Hunting My Vampire (Immortal Vampire #3)

Chapter 16

Jack

Perhaps I had been too distracted.

Kaya and I had started spending time together, some nights at the Castle when I knew Simon was away but also at her place. I wanted her to see that I didn’t mind the child, that I could make myself useful. Not that I was particularly fond of the child but she was sensible and quiet and this I could handle.

I found myself enjoying our evenings of explaining basic mathematics or literature to her. Perhaps this is what it would be like to have children, I mused, thoughts I hadn’t had in a long time.

There were a few calls from the office, which I ignored.

I thought I’d pick them up later or call back but then I didn’t.

Natania wanted to schedule catch-up meetings but I kept coming up with excuses. I was enjoying my new romance with Kaya and after so many years of solitude and loneliness, I thought I deserved it but it came at a price.

When I arrived at the castle early one morning, Natania was waiting for me, anxiously rushing to my car as I arrived.

“Why haven’t you been answering my calls?” she demanded to know.

“I’ve been busy,” I replied haughtily.

“Meantime, everything has been going to shit!”

I rolled my eyes. “Must you be so dramatic?”

She pursed her lips and I realized that she was trying to control her temper.

“You have to call Max van Patten,” she said. He was the daytime head of the Topaz Group. “He called me because he couldn’t get hold of you.”

I had left my phone at the castle days ago, annoyed by all the pinging of messages and notifications of the Dow and share prices. Who cared about all of that when Kaya was willing to let me kiss her where and when I wanted to?

But I had let things go too far. It turned out that my enemies were plotting against me in my absence.

The board meeting, which was due to be held in Austin later that day, was to review a motion to have me removed as CEO. The board members had been sent an email that I had allegedly sent to one of our biggest recruitment agencies, in which I cancelled all the contracts of the shift workers at our hotels. Thousands of people had been sacked because I supposedly was unwilling to pay the expected and negotiated fair pay increase.

I called Max and told him the email had not come from me.

“But it was sent from your account!”

“I must have been hacked. I will sort it out.”

However, it was easier said than done. The message had been leaked to all our hotels and resorts and it was chaos. I had to talk to all of the hotel managers and assure the head of the recruitment agency that the email was not true and that the pay increase would be honored. The staff were only placated when I agreed to pay a bonus to all of the shift workers.

This bonus was not part of our budget and I knew the board members would not like it as it cut significantly into our financial projections for the quarter.

I called Marcello, the board chairman and his tone was cold.

“What the fuck, Jack? Is it true, have you let a bit of pussy lead you astray like this?”

I had to take a deep breath to calm down. I couldn’t let him get to me.

“It’s a cheap trick, Marcello, and I’ve sorted it out,” I assured him.

“And where are the funds for these bonuses coming from?”

I told him I was willing to put up my salary for a few months to pay for it.

“Are you insane?” he asked, incredulous.

I had other income, that he didn’t have to know about and I had decided to put up some of my cars for sale but I knew it was important to make this show of sacrifice to get us through this crisis and convince the board of my commitment to the company.

I was also going to find out who had done this. Although, I had a bloody good idea.

“Let me worry about the details,” I told him. “Do you think this will keep the board on my side?”

“I think so, yes.”

For a brief moment, I wondered if Marcello was behind all of this or working with whoever was behind the email that had almost sunk me.

“It would help if we could find the culprit,” he said.

I was already on it.

An IT specialist was able to tell me that the email had been sent from my home laptop the night before, at exactly the time that I was at Kaya’s house, googling romantic getaway destinations while she slept for a few hours.

I interrogated our security team and Simon was at the castle at that time. I asked for a full list of everyone at the house at that time. By the time I was ready to leave for the flight to the board meeting, I knew who it was.

As the car stopped outside the private jet, I turned to Natania.

“Didn’t take a lot for you to betray me?” I said coldly.

She didn’t try to deny it, tears spilled down her cheeks.

“I had no choice! They kidnapped my parents and threatened to kill them unless I did as they say!”

“Who did?”

Natania shook her head. “It was a woman, that’s all I know. She said she would give me half a million dollars if I forwarded the mail.”

“Even though you knew it would ruin me?”

She was crying uncontrollably now. “I didn’t know what else to do! They sent me pictures of my father, all beaten up. They’d cut off one of his fingers!”

She grabbed my arm, “I knew you would be all right, you always are!”

I shook off her hold on my arm.

“You’re fired,” I said, looking away. “Get out.”

Zoran looked in the rearview mirror.

“You want me to take care of her?”

I shook my head. I had known Natania for too long. She had been blackmailed into her actions and as much as it pained me to say it, she was right. I would be all right. But I needed to know who was pulling the strings.

“Trace that money,” I told Zoran.

“By the time I walk into the board meeting, I want to know exactly who is behind all of this.”

“One more thing,” Zoran said and told me about Simon dropping by Kaya’s workplace that morning.

I had organized a work crisis to get him out of town temporarily. But the fact that he stopped by the workshop was worrying. He must have known that I would find out about the visit.

I got onto the plane with a heavy heart.

I called Kaya’s phone and was relieved when she picked up.

“I heard Simon came to the workshop today?” I said.

“Yeah.”

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yes, but… how did you know he was here?”

I had to come clean. “I had someone watching the shop, just to make sure you’re safe. I didn’t want to tell you but I was worried.”

“Why?”

I didn’t know how to tell her my fears about Simon. But she knew what was happening at work, that I was in trouble at work.

“Simon is not just another vampire, is he?” she asked.

I had to tell her something.

“No, and he’s not my brother either. I guess the closest he would be as a relative is an uncle.”

She described his visit and his words. “It felt threatening,” she said. “I’m not the kind of person who scares easily but I felt a little something.”

“Won’t you come with me to Austin? I can have you flown in later?” I said quickly. “Get out of town for a day or two? I’ll book us a nice hotel?”

“No,” she said. “I have to look after Princess. Tina has a medical procedure, and she can’t mind her tonight.” She went on, “I’ll be fine, Jack, he’s left town now, hasn’t he?”

But I knew it wasn’t beyond Simon to get someone else to do his dirty work for him. I was convinced that was what was going on with Natania.

“I’m going to ask Zoran to stay outside your house tonight.”

“That’s really not necessary,” she said, a note of annoyance creeping into her voice now.

“Then do it for Princess, not for yourself,” I said.

“Oh, that’s clever,” she said, laughing. “All right, for Princess but be careful in Austin.”

I loved the fact that she sounded worried about me. This was a big step in the right direction for us, making me feel like we may have a future after all.

It also gave me the confidence I needed to be ruthless.