Blood Knot (33 page)

Winter used the security pass to open Patty’s office door and let herself in. She didn’t put on a light and she locked the door behind her. Instead, she sat down in Patty’s chair to wait—the hardest part of any job—and watch the minute hand of her watch sweep around the dial two and a half times.

The offices of Rolland, Gold emptied out over those one hundred and fifty minutes, which was exactly what they had been planning on. Winter listened to the corridors quieten and the lights dim through the glass panes at the top of Patty’s office walls as office lights were turned off and the corridor lights were turned down for the night.

At nine forty-five Winter stepped out of the office, moving casually like she had every right to be there. She still carried the briefcase, although she had left the coffee cup in Patty’s wastebasket.

She moved in the opposite direction to the one she had taken to arrive. The offices were laid in a great triangle around the outside of the floor, with amenities in the middle, including the elevator shafts, and the senior partners were closer to the apex of the triangle. Duke Rolland himself had the famous pointed office.

By heading in the opposite direction, Winter would eventually end up back at the elevators, but she would walk past the senior partner offices—including Greg Everson’s—and the vault room to do so.

There was a guard floating along the corridor when Winter turned the final corner. She flattened out her spike of adrenaline and took a calming breath. She kept her stride even and painted a small smile on her face. “Evening,” she said as she drew closer.

The guard frowned a little. “Ms. Williams. I thought you were catching the Knicks tonight?”

“
I was going to. Those tickets of Greg’s were hard to pass up. Front row! But this case of mine is driving me into the ground.”

Five feet away. She stuck out her hand, as if she wanted to shake his. “You have a great evening now,” she told him.

The response was automatic. He thrust his hand into hers, even as he was puzzling through the inconsistencies in her appearance, her words.

But it was too late. Winter rammed endorphins through his system and he smiled at her. “I’ll have a great evening, for sure!” he told her, beaming.

She leaned forward, flashing cleavage. “Hey, Teddy, do you want to step inside here, just for a minute?” She reached out with her other hand, the one holding the briefcase, and pressed down on the lever door handle, to open the door on the small anteroom to the vault. “It’ll be so worth it,” she crooned.

“
Sure,” Teddy said, drooling.

She tugged him into the room and he stumbled after her, as she adjusted his arousal levels, building his lust so that all he could think about was sex.

As the door closed behind them, Teddy grabbed her and rammed her face-first up against the wall, making her drop the briefcase and winding her. “Gotta have you,” he muttered. He squeezed her ass and tried to reach her breasts except that she was mashed up against the wall so hard he couldn’t get to them.

So he fumbled at the hem of her skirt, yanking it upwards.

He was no longer directly touching her. Winter couldn’t adjust his biology. Couldn’t bring down his runaway sexual urge. She tried to push away from the wall, to get some leverage, but he shoved her back, too quickly for her to reach inside him.

She glanced to her right. The vault door was within reach. She could lay her hand on the cold metal. But it wasn’t going to do her any good right now.

Teddy’s hand grabbed the back of her thigh under her skirt and pinched. Winter yelped and shoved back. It forced Teddy backwards a staggering step or two, enough for her to turn and face him.

He was smiling. “Yeah, fight me,” he begged. “I
like
it that way.” Clearly, the endorphins were wearing off. He was coming down from his natural high, but the challenge of taking her was still planted in his mind.

Winter had to get him close enough to touch him again.

The door to the tiny room opened and Martie Shakeel stepped in. “What the hell is going on?” he demanded.

Winter hid her shock. Where was Sebastian? It had been his role to monitor Shakeel and warn her if the man headed in her direction. Something had gone wrong.

Teddy glanced at Shakeel. “Fuck off,” he said curtly. “I’ve got this one.” He brought his gaze back to Winter and licked his lips.

Shakeel’s eyes widened. “You’re crazy, Teddy. You fuck her on the premises, Williams will sue your ass to Purgatory and back.”

“
At least,” Winter said coolly, as facts connected together. Teddy and Shakeel were date rape buddies.

Teddy unfastened his trousers, the heavy belt and accessories and keys hanging off it jingling. “Don’t care,” he growled, watching her. “Why don’t you keep her quiet for me? She fights too hard and I don’t have stuff on me.”

“
I don’t have time to stand around watching you slide your prick into some blonde bitch,” Shakeel snapped. “Tie her down for all I care.” He turned back to the door, which opened again, making him step back.

The cleaner with the long hair stood framed in the doorway, a mop in his hands. He looked around, a frown between his brows, clearly trying to puzzle out what was going on.

“
Help me!” Winter said instantly, and tried to move between Shakeel and Teddy toward the door.

Shakeel shoved her back. “Turn around and leave, if you know what’s good for you,” he told the cleaner. “Now.”

The cleaner hesitated, looking from Winter with her disheveled clothing, to Teddy with his open trousers, to Shakeel.

“
You’ve got ten seconds,” Shakeel warned.

The cleaner blinked at him. “You’ve got five.” He broke the handle of the mop over his knee, used the broken off handle like a blackjack on the back of Teddy’s skull, and dropped him to the floor, unconscious.

Even as the cleaner was moving, Winter reached for Shakeel’s hand and shot his system full of every relaxing and happy juice his body could produce, countering the adrenaline and the arousal she found there. Shakeel relaxed, his eyes taking on a sleepy look.

Nial dropped the mop handle, pushed Teddy’s legs back into the room and shut the door. It was a squeeze, for the room simply wasn’t that big.

“
You didn’t have to do that,” Winter told him.

Nial pulled off the bandana and the wig. “Yes, I did,” he said flatly.

“
Now he’ll have a headache we can’t explain away.”

“
Oh well.” He shrugged and ran his fingers through his hair and looked at Shakeel. “Bet he has some of his funny juice on him.”

“
What happened to Sebastian?” Winter patted Shakeel’s jacket pockets, looking for an auto-injector pen.

“
I’m not sure yet. I heard your yelp and came running when Sebastian didn’t.” Nial stripped the oversized coveralls off. Underneath, he wore black trousers and the tank top. He dumped the heavy boots, unrolled rubber slips-on and put them on.

Shakeel watched and listened with a placid, dreamy expression on his face.

Winter found a cigar box in his inner pocket and pulled it out. “Look at this,” she said, opening it. There were two injector pens inside. “One’s empty.”

“
Sebastian.” Nial grimaced. He looked at Shakeel. “Did you use the pen on Greg Everson?”

“
The guy who was pretending to be Greg? Sure,” Shakeel said. “Fucker was up to no good.” He said it with a dreamy lilt in his voice.

Nial sighed. “Where did you leave him?”

“
In the office where I found him. Security can deal with him.” He sounded completely indifferent and vaguely tired.

Winter adjusted his hormone levels, making him more alert. It wouldn’t do for him to drop off to sleep right now. He straightened up.

Nial was frowning. “Will he take my suggestions, or only yours?” he asked her.

“
Yours, but only for a few minutes until his levels adjust back to normal,” she said. “You want me to go find Sebastian and rouse him?”

He nodded. “I’ll get Shakeel here to open the vault for us. I’ll grab the memory stick, meet you at Greg’s office.”

“
Oooh, but the memory stick isn’t in the vault,” Shakeel said, sounding jovial.

They both looked at him, startled.

Shakeel was grinning, like he had a delicious secret to share.

Winter pushed her face into a smile. “Really?” she said. “Do tell!” She nudged his endorphins up a little more. The man was getting high on his own hormones. Clearly, he wasn’t used to be simply happy. It said a lot for his life.

He put a finger to his lips and giggled. “I’ve seen it. Ol’ Ducky Rolland himself has it. In his desk, can you believe it? Biggest piece of evidence of the twenty-first century. Crafty bastard.”

Nial was smiling. “I bet it’s in amongst a bunch of other memory sticks, right? Protective coloring. Martie, my man, you’re smart to have figured it out.” He let admiration color his tone.

Shakeel swelled with pride. “I know!” he said simply. “I saw it there. Recognized it straight away.”

“
What were you doing rooting around in the senior partner’s desk drawer, Martie?” Winter teased.

“
I take women there,” Shakeel said, smiling with the same distant smile. “Fuck ‘em on his desk. They get a kick out of the corner office.”

“
And you didn’t take the memory stick, Martie?” Nial asked.

“
Couldn’t figure out a way to use it yet,” Shakeel said wistfully. “But I’m working on it. Vampires…who knew? And the Speaker! It’ll blow the roof off the White House.”

“
Who, indeed,” Nial murmured. He looked at Winter.

She desperately wanted to let go of Shakeel’s hand and wipe hers on her skirt. But the longer she controlled his biology, the longer it gave Nial when they parted.

Nial grabbed Shakeel’s arm. “How about you show me where the memory stick is, Martie? Show me how clever you were finding it the first time?”

“
Sure…” Shakeel said.

Winter handed Nial the injector pen, then bent to touch Teddy’s ankle and wipe his memories as Nial led Shakeel from the room.

She picked up her briefcase and shut the door on the sleeping Teddy, knowing he would wake puzzled and with a sore head, wondering why his trousers were undone. It would be enough to keep him quiet about the strange circumstances, especially as he was a mate of Shakeel’s.

She hurried to Greg Everson’s office and forced her way past the locked door.

Sebastian was sprawled in the executive chair, his arms hanging over the sides. The black wig lay on the floor beside him. His eyes were closed, but she knew he could hear her. He was still conscious.

“
It’s me,” she murmured, touching his cheek. “I’m fine. Nial came instead.”

His breath escaped in a rush.

“
Now to get this crap out of your system,” she told him, ripping his shirt open and placing her hand over his heart and the other against his neck. “I’m going to do this fast, so it might be a bit uncomfortable.”

She reached inside and found the same ugly unnatural amino acids and long protein chains as before. Now she was familiar with them and went to work tearing them apart with a vengeance.

Sebastian groaned.

“
Sorry,” she whispered. “On the positive side, you’re not going to be thirsty for a day or so.”

“
Nial…?” Sebastian muttered thickly.

“
He took Shakeel to get the memory stick. It wasn’t where we thought it was.”

The chain reaction was underway now, but still she shepherded it, speeding it on its way by spiking Sebastian’s metabolism. Sebastian groaned again. She winced, wanting to apologize for a second time. But there was no help for it. “I have to get you on your feet fast,” she explained.

His hand came up and gripped her shoulder. “Deserve it,” he said.

“
Probably,” she agreed.

He tried to laugh but it emerged as a weak cough. His eyes blinked open. “Feels like Singapore. Sort of.”

“
You’re not dying.”

“
You’re saving my ass again.”

She smiled. “You’re welcome.”

“
And I’m lying here wondering how I can get to keep you right here next to me. Forever, Winter.”

Her heart hurt, so hard did it squeeze. She looked at him. “What exactly are you proposing, Bastian? And here? Now? In the middle of a job?”

“
Where else?” he asked. “I’ve been lying here for ten minutes begging whatever entity would listen for another chance to touch you, kiss you, speak to you. I’m not throwing it away now I’ve got it.” His hand cupped her face and his gaze was steady, determined. “I don’t know how we work it, Winter, because Nial is part of whatever we do. You know that, don’t you?”

She nodded.

“
I love you.” His thumb stroked her cheekbone. “I think I crossed two centuries just to find you, Winter Manon Kennedy. I want you in my life irrevocably. The human part of me wants the human symbol, Winter. I want to marry you.”

Winter pressed her hand against the back of Sebastian’s. “If you can figure out a way to do it, Sebastian, I’ll marry you.” She kissed him, and then tugged on his jacket. “But you have to get on your feet now.”