Annie Nicholas - Catch

The deserted hall echoed with my footsteps. I had to admit Tane was smart to send me out in the middle of the night. Who the hell checked into a hotel at this time?

Someone pissed off who just allegedly stormed out of her lover’s life.

Slipping the keycard into the slot, it signaled the door unlocked, and I entered the room to exhale the breath I’d been holding. Had Colby been watching? Did I look upset enough or just terrified?

I leaned against the door and scanned the room. “Hello?” Did the guards arrive before like planned?

“Keep up the act, Connie.” Gwen’s disembodied voice startled a small squeak out of me. I didn’t expect a response.

The room wasn’t a suite like we’d booked before. It contained a sitting area with a couch and a chair by the entrance, then a bed by the far wall next to the bathroom.

A knock announced the arrival of my luggage and the tension in the air rocketed. I could almost hear the guards' muscles straining to pounce.

I straightened my skirt and pulled at the hem then wiped my sweaty palms on the material before opening the door.

The bellhop carried my empty suitcases and placed them by the closet then left after I gave him a tip.

Maybe I should have filled them? Would the vampire nation notice if I boarded a plane and left the country? Once I arrived at my destination and escaped the clutches of the vampire nation, I could send a note to Rurik and we could agree to meet somewhere.

Then in a few months my hunger would rear its ugly head and I’d be forced to find Tane.

No doubt he’d make me pay for running away. I shuddered, all fantasies dissipating into thin air replaced with dread.

A chill ran down my arms and goose flesh developed on them. Rurik didn’t appear ready to leave Rio anyway. He probably missed his own kind. Intrigue and politics seemed to be his bread and butter. Power his aphrodisiac. All these things orbited around Tane. How long before my lover gravitated to him? What if Rurik never wanted to leave?

My soul shriveled at the thought. I’d be alone again. Plopping onto the couch, I wanted to sob, a drowning-in-your-own-boogers kind of cry, but not in front of an audience. Instead, I stared at a blank television for a few minutes then turned it on.

Nothing caught my interest, my Portuguese sucked so I couldn’t understand most of the channels, except the ones running porn. Heat rose to my cheeks knowing others watched the room.

I kicked off my heels then stomped across the room and threw open the curtains.

Through the rain, a dark outline of Sugarloaf Mountain stood across the bay. Rising above the harbor, the name refers to its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar. It took two cable car rides to reach its peak. I pressed my forehead against the window. Rurik promised to take me there. Only three nights ago, he chased me through the Jardim Botanic for fun, it felt like an eon.

Nothing guaranteed Colby hearing the rumors tonight, he might not show. A small part of me hoped he didn’t come. He may have almost killed me and we needed to have words about that, yet I understood his desire to murder Tane. Without the bond, I would have staked him myself by now.

God only knew what Colby endured on Tane's yacht in Budapest. When I rescued him, he’d been chained to a wall wearing only his briefs. Tane confessed to studying Colby’s slayer activities for years. If anyone could catch Colby it was him.

Stupid of my ex-boss to attempt killing Tane on his own property. Maybe the urge overcame him when he came with his team to investigate a body Gwen and I found. The crossbow was ingenious though, but why didn’t he use a UV light grenade like he usually did with the powerful vampires?

A well-placed shot would have toasted Tane and any other vampire in the vicinity.

The burst of artificial sunlight wouldn’t have hurt any humans. I might have gotten a tan.

Outside the hotel window, traffic trickled on the streets. People had normal lives in the city. This was the first contact I’d experienced with my own kind in days. The night’s activities and adrenaline rush faded, leaving me exhausted. I undid the buttons of my jacket without looking.

For the first time since meeting Rurik, I missed living like a human. I touched the window, the cold barrier between our worlds. It wouldn’t take much to shatter it.

A traitorous tear slid along my nose until it dripped off my chin onto the window ledge.

Caught.

Hook, line and sinker, the anglers had their catch. Rurik had me by the heart and Tane with his blood.

If there was a heaven, my dead husband, Laurent, probably fumed at my predicament and stupidity.

I didn’t do helpless well, though. A release from these bonds would come one day, but I didn’t know if I had the balls to take it.

Stepping away from the window, I slipped my pink jacket off and laid it over the back of the chair. I sat on the sofa to watch the colors of the television and took comfort from the white noise of people talking.

Exhausted, my eyelids sank closed. Hell, the guards watched the room, no point in my staying awake. Too tired to move, I curled onto the sofa. My last thoughts were of soft, black hair and a set of amused pale, blue eyes.

Yellow warmth greeted me in the morning. When was the last time I awoke to sunlight pouring into the room? It streamed like golden honey through the window and a clear blue sky accompanied it.

I stretched then cringed at the knot in my neck. Sitting, I rubbed and kneaded the area.

Colby hadn’t shown. He beat the mighty Nosferatu and escaped the city. I smiled while straightening my wrinkled off-white blouse.

My back itched from sleeping in a bra, I tried to reach it and scratch. The clock read a little past noon so I scooted over the sofa and did something I loved to do.

Order room service.

Fortified with a good meal and some coffee, I’d be ready to face my life.

“Do you want something to eat, Gwen?”

“No.” Her tired voice came from under the bed.

My smile widened. She hid under there all night for nothing. “Anybody else?” I waited for a minute.

Then a muted ‘ no’ came from the closet.

It didn’t take long for the service to arrive. They knocked on the door twenty minutes after I ordered.

I opened the door.

A dark haired man with a moustache pushed the trolley into the room then closed the door behind him with his foot.

“I’ll eat by the window. It’s such a beautiful day.” I led him to a chair I’d placed there. The smell of bacon and coffee filled the room and my stomach rumbled. “Excuse me.” I grinned as I twisted around to assist with the cart. Sunlight glinted off the steel green eyes of the service attendant.

My heart hit my gut like a skydiver without a parachute. Hunger turned to nausea.

“Colby.” His name a bare whisper from my lips.

He smiled under the dark fake moustache and lifted the cover off my plate. “Ta—

da.”

I stared at his chiseled features under the black dyed hair and was speechless.

He quirked an eyebrow. “Have any idea why every damn vampire in the city is after my ass, Connie?”

“Yes. Don’t you—” Before I could finish my sentence a blur crawled out from under the bed and another flew from the closet.

They knocked me against the wall, where the back of my head hit the windowsill, and they converged on Colby.

Stars flashed in my vision, but when it cleared, I witnessed my ex-employer kick-ass.

He dodged their grasps and leaped over the couch. A male, who must have been in the closet, followed only to get karate chopped in the throat.

A high-pitched wheeze came from Gwen’s partner as he clasped his neck and tried to breathe. He stumbled to the bed and collapsed to the floor out of view.