Bitten By The Bad Boy: A Bad Boy Vampire Romance (14 page)

Chloe had her badge and access card with her, but she stood at the third set of doors that she needed to get into. There was a code for this particular door, and without her morning coffee, she couldn’t remember what it was to save her life.

“I didn’t remember the code for that door for the first week I was here either,” a voice sounded over her shoulder.

“Oh God! I almost jumped out of my skin,” Chloe cried. “How did you get behind me?”

Michael grinned. “I’ll never tell,” he said. “Don’t worry. You might as well come up with me. Apparently the final touches are being put together for your office, so it will be ready for you later in the day. And we need to talk, anyhow. I have a to-do list for you.”

They took the elevator up. When the doors opened to the penthouse, Chloe shot him a look.

“Okay, so I don’t like going into my actual office this early, so sue me,” he teased. “It’s not like I’m ever really away from work. We can get set up in the dining room.”

Chloe couldn’t help but smile when he showed her in. The dining room had dark, hardwood floors with a fireplace. There was a polar bear head (and it looked like the real thing, fangs and all) mounted above the mantle, and a bear rug just beneath. The elegant glass table, with its black, high backed chairs, seated eighteen. At the back of the room was a wooden buffet table set up with chafing dishes and carafes of coffee.

“Fix yourself a plate, grab some coffee,” he said.

“Well, this was planned,” she said. “Why?”

“Not really,” he replied. “I hope you don’t think I eat all of this by myself! The chef brings these trays up every morning, and he’ll take them back down to the cafeteria around nine. It doesn’t get wasted.”

Because she hadn’t eaten, and it seemed easier not to argue, she helped herself to a croissant and fruit salad. She was surprised when he sat down with his plate, which was heaped with some of everything. A crystal chandelier hung above the table, and for a moment she found herself staring at it.

“This is a lovely space,” she said softly, and then turned her attention to Michael. “Can I ask you a question though?”

“Yes.”

“I understand the whole thing of proximity and convenience. But you don’t feel the need to be somewhere else, where you’re not so close to work? That has to be a dream—and a nightmare—for a workaholic.”

“Are you saying that I’m worked obsessed?” He arched an eyebrow.

“I don’t know you well enough to make that judgment yet.”

“Well after you’ve been here another month or so,” he said lightly, “maybe you’ll give me your opinion then.”

“Please,” Chloe said. “I really doubt that.”

After breakfast, he actually had work for her to do, which was a relief. She hadn’t been sure that there would be. The to-do list that he spoke of had to do with handling a lot of loose ends. He brought her a laptop, pens, and a legal notepad. She emailed certain vendors, logged on to inventory websites, emailed back answers to Michael.
Who had been handling all of this before I was hired, and how long have things gone on without anyone in this position?
she wondered.

Chloe could only imagine how much worse Michael’s workload was with all these details added. A lot of her work was just tracking products and making sure that research and development had whatever they needed to operate. Chloe got comfortable and sat back, so engrossed in her work that hours later, she again didn’t hear when Michael somehow crept up behind her.

“You haven’t moved from that chair for hours now. You should go downstairs and take a walk or something. It’s a lovely day out,” he said.

She looked up at him, and for a moment was about to protest. There was something in his eyes that let her know that this wasn’t a request.

“All right, I see you giving me the laser look,” she kidded. “I’ll go now. How long would you like me to take?”

“Laser look?” he repeated, frowning.

“That thing you do with your eyes when you want me to do something right away,” she said. “It’s disconcerting.”

“Oh. Um, take an hour and fifteen. You worked straight through your morning break.”

***

“You’re having her work up here in the penthouse,” Sharla said as she walked in to Michael’s living room.

“She’s comfortable enough. Besides, how am I to train her if she’s in an office three floors down from mine?” He sat down on the arm of the couch, poised for the news that he had for her. She’d texted him only moment before, and he’d gotten Chloe out of there as soon as possible.

“Excuses, excuses,” Sharla said, hands on hips. “The child is still alive though, so I suppose I should not complain. I’m wearing my favorite heels today. Don’t make me have to come up here to figure out which incinerator I’m putting her into.”

“Speaking of keeping Chloe alive,” Michael snatched the portfolio she carried from his hands, “what did you find out about this Quinn person?”

“Preliminary information so far. I will know more in the next twenty-four hours or so. He was telling you the truth about going to school with Chloe, for one thing. High school records place him at the same school at the same time. I have no way of verifying if they were friends or how close that relationship was, not so far anyway. There were several newspaper stories about his parents who were murdered. By exsanguination. An obvious vampire kill by someone who didn’t care if people thought it was a peculiar homicide or not.

I have him being followed by some of my people. He hasn’t gone anywhere today. He’s holed up in his apartment, sleeping. I thought you’d like to know, he was spotted outside Chloe’s apartment yesterday afternoon.”

“Why wasn’t I called?” Michael got to his feet.

“Nothing happened. He was just shadowing her, and my men had instructions to kill him if he did anything threatening. Which he did not. Besides, it was your idea to leave him dangling, wasn’t it? So we can find out who his master is?”

“It was,” he admitted. “It’s so very odd. Why would a vampire use someone from her past to follow her?”

“Well. Maybe it really has nothing to do with Emerson and his research. Who knows? Maybe she just has a garden variety stalker. I don’t know.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” he accused.

“I would, honey,” she said. “Only because there would be an easier solution for that problem.”

*

Quinn didn’t have much money, but he did have enough for a decent bottle of whiskey. After seeing Chloe walking along, groceries and flowers in hand, humming to herself as she made her way to her apartment, he wanted nothing more than to curl up with a bottle. His master had warned him that he was to look, and not touch. He was not to speak a word to her, not to enter her physical space. Even though he wanted to. He stood in the shadows of the stairwell of her building, arms crossed, and his eyes tearing up.

It had been so long since he saw Chloe. He could almost pretend that everything that happened that night was a bad dream, something that never happened. But seeing Chloe again made it all real. She was the only one who knew what he went through. And to see her so comfortable, so happy? It made him angry in ways that he couldn’t even articulate. His life these last years had been anything but content. How was she able to just go on that way? What entitled her to the peace that he was never able to find?

As soon as he heard the door of her apartment slam shut, he walked down to the liquor store to buy his bottle. Over the long night that followed, he’d nursed his drink. He didn’t care about food, or water, or sleep. He was trying to erase the jumbled visions that crowded his mind, bits of memory that haunted him, repeating without rhyme or reason.

He drank until he lost consciousness, and when he woke the next morning, he got up and finished off the last of the liquor he’d somehow missed.

Quinn fought with everything in him not to remember what he found the night that he came home, all those years ago, and everything that happened to him afterwards. Despite all the other things he couldn’t remember, that night was burned into his memory. Pulling the covers over his head once more he pressed his eyes closed and hoped that the images wouldn’t come surging back into his dreams.

***

Monday and Tuesday streamed by in a flash. Both nights Chloe returned home exhausted and was in bed long before her usual hour. On Wednesday morning she was informed that her office was ready. She finally had her own space and didn’t have to go up to the penthouse! The double monitors on her new computer and comfy chair helped make her feel at ease. The one addition that she didn’t enjoy as much? Her phone. She wasn’t sure where the calls were coming from; most likely they were being redirected from the operator. Within the first hour she answered probably eleven calls from various media outlets.

Most were either looking for comments from Michael regarding news within the industry, but a few were requesting interviews. As he’d warned her, she got used to saying “no comment” and “no thank you” very quickly. Around mid-morning, the calls tapered off.

It was afternoon before her phone rang again, and this time it was Michael. “Come upstairs, please,” he said, and hung up before she could respond.

When she got to the penthouse, her heart caught in her throat. Michael was sitting on the couch, and Sharla was standing by the fireplace.

“Hi Chloe,” Michael said. “Come in. Have a seat.”

“Sure. Hi Sharla,” she said, choosing to sit on the couch furthest away from either of them.

“First off, don’t be scared. You’re not in any trouble.”

“You mean, no trouble with her job,” Sharla scoffed.

Michael gave her an angry glare, and she pretended to inspect the tips of her manicured nails. The one thing about Sharla that Chloe liked was that the woman seemed not to give two shits about anyone’s opinion. Problem was, this was the same quality that made her absolutely mean.

“Well then that is a relief,” Chloe said. “It just leaves the question of what I’m actually in trouble with.”

Sharla and Michael exchanged a look. When she turned back to Chloe, there was an actual smile on her face.

“So, of course, we’ve been sending a car for you in the mornings. Adrian’s main job is as security, and he noticed someone hanging around your apartment building a couple of times that he came to pick you up.”

“I want you to know, we take everyone’s security here very seriously,” Michael added.

“I don’t understand, why didn’t Adrian say anything?”

“Those wouldn’t be his orders,” Sharla replied. “He came to his superior officer, and when I was brought in, I put a couple of our people near your home to make sure that this wasn’t some type of threat that we should be concerned about. Since we didn’t know anything yet, I made the decision to do a little digging before making you aware. After all, there wouldn’t be any need to alarm you if this were someone that happened to live in the area, or if he was a homeless person who frequented it. We caught him on camera loitering near your home at different times of the day.”

Michael pushed a folder on the coffee table toward her. “Have a look.”

Chloe opened the file and stared at the photograph that stared back at her.

“Do you recognize this person?” Michael asked.

Chloe felt as if both Michael and Sharla had somehow drawn closer to her without moving. She felt her heartbeat slow. That feeling of chilly apathy crept up her neck and settled at the base of her head, spreading its tentacles to her temples.

“His name is Quinn Masterson,” Chloe said. “He was my high school boyfriend.”

“Has he spoken to you recently?” Sharla questioned.

Chloe shook her head. “No. I haven’t seen him since he left for college.”

“Did you have a fight? A bad breakup?” Michael asked.

“No. He just left, and I couldn’t do the long distance thing. He was always nice to me. What’s he doing hanging around my house?”

“We don’t know why he’s here, but the important thing for you to remember right now is that you cannot talk to him under any circumstances. We’re going to find out what’s at the bottom of this, that I can promise you.”

“Chloe, you’re not going to remember this conversation at all. Michael just called you upstairs to say what a splendid job you’re doing. And right now, you’re going to go downstairs and have lunch. Then you’ll go through your day as normal, and Adrian will take you home.”

“Yes,” Chloe said, touching her temple. She got up and walked to the elevator without another word.

Sharla could barely wait until the doors closed behind Chloe to speak.

“Why is she so hard to work a compulsion on?” she asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” Michael said. “It takes, but she’s about half aware that something is being done to her.”

“There’s only two reasons there could be for that,” Sharla said. “Either she is extremely hard headed. Or maybe she’s been messed with by vampires before. And I don’t mean a little, I mean a
lot
. We know this Quinn person is being controlled. What do you think the chances are that she is too?”

“Sharla, I don’t believe...”

She raised a hand. “I know you don’t. That’s okay. I’ll bring you proof.”