Weiss laughed. “I didn’t off the Mexican. So, I’m your only option, is that it?”
Anthony pretended to think about it. “I guess you’re right,” he said, as if it had never occurred to him.
“So what’s the plan?”
“Duvall has my woman. I want her back. I have people in place to tell me if he goes out tomorrow night, and where he’ll be. I’ll pass that intel on to you, and you grab my Natalie. Gently. I don’t want her injured.”
Weiss scowled. “The woman’s easy. But what about Duvall? Why can’t I just kill him, and take her at the same time?”
“You believe you can defeat him?”
“With the right tools, yeah. I’ll need guns.”
“This is Texas,” Anthony said dismissively. “That’s not a problem.”
“It is when you don’t have an ID.”
“Also not a problem. Leave a list with my guard, and one of my staff will handle it. Tell him where you want them delivered, and when.” Anthony sent a telepathic message to his guard. The vampire appeared a moment later, and lingered in the doorway waiting.
Weiss laughed and stood up. “That’s it, huh? Still no scotch, I guess. I’ll expect a call from you tomorrow, old man. And I want those weapons. I’m not going up against him unprepared.”
“You’ll have what you need. But, remember, Weiss. Natalie Gaudet is your target, your only target. Duvall is a bonus, but only once my woman is secure.”
Weiss grunted his agreement, then followed the guard from the room.
Anthony listened to Weiss’s departing footsteps, nearly lost beneath the heavy tread of his guard’s boots. And then he resumed his contemplation of the Houston skyline. He hadn’t planned on Weiss killing Duvall, had thought the vamp would be too cowardly to go against him. He didn’t need him to kill Duvall. There were plans in place that would cover that quite nicely. But if Weiss wanted to try, Anthony was more than happy to give him that chance. As long as he got Natalie to safety first.
He exhaled on a long breath, feeling hopeful for the first time since Raphael had painted a target on his back. By this time tomorrow, Natalie would be his again, and if he was very lucky, Duvall would be dead.
Chapter Nine
NATALIE WOKE ALONE . . . again, which bothered her more than it should have. It wasn’t as if she and Christian were going to do morning cuddles, or sex before breakfast, or even lunch. What troubled her was the subject Christian had raised the first night she’d spent in his house . . . trust. It was obvious to her that he didn’t trust her to be around him during the day when he was at his most vulnerable. Actually, daylight might be the only time a vampire as powerful as Christian was truly vulnerable.
She told herself she should be glad that she didn’t have to deal with seeing whatever state a vampire entered into when the sun was in the sky. Was it like human sleep? Did he breathe? Did his heart beat? She frowned. Well, of course those things must happen. He’d been human once, which meant he still had the same circulatory system, still needed oxygen and especially blood. So how was a vampire’s sleep different?
An unwanted thought intruded, suggesting that Christian’s decision to sleep alone might not be a matter of trust at all. Maybe he was uncertain how she’d react, and was sparing her delicate sensibilities. If that was it, then he needed a dose of reality. Admittedly, she hadn’t lived a hard life, but that didn’t mean she needed to be coddled. One of the main reasons she’d accepted the move to Houston was because it broke her out of the protective cocoon her father and brothers had woven around her.
If she and Christian were going to have a real relationship, he needed to know that she could handle the reality of a vampire’s life. She didn’t even have to think about whether she wanted a relationship with him. The answer was hell, yes. She wasn’t ready to marry the guy tomorrow, but she sure as hell wanted more than a few nights of sex. Mind-blowing, knock-your-socks-off sex. But there was more to him than sex. Yes, she’d experienced more orgasms in two nights with Christian than she had in her entire adult life before him. And, yes, he’d done things and made her feel things that no other man had even come close to.
But he was also smart, charming, and compassionate. And let’s not forget that all of that was wrapped up in one incredibly gorgeous package of hunk-a-licious male. She’d have to be crazy not to want more of him, more of what they might have.
So, then, how could she prove to him that she was as tough as he needed her to be? She’d heard the stories of Cynthia Leighton. You couldn’t live around Houston vampires without hearing the rumors of what a badass she was. But Natalie knew her own limitations. She was no pushover, but she wasn’t a badass. She’d fired lots of guns, but never at a person. And she’d never contemplated killing an actual vampire lord the way Leighton had. But that didn’t mean she was weak. There were all kinds of strength in this world, and hers happened to be in her head. She was smart as hell, and knew how to use what she had. So how could she use that fabulous brain of hers to demonstrate her toughness to Christian?
She glanced at the clock, and saw it was nearly noon. Christian and Marc would be trapped downstairs fast asleep until sunset. But that didn’t mean their investigation had to sleep, too. She’d overheard Marc talking to Christian about not being able to access Anthony’s internal network, and had known immediately what they were trying to do. They needed something from Anthony that he wasn’t willing to give up. That was no surprise, since Anthony took paranoia to an entirely new level.
But she knew Anthony’s network better than almost anyone on the estate. She worked as a forensic accountant, but she could just as easily have been a forensic computer analyst instead. Almost all financial data was stored on computers these days, and she couldn’t figure out the where of hidden data if she didn’t first understand the how. She’d chosen the accounting career path simply because she liked numbers, but she still kept up on new developments on the programming side.
She knew that Marc would never succeed in tapping into Anthony’s inner files, because the network where that data lived wasn’t connected to the Internet at all. It was a matter of both security and practicality. There was no need for anyone outside the estate to access that information. Hell, most of the people on the estate couldn’t access that private network. But Natalie could. Her job required that she have access to everything, including the most sensitive data of all. Every financial transaction in or out of Anthony’s accounts as Lord of the South, every transaction regarding the estate for the last twenty years, was at her fingertips. She’d never explored beyond the financial data, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. Or that she couldn’t get to it.
Filled with purpose, Natalie rolled out of bed, groaning only a little when what felt like every muscle in her body protested. Sex with Christian wasn’t for pussies. She choked on her own laughter at the thought, then felt her face flush with heat. She had to get over this reaction to him. If she was going to go back to the estate, she’d need to be at the top of her game. And she sure as hell couldn’t be pulsing on the edge of orgasm all day.
She forced herself to her feet and headed for the bathroom. A cold shower would be a good start.
TWO HOURS LATER, Natalie was sitting at her laptop in Anthony’s estate kitchen. She checked the clock for about the tenth time in ten minutes. She knew Christian wouldn’t be happy that she was here, but he needed to realize that she knew what she was doing. After all, she wasn’t an idiot. Anthony employed human guards during the day, but he’d never really trusted them, and had no close associates among them. They manned the gate and perimeter, but had no duties in the main house.
Plus, she was working in the kitchen, which was all but deserted during the daytime. There was no human food stored or prepared here, since the human staff had their own kitchen in the adjacent building on the other side of the parking lot. The kitchen also had the benefit of a door directly to the back parking lot. And yet it was close enough to give her access to Anthony’s private network.
Additionally, today was Sunday, and even vampires took the weekend off. Which meant there were even fewer people around. On the other hand, the few who were there had been buzzing with rumors of Anthony’s whereabouts. They all knew she worked closely with Anthony, and so seemed to think she knew where he was. They’d shared what they knew in hopes of getting her to share what she knew. Details had varied from person to person, but the one thing they all agreed on was that he was long gone from Houston. The most popular theory was that he’d fled to New Orleans, although some versions had softened it to him “visiting” his former city, rather than cowering there in fear. Natalie wasn’t sure she bought the idea of him fleeing Houston altogether, but she’d filed it all away to tell Christian later.