“C’mon, Freddie,” Dominic said playfully. “Do you know how many people have reached out to me the past month for this project? You should consider yourselves lucky that I even showed up. That I’m willing to do business with you.”
I stabbed the cake with my fork, but I wasn’t looking at it. I didn’t even want to eat it—I just wanted to keep looking at these people, know every one of their movements, read the nervousness, the impatience on their bodies, try to figure out what they were thinking. For once, even Mark was fully interested in the conversation, and his icy eyes picked Dominic apart for a long moment before he leaned back in his seat and looked down in his lap, thinking.
Dominic didn’t say anything, just watched them all, allowing the tension to do the job.
“One look,” Freddie said. “Tomorrow night, we will have the money ready to be wired to you. All we need is one look at your data. Three minutes.”
Mumbling curses under his breath, Dominic lowered his head. I immediately wrapped an arm around his. “I think you should do it, baby. I like them. Margaret is nice. She’s a dryad,” I whispered, fully aware that they could all hear me.
Then, Dominic wrapped a hand around my cheek and kissed the other one intently.
When he straightened in his seat again, I could have sworn someone had bathed me in flames. But then, Dominic grabbed the napkin in front of him and casually flipped it to the other side.
I saw letters written on there, tiny ones at the very corner.
They said: turn the mic off.
I looked up at the others, terrified that they’d be able to read what he’d written. Did he even know? Did he write those words?
But none of them looked at the handkerchief. They couldn’t see the letters. Only I could.
My pens. Dominic had used my pens with my blood in them, that I left with my journal on the nightstand in the hotel room. He’d used one of them because that message was meant only for me.
It was kind of scary that I didn’t need to think about it. It was terrifying that I found myself slowly reaching for the neckline of my dress, and while I continued to eat my cake with the other hand, I found the small microphone sticking to the fabric and squeezed it tightly between my fingers until I felt it click. Off.
Dominic cleared his throat.
“I’ll consider your offer,” he said to Freddie. “But I do have one other request.”
“Anything,” Freddie said with a nod.
“Someone out there, someone in your position, killed my father in cold blood. They killed a lot of some of his most trusted people, too, and I still haven’t been able to find them.” They all held their breath instantly—except the vampire. “If, by tomorrow night, you can tell me who did it, I’ll let you run as many tests as you want on the data before I take your money. How about that?”
Not part of the plan. Mentioning Michael Bennett’s death had not been part of the plan at all. The crew specifically said we weren’t to bring up his murder.
Was that why Dominic asked me to turn the mic off? Was he going behind the ODP’s back?
What the hell was he doing?
A moment ticked by, then two. Nobody said a single word, they only looked at each other, and at Dominic.
Finally, Freddie sighed.
“Then we will do our best to find the killer, Noah.” And he stood up so suddenly, it made me jump back. He raised his hand to shake Dominic’s, and one of the bodyguards instantly stepped forward, throwing murderous glares at him.
“No offense. These guys don’t like me being touched since the incident,” Dominic said, and he stood up to put on his jacket.
“None taken. We understand,” Freddie said, even though he was clearly pissed to have been left hanging.
“C’mon, baby. Time to go party,” Dominic said.
“Yay,” I said as cheerfully as I could muster, which wasn’t much. “Finally. I thought I might die of boredom,” I mumbled to myself.
“Gentlemen,” Dominic said, as if he were suddenly in a rush. He took my hand and laced my arm to his before he nodded.
“We’ll be in touch,” Freddie said.
“It was so nice to meet you all. Bye!” I called, smiling brightly at Margaret, who looked like someone had died right in front of her.
The bodyguards led us outside, and we were in the back of the limo within two minutes.
I looked at Dominic, asked him a million questions with my eyes, but I didn’t dare say a single word. Why had he asked them that question? Why did he want me to turn off the mic?
What was going on in that big head of his?
But we rode all the way back to the hotel in silence.