“So what? You risk the life of a two-year-old, a good man, and a friend of yours so that Silvano would do it?” Lily asked, disbelief marring her voice.
“Yes, Silvano promised to turn me if I gave him James. I didn’t know about the kid until it was already done,” Jessie replied.
“And you didn’t do anything. You would let my son at the mercy of those blood suckers just so you wouldn’t die in two years?” Lily demanded, her voice rising with her anger.
A cold, hard expression took the woman’s face. “Yes. I would. In a heartbeat! I’ve served the Aequivalere almost my entire life! I deserve this! If one freak of nature has to die for it, then so be it.”
Stark shock ran through James as he looked at Jessie. Nothing of the woman he knew as Jessie showed in the woman he was looking at now. A glance at Lily told him she felt the same thing.
Lily bowed her head, holding onto the arms of the chair with an iron grip and taking deep breaths. When she looked up, her expression was guarded and stoic. “How did you get involved with the vampire named Vincent?” Lily asked, her tone sounding all business now.
Jessie made a dry laugh. “When Silvano died, I had to find me another vamp. Vincent approached me and offered me to work for him. He needed someone with human contacts since he was going to be keeping a human pet.”
James watched as Lily’s fingers tightened on the chair. She was beyond pissed right now and he was impressed that she hadn’t lost it yet.
“Where is he hiding?” Lily bit out. Despite her attempts, the anger was obviously spilling into her voice.
“He’s in town, but I made sure that none of you are going to be able to get close without maybe losing almost all the people you have with you,” Jessie answered, looking proud.
“What is Vincent’s end game?”
Again Jessie made a dry laugh. “Whatever his boss tells him too!”
Boss? James thought, freezing with shock. It took all he had to keep from letting his jaw hit the floor.
“Boss?” Lily repeated, looking just as surprised as he was.
Jessie laughed and grinned at them. “Oh that’s precious. You had no idea?” She taunted them. “What the hell, for old times sake! Vincent is working for someone. No one knows who. Trust me, I’ve tried to find out. This person or persons isn’t in town with him because they only speak through electronic communication and in private phone calls through secured lines in a sound proofed room.
Whoever it is, Vincent is doing his best to keep them secret, but he can’t hide that he wants nothing more than to please them and badly. That’s why he’s after your little sister so bad. The boss isn’t happy that Vincent lost her and caused you two to show up. Apparently the boss doesn’t like you two much. Big surprise there,” she explained, sneering at them.
Lily walked out of the room with James following behind her. She could almost feel his worry burning holes in her. She knew he was worried about her. How Lily would take the betrayal of someone she’d once considered her friend. That he wasn’t hovering over her and asking her a million questions about it meant more to her than he would ever know. Nick met them halfway back to the conference room.
Indecision, hurt, and curiosity skewed up his expression into a stern, grim one. Lily had always suspected that Nick had a crush on Jessie. “That in there isn’t the woman we knew Nick,” she told him. “The Jessie we knew would never think of hurting a child just so she could escape death. I don’t know if our Jessie was just a lie or not, but she’s gone.”
His shoulders tightened with tension and Lily didn’t miss the disappointment in his eyes. He’d been hoping, as she had, that there was all some rational explanation that would reveal that she hadn’t betrayed them at all. “So what do you want to do with her?” He asked. His tone was flat and void of all emotion.
“As tempting is beating her until she grows back a conscious is, I don’t think it’d work,” Lily said with a sigh. “I don’t know Nick. I’m tired of being angry and crap all the time. Vincent has me booked right now. If you don’t want to deal with her, wait until dark and let the Aequivalere deal with her.” A smile spread across her lips as she saw Nick’s startled reaction.
She couldn’t blame him. Lily usually was the first in line to draw blood on someone who’d wronged her. “I’d rather plan on what we’re going to do next instead of dealing with some loser lacky,” she said, letting venom enter her voice.
“Alright,” Nick said, straightening his posture. “Let’s go back to the conference room.” They led them bath into the large room. Several others were already there. “Let’s get started and everyone take a seat,” Nick demanded, and everyone took a seat. Lily could feel his alpha influence dance over her skin and push her to sit down in a chair. Any chair. It didn’t matter if Nick no longer had a territory that he called his own. He was an alpha, period.
Lily glanced at his brother. The alpha stiffened and narrowed his eyes at Nick. He obviously didn’t like being ordered around in his territory. She was willing to wager that Nick’s brother wasn’t as dominant as he was, which may be half of the reason that the two hadn’t come to bloodshed. That their brothers and they love each other, probably was the other half. Also, Lily knew that Nick didn’t want to take over his brother’s territory. He wanted his own back.
“Lily tell us what the human told you,” Nick demanded, leaning back in his chair.
She repeated everything Jessie had told her, the mysterious boss and her selfishness to sacrifice Lily’s two-year-old son so that she could live. As she spoke, she saw Donovan’s jaw clench as much as his fist. He was furious. Like Jessie, he’d watched A. J. grow up. However, she noticed that Bill didn’t look surprised at all. Maybe he’d known the depths of Jessie’s depravity. The more Lily watched her father, the more convinced she was that he knew.
“I give the human to the Aequivalere to punish her as you see fit,” Nick said once Lily had finished. He looked to the doctor who sat in his chair with his long fingers laced together and resting in his lap. A somber expression was on his grim face. “How’s Bonnie doing?”
“I expect she’ll be with us for a while yet,” he replied in a soft tone. “However, she was severally beaten and even with the help of Xin Qian’s magic, Bonnie may be out of it for a while.”
“What about the others?” Lily asked before Nick could say another word. Nick gave her a bemused look then nodded to the doctor.