Sophia Read online

  It had been a surprise for Colin to discover he could still enjoy talking about the family business and he would miss those conversations with Marco.

  “You said a security team was out at Jeremy’s,” he said, breaking the silence. They visit Marco’s place too?

  She nodded. “Night before last, same as Jeremy’s and Preston’s.”

  “So, why—”

  “I need to see for myself in daylight so I can tell what I’m looking at.”

  Colin nodded. Made sense to him. Although, to be honest, he still didn’t know what to make of Leighton. She seemed to be just what she claimed, a private investigator hired by the vamps to look into these crimes. She didn’t swarm all over his crime scene like some sort of drama queen pretender, and she didn’t wave her gun around like an amateur. Neither one of her guns. He’d noted the backup piece in the small of her back before they’d left town.

  And his confusion wasn’t just because she was a woman, either. He’d served with plenty of females in the military, some good, some not, just like the men. But none of them had looked like a fucking fashion model or wore a diamond wedding ring that even his untutored eye knew was worth more than most people’s annual salary. Not to mention showing up and claiming to work as a private investigator for vampires. How did one get a gig like that anyway?

  He drove around the final curve to Marco’s house, tree branches skimming the roof of his truck. Marco had valued his privacy. He’d never bothered to make his house anymore approachable than absolutely necessary.

  Colin stopped the truck and switched off the key, staring through the windshield. The place looked abandoned already. The paddock was empty, the doors open on the small barn’s vacant stalls. Even the house looked diminished somehow.

  “You’re sure the horses are safe.”

  “Absolutely,” she assured him.

  He drew a deep breath and shoved open the truck door. “All right, let’s do this.”

  A few minutes later, they were in the basement of Marco’s house—a basement Colin hadn’t even known existed until Leighton had led him to it. All the times he’d been in Marco’s place and he’d never noticed the door concealed by the den’s paneling. But then, why would he?

  Leighton had cruised the walls, running her hands along the joints, as if she knew what to look for. And clearly she did, because she’d given a satisfied grunt and popped the door right open to reveal a rough stairway under the house. A chain pull had turned on the overhead light, but Leighton had augmented it with a couple of halogen lamps from the duffle bag she’d thrown in the back of his Tahoe. It was bright as daylight in the basement now, which made what they were looking at even more of a surprise.

  “You’re a Navy SEAL, right, Murphy?” Leighton asked thoughtfully.

  “Retired, but yeah.”

  She glanced back at him. “That makes you the expert as far as I’m concerned. What do you think happened here?”

  Someone had blown a hell of a hole in Marco’s basement wall, that’s what had happened. Or not precisely in the wall. The target had been the reinforced door which now lay halfway on its side, warped and hanging from a single lower hinge, exposing a small insulated room beyond.

  Apparently, this was Marco’s daylight place, and it wasn’t anything like they showed in movies. There was no coffin filled with dirt, no wax-draped wall sconces with cobwebbed candles. It was a modern, pleasant and simple bedroom with a queen-size bed and a single nightstand with a reading lamp. Or it had been before someone had trashed the place. Presumably after murdering Marco.

  “Murphy?” she jogged him out of his thoughts.

  “Yeah, okay. The door was heavy enough, and it had interior hinges, but it was old, and these walls . . .” He slapped one of the crumbling structures. “. . . are older than dirt and breaking up. There was probably just enough of a seam to shove some plastic explosive—I can’t say what kind without chem tests—into the gap. Set the fuse and scurry back upstairs until it goes boom. A controlled explosion, blow the door off its hinges and . . . that’s it.” He sucked a breath through his nose and surveyed the damage. “I’m guessing Marco was pretty much helpless since they came at him during the day, right?”

  “Pretty much. And he lived out here all alone, so there was no one to defend him.”

  “Damn waste.”

  “Yes, it is. Who around here had the knowledge to do something like this?”

  “A lot of people. But, yeah, to answer your real question. Anyone with my kind of training sure as hell could have done it.”

  “Any former military besides you live in Cooper’s Rest?”

  “Not active, not anymore.”

  She raised her eyebrows, questioning.

  “My buddy grew up in Coop’s. It’s how I ended up here, but he left a while back. He’s living down in San Diego and making big bucks working for a private contractor to the Pentagon. We’ve got a couple of older guys who were in Vietnam back in the day. I suppose it’s possible they’d have the skills for this, but I’m pretty sure they were regular infantry. Plus they stick to themselves and, from what I’ve heard, they’re both more concerned with getting stoned than killing anyone. Whoever did this wasn’t stoned.”

  “No,” she agreed. “Whoever did this was very focused and knew exactly what he was doing.”

  She sighed, then checked her watch, which was an expensive but unshowy sports model. The lights caught her wedding ring again, and he tried unsuccessfully to imagine letting his wife work for vampires. Even as he thought it, he knew it wasn’t a terribly modern attitude to have. Somehow, he didn’t think Leighton cared much about what her husband let her do.

  “If there’s nothing else you want to see here,” she said, already moving toward the first halogen lamp. “I’d like to get over to Preston’s before heading back to town.” She doused the light without waiting for his answer, sending half the basement into deep shadow. The second lamp quickly followed until there was only the weak gleam of the overhead bulb, turning the wreckage of Marco’s hideaway into nothing more than a black chasm of darkness beyond the dim, yellow glow.

  Colin took a last look around the place where Marco had died and pulled the chain on the overhead, dropping the basement into darkness once again.

  A short drive took them to Preston’s house, which was more of the same. Different on the outside, there was no paddock or barn, but the basement could have been Marco’s, right down to the method used to destroy the nearly identical safe room.

  “It’s like the same guy built both places,” Colin remarked, as they walked around to the back of his truck.

  “Maybe he did,” Leighton said. She watched while he opened the cargo hatch, then hoisted her duffle inside. “The two of them moved up here at pretty much the same time. They never lived together, the way some vamps do, but they were friends. So, it’s very possible they had the same contractor build their daylight rooms. Probably a vampire, since they wouldn’t trust a human with that kind of knowledge. Either that or they killed the human as soon as he finished.”

  Colin stopped with his hand still on the open hatch overhead. “You’re joking, right?”

  “Sure, if that makes you feel better.” She stepped back, so he could close the cargo door.

  He studied her narrowly, trying to figure out if she was serious.

  She saw him watching her and smiled. “Don’t worry, Murphy. It was probably a vamp builder, anyway. Come on, I need to get back to town and pick up my car.”

  Colin walked down his side of the truck and slid behind the wheel. “You gonna be at the big meeting tonight with this guy Raphael?” he asked as Leighton settled into the passenger’s seat and reached for her seat belt.

  “Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she said. “I don’t think he’s going to be too happy with me, though.” She clicked the seat belt home. “Or you, either.”

  Colin paused in the act of turning the ignition to stare at her. What the hell did that mean?

&nbs
p; Chapter Fourteen

  Raphael woke to the scent of Cyn, warm and fresh from the shower, still smelling of soap and water and the light scent of her shampoo. Her skin was satiny smooth as she curved her body around his, her soft, full breasts a delightful weight against his bare chest, and her legs caressing his. She lay on top of him, kissing his closed eyes, her mouth lingering on his lips in invitation.

  He stroked his fingers through her silky hair and down over her back. She hummed with pleasure, arching against his touch. Without warning, he tightened his hold and reversed their positions, so she was beneath him.

  She smiled, raising her eyes to meet his . . . and sucked in a breath, freezing to stillness at the anger he knew she had found there.

  “Did you think I wouldn’t know?” he asked with a deceptive calm.

  Her expression flashed through a series of emotions—surprise, guilt, even defeat briefly—before finally settling on her usual angry defiance. “I needed to see for myself, dammit.”

  He pushed away from her and rolled off the bed, heading toward the shower.

  “Where are you going?” she called after him, her tone conveying both disbelief and outrage.

  He spun around at the bathroom door, his eyes flashing silver sparks in the darkened room. “Does it ever occur to you that I have good reasons for what I ask of you, Cyn? That perhaps I understand certain dangers better, that there might be enemies who would use you against me?”

  “Of course, but—”

  “But. There is always a but, isn’t there? Always an excuse to do what you want, regardless of my wishes.”

  She jumped out of bed and strode across the room to confront him. “I’m not one of your vampires, Raphael. I don’t have to follow your rules. Besides, I’m fully capable of defending myself, and I wasn’t alone. That local police guy, Colin Murphy, was with me.”

  “Is that supposed to make me feel better? To know that my mate is spending the day with another male while I sleep alone? As you would say, fan-fucking-tastic.”

  “Don’t be childish. You know perfectly well—”

  “Childish? Perhaps you should look up the definition.” He took a step back into the bathroom and closed the door, securing it with a small jolt of his power to keep her from trying to continue their argument in the shower. Her body was far too appealing and he didn’t feel like being coaxed out of his temper tonight.

  Raphael lingered in the shower longer than usual, just to make her wait. Even through the closed door, he could hear her muttering dire threats against him the entire time. He found it amusing overall and returned her angry glare with a bland smile when he finally surrendered the bathroom. He dressed while she showered and was knotting his tie when she finally came out, wrapped in a modestly big towel, as if she hadn’t been naked in bed with him less than an hour before.

  “The towel’s a good look for you,” he commented. She flipped him the finger over her shoulder and he laughed.

  “Asshole,” she hissed.

  He crossed to the bedside and picked up his watch, fastening it over his wrist as he watched her across the width of the bed. “How much longer will I be forced to endure these little power plays of yours, Cyn?” he asked. “How much longer before you no longer feel the need to set yourself apart from me, to prove that you can do without me?”

  She spun around, and he could read the truth in her eyes before she drew a breath to deny it.

  “Be honest with yourself, if not with me, lubimaya. I’ll see you upstairs.”

  * * * *

  Duncan was waiting for him when he emerged from the private corridor, standing with his back to Raphael, his attention seemingly on Wei Chen who was deep in conversation with a human woman near the front doors. Juro was looming over the pair, looking very unhappy and increasingly impatient. The woman’s presence violated one of the basic rules for Raphael’s security on this trip—no humans were permitted within the compound after sunset unless they were mated to one of the vampires, or their presence was specifically cleared by Juro or Duncan.

  As Raphael came up to Duncan, the woman glanced up, said something to Wei Chen and departed, shouldering a backpack not unlike what Cyn frequently carried.

  Duncan spun around smoothly and greeted him. “Good evening, my lord.”

  “Duncan.” Raphael said absently, frowning at the trio near the door. “Who was that?”

  “She works for Wei Chen, I believe.”

  Raphael stared at the woman’s departing back as Juro and two of his vampires escorted her down the outside stairs and toward the parking area.

  “What’s the status on the security system check?” he asked, turning his attention back to Duncan.

  “Maxime is already on the ground, my lord,” Duncan replied, referring to Raphael’s computer security specialist. “She left L.A. just before dawn and daylighted on the tarmac in Seattle.” He checked his watch. “She’s too young to be awake yet, but soon. The extra guards you requested flew in with her. By the end of tonight, we’ll have tripled Wei Chen’s human and vampire guard presence around the clock.”

  “Elke is with them?” As the only female member of Raphael’s personal security team, Elke was frequently assigned to guard Cyn, and he wanted her here as an added precaution.

  Duncan nodded. “Under protest, of course. You know how she feels about flying during the day.”

  “She can protest all she wants. I want her here.” He paused briefly at the sound of the elevator coming up. The hallway doors opened behind him and Cyn stomped across the room toward the dining hall without a word. He smiled grimly at Duncan’s look of surprise. “Cynthia went exploring earlier today,” he said dryly.

  Duncan raised his eyebrows expressively. “Alone?”

  “No. Apparently, she rendezvoused with the local police force.”

  “I see.”

  Raphael saw Wei Chen approaching over Duncan’s shoulder and nodded for him to join them.

  “Good evening, Sire,” Wei Chen said in his quiet voice. “I thought you’d want to know that all of our people will be within the compound shortly. The last few from Seattle are leaving their homes as we speak. Once your presence was known, everyone came immediately. It was only the distance that kept the Seattle people holding until this evening.”

  “Understood.”

  “When is this police person due to arrive?” he asked Wei Chen.

  “At any moment, my lord. Loren told him—”

  Duncan interrupted Wei Chen’s account by nodding and holding a hand to his earpiece to indicate someone was calling him. Raphael watched expectantly.

  “He just arrived at the gate, my lord,” Duncan murmured, still listening to the voice in his ear. “Juro will escort him in.”

  Raphael bared his teeth in a shark’s grin. “Excellent. Invite Sophia to join us, but give us a few moments with Mister Murphy first. I’m eager to meet the man who spent the entire day alone with my Cyn.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Colin lowered his window and eyed the hulking security guards who rushed to surround the truck. These weren’t the usual compound guards. He didn’t know the regular guys personally, but he’d been here a time or two and this wasn’t them. In fact, he didn’t recognize a single face. The guard at his window—vampire, obviously, given the bright red gleam of his eyes in the reflected glow of the gate lights—studied his license photo carefully, checking it more than once as the others flashed lights into the backseat of his truck and lifted the cargo hatch door. Under any other circumstances, Colin would have objected to the search. But not tonight. These boys were deadly serious and he had a feeling they wouldn’t bother with fine distinctions if it came right down to it.

  The vamp at his window barked something in a language other than English and two of the others dropped out of sight as they checked his undercarriage. They were all using dim flashlights with a yellowish glow like a fog light, and they covered the lenses with their fingers, so only the tiniest sliver of light leaked out. Nig
ht sight, he realized. He knew vamps were supposed to have unparalleled night vision—in fact, Leighton had said something about it earlier—but he’d never seen it used like this before.