CHAPTER TEN
“ARE YOU GOING TO invite me up for a drink?” Sam stepped out of the shadows cast by the setting sun as she spoke.
Rupert Hemmer had just gotten out of his sedan and was about to enter his building. She’d been waiting for him. It was about six o’ clock.
He slowly turned. Instead of evincing surprise, he smiled, pleased. “Well, if it isn’t the mysterious Samantha. You stood us all up last night. I was so very disappointed.”
Sam smiled back at him, but her insides curdled. His evil was suddenly present, as if he’d kept it disguised previously. That could be done with black power or black magic. “Something came up.” Just in case he could read minds, she kept hers blank.
He looked at her now, taking in her short denim skirt, the muscle tank, and the heavy biker boots. “An interesting choice of attire for cocktails. Of course you can come up. Where’s your latest toy?”
“Probably doing your wife.”
Hemmer’s smile didn’t falter but his expression darkened. She’d hit a nerve. “I expect attitude from you, Samantha. You will hardly unbalance me with your remarks.”
“Actually, it’s Sam. And I expect blackmail from you, Rupert.”
He smiled coldly and led her past the doorman to the four brass elevators at the lobby’s other end. “Maybe Becca is with Maclean. She told me she’s having drinks with the girls tonight. She has enough to go around, if you know what I mean.”
“So much for true love.” But her heart had lurched unpleasantly at the idea of Ian being with Becca Hemmer now.
Not that it should matter what he did or who he did it with. Last night had been casual and meaningless, for both of them. But she’d been thinking about him far too much and that inkling of compassion hadn’t gone away. Worse, it seemed to have taken root beside a seed of concern.
Hemmer gave her a look. “I married her for her amazing body and the way she uses her mouth. Not to mention that my rivals all lose their wits when she’s present.” He shrugged. “You have enough to go around, too, don’t you, Samantha?”
“I’m actually all played out. Can you believe it?”
“It must have been quite the night.” His eyes gleamed as they stepped into the elevator. “You do know what it means if they’re together?”
“It means we have your place all to our lonely selves. Lucky me. So, where did you get the DVD?” Hemmer had remained on the top of her to-do list. After all, he’d been the bearer of bad gifts. She’d spoken to Kit and the DVD wasn’t a fake.
Which meant that one day, she and Maclean would make love. Her heart thundered.
Hemmer pressed the elevator button to the penthouse. “I collect sex tapes, Samantha. I decided to start a folder just for you.”
She tensed. “How nice.”
“I think so.”
“You went to a lot of trouble to get that tape, then.”
“Not really.”
“The video came from the future.”
“Clever girl.”
“Mortals can’t time travel. So who does your dirty work for you?”
“Actually, even though I’m very human, I do have the power.”
Sam met his gaze, no longer smiling. It was not a good thing if Hemmer could leap through time at will. “Wow. So, what did it cost you—your soul?”
He led her out. “Something like that.” He smiled at her, as if truly pleased.
Sam shivered.
“Cold?”
“Some evil entities bring a great chill with them.”
“Yes, some do.”
“What do you expect me to do for you, Hemmer? Other than to do you, which I won’t, actually, good girl that I am.”
He chuckled as they stepped into the large marble foyer where he’d held the previous evening’s party; a handful of liveried servants immediately materialized. “I fully expect you to change your mind. I’m a very patient man and I can wait, Samantha.”
“It’s Sam.”
He darkened again. “I so dislike nicknames.”
“I so dislike demons and their offspring, full-blooded or not. In fact, I dislike evil, period, no matter the shape, form, gender or DOB.”
He faced her. “You’re not afraid of me. That will change.”
Sam shrugged. “Hope’s a wonderful thing.”
“But the lack of respect, well, that does bother me. I admit it. I look forward to changing that myself…tonight.”
Sam wondered what ugly tricks he had up his sleeve.
She wasn’t afraid. Hemmer was repulsive.
The world would be a better place without him.
She decided then and there to be the one to do the world a favor, when the time was right.
Now she needed to know how he intended to use the DVD, and who his otherworldly connection was.
“So let’s cut all the crap, Hemmer. What do you want? ”
“You know what I want.” He led her across the room.
She kept step with him, waiting.
“I want my property back.”
Sam laughed at him. “Maclean won’t hand the page over to me—and if he did, I’d give it right to my boss!”
“Ah yes, the legendary Nick Forrester.”
Sam followed him to the back of the apartment, where the elevators and the vault were. He continued on into the media room. “How do you know Nick?” She was dismayed. Hemmer not only shouldn’t know Nick, he shouldn’t be aware of CDA’s existence.
He gave her a dismissive look. “I’m not a fool. Forrester has been hunting the dark side for decades. We have some common interests.”
“Like the page?”
“Actually, yes, but that wasn’t what I was thinking of.”
“So what do you intend? To hand a copy of the tape over to Nick? He won’t care. More importantly, I won’t care.”
He paused before the entertainment center and smiled at her. “I do my homework, Samantha, before I ever begin negotiations. How else would I have acquired my billions?”
“And that means…?”
“It means I know that you wouldn’t care if your sex tape was on every movie screen in America.”
This was not going well, Sam thought. “So blackmail is out.”
“Actually, blackmail can be so effective, if done right.”
She shivered. “And you will blackmail me…how?”
“Get me the page or I will torture Maclean—and enjoy every moment.” And his eyes blazed.
Sam went still. She’d been outplayed. The DVD had been a diversion.
He knew too much about her and her feelings if he’d use Maclean to threaten her.
But of course he did. They’d made love on that tape and he’d seen it.
She fought the sudden dismay. Ian couldn’t withstand torture.
She simply knew it. He’d been through enough.
But Maclean had white power, even if he didn’t use it very often.
She knew he was powerful—she felt it every time he was present.
So the question was, how much evil had Hemmer acquired?
What could he do, exactly? And was Ian powerful enough to thwart him?
“If push comes to shove, I have a feeling Maclean will eat you up and spit you out in indigestible lumps.”
“And you will watch,” he added softly. “I will torture him until he sobs like a little boy and begs for mercy like the coward that he is. Once he’s broken all over again, I can think of numerous ways to add to my power while adding to his humiliation.”
A shiver went through her. “So you plan to subdue both of us?”
“I certainly do. Now, what do you prefer? You strike me as the dirty martini type.”
“A virgin Mary,” she said.
He smiled. “You are delightful, Samantha. Have you ever bored a man?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
“I’ve decided to forgive you for standing me up last night. In fact, I’ve decided to be the one providing this evening’s entertainment—if I haven’t done so already.”
Sam tensed. This was it—his big move. His king to her queen.
An entire wall housed a built-in wet bar and a media center. He turned and the oversize cherrywood doors opened, revealing a movie-size screen. “I do like modern technology,” he said.
Just then, Sam did not like surprises. “So what’s on the Free Per View?” Did he have more videos of her in the sack? With Maclean? With her past lovers? Sam told herself she didn’t care, but somehow, she knew that she was not going to like whatever came up on that screen.
He sent her a dark smile and inserted a DVD. It was night and there was a full moon. She waited for a wolf to howl. Instead, there was a city skyline. The rooftops seemed old-fashioned.
She heard a horn blaring and then there were odd, rasping sounds, clawlike, maybe the sounds of rodents.
There was sharp, frightened panting.
It was human.
It was time to walk away.
He seized her wrist. “Not so fast.”
Sam was about to shake him off but two demons appeared and closed in on her instead. Before Sam could move to take the two guards out, Hemmer said, “But you are so concerned for your dark lover.”
Sam went still, returning her gaze to the screen.
A cage was swinging slowly in the air. And something was in it…no, not something. Someone.
The camera zoomed in.
And she saw the boy’s pale face, his glazed eyes. He gripped the bars, clearly wanting to get out. But there was no expression on his face. He was so still, he could have been carved from wax. He might have only been eight or nine years old, but she knew who it was without being told.
Sam breathed hard.
A hand moved into the frame. The camera zoomed in. It was a man’s hand and he wore a very large, gold antique signet ring. As it began unlocking the door to the cage, the boy seized that hand. Sam’s heart lurched. The boy began kissing it…
“He’s not so sexy now, is he?” Hemmer laughed.
She was sick enough to vomit. They’d really broken him.
Sam felt surging anger. It consumed her and she didn’t even try to control it.
She whirled, impaling one demonic guard with her dagger.
His eyes widened and he began to collapse.
Before the other guard reached for her, she summoned the tiny, razor-edged disk into her hand.
She flung it at his throat. It went through skin, cartilage, flesh and bone, severing his head from his shoulders.
Then she whirled to take care of Hemmer with her bare hands.
“You really should choose your liaisons with more care. Do you really want to become involved with that pathetic bastard?” Before he finished speaking, he vanished.