Hunting My Vampire (Immortal Vampire #3)

Chapter 14

Jack

I hadn’t told Kaya everything about my family.

Of course not.

I didn’t tell her that Simon had come with my father from Europe and was not my real brother. He was related to my father, a strange relationship that went back many centuries. But Simon looked young and it made sense to call him my brother. He’d come out with my father and they had been slave traders. They made a fortune supplying workers from Africa to the American cotton plantations. During a brief stay in Boston my father met my mother, a society lady and daughter of a prominent local physician. She agreed to marry my father on the condition that he gave up slave trading and drinking human blood. It was not an easy decision but he loved her and agreed to her terms.

He sold his stake in the slave ships, opened a hotel and then another. He built Clover Castle to remember his Irish roots. Simon was meant to help him with the business but secretly continued the slave trade, even keeping blood slaves in a dungeon at the castle. When this came out there was a huge scandal and my mother briefly left my father. Simon was banned to France.

In time he wheedled his way back. During the wars he came to fight alongside my father and after my mother’s death he moved back into the castle. My father reinstated him in the business even though he clearly had no interest in anything but power.

But my father would not turn his back on him. Even when he saw how Simon tried to undermine me as I rose in the company. When my father fell ill after consuming a contaminated blood product, I was convinced Simon had something to do with it but there was no proof.

There had been several attempts on my life and my suspicions had grown over the years. At Simon’s wedding to Ulrika, a member of a wealthy Scandinavian aristocratic family, I was attacked by a vicious monster on my way back to my room. I had been badly injured. It came shortly after I had convinced my father to demote Simon to a less visible role in the business. He was still on the board. But in these modern times it was important that the company had the right look and came across as family friendly, honest and decent.

Simon was everything but.

I knew he was still consuming real blood and combined with his age, it made him a powerful and dangerous enemy. I had always known I would have to get rid of him, sooner or later.

At my father’s funeral, he tried to take over proceedings. He made a speech in which he announced he was taking over the company. I had to mobilize the board to have him removed, pushing him out as much as possible, even though he still had a role in the business.

Marcello convinced me to keep him in the business. He said Simon was too powerful and I needed to keep him close, to keep an eye on him. I allowed him quarters in the castle but he didn’t come often.

He was in charge of the entertainment part of the business, as well as some night clubs in a seedier part of the Topaz Group portfolio. I would have liked to dump our shares but it was a source of not inconsiderable revenue and it kept him occupied.

I appointed Zoran, not only as my driver but a guard and strongman. He came from Eastern Europe, a survivor of many wars and battles. He was loyal to me and completely reliable.

It was Zoran who warned me that Simon was back in Hawston.

He had his own plane and had apparently flown in from Vl?tnavaaarn earlier in the week.

This was bad.

I didn’t like having him around when Kaya was at the castle.

I had extra security appointed on the castle grounds and would have liked to have someone look after Kaya too. But her senses were too acute, she would have picked up on that and I knew she wouldn’t like it. I was beginning to know her better and realized she would find it patronizing.

But Simon was more than she could handle. I was sure of that.

Now that things were beginning to happen between us, I wanted everything to be perfect or as close to perfect as possible. Kaya trusted me and she believed my family was above board. I had no doubt she would find out about Simon sooner or later but I wanted to prolong their meeting as long as possible.

I did not trust him at all.

I was right not to, as I soon found out.

A few evenings later, I heard voices outside.

I was in the former stables, a space we now used as storage space. Simon was talking to someone on the phone.

Something about his tone of voice caught my attention.

I could tell he was talking to a woman, and not his wife.

“You shouldn’t worry your pretty little head about this, my dear,” he said in cajoling tones. “I assure you; I have everything under control.”

I wondered what he was talking about.

I had a bad feeling.

My so-called brother was always plotting and scheming.

“Charlotte, darling, be patient. It won’t last. It can’t.”

Charlotte?

And what wouldn’t last?

What was he talking about?

I could not believe my ears. Why was he talking to Charlotte, my ex-girlfriend? I had not had contact with her in weeks, had not spoken to her since the phone call in the desert.

I tried to imagine if they had ever even met. I couldn’t recall a time when Charlotte and Simon would have been in the same room.

Simon ended the call and I went to look for Zoran, taking him outside for privacy. I asked him if he knew of any reason why Simon and Charlotte would be talking to each other like this.

“The other day, he took her to the airport, after you left.”

“When?”

It turned out that when she had come to visit me unannounced, right after I had met Kaya, Simon had offered to look after her because I had apparently abandoned her, her words. They had gone to the resort she had wanted to go to with me. They had spent the weekend together.

“The two of them?” I frowned. I couldn’t quite picture it. Even though I had no feelings for Charlotte, I felt betrayed by her spending time with Simon. She knew I didn’t like him, that we didn’t get on. Why would she seek him out?

It was likely, of course, that he had used his charms on her, that he had been trying to use her. That made sense. Now she was calling him, I didn’t like that at all.

“There is another thing,” Zoran said.

“He has been opening clubs in New York.”

“How?” I demanded to know, exasperated. He knew about the family ban and I would have thought he wouldn’t get licenses.

“I think he has made a deal with the mayor,” said Zoran.

“Who is it now?” I asked. It was sometimes hard to keep up with all the new appointments. The mayors came and went so quickly.

“A Mexican, I think,” said Zoran.

“Vargas?” The name came to me somehow.

“Could be,” Zoran said.

“I need more information,” I said curtly.

I had waited a long time for evidence of his wrongdoing and this phone call was a sign he was plotting against me.

I was sure that he had meant Kaya and my relationship with her. Why wouldn’t it last? What was he planning?

I felt a terrible fury building up in me. I wouldn’t allow him to interfere in my happiness. Simon needed to leave right away. I had to get him as far away from Kaya as possible.

She needed to be protected.

I had to keep her safe.

We were seeing each other now, taking it slowly, spending time a few nights a week but I couldn’t get enough of her. Making love was electrifying, every time. I couldn’t get enough of her body. Our relationship was still very much physical but it was more than that and she was beginning to see it, I was sure of it. I was winning her over, slowly but surely.

I wanted her with me at the castle, to marry her and for us to be together as long as possible.

We were meant to be together. I was sure of it and I was convinced she would see it too, eventually.

But I would have to deal with Simon first.