Unawakened (40 page)

“I will make sure to assign you as much paperwork as possible in the next few weeks.”

“Not funny.”

“A man has to do what a man has to do.”

“Are you sure you’re not a vampire?”

“I solemnly swear I am not a vampire.”

I fell silent, leaning as close to Rob as I could without sprawling over his lap.

“Tell me everything that happened,” Rob coaxed. “I’ll fill in what blanks I can, though I’m afraid it won’t be much. Mr. Smith didn’t want to risk losing control of me, not even for a minute.”

One day, I’d ask Rob what would have happened if my dead boss had lost control of him. Instead of voicing my curiosity, I told him everything that had occurred after I had woken up in an elite hospital.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Gurgles, squeals, chitters, and snorts yanked me from a sound sleep. Wiggling, slimy tentacles slid across my skin, and my scream lodged in my throat. The sickening sensation of falling I usually associated with being jerked awake was accompanied by terrifying, smothering pressure on my chest.

Colby and Oliver were waging war, and my body was their battleground. The octopus used my shoulder, neck and head as its platform to launch a flurry of strikes at his macaroni and cheese opponent, who bounced on my breasts, squealing its delight.

When I had gone to sleep, I had been stretched out beside Rob, sharing our bed for the first time in a week and basking in the warmth of his presence.

Rob lounged near the edge of the bed, giving the two combatants space, his chin propped in the palm of his hand. The snorting came from him, emerging each time he aborted his laughter.
 

More squeals came from Colby, who bumped against Oliver while jiggling under the octopus’s paddling blows.

A tentacle brushed against my healing nose, and my shriek cut over their noises. Moments later, Analise and Marlene burst into the bedroom, both clutching handguns. They swept their weapons in search of a target.

Rob snorted again before his mirth got the better of him, and he dissolved into a fit of breathless giggles.

As she holstered her gun, Marlene sighed and shook her head. “Should I even ask?”

“It might be better if you don’t.” Rob snickered before clearing his throat in an attempt to restore his dignity. “Oliver’s hungry, Alexa.”

I struggled to extricate myself from the blankets without displaying my naked breasts to everyone. “Get off, both of you. Off!” I jammed my elbow beneath Colby and shoved, dislodging the dae and depositing it on Rob.

Oliver’s tentacles gripped my head while avoiding my eyes, nose and mouth, ensuring I’d need a crowbar to peel him off.

“We’ll be out in a moment,” Rob murmured, his smile bright and vibrant. “Give us a chance to get dressed.”

Both of the women sighed and left, closing the door behind them.

Rob leaned over and kissed my cheek, one of the few places my octopus wasn’t covering. “You’ll be glad to know Colby’s feeling better.”

“Good. I’m sorry you had to eat parts of a ship, Colby.”

“Not food.”

“Definitely not,” I agreed. “Have you had anything to eat?”

“Food, Mommy!”

“He devoured every scrap of food in the place, including Oliver’s breakfast. I asked Sullivan to appease the ravenous beasts by getting Oliver some breakfast and Colby a bag of apples.”

I groaned and debated between curling back up and going back to sleep or dealing with the reality of a hungry octopus waging war with my sentient macaroni and cheese.

Before I had a chance to decide, Rob got out of bed and headed for the closet, tossing a pair of jeans and a blouse in my general direction, along with a lingerie box. “Marlene brought the stuff she liberated from Mr. Smith’s property. I thought you’d like to see it. Get dressed, and I’ll see if Colby left us anything to drink.”

While Oliver refused to budge even when I insisted, he went with Rob willingly enough. Colby bounced on the bed while I dressed. I ached from head to toe in all the right ways, and sighing my contentment, I buttoned my shirt, straightened my sleeves, and wandered in the direction of the kitchen.

Sullivan was at the kitchen counter cutting a large fish into pieces. Rob lowered Oliver into his tank. The octopus adhered to the glass, the tips of its tentacles curling over the lip of the aquarium.

“You look like you’re wearing a mask,” the vampire said, grinning at me. “At least your nose isn’t crooked, right? Does it still hurt?”

“Unfortunately.”

“You don’t sound like you swallowed a bag of glass shards and rusty nails anymore, either.”

“That fish won’t poison Oliver, will it?”

“I wouldn’t poison him despite his enjoyment of spraying ink in my face.” Sullivan still had lingering dark splotches on his skin, but the vampire’s unsuccessful attempt to hide his smile reassured me he didn’t mean the octopus harm.

“Thanks for getting him breakfast.” I grabbed one of the chunks of fish, which was almost as large as Oliver, and carried it to his tank. The octopus gurgled and darted for the sandy bottom.

While I could have dumped the fish in, I lowered my hand into the water so the large chunk wouldn’t damage any of the colorful corals and seaweeds swaying in the artificial currents. Oliver snatched my offering and bolted to the other side of the aquarium.

“That octopus is going to kill himself if he keeps escaping from his tank. Don’t those things need to stay in the water?” Sullivan sighed, thunking his knife through the fish and into the cutting board. “You could have just kept him in a bucket. Did he really need such an outrageous house? I think it’s bigger than your bed, Rob.”

“Not quite. I’m okay with his aquarium being larger than my bed. That just means I have to get close and personal with Alexa every night. Maybe I should get us a smaller bed.”

“No.”

Oliver retreated with his breakfast into the coral-covered cave Rob had built for him. Bright blue movement drew my attention to the center of the tank, and my eyes widened when I realized there was something else in the water, which was coiled around a spike of pink coral.

“Rob, what’s in the tank with Oliver?” I pointed at the blue creature, which had a long muzzle like a horse and a mane of finned spines.

“She’s a seahorse.”

“She?”

“Her boyfriend is in there somewhere. He’s pretty shy, but I saw him last night for a few minutes. If they work out and you like them, I’ll find some new friends to add.” Rob crouched in front of the tank, his grin growing wider the longer he stared into the water.

“Can’t you teach your man to be a bit more moderate, Alexa? He’s obsessed with your octopus.”

“He saved her life.”

“So did you. Maybe Oliver kept her from breathing water, but you’re the one who got her back to shore. You weren’t exactly coherent, though.”

“I already told you I don’t remember much about it.” Rob rocked back on his heels, resting his hands on his knees.

A chorus of frustrated sighs answered the dae’s words. Marlene ran her hands through her hair, clacking her teeth together before saying, “Alexa, please tell him he’s being unreasonable. He’s feeling guilty you were left on your own despite him using every possible precaution to keep you safe.”

“She could have died.” The anger and dismay in Rob’s voice both worried and pleased me.

“I didn’t, Rob. It wasn’t your fault. If anything, the one at fault here is me for blowing up the boat.”

I was also at fault for refusing to harbor hope Rob hadn’t been killed, but I couldn’t force myself to tell him.

Marlene snorted. “The one to blame for everything is Kenneth Smith. He was the one who drugged you, Miss Daegberht. He was the one who attacked you and kidnapped Rob. He was also the one who was behind everything.”

“Not everything,” I corrected. “Don’t forget Arthur Hasling or Dean Lewis.”

Rob’s hands balled into fists. “As if I’d forget either one of them.”

“You might change your opinion when you see the information we found at Smith’s estate.” Marlene thumped her hand on the stack of papers on the kitchen counter. “He had become quite sloppy in recent days. I took the liberty of making copies before returning most of the originals to his estate so they could be found by the police. Some incriminating documents I kept to protect our interests.”

Rising to his feet, Rob took hold of my elbow, guided me in the direction of the kitchen, and waited until I slid onto one of the stools at the island counter. He hooked another stool with his foot and dragged it over, sitting close enough to me I would have to lean away to avoid him.

“What do you have for me?”

“Remember those invoices between Dean Lewis and Terry Moore?” Marlene flipped through the pages, pulled out a single page, and slid it to us. “Take a look at this.”

I held my breath, scanning over the paper. The format of the invoice was the same, although the copy Marlene had found lacked any information. Picking up the page, Rob examined it, the muscles of his cheek twitching.

Marlene pulled out several more sheets, tossing them to me. “You’re more familiar with his operations.”

In all my years of working with the man, Kenneth Smith hadn’t liked leaving a paper trail. He kept his most insidious schemes in his head, relying on people like me to implement his plans. His hounds were his strongest asset, his weakest link, and the ones doomed to take the fall to protect his empire.

A list of numbers, which I recognized as matching the invoices for the women’s murders, were accompanied by names, all written in Smith’s unsteady scribble. “He changed after the Dawn,” I admitted, flipping through the pages. “The only papers he used to keep were all legal. He’d never keep anything that could be used against him in his main house if he kept anything at all. We were the fall girls. If it was needed in writing, we wrote it up so no one could recognize his handwriting. This is definitely his writing, though.”

“I’m assuming the copies of the invoices were the ones you provided to him.” Marlene picked up a bunch of the papers and set them aside, pulling out a few more sheets. “He had a few extras in his files, already filled out with a name clipped to each one of them, as well as instructions. Most of them he wanted killed.”

Rob held his hand out for the pages. “Most?”

Instead of handing them to him, Marlene gave the topmost three sheets to me. “It’s a good thing he’s already dead. While Mr. Lucrage can usually be reasoned with, he is, by his very nature, rather unreasonable, especially when it comes to you.”

Rob tried to snatch the papers out of my hand. I hopped off my stool, spinning out of his reach. “No, sir, I don’t think so. It’s mine. She gave it to me. Get your own.”

“Alexa,” he growled.

“No.” I glared at him, and while he leaned over my stool, one hand bracing himself where I’d been sitting moments before, he didn’t pursue me. I turned my attention to the note clipped to the invoice.

Unlike the other invoices, the instructions outlined a plan meant to keep me under the influence of the red drug permanently with a gradual increase of dosage. My entire body shook, and the papers fluttered in my hand as I flipped over the handwritten notes describing where he wanted me held and how he wanted me trained for his pleasure.

Jacob injecting me with the red drug hadn’t been a part of the original plan. Terry Moore would have administered the initial injection. Scratches and notations detailed how my former boss had intended to change his plans to account for my working with the police.

It even mentioned eliminating Rob to ensure there were no obstacles for him obtaining what—no, who—he wanted.

My knees buckled and I sat down hard. Rob knocked over our stools in his effort to reach me, grabbing hold of the back of my neck so I wouldn’t hit my head on the floor. He pulled me close so I leaned on him, and the pages slipped out of my numb fingers.

Before Rob could make a grab for the notes, Colby darted forward and ate the evidence of what Kenneth Smith had meant to do to me.

While the shock of what had been written on the notes froze me in place and chilled me to the bone, the heat of Rob’s fury snapped me out of it. Leaning me against the kitchen island, he stood, all of his attention focused on Colby.