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I sighed. “That bad, huh?”
This made Jack laugh. “I can’t get anything by you.” He dragged a hand through his dark hair and walked down the stairs to meet me. “Whoever is sabotaging you all is good near perfect. I’m going to have to call in a favor just to get a trace on the money. Then I can’t even begin to explain the headache it’s going to take to draw all the paperwork up to put an embargo in on the other company trying to buy the other businesses.”
“Sounds like fun.” I grimaced.
“This is the kind of thing I live for,” Jack chuckled, stepping down another step closer to me. “I don’t get this kind of action in Seabrick. It’s all real estate closures and divorces. The real corporate cutthroat stuff is in the big cities.”
“Why don’t you move then?” Allister said with a hint of violence in his voice.
Jack met Allister’s gaze as if he was just now seeing him. “I like small-town living. You know everyone and their dirty little secrets.” When Allister and I tensed, Jack threw his head back and laughed. “I’m just kidding. I’ve never been one for intrigue unless it’s on television. I wouldn’t want a knife in my back.”
“Or a pair of fangs,” Allister whispered so low that Jack couldn’t hear it.
I shot Allister a look before turning my attention back to Jack. “I know what you mean. Well, I’ll let you get back to work. I have my own to do as well.”
Jack inclined his head and moved to pass me on the steps. I waited until he was at the bottom of the steps before giving Allister one final look and then making my way up the stairs. When I hit the top step, the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” Jack answered, changing his trajectory from the dining room to the front door. The figure behind the door was unfamiliar to me. Was it the hunters? Had they come to kill our family?
“Allister,” I called out to him, worried for his safety. Unfortunately, I only distracted him from the door and who stood behind it.
The door opened, and a cloaked figure darted in, shoving himself and Jack into the room and out of the sunlight. The hood fell back seconds before his fangs sank into Jack’s neck. Bright green eyes flashed, and deep auburn hair falling over a face I had just spent half an hour fantasizing over how to kill in the most painful way possible.
“Morpheus,” I hissed, wanting nothing more than to rip his head from his spine. I made my way down the stairs, my eyes locked on the intruder not because he was killing Jack, but because I wanted to hurt him myself.
“Piper!” Allister shouted, stalking the line of the doorway where a massive streak of sunlight blocked his path from getting to Jack. I ran down the stairs and shut the door, keeping a wide distance from Morpheus. No matter how much I wanted to kill Morpheus, I didn’t have any weapons, and against someone as old as him, I was likely to die before I got a hit in otherwise.
The moment his path was cleared, Allister shot across the foyer and crashed into Morpheus. Jack dropped to the ground in a boneless heap, and I knew before I even got to his side that it was too late. Jack’s neck was savaged, not just bitten to feed but to hurt. Morpheus had damn near bitten through his neck, leaving Jack’s eyes wide open, his mouth agape as if in mid-scream. He hadn’t had a chance to scream, though. It all happened too fast. I grew angry. Angry for all that Morpheus had done against my family. For what he had done to me the last time I was at his club. And finally, for what he had done to Jack. He had to be stopped. Dead. Not by the hunters’ hands. By mine.
Allister struggled with Morpheus, rolling around on the ground of the living room. Drake came out of the kitchen, saw what was happening, and came to Allister’s aid. Drake grabbed Morpheus by one arm and Allister the other, but he was too strong for them to pin him down long enough to stake the bastard.
I grabbed a wooden chair sitting against the wall and slammed it against the back of the couch, breaking off an arm . The end was splintered enough that I would be able to drive it through Morpheus’s heart, and it would all be over.
As I stalked over to the vampire in question, Morpheus’s eyes widened, moving from side to side with desperate need. “No, don’t. Please.”
“Why shouldn’t I?” I growled, twisting the wooden piece in my hand. “Your club is attacked the same night that Allister is there. Then your bartender tells them that all those murder victims were his dates. Tell me? Doesn’t that sound like a conspiracy to you?”
Morpheus shook his head from side to side. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it.”
“Hurry up, Piper,” Drake growled, fighting to keep his hold on him. “He’s way older than us. We can’t hold him long.”
I grinned. “Oh, it will be my pleasure.” I took a step forward, lifting the homemade stake in the air, prepping to give him the final blow.
“You can’t kill me,” Morpheus tried once more.
“I think you will find I can.” I tensed to bring the stake down when he stopped me once more with two words.
“The council,” Morpheus cried out, pulling at his arms and trying to break free. “It’s the vampire council.”
I frowned and looked at the twins.
Drake shook his head. “He’s lying. The council wouldn’t do this. Not so indirectly.”
Morpheus swallowed. “Yes, they would. They tipped off the hunters to my club because I helped you find your sire.”
My lips pressed together tightly, my brows bunching together. “What does that have to do with Allister?”
“Who do you think is trying to frame him,” Morpheus grunted. “It wasn’t my bartender. He’s not a vampire, but he is capable of being bribed or compelled to point the finger in Allister’s direction.”
