“I just emailed you the details about where to pick up Olivia’s car,” Travis said.
“I need you to do it.”
“Me?”
“Yeah.” Campbell didn’t use a tone that invited argument, and Travis didn’t give him any.
“Fine, whatever.”
Len, Colin and Sophia came in from patrolling with only a couple of minutes to spare. Billy rolled in on his skateboard a few seconds later.
“Look who’s cutting it close now,” Campbell said as he met Colin’s eyes.
“One of those nights,” Colin said.
“Yeah, if we were werewolves, I’d swear it was a full moon with the way things were going down,” Len added. “Fights, more than the usual amount of angry stares coming our way. Some weird vibe in the air.”
“At least one of us had a good night,” Colin said as he glanced at Billy. “I think Puppy here found himself a skater-geek girlfriend.”
Billy skated by Colin and bopped him on the head. “At least I’m getting some action, old man.”
“Don’t listen to him, Billy,” Sophia said. “I think she’s cute.”
“Thank you.” Billy paused to kiss her on the cheek before pushing off on his skateboard again.
Thumping from the street level drew their attention, then the sound of something coming down the drop chute. Campbell was sitting closest to the chute, so he headed for it. “Did anyone put in another order with Chloe?” he asked.
He heard the chorus of noes at the same moment he saw what had been dropped down the chute. He spun and pointed toward the back corner. “Get out!”
They almost made it.
* * *
Olivia considered not even opening the diner. She didn’t know if she could face another disheartening day of empty tables and the lack of friendly faces.
She remembered how she’d told Campbell she was a tough cookie, however, so she forced herself downstairs. Whatever the day dished up, she’d deal with it.
She was glad to see Jane a few minutes later, her first and perhaps only customer of the day.
“Something must be on fire,” Jane said as she walked in. “I heard a bunch of sirens, and there’s a big black plume of smoke coming from somewhere up near the park.”
Olivia turned on the TV mounted on the wall. A reporter was on the scene with fire trucks behind her.
“Officials say it appears a bomb has gone off at a vampire-owned building on the east side of Central Park. It is unclear if any vampires were in the building at the time of the bombing, which happened just after daybreak.”
A bad feeling started growing in Olivia’s middle. After taking Jane’s order, she retreated to the kitchen. She grabbed her cell phone and dialed Campbell’s number. Her pulse raced faster with each unanswered ring. After his phone rang a dozen times, she hung up and dialed Chloe with shaky fingers.
When she got voice mail, she realized how early it was. She hung up and dialed Chloe’s cell phone.
“Hello.” The normal pep in Chloe’s voice was absent.
“Chloe, it’s Olivia. Where is the V Force headquarters? Where does Campbell live?”
Chloe didn’t answer, and tears popped into Olivia’s eyes.
“Tell me it’s not what’s on the news.”
“I’m sorry, Olivia.”
Olivia made an anguished sound. No, not again. She refused to believe it, not unless she saw it for herself. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“No, don’t.” Chloe paused for a moment, and Olivia gripped the back of a chair to keep standing. “There’s nothing left.”
* * *
“Just pull it out,” Campbell told Len as they sat in the old subway tunnel, dust from the explosion thick in the air. But when Len did exactly that, pulling a large shard of metal from Campbell’s back, he couldn’t hold in the yelp of pain.
Sophia was ready with a wad of white cloth that he thought was the long-sleeved shirt Len had been wearing over a gray henley. As soon as the metal was free, she pressed it against the wound, stemming the flow of blood until Campbell’s body could begin to heal.
Colin walked toward them with his tee shoved against a wound on the side of his head. Blood streaked his bare chest. “What the hell happened back there?”
“It was a bomb.” Which they’d thankfully survived, along with the daylight, by picking themselves out from under the rubble and escaping through the emergency exit that led to the network of abandoned subway tunnels. He counted heads and came up one short. “Where’s Billy?”
They all stared at each other for a horrible moment, then started digging frantically at the rubble that filled the passage that connected their headquarters with the subway tunnels. “Billy!” several voices called out at once.
“Puppy? Come on, kid,” Colin said as he tossed huge chunks of concrete out of the way.
Campbell winced with the pain in his back but dug nonetheless. Dug despite the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He found Billy and wished he could hide the boy’s body from the rest of the team. But it was too late.
Sophia cried out, “No!” and took Billy’s lifeless hand in hers.
The irony was Billy didn’t seem any more damaged than the rest of them. It was the large shard of his skateboard through the middle of his heart that had sealed his fate. Curses and crying met Campbell’s ears, but all he could do was stare as a cold numbness filled him.
After the initial shock, Colin and Len stepped forward and together with Campbell they finished digging Billy out. Kaja reached over and closed Billy’s eyes and caressed his pale cheek.
“I’m going to kill whoever did this,” Campbell said. “And he’s going to die slow.”
“Why the hell did a bomb end up down our delivery chute?” Colin asked.
“Someone wanted to deliver a message,” Len said.
“That we’re getting close and they don’t like us sniffing around,” Campbell added.
“That creep Salmeri?” Kaja asked.
“That’s where I’d lay my money,” Campbell said, focusing on his job, on avenging Billy’s death.
“Told you to let me rip his throat out,” she said.
“After I’m through with him, if there’s anything left, you can be my guest,” Campbell said.
Travis stared back at the pile of rubble. “We’ve lost everything.”
Campbell looked around at his dirty, bleeding, bedraggled team. Time to be the leader. “We’re going to get whoever did this. And we’ll rebuild somewhere else.”
“Perhaps I can help you with that.”
They all turned toward the new voice, ready to fight. A man in khakis and an expensive leather jacket stepped into the faint glow shed by the emergency light on the subway-tunnel wall.
“Who are you?” Colin asked as he pointed a piece of rebar at the unknown vamp. “And don’t take a step farther.”
Campbell moved to the front of his team. He placed his hand on Colin’s arm, applying downward pressure so he’d lower his weapon. When Colin did so, the guy took a couple more steps toward them.
“I’m Raymond Pierce.”
“Raymond Pierce?” Colin said.
“Yes, that one,” Pierce said.
Pierce had owned more companies than Campbell could name a decade ago. As rich as Richard Branson, Bill Gates and the entire Walton family put together. So he was dead, as the news had claimed, but not gone.
“How did you know we were here?” Colin asked.
“Baroness Flanders is a good friend. When she heard about the bombing, she asked that I come offer my assistance. You are in need of a new home, are you not? As it happens, I have just the place. If you all feel up to a bit of a walk, I can show you what we can offer.”
“We—” Sophia started but choked on a sob.
Len gripped her shoulder in support and nodded toward Billy’s body. “We lost a member of our team.”
“A friend,” Kaja said, her voice sounding shaky, too.