Page 26 of Damian’s Conquest

“Yeah, I think so.”

Damian ran a hand through his thick hair. “Last night somebody stole a crate of human blood from the storeroom at the Mezzanine.”

“Fuck!” Amaury hissed. “Did you get the bastard? Where is he?”

“No, we don’t have him.” Or her. “We got him on security footage though.”

“Then let’s bring him in and deal with him.”

“He wore a costume with a Venetian facemask. Can’t tell who it is. I already went through the entire footage from last night to see if he takes the mask off at any time, but he must have gotten in through the back.”

“How? Did you check the fingerprint scanner? Was it tampered with?”

“I checked. But it works fine, and nobody entered around the time the theft happened. He must have used a key, because I can’t find any evidence of a break-in. Same at the storeroom. It didn’t look like he used a lockpick. He was too fast for that. Had to be a key.”

“Only the employees have keys.”

“I know. Patrick talked to the coat check girls and Tanja, and I already spoke to Sam and Andrew. They all had their keys on them at all times. Nobody could have swiped them. I haven’t reached Orlando yet. But all the staff on duty last night was accounted for at all times.”

He left himself out of the discussion. His keys hadn’t always been on him. In fact, when he’d fallen asleep after having sex with Naomi, she could have easily taken his keys, put on a disguise, stolen the blood, then returned to put his keys back. But he couldn’t tell his father that he’d been so careless. He would have his hide.

“You think that one of the staff could have stolen the case?” Amaury asked. “They would have known about the cameras, and been prepared to disguise themselves.”

“It makes no sense,” Damian said, shrugging. “Why steal a crate when they can get all the blood they need for free? And another thing: the thief wasn’t very big. Could have easily been a woman.” He could at least acknowledge that.

Amaury grunted in displeasure. “You only had three bartenders there last night?”

“Mick didn’t show up for his shift. I had to talk Buffy into filling in last minute. I’ll speak to her, but she wouldn’t have had keys to the storeroom. I mean, you don’t think that Buffy… No, that’s not even possible.”

Amaury shook his head. “Buffy would never compromise our security. But you should look into Mick. I mean, I like the guy, and I thought he was reliable, so why didn’t he show up for his shift?”

“I tried calling him numerous times. It just goes straight to voicemail. I’ll check at his home next, see if he’s there. But just like with all the other staff, I don’t see why anyone would bother stealing a crate of blood knowing we’d notice and record the theft on camera. And what would they do with it anyway, other than drink it?”

Of course, there was the other possibility. The possibility that Naomi had somehow figured out their secret, and was planning to expose them, but she needed proof and had therefore stolen the crate of blood. Still, it didn’t make sense entirely either. Why would she need an entire crate of blood? Wouldn’t one bottle suffice? A bottle that would lead back to Scanguards?

“What are you thinking, son?”

Damian shook his head. “Nothing, just trying to make sense of it. I’ll keep you posted. I’ll check up on Mick.”

“Yeah, let me know as soon as possible.”

Damian nodded and left his father’s office. Outside in the corridor, he stopped. Was it his fault that somebody had stolen the blood? If the thief was Naomi, then the answer was an unequivocal yes. Shit! What if he had put his entire family and everybody at Scanguards at risk because he’d been so lust-drugged by Naomi that he’d thrown all caution to the wind? If that was the case, then he was the one who had to make it right. He had to fix this.

13

Naomi was in the car, when Heather finally called her with the results of the lab tests.

“So, you were right. The sample you marked with a B is human blood. Blood type is A positive.”

Fuck! That meant that the label on the bottle was correct. It had said A+.

“And the other one?” Naomi asked eagerly, while stopping at a red light.

“Hmm. Not sure. I know it’s blood. But it’s neither human nor animal,” Heather said sounding baffled.

“How is that possible? Are you saying it’s synthetic?”

“No, definitely not. It’s… uh, strange. Maybe the sample was contaminated. I can run it again. Do you have another sample of the same source?”