“I’ve no doubts, Jameson,” Dorian replied. Then, in a low voice, “Keep the GPS activated. I’ll be right behind you.”
Chapter Forty
Charley could not stop shaking.
She was so livid, so out of her damn mind with rage, she could barely think straight, let alone get her body to cooperate. It was all she could do to give Jameson the address change, and hope like hell he didn’t rat her out to Dorian.
She was in enough trouble with the vampire as it was. Thelastthing she needed was Dorian finding out she didn’t go home, after she’d insisted over and over she needed to get back to Sasha.
Leaving Ravenswood, she had every intention of doing just that. But halfway across the Tappan Zee Bridge, she’d gotten a call from a frantic, freaked-out Sasha that changed everything.
Rudy had shown up at Perk today during Sasha’s shift, where he proceeded to order a cappuccino, plop his sketchy ass at the counter, and lurk.
For five fucking hours.
He’d peppered her with questions about her dating life, about Charley’s, about whether Charley’s so-called “new boyfriend” had ever been to their Park Avenue penthouse. He wanted to know if Sasha realized her sister was “whoring around” upstate this weekend, and if she’d heard from their “slut of a mother” lately. He told Sasha she was a stunning young woman—that their mother was a fool to toss a girl like her into the trash.
Sasha was so rattled, she didn’t even leave when her shift ended—she picked up a double, just so she wouldn’t have to exit the café until Rudy was long gone.
Now, hours later, Charley barreled out of the elevator that led to his apartment, damn near kicking down the door.
After a barrage of knocks and kicks, Rudy opened the door, his smile greasy and smug. “And the succubus returns. I wondered when I might hear from you.”
Beyond the entryway, Travis sat on the couch with a beer, shaking his head. “Not cool going off the radar like that, Charley.”
“I lost my phone,” she said.
“In Redthorne’s bed?”
Charley rolled her eyes. God, she wanted to throttle them both. After everything she’d witnessed this weekend, everything she’d learned from Dorian about the creatures that lurked in the shadows, Travis had been downgraded from a snake to a roach—an annoying pest who needed a good dose of Raid.
Rudy needed a dose too, but unfortunately, he was still the boss—one Charley had to appease, even when all she wanted to do was set him on fire and shoot his crusty ashes out of a canon.
“Come in, Charlotte.” Rudy’s smile fell away, his eyes dark and sinister. “I hope you have something worthwhile to share, for your sake and for Sasha’s. Did she mention we spent some time together today?”
Looking at him now, his hair slicked back, his calculating eyes, Charley wanted to claw his skin off, hold a knife to his throat, and give him a glimpse of the fear he’d instilled in Sasha.
But as furious as she was, she no longer wanted to tear him a new one.
That’s whathewanted—confirmation that his tactics worked. That he’d gotten to her.
Fuck that.
With a curious smile, she said, “Oh, really? I thought Sasha had to work today.”
Rudy’s jaw ticked. “I dropped by Perk to say hello.”
“Huh. I spoke to her earlier, but she didn’t mention it. She gets a lot of customers, though—hard to remember just one.”
Even if that oneisa filthy, dickless scumbag who thinks preying on young girls makes him powerful…
He grunted out something that might’ve been a laugh or a warning or even indigestion, glaring at Charley with another silent threat. For a moment, she said nothing—just glared right back, wondering how such a human stain could hold so much sway over her life.
Her father may not have been up for any model citizen awards, but Charley was damn sure he’d never stand for his brother and former second-in-command treating his daughter and her sister this way.
But her dad was long gone, and unlike Dorian, Charley didn’t have super strength and immortality on her side. If she wanted to take back the reins of her wildly out-of-control life, she was going to have to do it herself—one small victory at a time.
Starting with taking charge at this meeting.
