Page 77 of Damian’s Conquest

Zane shrugged. “Didn’t want her to wander off, particularly without a visitor’s badge.”

“Like you’re one for following the rules.” Zane had broken plenty of them in the decades he’d been with Scanguards.

Naomi rolled her eyes. “When you’re both done whipping out your dicks to compare who’s got the bigger one, maybe we can go and snatch the thief?”

Damian turned his gaze to her, surprised that she didn’t seem to be the least bit intimidated by Zane, and—admittedly—by their excessive display of testosterone.

“Gotta say,” Zane said with something that looked almost like a smirk. “She’s got cojones.”

Despite his annoyance with Zane, Damian grinned. “Yep, she does.” He reached his arm out to take her hand. “We’re meeting everybody upstairs.”

As they walked down the corridor to the elevator, and Zane went in the other direction, Naomi leaned closer to him. “That guy scares the shit out of me.”

“Yeah, he has that effect on people. Zane’s not known for his congeniality.”

“No joke,” Naomi said. “So, what’s gonna happen to Wei Guo now?”

“We haven’t decided yet. Gabriel is gonna make sure he’s not in cahoots with the thief, and while we’re trying to find Mick and Tracy, we’ll keep him locked up here so he can’t interfere in any way.”

“You have a prison here?”

“Not a real prison, no. The vampire prison is in Grass Valley, and only vampires are incarcerated there. But we have holding cells in this building.”

“Are you kidding me? There’s a vampire prison?”

They stepped into the elevator, and Damian pressed the button for the top floor. “Yep. Just like humans have their bad apples, our society does too.” He pulled her closer to him. “You must be tired. But I hope all this will be over soon. And then you and I will spend twenty-four hours in bed without any interruptions.”

“That’s no guarantee for sleep.” She winked.

“I can guarantee you it’ll be better than sleep.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Before he could sink his lips on hers, the elevator doors opened on the top floor.

In the small conference room, several vampires and hybrids were already assembled. The monitor on the wall showed a live feed of the front entrance of a small house.

“Now that everybody is here,” Samson started, “Grayson, bring us up to speed.”

The video on the screen moved, and Damian realized that it was coming from Grayson’s cell phone. He and Cooper were outside the suspect’s home.

“Okay, this is what we found,” Grayson said. “The thief’s car is parked right outside the house and fits the description Gabriel gave us, right down to the bumper sticker. From the info we got from Eddie, the car is registered to a Ralph Lassiter, and the yellow house you see here is the address on the registration. We got here about an hour ago, and so far, we haven’t seen anybody enter or leave. There is an attached garage, but I don’t think this place has a basement where he could keep a vampire out of sunlight. It’s possible he’s using the garage, but when I did a walkaround, I couldn’t smell anything that would lead me to believe that Mick is inside.”

“What neighborhood are you in?” Damian asked.

“Outer Richmond.”

“Yeah, most houses there don’t have a basement,” Damian said.

Grayson continued, “Eddie, do you have more details on this Ralph Lassiter?”

Eddie sat at the conference table, his laptop in front of him. “Couldn’t find much. The house is a rental. He’s the only one on the lease. Couldn’t find any W-2 or any other source of income for him. At least not for the last two years. Before that, he worked as an auto mechanic. The garage he worked for, Ken’s Motors in Hunter’s Point, went out of business a while ago. Ralph seems to be unemployed right now.” He clicked a remote control, and the screen split. Grayson’s live feed was pushed to one side, and a driver’s license appeared on the other. “That’s Ralph Lassiter. He’s twenty-nine. I can’t find anything on social media about him. I’ll dig deeper, but so far, that’s all I have on him.”

“Grayson, is there evidence that the house is occupied?” Damian asked.

“Yes, I could hear water running a little earlier. He probably took a shower. Not sure how much longer Cooper and I can wait around here. People are starting to leave their houses to get to work. We have to make a decision. Go in or wait?”