clothes manufacturing. They sweeten the pot to take on the risk of a failure with the cable station, but if I’ve got these figures right they leave the corporation with holdings that are just shy of majority numbers. It’s slick, but the legal department should have caught it. You might want to check and be sure everybody’s still on your payroll.' Margrit squeezed the back of her neck. 'I’d say celebrating is premature.'
Daisani curled a slow smile and stood. Everyone, including Margrit, followed suit, and Daisani opened his hands in mock apology. 'Forgive me, gentlemen, but it appears there’ll be no deal today. I’ll be back in touch after a new legal team’s examined everything.' Insufferably polite handshakes went around, more than one of the businessmen giving Margrit a sour look as they left the room. Daisani turned to her, eyebrows elevated. 'Well?'
She sat down again, rolling her head to loosen her neck. 'The tall one down the table from me was watching everything I did. He twitched and tensed up when a couple of those reports were discussed, so I started looking for the smoking gun. You could’ve lost a lot of money.'
'Unlikely. I was aware of the contract problems, but since you arrived so precipitously I thought I would see where you took things, given your head.' Daisani poured her water over a plant and brought her a new glass, ice ringing against the crystal. 'These meetings are, in part, tests.'
'For me?' Margrit’s voice shot up, offense coloring it.
'For the men I’m working with. Once in a great while someone’s honesty overtakes his avarice, or the other way around, and that tells me things I wasn’t formerly aware of. I couldn’t have made this a test for you. I didn’t know you’d be here. But it worked out nicely, didn’t it? That was very well done, Margrit, and that’s exactly why I need you. The human perspective is indispensable to me. It’s unlikely I’d have noticed the body language that tipped you off.'
'That’s flattering, but it’s hard to believe. You must pay attention to that sort of thing.' Margrit’s temper settled at the realization that Daisani couldn’t have known she’d come back during his meeting.
Delight shaped Daisani’s thin features to a sort of good looks, his smile going further to create an illusion of handsomeness. 'My first impulse is to listen for the heartbeat, the taste of fear, the bodily reactions that give someone away. These men are very good at hiding those things. I know human emotion well. I’ve studied it for centuries. But even after so long, my sense for the subtler hints of high emotion is drowned beneath the sound of a beating heart. As a lawyer, you’re trained in body language as much as legalese. And you’ve just proven that you’re willing to step up to the plate, whether you want to or not. You could have turned around and walked out of here.'
'What, and lose face?' Margrit picked up her water glass and drained it, wishing the action wasn’t so obviously a distraction. 'Besides, I needed to talk to you.'
'I’m at your disposal.' Daisani sat down, hands folded in front of him, the picture of attentive interest. Margrit set her glass aside and studied him for a few seconds, then sighed.
'Why didn’t you just tell me Russell was in your pocket?'
CHAPTER 16
Daisani went still the way it seemed only the Old Races could, all life in him stopped. A heartbeat later his eyelashes flickered, a tiny motion that in Alban would have gone unbetrayed. Fair enough; Alban couldn’t move as obscenely fast as the vampire could. They all had their strengths.
Then Daisani was in action again, standing to pour another glass of water. The frozen moment was so thoroughly vanquished Margrit half wondered if she’d imagined it. 'What an astounding conclusion,' Daisani said. 'Tell me how you came to it.'
'Oh, for-' Margrit let out an exasperated breath. 'Russell got rich off insider trading from one of your companies. He had too many cases overturned on appeal when he’d been defending Janx’s men. You both use the same phrase-that somebody’s got to keep track of the details, and you’re the best man for the job.'
'It’s hardly an uncommon phrase.'
'Eliseo.' Margrit recognized the same impatient tone she’d used with her mother a few hours earlier. Daisani tucked his chin in and lifted an eyebrow in surprise. 'You also thought there was an obvious reason for me to come to you about Russell’s death, in wake of Janx’s peoples’ deaths. You just said human intuition was indispensable to you. This is my intuition at work.'
He wet his lips, reminding Margrit unnervingly of how she’d licked her own lips, to get the vampire’s sugary, sticky blood off them. A shudder ran through her, lifting hairs on her scalp. To her relief, Daisani ignored her reaction. 'Who else have you told about this connection of dots? You’ve obviously spoken to your mother.' He was at the window, leaving Margrit to blink and try to convince herself she’d actually seen him move.
'I didn’t tell her about the Janx link. Does she know about you, Mr. Daisani?' Desperate hope drove Margrit to her feet. 'Does she know you’re a-'
'She knows I am extraordinary.' Daisani spoke to the windows, his voice reverberating softly off the glass. 'She was younger than you are now when we knew each other. There was an accident. Construction, one of those rare moments when something goes wrong. A cable snapped. I believe it was determined to be sabotage, in fact. I bought the offending company for an embarrassingly low price and sold it seven years ago at a two hundred forty-four percent profit.'
He fell silent and Margrit stepped forward slightly, afraid to interrupt. 'We were to meet for lunch that day, she and Russell and I,' he said eventually. 'She was on the opposite side of the street from me, perhaps halfway up the block. I’d just gotten out of my car and she saw me and waved. I think I saw the shadow rather than the girder itself, or perhaps my subconscious comprehended faster than my thoughts could. I pulled her to safety, though I’m afraid I bruised her ribs quite badly. My strength isn’t remarkable, but the cessation of momentum…'
He turned to offer Margrit a half smile. 'I recall it quite vividly. She’s taller than I am, you know, and she wore heels, as you usually do. I remember it very clearly, the way she looked down at me. Humans so typically refuse to believe what they see. Logic dictates that I simply must have been closer than she thought, because no one can move that fast. On the rare, rare occasions when one of us is exposed in that fashion, it’s what people force themselves to think.
'Your mother did not for one moment disbelieve her eyes. The sidewalk and steel were still ringing from the impact, and I doubted anything I said would be heard, anyway. I put my finger over my lips-' and he did, light careful motion '-and Rebecca didn’t so much as nod. She simply looked at me for what may have been the longest moments of my life, then turned away to see if anyone had been injured in the accident. No one was,' he added more brightly. 'The newspapers called it a miracle.'
'But why?' Margrit blurted. 'Why’d you risk it?'
Daisani arched an eyebrow. 'I wanted lunch.'
An incredulous laugh slipped out. 'Of course. I should’ve guessed.' Margrit flattened her hands against her mouth, then sighed. 'I haven’t told anyone about the link. I’m not even sure I could prove it if I did. I don’t imagine you’ve got any obvious connections to Janx.' Relief mingled with regret over having not told Tony more than she had. His suspicion that she was withholding information from him would only make things more difficult between them, but she couldn’t see arguing the tenuous connection in a legal case. The two rivals were linked by an ancient feud, not modern associations. A flare of irritation arose in her and she added, 'Even if you did have him get Malik to run me down.'
Daisani flashed a smile. 'But not through a traceable meeting, I’m afraid. I’m glad you haven’t mentioned this to your police officer friend. It would only complicate things.'
'Do you have any idea how much it complicates my life to not tell him? What do I get out of keeping my mouth shut? Do I get to walk away from here free and clear?'
'Is that what you want? You acquitted yourself very well earlier. I dare say you were even enjoying it.'
Margrit admitted, 'I was,' grudgingly. 'But I still feel like Russell’s death changes everything. How many more people are going to die because of this fight you two have going on?'
She saw a hint of amusement in Daisani’s eyes and knew she’d lost the bid to change the subject gracefully, but he responded, 'I told you. I’m not responsible for Janx’s losses.'
