Page 48 of Queen Takes Checkmate
Gina smiled a little easier and nodded her head at Vivian, though I sensed her hesitation. “Then all will be well. I have some details about the break-in last night that may interest you.”
She gestured to the open door, so I followed on Daire's heels. The walls were paneled in glossy, dark wood with a huge desk and several comfortable chairs scattered throughout the room. A gas fireplace was lit in the corner, but I didn't feel any heat from it. The chairs were pulled around a low coffee table that was loaded with donuts, pastries, and most importantly, coffee. Daire was already pouring me a cup.
Three of the chairs already had cups and saucers with crumbs on them, telling me where the other women were sitting. I picked an empty chair, and Carys took another on the opposite side of the table. Probably to get as far away from me as possible. She'd been impossible this morning. I didn't know if she wasn't a morning person, or if she truly was angry about the excitement last night.
Rik stood behind me, his big palm warm on my shoulder. Daire handed me the cup and dropped down beside me on the floor. The rest of my Blood scattered around the room. I didn't fail to notice that three of them stood at the large, plate-glass window. It wasn't to admire the view, though from this high, we had a fantastic view of the city. They were braced for another attack through the glass, even at one hundred stories high.
Madeline sat on my left, and Gina on my right. Gwen sat across me beside Carys, who was feeding crumbs to her owl in between huddling over her own cup of coffee like it was the only thing keeping her alive.
A spark of fire caught my attention. I looked up and met Vivian’s piercing blue gaze.:There’s something of Ra’s in this room. His power calls to his blood that flows in my veins.:
I didn’t allow my face to betray me. :Find it, so we can eliminate it as quietly as possible.:
Madeline laid a stack of papers in front of me. “As soon as you took over control of the tower and made your wishes known to Gina, I started notifying all of our tenants that we were buying out their leases effective immediately. By eight last night, we'd bought out every single lease but one.” She tapped the top page. “SLI.”
Vivian made a rude noise as she passed behind me. “Sun Lord, Inc.”
I shook my head. “He's full of himself, isn't he?”
“Very,” Gina said grimly. “SLI had one room leased according to the contracts. It was only a small room, very innocuous, right? But we started going through the security logs last night. Keisha Skye may have had many failings, and we certainly found her guards to be less than professional. But they always managed to make a note of everyone entering the building.”
I knew where this was going. “Let me guess. Someone from SLI accessed the building last night.”
Madeline nodded. “It immediately set off red flags when I looked into their record, because they've never entered the building before, until last night.”
I took a sip from my cup and let out a pleased hum that made Daire rumble a purr and rub against my knee. He always knew exactly how I liked my coffee. “So did Keisha know that she'd leased an office to Ra, even indirectly? Was it on purpose?”
“I don't think she knew, though I could be wrong,” Madeline replied. “I wasn't privy to much that my former queen did. She had many secrets and she trusted nobody. There were rooms in this tower that I never entered, even as her consiliarius. Nobody was allowed to enter them.”
“Even outside of the basement?” She nodded, and I took a deep breath. “Then those are the rooms that I need to see first today.”
I waited a few moments, noting that Vivian had stopped behind Madeline’s chair. The fire sparked inside her eagerly. She took another step closer, so she stood just inches behind the woman’s chair, and the spark burned brighter.
I had to proceed carefully. Maybe Vivian was wrong. Maybe I could trust Madeline. Or, more likely, Vivian’s sensitivity to Ra’s corruption in humans was exactly the reason Isis had sent this new Blood to my side. “Do you know why she had that mummy in the basement?”
“I'm afraid not, Your Majesty. I had no idea those rooms even existed. I was terrified of Tanza, so I never went down there unless Keisha ordered me to accompany her.”
She stood and moved away briefly, returning with several plastic bags carefully tagged like police evidence. With each step closer, I felt the pulse in Vivian’s fire.“We recovered a little evidence from the men who tried to take it.”
“G, take a look.”
He immediately stepped closer and went through the bags one by one. “Glock, SIG Sauer, and this one’s interesting. A GSh-18 semi-automatic pistol with armor piercing rounds.” A melted mass of bullet casings was in another bag, the long hunting knife the leader had been wearing, and lastly, the lighter. “They might as well have come in naked.”
I frowned. “What does that mean?”
My Templar knight waggled his eyebrows at me playfully. “How many weapons am I carrying on my person today, my queen?”
I ran my gaze down his body, noting the tight, faded jeans that hugged his thighs and the long-sleeved baby blue shirt he wore. Nothing seemed out of place on him, though I knew he had to be carrying the long knife down his back. He always wore it. And he had two wrist sheaths on each arm. Maybe a knife in each boot. Probably something in his pockets. Then I added a few to be safe. “Ten?”
His lips quirked. “Not even close. My point is that I'm armed to the teeth for any situation. I'm prepared to fight our way out of hell at a moment's notice. They came in with one gun each and a knife. They didn't plan to fight their way out if there was trouble. They were going to sneak in and out. Quietly. Or die in the process.”
I touched the lighter inside the plastic. “They intended to destroy the mummy. But why?”
Guillaume's gaze flickered to Madeline briefly, the one person in the room not wholly mine. “They had to know who he was, and they would have been acting out someone's orders.”
The spark in Vivian’s bond was still there. A giant bull’s eye on Madeline’s back. Enough of this bullshit. I needed to bring things to a head. “You said last night that you were willing to stay on as my second consiliarius.”
She set the cup down on the table. “Yes. It would be an honor to serve, Your Majesty.”
