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I’d know that deep, rasping tone anywhere. Like nails dragged down a chalkboard.
“Mr. Adalwulf. What can I do for you?”
“You’re a difficult one to reach.”
With anyone else, I’d apologize for the inconvenience, but there’s no way I’m deferring to him. “Are you trying to get on Mr. Blackthroat’s schedule?”
“No. That won’t be necessary. It’s not him I’m interested in speaking to. It’s you. What does your schedule look like for, say, lunch? Today if possible.”
“I’m not available.” Why would Aiden Adalwulf want to meet with me? “Is this in regards to Moon Co.?”
“Oh no. It’s something I’d rather keep between us.”
“I’m not interested.”
“You sound so sure. You haven’t even heard what I’m proposing.”
“Good day, Mr. Adalwulf.” I end the call, feeling like I’ve done something wrong.
* * *
Brick
California is a clusterfuck. Which suits my mood right now. My wolf doesn’t understand why we’re not in New York or, better yet, the Berkshires. Actually, all he wants is Madi. It’s clear he’s irrationally attached to the female.
“Any change?” I ask Nickel as soon as I enter the conference room he’s set up as our office away from the office.
“None. We’re in a holding pattern.”
“What’s the issue? What’s going on with Benson Senior?”
“It’s personal.”
Madi told us it would be. She figured out the one angle we’d never think of–the human one.
“Mr. Benson would like to meet with you. Privately. My understanding is that his son went on a joyride before the meeting and disappeared. This isn’t the first time it’s happened. The last time was right before he sold his shares to Adalwulf Associates.”
“So he’s a fuck up. Another spoiled rich kid.” Supposedly I’m one of those, though I never had the luxury of fucking up. Wolves have to learn control young or be put down by their Alpha. “Did they find him?”
“They did. They traced him to a sleazy hotel in San Diego and found him a few hours later strung out and wandering a beach.”
“So he’s safe.”
“In a sense. Mentally, he’s not there. He can’t remember anything about the past few months, not even the deal. When they try to question him, he starts raving about ‘demons with glowing eyes’ that walk among us.”
I curse. “What did the Adalwulfs do to him?”
“We have a theory. Aiden tried to woo Junior to sell the shares. When that didn’t work, he took him to a leech. Had Junior mindwiped.”
A mindwipe by a vampire is a last resort. We’re taught to hide our paranormal selves from humans from birth. But if a human figures out what we are, we take them to a vampire to get their memories erased.
Mindwiping is an art, not a science. Some humans lose a few memories and forget they ever learned about a paranormal being. But if a vampire takes too many memories, the human can present as if they’ve had a lobotomy or a stroke.
Not only can vampires destroy a human’s memories, they can convince humans to do their bidding.
“The Adalwulfs have a pet vampire.” Like all wolf packs, we keep a vampire on retainer. But ours has particular rules about what he will and will not do. Alastair runs a well respected white shoe law firm that’s been in existence since before the Revolutionary War. He has fond memories of verbally sparring with Alexander Hamilton. Getting involved in a mundane business deal would be beneath him. “No self-respecting leech would stoop to toying with a billionaire’s scion just to disrupt a merger. Unless it were desperate.”
“Aiden fights dirty.”
