“You’ve got a new place already?” Chloe asked, sounding surprised.
“It’s in the Imperium’s best interest that we stay on the job, and that means having equipment and a place to lay low during the daytime.” He shifted his gaze to Olivia. “I’m sorry I didn’t call. I didn’t think.”
“It’s okay. You’re safe now.”
Campbell caressed her cheek and gave her a sad smile. “I need to go. I hadn’t planned to come back tonight.”
“Oh.” She tried to hide her disappointment. He had too much on his mind already.
“Being with me has serious repercussions, including the fact that I have my own enemies. But turns out I’m not as selfless as I’d like to be. After today, I couldn’t stop wanting to see you.”
“I’ll see you upstairs,” Chloe said, and turned away.
“Good night, Chloe,” Campbell said. “Thank you for staying with Olivia.”
She waved over her shoulder without looking back and headed for the stairs. Colin made himself scarce, too.
Campbell returned his attention fully to Olivia. “I’m sorry you worried about me. The day was chaos, and I never thought you would make the connection between the bombing and V Force.”
“Do you really have to go?” After a day of thinking he was lost forever, she never wanted to let him out of her sight again.
He nodded. “We have to follow a lead on the bombing. We think it might be the same person who is behind the kidnappings.” He ran his fingers along the curve of her jaw.
“I’m afraid if you go, I’ll convince myself the past few minutes didn’t happen,” she said.
He pulled her close and lowered his mouth toward hers. He kissed her softly, then more thoroughly, full of hunger. She responded with all the joy she felt at having him still be alive.
Campbell growled, not the scary version but rather the kind that made her want to drag him to bed. Suddenly, he broke away and took a step backward. “I need to stop now or I’m going to end up taking you up against this building,” he said next to her ear.
The thought shouldn’t have excited Olivia but it did. But enough common sense still resided in her that she knew she didn’t need to make the current situation with the diner irrevocable by having public sex with a vampire. Plus, Chloe was upstairs waiting for her. And Olivia knew part of what Campbell was feeling likely had to do with the loss of his friend, the need to feel alive after a brush with death.
“Promise me you’ll be careful,” she told him as she cupped his jaw.
“As careful as I can be.”
That would have to be enough.
* * *
Olivia went through the motions of running the diner for the next couple of days, but her only regular customer to appear was Jane. And as lovely as Jane was, she and the occasional person who had no idea who Olivia was sure weren’t enough customers to keep the diner running. Frustrated and not knowing what to do next, Olivia decided to take a day off. She slept in, had a leisurely cup of coffee then decided it was time to go see Mindy.
She tried calling, but Mindy was either out or ignoring her calls. Whichever it was, she aimed to talk to her friend today even if she had to plunk herself down outside Mindy’s apartment door and talk to her through it.
After arming herself with her gun and a knife, she headed out into the brisk wind. She kept in mind Mindy’s first rule of self-defense, always being aware of her surroundings. But thankfully all she saw were other New Yorkers going about their days.
When she reached Mindy’s apartment building, movers had the elevator filled with someone’s belongings, so she took the central staircase. A shiver went up her back as she looked back down the stairs and saw one of the guys watching her. She felt safer with the weapons and the knowledge of how to incapacitate attackers, but he still gave her the creeps. Not every bad guy in Manhattan was working for vampires. There were still plenty of garden-variety rapists, muggers and thieves, too.
She felt better by the time she reached the fourth floor, where Mindy’s apartment was one of four units. At least she felt better until she saw Mindy’s keys hanging in the door and a bag of spilled groceries on the floor outside Mindy’s apartment. Dread settled in her stomach like a cold stone.
“Mindy,” she called out as she pushed inside. Her fear ratcheted up several notches as she searched the apartment. Instinct told her Mindy was not inside, and Olivia’s thoughts flew back to those movers.
She called 911 for backup as she raced down the stairs. When she hit the lobby, she saw one of the guys loading a bulky object covered in a thick blanket. She shoved her phone in her pocket and pulled the gun from her waistband.
“Put her down,” she said with as firm a voice as she could muster when she pushed through the exterior door. She scanned the area but didn’t see the second guy.
The guy at the back of the van dropped the bundle and held up his hands. Olivia did her best to stay calm when she saw two feet in familiar athletic shoes tumble out of the end of the bundle. “Move away from her,” Olivia said, punctuating her words with the gun.
“You even know how to use that thing?” the guy asked as he took a couple of steps backward.
“You want to find out?” She would shoot him, and she wouldn’t hesitate. Not with Mindy’s life at stake.
The sound of movement behind her caught her attention just before the other man grabbed her. She forced her elbow back into his gut. He grunted but it didn’t stop him for long. She tried kicking the side of his knee, but he was too fast and she kicked open air, putting her off balance.
“You are more trouble than you’re worth,” the guy said as she spun and slipped out of his grip again. He snatched at the gun but she stepped backward out of his reach.
Unfortunately, her heel slipped off the edge of the sidewalk. The guy took advantage of her momentary lapse of concentration and grabbed her. She kicked, squirmed, tried to bite him. He managed to get his arm around her neck to limit her struggles. She noticed the other guy was shoving Mindy into the van, so she lifted the gun still in her hand and aimed for the biggest target, his chest. When she pulled the trigger, the other guy flew backward and lay still. Mindy dropped halfway out of the van. She didn’t try to free herself, so they must have drugged her or knocked her out.
Fear zipped through Olivia a moment before the guy holding her cursed and covered her mouth with a cloth. Despite his tight hold on her, she struggled to get free as the world around her started to fade and then went black.
* * *
For a couple of days after the bombing, Campbell’s team got their new headquarters up and running. Though they all wanted to take Salmeri apart chunk by chunk, they knew they had to go in with a solid plan that would ensure they were getting the right guy and he didn’t go free this time. So at night they ferried computers, cabling, office furniture and a new collection of weapons into the mansion. During the day, they set everything up and used the new supply of holy water Chloe had delivered to Ray to bless their shiny new handcuffs.
“What’s the plan?” Kaja asked as she sat on the edge of Campbell’s desk.
He looked up from where he’d been coordinating with Team 2’s leader, Matt Calloway, on a combined visit to one Nicky Salmeri. In the midst of setting up the new base of operations, Campbell had been beating the bushes extra hard, too. Turned out that Nicky was part owner of that new club where Campbell and Colin had convinced Charlie Benson to be a little more forthcoming with his intel. Universal Donor—Campbell still hated that name.
A Souled vampire witnessed the abduction of the teenage boy through his building’s video security feed. He’d recognized the driver of the van as one of the bouncers from Universal Donor. That’d been the one break they’d needed. But they couldn’t go in stakes raised without planning this down to the tiniest detail.
“Team 2 will be holding down the exterior, making sure no one leaves. We will go in and spread out. Word is Nicky likes to hang at the club early in the evening, so we’ll set up a perimeter and only go in after we see him.”
“When is this going down? Because I want to make short work of this creep and get the humans back where they belong.”
“Have some heavy-duty shopping to do?” Len asked as he strolled by to his desk.
Kaja gestured at the ratty jeans and Yankees T-shirt he was wearing. “You ought to think about doing some of your own.”
