I forced my thoughts on what was next. Bank, drain the accounts where Lucien deposited my concubine plaything money. Find an ATM and take a maximum withdrawal from my account at home. Get out of Dragon Lake. Stop at the nearest used car dealership, ditch the Cayenne and get another car.
I made my plans then I executed them. Bank. Thank God, no line. ATM at the same place. Easy.
And as I drove out of Dragon Lake, I grabbed my cell and dialed 911.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” they answered.
“There’s been a break in…” I told them the address where to find Edwina. Then I whispered, “Hurry.”
I disconnected the call, hit the button to roll down my window and threw my cell phone out.
I didn’t know how it worked but on TV they could track you with phones.
Not mine.
Not anymore.
Lucien would hunt me and he was within his rights to kill me.
I knew I’d see him again. I knew when I did he’d be infuriated. I knew it would be done, one way or another.
Done.
Over.
And I would be free.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Secret
Lucien drove into the car park under his office building.
He was furious.
The drive to his office took well over an hour. A four car pileup causing a massive backup with subsequent delays. More times than he could count, he stopped himself from turning around and going back.
Back home.
Back to Leah.
Back to explain things to her, smooth that hideous look out of her features, the pain out of her eyes, inject the life back into her voice.
But he couldn’t. This was Gregor. Gregor was a member of The Council and with Gregor’s alliance he could assist with making Leah safe. Twice, he’d postponed a set meeting and he’d done it to spend time with Leah. He couldn’t delay again. Gregor was impatient, the meeting important, even imperative, he’d told Lucien through Avery.
He had to take the fucking meeting.
He guided the Porsche to its spot thinking she loved him. His Leah loved him.
He knew it. He knew it was happening. Not only because Stephanie warned him, Kate told him but because he felt it.
And that was why he’d done what he’d done. Selfish in the extreme but it was too beautiful, Leah’s love. Better than her beauty. Better than her smell. Even better than her blood. It was like a drug. The feeling of ecstasy. Constant, from waking until sleep and even in his dreams, having her close.
Fuck.
Fuck!
He should have talked to her as Kate asked. As a priority.
He should have talked to her.
He parked, shut the Porsche down and exited the car without delay.
He needed to get this meeting done. He needed to get back home.
Back to Leah.
I’m in love with you, Mighty Vampire Lucien.
The words pierced his brain as he closed the door to the car and he lost control. The door slammed to and the entire car shuddered and shifted four feet into the next, luckily vacant, spot.
He stared at his vehicle as it continued to rock then as it stopped. He closed his eyes, leaned into his forearms on the roof of the car and dropped his head.
Sweetling, look at me.
Please, get off me. Husky. Agonized.
Leah, sweetheart, please, look at me.
I shouldn’t have said it. Forget I said it.
Look at me.
It didn’t happen. Just wipe it from your mind. Go to your meeting. We’ll both forget it and everything will be okay. Whispered. Desperate.
Agonized. Desperate. He’d done that. He’d made her feel those things. Being selfish. Taking and forgetting he couldn’t give. Taking and forgetting his duty was to keep her safe. Taking what he couldn’t stop himself from taking and forgetting to protect her, causing her agony, just like at her Bloodletting.
He’d never forget she’d said it. He’d never be able to wipe it from his mind. It was burned there, literally for eternity.
“Fuck,” he whispered.
His eyes opened, he lifted his head and looked blindly through the car park.
Then he thought of Gregor. Not the impending meeting. Gregor’s decision five hundred years ago.
Lucien had three choices. Keep taking from Leah. Make her his mate and put her in even more danger, conceivably making their nightmares come real.
Or, for her sake, release her.
No. He had only one choice.
The last.
Fuck.
He sucked in breath, straightened from the car and eschewed the elevator in order to race up the forty flights of stairs with vampire speed. If a mortal saw him and it came to the attention of The Council, fuck it. Let them fine him. In mere hours he was losing everything.
Everything.
He slowed when he hit the hall and stayed slowed as he opened the door and moved through his busy offices. He took out his cell and turned it off in preparation for the meeting while employees nodded to him, lifted their chins, Lucien returning the gestures.
He saw Sally behind her desk through the glass wall that exposed her office. She’d been in his employ for ten years. In that time she’d met and married her husband, had two children and lost her mother. In that time, he hadn’t aged a day.
It was time to move on. Create new companies, sell his vast holdings to himself, distribute severance packages, references, let his workforce go and move. This time, he’d need to disappear, hire someone young and competent to act in his stead for twenty, thirty years. Then he’d need to go through the motions again, managing his holdings as a ghost. In sixty, seventy years, he’d resurface or perhaps continue as a phantom looking after his fortune.
He’d been considering it a while. He’d even planned to discuss the destination for their future home with Leah.
Now he decided Singapore. Magdalene had moved there three years ago. She loved it. And he’d never lived there. It was as good a place as any.
In order to protect the knowledge he was vampire, he’d done this times too numerous to count. It was a chore that was never less than trying. And every time he wished he could simply be who he fucking was and not be forced to engage in this aggravation.
He pushed through the glass doors to Sally’s outer office. Sally looked up and smiled. Then she read his face and the smile died.
Therefore, instantly, she reported, “I’ve given them coffee and bagels, told them you called and explained your delay.”
“Thank you, Sally,” he muttered, moving to the glossy, wood panel double doors that led to his office.
“Would you like fresh coffee?” she called to his back.
He’d had nothing but Leah’s blood and he’d had her blood not knowing it was the last taste of her he’d ever have. He always savored her. If he’d known, he would have taken the time to savor more. Not just her blood, all that was her when she gave it to him.
“No coffee and no interruptions,” Lucien answered, turning the knob and pushing open the door.
He took in the room before he closed the door behind him.
Cosmo leaning against the side of his desk, arms crossed, ankles crossed. Stephanie lounging in an armchair in the seating area at the side of the room, legs crossed, coffee cup in hand. Avery and Gregor both seated on the couch, Avery’s posture relaxed but alert. Gregor, however, was lounged back like Stephanie, legs crossed, looking bored.
Lucien walked to the seating area as Cosmo pushed away from his desk and approached from the other side.
“I apologize for the delay. Traffic,” Lucien muttered, stopping at the back of the vacant armchair across from Stephanie.