I started getting suspicious when the Range Rover turned away from the downtown area, heading towards an industrial park. I knew Alessandro owned several floors at the Crown Resort Casino/Hotel on the waterfront. It was the perfect place for a Coven, with thousands of visitors every day who might not remember their night anyway.
There was no reason to take Vicki and Nicholas in this direction, was there? I made a quick decision. Calling Alessandro’s number, I waited for him to pick up. “Consuela?”
“Alessandro, Vicki’s on her way to see you, but I’m still shopping. I wanted to verify where you are meeting so I can join you in an hour or so.”
“No problem. We’re on the seventieth floor of the casino tower. Check-in with the elevator attendant, and they will send you right up.”
Shit. Now what? Could I trust him with the truth? I had to make a decision fast because something was wrong. I went with my gut, which was rolling by now. “Alessandro, the car taking Vicki and Nicholas to meet with you isn’t heading downtown. I thought something was off, so I’m following them in a cab. They just exited the A36 on Sydney Park Road, headed to an industrial area.”
“Hold on. DO NOT hang up.” I could hear him yelling at others to call people, even the sound of dial tones on the speakers. A minute later, he came back on the line with me. “Something is going on, Consuela. I can’t reach Vicky, Nicholas, or the security guys on the phone. The phones come back not in service.”
“They could be using a signal jammer to prevent phone calls,” someone in his office said.
“Let’s GO,” he yelled. “Consuela, we’re going to head your way, but we’re a good twenty minutes out. Can you follow them until we get there?”
“I’ll do my best, sir.”
I heard him grab another man’s phone and call security, telling him to tap into the traffic cameras and find the cars, then he asked for my location. “We just crossed Euston Road onto Huntley,” I told him. “Shit.”
“What?”
“The Range Rover pulled into a parking lot, then drove inside a warehouse. The door is going back down now.” I rolled down the window, hoping to get a scent. “It’s in back of Huntley Electrical Supply. I’ll get you an address when we go around the block.”
I almost dropped the phone when I heard the sound of two muffled gunshots.
*********
Vicki Corcoran’s POV
I looked out the window of the Range Rover as we drove away. “What do you think? Is Alessandro going to screw us over?”
Nicholas squeezed my hand. “We’ll keep our eyes open, but I don’t see things as skeptically as she does.”
“How long until we get to the meeting spot,” I asked the driver.
“Twenty minutes, depending on traffic,” the man said.
Nicholas and I continued to talk strategy as we got closer, pretending to be looking at the city we’d never visited. We headed towards the downtown skyscrapers before turning off the road and headed towards a more industrial area. We took a few turns, then pulled into a lot behind a two-story industrial office and warehouse building. “What’s this?”
“Out of the way meeting spot,” the driver said. The rollup door to the warehouse was already opening, and he pulled inside. Racks of electrical equipment, boxes, and spools of electrical wire surrounded the area we parked. “Let’s go,” he said.
Nicholas opened the door before helping me out. The driver was waiting for us in front of the Range Rover. I was looking around for others when I heard a gunshot.
Looking forward, I saw the driver with a big pistol out, shifting his aim from the other security man to us. Nicholas reacted first, pulling me behind him as a second shot rang out. I could feel through the link as my mate shook off the intense pain of a gunshot wound and readied himself to charge the shooter. “Love you,” he said as he let me go.
“STOP,” a loud female voice said. The driver froze, his pistol still pointed at us. Faster than my eyes could follow, a vampire came into the room and grabbed me by the arms. I struggled, but it was no use. She was a Master Vampire, and she wasn’t alone. Master Caroline Grey, the Coven leader in the Los Angeles region, held me with a steel grip.
“NICHOLAS,” I screamed as he fell to his knees, his hands covering the entry wound on the right side just below his ribs. I could smell his blood as it spilled out, and I was panicking.
“We meet again,” a familiar voice said as he walked out from behind the racks of equipment.
“Timothy Lords! I’ll fucking tear you into pieces for this!”
He laughed and shook his head. “No, you won’t.” He held up a combat dressing. “Your mate is seriously wounded; from the bleeding, the bullet must have hit his liver. I’d give him about three minutes until he loses consciousness, five until he dies, unless I help him.”
“Don’t do it,” Nicholas said before he rolled onto his back, his fingers unable to stem the blood.
I couldn’t let him die; I’d give up everything to save my mate. I made my decision. “What do you want?”
“Swear to me you will do as I ask, and I will save his life.”
What the hell would he ask? “FINE,” I said. “I swear to Luna I will do what you ask.”
He tore the dressing open, removing the packet of fast-coagulating powder. Working quickly, he tore open Nicholas’ shirt, pouring the powder into the bullet wound, then placed the battle dressing over it. He applied pressure with his hand, causing Nicholas to groan, but the bleeding had slowed rapidly. “Master?”
Caroline walked me over to where the driver stood frozen, unable to move. “What did you do to him?”
She chuckled. “Master Alessandro was foolish to assign humans to a protective detail. Once I found out where you were staying, it was easy for me to entrance one to do my bidding. I had him bring you here and eliminate his partner for us.” She looked at the driver, whose eyes were blank as she held his will. “Don’t even think about disobeying or turning on me. I’ll peel the flesh from your mate as I make you watch.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything.
“Give her the gun,” she ordered the driver as she let me go.
The man took hold of the Glock barrel with his free hand, holding out the pistol to me grip-first. “Take it,” she told me.
I took it from him, and it slid instantly into the correct hold, the years of firearms practice at Leo’s place, making the grip automatic. I kept the pistol pointed down in a safe direction, my trigger finger along the side, the same way I’d trained.
“Whatever she wants, don’t do it,” Nicholas begged me.
“I have to; I can’t lose you!”
“Shoot him in the head, and the two of you will leave here alive. Refuse, and you watch him die before I drain you,” Caroline told me as she stepped back.
I turned to her, shocked at the command. “WHAT?”
“He knows too much of our kind, Vicki. Shoot him in the head. I won’t tell you again.” I looked at her as the enormity of what she asked hit me like a sledgehammer. Timothy chose that time to push down on Nicholas’s wound, making him scream out in pain.
I didn’t have a choice. Raising the pistol with one hand, I pointed it at the man’s temple and fired. The gunshot echoed through the building as his brains splattered against the equipment on the racks. He dropped to the ground like I’d cut the strings holding him up.
“Did you get that,” Timothy asked.
“Oh, yeah,” a woman’s voice said as she walked out from behind the racks. “You look fantastic on camera, Vicki. I’m sure all your fans will love this when you go on trial for murder.”
Oh, Luna, what had I done. I dropped the pistol to the ground, and Traci Lords came over and picked it up in a gloved hand. She had photos, and now she had a murder weapon with my fingerprints on it. My ex-mate and his wife were gloating, knowing I’d spend the rest of my life in prison if I didn’t do as they said.
I looked down at Nicholas, who was pale and weak, then over to Timothy. “What do you want?”
“I want my birthright back, Vicki. I’m a Mantled Alpha without a Pack now. You took away my future, my fortune, and turned the North American Council against me.”
“Your choices did all that, Timothy. If you’d kept your dick in your pants until you mated, Traci’s son would have your mantle, and you’d still be the Pack heir. Raping an underage Monique Robinson happened before we ever met!”
“And that is the first issue you are going to help me correct,” Timothy said. “I want to know where Monique and her son Tyler are and who is protecting them.”
There was only one reason to ask, and that was to kill them. If Tyler died, the mantle he inherited from Timothy would move to his new heir, the son he’d just had with his choice-mate Traci. “I don’t know where they are,” I said. “I swear! I had nothing to do with that!”
“Your Aunt Adrienne knows. Call her and find out.” I hesitated, and that was enough to cause Timothy to press down again.
“Nicholas?”
“Say no, and it ends with us,” he said.
“Adrienne will know something is wrong if I ask. I need to buy time,” I sent.
“Fine.” I pulled out my phone and dialed my Aunt.
It was hours before sunrise back in Miesville, but she answered quickly. “Vicki? How’s Sydney?”
“We just got here, and we haven’t done any exploring yet. It’s beautiful, though,” I said. “Why are you up?”
“My internal clock’s still screwed up from the time changes, so I’m down by the aquarium, reading a book and sipping coffee.”
“I need your help, Alpha Adrienne.” In my old Pack, we had pre-arranged emergency codes; unless it was a formal introduction, using ‘Alpha’ in a private conversation meant I was under duress. “I need Monique Robinson’s address.”
“Why?”