“You can stay a little longer,” Connor said. “I have money for another plane ticket.”
Laurence frowned. “That’s exactly how I don’t want you thinking, son. If you have so much money that you can just waste it, you shouldn’t have as much money as you do.”
“Right,” Connor nodded, though annoyed at his father’s lecture. “I guess I’ll see you guys soon, then.”
“I love you, sweetie,” Colleen said, hugging her son.
“I love you, too, mom.”
“They’ve stopped the internal bleeding.”
Wesley pulled out of Angel’s consoling grip and charged toward Gunn. “What happened?”
“I’m still looking into it.” Gunn couldn’t tell them he’d had the cameras in the science lab shut down. They’d go nuts. “When I heard the fire alarms, I went back to get her. I saw someone leaving.”
“Knox?” Wesley asked.
“No. Someone else from the lab team. I gave his description to my guys. They’re on it.”
“Well,” Wes said sarcastically. “Now I feel completely reassured.”
“Save it Wes,” Angel said. He looked at Gunn. “Alive. You hear me?”
Gunn threw his hands up defensively. “Angel, I-”
“I want him alive!” Angel shouted before storming off. “I want to know what the hell he was doing, why, and who ordered it!”
“What did the security cameras pick up?” Wesley asked angrily.
Gunn smirked. “Go to hell, Wes.”
“This is about Fred, Charles!”
“I know. And for once, I’ll be the one taking care of Fred’s problems.”
“This is above our petty rivalry.”
“Then what does it matter who finds the guy?” Gunn shot back. Wes began to speak, but Gunn cut him off. “You know what, Wes. This conversation is over.”
“The hell it is!”
“I answer to bigger people than you, Wesley.” Gunn turned and grabbed his vibrating cell phone and answered. “Thanks,” he said into it. He hit speed dial. “Angel, he’s on the roof.”
“It’s daylight,” Wes said.
“Thanks for the update,” Gunn said sarcastically. “I wouldn’t have known if you hadn’t told me.”
“Angel can’t go out on the roof in the day.”
“Let’s pretend I just repeated my last statement,” Gunn said, taking out his pistol and cocking it. “Angel can’t go outside. I can.”
Wes ran to his desk and grabbed his own pistol. He wanted to murder the bastard who’d hurt Fred. But he knew they needed information as to why.
Wes took the elevator to the roof and stormed out onto it. Gunn and his security team had weapons trained on a scientist who was backing away from them.
“Just lay down on you face,” Gunn shouted, taking aim with his own pistol. “Don’t’ be stupid.”
The scientist looked at the men surrounding him. He quickly turned, hopped onto the ledge and jumped from the roof.
“Shit,” Gunn yelled grabbing his cell phone. “He jumped from the roof. Is he alive? Is he alive?”
“I’m sorry, sir,” a guard said as he stepped up to Gunn. “But there’s no way he survived.”
Dinner had been great. Chez Nous was an expensive French restaurant popular with LA’s elite. The maitre d’ had no idea who the young man was that he warranted such special attention. But the boy came in a limo with Eve Pearson, so the maitre d’ wasn’t asking questions. The kid didn’t look eighteen, let alone twenty-one. But if Eve Pearson says she and the boy are splitting a two thousand-dollar bottle of 1959 Château Lafite Rothschild, then the waiters weren’t asking questions either.
Connor was slightly buzzed when Eve helped him back to his suite in the residential tower.
“You treat all your clients this well?” Connor laughed.
“Only the cute ones,” Eve said as Connor opened the door.
“I already signed with you guys. You don’t have to keep flirting with me.”
“You think I’m flirting with you?” Eve said as they stepped into Connor’s apartment.
“Maybe a little.”
“And you think I’m flirting with you just so you’ll sign with us? Well, you can’t officially sign with a hockey team until your eighteenth birthday, so I suppose I have a little bit of flirting still ahead of me.”
Connor put his hand on the back of Eve’s neck, as if to pull her in for a kiss. But she was hot. And older than he was. And a lawyer. Was this stupid?
Eve leaned forward and kissed Connor. Her kiss was soft, but by no means chaste. Her lips teased his, pulling them gently into her mouth and massaging them with her tongue.
Eve stepped back and looked at Connor. He looked almost feminine in the moonlight pouring through the floor to ceiling window. “Good night, Connor. I really enjoyed tonight.”
“So did I. Can I see you again?”
“If the answer to that question were no,” Eve smiled seductively. “Do you think I would have kissed you?”
Eve kissed him gently again. It was longer than the first kiss. She pressed her body against his and he could feel her hard nipples against his chest. He reached up to touch them through her blouse, but she gently pushed his hand away.
“Sorry,” she said, breaking the kiss. “It’s a little much for the first date.”
“Don’t be sorry. I understand. Totally. I didn’t mean to push.”
“I know. But I should go.”
Connor nodded sadly. He hoped his overenthusiastic attempt at a grope hadn’t cut their night short. He didn’t need things to progress. He could have kissed her forever and not gotten tired of it.
“Lorne’s having a party for staff and clients on Halloween,” Eve said. “Are you going?”
“Yeah. Why? You want to go together?”
“I don’t know if it’s a good idea that my coworkers know we’re dating. We are dating, right?”
“Absolutely!” He too had been wondering if they were dating and was happy that answer was yes.
“Well,” Eve licked her lips. “I think showing up together could make work complicated for me. But I don’t think anyone could complain if we danced together.”
“I know I wouldn’t complain.”
“Well, the client’s always right.”
Connor leaned forward and kissed her again. Touching her filled him with a sensation that was almost too intense to bear. But he wanted to keep touching her. Even looking at her made him feel wonderful. He wanted her to stay, even if they would just watch TV or read to each other.
Connor kissed her neck. Her perfume smelled great and it was driving him mad. The gentle suction made her moan softly. Her moaning immediately provoked a response in Connor’s body and he knew he was being an idiot. He could never just sit and read with her. He’d want to touch her. And soon, that touching would make him want to do other things which were far too personal for a first date.
“Sorry,” Connor said. “Oh shit!” he added, seeing her neck.
“Don’t worry,” Eve said, touching her neck and guessing what was upsetting Connor. “My days of being embarrassed by hickeys ended long ago.”
Connor kissed her quickly and chastely. “I’m going to walk you to your car. I insist.”
“My car is a limo seven feet from the front door of this building.”
“I’m going to make sure you get through those seven feet safely. If don’t, my mother will know immediately. She has this kind telepathy when it comes to me being chivalrous.”
Eve laughed. “Mama’s boy.”
“Come on,” Connor said, taking her arm.
“Sunrise is in about an hour,” Gunn warned.
“I’m aware,” Angel said. “Just stay quiet.”
“Can you get in there?” Gunn asked.
“Motel,” Angel said. “Public accommodations. I should be fine.”
“Let’s roll then. Gunn moved quickly to the front door.
Angel headed to the back and peaked through the bathroom window into the room. He grabbed his cell phone and hit the two-way button. “Gunn, she’s got a shotgun by the bed.”
Gunn took out his pistol. “When you pop in, go for it. I’ll cover her. Is the door chained?”
Angel looked again. “I can’t see.”
“I’ll hit the door extra hard just to be sure.”
“Good,” Angel said.
“Hey Angel. Fells pretty good for just the two of us to be kicking it old school, huh?”
“Yeah,” Angel smiled. “Feels good.”
Gunn cocked his pistol kicked the door in easily. It wasn’t the first time someone had knocked the door in and probably wouldn’t be the last.
“Justine,” Gunn shouted, training his pistol on her. “Don’t move!”
Justine immediately went for the shotgun, but Angel smashed through the bathroom window and got to the bedside just in time to rip the shotgun from her hands. He cocked it and aimed it at her.
“Relax and nobody gets hurt,” Gunn said.
Angel slammed the butt of the shotgun into Justine’s jaw. “Well . . . maybe you’ll get just a little hurt.”
“Urn,” Gunn said. “We trapped a big demon in it. Where is it?”
“Why? Was he a friend of yours?”
“Don’t be stupid, Justine,” Angel said. “You can’t keep it secure. We can.”
“Too late for that. I sold it.”
“Who’d you sell it to,” Gunn asked angrily.
“Didn’t get his name.”
“Justine, I don’t want to hurt you,” Angel said. “But I won’t mind it, either.”
“So I should make with the talking before you make with the hurting.”
Gunn pulled out a pair of handcuffs. “Not necessary. We got plenty of ways to get the information out of you back at HQ. Truth serum. Truth spells. And if torture is part of it, we got ways of doing that, too.”
“What about keeping this independent of Wolfram & Hart?” Angel asked.
“We did our best.” Gunn slapped the cuffs on Justine. “Let’s go, sweetie.”
“The blood sample?” Fred asked. She was lying in her bed in a hospital across town. She and Wes agreed she’d be safer outside of Wolfram & Hart.
“Destroyed,” Wes said. “Which I assume was the point.”
“But the only people who knew about it were me, you, and Gunn.”
“You’re assuming no one overheard us discussing it. In any event, Knox is running the lab now, which may also have been the point.”
“I’m in constant contact with him. Even from here. He’s cataloging all dangerous viruses in the lab. I want to throw people off the trail of the blood sample, so I’m pretending this was about the Ebola sample.”
“Good idea,” Wes said. He leaned back and sighed. “Angel and Gunn are . . .”
“I know.”
“Perhaps we should think about bringing Lorne in on our . . . suspicions.”
“Of Angel and Charles?”
Wesley looked down. “Things haven’t been normal since we got here. We always suspected this place would divide us. That the Senior Partners want to flip us, so to speak. Maybe Angel and Gunn are the beginning.”
“Like our own little version of Invasion if the Body Snatchers,” Fred frowned. “Fine. You talk to him. I’ll keep tabs on Charles and Angel. They’ll be less suspicious of me.”
Fred had a hard time getting dressed, but after that, she headed back to the office. As she crossed the lobby, she saw Gunn and Angel brining in Justine.
“Matthews,” Gunn called, shoving Justine toward an approaching security agent. “Take her to Examination One.”
“Yes, sir,” the agent responded. He took Justine off toward the interrogation rooms.
“No luck with the vase,” Fred said.
“No,” Angel answered coldly. He brushed past her without looking at her. “Harmony, get me Eve,” Angel called before entering his office.
“Good morning boss,” Harmony said in her chipped voice. “Want some coffee?”
Gunn glared at her. “He said he wanted Eve.”
“Wow,” Fred said. “When did we get so friendly with Eve? I mean, she is still the enemy, right?”
“Yeah,” Gunn said. “I’m sure that’s why Angel’s keeping tabs on her. My team, too. We want to know what she’s up to at all times.”
“Right.” Fred took Gunn’s hand and led him away from the lobby. “Charles, you didn’t tell anyone about that blood sample, did you?”
“You told me not to. I even left it out of my personal journal in case some security guys snagged it. Why? Is that what the lab fire was about?”
“The blood sample was destroyed,” Fred said.
“Sorry, Fred. But I don’t see what’s so important about this blood.”
“It proves someone at this firm is passing him or herself off as human when he or she clearly isn’t. I wonder if it’s Eve.”
“Tell you what,” Gunn said with a smile. “I’m having my guys pull the samples again. We’ll grab Eve as soon as she’s done with Angel. I’ll send the sample right to you.”
“Thanks, Charles.”
Fred turned to see Wes and Lorne walking. Lorne was talking quietly and Wes was nodding. She headed toward them when Knox passed her, heading toward Gunn.
“Aren’t you supposed to be running the lab?” Fred asked.
“All under control. We ordered dinner out and the delivery guy got lost, so I’m meeting him here in the lobby.”
“Dinner?” Fred asked, looking at her watch. “It’s seven in the morning.”
“Yeah. But when you’ve been working since noon yesterday, this is dinner. Luckily L.A. is home of the twenty-four hour Chinese place. God bless America, right?”
Knox made a weird gesture, like he was a pitcher shaking off a pitch call from a catcher. Fred quickly turned to see Gunn leaving the room and talking on his cell phone.
“Keep up the good work, Knox,” Fred said and she quickly made her way across the lobby and up the stairs.
“Good to see you, sugar,” Lorne said, pressing a note into Fred’s hand and he took her hands and kissed her cheek. “We all really need to cut loose. Maybe my big Halloween bash will do the trick, huh?”
Fred glanced at the note. It had only two words on it: staff karaoke.
“It’ll be the perfect opportunity,” Fred said with a slight grin.
“Gunn!” a loud voice came from the lobby. “How’s it going with Justine?”
“Easy as pie. We shot her full of drugs and she’s spilling like a . . . I don’t know. Something that spills a lot. We should have answers in-”
“Code Red! Code Red!” A guard ran from the interrogation room where they were holding Justine. The guard had blood on his uniform. “I don’t know where she got it.”
“What?!” Gunn yelled. “Where she got what?”
“The knife,” the guard said. “She cut her own throat.”
Gunn and Angel ran toward the interrogation room. Wes, Lorne, and Fred ran down the stairs and headed for the room as well. When they got there, the medics were already trying to resuscitate her.
“I’m sorry, sir,” one of the medics said. “She’s dead.”
Angel turned and kicked the wall.
“Excellent work, Charles,” Wes said. “You’ve had two important leads die in custody in as many days.”
“Wesley,” Fred said in a scolding voice. She wished there was something she could do or say to communicate that she agreed with him. Whether Charles was complicit or not was up for debate. But the fact that Wolfram & Hart’s security team had allowed two important leads die was too suspicious to be coincidence.
“We’ve contracted with someone outside the firm to get the urn,” Eve said.
“Excellent,” the boy answered. “Pryce is watching everything that happens here.”
Knox was fidgety. He hated being in this place. The boy in the White Room was nothing to look at. Wearing a black hooded robe, his features were hidden from sight. But the dimensions of the robe showed him to be almost skeletally thin. For some reason that bothered Knox. He could probably look anyway he wanted. It was like the boy was making a point that he didn’t need to be big in order to be scary.
“That other project is ahead of schedule, sir,” Knox said. “It should be ready for release within two months.”
“The end of the month,” the boy said. “At the party.”
“I don’t know if it can be ready by then, sir,” Knox said nervously. “We’ve made great progress while Fred was out of the lab, but she’s due back.”
“Keep her occupied with something else. Anything else. But we need a distraction at the party. And this should do perfectly.”
“What do I do?” Knox asked.
“Just release it,” Eve said. “The building will lock down and security will take care of the rest.”
“Precisely,” the boy smiled. “Within one month, everyone who can stand in the way of our plans must be dead or dying.”
“Including Miss Chase?” Knox asked nervously.
“Especially Miss Chase,” the boy answered.
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