The Dark Side (3 page)

The assessing expression in Esteban’s blue eyes didn’t change. He was very still. “You two are bonded?”

I glanced at Dan, waiting to see if he would reply. The answer wasn’t entirely straightforward. Werewolves mate for life. And marriage vows are only part of the reason.

The other part is chemical, a physical change within each partner. Bonded mates started to smell the same. Their pheromones change. But there are also similarities in scent that run in pack lines. Dan had been the one who turned me. I had the same strain of lycanthropy as him. Our scents were similar, I knew that. Whether it was due to a true bond hadn’t yet been decided. Or at least, neither of us had exactly pushed to find out from our Alphas what our real status was. At the moment, the emotional connection we shared seemed shaky. I knew I loved Dan but that didn’t mean we could make it work.

“To be determined,” I said, trying to sound like I didn’t particularly care while my stomach twisted.

I didn’t know if it was possible for a werewolf to deny the chemical bond once it occurred. Because of the pheromones, a bonded wolf isn’t attractive to other werewolves. Which makes for good harmony within the pack but also limited possibility of divorce.

Unless you decided to date people other than werewolves. People who wouldn’t be affected by your altered scent. It wasn’t an appealing option. Humans were at risk of infection and I wasn’t willing to do that to anyone. And vampires were just not dating material in my book.

Though apparently my hormones weren’t so convinced of that, at least not while under the influence of whatever mojo Esteban had going on. Up until now I hadn’t been sure whether I could still be attracted to other males who weren’t wolves if I was bonded—not that I wanted to be but I had wondered, in the aftermath of one of our fights, what happened to bonded wolves if the relationship crumbled? Were they doomed to celibacy, unable to replace the mate they couldn’t be with? Now I had an answer. Or did I? For all I knew, this could be an exception caused by vamp powers or, maybe, an indication that our bond really was tenuous.

Esteban pursed his lips. “And yet he wants to protect you from the big bad vampire.”

Yes. He did. For which I was very grateful. The state of the bond between Dan and me was something I definitely needed to discuss with Ani. A little girl talk with my Alpha who was tiny and red-headed but could also kick my butt six ways from Sunday if she decided I needed it. Oh goody. But bond or no bond, I knew Dan wouldn’t leave me unprotected.

“Pack protects pack,” I quipped.

Dan was silent beside me. Too silent. I bit my lip again. Sure, I’d asked him to let me do the talking but this was one subject I’d be happy to hear his opinion on. But his silence— and the tension roiling around him—meant I had no idea whether he was keeping his promise or had nothing to say on the subject. Part of me couldn’t help thinking that maybe it would be easier if we weren’t bonded. Sometimes I got the feeling Dan wished there were other options. Particularly when I did things like make bargains with vampires or risk my life.

Which seemed to be happening a lot lately.

Esteban’s eyes darkened. “Loyalty. It isn’t only the werewolves who understand loyalty.”

“No, of course not.” His sharp tone puzzled me. I hadn’t said anything disparaging about vampire loyalty. There was no reason to. Vampires were generally fanatically loyal to their lineage, obeying the Old Ones of their bloodline and their sires. Though, whether obedience won by the threat of having your head ripped from your body was necessarily loyalty was an interesting philosophical point.

Wider vamp interactions are more Darwinian. Lineages rise and fall with the strength of the Old Ones. Marco currently ruled Seattle and had done so for over a century. But that didn’t mean that one day a younger, more powerful vamp couldn’t take him down.

Vamp eats vamp.

I’d rather be a werewolf. Of course, I’d have preferred being human but Dan had taken that choice away from me when he’d bitten me in an attempt to stop me being turned into a vampire after I’d been given McCallister Tate’s blood. From Dan’s point of view, the gamble had paid off. Lycanthropy had proved more infectious. I was a werewolf now.

I still had issues with that fact but faced with choosing between a rock and a hard place, I’d choose werewolf over vampire any day. Pack politics have the potential to get messy but they were something I still hadn’t experienced a lot of. And, as far as I knew, nobody got killed.

“Does loyalty have something to do with me being here?” It was a guess but at the rate we were going, this conversation was going to take hours.

“The matter is more to do with your area of expertise.”

I frowned. I’d been expecting an accounting problem. But a general accounting problem. I specialized in forensic accounting but I could do the everyday stuff too. Needing my expertise—if he meant forensics—would mean...holy shit, was someone ripping off Esteban? Talk about having a death wish. “You have a financial issue?” Hopefully that was diplomatic.

“There have been...discrepancies.” He looked from me to Dan then back as if wondering how much to say.

I knew that look. I’d sat in countless client meetings where that look had passed between partners or board members or whoever had hired me. Someone
was
ripping him off. Crap. I schooled my face into my ‘trust me, I’m an accountant’ look. There were two ways this conversation could go. He’d spill the beans or I’d have to gently dig out the facts.

Esteban didn’t speak. Option two it was then. Great. Getting people to talk about fraud was dicey at the best of times. When the client was a vampire who wasn’t known for his scruples, it would be more like trying to tap-dance through a minefield. “And?” I prompted.

“I have need of your services, that is all.” He inclined his head slightly toward Dan and then settled back into vampire stillness.

Whatever the problem was, he clearly wasn’t going to talk in front of Dan. I tried not to let my dismay show. Investigating the finances of vampires was familiar ground for me but my clients weren’t usually as scary as Esteban. I made sure of that. Nor did they dabble in the kind of murky areas he did. I’d been counting on Dan having my back but apparently I was going to have to do this part solo. And frankly, trying to find out who was dumb enough—or, worse, considered themselves invulnerable enough—to try and embezzle from someone like Esteban just wasn’t appealing.

After all, it was poking into Tate’s finances for Dan that had led to me, my aunt and Dan being kidnapped. Not to mention resulting in me being turned into a werewolf, committing murder—though the police had been happy to call it self-defense—and Dan almost dying.

I glanced at Dan. He had his Special Agent face firmly in place but I could smell his unhappiness with the whole situation.

Which meant he was thinking all the same things I was.

That this visit, rather than solving a problem, was creating more. Esteban wouldn’t involve a forensic accountant for a small problem. This had to be big.

Dan had been right. Goodbye frying pan, hello fire.

“Dan, would you wait outside?” I couldn’t believe I was asking him to leave me alone with Esteban. The sudden flare of fury on Dan’s face told me he couldn’t believe it either. But I didn’t see another option. I had to get Esteban to talk.

“No,” Dan said flatly.

I leaned over toward him, put my hand on his leg. Contact always seemed to make things easier. “Please. Just for a few minutes. I’ll be fine.”

I felt rather than heard the growl rumble through him. “Please,” I said again, trying for conciliatory. “Trust me. I’ve done this before.”

“Not with someone like him.” His voice was low, tinged with the wolf.

“I have a lot of vampire clients,” I reminded him. “This is my job. I promise, I’ll yell if I need you.”

I just wanted to get this conversation over and done with. It was after 2 a.m., my pants were starting to cut off the circulation to sensitive parts of my body, and I had a tension headache that there wasn’t enough ibuprofen in the world to cure. I wanted to go home.

Which meant I had to find out exactly what Esteban needed.

“She’ll be perfectly safe,” Esteban said. He smiled at me and, once again, sexual heat seemed to flavor the air.

“You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t find that confidence inspiring,” Dan said. His shoulders were rigid and the smoky tinge of true anger was rising in his scent. “Your ideas of safe are a little different from mine.”

“Shut up.” I hissed. I didn’t need Esteban to get all insulted.
Neither
of us would be safe if that happened.

Esteban smirked. “I won’t do anything to her she doesn’t want me to.”

This time Dan’s growl was plainly audible. I stood and stepped in front of him to block his view of Esteban. He glared at me.

Touch wasn’t going to help at this point. I could only try and talk him down a little. “Daniel. Please. Wait outside. This will only take a few minutes.”

His lips pressed together. I knew that look. He was going to get stubborn. “You promised,” I mouthed. “Don’t make this worse.”

Fury burned in his eyes but then he got up, pushing past me to stalk to the door. It slammed behind him with a rattling thud that made me fear for the mirrors.

My heart sank. So much for getting rid of my debt making things better between us. But I’d have to worry about that later. Right now, I had to deal with Esteban.

I turned and sat back down. “I apologize, Lord Esteban. He’s just being protective.”

Esteban tilted his head at me, still smiling. “I understand protecting one’s belongings. After all, that’s why you’re here.”

I forced a polite smile. I wasn’t anyone’s ‘belonging’ and sending Dan out didn’t mean I liked doing it. “Why don’t you tell me what the problem is? We’ve taken up enough of your time already.”

He shrugged. “I always have time for pretty wolves.” Another wave of temptation rolled over me.

A shiver ran down my spine even as my body reacted. His voice was sexy but the stories I’d heard about him and what he liked to do to his playmates weren’t. The combination of lust and revulsion made my head throb harder. “Try to think of me as an accountant, then. I bill by the hour.”

“Touché. Though, your rates are quite reasonable.” His smile widened. One long finger traced circles on the dark wood desk. It was hard to look away. Or remember what we were talking about. It was almost as if he was tracing the circles on my skin. Small shivers skimmed up my arms.

Focus. Accounting. Right. I wasn’t cheap but he was getting me for free. That was about as reasonable as it got. “The problem?” I asked again, trying to keep things on familiar ground.

The finger stopped circling. “Certain financial discrepancies have been brought to my attention.”

I nodded, wishing he’d get to the point. But clients rarely do. Not straight away. “Here at Maelstrom?”

“No.” A decisive headshake. “I am here too frequently. But some of my smaller clubs are not so closely watched. Things have been let slide.”

Spread yourself too thin and employees started to stick their hand in the cash register. That was common enough. Though you’d think the threat of having a vengeful Old One after you would be enough of a deterrent. “How many clubs have discrepancies?”

“Maybe fifteen.”

Fifteen? How many dark clubs were there in Seattle if Esteban owned fifteen ‘smaller’ clubs? “All in the city?”

“No. Some are here, some in other parts of Washington and some in California.”

Great, diversification. He had to be working with another vampire lineage to have any sort of presence in California while he was based here. He’d need an Old One there to enforce things for him. Whether he was running things or they were wasn’t clear. Which meant I didn’t know who was really running the show. This was just getting better and better. But I’d get to the really sticky questions after I knew the extent of the problem. “How much are we talking about?”

“At least ten million in the last six months.”

“Dollars?” I blurted. Very unprofessional. I dealt with big numbers all the time. But I’d never imagined the clubs were such big business. Mainly because I’d avoided thinking about them at all.

“Yes.”

“And you’ve only just noticed?” How big was his cash flow if a ten million drop didn’t cause a blip on the radar?

“It wasn’t all at one club or all at one time. Business fluctuates. But I’ve been thinking of selling a few properties. That’s how we found this problem.”

“Do you think it’s an employee or your accountant?”

“I have not yet decided one way or the other. But my accountant has been my accountant for fifty years. He is a wealthy man.”

Didn’t mean much. In my experience, wealthy men could—and did—commit fraud just as easily as poor ones. Sometimes more easily. So far, the situation sounded fairly straightforward if you ignored the vampire element. Lucky me. “So you want me to investigate the fraud for you?”

“Yes. You find the culprit and I will deal with them.”

I didn’t think he meant going to the police. But I could deal with that issue once I’d found the perpetrator. “It sounds doable.”

“You’ll have to work at the clubs. I don’t want the financial information being taken off the premises.”

I’d half expected that but my stomach still churned. I didn’t want to hang out in dark clubs. “I’ll need to take some data for analysis.”

“Can’t that be done on site?”

“Some of the programs and routines I run take a long time. I’m sure you don’t want us in the way any longer than necessary.” Truth but not the whole truth. I could do the analysis at the clubs if I had to. Hopefully Esteban wouldn’t know that much about how forensic accountants actually worked.

Esteban frowned. “Anything you need to copy, you will run past me.”

That much I could live with. “I’ll also need to work during the day, outside operating hours is easiest.”

He shook his head. “Some clubs operate twenty-four hours, but most don’t. I don’t want anyone getting curious about why there’s an accountant poking around out of hours.”