Page 23 of Of Blood and Smoke

“Mm, yes, we do. I’ll return in a moment.”

TWELVE

Josiah

While we’d taken care of the problem with Mister Boccelli, there was still the matter of the employee who’d given him access. Micha had rounded the man up, a younger man in his early twenties, and delivered him to our special interrogation room. He was currently artfully suspended from a retractable meat hook installed in the ceiling and awaiting his verdict.

I’d left the office to remove myself from the pull of the new hire’s sweetly scented blood. It was all I could do not to pull her into my arms. I’d envisioned doing exactly that and neglecting my duties.

My canines had begun stretching and saliva pooling on my tongue before I could force myself from the room.

“Sir?” Christina asked me when I stopped in front of her desk.

Trying to gather myself before speaking, I pressed my lips together. “Hold my calls for the rest of the day, please.”

She knew better than to meet my gaze, but I saw her eyebrows rise even with her head tilted downward. Christina knew I could’ve called her or sent an email, but I didn’t owe heran explanation. I turned on my heel and returned to my office, passingDellaon my way.

Della kept her head down and angled her shoulders away from me as she scooted past. I couldn’t help but take in her luscious figure. She was short, slim, and shapely and her spicy vanilla scent clung to the air. I breathed it in deeply, torturing myself. What I wouldn’t have done for a bite then and there.

I stopped, knowing I shouldn’t, to watch her make her way to my receptionist. Sensing me, she turned to look back and we almost met each other’s gaze. The sharp inhalation of her gasp sounded in the hallway as her mouth dropped open and her step faltered. Her skin paled right before she flushed, her lips bobbing like a fish gasping for water.

She’d just broken the cardinal rule. There was no wiggle room, no “almost.” She’d purposely tried to look at me, thinking I wouldn’t notice.

Little did she know how severely she should’ve been punished for the breach of protocol, her defiance.

Her eyes shuttered and she quickened her step, nearly running into the desk. Concentrating, I focused my senses to eavesdrop and heard her pleading with Christina, “What do I do? What do I do? I didn’t mean it.”

Her desperation pulled on something inside me, softening me. She was terrified she would lose the job she’d just received. Against my better judgment, I instantly forgave her.

I should, seeing as I’d instigated the situation.

Micha was waiting for me back in my office. I reentered the room, and Micha unlocked the door to the soundproof space where our captive was strung up. Once the door shut behind us, I shrugged off my coat and hung it in a closet, my friend doing the same before he opened a drawer and passed me a pair of disposable gloves.

Our victim was either unconscious or he’d passed out. His name was Richard Dick, an unfortunate moniker. His parents must’ve hated him on sight. As cruel as his parents were, we were crueler. It occurred to me that he’d never stood a chance in life, not with a name such as his own. Stepping up to him, I slapped him across the face.

He groaned and twisted lightly as he regained his faculties. The scent of his fear permeated the air, a disgusting mixture of sharp bile, sour sweat, and ripe excrement.

“Richard,” I stated loudly, snapping his attention to me. “Do you know why you are in this predicament? What you have done?”

A sliver of ill-guided hope entered his gaze as he presumably thought up a way to pass the blame. “It wasn’t me! Please don’t do this, I have a family.”

It was all so predictable, every time. They thought we were morons.

“Huh,” I said, scratching my chin. “How easy it is to accidentally sell our exclusive products, I’m sure that was unintentional when you sought a specific buyer.”

Micha snickered at my sarcasm and Richard threw him a begging glance. As if his salvation lay in the hands of my closest companion.

“Please,” Richard implored. “I’ve heard the rumors about you two, how you eat people and how if anyone looks you in the eye they turn to stone. They call you the Medusa twins.”

“Have you turned to stone Richard? You keep looking me in the eye and yet here you are, twirling like a piñata.”

Gripping his shoulder, I spun him around. His vomit splashed the floor, marring my leather boots and irritating me. “No manners,” I snarled at the man.

Micha stepped closer to me, gently placing a hand on my forearm. “Allow me.”

Between Richard’s foulness and his breach of trust, my mood had rapidly declined.

Here at Ipomoea, we were very generous employers. We treated our workers like royalty. It was my own, personal High Court. If you secured a job here, you were set up for life. Free full coverage health insurance, a pension plan, we matched contributions to retirement funds.

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