“Sarah, it’s vitally important I get that book. I need you
to think about the security at work. Cameras, guards, alarms, everything.” He’d
need to get schematics of the building and more. But he’d start here, with his
best inside source. Of course, if she was working with the Knights, this might
be nothing more than an elaborate plot to capture him.
It was a risk he had to take.
“You don’t need to know that,” she began.
Darius caught her face in his hands and cradled her cheeks
in his palms. “I do, Sarah, I really do. I’m not worried about my life, but
those of people close to me.” That was the most he could give her.
“No, you don’t.”
Disappointment seeped into him, and he released her and
straightened to his full height. “How much?”
“What?” She sounded bewildered, but he wasn’t buying it. If
she wasn’t willing to give him the information he needed, it was because she
wanted something. In his vast experience with humans, that meant money in one
form or another. It used to be gold and jewels. Nowadays, it was more likely to
be a simple bank transfer.
He put his hands on his hips and simply stared at her,
trying not to get lost in her chocolate-brown eyes. They appeared so innocent.
“How much for the information?”
She jumped to her feet and glared at him. “You son of a
bitch. I’m risking a lot to warn you about the book and everything else.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.” No way could he let her
go until he had the information he needed. “The quicker you give it to me, the
faster I can pay you. Then you can leave.”
She fisted her hands at her sides. “I ought to let you pay
for it.” Then she fumbled with her knapsack and yanked open the zipper. He wondered
if she had a weapon of some kind, and cursed himself for not searching her
earlier. Not that it would do her much good. Most conventional weapons, at
least any that could fit in her bag, wouldn’t do much damage to him. But it
would piss him off.
She reached inside the bag and, instead of a weapon, pulled
out an old, leather-bound book. She thrust it against his stomach, and he
caught it before it dropped to the floor.
“Here’s your damn book. I smuggled it out of work at great
personal risk. You’re welcome.” She stepped around him and strode to the
elevator. Sarah slapped her palm against the panel, but nothing happened. Only
he could make it work.
Darius stared at the book and then back at the very angry
woman waiting for an elevator that would never come.
An unusual sensation enveloped him, one he’d rarely felt in
the thousands of years he’d been alive. It was shame with a hint of
bewilderment.
He might have just made the biggest mistake of his life.
Taming the White Wolf by N.J. Walters
