AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I smiled, a cheerful professional through and through. “No problem.”
As I pushed myself to my wobbly legs, a thought occurred to me, a question that, frankly, I was embarrassed I hadn’t thought of earlier. Ophelia had already lost interest in my presence and was playing FreeCell.
“Actually, Ophelia, I have a question.”
She didn’t look up.
“Regarding that private information,” I added. She glanced up through her long sable eyelashes, looking vaguely interested. “I was thinking about expanding my services to the Council. I noticed that new vampires get a welcome basket when they arrive in the Hollow. I could deliver them when I drop off the new-client contracts.”
Ophelia lifted a brow. “I’m afraid that wouldn’t work. The point of the baskets is to give the Council an excuse to make contact with recently relocated vampires. Would that I could assign you the task. The Council representatives take turns making the deliveries, and it’s increasingly tedious sending them reminder notes. They try to weasel out of it—shameless, really.”
“Really?” I smiled. “Well, that’s too bad.”
“Yes, the lack of whining would have been a refreshing change of pace,” Ophelia muttered.
I stepped away from her desk but turned back on my heel toward her so I could reach the point of this line of conversation. “Just out of curiosity, who was assigned to deliver Mr. Calix’s welcome basket?”
Ophelia gave me a stony look. “You mean the client you never met and who no longer contracts your services?”
I nodded. “I was just curious. They left a bit of a mess, and I had to clean it up. I thought you’d want to know.”
Catching the potential double meaning, Ophelia clicked a few keys on her keyboard. She frowned. “There’s no name on the schedule.”
“Well, that’s interesting,” I said in an intentionally bland tone.
“Indeed,” she said. “I’ll look into this. Thank you for bringing this scheduling issue to my attention, Iris.”
I wrapped the tote handle around my fingers and wondered how soon I could bolt without being rude.
“Run along now,” Ophelia said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Asked and answered.
—
I stepped out of Ophelia’s office, tucking the bag under my arm like it was a treasured infant. I rushed around blind, heedless of whether I would be seen as I ran through the maze of hallways. I mulled Ophelia’s revelation, worrying it like a loose tooth. Cal said that the tampered blood was delivered to his house before he arrived, which was clearly a break in the usual Council protocol. If Ophelia could track down who was assigned to the task, maybe we could figure out—
I ran smack into a wall of cold, unyielding man, bouncing off of him and into a wall.
I let out a stunned huff as I pitched forward. My nose was pressed into a stiff suit jacket that smelled of woodruff. The scent made me want to gag, reminding me of something unpleasant. I shook my head, rubbing gingerly at the spot that had whacked against the wall.
Peter Crown glared down at me, his hands curled around my arms in an iron grip. “I suppose it’s too much to ask you to show some decorum when it is absolutely necessary for you to be here?”
I nodded, looking down at my shoes. As angry and upset as I was, now was not the time to show an inordinate amount of spine. “Yes, sir.”
“Why are you here, anyway?”
I shrugged, and his hold on my arms tightened. “Just checking in with Ophelia.”
He sniffed. “I never have understood why she lets you gallivant around this office like it’s your own personal Chuck E. Cheese’s.”
A smarter person probably wouldn’t have laughed at that.
“While our fair leader seems to think of you as some sort of pet, please remember that the rest of us expect a minimum of comportment. I would hate for you to stumble into a situation that you can’t handle. Ophelia would very upset if you got hurt.”
As soon as they landed, the words chilled me to the bone. I had stumbled into a situation where I’d gotten hurt—recently, in fact. Did Mr. Crown know about that, or had he just made an unfortunately timed conversational gaffe?
He rolled his eyes at my nonresponse and pointed an imperious finger toward the nearest exit. “Leave now, before you manage to topple some lesser vampire, you silly thing.”
