“I do not believe that you would have come in, if we’d simply asked,” Zuben snaps.
“I guess we’ll never know.” I turn toward the door. “ I’m off.”
Diederik steps in front of me. “Who said you could go?”
“Are you saying I can’t?” Time to play my trump card. “Because if you are, I think we should talk to your boss.”
“I am his boss,” Zuben says behind me, and I try to hide my surprise. This guy has more power at DEFTA than I thought.
“I meant your boss, then,” I say to Zuben. “The CEO?” I smile at Diederik who’s fully aware of my relationship with the head honcho here.
“You have no right to—” Zuben says, but Diederik shakes his head, and steps away from the door.
“Zuben.” The fear in the big vampire’s voice is obvious. “I don’t think we want to bother the CEO about this.”
Zuben nods sharply. “I concur. It is premature to involve her, but this is not over.” He turns toward me. “My investigation has only begun, and I have a long list of thefts with which I suspect you are involved.”
“With which you suspect I am involved?” I mock his tone, and then chuckle under my breath. “Well, la-di-da. When you put it so eloquently, so formally…I almost take you seriously.” I tip my head to the side. “Still. If you chaps plan to hold me, we really should check in with the boss. Not sure if Ruben knows that Octavia and I go way back.”
Sure, not all of our history is good, but it’s well known in the city that the head of this vampire syndicate was my lover for a time, and our past relationship has gotten me out of a multitude of scrapes. Typically vampire syndicates only protect their members, but Octavia’s makes an exception for me. I’m safe in this city.
“Shall we call Octavia?” I ask again. She scares the shit out of me, but I’m sure she’d set me free. Pretty sure.
Zuben’s repressed anger and frustration are reaching a boiling point—I see it simmering under his skin, hear it in his pulse. Perhaps I’ve pushed his buttons one too many times.
“Call the CEO if you must.” Zuben’s tone is clipped and sharp. Is he not afraid of Octavia? “I have twelve other thefts about which I would like to question this pirate.”
“About which…” I chuckle under my breath.
“Look,” Diederik turns toward Zuben. “With all due respect, we need solid proof before getting the CEO involved.”
“I do have proof!” Zuben’s cheeks darken again. “Or will soon. I am certain that Octavia will agree that this suspect needs to turn over his financial records…”
“Financial records?” I chuckle. “All I know about my money is that I’ve got a shit ton of it. That’s another argument for you to work under me.” I raise my eyebrows and Zuben looks away.
Diederik shrugs. “Even with proof, we can’t hold him longer than eighteen hours without going to the judiciary committee…”
Zuben blinks at the burly security head, nods sharply, and then drops his tablet to his side and turns toward me. The Egyptian’s lashes are so thick and black they look fake.
“This isn’t the end.” Zuben steps toward me, frustration still clearly bubbling inside him. “Not the end by a long shot. Ryker Stone, you are a pirate. I will prove it, and then you will be brought to justice for your many crimes.”
His clear determination makes my nerves spark, but I raise my hands in mock fear. “Oooo, so scary!”
Diederik’s been a thorn in my side for decades, but today the asshole’s last argument is my ticket out of here. With the King’s return, the local syndicates have less freedom to interpret vampiric laws without oversight. Long live the fucking King.
The door audibly clicks.
I open it and stride down the hall, then push open the glass doors at its end and wait for the elevator. This Zuben fellow is going to be a problem for me. While the King’s return means DEFTA can’t act above the law, it also means that if Zuben goes above Octavia’s head to the Crown, she may no longer have the power to protect me.
To get leverage, I need to find out what this Egyptian vampire knows, what he cares about, who he loves—assuming robots are capable of love. Everyone has secrets, pressure points; I’ll discover his and exploit them.
Until he lets this go, I plan to stick to the robot like glue—make his life miserable.
There is no chance in hell I will ever let myself be locked up again. I’d rather die.
No… If I’m ever locked up again, I will die.
