A Bite to Remember Page 0,47

car to meet Vincent and his aunt as they disembarked on the other side. They walked in together, Vincent between the two women.

Jackie had known that Vincent had money. That had been obvious from his house: big, beautiful and expensively decorated, it was also on some prime real estate. Everyone wanted to live on the water out here. Still, she supposed she'd just assumed that he was your average level of wealthy and had, perhaps, purchased his home years ago, when the land was worth less. Three steps inside the doors of the big white building that housed his production company, however, told her that the man wasn't just wealthy, he was loaded.

Jackie had expected the building to house several other companies aside from his own. It didn't. The entire building housed V.A. Productions and nothing else. The entry led into a large lobby with two receptionists and an armed guard. All three were mortal, she saw, glancing from face to face and noting their eyes. And all three glanced toward them with polite enquiry when Vincent ushered the women through the front door. Their expressions were quick to change to shock, however, as they recognized the V.A. in V.A. Productions. The shock was still on their faces as he led Jackie and Marguerite past the desk and into the elevator.

"Why do I get the feeling that you don't come here often?" Jackie asked dryly as Vincent pushed the button for the top floor and the elevator doors closed on the three stunned faces.

"They recognized me, didn't they?" Vincent said with a shrug.

Jackie lifted an eyebrow at the comment, but Vincent didn't notice. His attention was fixed on the elevator panel over the doors, watching the floors light up as he added, "Besides, I've never been here this early and the guards are on a different shift than our other workers. They switch shifts at seven P.M. rather than six like the rest of the building. Security suggested it so that they wouldn't be changing guards as everyone was arriving or leaving."

"Smart," Jackie commented with approval, then forgot all about it as the elevator gave a ding and the doors began to open.

This was obviously the executive floor, she saw as they stepped out into a world of plush carpet and muted music.

Another reception desk awaited them here, this one also sporting two receptionists and an armed male guard. As in the entry, the receptionists were both a male and a female and both were human.

And, as with the ones below, these three people looked shocked to see Vincent Argeneau entering, but none of them did more than nod in greeting as he passed.

Jackie waited until they were started down a long hallway before moving closer to Vincent to ask, "Are your night security here human as well?"

"No. Immortal," Vincent assured her.

"I'm surprised immortals would take the position," Jackie commented. Among humans, security guards were among the least respected and lowest paying jobs. She didn't understand why, herself. After all, security were basically on the front line should anything happen. They were also responsible for the safety and security of everyone in the building, but still the job was considered the lowest of the low. And, in her experience, immortals were far too arrogant to take on what was considered to be no better than a grunt job by most people.

"We pay well," Vincent explained. "Still, the position is usually filled with the young borns and the newly turned."

Jackie nodded absently, but asked, "So you have three shifts for security, seven P.M. to three A.M., three A.M. to eleven A.M., and eleven A.M. to seven P.M., right?"

"Yes."

"And the guards are human from eleven A.M. to seven P.M., but immortal from seven P.M. to three A.M. What about the three A.M. to eleven A.M. shift?"

"Human."

Jackie nodded. She'd expected as much. "We'll need to talk to your security chief. They need to change things."

"Why?" Vincent asked with surprise.

"Because while it's smart to stagger the shifts so that security isn't changing while the other workers are, the shifts need to be rearranged," Jackie murmured, working it through quickly in her head. "The security shifts need to change an hour before the others rather than an hour after. The three shifts should be five P.M. to one A.M., one A.M. to nine A.M. and nine A.M. to five P.M. And you need to put immortals on both the five P.M. to one A.M. shift and the one A.M. to nine A.M. shift, or split