CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

X ander walked into his office and shut the door. He was going stir crazy being locked up in this house with Suzanne and his toy soldiers. His wife was still going on about returning to Seattle, and that damn gala.

There was nothing toy-like about these former SEALs and Marines. He was paying top dollar for them, so he knew they were some of the best.

After Ari Moretti’s threatening phone call, he wasn’t about to let them go, either.

Xander had found very little about Moretti in his research.

He found a social security number for the vampire, and assuming it was legit, that was it. The guy had no digital footprint. No social media accounts, no email, no webpage, or business details. Not a single photo anywhere.

Unsurprising, but he’d expected to find something. Maybe even some bullshit cover, but absolutely nothing? That was weird.

Even weirder was the fact that Stefano Russo had never mentioned him. Loose lips Russo had told them everything. They had pages and pages of names, roles, and information on all the royal family and many of the senior members of their army. Along with other prominent members of the vampire race.

Ari Moretti?

Not a thing.

It was as if he didn’t exist.

Xander wasn’t an expert in the vampire royal structure, but he had assumed anyone with the Moretti surname was a member of the family.

Perhaps not.

But his gut said he was. There had been power in his voice and his threat. Immense power.

Xander thrived on power and could recognize it anywhere.

So, without any information on the vamp, Xander had decided to remain in Baltimore where it appeared he was safe and untraceable.

He sat at his desk just as the notification popped up that his meeting was starting. Xander clicked the join button and watched as Dr Phillips’ face appeared.

“Mr. Tomassi.”

“Good morning, Douglas. How’s the house and are the family settled in?” he asked, even though he didn’t care.

Although that wasn’t completely true. Douglas Phillips was his most important employee and he wanted the man to be happy, so he would continue to thrive and complete this important work.

“Pretty good, thanks. The excitement has worn off after a week and the kids are grumpy, complaining about everything, but we’ll work through that,” Douglas replied. “Promises of Disneyland are helping.”

Xander gave him a quick smile. “Good. How are the renovations going?”

He’d relocated Dr. Phillips and his family to California to oversee the setup of the new facility where they would begin human trials. They were moving fast on this and, given the fact the vampires were now on their tail, it was more important than ever to get up and running quickly.

“They’re doing the final touches this week. We should be ready to begin the trials next week. Hopefully. There were some supply issues with the Tungsten and, as you know, that’s vital to protect our people and production inside.”

Tungsten, the strongest steel on earth, was the only material resistant to the strength of the vampires. Thanks to good old Stefano Russo for helping them on that one, or they’d never be where they were today.

“We have the project teams working on it back in Seattle,” Douglas continued, “Some of the team have been recruited over and will be moving out to California. The other roles are currently being recruited externally.”

Xander felt a chill run through him. “Don’t make another mistake like we did with the Roberts girl.”

Dr. Phillips stared at him for a moment and the hairs on the back of Xander’s neck rose.

“What is it?”

“Her sister has been asking for her.” The man rubbed his cheek awkwardly.

“Sage Roberts’ sister?” Xander asked.

“Yes. Piper Roberts. She visited the Seattle office and was sent away. Now she’s here in LA and has been to three of our offices asking for me. I don’t know how she got my name or what she knows.”

Fucking hell.

“This is a problem.” Xander growled. “When were you going to tell me about this? Fuck , Douglas.”

The blonde-haired scientist lifted his cup of coffee to his lips and drank. “Honestly, I thought she was just looking for her sister. I figured she’d go to the police and take the usual routes, but...”

“But?”

“She’s a journalist.”

“Oh, Jesus fucking Christ.” Xander slammed back into his corporate leather chair and ran a hand through his hair. His eyes darted to the two security men standing guard outside the glass doors in his office.

“Who for?”

“ The Seattle Times .”

So not the New York Times , but big enough.

“Where is she staying? Do we know how to find her?”

“I have her phone number,” Douglas replied, lifting his phone to search for the details.

“Send it through and leave it with me. She won’t be a problem anymore.”

“Don’t—”

“Leave it with me.” He spoke firmly.

Dr. Phillips nodded, then wiped his hand over his mouth. “What about Callan? Have you been able to find him?”

“No. Not a single sighting anywhere in the United States.” He had men out tracking the vampire. They’d been told he was human, but they’d found nothing. It was likely the royal family had retrieved Callan, but he wasn’t going into that with Douglas who needed to remain focused on the science. Xander told him what he needed to know and not a word more.

“Mr. Tomassi... Xander... I don’t need to tell you how concerning this is. We altered Callan’s DNA. We were still observing his cells and gathering data. We have no idea how it will manifest or change him.”

Xander lifted his coffee to his lips. “Well, best we get the trials started as it looks like we’re going to need these powerful altered humans, aren’t we?”

Was he worried? Yes and no.

The world was undergoing a major change—led by him. It was just that most people weren’t yet aware of that fact.

They’d thank him for it one day soon.

Vampires had been walking the earth capable of crushing human necks with little thought. The work they were doing was just balancing out the playing field.

“So, let’s go through your project timeline.” Xander was keen to understand the exact timeline, so he had an answer for Nikolay Mikhailov when he next called.

He didn’t know exactly what the man was intending to do with the end product, but he had an idea. It didn’t take much brain power to put two and two together with the line of work the man was in.

If you could call it work.

After the call ended, he walked across the office to the glass doors and plunged his hands into his suit pants pockets.

So he had another little problem to sort out. A curly one. Sage was obviously under the protection of Ari Moretti, and it was likely that protection extended to her sister. Still, he couldn’t allow a journalist to sniff around looking for his head scientist. Not with the human trials about to begin.

His employees were under strict employment and confidentiality contracts and were paid well to stay silent. Still, people were greedy and stupid. All it would take was one wagging tongue and billions of dollars could be at risk.

If Piper Roberts knew about vampires, and Sage had shared what they were doing at BioZen, he had a feeling the sister would try to blow the entire story open.

He would if he was in her shoes.

Unfortunately for Piper Roberts, she had chosen the wrong path.

Ari Moretti and the royal family might be powerful, but there were many billions, potentially trillions, of dollars at stake here long term. He couldn’t allow news of vampires to hit the global airwaves.

Not yet.

It was time to make a call and start removing the threat to their plans once and for all.

Xander was done playing nice.