CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

A ri walked down the hallway toward the tech office when he returned to the mansion. He’d received a message that they were ready to brief him on the full investigation on Sage.

This was the team who would listen to her every movement and sound. A part of him—a dark part of him—was pleased he could check she was safe and know where she was. Knowing his team would listen—not so much. If he knew Sage, and he was beginning to think he did, she would pleasure herself in the morning.

His jaw clenched.

There was nothing he could do about that.

He pushed through the door and found a handful of the team leaning over a monitor. “What’s up?”

They all stood, and the one sitting swiveled on his seat.

“Mexico.” Darren, his head tech, spoke. “We’re just surveilling the Pratt case. Think we’ve found the missing girl.”

He turned back to the screen when Ari nodded, clicked a few buttons, then stood. “Follow them and screenshot each point.”

“Got it.” One of the others sat in the chair.

Darren followed Ari into a private office and clicked a button on a device, activating the screen on the wall. Images and a live feed of numbers and charts appeared.

“What do we have?”

“Just what we told you earlier. Sage Roberts, BioZen laboratory assistant, works in their Mercer Street branch, near the Metropolitan Markets. Seventeenth floor, the animal health division.” He tapped away.

Ari watched the images of Sage’s office flick up on the screen.

“Once she goes to work in the morning, we’ll be able to access the cameras in the more classified sections. Hopefully,” Darren said.

“Can you go through her personnel records?” Ari prompted.

“Yup.” Another screen appeared, and Darren nodded to the two vampires, Frankie and Dave, who entered the room. “’Sup.”

“Morning, sir,” they both said.

“Good morning. Sit,” Ari replied. “And please shut the door.”

Frankie nudged it and sat down beside Dave. They all gave Darren their attention.

“Sage started with BioZen three years ago as a junior lab assistant and has been slowly progressing in rank. Or whatever. Job title.”

Ari smiled.

“And, yeah, that promotion looks to be hers. The details of the department, though, are classified.”

A chill ran through Ari’s body. He knew exactly what it was. Ari leaned back in his seat. “Anything else?”

“Honestly, she appears to be just a stock standard human as far as we can tell,” Dave said, spinning his smartphone around in his hand. “Hitting all the security walls inside a pharmaceutical company is no surprise. They’re corrupt as fuck, as we know.”

Stock standard human.

Those words rattled around in Ari’s brain.

No, Sage was not a stock standard human. Not to him. But she was human. Vulnerable and easy to kill. And she had somehow found herself mixed up in a dangerous game with predators and unethical humans.

Perhaps he could find her another job? Get her a promotion with another organization somewhere and completely wipe her memory. Maybe persuade her to become a fucking vet or something.

Ari rubbed his forehead. “Yeah, okay. So, our prep work has given us very little except a location and where she hangs her bag.”

They all nodded.

“We’ll have a lot more later this morning,” Darren said.

Ari worked closely with these three on the regular. No matter the job, they were his experts who did a lot of the dog work to prepare the path for his assassins to complete their assignments.

If they fucked up, the job got fucked up.

They were the smartest of the smartest, which was why they were working in the best private security company on earth.

This job, though, was their most important job ever.

Ari didn’t want to freak them out, but they knew what was on the line for their race.

They just didn’t know what Sage meant to him, and he couldn’t tell them. Not fully.

“Sage is important to me. The recordings are to be sent to my files and kept off the cloud.” All three of them looked up, surprised. “Do what you usually do, but if I tell you to turn the connection off, you don’t hesitate for a second. Do you understand?”

There was a slight hesitation, but they all nodded.

“Got it,” Darren said.

“And her personal moments—I don’t think I need to explain that—unless you think there’s a fucking good reason, you go dark.”

Frankie rubbed his jaw. “Honestly, that’s trickier than it sounds.”

“He’s right. If we go dark, we don’t know when to turn it back on,” Dave added.

Fuck.

“Just be discreet,” Ari said, standing. “And all intel goes no further than me or Oliver unless I authorize it.”

A bunch of yes sirs followed him to the doorway.

“Get some rest. It’s going to be a long day,” Ari added, then left.

He needed to take his own advice. In a matter of hours, Sage would find out she had the promotion—assuming her records were accurate—and learn vampires were real. He had a feeling, after their discussion at dinner, that she wouldn’t be shocked.

Ari was less concerned about that.

It was the decision she’d make once she found out that had him wanting to punch holes in every wall of his mansion.

Sage was a scientist. The discovery of vampires would be the biggest moment in her life—hell, in modern human history. Her desire for knowledge, and thirst to contribute to such a moment, would keep her there.

Unless he was wrong.

Unless her morals were solid.

God, he hoped he was wrong.

Ari might be distracted by his feelings for Sage, but he was still focused on the mission. They had to find this poor damn vampire if he was still alive, and Sage might be the answer they’d been looking for. Once they found him, Ari was confident the rest of the information would be close.

Could they get lucky, and find the heart of the project located in Seattle? Of all the places on earth.

Well, it would save on gas, so that was something.

Ari teleported to his rooms.

Matteo. He called telepathically, when an idea popped into his mind.

Yes, sir?

Send a coffee, bagel, and a single red rose to Ms. Sage Roberts in the morning.

He gave Matteo her address.

With a card?

Oh.

His off-the-cuff idea just got a lot more complicated.

What the hell was he going to say? I just realized you didn’t eat tonight and now I’m worried you’re going to starve to death. We can’t have that, or I won’t be able to fuck you anymore. Or he could be honest and say, I can’t stop thinking about you even though I only left you an hour ago. PS: Your sister is an asshole.

I’ll text you the note.

I’ll make sure she gets it before leaving for work, sir.

Thanks.

Ari pulled out his phone and began to draft the note.

Mia stellina, you are always on my mind, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Christ, it sounded like a restaurant or after-dinner mint commercial.

Mia stellina, we interrupted your dinner last night, please accept my apology.

God, he was terrible at this.

Mia stellina, I wish your lips were on me instead of the coffee.

“Jesus.” Ari cursed. How fucking hard could this be?

“Siri, show me romantic notes to women,” Ari asked his iPhone, feeling like an idiot.

Sorry I didn’t see any matching notes about romantic.

The fuck?

He began to type again... Mia stellina, you are perfect. Ari x

That would do. Ari pushed send and knew Matteo would take care of it. It may be the last time he got to tell her how he felt. But he fucking hoped not.

For the first time in hundreds of years, he sent out a request to God, praying she chose him over scientific knowledge.

A huge, long shot.