House Rules (Chicagoland Vampires #7)(51)
Author: Chloe Neill

"She thinks we’re having an affair. She and Ethan had a little chat this morning. I expect he explained away whatever she thinks she saw."

"I’ll have to talk to Noah," Jonah said. "Theoretically, your cover’s been blown. Since Ethan’s no longer in the GP, it may not matter much to him. But we’ll have to assess the risk."

My stomach fell. It hadn’t occurred to me that they’d consider kicking me out of the RG because of what Lacey had seen, or what I’d confessed to Ethan.

This night was just getting better and better.

"Merit, hold on a minute, okay?"

Before I could answer, the phone clicked and he was gone. He must have been taking another call. Fifteen or twenty seconds passed before he came back again.

"I might have a solution to your House’s problem."

Hope blossomed. "What’s that?"

"The RG connection who told us about the contract bit? She says there’s quite a bit of unhappiness with the way Darius is handling things. The situation is delicate – very delicate – but she’s working it."

"She’s working it? How?"

"We have someone inside the GP."

My eyes must have been as wide as saucers. "You . . . what?"

"A sympathetic member," he said, "but that’s all I can give you right now. Let me talk it out and I’ll see what else I can get you. I’ll get back in touch as soon as I can."

"Okay," I said. "And I’m sorry. For everything."

"Things happen," he said. "They happen, and we pick ourselves up, and we get back out there."

He was definitely right about that.

The call done, I walked back into the House. Part of me wanted to run into Ethan’s office and beg for forgiveness. But he hadn’t invited me to his office, and I didn’t expect I’d be welcome. I imagine he had enough on his mind without his girlfriend’s presumptive betrayal staring him in the face.

I decided to visit the Ops Room, but stopped at the stairs when someone called my name.

"Merit."

I glanced over. Michael Donovan stood in the hallway near Ethan’s office. He frowned when he saw me. "Are you all right? You look pale. Well, paler than usual."

"It’s been a long night. I suppose you’re brainstorming?"

He held up a bottle of Blood4You. "Yeah. We’re looking at the contracts, trying to figure out a way to turn them around on Darius."

I nodded. "I need to get downstairs. Good luck with that."

"Good luck with your business," he said, offering a wave before he disappeared into Ethan’s office again.

When I made it to the basement, I didn’t find the mood in the Ops Room to be much better than mine was.

Juliet and Luc sat at the conference table together, both reviewing the House’s evacuation procedures. Unfortunately, that they were reviewing evac procedures didn’t say much for our chances when Darius showed up again with his hired thugs.

Lindsey sat at one of the computer monitors, and she looked around in concern when I walked through the door. It wasn’t hard to imagine that my mood was throwing off unpleasant magic.

"How bad was it?" Luc asked.

"As bad as you can imagine the deaths of two vampires being." I walked over to the whiteboard and added Katya’s and Zoey’s names, whispering a silent apology that I hadn’t been able to do more to stop the killer before his spree encompassed them.

"We’ve got double the number of murders, and neither Navarre nor Grey is in much of a position to help."

"Not that they would," Luc muttered, and I smiled a little.

"You will, however, be pleased to learn that Ethan gave Scott the business for letting us do the dirty work."

Luc sat back in his chair, a smug expression on his face. "Good. He had it coming. Tell me what you know about the rest of it."

I nodded. "I’ll call Jeff, and we can go through the entire thing together," I said, dialing his number on the conference phone.

"Milady," he answered.

"It’s Merit and the Ops Room gang."

"You never have good news when you call me from the Ops Room."

"Sad, but true," I agreed, sitting cross-legged in the chair. If I was going to be miserable, I might as well be comfortable.

"Two Navarre vampires have been killed," I said. "Nadia’s sister, Katya, and her friend Zoey. They were found this evening on the first floor of Navarre House. Both were decapitated, and they were found holding hands."

The room and phone were silent for a moment. Luc crossed himself, as if honoring the vampires’ memory.

"That sounds like our man," Jeff said.

"It does," I agreed. "Same method, down to the placement of their bodies."

"And he only kills in pairs?" Luc wondered.

"So far as we know," I said.

"Different affiliations, though," Lindsey said, turning around from her computer station. "Two Rogues first, then two Navarre vampires."

"But random picks of vampires from each group," I said. "I mean, nothing we know suggests he targeted these particular vampires."

"Instead, he was targeting the groups," Juliet said.

I shrugged. "Maybe. I don’t know if it matters, but there aren’t any vampire registration issues with the Navarre House murder. Katya and Zoey were home in pajamas when they were killed. That doesn’t fit the profile of a vampire who’s pissed at Oliver and Eve because they were registering. Oh, and Navarre vamps are the only ones who can get into the House after hours. They’ve got biometric security."

"Biometric?" Jeff asked. "That’s fancy. For a House anyway."

"I take it you don’t know much about how they do it?" Luc asked.

"I don’t. Normally biometric means a fingerprint or retina scan, but in this case I’m not sure. Theoretically, though, Merit’s got it right: Biometric scanning would be a pretty solid method of security. I mean, it’s easier to steal or swap a pass card or metal key than an eyeball, you know?"

"So, only a Navarre vampire could have murdered these two," Luc said.

"That’s how it’s supposed to work," Jeff said. "But I’ll talk to Navarre."

Luc nodded. "Thanks. However they manage it, if it had to be a Navarre vamp, that takes McKetrick out of the equation."

"For the killing," I said. "But we still found aspen at the first murder scene."

Luc frowned. "Any aspen at the Navarre scene?"

"Not that I saw. And it probably would have been obvious on the marble floors. The aspen had to be at that first scene for a reason. Maybe our killer isn’t McKetrick, but has ties to him or something. Like they’re buddies?"