Things That Go Hump In The Night (10 page)

"Gabriel," said the man, putting the box down on the table so that he could shake Gabriel's hand. "How wonderful to see you here! And Ami tells me you brought a friend?"

"Alex, this is Nicole," said Gabriel with a smile. "Nicole, this is Alex Sato, the artist behind tonight's meal."

"Dinner was amazing," she said sincerely, taking the work-roughened hand that Alex offered her. "It's the best food I've ever had, and everything looked so beautiful, I almost hated to destroy it by eating it."

Alex beamed. "I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Gabriel must bring you here again in the spring, when I do a seasonal
kaiseki
-style menu using only local ingredients."

He turned to Gabriel. "Tell your brother Michael that he should bring his fiancée here. Sherrie is dying to meet her. Sherrie," he explained to Nicole, "is my wife and our pastry chef. She made these—"

He gestured at the box on the table, and Nicole saw that the bottom was covered in polished agate pebbles. Nestled in the pebbles were two small brown spheres dusted in cocoa powder. "Chestnut truffles. Please enjoy!"

He waved genially and left.

Gabriel looked at the sliding door with a bemused expression. "Michael just got engaged three days ago. He's still in Bora-Bora. How the heck did Sherrie hear about it? I'm not sure my parents even know yet."

The truffle was buttery and nutty, with just a subtle hint of chocolate. It melted away on Nicole's tongue with teasing richness.

Sasha returned with a pair of tiny Meyer lemon tartlets, each topped with a miniature dollop of lavender-infused whipped cream.

The tarts were followed by sweet waffle cups filled with soft-serve green-tea ice cream topped with smoky-tasting caramel sauce. Nicole decided she could get used to having multiple dessert courses with all of her dinners.

To finish things off, Sasha brought a teapot filled with fragrant tea, accompanied by a selection of exquisite little cookies in various flavors.

Gabriel took a sip of his tea and leaned back, his dark eyes intent on Nicole's face.

"You know, Rafe tells me that you've been helping him with the design work of Version 3.0. He's really pleased with your work and thinks that your talents are being wasted by just doing coding."

Heat rushed to Nicole's face at the praise.

"Rafe said that?" she asked disbelievingly. "But he's
brilliant
. I've really enjoyed the design meetings, but I have to work so hard just to keep up with him!"

Gabriel gave a short laugh. "But you
can
keep up with him. Do you have any idea how rare that is?"

Nicole shook her head.

Gabriel continued. "We've talked it over, and he doesn't want to lose you when your contract ends." His expression softened. "Neither do I. I spoke to Michael last night, and he agrees that you'd be an asset to our company."

Nicole's stomach tightened in dread, anticipating his next words. She wanted so badly to stay at Archangel...and knew she couldn't. She had to leave this city. She
had
to.

"—so, on behalf of Archangel Security Networks, I'd like to offer you the position of System Architect, reporting to Rafael Amestra," said Gabriel. He named a salary that made her feel dizzy.

Nicole gulped. Her resolution wavered.

She hadn't felt Erik in months through the weird magical bond that seemed to connect them. Maybe he had finally lost interest in her and given up. Maybe she
could
stay here and take Gabriel up on his offer...

"This offer is contingent on just one thing," Gabriel was saying, his expression suddenly predatory. "We're a security firm, Nicole. So I need to know your real name."

Chapter 5 – What's in a Name?

Oh shit...he knows!

Nicole froze as every cell in her body turned to ice. She stared at Gabriel, knowing she should say something. Knowing she couldn't lie to him, not now.

Inside her, she felt her wolf stir from her nap, and fear joined her shock.

What the hell was I thinking, taking a contract at a
security
company, of all places?

I thought this gig would pay enough to finance my move to Seattle without wiping out my savings,
she thought miserably.

Across the table from her, Gabriel waited patiently. He didn't try to bully her, which was a relief. Nicole knew that she wouldn't react...safely...to that kind of behavior at this moment, with her wolf alert and growling silently, searching for whatever had frightened her so badly.

Nicole wanted the job he was offering, so badly she could taste it. She loved working at the company, found her meetings with Rafe incredibly stimulating and challenging. She
knew
she could make a difference at Archangel.

But she also knew that she had come to the point where she would have to either reveal one of her most closely held secrets or return to the office only long enough to pack up a box with her personal belongings before leaving forever.

She wanted to cry. This evening had been so perfect. And now Gabriel was asking her to risk
everything
.

"I—I'm sorry I lied to you," she began, hating how her voice shook. Her hands were shaking, too, so she put them in her lap to hide her weakness. "Please don't—I never meant to hurt anyone. I just—I'm sorry. I am so,
so
sorry."

Her eyes were stinging now, her vision going blurry. Damn it, she was
not
going to cry! Even Erik hadn't managed to make her break down.

"I'm not playing games with you," Gabriel said, his voice gentle. "I don't want to fire you, and I was serious about the job offer. But we can't move forward unless I know who you are and we can run a real background check on you."

"If I told you," she said in a low voice, feeling like she was walking on the edge of a crumbling cliff, "how—how many people would have to know?"

He looked surprised, but answered promptly. "No more than five."

He ticked off names on his fingers. "Me. Rafe and Michael, of course. And two people you haven't met—Korinna
Vélos and her partner
Mark Aquila, who head up our Physical Site Security division—they're the ones who would do the actual interview and background check."

He saw her expression and added, "No one else, I swear. And all of the people I just named will keep any information you give us strictly confidential. If you check out, then you could continue to use your current alias, if you wanted."

Nicole licked her lips, which felt dry.

"Why are you doing this, Gabriel?" she asked, carefully. "I lied to you and falsified my resume. You should just fire me. I deserve it."

"Except that I've learned to trust my gut instinct," said Gabriel calmly. "And my gut tells me that you're a person of integrity, so if you're using a false name, there has to be a very good reason for it."

He reached out and offered his hand, laying it on the table, palm up.

"Rafe agrees with my assessment, by the way," he added. "Prove me right, Nicole. Please."

Slowly, she lifted her right hand from her lap. It still trembled uncontrollably, and her wolf stirred uneasily. Cautiously, she put her hand in his, palm-to-palm, and his fingers closed around hers.

Could she really trust Gabriel?

Yes
, said her wolf, unexpectedly.
He would never hurt us.

Nicole took a deep breath, feeling like she was about to strip herself bare in front of Gabriel.

"My name is Nicole Evelyn Chasseur," she said, "and I graduated from MIT, not Cal Poly. For the last six years, someone has been stalking me. I thought that taking a new identity would protect me, but he managed to find me again. I don't know how he's tracking me, but if I stay in any one place too long, he—" she broke off and swallowed hard. "As much as I'd like to, I don't think I'll be able to accept your job offer," she continued, forcing the words out around a lump in her throat. "Because it's nearly time for me to move on. But I didn't want you to think I'd been trying to con you or—"

She stopped, because she was starting to babble.

"Nicole," Gabriel said in a low voice that sounded hard and...
scary
.

He sounded a lot like Erik. And like Erik, Gabriel suddenly smelled like something cold and powerful.

She had to be wrong. She was having a flashback, that was all.

She inhaled again and smelled only the lingering scents of her dinner and Gabriel's light, spicy cologne.

Nicole relaxed. She'd only imagined it, after all.

Gabriel was still speaking. "I won't let anyone hurt you, ever again. I'll protect you. I'll make sure that your stalker, whoever he is—"

He wanted to protect her.
Oh, God.

"No!" she said, alarmed. "Gabriel, I appreciate it, I really do, but you don't understand. This guy, he's—"
A monster. A demon.
Too dangerous and too powerful for anyone ordinary to stop him.

"He's
done
," Gabriel said flatly, and she caught a brief, tantalizing whiff of cold power again.

She had to be imagining it. This whole conversation was upsetting her, stirring up old memories.

"This is the end of the line for him terrorizing you," Gabriel was saying.

She stared at him in horror.
No, no, no. Don't do this. I'm not worth it.

"But he—"

"You can't keep running forever, Nicole," Gabriel continued, holding her gaze. "And you have allies now, if you'll let us help."

"You don't even know me," she said desperately. She couldn't let him get involved. She didn't want anyone else to get hurt.

His fingers tightened around hers, as if he were afraid that she was going to try to pull away.

"We're a
security
company," he replied. "If we can't keep one of our own safe, then we don't deserve to be in business. You'll be meeting with Korinna and Mark as soon as I can arrange it—would you be willing to discuss your situation with them?"

He must have read the reluctance in her face.

"Physical security is what they
do
, Nicole. They can make sure this guy doesn't get to you."

She doubted it. Erik wasn't human. No one could stop him. She had never dared to report her kidnapping and subsequent ordeal to the police—they couldn't have done anything to stop Erik, and someone might have gotten hurt or killed trying.

All she could do was run. And keep running.

But Nicole also knew further argument with Gabriel was futile. She would have to think of a way to keep his associates safe without actually lying to anyone again.

"Thank you," she whispered, looking at their joined hands. "I'm not used to having someone help me."

"Isolation is a potent weapon," he said, his voice sad. "You think you're protecting the people you care about, but all you're doing is giving your tormentor power by driving them away and leaving yourself vulnerable."

She swallowed hard as his words hit home.

Both of them sat quietly for a few moments. Gabriel didn't release her hand, and Nicole didn't want to let go of him. Touching him just felt so
right
. Especially after the rollercoaster of terror, anxiety, and relief that she had just experienced.

She took a couple of sips of her cooling but still delicious tea, and slowly, her heart rate returned to normal.

"You wouldn't happen to be related to Dr. Raymond Chasseur, would you?" Gabriel asked, lifting his own cup to his lips.

In for a penny, in for a pound,
Nicole thought. It was one of Dad's favorite sayings, and when she thought of it, she always heard his voice.

"He's my dad. And my mom is—"

"Dr. Evelyn Fiore." Gabriel raised his brows. "Technical savvy is in your DNA, it seems."

Nicole laughed and reached into her purse to pull out her smartphone. She called up her Picture Gallery and handed Gabriel her phone.

"Here," she said. "My college graduation. Those are my parents, and the tall boy standing next to me is my not-so-little brother, Brian." After a moment, she added, "It's not Photoshopped."

"I believe you." He looked at the photo soberly and glanced up at her, as if comparing her younger self to her present self. "You haven't changed at all."

He weighed the phone in his hand. "Do you mind if I look through your phone? You told me that your stalker has been able to find you...I'm wondering if maybe there's some kind of geo-tracker spyware installed without your knowledge. Or..." he hesitated. "You haven't been updating your status on Facebook or Twitter, have you?"

She shook her head. "Nope. I occasionally check my Mom's Facebook feed, just to see how everyone is doing, but I never log in anymore."

"Mmmm," he said, already absorbed in tapping and swiping the screen.

After a few minutes, he handed her phone back to her. "It's clean. If he's tracking you, it isn't through this phone."

She had checked it herself, but it was nice to get confirmation. She wanted so badly to tell him about her bracelet, but she couldn't find the words.

It was more than Erik's whammy this time, though—she knew she would sound unhinged if she tried to tell Gabriel about being forced to wear a magical item made from a piece of
string
.

"That's a relief," said Nicole. "I try not to download any free games or apps, but you never know."

"And you have a security app installed, which is good," he said, his tone teasing now, "even if it isn't ours."

"That's because the mobile version of your security suite is extremely buggy. You need to hire a decent Android programmer," she told him primly, as she tucked away her phone and zipped her purse.

When she looked up again, he was back to his serious mode. "Do you have anything else you'd like to tell me?"

Her heart missed a beat before beginning to pound furiously.
He knows!

She tried to tell herself that she was being stupid. There was no way he could know what she was.

Gabriel was just an ordinary—if extremely sexy—man, who had no idea that demons and shape-shifters were real. He would think she was insane if she tried to confess she was a werewolf.

She shook her head.
Magic string bracelets and werewolves, and demons that go bump in the night. No wonder I stopped believing in a sane, rational universe years ago.

Gabriel smiled. "So, pending the results of our background check, you'll take the job?"

Nicole took a deep breath. "It's tempting.
Really
tempting. But I need to think about it."
Need to weigh the risks of staying versus the pain of going.

Gabriel's smile disappeared.

She could tell he thought he'd dealt with all of her objections and didn't understand why she didn't just fall into line. She found it oddly amusing.

"You're not going to force me to—" he let the shadow of a smirk touch his lips "—send Rafe in to beg you on his knees, are you?"

Nicole laughed. "Oh, come on, you know he'd just
love
the chance to show off his dramatic side."

"You're right," said Gabriel with a sigh. "I really shouldn't encourage him. But Nicole, I
really
—"

"—need to give me a day or two to think about it," she finished firmly. "I promise I'll have answer for you by the end of the day on Tuesday."

"But that's
three
days," he objected.

"Don't you need at least that long to run a background check?" Nicole countered. "I know that the FBI takes about a month to do one."

"Touché," he said wryly. "All right. But at least tell me you want the position and are seriously considering it?"

"I do, and yes," she told him.

* * *

After paying for the meal, Gabriel insisted on walking her to her car.

The outdoor parking lot was only two blocks from the restaurant. He put his arm around her shoulders as they left Shiroyama, and a little shyly, she slipped her own arm around his lean waist in return.

Underneath his hint of spicy cologne, Gabriel smelled of expensive wool, soap, and something subtly musky that made her want to rub herself against him.

As they walked, pressed comfortably together, she could feel hard muscles. Not for the first time, she wondered what he looked like without his clothes.

Delicious
, said her wolf, apparently enjoying the close contact as much as Nicole was.