Chapter 29
"Ethan is calling again," Wade said, her eyes flicking back to her laptop screen. I kept my gaze fixed on my own screen.
"Let him call. It's so annoying," I replied.
"Well, I know it's not about Xanthe," Wade mentioned.
I sighed softly, feeling content in the knowledge that she was at home.
I wished she could stay there, at our home.
I couldn't stop thinking about her—how much I craved her taste again.
She tasted like the first time I had blood, and that initial experience left me wanting more. I yearned for her over and over again.
"She's home," I whispered, the sound of our keyboards clacking the only noise in the shared office.
"She better be," Wade mumbled. "I know how she can be."
"Well, she's just trying to figure things out on her own."
"But we could take care of her," Wade insisted. "Why won't she let us?"
"It's not that she wouldn't, Wade." The phone rang again, making both of us clench our jaws in annoyance.
"She's been learning to fend for herself her entire life.
She's not like the brats we used to date.
She's...human." I explained to Wade, who had little experience with human interactions.
She was royal, always perched high on her pedestal.
When we first met, she was firmly on that pedestal, but now that she spent less time around her kind, she seemed almost.. .human.
"And an independent girl," I added with a smirk.
"Do you think about her?" Wade asked, glancing over at me.
"Absolutely. We need to see her at lunchtime."
"Can we—" She trailed off as the phone rang again, causing both of us to grimace in irritation. When I appointed Ethan as boss, it was so he could handle everything related to the club. All Wade and I wanted was to come in and be served by Xanthe.
"Can we what..."
"I was thinking we could kidnap her and keep her for ourselves. Convincing her to stay is just too hard."
"It's not that hard; it's just that we—well, mostly you—lack patience."
"I just want her in our bed already."
"Well, it doesn't work like that." I teased her by patting her head, and she grumpily pushed me away.
"I want her to be with us."
"All her life, she's watched people like us take from her. She's not just going to drop her guard. We're damn lucky we even get to touch her."
"She's just playing hard to get," Wade mumbled. Just then, a notification pinged. She slid her hand over to grab the phone.
"What does it say?" I asked, prompting her to read the text aloud.
"'Please call me. It's very important.'"
"More than likely, it's not important." Wade glanced at her watch and smiled. "Two more hours until we see her."
"Don't count it down like that." I groaned as I reached for the phone and called Ethan. The ringer barely had a chance to sound before he was on the line. I could hear the panic in his voice, his ragged breathing coming through the receiver.
"What?" I asked.
"Some guys are here claiming that Cloney owes them money for the club, and they're saying they'll either take the club—"
I heard a punch land, and something told me it was Ethan getting hit. A smirk crossed my lips; he deserved it.
"This better not interfere with our plan," Wade grumbled, tapping her watch impatiently.
"It might," I replied, pulling the phone slightly away from my ear to escape the escalating chaos.
"Why?" she growled.
"Club problems?"
"Let him deal with it."
"We're the owners. This is kind of our problem. They're beating him," I pointed out.
"Good. He needs some of that."
A different voice crackled over the line. "We want our fucking money."
I rolled my eyes, annoyed by whoever this was.
"Let's go," I said, sliding my chair back to stand up.
"Come on, let him get a few more punches in."
"We can't let our manager get killed. Where would we find another one?" I asked, briskly putting on my jacket.
"Online."
"No, let's go, Wade, and stop being a brat."
She smirked, standing up and heading to the jacket stand. She grabbed her coat and draped it over her shoulders. "If they make us late, even for one second, as we're on our way to our girl, I'll beat everyone in that club."
"You have my permission. But it shouldn't take long."
"It better not."
When we arrived, Ethan was battered, with no time for his skin to heal as we walked in on him getting pummeled.
We didn't stop the man. Wade told me to wait—she wanted to watch the show first. We both sat down, letting it unfold. The man, presumably owed some serious money, had every bouncer under gunpoint. He was human, but his punches were as brutal as any vampire's.
As he turned around, I noticed him remove his brass knuckles, tossing the bloodied weapon onto the desk before ordering his men to release Ethan. I glanced at Ethan, who was panting, black blood drooling from his mouth, ears, nose and from the look of it, his forehead.
"Quite an impressive job you've done there," I said.
"And you are?" the rough-looking man asked. He didn't strike me as part of a high-level gang, not like I had imagined.
"The owners of this club," I responded, with a casual stare.
"Where's Cloney?"
"I wouldn't know. You do business with him, you should know," I replied, shrugging, looking at the attire of the 'gang'.
"We want our money," he demanded.
"How much?" Wade asked.
"Twenty-two million," Ethan groaned.
"He owes us. He bought this club from us, and the interest has been piling up."
"Well, we're not paying you," Wade said, standing up.
"We need our fucking money," the man growled, pressing his gun to her chest.
"I wouldn't have done that," I muttered. "It won't kill us. Never has."
"This is a special bullet. Make one mo—" Before he could finish his threat, Wade twisted his neck and ripped it off like a flower plucked from a garden. The room froze in shock as his headless body crumpled to the floor. My smirk deepened.
Wade chuckled. "That simple," she said, turning to Ethan, who now looked even more terrified. She tossed the severed head to one of the men who had accompanied the now-deceased thug. He caught it, staring at it in horror.
"Clean this mess up," Wade ordered Ethan. "Next time another fool tries something, you do that to his damn head." She shot a glance at the remaining men. "The rest of you—get out before you join your boss."
She growled at them, and they scrambled for the exit. "Jager, let's go. We're late, and I need a change of clothes," she added, stepping through the blood.