I blinked.
That was unexpected.
“Why?”
“Whoever’s targeting us is going to realize quickly that Arthur wasn’t doing a damn thing to keep the company running. Ifyou go back to work, we think they’ll come after you.” Rhone gestured in what I assumed was the direction of Darkwood Investment. “You’ll be bait.”
“That won’t work. Vampires don’t kill other vampires. Our community is tight, and there are so many rules and regulations. Whoever the murderer is, they wouldn’t hurt me. Every other vampire in the city would turn on them.”
“This vampire could be from outside the city,” Maverick pointed out. “They could be anyone outside your office.”
I supposed it was possible that a mated pair of vampires could’ve come to town without reaching out to the founding families or the Guild. Mated vampires only fed from each other, so they could stay hidden in ways those of us without a partner couldn’t.
I folded my arms over my abdomen, not sure what I should and shouldn’t share with the wolves. I wanted to stay alive, but I didn’t want to fuck my family over.
“Why are you so sure the killer’s not inside the office now?” I asked.
“They killed Arthur,” Rhone said. “If they were killing out of hatred, they wouldn’t bother with him. He’s hardly ever there. There are plenty of other difficult people who are there every day.”
That was a fair point. Everyone in the office would be glad if Celeste was gone. We all hated Arthur, but with how infrequently he was there, he was the lesser evil.
“When did he come back to the office?” I asked.
“Friday,” Maverick said.
That was the same day Steven’s body was found.
“Did everyone work the weekend to get everything settled with that deal?” I checked.
He bobbed his head. “We found his body this morning, drained and in his office just like Steven’s.”
“Then everyone was dealing with him for six entire days. Have you ever been around Arthur for six days in a row?”
Both men’s foreheads creased.
“No,” Maverick said.
“He’d probably be dead if you had. Steven paid me more than any of the other assistants just for dealing with him, even before I was doing his job, and Steven was an asshole.”
“But anyone who worked in the office would know that he was useless. We didn’t even know that.” Maverick gestured himself and Rhone.
“So you decided without evidence that your investment company is being targeted, even though this could just as easily be a case of workplace violence?” I pressed. “And you want me to be bait?”
“It’s the easiest way to test the theory,” Rhone explained. “We also need you to fix the mess Steven made.”
My eyebrows shot upward. “The compliance mess? I don’t think you understand what you’re asking. I’ve spent the last fewyearsfighting with Steven about doing the bare minimum paperwork, and I was never officially trained to do any of it. When someone makes your company compliant, you’re going to lose alotof money in fines, and it’s going to take alotof time.”
“We talked to an advisor. The fees are going to get worse if we let them keep building up,” Rhone said. “You have the best understanding of what needs to be done and where the company is at. One of your coworkers showed me your organizational system. No one in the whole department could even figure out how to read the damn thing.”
“I’m decent at my job.” I paused. “Well,Arthur’sjob. We would stay on top of all the current requirements if Steven wasn’t such a bastard. Getting caught up on the stuff Arthur didn’t do before I was there is a different beast.”
“So we hear,” Rhone said.
“I’m sure you can find someone with actual qualifications to do it better. The only way this situation gets worse for me is if I go back to that office as everyone’s nightmare.”
Maverick nodded. “We tried to hire someone else. Three different consultants saw the mess and refused. You should’ve seen the look of horror on the last one’s face when she looked at the list one of the previous guys made. It was comical.”
Yeah, I could see that.
