Seduced by Blood. Laurie London

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ froze. He didn’t need or want an outsider involved in an issue that should be handled as quietly as possible from within. Especially a critical outsider.

      “No.”

      “Why not? She’s the best tracker in the Agency. I learned everything I know from her. Besides, she’s really good at reading people. If the scent trail is gone, she might be able to figure out who in the office is behind this.”

      “Take it from me,” Alfonso said, “having worked undercover for years, you get a nose for when people are poking around. If Roxy goes down there and starts asking questions, they’ll totally be onto her.”

      “Yeah, that won’t work,” Lily said, shaking her head.

      “Hell,” Jackson said, “what if you and Roxy pretend you’re lovers?”

      Santiago’s head snapped up. “What the hell for?” It didn’t surprise him that Jackson would bring up the topic of sex. Before Arianna, there hadn’t been an attractive woman within miles of him that he hadn’t bedded or thought about bedding. At the clubs, they practically threw themselves at his feet. Sex was all the guy thought about.

      “You know, Santiago,” Alfonso said, slowly, as if Jackson’s dumbass comment was for real, “that’s not a half-bad idea.”

      Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

      He rubbed his temples. He was seriously on the verge on one giant motherfucking headache.

      Jackson jumped from his chair and rubbed his hands together gleefully, like a youthling preparing to do something naughty. “Think about it. The two of you could masquerade as a couple so that no one realizes she’s down there to scope things out. You could attend the regional awards gala and be all over each other. Dancing, kissing, slipping into one of the private salons for a little—” he made a kissing sound “—and no one would think anything of it.”

      Clenching his jaw so hard that his molars ached, he did his best to ignore Jackson’s asinine idea. “That reminds me. I’m cancelling the ceremony. It doesn’t seem right to celebrate Guardians’ achievements when several of our own are suffering. I’ll postpone the event and give out the awards another time.”

      A few of them murmured in agreement.

      “Plus,” Lily said, “it may not be safe. This attack was orchestrated, premeditated. Guardians are clearly a target and until we find out who’s responsible, Darkbloods could strike again and injure innocent members of the vampire community.”

      “I disagree,” Alfonso said, shaking his head. “Cancelling the ceremony would be a big mistake.”

      Santiago scowled. He didn’t like to be challenged.

      “In my personal opinion,” Alfonso added benignly.

      “A mistake?” The more he thought about it, the more his pupils dilated with anger. Trying to keep his people safe wasn’t a strong enough reason to cancel the damn party?

      It was Santiago’s responsibility to keep the region as free from Darkblood scourge as possible, not Alfonso’s. He needed to ensure the safety of the small vampire community who lived peacefully among the humans here in the Northwest. Thanks to Dom’s contact in the Seattle Police Department—a man he knew through some military training they’d done together—a meth lab explosion was what the papers had reported. Damage control when humans died or disappeared was difficult enough. But an entire building?

      He stood, kicking the chair out from behind him and paced around the room. He’d root out these bastards once and for all. Wearing a daysuit, he’d find where they slept in those coffins of theirs and let Misery carve them into little pieces. They’d find justice all right. At the point of his knife. He sure as hell didn’t have time for a damn party.

      “Listen,” Alfonso said. Santiago spun around to see him holding up his palms. “I’m not trying to challenge your authority on this, but in my opinion, the ceremony shouldn’t be cancelled. Darkbloods may not know the extent of the collateral damage. If you cancel it, they’ll know they succeeded. They’ll scurry around like a bunch of rats when the cat dies and you’ll have more problems on your hands. On the outside, I say it should be business as usual. Don’t let them know how deeply they affected us. And then behind the scenes, when they’re least expecting it, we nail their asses.”

      Jackson pulled out a half sandwich from somewhere and took a bite. “He does make a good p—”

      “Stop. Just shut the hell up. Everyone.” Santiago fired off a string of expletives in several languages, ignoring that they all were lifting their eyebrows and rolling their eyes at his outburst. Let them. It was no skin off his nose. They could bellyache all they wanted, but in the end, it was his decision to make.

      The room was uncomfortably silent as he absently scraped at another splinter in this thumb. Last thing Santiago wanted was for Darkbloods to think they had the upper hand. Leave it to a guy who spent years inside Darkblood operations feeding intel to the Agency, to know how the bastards thought and operated. He had to admit, Alfonso did make some good points.

      “We’d have to step up security,” Santiago said finally. “Eliminate all possible breaches.”

      For the next few minutes, they hashed out exactly what needed to be done if the ceremony wasn’t cancelled.

      “That doesn’t solve the original problem,” Lily said quietly when everyone was done talking. “We don’t know the source of the leaks.”

      “I still think you and Roxy should pretend to be lovers,” Jackson said bluntly, wiping the back of a hand over his mouth. “What a fun way to find the traitor.”

      “I don’t care about fun.” Santiago pinched the bridge of his nose as his head began to pound. The lingering effects of UV exposure weren’t something he needed right now. If he had known all this was going to happen, he would have fought the urge to go to the Ridge. “Some might know she’s the head tracker at the Academy.”

      Jackson shrugged. “So what? We have various trackers there all the time. She could be your new hot girlfriend who’s in town because she’s going to the ceremony with you. She could poke around, ask a few innocent questions, and no one would be the wiser.”

      Alfonso turned to Lily. “Do you think she’d go for it?”

      “I could ask,” she said.

      “I don’t see why it has to be her, why we have to involve an outsider.” Santiago was well aware that his argument was getting flimsier, but this couldn’t be the only solution. “I’m perfectly capable of reading people. I’ll go down there myself.”

      Lily laughed. “And you’re about as subtle as my fist to Jackson’s nose. Seriously, Santiago, Roxy’s amazing at analyzing people and their underlying motivations.”

      “Hey,” Jackson protested. “Leave my nose out of this.”

      Lily recounted an event that happened when Roxanne was mentoring her out in the field when she was a trainee at Tracker Academy. “We were following Darkblood scent in New Orleans, which led to a small voodoo shop in the French Quarter. With all the smells permeating the small space—herbs, potions, gris-gris—I was having a hard time distinguishing СКАЧАТЬ