Page 76 of Damian’s Conquest

Before Naomi could find her voice, Nicholas answered, “She’s Damian’s woman. He said if I touched her—”

“Let me guess,” Zane interrupted. “He threatened to stake you? Figures.” He ran a long look over Naomi that made her feel as if she was being inspected and didn’t pass muster.

“I’m Naomi,” she said, annoyed by how uncomfortable the intimidating vampire made her feel. “The guy down there is my boss.”

“You keep crappy company.” One side of his mouth tilted up, then he gestured to Nicholas. “Nikki, go see Eddie.”

“Don’t call me Nikki,” Nicholas ground out and glared at his father. “Not in front of others.”

Zane grunted. “Touchy. Now go to Eddie’s office. They’ve got another lead on the partial license plate, and need another team to check it out. You might have to take Lydia with you. I don’t think anybody else is available.”

Grumbling something unintelligible, Nicholas left the room.

“I’ll keep you company,” Zane said and sat down in the chair Nicholas had occupied earlier.

“I don’t need—”

“Let me rephrase that: I’ll watch you.”

Yeah, that was more like it. But she refused to admit that his presence intimidated her. “Suit yourself. We done with the chitchat? ‘Cause I’d like to listen to the interrogation.”

“Guess the kitty has claws.”

Naomi ignored his comment and looked back down into the room to concentrate on the interrogation.

Damian turned away from the prisoner, and approached Samson and Amaury. “I think he’s telling the truth.”

Samson nodded, while Amaury replied, “It looks that way. He’s clearly afraid of us. He wouldn’t continue lying.”

“Then he’s a dead end. All we’ve got is the partial license plate of the thief’s car.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Damn it. If he really doesn’t know that Mick is a vampire, and he didn’t kidnap him, then all he and his mother were trying to do is stir up trouble in the hope of Tracy leaving Mick. It’s despicable, and not very smart either. As if stirring up shit for the club and for Mick would have made Tracy leave him.”

Naomi knew Damian was right. If Tracy really loved him, the knowledge of what her family had tried to do would drive her even further into Mick’s arms.

“But that doesn’t get us any closer to finding Mick or the girl,” Damian added.

“Back to square one,” Amaury said. “Let’s concentrate on finding the person who stole the crate of blood.”

Samson nodded. “I’m with both of you. Wei Guo doesn’t have the guts to continue lying to us. He’s telling the truth. We can have Gabriel confirm, just in case he’s a better liar than we think, though I don’t believe Gabriel will come to a different conclusion than the three of us,” Samson said and pulled out his cell phone, when it suddenly rang. He looked at the display, then hit the accept button. “Grayson?”

Samson listened, then addressed Amaury and Damian, “I think we found the thief.”

32

After locking up Wei Guo in a cell on the same level as the interrogation room, Damian went to the observation booth to pick up Naomi, when to his surprise, Zane stepped out of the room.

“What the fuck, Zane? Where is she? If you hurt her, I swear—”

“Just keeping her company,” Zane interrupted.

Behind him, Naomi emerged.

“Naomi, you okay?”

Naomi nodded. Damian knew that as a blood-bonded vampire, Zane would never touch another woman in a sexual way, but he was absolutely capable of inflicting pain, whether on a woman or a man.

Zane snorted. “You’re just like your father. Lighten up a little.”

“Says the man who has no sense of humor,” Damian retorted.