Valdez chuffed. "You knew he wasn't for you anyway, Glory. Blade's your guy." I grinned as I headed to my bedroom. "Oh, right. How could I forget? Especially with you around to remind me." I checked my computer as soon as I got up the next night. Simon had actually come through. But, except for Etienne, there wasn't a single name I recognized on the list of visitors at the EV compound. Where had all these paranormals come from?
I stalled by taking a shower and getting dressed before I checked my cell phone for messages. For an hour I managed to put blackmail on the back burner. Relatively easy to do with Israel Caine sacked out in the bedroom down the hall.
"Come on, Blondie. You've fiddled with your makeup long enough. See if we've got a text waiting for us." Valdez stood over my fabulous purse like he was actually thinking of dragging it to me by the handle.
"Us? Like you're going to kick in on the payoff? Where do you keep your savings? In with the kibble?" I was in a rotten mood just thinking about what that text might say. What had we been thinking, taunting a blackmailer with a dollar bill? "And if I find a tooth mark on this strap, I'm going to actually buy kibble. Comprende? "
"Gee. Take a chill pill and open the phone already." Valdez sat in front of me, all innocent doggy. "I'm just as nervous as you are. What if this yahoo actually gets the video on TV? Now you're Israel Caine's main squeeze. There would be a shit storm of publicity."
"Thanks for reminding me." I sank down on the couch, picked up my second Bloodthirsty of the night and took a couple of swallows. "Yep, there's a message. Hey, maybe it's an 'Okay, you win' message."
"Just read it already. Caine should be up at any time." As if on cue, we heard a door slam, then the shower go on. "There you go. Wonder if he takes long showers."
"According to the unauthorized biography-"
"Glory!"
"Okay! I'm reading the text. Oh, crap. Look."
"HA. HA. PAY UP OR UL B THE NEXT BIG THING ON YOUTUBE. 5 THOUSAND BUCKS. 24 HRS. SAME PLACE
OR ELSE."
I sighed. "Might as well be five million. And if that video shows up on YouTube, we'll have every vamp wannabe in the world wanting to come check us out."
"So? As long as you can keep your fangs under control, you can deny, deny, deny. Might even be good for business." Valdez scratched his ears. "Come to think of it, you can say this Caine thing bringing you into the spotlight made you realize the potential of using the media to advertise the shop. What the hey. It's worth a try."
"Aren't you Mr. Cool?" I stared at him. "Where's this change of attitude coming from? Five minutes ago you were just as freaked out as I was." I ran the video again. Because, of course, it was included with the message, lest I forget why I should bankrupt myself. Oh, those fangs, that blood, the width of those hips!
"This deal with Caine has really got me thinkin'. The guy's in the tabloids almost daily. He shrugs it off. 'Cause most of it's lies. I say let the blackmailin' dude put it out there. Look at you, Glory. No way would anyone take you for a vampire." I looked down. Okay, my blue dress and high heels would fit in at any bar on Sixth Street on a date night. Especially if I were going on a third date. Did I mention the dress is low cut and easy on, easy off?
"You're right. Now if I went in for the Goth look, I'd be in trouble, but-"
"But you're too smart for that, always have been."
"Thanks, Valdez." I shut the phone decisively. Really, what choice did I have? Chances of catching our blackmailer picking up a payoff were slim to none, and the demands for money would only keep coming, especially if I managed to come into some reward money for finding out who'd attacked Lucky.
I squared my shoulders. "Okay. I'll write another note and include another dollar with it, and we'll leave it in the park. I'll say, 'Bring it on.' "
"Bring what on?" Flo flung open the hall door.
"I thought I heard a crowd out in the hall," I said and smiled when I saw Richard right behind her.
"You did. Look who we found downstairs, outside the building, guarding our door." Flo pulled Sam inside, followed closely by Buster.
"Oh, hi, guys." Now this was a complication I hadn't anticipated. Of course Ray's bodyguards would expect to stay with him.
"Good evening, Ms. St. Clair. Ray around?" Sam was the talker of the pair. Buster just settled next to the door, a silent statue ready to strong-arm anyone who tried to get to his boss.
"Here I am, Sam." Ray walked into the room with a towel around his waist and nothing else. Obviously he'd just stepped out of the shower.
Sam sniffed the air. "No coffee? Want me to run downstairs to that little shop and get you some, boss? They've got some goodlookin' muffins too. Nate said you were sleepin' all day." Ray smiled and shook his head. "No coffee, but you boys head on down and set up there. This building's as secure as a vault. I'll call down if I decide to go out." He glanced at me. "Right now we've got no plans. Right, babe?" I was lost in a little experiment with mind control. Vampires can make things move with their minds, and I just about had the knot on Ray's towel undone. Flo saw where I was looking and grinned. Unfortunately Ray felt the towel falling and grabbed it before Flo got to see his diamond ring. Hey, I was trying to do her a favor.
Ray's cell phone rang and he picked it up from the coffee table. "Yeah. You're downstairs in the limo?" Ray looked around. "Give me five minutes, then I'll send someone down to let you up." He shut the phone.
"Glory, tell Sam and Buster the code so they can get out downstairs."
"Sorry, Ray." I looked at Richard. "You want to walk them down, Richard?"
"Sure, come on, boys." Richard made it clear they had no choice. The men looked at Ray, who was obviously pissed, but he merely nodded and the three men headed out.
As soon as the door closed, Ray turned to me. "No? You tell me no?" He was furious. Valdez got between us. "Why the hell can't my bodyguards have the freakin' code?"
"Because they're mortals, Ray. This building is for paranormals. I can give the code to anyone who is a paranormal I know and trust. But I won't give it to you unless you promise to respect that. Right now, I don't think you're ready to know the code."
"Shit." Ray stomped out of the room, losing his towel halfway to the door.
"Dio mio." Flo was clearly impressed by the back view.
"You should see the front." I sat on the couch and picked up the bottle of Bloodthirsty again. There was a knock on the door and Flo hurried to answer it.
"Richard, you don't have to knock."
"Not Richard." Blade stood there with an armload of newspapers. "Thought you'd like to see these, Gloriana." He strode forward and dumped them none too gently on the couch beside me.
Richard eased in behind him. He had a newspaper too, this one I could see was the Austin daily. "Sorry, Florence, but Ray and Glory beat us out for the photo op."
Flo snatched it out of his hand and looked at the page Richard had folded it to. "Well, Ray certainly is showing the world that he has a new, how you say it, main squeeze."
I'd grabbed a tabloid that had given us a full color spread. Of course they would use a wide-angle lens. My butt looked enormous. I was never wearing a miniskirt that length again. It hit my thighs at their widest part.
"I'm reading your mind, Gloriana. Instead of focusing on your thighs, which are fine, by the way, look at your lover's open mouth on yours, clearly giving you a taste of his tongue. And the way his hand is touching your left breast." Jerry could have been an announcer for a golf tournament.
Gee, be technical, why don't you? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, two inches to the left and he would have touched nipple!
"Then there's your own hand, which is clutching his waist like you're trying to find his zipper."
"We were acting, Jerry. For the camera. It meant nothing. Ray loathes me. As soon as the door closed, he told me so, very clearly." And damn if I didn't tear up like a complete and utter wimp.
"She's right. I guess you're the boyfriend she told me about. Another vampire." Ray had pulled on his jeans and was stepping into the black loafers he'd worn the night before. He held a dark blue sweater in his hand. "I had no idea there were so many of you running around."
"Israel Caine. Jeremy Blade," I said. Jerry didn't offer his hand and of course Ray wouldn't, what with his anti-vampire stance. The men just seemed to assess each other. "You had no idea there are so many of us, Ray, because that's the way we like it. The fewer people who know about us, the better."
"Well, I'm telling Nathan. And I can't keep living here. It's too small. I have an entourage. Not just Sam and Buster either. Some of them are still in New York, including my father. He was planning to stay with me for a few weeks. At least until after Hanukkah." Ray looked around. He didn't say it, though why he held back when he'd been brutally honest about everything else, I don't know. Maybe he'd figured out that if he insulted anything Gloriana related, Jerry would knock his new fangs down his throat. But Ray was like Lucky, used to finer things. Me, my first priority has always been safety. I felt safe here. Or at least I usually did. The recent fire had shook me up more than a bit, but, hey, we'd survived. Which proves that top-of-the-line security combined with Valdez is pretty fail-safe.
"Lucky could leave because she had Etienne, another vampire, to guide her." Flo looked at Richard. "I suppose . . ."
"No, absolutely not. Ray is Glory's responsibility. Let her handle him. He can endure his reduced circumstances for a few days while he learns the ropes." Richard had read Ray loud and clear. And Flo. He knew Flo way too well and had spent enough hours with her listening to Ray's music to know about her crush on him. And Flo's history with men told its own tale. Richard had already lasted longer than most of her lovers. He wasn't about to throw her together with another handsome man on a daily basis. Blade had been busy reading Ray too. Unfortunately, he realized Ray had zero interest in hooking up with me. And I'm sure Valdez had also reassured him on that point. Ain't it swell being so . . . desirable?