Friday Night Bites (31 page)

Ethan frowned, clearly confused. “And why do we purportedly want to hurt Jamie?”

“The message didn’t say,” Nick answered, but the words were a little too quickly spoken to ring true. Maybe he knew about Jamie’s story; maybe there was another reason he thought Jamie might be a target. And that wasn’t the only problem with his evidence.

“How do you know the e-mail was from a Cadogan vamp?” I asked. “How do you know it wasn’t just a hoax?”

“Give me a little credit, Merit. They gave me information to verify.”

Ethan and I exchanged a glance. “What information?” he asked, caution in his tone.

Nick looked away, wet his lips, then looked up at me again. There was coldness in his eyes.

“There were details about you,” he said, then turned that frigid gaze on Ethan. “And you. Together.”

My cheeks flushed crimson. Ethan, apparently much less worried, made a soft, sardonic sound. “Rest assured, Nicholas, we have no plans to harm your brother. And I can most definitely assure you that you were not speaking with a Cadogan vampire. There is no ‘together’ where Merit and I are concerned.”

Not that he hadn’t considered it, I thought, remembering our dance.

“Oh?” Nick asked, as if feigning surprise. “Then you didn’t share a moment in the library Friday night?” He turned his gaze to me. “I was told that you passed along the story of our meeting in the garden. That you informed your Master that I was ‘com ing for you.’ ”

This time, my cheeks paled. While his implication was wrong—our “moment” in the library had been completely platonic—the gossip part was true enough. Someone had been
in the library. Had overheard our conversation. Someone was playing us.

And more importantly, someone was betraying Ethan. Again.

I didn’t want to, but I made myself turn and check Ethan’s expression. He stood frozen there beside me, jaw clenched, unmitigated fury on his face.

“We did not,” he bit out, “nor have we ever issued a threat against Jamie or any other member of your family. That’s not the way my House operates. If such a message was sent to you, it was not sent from a Cadogan vampire, and certainly not with my approval. If someone in my House has informed you otherwise, they are . . .
sorely
. . . mistaken.”

Despite the gravity in Ethan’s tone, Nick’s responding shrug was careless. “I’m sorry, Sullivan. But that’s not good enough.”

Ethan’s brows lifted. “Not good enough?”

“We’re only asking you not to jump to conclusions,” I told Nicholas. “That’s all.”

“Not jump to conclusions?” Nick took steps, closing the distance between us. I had to steel myself not to step back.

“How naïve are you, Merit? Or is that some kind of vampire denial talking?”

“Nicholas,” Papa Breck said, but Nick shook his head.

“No,” he spat out. “I told you that if you tried to harm him, I would come after you with everything I had. I will not stand by while vampires destroy my family, Merit.”

“Nick, son,” Papa Breck repeated, but Nicholas stayed where he was, inches away from me, staring down at me with eyes of furious electric blue.

“We did not issue a threat against Jamie, Nick.”

“Do
not
lie to me, Merit.” Nick leaned closer and whispered in a voice that I assumed was only for me, “They may give you a dress, and they may give you a sword, but I know who you are.”

Oh, but I’d enjoy wiping that smirk from his face. I dropped my head, closed my eyes, and let the anger rise enough—just enough—to silver my eyes. I had to clench my fists to hold back the rest of it—to keep my fangs from descending, to keep the vampire asleep—and the fight of it kept me quiet for a moment. I was silent long enough to hear shuffling, the rest of the room growing increasingly nervous the longer I kept my head down.

I opened my eyes again and slowly lifted my head, gazing at Nick beneath half-hooded lashes. Predictably, his smile faded, his own eyes widening at the silver in mine. He swallowed, likely at the reminder that I wasn’t just a girl he’d known in high school, and I wasn’t to be bullied to satiate the anger that flowed from whatever prejudices darkened his soul.

“Nicholas,” I began, my voice soft and low and lush, “I stand Sentinel for a House of three hundred and twenty vampires. I will not strike first, but he allows me to carry a weapon because I know how to use it. Because I will use it. I know my position, my obligation, and I will do what’s necessary to protect them. Because you and I were friends once, I will warn you once. Step back.”

Nick stood toe to toe with me, his body statue-still, until Papa Breck put a hand on his arm and whispered something in his ear. When Nick turned away, strode to the bar my father kept on a concrete table in one corner of the room, I’d have sworn I felt something in his wake. Something tingly, but I was distracted by the sudden sound of Ethan’s voice in my head.

There is a traitor in my house
, he silently said.
Again.

My heart ached for him, for the betrayal he must have felt for the second time in only a few months, even if it was currently blanketed by a thick, righteous fury.
I know
, I said back, then promised,
I’ll find him.

Finally Nick stepped away from his father, a decision apparently made. “My father has decided to give you the benefit
of the doubt. Assuming that you did not make a threat against Jamie, you have twenty-four hours to find out who did. If you don’t contact us within twenty-four hours with a name and your assurances that the threat has been resolved, I will contact the mayor and inform him that Cadogan House made a threat against humans, against my family. That phone call will be followed by calls to the
Trib
, the
Sun-Times
, and every television station in the metro area. I may also have to tell them some other things I know. And then they’ll be
raving
mad,” he said, putting the emphasis on the word so we couldn’t mistake his meaning.

“Your so-called celebrity,” Nick continued, apparently not yet done with his tirade, “is delicate, at best. There are plenty of people who think the congressional investigations were a joke, who think you constitute a legitimate threat to humans. There are plenty of people out there who think we’d all be better off if the vampire problem went away.” Nick snapped his fingers ominously. “Poof.”

I glanced at Ethan, watched his eyes turn glassy green, and guessed he was struggling to maintain his own control. Still, he managed to keep from silvering his eyes, from descending his fangs.

“I can’t guarantee Jamie’s safety from other parties,” Ethan finally answered. “And I can’t guarantee resolution of this issue in twenty-four hours, particularly when we will be unconscious for more than half of that time.”

Nick’s expression flattened. “Then I suggest you and your soldier here get your asses in gear.”

Ethan looked down at the floor, then glanced up, but not at Nicholas. Instead, he focused his gaze on Papa Breck. “You should consider the possibility that if threats were made against Jamie, they were made for a reason. That he has stepped on one too many toes, or has involved himself in things that do not
concern him. If we investigate this matter further, that information might come to light. Are you prepared for that? For answers you’d prefer to keep in-house?”

I’m not sure what information Ethan was referring to, or if he was merely bluffing. But I had to give him props—it was a good rebuttal.

Nick opened his mouth to counter Ethan, but his father held out a hand. “Nicholas,” he warned, then turned to my father. “He’s my son. I will protect him at all costs. Do we understand each other?”

“Clearly,” my father answered.

“Twenty-four hours,” Nick repeated, and began his stride toward the door.

I put a hand on Nick’s arm to stop him. The contact didn’t dissipate the menace in his glare.

“Is Jamie working right now?”

His lip curled. I figured he was seconds away from growling at me.

“I’m not going to hurt him, Nick. You’re asking a lot from us, especially when we have nothing to do with any threat against your brother. If you want us to figure it out, give us something in return.” When he continued to stare at me, I added, in a whisper, “Quid pro quo, Nick.”

Nick wet his lips, then nodded. “Investments,” he said. “Jamie’s selling investments.”

Bingo.

“Forward the e-mail to me,” I told him. “Use my old address.”

He looked at me for a moment before nodding, then went to the door, pushing it to the side with enough force to rattle the industrial hinges. Papa Breck followed him out, without even a glance in our direction.

When Pennebaker slid the door shut again, my father and I both looked at Ethan.

“Is there anything I can do?”

Ethan shook his head at my father’s request. “Thank you, Joshua, but no. We’ll handle this one internally. I’ll call the Masters together. If we could just borrow your office for a few minutes longer?”

“Of course,” he said, then left us alone.

“Forward the e-mail to me?” Ethan repeated, eyebrows lifted.

“Jeff Christopher,” I reminded him, “in my grandfather’s office. He’s a computer whiz kid. He can help us, and he’ll be thrilled to be asked.”

There was doubt in Ethan’s expression. “He’s a shifter, right?”

I frowned back. “Yeah. Why?”

“As I’m sure you’ve discovered by now, shifters and vampires aren’t exactly cozy.”

“Sure, but isn’t Gabriel Keene bringing his Pack to Chicago? This is the perfect opportunity to make inroads.”

He considered the idea for a moment, then nodded. “Make the call.”

Ethan massaged his forehead with the fingers of one hand, his gaze on the floor. “Jamie is not writing for the
Chicago World Weekly
; Jamie is selling investments. And although we believed we were the victims here, Nicholas believes that we’ve issued a threat against Jamie.” He lifted his gaze to mine. “What do we learn from that?”

“There is no rave story,” I concluded. “Or if there is, Nicholas doesn’t know about it. He apparently knows about the raves, but that’s a red herring.” I shook my head. “No, someone’s playing us against each other.”

Ethan nodded his agreement. “A woman calls the Breckenridge
house the day before we attend a party there and informs the Breckenridges of some vague threat. Nick asks you to meet him in the woods and raises this same issue. Today, before we arrive at another party, information regarding a more specific threat is sent directly to Nicholas.”

“They discovered Nick was the point man,” I said. “Whoever’s behind this mess figured out he was the Breck to work through if they wanted to create chaos.”

“Which is exactly what they’ve succeeded in doing,” Ethan muttered. He crossed his arms and walked to one end of the office, then braced his hands on the back of a leather chair.

“Wait,” I said. “The information about the story that first came from the Ombud’s office—the stuff we talked about with Luc. How did they find out?”

“Anonymous tip,” Ethan said. “The information was left at the office.”

Damn, I thought. So much for that lead.

“Okay,” I said, “then why Cadogan? And why the Breckenridges? We’ve been pitted against each other, although I have no clue why they’d put us together on the fight card.”

“I’m aware of only one connection between us and them,” he said, his gaze on me, intensity in his green eyes.

I put a hand to my chest. “Me? You think I’m the connection?”

“You’re the only connection between our House and their family that I’m even aware of, Sentinel.” Ethan crossed his arms over his chest. “And, unfortunately, I’m aware of only one enemy on your end.”

There was a moment of silence as the pieces clicked into place.

“Nick said
she
called the House,” I murmured, then lifted my gaze to Ethan. “Celina? You’re thinking Celina?”

Ethan shrugged. “We have no evidence of that, of course, but would you consider it beyond her capabilities?”

“Creating chaos? Hardly. That’s practically her calling card.”

“Much to our chagrin. And this particular chaos has the added benefit of putting you right in the middle.” Ethan shook his head. “That e-mail will have been sent by a Cadogan vampire. Someone who knows that I showed you the library—”

“More importantly,” I interjected, “someone who knows what we said in the library, and someone who knows our social schedule. Someone who knows where we’ve been going, and who’s set Nick up with bad information beforehand.”

He stood up slowly, hands on his hips, and looked back at me, eyes wide. “What, precisely, are you suggesting?”

“There’s only one group of vampires who know about the raves and Jamie’s supposed story,” I said. “Only one group who know about our excursions to visit the rich and famous.”

I paused, wishing he’d reach the conclusion so I wouldn’t have to say it aloud.

“Ethan, it had to be a guard.”

That declaration got as warm a reception as you might have imagined. Ethan turned away and immediately flipped open his cell phone, unwilling to engage in a discussion about the possibility that our current havoc was being wreaked by one of his own bodyguards.

One of my colleagues.

Ethan called the House, updating Malik and Luc about the threat but offering no information about my group of suspects. As if nothing was amiss, the guards were put into full investigation mode, their assignment to identify any and all information regarding the purported threat against Jamie.

I was also in full investigation mode, and I’ll admit that my suspect list was pretty short. A woman had made the call to the Breckenridge house . . . and I’d seen Kelley arriving at Cadogan after spending the day somewhere else. Had she been the Cadogan vampire with a chip on her shoulder? The link to Celina?