Release Me When the Sun Goes Down (17 page)

There were other more immediate things to worry about though.  “Anyway, there’s no sense in borrowing trouble where that’s concerned.  I actually had a more specific reason for calling you.  Did you notice the part in the email where I mentioned killing a guy in the morgue when I first woke up?”

“Yeah, why?  Didn’t the boys take care of that for you?”

“No, they did.  They made it look like an accident, but I need you to do a favor for me.  I want to do something for his family.  Can you have one of our lawyers draft up something that gives them a chunk of money?  Maybe they can make it look like some kind of extra insurance policy or a trust fund for the son?  And it should take care of all funeral expenses too.”

“Sure I can, boss.  But why?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do.  I just don’t want the money traced back to me.  Can they do that?”

“Sure, I’ll make some calls tomorrow night, will that work for you?”

“Yes, that’d be great, thanks.”

Bridget grabbed the phone.  “You want me to come back and lay a smackdown on the guy?  I don’t give a fuck about vampire law.  Nobody messes with my girl.”

Her bravado made me smile again, and I could totally picture her going up against Lodinn.  It was funny until I got to the part in my imagination where he broke her with a flick of the wrist.  “No, you stay put, we’ve got it covered.  Thanks though.  But you should definitely come up for a visit when this all blows over.”

“Screw that, let’s meet up someplace good.  Like… Modesto.”

“
Modesto?”  I had to have heard her wrong.  “That’s your idea of someplace good?”  Not that I had anything against the city, but it wasn’t high up on my fantasy destinations.

“Duh.  We go to
Paris and everything costs an arm and a leg.  We go to Modesto and I’m a fucking queen on my allowance, you feel me?”

It made sense in a weird way.  “Yes, I feel you there, Bridge.  We’ll definitely have to do a girls’ weekend to
Modesto one of these days.”

“No doubt.  Listen, I gotta go, Felix is giving me the eye, you know?”

“I sure do.  Have fun.”

“Laters.”

It was starting to get late, and I shuffled into the kitchen to make myself a cup of cocoa before I tackled the rest of the paperwork.  I almost screamed when I heard the creak on the back stairs in the dark, but it was only Maggie who snapped on the lights, blinking in the glare. 

“Sorry, did I startle you?”

“A little,” I admitted, shaking it off.  “It’s late, shouldn’t you be asleep?”

“I already slept much longer than I should have, really.  Now my clock is all wonky.”  She sure didn’t look it
– there were dark smudges under her eyes and she looked paler than normal.   

“How are you?” I ventured, not sure if she was up for talking. 

“To be honest I’m a bit numb.  I’ve cried all I can for now and I just feel… hollow,” she said after a long pause for the right word.

“I’m so sorry.  I wish there was something I could’ve done to stop him.”  It seemed so inadequate in the face of what she’d lost, but
Maggie shook her head, waving my apology away.

“I know that, Anja.  I know you’d have traded your own life for his if given the chance.  I don’t blame you
at all.” 

That
absolute faith made me want to tear up, but I did my best not to give into it, not wanting to make it any harder for her than it already was.  “Can I get you anything?  A cup of tea?”

“No, I can manage it myself, thanks,” she said, reaching for the kettle.  “Truthfully it helps to have something to do.  I’ll make myself a cuppa and then get back to work if that’s alright.”

“Sure, whatever you want.” 

“Would you like a cup as well?”

“That’d be nice.” 

The silence stretched between us as I took a seat at the kitchen table and she puttered around, getting the cups down and such.  Until she took a seat opposite me and I got the distinct impression that she wanted to say something. 

“You know you can talk to me about anything, right?” I prompted, when she blew across the top of her tea for the fifth time instead. 

“You know me so well,” she smiled faintly, setting the cup back down again.  “And I know you.  Which is why I have to say something before it’s too late.”

My stomach flopped over like a pancake at that.  “That sounds ominous, what’s wrong?”

“You have to see it…
you have to see the way he feels about you, can’t you?”

“What?” I blinked, not quite sure what or who she was talking about at first. 

“It’s in the way he looks at you and the way he touches you and the way he’s always there when you need him to be.  Tell me you’ve noticed.” 

All at once I understood she was talking about Rob.  She’d always known he was sweet on me, even when I was too stupid to see it myself.  But what could I say?  I shook my head, prepared to deny it, and she kept on talking. 

“I know you feel more for him too, though you’re both too stubborn to come right out and acknowledge it.  Maybe you don’t want things to change, or you’re afraid.  But you have to say something before it’s too late.” 

“It’s complicated,” I said, my standard deflection.

“No, it’s simple actually,” she insisted.  “You just have to decide if you’re willing to live with regrets or not.  That’s the worst of it, you know.  I never had a chance to tell Marcus that I loved him.”

Was that where this was coming from?  “I’m sure he knew, Maggie.”

She shook her head, staring sadly into her cup.  “I was too much of a mouse.  I didn’t want to be the first one to say it and not hear it back.  But if I had it to do all over again, I would gladly take the risk to have said it at least once.” 

I reached out to cover her hand with mine.  “Whether it was said or not, it was plain to see how he felt about you.”

“Be that as it may, I would give anything for the memory of it.  Don’t wait too long, Anja.  Complications or not, you deserve to be with who you want to, not who you feel obligated to.  If you can’t be together, at least have had the conversation about it.  You must know that Rob feels more for you than he lets on.  If you search your heart, I know you’ll find you feel the same.”  She looked so earnest, so desperate for me to find my happiness, I couldn’t resist letting her in on the secret. 

“I… we have.”  My voice dropped.  I knew I wasn’t supposed to tell a soul, but she’d obviously already figured out we had feelings for each other.  If push came to shove
, she could still damn us to Jakob even without what I was about to say.  “I’ve known how much he cares for a while now.”

Her pretty hazel eyes flew wide with surprise.  “But you never let on… I thought Bishop was courting you again.”

“He was, and I took advantage of that to paint the picture of distance between Rob and me.”

“But… why?  I don’t understand.  If you both know how you feel, then why be apart?”

“Because I’m not as free as you might think.  If Jakob found out about it, there’s no telling how he might react.  He almost killed Bishop when he first found out about us, and with Rob we’re worried he might see that as an even bigger betrayal.”

“So that’s it then?  You’ve given up?”

“No, not at all.  Jakob might control who I can see, but he can’t control how I feel and Rob knows what I feel for him is real.  For now we’re in a holding pattern, but someday I have faith we’ll be together.”

“That’s so sad.”

It wasn’t sadder than her story, but I didn’t feel like pointing it out.  “It’s alright, Maggie.  Forever is a long time, we’ll sort it out eventually.”

“But that’s just it, you don’t have forever.  Either one of you could be taken at any time.  Rob almost died, then Marcus and…”  She was getting all worked up again and I did my best to soothe her with a gentle touch. 

“Maggie… it’s fine.  I don’t know what the future will bring, but for now it has to be enough.”  It wasn’t fair and it sucked, but what else could we do about it?  Rob and I both knew that we loved each other and that was more than some ever found.  “But at least we won’t have to pretend around you now,” I smiled, giving her hand another pat.

“If there’s anything I can do to help, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Actually, I do have something you can help me with.”

“Anything,” she promised instantly.   

“Can you watch out for my sister during daylight hours?”  I could see that wasn’t what she’d thought I would ask her about, but she was intrigued nonetheless.  “I hate to say it, but for all we know Lodinn’s programmed her to kill us all while we sleep.”

“Surely not,” she scoffed.

“I’m not taking any chances.  I’ve got Mason watching over her at night, and she should be mostly nocturnal too, but on the off chance she’s up and around during the day…”

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” she vowed and I could see by the tilt of her head that it was a good thing for her to have something else to focus on. 

“Thanks, Maggie.  I knew I could count on you.”

The sound of someone at the front door startled me before I remembered that Jenessa was still out there.  Sure enough, she came in, arms laden with suitcases.  Just how long was she planning on staying? 

“I’d better get back to work, it’ll be dawn soon.  Thanks for the talk, Maggie.  I hope you know you can always come and talk to me, no matter what.”

“I do,” she smiled, offering me an impromptu hug as I rose.  “And have faith.  I’m sure that other matter will work out in the end.”

“I hope so too.” 

One thing I’ve learned since becoming a vampire – despite the ginormous cloud of crazy flying around in a person’s life driving them insane, regular old boring life keeps marching along, oblivious to your personal discomfort.  Even though I had half the people in my employ out there looking for Jakob and the other half trying to keep the people I loved safe, most of the world didn’t give a rat’s behind. 

The bureaucracy of my position didn’t grind to a halt just because I asked Felix to handle a few projects for me.  Even cancelling my regular office hours didn’t stop the flood of calls and emails from people all wanting me to attend to their personal crisis of the day now that Marcus was gone.  While I did divert more of them to Felix than I might normally have, at the same time I did want to keep busy, otherwise I’d go kazoo with nothing to do but sit around the house and wring my hands. 

Maggie dropped off my mail some time later, no doubt keeping herself busy, and I noticed the time. 

“
I should probably wake up Rob,” I decided.  It was late even for him. 

“Oh, he
’s already been up and about,” she volunteered, thumbing through some of the stuff I put in my outbox.

“
He has?”

“He didn’t want to disturb you
.  He said he had some things to take care of.”

I didn’t like the sound of that, but I’d get the truth out of him later.  “Can you do me a favor and send him in here?  I
should probably take him out to feed before it gets too late.”

“Of course, only…”  Maggie hesitated at first, but after being unable to avoid my gaze, she continued.  “I believe he’s already fed tonight.”

“Rob went hunting without me?” I squeaked, my tone ratcheting up to a level better suited for chipmunks and other small woodland creatures.  We were definitely going to talk about
that
, but I made an effort to sound more composed as I gave her a forced smile.  “Would you please send him in here, I’d like a brief word with him.”

“Yes, Your Grace,” she said with a furtive smirk, bowing her way out the door and I sat on my hands to keep from throwing a balled piece of paper after her.  Was my entire household laughing at me?  When had I lost control?
 

Rob must not have been too far as he appeared almost immediately, his face a healthy color and the set of his shoulders telling me he was pleased with himself.  “Good evening, miss,” he said with a half bow.

“Okay, so what’s with all the formality?  Did Maggie put you up to it?”

“Not quite, but she did have quite an earful for me once I rose this evening.” 

So, she’d told him about our conversation.  I hoped she’d done it without anyone within hearing distance.  From the carefree look on Rob’s face I assumed it was fine though. 

“I’ll bet,” I muttered.  “She also mentioned that you went hunting without me.  I thought we agreed that you needed someone to make sure you didn’t make any mistakes?”

“That sounds like a sure case of Chinese whispers if ever I heard one.  I did nothing of the sort.  Just had a bite to eat around here is all.”

And that was supposed to make me feel better?  “You drank from Maggie?”

“Course not,” he scowled, offended I’d even suggest it.  “I had some from Davey, one of the humans on the security detail.  He didn’t seem to mind and I told him there’d be a bonus in his next pay packet.”

It was a good arrangement, I supposed, but I couldn’t help but feel like he should’ve asked me about it first.  “Okay, but you still should’ve called me.  What if you’d taken too much?”