Chapter 9
I woke suddenly. That weird kind of waking, when you’re pretty sure you heard something but have no idea what it was. I reached for my phone on the bedside table. A pale hand handed it to me. That didn’t seem right.
I blinked, tried to focus on the figure in the chair. Heart stopped. Dead. Then my heart started up again, galloping along.
“My formidable presence in your tiny bedroom is understandably alarming,” Bentley said.
He sat in the chair on the other side of the bedside table.
In my apartment.
In my bedroom.
Next to my bed.
Bentley.
The vampire dickface who had already threatened me. Twice.
Also, I was mostly naked under the sheet. Just had my underwear on.
“Hey,” I croaked, keeping it casual, while sirens screeched inside my head. “What time is it?”
“Time for you to wake up.”
He wore the same clothes from last night, when he’d tried to push me through a glass wall.
The shirt was creased now, and his hair had escaped its styling in places, giving him the impression of coming slightly undone.
Considering how he always seemed to be so well put together, the rumpled clothes were another warning sign my brain was waving in front of me.
I had my phone in my hand. I could dial Theo’s number, but he wouldn’t be able to get here in under twenty minutes, and then what would happen?
What were you supposed to do when encountering predators in the wild? Poke them in the eye? It seemed like that approach with Bentley might end badly for me.
He sighed, as though I was taking up his precious time. “If I’d wanted you dead, I’d have suffocated you with that pillow by now.”
That was oddly specific. I looked at the pillow next to my head. He’d marked the pillow as a potential murder weapon while I’d slept.
“Your apartment is a disgusting pit, by the way. I’ve been in better designed sex dungeons. Your place is dark, beige, and boring. How do you live in it?”
I sat up, dragging the sheet with me to cover my modesty. “Don’t I have to invite you in or something?” I’d meant it as a joke, to lighten the tension, but his face turned to thunder.
He glared. “That is highly racist.”
“Oh. Sorry.” Every damn time I opened my mouth, I stuck my foot in it. “I’m uh . . . just woke up,” I croaked. “Thanks to you.”
“You really don’t like vampires, do you?”
“What? No. I do, I just . . . I’m kinda reeling here. I didn’t expect company.”
“I am not your company. I have standards. And you . . .” He circled a finger at my chest. “Are far below me. You are so far below me, I can’t even see you. I am top tier, you are bottom rung. I am the apex—”
“Then why are you here?”
He glowered, with Siamese cat villain energy.
“If you’re trying to cozy up to Theo thinking he’ll give you his fortune, he won’t and he can’t. So stop thinking it.”
I frowned, and folded my arms over my chest, pinning the sheet under them. “I don’t know who or what you think I am, but I am literally just the pool guy. I don’t want anyone’s fortune. I just want to do my job and be left alone while doing it.”
He let my words settle in the room, then took a breath.
“I’ve met you twice, Owen. The first time, you claimed my brother was out cold in a bush, right before a body shows up in our pool, and the second, you’re sneaking his unconscious body into the pool house.
Since you showed up, our lives have gotten a lot more interesting, in an unfun way.
Also, mother is more moody than usual, and it’s tiring.
All of this happens the second you appear.
I’m not as dumb as I look . . .” He paused, listening to his own words back in his head. “What would you think if you were me?”
“Look man, I just answered the ad your dad posted and—”
He pressed a finger to my lips. I froze at the contact.
His skin was cool, not warm like Theo’s, and his face was all icy blue eyes and intense scowls.
“Let me be clear, and then we’re done. I hate Theo, everyone knows it, but there is no line I will not cross to protect the Witherborne name.
I can kill him, and I will, when it suits me, because I am the best chance this family has of surviving.
But I am the only one who touches Theo. You can’t kill him.
Nobody else is going to kill him. He is my brother. Nobody threatens him. Understand?”
He removed his finger, allowing me to speak.
“I don’t want to kill anyone,” I said meekly. “I want to know why Jay died, so I can maybe keep my job without wondering if I’m going to be next. That’s it. I swear I’m harmless.”
“Hm.” Bentley leaned back and raked his gaze down me. “Not only are you capable, but it’s highly likely you’ve killed before. So don’t lie to me. I can see your corruption.”
My thoughts went very, very quiet. Did he know I’d been in jail? Did he know there was one person on this planet I really did want to kill? Did he know people had died because of the things I’d done?
“Good talk.” He stood and glided toward the door. “Oh, and when I came up here, some guy was lurking outside. He got into a gray pickup in your lot. You might want to keep an eye on that one. Smells like fresh blood and sweat. Sleep well, pool boy.”
After he’d gone, I stayed in bed, sheet tucked under my arms, and stared at the doorway he’d been standing in.
Someone had been here before Bentley. Someone who smelled like fresh blood.
That might have been the most unnerving thing he’d said, and he’d said a lot of unnerving things in the five minutes he’d spent beside my bed.
I picked up my phone and typed out. “Bentley was just here” to Theo. Then hesitated, thumb over send.
Theo couldn’t do anything, and Bentley had gone.
He hadn’t hurt me. For him, he’d actually been pretty normal.
Helpful, even. “Smells like fresh blood.” The front room had a view of the lot.
I flung the sheet off and headed out of the bedroom, into the living area then to the window, where the blinds were closed.
Early morning sunlight had already made the slats hot.
It must have cost Bentley to break into my place while the sun was up.
I parted the blinds. No gray pickup. But I’d seen one before. Hadn’t I? At that hardware store. Could it be the same one? Or was Bentley screwing with me?
There was nothing I could do about any of it now. I dressed, grabbed breakfast, and texted Bet to meet me at our usual place if she was around.
A few hours later, I met her at our usual booth and told her all of it—the body in the pool, the neighbor, Theo’s messy family situation, Bentley’s threats, and the gray pickup.
She listened, nodding along, and when I was done, she picked up her bagel and said, “Get out now, while you can.”
I’d been afraid she’d say something like that. Because I knew she was right. And I wasn’t going to listen. “But Jay—”
Bet blew out a breath while frowning. “Let the police do their job, Owen. Don’t make it your business.”
“I know that, I just . . .” I dug into my pocket and pulled out the ring, then handed it over to her.
She looked at it, turned it over in her hand. “What’s this?” she asked, handing it back.
“A ring I found in the filtration system. It has initials inside—JG—and Theo’s mom was asking if I’d found anything. I think she knew I had it. Or that I’d found something linked to Jay in their pool.”
“Okay, so give it back?”
“But it’s not theirs. JG. Jay Green,”
“Then give it to the police. It could be valuable evidence.”
She made it sound so simple. Just give it to the cops and walk away. I frowned, then remembered I was talking to a corrections officer who walked and talked like a friend, but who also had a job to do. Bet was only half a friend, the other half got paid to keep me from doing stupid stuff.
“Yeah, I guess.”
I wasn’t going to hand the ring over to the cops. Fate had put the ring in my hand that morning. Jay needed me to have it.
“Something weird’s going on in that house,” I said. “Not vampire weird—weird weird. My gut says Theo’s in more danger than he realizes, and not just because his brother has no shame about wanting to kill him.”
“Danger from who? He seems pretty connected and probably has bodyguards whenever he goes out. Also, vampire, so . . . don’t they have superpowers?”
Did Theo have powers? He had fangs and claws, but not much else. “I don’t think they do. Unless sarcasm is a superpower.”
“Owen, your gut has not been the best thing to listen to in the past.” Bet finished her bagel and wiped her fingers clean on a napkin.
“You’re into this because you’re into him, and I’m telling you now, the last thing you need is trouble like that.
Drop the Witherbornes as clients and keep your hands clean.
That’s my professional advice.” She sat back, professional advice dispensed, job done.
“What about personal advice?”
Her lips twitched around what may have been a smile had she given it room. She picked up her coffee cup and peered over the rim. “He’s hot and has money, so I’d probably tap that and then tap out. Just sayin’.”
“Wow.”
“I got eyes and needs too, you know.”
“He’s what . . . ten years younger than you?”
“He’s a vampire. Age is a suggestion.”
“You’re disturbing me. This is disturbing.”
We chuckled together. I picked up my coffee and dropped my gaze to the ring on the table between us.
I was meant to find that ring. Theo’s mother wanted it, but didn’t want me to know she wanted it, which meant it had value.
The neighbors were involved, had probably killed Jay to protect a secret, and my gut said it had something to do with the pool itself.
The Briars’ box house was too . . . perfect.
The gardens, the pool . . . everything was too clean. It made my brain itch.
The Witherbornes didn’t know anything or weren’t talking.
I knew what I had to do.
I needed to speak to the Briars. Which meant applying for that vacant pool maintenance job.
“I know that look,” Bet said, putting her cup down.
“What look?”
“The ‘you have a plan and nothing is going to stop you’ look. You got that same look when you started your business.” She sighed and leaned closer. “You’re doing really well, Owen. I don’t want you throwing away this opportunity for another guy who’ll likely burn you.”
Ouch. That landed hard.
“You’re right,” I admitted. I was falling into the same trap. People like me took the fall for the pretty ones. But damn, what if the fall was worth it?
I picked up the ring and turned it over between my fingertips. Maybe I should just walk away? I knew I should. But also knew I wouldn’t. Vampire or not, Theo needed help. Maybe he needed help more because he was a vampire and had nobody else to help him.
Something was very wrong between the Briars and the Witherbornes, and if it wasn’t dealt with, then more people would get hurt. My gut told me that much.
Somebody had to do something.
Unfortunately, it was looking like that someone was the pool boy.