Chapter 17 Onyx
“She’s at The Grande,” I told Cooper as I sat in my office overlooking downtown.
“Fancy,” he said. “She tell you why?”
“No, and I didn’t ask.” I took a sip of my coffee. “But . . . it’s not exactly rocket science.”
“True,” he conceded. “What room?”
“Seven fifteen,” I said as I watched the screen on my laptop.
“Want it watched?”
“Obviously,” I told him. “You hit any results on the sheets yet?”
“No,” he growled. “It’s either contaminated or he’s clean and not in the system. Whoever this is, is a clever fuck.”
I frowned as I continued watching the CCTV from Angel’s street. “Escalating quickly though,” I told him quietly. “From dead flowers to slashed tires to cum on her bed. I don’t like her being at the hotel. Too many fuckers and too easy access to her and her rooms. It’s stupid of her. Careless.”
Cooper whistled softly. “Hey, you okay? You sound like you care or something.”
That earned him a chuckle. “I don’t like stupidity. I also know she is a lot of things, and stupid isn’t one of them. Careless? Yes.”
“I take it we’re definitely not going to stop looking into this?” he asked wryly.
“Stop? I don’t know the meaning of the word.”
“And are you going to tell her?”
“Fuck no,” I scoffed. “She lost that privilege when she walked out of my house this morning.”
“Good, I don’t like it when you’re in touch with your emotions,” he added dryly.
“Don’t worry, Coop. I’m still as dead inside as you are.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” he quipped before he disconnected.
I returned my attention to the CCTV coverage. The car I’d noticed last night had, for the past three weeks, been either directly outside her house or on her street. It hadn’t been there today or yesterday, and I was not na?ve enough to think it was a coincidence.
They knew she was gone.
Did they know I was watching?
I’d spent hours watching footage, enough time to know that it was the same person, most likely male, and unfortunately for Angel, they were clever.
The license plate was disguised, and the SUV was a common make that could blend and had no distinguishing features to make it stand out.
The few times I had seen the driver get out, they knew to avoid anything that could identify them.
They walked with their shoulders hunched, their head covered, but they didn’t stand out.
If you saw them walking past your front yard, nothing about them would make you look twice.
Even with the hoodie and the hunched shoulders, they blended.
I looked up when I heard the door get tapped, and Angel stood outside my office.
She looked wary. She should. After I leaned back in my seat, she opened the door, recognizing the permission to enter.
I watched as she turned to close the door firmly behind her.
Her hair was tied back in a low ponytail, her makeup minimal, and her dress was dark gray and business-like.
She was dressed in her armor, and she probably didn’t even know it.
“Hi,” she greeted me, and I waited patiently. “So, I just wanted to tell you that I spoke to the police and there’s no update.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Angel frowned slightly at my tone. “You’re pissed.”
“Am I?” I fixed her with a dead stare. “Why would you think that?”
Angel looked over her shoulder before facing me again, and I saw her slight reaction to Johnathan, who was passing my office. He almost tripped over his own feet at seeing us both in the same space. His eyes darted to the door, and his eyebrows disappeared into his hairline when he saw it closed.
Angel watched me watch him, and she rolled her eyes. “Why doesn’t he take a picture? It’ll last longer.”
“Using my words . . . Trying to break the ice?” I asked as I leaned forward. “Why are you in here?”
“Well, I wanted to tell you why I went home,” she said tersely.
“I know why you left,” I told her bluntly. “We don’t like each other, there’s still a part of you that isn’t sure I’m not your guy, and you’d rather put yourself in danger than stay where it’s safe.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“You’re always so sure you’re right,” she said with a quick shake of her head. “I need to do this myself, and I can’t ask you or your . . . friends to do anything for me.”
“Noted.”
“I mean, I appreciate the place to stay—”
“I noticed how much you appreciated it when you skulked out the next morning.”
Her lips pressed together as she stopped herself from whatever bitchy reply she was going to give. “I just want to say thank you, again.”
Was she waiting for an acknowledgment? She would be waiting a long time. Realizing that, she turned and headed to the door, reaching out for the handle.
“How’s your suite in The Grande?”
Angel froze, and slowly she turned back around to look at me. “How do you know?”
“Easy, it’s called the internet. I knew where you were within twenty minutes of you checking in,” I told her, knowing my tone was too clipped, too pissed off. “If I know, he knows. You’re not safer there, vampire. You just handed him a golden fucking ticket to your life.”
“I didn’t want to stay at home,” she said, her voice cracking. “It was a solution.”
“It’s not a solution, it’s desperation. Desperate people make mistakes.”
“So, what? I’m only safe with you?”
I snorted my contempt at her daring. “In general? No. For this? I like your odds better when you’re where I can control you.”
“Control me?” she asked as she frowned in displeasure. When I didn’t reply, she looked down. “I refuse to be scared.”
“You moved into a hotel. You’re so fucking terrified that you can’t even think straight.”
Her head snapped up to meet my challenge, and I saw her shut it down. “This is what’s best for me,” she declared before walking out of my office.
Stupidity. I loathed it.
I called Cooper. “Put an extra camera outside her room. I want to know every fucker that walks through that door.”
“On it.”
Turning my attention back to the CCTV footage, I watched her stalker. “You think you’re smart,” I said quietly as I watched the car from a few days ago. “I’m smarter. I see you fucker, and I’m coming for you.”
* * *
Later that night at home, I walked into the bedroom that she had slept in the night before.
My housekeeper had tidied the room, and I knew the bedding would have already been stripped and laundered.
The towels she used would be replaced and washed, too.
Still, as I stood in the center of the room, I could still sense her here.
Stretching my neck from side to side, I fought off the irritation I had at her leaving.
With long strides, I went into the closet and investigated the top drawer of underwear.
I had never actually looked before. I had a personal shopper, she knew my parents favored this room, and she also knew my mom appreciated the fact that she had a home away from home.
So, she bought things for my parents to wear, for when they came to visit and stay with me, so they didn’t need to pack a lot.
It was so fucking innocent, something that I admittedly was hardly ever accused of being. It pissed me off that lingerie bought for my mother had cast me into a fucking creeper role in Angel’s eyes.
I huffed out a laugh at that. I was sure I was already a creep to her. Angel wasn’t the kind of girl who fucked them and forgot them. I knew she had never intended to let me into her bed that night of Mayhem in college.
Her dorm room was compact, neat, and although in a block of other rooms, she and her roommate had separate rooms. There were many rooms where the beds, desks, and everything were in one big room, but maybe it was because they were juniors, they had been lucky in gaining some semblance of privacy.
There was a kitchenette, a couch, two desks, and a TV in the main area, and three doors that led off of it.
“Bathroom?” I asked as I pointed at one door.
“Yes,” Angel nodded as she nervously twisted her hands. “Do you, um, need?”
“No.” We stood staring at each other, and she looked lost. “Do you want me to go?”
“No!” Angel let out a nervous laugh when she realized how loud her protest had been. “Water, you wanted water. I have it.”
I watched her hurry to a small fridge tucked in the corner and grab two bottles of water. She opened one, but in her haste to open it and tear the cap off, she squeezed the bottle, and she poured half of it over herself. “Shit, that’s cold.”
Fighting my grin, I moved in behind her as she hurriedly wiped her dress down with a cloth.
“You seem edgy,” I whispered in her ear. “Can I help you with that?”
“Um . . .” Her breath caught as my hand slipped over her hip and trailed slowly to the center of her stomach, where she held the cloth to her wet dress. Smoothly, I removed the cloth and let my fingers intertwine with hers. “Do I make you nervous?”
“No,” she protested. “Yes.”
With my other hand, I pulled her hair back from the side of her head, exposing her throat. Slowly and with care, I dipped my head into her neck and laid a featherlight kiss to her throat. “You seem unsure.”
“I’ve never done this,” she admitted. “Bringing a guy into my dorm room who I only just met.”
Turning her softly, I positioned her so that she was staring up at me. She really was quite attractive when you looked at her, really looked at her. “Why me?” I asked as my thumb ran over her cheek.
“You seem different.”
You have no idea, little vampire.
“Good different?” I teased as my thumb moved from her cheek to her bottom lip. Angel nodded, and I fought the laugh. This was too fucking easy. “Angel?”
“Yes.”
“Can I kiss you again?”
“Please do,” she said with a shy smile.