Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
bloom
Yeah, the silence was awkward.
I stared straight ahead.
After a few moments, Maverick spoke again. “Rhone is waiting in my office to meet with us about the conditions.”
“The conditions you’re requiring to release me from prison for not committing a crime?” I tried to ignore my dread, staring straight ahead.
There wasn’t an ounce of hesitation in his voice. “Yup.”
“Why does he need to be there?”
“It seemed like a good idea, given the situation.”
“What’s the situation? You biting someone, accusing them of murder, then realizing you’re wrong?” I couldn’t hold back the snark. My self control was in the gutter. Along with my stomach.
“Something like that.”
“I’m sure this meeting will be incredibly professional, then. As a whole, you’ve both seemed very careful about how you come across. Especially when Rhone half-shifted and tackled you out of the room, in your wolf form, after you bit me for the second time without warning or explanation.”
“Werewolves don’t give a shit about professionalism.”
“The bullhorn gave that away.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t flinch. I had earplugs in and it still fucking hurt.”
“Being a vampire requires strict commitment to feigning humanity, even in the most physically uncomfortable situations.” I quoted one of the Guild’s rulebooks.
Maverick snorted.
The elevator dinged, and the doors finally opened.
We stepped inside. He hit the button for the ground floor, and it descended. We stood side by side again, both of us looking straight at the closed doors.
I allowed myself one sideways glance on the way down.
Maverick looked tired, but ultimately still fucking hot. At least one of us could pull off exhaustion.
Between my bun, borrowed clothes, and healing neck wounds, I looked like the living dead.
The elevator stopped on the fourth floor. Two women were on the other side of the doors when they opened.
Their gazes flicked between us. I expected Maverick to tell them to wait for the next one, but he waved them in instead.
No one said a word on the way down.
The women were absolutely staring at me.
Probably silently wondering why their Alpha hadn’t killed me.
So awkward.
My eyes followed the numbers above the doors as we descended.
Three.
Two.
One.
The women left first. I followed Maverick out after.
At least that was over.
We headed down the hallway.
“How bad are your conditions going to be?”
“That depends on your definition of bad,” the Alpha said.
I didn’t think that boded well for me.
We turned a corner in the hall, and Maverick typed a code into a keypad I hadn’t noticed in front of a door.
If this was another cage, I was going to lose it.
Or cry.
Yeah, probably cry.
Assuming my body could produce tears in this state of thirst. I’d lost the ability to sweat a few days earlier, which was actually kind of nice.
The door opened, and I followed Maverick through. Then stopped abruptly.
My nostrils flared.
My eyes closed, and I shuddered.
I must’ve just walked into Maverick’s apartment or man cave or something, because his scent was so thick in the air, it was unreal.
The man was dessert.
Mouth-watering, fang-throbbing, dessert.
I hadn’t even known fangs could throb before I met him.
There were other scents in the room too, and they were recent, but unnoticeable compared to Maverick’s.
Someone gave a fake cough.
My eyes flew open. I found Maverick staring at me, his emerald irises glowing again.
Rhone made an annoyed sound from a room behind the Alpha. “Stop getting high off each other’s scents.”
My face flushed. Or would’ve, if I hadn’t currently been lacking in the blood department. I guess hunger was good for one thing.
I hadn’t realized they noticed how Maverick’s scent affected me.
He didn’t move, so I slipped past him and joined Rhone in the room.
It was an office. Maverick’s office, if the heavy hit of his scent told me anything.
There was a giant, L-shaped desk in the middle of the room. An ergonomic chair sat inside the L, and two others were on the outside of it.
Rhone was already sprawled out in the seat closest to the wall.
I was tempted to sit in the chair that obviously belonged to Maverick, but smart enough to realize that kind of sass could cause more problems for me.
So, my ass met the one next to Rhone’s.
Maverick sat down in the remaining chair. His eyes were still glowing.
“What do I have to do to get out of here?” I asked.
“We get to decide, just like that?” Maverick lifted an eyebrow.
“I’m not exactly in the position to negotiate right now, am I?”
Neither of them replied.
It made me more than a little uneasy.
“Just rip off the bandaid, guys.”
Was I allowed to call the gigantic werewolves guys? It was too late to take it back, so I guess.
Maverick nodded once. “We need you to go back to work.”
I blinked.
That was unexpected.
“Why?”
“Whoever’s targeting us is going to realize quickly that Arthur wasn’t doing a damn thing to keep the company running. If you go back to work, we think they’ll come after you.” Rhone gestured in what I assumed was the direction of Darkwood Investment. “You’ll be bait.”
“That won’t work. Vampires don’t kill other vampires. Our community is tight, and there are so many rules and regulations. Whoever the murderer is, they wouldn’t hurt me. Every other vampire in the city would turn on them.”
“This vampire could be from outside the city,” Maverick pointed out. “They could be anyone outside your office.”
I supposed it was possible that a mated pair of vampires could’ve come to town without reaching out to the founding families or the Guild. Mated vampires only fed from each other, so they could stay hidden in ways those of us without a partner couldn’t.
I folded my arms over my abdomen, not sure what I should and shouldn’t share with the wolves. I wanted to stay alive, but I didn’t want to fuck my family over.
“Why are you so sure the killer’s not inside the office now?” I asked.
“They killed Arthur,” Rhone said. “If they were killing out of hatred, they wouldn’t bother with him. He’s hardly ever there. There are plenty of other difficult people who are there every day.”
That was a fair point. Everyone in the office would be glad if Celeste was gone. We all hated Arthur, but with how infrequently he was there, he was the lesser evil.
“When did he come back to the office?” I asked.
“Friday,” Maverick said.
That was the same day Steven’s body was found.
“Did everyone work the weekend to get everything settled with that deal?” I checked.
He bobbed his head. “We found his body this morning, drained and in his office just like Steven’s.”
“Then everyone was dealing with him for six entire days. Have you ever been around Arthur for six days in a row?”
Both men’s foreheads creased.
“No,” Maverick said.
“He’d probably be dead if you had. Steven paid me more than any of the other assistants just for dealing with him, even before I was doing his job, and Steven was an asshole.”
“But anyone who worked in the office would know that he was useless. We didn’t even know that.” Maverick gestured himself and Rhone.
“So you decided without evidence that your investment company is being targeted, even though this could just as easily be a case of workplace violence?” I pressed. “And you want me to be bait?”
“It’s the easiest way to test the theory,” Rhone explained. “We also need you to fix the mess Steven made.”
My eyebrows shot upward. “The compliance mess? I don’t think you understand what you’re asking.
I’ve spent the last few years fighting with Steven about doing the bare minimum paperwork, and I was never officially trained to do any of it.
When someone makes your company compliant, you’re going to lose a lot of money in fines, and it’s going to take a lot of time. ”
“We talked to an advisor. The fees are going to get worse if we let them keep building up,” Rhone said.
“You have the best understanding of what needs to be done and where the company is at. One of your coworkers showed me your organizational system. No one in the whole department could even figure out how to read the damn thing.”
“I’m decent at my job.” I paused. “Well, Arthur’s job. We would stay on top of all the current requirements if Steven wasn’t such a bastard. Getting caught up on the stuff Arthur didn’t do before I was there is a different beast.”
“So we hear,” Rhone said.
“I’m sure you can find someone with actual qualifications to do it better. The only way this situation gets worse for me is if I go back to that office as everyone’s nightmare.”
Maverick nodded. “We tried to hire someone else. Three different consultants saw the mess and refused. You should’ve seen the look of horror on the last one’s face when she looked at the list one of the previous guys made. It was comical.”
Yeah, I could see that.
“If you offer enough money, someone other than me will accept,” I countered.
“You’re forgetting that we’re werewolves, Bloom. Most people don’t want to work with us.” Maverick leaned his chair back, his eyes on me. “You’re the only and best option.”
“What are you talking about? People love werewolves.”
“They fear us as much as they fear you. We’ve just trained them to think we’re on their side,” Rhone said bluntly.
With my fangs still throbbing and the mixture of exhaustion and hunger making my mind foggy, I didn’t have the energy to work through that claim.
I let out a slow breath. “If the Alpha Pack sends a known vampire into an office full of humans, it’s going to cause a huge uproar.”
“We’ll handle it. They’ll be civil.” Rhone held a folded sheet of paper out toward me. “We’ll pay you a lot.”
I didn’t take the paper.
They were talking about my life. Money wasn’t—
Rhone unfolded the paper and showed me a number.
I bit back a groan.
With that much money, I could have an actual fresh start, where no one knew who I was. I’d have enough to help the rest of my family move if they wanted to, too. It wouldn’t be ideal, but when had vampirism ever been ideal?
“I do love paperwork,” I finally said.
Maverick grinned.