“I can tell when people are lying to me.”
“You know when they’re lying, yes. But that doesn’t tell you what the truth of a situation is. The truth could still be anything that’s not what Carmine said.”
“That’s not how it went.” Viktor was looking down at his mug. He wouldn’t even meet Ant’s eyes, which let Ant know morethan anything else that Viktor was seriously regretting what he’d done.
Letting out a long breath, Ant reached for his typical calm state. It was there, it just took more work than usual to hang onto it.This case is getting to me, just like Viktor said.“Did you learn anything? Did you get the proof that I said I needed?”
“Not exactly. But surely his admission that he could get the bugs out of the Bains’s and Hammond’s offices, and saying he would make sure the pressure to stop you working for the police was removed – surely that’s proof he was responsible for those things in the first place. He said outright that he could arrange for you to have your job back as a police consultant, and he wasn’t lying then.”
“How could you think I’d want my job back with the police. The department’s been compromised. Even if Bains resigns, I don’t see how I could trust anyone else who worked there. Apart from Susie, and she’s a consultant just like I was.”
He looked at his mate in disbelief. “I’m really struggling to know why you thought this was a good idea. I don’t understand what it is you hoped to achieve. Even if Carmine had stood in the middle of that nightclub and yelled out for everybody to hear, ‘Oh, yes, I was responsible for Carol’s death. Yes, I’ve been responsible for lots of deaths afterward. Yes, I’m supposed to be feared because I’m actually an asshole who’s got fingers in every pie in this town,’ nobody would believe him because Carmine is a liar.
“You can’t have it both ways, Viktor. How the hell can you tell me that you went to talk to him because you wanted to find things out, when you’re the same person who’s been telling me anything he says can’t be trusted at all? None of that makes sense.”
“I wanted todosomething,” Viktor said and there was a harsh edge to his tone that Ant hadn’t heard in a while. “We sit. We talk. We visit idiots already under Carmine’s control who give us nothing. In the meantime, I’m forced to watch you getting more and more agitated, all the while knowing this is exactly what Carmine is trying to do. He’s trying to stir you up. And he was doing that. You were getting confused and not thinking straight. None of this is like you. I needed to stop that from happening to you. Mistake or not, this was all aboutyou.”
“Are you angry at me?” Ant wasn’t sure he could handle that on top of everything else. “What is it about me that makes you so angry? My existence? The fact that I’m concerned about you? What is it?”
Viktor slumped in his chair, letting out a long sigh. “I’m not angry with you, my beloved mate, I’m angry at myself. I know I shouldn’t have gone out, but sitting around and just talking until the cows come home is not the way I do things. I needed action. I had to try. This business with Carmine isn’t good for your mental or magical health, and that’s not good for mine.
“If you want the truth of it, I wish he didn’t exist. If I had done things my way, by this morning, no one would’ve ever found him again – not even a body. But I’m not that type of person, and I wouldn’t do that to you. I respected your boundaries. I respected your limits. I respect the fact that you live within the law, despite my own preference for shadows.
“Carmine was right about one thing.” Viktor shook his head. “I am intimately familiar with how his sordid world operates. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if he wants something – you, for example – he’s never going to back off without a show of force against him. There is no other choice…”
“There are laws in place for a reason,” Ant protested. “Sooner or later…”
“How much later?” Viktor’s voice cut across his like a knife. “Are you telling me you’re going to fight him? You’re going to go against him and his organization – his decades of setting his network up - you’re just going to destroy it? How are you going to do that? A wave of your magical wand?”
“I’ve never used a wand in my life. Viktor…” Ant stopped for a moment, not wanting the situation to escalate any further. “I don’t expect us to always see eye-to-eye. And I do believe it was your curiosity about wanting to know why Carmine wanted us in the first place. That very first message… when our meal was so rudely interrupted… No, no, it wasn’t even our meal…”
Ant stopped and thought for a moment. “It was that nasty person who knifed you in the guts and said that Carmine wanted to meet us. I said then I’d already met him and wasn’t interested. You were the one who said that you were curious about what he might have to say.
“Now you’ve found out, so what’s next? You’re telling me that Carmine basically threatened me, and you, if we didn’t fall into line with what he wants? How is knowing that helpful? How is that going to get us anywhere?”
Viktor was silent for a moment, and then he said, “At least we know he has no intention of giving up on you.”
“That’s old news. You told me that yesterday, or was it the day before? Honestly, I’m losing track.” Ant rubbed his head. “Specifics. I need specifics. What is going to stop Carmine?”
“An army, maybe,” Viktor said. “If you happen to have one of them under your command, that could be handy. Alternatively, we could move – changing continents would be a good idea. I doubt moving to the next town or state would be far enough,but I’ve always heard that Europe is nice this time of year. Or Australia.”
“You would do that, too, wouldn’t you?” Closing his eyes, Ant counted to ten. Bridget had always said that it helped her, but Ant was skeptical. He got to five and gave up. “You would rather we moved to another country, uproot our lives, the contacts that we have here, the businesses I have here, you would take me away from my sister? I don’t even know if I could get Able on a plane. I think that’s the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard of.
“I hear what you’re saying,” Ant added when he saw that Viktor was going to speak. “But your plans are too limited in scope. It seems, from your viewpoint, that the only way to get Carmine to leave us alone – because, for some reason, the man’s committed crimes for years and no one has been able to pin anything on him - but to you, the only way to stop him is a show of force. Why didn’t you compel him to tell you the truth?”
Viktor looked up then, and Ant could see the shock in his eyes. “Compel him? I thought for sure you’d be dead set against that.”
“It’s your vampire superpower.” Ant couldn’t see the problem with using it. It was no different from him using his magic, in his opinion. “If you can get him to a point where he can be compelled, and we invited someone like Susie over…”
“The truth-sayer?”
Ant nodded. “The whole interview could be recorded and there is absolutely nothing that could change Carmine’s testimony, once Susie has verified it. He’d end up in a cell next to Tony if he’s as guilty as you presume. That’s my only issue with this plan – that you’ve already presumed Carmine guilty with absolutely nothing but supposition and rumors to back that belief.”
“I went out looking for that proof and I know, I know…” Viktor added, clearly knowing Ant was going to dispute the validity ofwhat he’d done again. “I do realize that he wasn’t going to tell me the truth even if I asked him for it. I guess I thought I could learn something from his lies.”
“He can’t lie if he’s compelled, can he. If you think you can do it, then that’s what we need to do. However, because apparently justice authorities don’t believe my word anymore, then someone like Susie has to come with us. That’s not negotiable.”
“Come where? Are you going somewhere?” Bridget asked, coming into the kitchen, waving a folder. “You’re never gonna guess...”
