Page 36 of Damian’s Conquest

Angelica shrugged. “No, he was just like always. In fact, he was in an even better mood lately.” She looked straight at Damian and then at Patrick. “I mean, ever since you guys gave him such a great pay raise last month, he’s had a lot more money to spend, and I think that put him in a good mood.”

“Pay raise?” Damian asked and looked at Patrick. “Did you—”

Patrick instantly shook his head. “The last pay raises for any of the staff was in February.”

Angelica looked perplexed. “But he said he got a pay raise. And I saw the cash. I’m sure of it.”

“Cash?” Damian asked. “We pay our employees by direct deposit into their bank accounts.”

Naomi noticed a frown on Damian’s face. Could it be that Mick was the guy Mrs. Zhang had seen meeting with another person behind the club? Had he been dealing drugs after all? Clearly, Damian knew nothing about it, and from what he’d told her earlier, he wouldn’t approve of it either.

“Thanks, Angelica, we’ll look for him,” Damian promised. “Hopefully we can find something on his phone that’ll help us figure out where he is. We’ll be in touch soon.” He rose, and Angelica did the same.

“Thanks, Damian, and Patrick. I know I can count on you.” Then she went to the door and left.

The moment the door closed behind her, Damian and Patrick exchanged concerned looks.

“I’ll bring the phone to Eddie,” Damian said. “Can you talk to the staff tonight? See if they noticed anything odd about Mick lately?”

Patrick nodded. “Yep, will do.” He went to the door and opened it, then looked over his shoulder, casting a quick glance at Naomi, before looking at Damian again. It looked like he wanted to say something, but then he simply left the office.

Damian sighed. “Fuck.” He shoved the cell phone into his pocket. “Let’s go, I need to drop the phone off with our IT department.”

Her heart beating into her throat, Naomi took a deep breath. She had to tell him the truth now, because not only could she not continue lying to him, keeping information from him that might have something to do with Mick’s disappearance was irresponsible.

“I have to tell you something,” she started.

“You can tell me on the way.”

“No,” she said firmly. “It’s something you might want to sit down for. Because you’re not gonna like it. And I’d rather you not sit behind the wheel of a car when you get angry.”

Damian whipped his head to her, his gaze pinning her. At that moment, she was scared, but she couldn’t back down now. She had to tell him the truth.

“I lied to you.”

17

Naomi’s words sent a shockwave through his body. Damian froze, unable to do anything else but stare at her. He felt his breathing accelerate, and his vampire body harden, preparing itself for the worst.

“I should have told you earlier, but I wasn’t sure whether I could trust you or whether you were involved…” Her voice trailed off, and she took another breath, before continuing, “But with everything that’s happened, I can’t keep this to myself any longer. I came to your club to investigate for a story for the San Francisco Chronicle.”

Disappointment charged through him. “You used me.” His words sounded flat in his own ears, devoid of emotion. In the same instant, one thing became crystal-clear: he was in love with Naomi. In the span of twenty-four hours, he’d fallen in love without knowing how it had happened. Or when. Naomi had stolen his heart, and now she was stomping all over it.

“It wasn’t intentional. I didn’t mean for all this to happen.”

She sniffled as if she was about to break down in tears. Was that another act?

“My editor told me that there’ve been allegations of a satanic cult or of blood sacrifices taking place at the club.”

Blood sacrifices? Satanic cult? Fuck! He knew that no such thing was going on in the club, but he also suspected that somebody might have seen one of the vampires frequenting the club biting a human and assumed it had something to do with a satanic cult. This wasn’t good.

“That’s a ludicrous idea,” he protested, knowing he had to say something.

“I thought so too, but my editor wanted me to look into it, so I came to the Halloween party to look around. But I didn’t go into the storeroom, and I didn’t steal anything. I found the door to this office ajar. That’s the truth. I went inside to look around to see if I could find anything incriminating.”

He narrowed his eyes. “And did you?”

Naomi shook her head. “Not in your office.”