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The gangs in our city were dangerous and had no issues with destroying homes or families to get what they wanted. My company was in a position to protect people from having their children stolen in the night and forced to join these gangs. The police dealt with the vandalism and drugs, but they couldn’t stop the kidnappings.
With the vampire factions getting in on kidnapping people for blood, it was becoming more difficult to keep our existence a secret. Of course, there were people who knew about us and helped us hide things from the public. My plans included forming a council to regulate vamp behavior. I wanted a vamp specific police force to keep the violence against humans in check.
I remember when I got wind that Vinny had been kidnapping women to sell as blood slaves. He’d been my supplier for years, but I had never thought to ask him where he was getting the blood. The moment I found out, I set my team to work on the hostile takeover. Luckily for me, Midnight was on the verge of bankruptcy, even with Vinny’s blood trade. I couldn’t figure out what he’d done with all the money he was bringing in. The numbers didn’t add up.
I wondered if he had a secret stash somewhere or an offshore account that no one knew about. I wasn’t going to ask him, since he caved to the takeover so easily. It didn’t really matter; I would get my way and move forward with my plans. Midnight was the first step.
My mind wandered back to Delilah. Her scent did things to me that I hadn’t felt in decades and it wasn’t just her blood. I couldn’t remember the last time a woman had affected me that way. If I hadn’t snarled at Vinny to lock her up, I might have drained her. Any other day, I would have snapped Vinny in half for the way he spoke to me. But I understood the urge to protect family. Everything I’ve done was to save mine, even when I failed.
I had to walk away to keep from acting on my other desires as well. Delilah was the sexiest woman I’d seen in ages. I tried to avoid romantic entanglements to protect my business, but I felt as if I was being tempted simply by standing near her. I needed to get myself under control or I would risk losing everything.
Since purchasing Midnight from Vinny, I spent most of my time going over the books in the office. If I took a break, I tried to avoid being near Delilah, although she made it difficult.
The first day after she was released from the cage, she insisted that we meet to discuss the changes I was planning to make. It seemed as though her freedom had sparked her anger. I was relieved that she wasn’t as meek as I had first thought. It pained me to think she would simply agree and go along with anything I ordered. Once she was in my office with the door closed, Delilah screamed at me for ten minutes about locking her up and expecting her to cooperate now. It was obvious that she had no idea who I was, or even what I was. No human dared to speak to a vampire the way she did. It was actually refreshing. I couldn’t allow it to continue, but I couldn’t react in my usual way. Her ignorance would save her life today.
As angry as she was about me having her locked up, she loved the bar more. The moment I realized how important Midnight was to her, I knew that I had a way to control her. I made her an offer for employment, and she jumped at it.
I was certain there was more to her reasoning than she admitted. That was as important to me as her anger. Neither mattered in the big picture. I knew she would stay angry for a while, and I was fine with that. I needed her to stay away from me.
By the end of our meeting, I was holding my breath so her scent didn’t make me do something we would both regret.
A week later, I called Vinny into the office to set some boundaries. I knew he was angry with me for locking her up, but I didn’t care. He had to learn his place. He needed to keep her busy and away from me.
“Yeah, boss? You wanted to see me?” He poked his head in the door and waited to be invited inside.
“I did. Please come in and have a seat. We need to talk about these books and your niece.” I gestured toward a chair.
Vinny looked around awkwardly before taking his seat. I had redecorated the entire office to suit my style. There was no trace of the disorganized mess he’d left me with.
In place of the sports memorabilia, I brought some sleek, modern art. I preferred the finer things in life and I wasn’t afraid to spend money to get what I wanted. The antiques and artwork in the office were more expensive than the building itself had been.
I reviewed the loose papers that were everywhere, then scanned them into the computer and destroyed the physical copies. I even went so far as to have my own safe installed in the wall without Vinny’s knowledge.
I had the smoke-stained walls scrubbed and repainted eggshell white as the perfect canvas to showcase my art and collectibles. There was no way I would hang a Picasso on those nasty walls. I noticed Vinny checking out the changes when he entered, but didn’t bother to mention it.
I wasn’t one of those vamps who thought they were better than the humans simply because I was turned. However, I knew I was better than Vinny because he was a trash person. I was planning to see if we could fix that.
“What can I do for you?” he asked, clearly not aware that there was a problem.
“Who handled your books before the takeover?” I asked, leaning forward and forcing him to look me in the eyes.
“I did. I know I’m not very good at it, but I didn’t have anyone else.” He tried to look away but was captivated by my eyes. The weasel seemed desperate for me to believe his lies.
“Ms. Stone isn’t skilled enough to manage the books?” It seemed he didn’t give her enough credit.
“She’s just a kid. She has all these fancy ideas of how to liven things up and bring in more business. I couldn’t give her the books. If I did, she’d start making changes. Besides, she had no idea about the blood trade,” he sputtered.
“I see. So it was better to run it into the ground than to let your niece help you? Well, there will be a lot of changes soon. You’d better get on board with them, or I’ll have no choice but to get rid of you.” I knew that threatening him wouldn’t keep me away from Delilah, but his admission that he didn’t want to let her have any creative freedom struck a nerve.
“I can do that. Whatever you want, I’ll make it happen.” Vinny was almost too agreeable. It annoyed me, but at least I knew that he was planning to let me make the decisions. That may or may not have been because of some threats that were made during our negotiations earlier in the week. Or it may have had something to do with the compulsion I used to force him to lock Delilah up with my blood slaves.
“Good. I want you to understand that you work for me now. I’m sending out new pricing schedules as well, so be ready for some pushback. You’ve kept things the same for far too long. Our product is worth more than you’ve been charging.” I didn’t bother showing him the new invoices. I wanted to see how he would take being cut out of the decisions.
“Okay. I’ll be ready for it. If someone has a problem, should I tell them about the change in ownership, and redirect their questions to you?”
“If they get irate about it, yes. Otherwise, just tell them that prices went up. As long as it’s not an issue, I’m not going to make it one.” I stood up to signal him that our meeting was over.
“Um, sir?” He stood, but didn’t leave. “You said that you needed to talk to me about Delilah. Is something wrong?”
