He leaned against a nearby table. “Why do you think you know better?”
“Xavier, for as long as I’ve known you, I think you’ve had a total of maybe three relationships, and those were all shallow and ended after just a few months.” The younger Vampyre gave him a sidelong, curious glance. “Son of a bitch. You are falling for her, aren’t you?”
He didn’t have to reply, but he did anyway. “I am.”
Gavin’s eyes went wide. Then he grinned. “Good for you.”
After transferring the recording to his desktop, they listened to it together. “Trim everything off but their agreement,” Xavier told him. “Then get the clean copy to Julian as soon as possible.”
“You got it.”
While he had finished what he had come to do, he hesitated and turned his attention to the wall of TV monitors, watched by two Vampyres across the room. They studied footage from security cameras placed at strategic intervals all over Evenfall.
He said, “Do me a favor and run a search for Justine over the last twenty-four hours.”
“You got it,” Gavin said. He walked over to another computer system, sat down, and his fingers flew nimbly over the keyboard. “Can you tell me what we’re looking for?”
Watching, Xavier crossed his arms and shook his head. “I don’t know. At the very least, I just want proof that she is actually still here. I haven’t seen her since I’ve arrived. I’ve only heard Julian mention her.”
“Well, that should be easy enough to confirm.”
Fifteen minutes later, Xavier watched irrefutable evidence. Justine had been present in Evenfall for at least a day. He studied snippets of footage of her in various public spots. Twice, the recordings showed her in conversation with Julian, their expressions cold and body language angry. The footage didn’t supply any sound, but he wasn’t interested at the moment in overhearing conversations.
Frustration spiked, and he rubbed his face. While she was clearly here, that didn’t mean Marc was in any less danger. She had any number of employees who weren’t here with her.
“Is that what you needed?” Gavin asked.
Sighing, he said, “Sure. Thanks.”
“No problem.”
Night had fallen while they had worked. Xavier could feel it, the cool, welcome darkness pulling a veil over the land. He said good-bye to Gavin, pocketed his phone and headed back to his rooms.
There, he found Tess stretched out on his bed, reading a paperback. He could sense Diego in the other part of the apartment, but for the moment he focused all his attention on Tess.
She had showered and dressed in clean jeans and a dark red, long-sleeved shirt. The color suited her as much as the dark blue of the ball gown did, and he smiled with pleasure to see her.
Noticing him in the doorway, she gave him a self-conscious smile. “I hope you don’t mind me coming in here. I figured if you could invade my bedroom—twice—I could invade yours.”
For a brief moment, he forgot his concerns and laughed. “You have an open invitation. You can invade my bedroom anytime you like.” He braced one knee on the edge of the mattress and leaned over to give her a deep, slow kiss.
Afterward, he pulled back. She searched his face. “Any news about Marc?”
He shook his head. “The sun has set, and we need to leave. I know this isn’t what we had planned, but I’ll have to drop you off at my town house and leave you for a while. I need to find out where he is.”
Pushing off the bed, she slipped her shoes on and stood. “Of course.”
He went to Diego’s room, rapped on the door and opened it. Diego had been reading too, and he set aside his e-reader when Xavier appeared.
“Time to go?” Diego asked.
“Yes.”
For a moment, as Xavier looked at him, he considered offering Diego the chance to look into what had happened to Marc. The impulse passed quickly. Not only was it something that Xavier needed to investigate personally, but it was also clear from the younger man’s closed expression that Diego had already emotionally disconnected.
He’d already said it. He was done, and there was no going back.
Back in Xavier’s bedroom, it was the work of a few moments to gather up his things and pack them in his overnight bag. When he had finished, they left.
As they walked through the halls of Evenfall, he held his hand out to Tess, no longer caring how they broke the news to Diego. He planned on talking to Raoul and the others soon enough. Besides, he simply wanted to touch her.
Hesitating only for a moment, she laced her fingers through his. When Diego’s gaze fell onto their linked hands, his eyes widened briefly, but then indifference returned and he looked away.
This time, Xavier escorted Tess to the front passenger seat and he drove, while Diego rode in the back.
They made the drive across the Golden Gate Bridge mostly in silence. The night was clear and unusually warm, a choppy wind blowing off the waters of the bay.
Pinching her full lower lip and appearing deep in thought, Tess stared out her window, while Diego checked his phone and spoke up just once. “You know, you don’t have to take me all the way to the hotel. You can drop me off somewhere convenient, and I can call a taxi.”
The Four Seasons Hotel lay south of Chinatown, and southeast of Nob Hill, where Xavier’s town house was located. Xavier said quietly, “The Four Seasons is not that far away, Diego. It’s no trouble at all.”
Looking uncomfortable, the younger man frowned but fell silent.
Traffic was heavy on the main highway. As Presidio Parkway turned into Lombard Street, a heavy garbage truck pulled behind them.
Checking his rearview mirror, Xavier surveyed the truck. It didn’t look out of the ordinary, and several garbage companies employed Nightkind creatures and operated at night. Dismissing it as a minimal threat, he still took standard precautions and turned down a side street.
The truck followed.
Now, that got his attention.
He stepped on the gas pedal, and the SUV leaped forward just as, at the next intersection, another garbage truck turned onto the street and swerved directly across their path.
Diego swore.
San Francisco had some of the most expensive real estate in the world, and while some areas of the city didn’t have alleys, this street did.
Checking to make sure Tess was wearing her seat belt, Xavier yanked hard on the steering wheel. Tires shrieking, the SUV plunged into the alley.
Up ahead, a third garbage truck pulled across the alleyway. He stomped on the brakes.
The passenger side of the garbage truck faced them. The door opened, and someone inside tossed out a round object, roughly shaped like a bowling ball. It bounced down the alley toward them.
It was Marc’s severed head.
EIGHTEEN
“Oh, my God,” Tess said. Her face blanched.
Dark figures swarmed out of the garbage truck ahead of him.
Xavier grabbed her, yanking her sideways and down, away from the windshield.
“Keep your head down,” he told her.
At the same time he snapped off his seat belt, opened the glove compartment and grabbed the Glock that was stored inside.
Gunfire sprayed the outside of the SUV. All of his vehicles had run-flat tires, bullet-resistant glass and layers of armored plate inserted into the body panels, but those precautions wouldn’t hold up under a concentrated, sustained attack. All they would do was buy a little bit of time.
Xavier glanced in the backseat. Still swearing, Diego had unbuckled too, slammed part of the backseat flat and was climbing into the back, where a stash of weapons and body armor was stored in a compartment underneath the floor.
More dark figures came up from behind the SUV.
Nobody would have tried such an attack if Xavier had been alone, because it wouldn’t have worked. He could have fought his way out, or climbed the side of a building. But traveling with both Tess and Diego, this type of assault was brutally effective at pinning them in place.