Amaury moved to the edge of his chair. “We expose him to the softer things in life.”
“Excuse me?” Gabriel tossed his friend a confused look, the scar on his face, which reached from his ear to his chin, jumping at the same time.
Thomas scoffed. “Give him soft and he’ll smash it to pieces.”
“He’ll spit in your face,” Samson added.
Amaury’s blue eyes sparkled. “He didn’t spit in your daughter’s face.”
Samson didn’t bother suppressing his scowl. Delilah had told him the minute Zane had left the house that Isabelle had bitten him. The first bite of a hybrid baby was a significant event. It meant that his daughter had chosen her mentor, her godfather. Only, Samson had hoped that she would pick somebody like Gabriel or Amaury, or better, Thomas who was a great mentor to Eddie, the young vampire under his wings, but not Zane. However, there was no way around this. Isabelle had tasted Zane’s blood and would be instinctively drawn to him to seek his advice. While Samson and Delilah were Isabelle’s primary caregivers, Zane would play an important role in her life.
“Which makes it even more important to deal with him now before this gets out of hand. I can’t have a loose cannon around my daughter.”
“Nobody wants that.” Gabriel pulled the band around his ponytail tight and shifted in his seat.
“Suggestions then,” Samson said and gave Amaury an expectant nod.
“First of all, no more high-risk assignments. You were right to pull him off his current one. He doesn’t need to be in constant assault mode. We’ll have to condition him to use non-violent responses to aggression.”
“Interesting,” Gabriel snorted. “Good luck with that.”
Thomas shook his head. “Let’s face it: take violence out of Zane’s life and his shell will collapse. It’s the only things that keeps him alive.”
Samson raised his hand. “Maybe Amaury is onto something. What else have you got?”
“He needs to see Drake.”
“You want him to agree to see a shrink?” Gabriel shook his head. “That’ll go down well. Just make sure I’m not around when you tell him, ‘cause I'd kinda like to keep my head attached to my neck.”
“I didn’t say it was gonna be easy to get him to go.” Amaury shrugged. “We just have to make sure he knows what’s at stake if he doesn’t.”
Samson stopped pacing. “You’re right. The carrot and stick approach. Show him what he can have, then threaten to take it away. It could work.”
“And what are we gonna take away?” Gabriel asked.
“His job.”
“He won’t be hurting for money,” Gabriel countered.
His second-in-command was right of course. Any vampire who’d been around for a few decades had invariably accumulated wealth simply by investing money in low risk assets such as real estate and bonds. Knowing Zane, he’d probably taken a riskier approach and amassed an even greater fortune.
“Money isn’t the reason he works for us,” Samson explained. “We’re his family. He needs us.” Just like they needed him. Each and every member of Scanguards was essential, and the inner core, consisting of Amaury, Gabriel, Thomas, Zane, Yvette, Quinn, and himself was vital for the survival of the company. They were the driving force.
Slowly, Gabriel nodded. “True. Then I have a suggestion to make. Let’s fly Quinn out from New York. He’s the one closest to Zane. Quinn brought him in. If anybody can get to Zane, it’s Quinn. He knows what makes him tick.”
“Who will run New York headquarters in the meantime?” Samson asked.
“New York is such a well-oiled machine, it runs itself,” Gabriel claimed confidently.
Thomas grinned. “I suppose that means we can put a monkey at its helm and it’ll still run?”
“Almost.” Gabriel nodded. “Unfortunately, I’m fresh out of monkeys. We’ll have to use someone higher up the food chain.”
“Who did you have in mind?” Samson asked.
“Quinn mentioned a promising vampire the other day. His name is Jake and he’s been working with Quinn for six months now. He might be ready to take on more responsibility.”
“Quinn vouches for him?” Samson contemplated Gabriel’s words.
“He’s diligent and ambitious.”
“Fine, let’s do it,” Samson agreed. “Call Quinn and fill him in. Now, we need to keep Zane occupied. Do we have a desk job we can park him at?”