Grudges

Vicki Corcoran’s POV

I looked out the window of the Range Rover as we drove away. “What do you think? Is Alessandro going to screw us over?”

Nicholas squeezed my hand. “We’ll keep our eyes open, but I don’t see things as skeptically as she does.”

“How long until we get to the meeting spot,” I asked the driver.

“Twenty minutes, depending on traffic,” the man said.

Nicholas and I continued to talk strategy as we got closer, pretending to be looking at the city we’d never visited. We headed towards the downtown skyscrapers before turning off the road and headed towards a more industrial area. We took a few turns, then pulled into a lot behind a two-story industrial office and warehouse building. “What’s this?”

“Out of the way meeting spot,” the driver said. The rollup door to the warehouse was already opening, and he pulled inside. Racks of electrical equipment, boxes, and spools of electrical wire surrounded the area we parked. “Let’s go,” he said.

Nicholas opened the door before helping me out. The driver was waiting for us in front of the Range Rover. I was looking around for others when I heard a gunshot.

Looking forward, I saw the driver with a big pistol out, shifting his aim from the other security man to us. Nicholas reacted first, pulling me behind him as a second shot rang out. I could feel through the link as my mate shook off the intense pain of a gunshot wound and readied himself to charge the shooter. “Love you,” he said as he let me go.

“STOP,” a loud female voice said. The driver froze, his pistol still pointed at us. Faster than my eyes could follow, a vampire came into the room and grabbed me by the arms. I struggled, but it was no use. She was a Master Vampire, and she wasn’t alone. Master Caroline Grey, the Coven leader in the Los Angeles region, held me with a steel grip.

“NICHOLAS,” I screamed as he fell to his knees, his hands covering the entry wound on the right side just below his ribs. I could smell his blood as it spilled out, and I was panicking.

“We meet again,” a familiar voice said as he walked out from behind the racks of equipment.

“Timothy Lords! I’ll fucking tear you into pieces for this!”

He laughed and shook his head. “No, you won’t.” He held up a combat dressing. “Your mate is seriously wounded; from the bleeding, the bullet must have hit his liver. I’d give him about three minutes until he loses consciousness, five until he dies, unless I help him.”

“Don’t do it,” Nicholas said before he rolled onto his back, his fingers unable to stem the blood.

I couldn’t let him die; I’d give up everything to save my mate. I made my decision. “What do you want?”

“Swear to me you will do as I ask, and I will save his life.”

What the hell would he ask? “FINE,” I said. “I swear to Luna I will do what you ask.”

He tore the dressing open, removing the packet of fast-coagulating powder. Working quickly, he tore open Nicholas’ shirt, pouring the powder into the bullet wound, then placed the battle dressing over it. He applied pressure with his hand, causing Nicholas to groan, but the bleeding had slowed rapidly. “Master?”

Caroline walked me over to where the driver stood frozen, unable to move. “What did you do to him?”

She chuckled. “Master Alessandro was foolish to assign humans to a protective detail. Once I found out where you were staying, it was easy for me to entrance one to do my bidding. I had him bring you here and eliminate his partner for us.” She looked at the driver, whose eyes were blank as she held his will. “Don’t even think about disobeying or turning on me. I’ll peel the flesh from your mate as I make you watch.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything.

“Give her the gun,” she ordered the driver as she let me go.

The man took hold of the Glock barrel with his free hand, holding out the pistol to me grip-first. “Take it,” she told me.

I took it from him, and it slid instantly into the correct hold, the years of firearms practice at Leo’s place, making the grip automatic. I kept the pistol pointed down in a safe direction, my trigger finger along the side, the same way I’d trained.

“Whatever she wants, don’t do it,” Nicholas begged me.

“I have to; I can’t lose you!”

“Shoot him in the head, and the two of you will leave here alive. Refuse, and you watch him die before I drain you,” Caroline told me as she stepped back.

I turned to her, shocked at the command. “WHAT?”

“He knows too much of our kind, Vicki. Shoot him in the head. I won’t tell you again.” I looked at her as the enormity of what she asked hit me like a sledgehammer. Timothy chose that time to push down on Nicholas’s wound, making him scream out in pain.

I didn’t have a choice. Raising the pistol with one hand, I pointed it at the man’s temple and fired. The gunshot echoed through the building as his brains splattered against the equipment on the racks. He dropped to the ground like I’d cut the strings holding him up.

“Did you get that,” Timothy asked.

“Oh, yeah,” a woman’s voice said as she walked out from behind the racks. “You look fantastic on camera, Vicki. I’m sure all your fans will love this when you go on trial for murder.”

Oh, Luna, what had I done. I dropped the pistol to the ground, and Traci Lords came over and picked it up in a gloved hand. She had photos, and now she had a murder weapon with my fingerprints on it. My ex-mate and his wife were gloating, knowing I’d spend the rest of my life in prison if I didn’t do as they said.

I looked down at Nicholas, who was pale and weak, then over to Timothy. “What do you want?”

“I want my birthright back, Vicki. I’m a Mantled Alpha without a Pack now. You took away my future, my fortune, and turned the North American Council against me.”

“Your choices did all that, Timothy. If you’d kept your dick in your pants until you mated, Traci’s son would have your mantle, and you’d still be the Pack heir. Raping an underage Monique Robinson happened before we ever met!”

“And that is the first issue you are going to help me correct,” Timothy said. “I want to know where Monique and her son Tyler are and who is protecting them.”

There was only one reason to ask, and that was to kill them. If Tyler died, the mantle he inherited from Timothy would move to his new heir, the son he’d just had with his choice-mate Traci. “I don’t know where they are,” I said. “I swear! I had nothing to do with that!”

“Your Aunt Adrienne knows. Call her and find out.” I hesitated, and that was enough to cause Timothy to press down again.

“Nicholas?”

“Say no, and it ends with us,” he said.

“Adrienne will know something is wrong if I ask. I need to buy time,” I sent.

“Fine.” I pulled out my phone and dialed my Aunt.

It was hours before sunrise back in Miesville, but she answered quickly. “Vicki? How’s Sydney?”

“We just got here, and we haven’t done any exploring yet. It’s beautiful, though,” I said. “Why are you up?”

“My internal clock’s still screwed up from the time changes, so I’m down by the aquarium, reading a book and sipping coffee.”

“I need your help, Alpha Adrienne.” In my old Pack, we had pre-arranged emergency codes; unless it was a formal introduction, using ‘Alpha’ in a private conversation meant I was under duress. “I need Monique Robinson’s address.”

“Why?”

“You know I want to make sure my Pack has the opportunity to find their mates, but I realized Monique would never be able to attend a scratch ’n sniff while in hiding. I’d like to send her a formal invitation to come down here for a private visit, where I could bring my unmated males to meet her. I’m sure you’re moving her periodically for safety, so why not thousands of miles away? Nicholas and I will make sure she’s safe here.”

“That could work,” she said. She rattled off an address. “She’s staying with Paul and Lois Temple down in Lake City.” Paul and Lois were retired teachers from the Miesville Pack who lived in a condo overlooking Lake Pepin.

“Thanks, I’ll get in touch with them as soon as possible. Bye, Alpha.” I hoped to Luna that she figured out something was wrong. “I did what you asked, now get him to a hospital!”

“Not yet,” Traci said. “Our people will take care of his bastard child, but all this takes money. Money that you are going to send to me. Get out your phone, and get ready to make a bank transfer.”

“While you’re setting that up, I’ll take what I need,” Master Caroline said. She bit down into my neck, her fangs puncturing the artery just below. I could feel her sucking my blood into her mouth and swallowing over and over as I weakened. I almost hoped she’d take too much, but she stopped and licked the wound to stop the bleeding. “Perfect. Master Alessandro’s reign will end tonight.”

She walked out, the door closing behind her as I pulled up my banking information. “They’re going to kill Alessandro AND us,” Nicholas said.

“I’ll delay,” I said. I pulled up my banking information, but for the account used for personal expenses. “How much is the transfer?”

“All of it,” Traci said. “Wait, where’s the fucking money?”

The account had over a quarter-million dollars in it. “What do you mean?”

“You’re a multi-millionaire,” she said. “Where is the rest?”

“My accountant has it in stocks and bonds,” I said.

“Well, GET IT.”

I shook my head. “Transferring those funds takes electronic approval from me AND my accountant and takes seventy-two hours to process. This account is all the cash I have.”

"Fine, we'll get that later. Transfer it to this account." She pulled up a routing number and account on her phone; I went through the steps required to set up the bank transfer and was about to confirm the transaction when the lights went out.

I reacted quickly, slapping her gun to the side as I lunged forward and wrapped my arms around her waist. Lifting with my hips, I drove her to the ground, my shoulder knocking the wind out of her. I heard her head bounce off the concrete floor and her groan of pain. She tried to roll away, but I wasn't having that. Moving up her body, I got her in a reverse naked choke hold while my legs wrapped her waist.

A door slammed open, and I heard someone shouting my name before a single gunshot rang out. Blood sprayed over me as I watched the men running towards me.