Hunting My Vampire (Immortal Vampire #3)

Chapter 7

Kaya

I went back to work the next day.

Roberto was delighted to see me. I thought he was going to give me a hug but he came up to me and stopped, awkwardly shifting his weight.

“Hey…” he said, rolling his hands and grinning like a madman. “I’m so glad you’re back! Some seriously banged up cars in here! I’ve been rackin’ my brains but this calls for your expertise!”

I looked at the workshop and he was right, it was filled with cars. I couldn’t remember the last time this had happened. “What brought this on?!” I asked.

“Some kind of accident in town,” said Roberto. “Bozo jumped the light, crashed into Mrs. Faber’s Ford and then two other cars got banged up too. They towed them here.”

“Has Fuzz taken a look?” The cars would need to be appraised and the seriously damaged would probably be totaled. The insurance guys would be round as well, inspecting and making their sums.

Focusing on engines and cars was right up my alley. It gave me no time to think about Jack and our conversation the other day. But as soon as there was a break in the routine or when I straightened up to take a breath, he would pop straight back into my head, as if he had never been gone.

I hadn’t heard from him at all since he’d been to my house two nights ago. No texts. No calls.

But something told me he wasn’t gone at all.

Didn’t I want him gone? It seemed not. I would never have admitted it out loud to anyone but I wanted him to find something to prove that he wasn’t lying about the whole Caribbean murder thing. Unless he couldn’t and that was why I hadn’t heard from him again.

Enough.

I forced myself to think of something else, like my visit to Pearl. I had decided to stay over at hers and since she was in her own little cabin, I could. I’d slept on the couch and we’d gone for long walks and talked a lot. She had said to me that maybe there was a reason that I was so attracted to a vampire.

“I mean, maybe your body knows something your mind is not aware of yet.”

This was all a bit over my head to be honest.

“Maybe my head is still messed up after the accident,” I said.

But Pearl shook her head. “You know, when I ran away to New York as a teenager, I did a lot of weird stuff, hung out with a wild crowd. One of them was a vampire, he went by the name of Fire, we saw a bit of each other. I was known in the club because of this dance I did? They called it the hurricane.” She laughed and I was surprised to hear this story.

“It wasn’t a particularly good dance but I sort of whirled around the pole and it was different and a little wacky, I guess. People would come to the club to see me.”

“So… wait… you were dating a vampire?” I was shocked. “You never told me this!”

She shrugged. “I knew how you felt about them. And… I never thought you were open to talking about them. I mean, I hung out with a lot of people, not only vampires. There were shifters and witches. I even had a friend who was a faerie.”

She paused. “The thing is: these friendships allowed me to explore different parts of myself. After growing up here living with my parents and everything that happened, I needed to find my own feet but then, I did.”

Pearl came back but often left again. Her father had a temper and it didn’t make it easy being around the house. It made my decision to leave for training so much easier too. When Pearl became pregnant, unsure of the father, she moved back with her mom to have help with the baby. By then, her father had been jailed for assault and things had quieted down at home. Tina eventually divorced him and told him he was not welcome at the house anymore. She hoped this would help Pearl settle down but it didn’t. She would stay at home for months on end, then get restless, go out to bars and meet men, have drunken orgies that sometimes lasted days.

I didn’t know why I was so attracted to Jack Beaufort. But when he appeared at my door the other night, I almost couldn’t breathe. It was like all the air had been sucked out of the room. He had such a powerful effect on me. I remembered our encounter in vivid detail, the way he tasted, how he felt inside of me.

I’d never been one of those pathetic girls who pined for a man, maybe that is why I reacted with such hostility towards him. I didn’t want to be the kind of woman who went weak at the knees over some guy but here I was, that was exactly what was happening.

That night after I came home and put Princess to bed, I felt that he was outside even before he knocked on the door.

I felt his presence. How weird was that?

I opened the door, and he came out of the darkness.

“Are you inviting me in? Finally?” he asked with a teasing smile.

I shrugged, too tired after working in the shop all day.

We sat down in my poky living room on the lumpy sofa.

I listened while he told me the story of how his company’s executive had gotten rid of Juan Marco Albarellos because he had threatened to stop their takeover deal. He’d known nothing about the order for assassination and before he could find out about it, it had been rescinded.

“But what about the witnesses who saw you with the shooter?”

“I’m working on that,” he said in a cool voice. “The company, Topaz Group, is full of people loyal to my father and to some of the board members. There are lots of hidden agendas. I don’t know the half of what is going on. I keep finding out new shit all the time.”

He sounded angry, bitter.

“Here I was thinking you lived the high life,” I said, teasing him a bit.

He leaned back against the upholstery.

“I want to change things at Topaz, but I keep hearing new accusations. I think I have more enemies than I realize.”

“You have enemies?”

He snorted. “More than you know! The world is run by powerful families. My family is one of them, but there are many others and we are all at war with each other, constantly. You can never take your eye off the ball.”

He sighed. “I want to change things, make the company completely above board and legal, but then this sort of thing crops up.”

He sounded like he meant it, like he wanted it to be true.

I wanted to believe him but I didn’t know if I could.

“I could ask around, you know?” I said slowly. “Find out who placed the order. The name of the witness.”

I was offering to help him but I didn’t know why.

“You would?” His eyes lit up.

Seeing him smile again made my pulse race and my heart beat faster. He had such an insane effect on me. I tried to ignore it, pretend it wasn’t happening but I was curious about his story. I had the feeling he was telling the truth. Maybe I just wanted it to be true but that was good enough for me.

“Sure,” I said, casually.

He sat up and his knee accidentally brushed mine. There was a charge of electricity between us as our legs touched.

I had a vision of us the other night, of his hands on my body, of me pushing myself against him, arching my back. The feel of his skin against mine.

The power of this memory completely freaked me out. It was like I was helpless against him.

My mouth was dry, I swallowed and got up.

“I… it’s late. I have to go to bed.”

“Of course,” he got up right away and headed for the door.

“Thanks for listening,” he said, smiling at me as he bid me good night.

Only once the door closed behind him, did I realize that I regretted him not even trying to kiss me, not making a single move on me. I knew I would not be able to resist him if he touched me again.

I went into the kitchen and drank two glasses of water, forcing myself to calm down. Then I took a cold shower, shocking my brain into numbness, washing away the memory of Jack Beaufort.

The next day, I called the agency and spoke to one of my handlers.

Josie owed me some favors and I asked her to look into the file of Jack Beaufort.

She called me back. “It’s weird, his file has been deleted,” she said.

“How is that possible?”

“I don’t know, the folder is still there but the content is gone.”

“What about the murder of Juan Marco Albarellos?” I asked. “I’m looking into finding the witness.”

“Hang on,” she said, while she did a search online.

“Here it is,” she said. “According to this report, the murder investigation was closed. It was ruled an accident in the end. Guy fell off his boat and drowned.”

“I thought he was shot?” I said.

“Not according to this report. The last filed note says there was a party, people took drugs and hallucinated. Someone thought he’d seen a shooter but later retracted his statement. The autopsy showed water in the lungs of the body, so that made it simple.”

Not to me, though.

“Oh, this is interesting,” she said suddenly.

“What is?”

“The case was closed following an executive order.”

“What do you mean?”

“The governor…” she said. “That’s weird. Why would he get involved?”

Why indeed?