spiral.” He rotated a finger in the air. “I had to go through several women before I mastered that technique.”
She was careful not to show any emotion, but she could tell he was aroused. “Who is your accomplice?”
He smiled. “‘Quid pro quo, Clarice.’”
“This isn’t a movie.”
“It should be.” He stood and walked toward the glass. “Who do think should play me? Brad Pitt, maybe?”
“Who is your accomplice?”
He pressed his hands against the glass. “Nobody. She means nothing to me. She’s just a way to keep up with you. You’re the one I love.”
“Who is she?”
He stepped back from the glass. “I answered. Now quid pro quo. My turn to ask a question.”
His gaze wandered over her and lingered on her linen pants. “The first time you came to see me, you were wearing a tight black skirt, and your legs were bare. You would sit on that chair and cross your legs, and I thought I’d gone to heaven. I would have told you anything to keep you coming here in those tight-assed little skirts.”
The queasy feeling in her stomach grew. She’d sensed from the beginning that he lusted for her, and she’d used it to lure him into a trusting relationship. When he’d offered to tell her everything if she’d simply peel an apple for him, she’d gone along with it. And he had confessed to torturing and killing ten more women.
Otis planted his hands on the glass wall and leaned toward her. “It nearly killed me when you stopped wearing skirts. You know how much I love your legs.”
She’d started wearing pants when he’d told her what he liked to do to his victims’ legs.
“When you peeled that apple for me,” he continued, “I knew you were the one. No one understands me like you do. You can tell when I’m lying or being naughty, but you keep coming back to see me. Admit it, Olivia. You find me fascinating. When you fuck other men, you’re thinking about me.”
She swallowed hard at the bile in her throat. “You didn’t ask a question.”
He chuckled. “Fine. Tell me, did you peel the apples I sent you? Did you slide the knife just under the skin and hear that little pop when the blade breaks through? Did you skim the knife around and—”
“No. I threw the apples away.” She stepped toward the glass. “My turn. The name of your accomplic
e.”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to rephrase that in question form.”
“Who is your accomplice?”
He shrugged. “Darling, you already know. Now if you would just admit that we belong together, I wouldn’t have to take advantage of the poor, stupid sluts who want to help me in my time of need.”
“The game’s over, Otis. You won’t be manipulating anyone. I’m getting the D.A. in Texas to prosecute you for the murder you committed there.”
“You do that, darling. I would enjoy a trip to Texas. I can use the opportunity to escape so we can be together.”
“You’ll be convicted there, and I will come to see you.”
He grinned. “That’s my girl.”
“I’ll be a witness when they give you the needle.”
His smile faded.
“Death penalty, Otis. How do you like them apples?”
His face hardened with a cold stare. “While you stand here making idle threats, my accomplices are getting away.”
“We’ll get them.” She strode toward the door. As usual, she felt like going straight to a shower.
“Olivia!” Otis called to her.
When she glanced back, he pulled something from the chest pocket of his uniform. It was red and lacy. Her missing panties.
He rubbed them against his cheek. “Till we meet again, darling.”
Her stomach twinged, and she quickly left the room. She rushed back to the front office.
J.L. was behind the counter with the guard. “We’ve got her, Olivia.” He turned the monitor so she could see.
The woman appeared to be about the same height and weight as Olivia. She was wearing dark sunglasses, and her dark hair was covered with a baseball cap. Joe was the guard. She showed him an ID and signed in.
Yasmine. Olivia’s heart sank. She’d hoped it wasn’t her, but it had just made too much sense. “She made a copy of my ID.”
J.L. nodded. “And she knows where you stash your handbag. She probably made a wax imprint of your house key. It would only take a few seconds.”
Olivia pressed a hand to her stomach. It was bad enough to deal with Otis, but to discover that Yasmine had betrayed their friendship—it made her feel physically ill. “Did you call Barker?”
“Yes. They’ve put an APB out on her.”
“She wasn’t in the office?” Olivia asked, then realized what had happened. “Joe must have warned her.”
“Looks like it. He’s disappeared, too.” J.L. skirted the edge of the counter. “How did your meeting with Otis go?”
“He wouldn’t divulge her name, but he admitted to using her.” Olivia made a face. “How could Yasmine do this? Doesn’t she know what a monster he is?”
“You never felt any sort of deception from her?” J.L. asked.
“No! She never lied. She was always nosy, but as far as I could tell, her friendship was real.”
“She knew about your gift, so I guess she was always careful around you.”
Olivia groaned. How could she not have known? Detecting deception was supposed to be her specialty.
J.L. escorted her toward the door. He glanced back at the guard. “You can expect some special agents here this afternoon to interview all the guards. Meanwhile, if you hear anything about Joe, call the number on the card I gave you.”
“Will do.” The guard looked worried as he watched them leave.
J.L. led her across the parking lot to his car. “Are you all right? You look really pale.”
“I trusted her,” Olivia whispered. Her thoughts wandered to Robby and his red glowing eyes. If she’d been deceived by Yasmine, then she could have been deceived by Robby. “I feel sick.”
“I’ll drive you home,” J.L. offered.
“No. I want to keep working.” If she stayed home all day, she’d have too much time to think. Too much time to nurse some terrible suspicions about the secrets Robby was hiding. Had she been wrong to fall in love with him?
That evening, like most evenings, Robby set up his laptop and webcam in the conference room across from the security office. As soon as Olivia’s face appeared on the screen, he knew something was wrong. There was a sadness in her eyes and a weary droop to her expression.
“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
She told him about her trip to Leavenworth, and how J.L. had discovered that their office manager, Yasmine Hernandez, had impersonated her in order to visit Otis Crump. She’d been assisted in her deception by a guard at the penitentiary.
“Have they been arrested?” Robby asked.
Olivia shook her head. “We’re looking for them, but they’ve both disappeared.”
“At least now ye know who was sending the apples,” Robby said. “Ye should feel good about that.”
A pained look crossed her face. “I thought Yasmine was a friend. I trusted her. I joined the FBI so I could use my lie detector skills to catch bad guys, and there she was, right under my nose, and I never saw it.”
Robby leaned forward. “Ye shouldna doubt yerself. Ye always believed there was an accomplice, and ye were right about that. And did ye no’ use yer abilities to get Crump to confess to more murders?”
There was a glint of moisture in her eyes. “I should have known. I should have sensed deception from her.”
“Ye canna blame yerself. ’Tis normal to be feeling bad right now. Someone ye care about has betrayed you.”
She glanced at him with a wary look. “Are you still coming here on Friday?”
“Aye. I should be there a little before nine.”
She blinked, as if she were trying not to cry. “I wish we’d never left Patmos. It was so…magical there.”
“We’ll go back someday. Just you and me.” If she could accept him as a vampire.
She closed her eyes briefly. “Be honest with me. Have you been deceiving me?”
He inhaled sharply. Pretending to be a normal human was a deception. “Olivia—”
“Forget it.” She held up a hand to stop him, then shook her head with a wry expression. “If you’ve been lying to me, why would you admit it now? I don’t even want to hear it. One betrayal a day is more than enough.”
She was doubting him again? Bloody hell. But could he blame her? He’d already admitted there were things he hadn’t told her.
“Olivia, listen to me. When I say I love you, that is the truth. When I say I think about you every waking minute, that is the truth. When I say ye’ve changed my life, that before my heart was filled with vengeance and now it is filled with love, that is the bloody truth.”
A tear rolled down her cheek. “I love you so much, Robby. It’ll kill me if you betray me.”
He swallowed hard. He could only pray she wouldn’t interpret his hiding the truth as an act of betrayal.
“Yo, Robby!” Phineas barged into the conference room.
“This is a bad time,” Robby told him.
“Yeah, it’s bad,” Phineas replied. “We just went on red alert.”
Robby tensed as he turned back to the monitor. “Olivia, I have to go. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
She frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ll let you know later. I love you, sweetheart.” He disconnected and rose to his feet. “What is it?”
Phineas led the way across the hall to the security office. “Angus and Emma just teleported in. I got an emergency message from Stanislav about five minutes ago. Casimir and his little band of merry bloodsuckers are on the move.”
“Do ye know where they’re headed?” Robby asked as he entered the security office. Angus, Emma, and Connor were there.
Angus gave him a worried look. “According to Stanislav, they’re somewhere in North America.”
CHAPTER 21
Within minutes the security office at Romatech was overflowing with MacKay S&I employees. The mortals and shape-shifters were teleported in by the Vamps.
“We have to locate Casimir and his followers as quickly as possible,” Angus told them.
<
br /> “It shouldna be difficult once they start leaving a trail of dead bodies in their wake,” Connor grumbled.
Emma winced. “Hopefully, we’ll find them before any innocent people die.”
With a scowl, Connor crossed his arms over his chest. “If they’re here, the killing has already begun.”
“We need to check every place Casimir has teleported to before,” Robby said. “One of those places would have been his point of entry.”
“I agree.” Angus nodded. “We know he liked going to Apollo’s compound in Maine.” He turned to Jack. “Ye’re familiar with the place. Teleport there. Take Lara, Zoltan, Mikhail, Austin, and Darcy.”
“Yes, sir.” Jack led his team into the armory at the back of the office so they could select weapons. He vanished, taking Lara with him.
A few seconds later the phone rang. Connor punched the conference call button.
“We’re here,” Lara said. “It appears quiet…” She continued to talk while Zoltan and Mikhail fixed on her voice. They teleported, taking the mortals Austin and Darcy with them.
“Casimir also teleported to the coven house in New Orleans,” Angus said. “They should be warned.”
“I’ll go,” Phineas offered.
Robby snorted. He knew why Phineas was eager to go to New Orleans.
“Go ahead,” Angus said. “Call us if ye need help. And stay in touch with Stanislav in case he hears anything.”
Phineas grabbed some weapons from the armory and teleported away.
“Ian and Toni.” Angus regarded them. “I want you to take Shanna and the children to Dragon Nest. Stay at the school. Keep all the children safe.”
Ian’s jaw shifted with an annoyed look. “If there’s a battle, ye’d better call me.”
“We will,” Angus assured him. “We’ll need every available warrior. In fact, we may need some of Phil’s young lads.” He turned to the Alpha werewolf. “How is the training going?”
“Two of the oldest boys have achieved Alpha status,” Phil replied. He’d been living at Dragon Nest Academy with Vanda. While she taught art, he’d been coaching the young werewolves he’d found in Wyoming. “They’re ready to fight.”
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