Page 43 of Fangs, Frost, and Folios
She shook her head. “I was defending myself in the course of a job for Arosh, the Fire King. I was retrieving his property from an English thief, and this vampire attacked me.” She nodded toward Beatrice.
“Is that so?” Terry raised an eyebrow. “You’re in my territory, Miss Lambert. In the employ of another vampire regent. Do I have that correct?”
She lifted her chin. “Yes.”
“And did you seek permission for yourself or any of your collaborators to be in my territory on a job?” The corner of his mouth inched up. “Or did you forget that part?”
Elise said nothing.
“I know Ms. De Novo personally,” Terry said. “She’s not known to be a rash or violent vampire. Why would she attack you without provocation?”
The woman lifted her chin. “I work for Arosh.”
“I bet you do.” Terry smiled. “But I don’t.”
“We’ve already collected your human partners and delivered them to the police,” Beatrice said. “They don’t really know much. But you?”
Giovanni stared at her. “You’re a problem.”
“You said you knew who I was before you came,” Elise said. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“When you first came to my attention, you were Emilie Mandel, a minor con artist working with René du Pont who’d fooled my nephew into stealing a painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You were an annoyance and a well-learned lesson, Miss Lambert, but I had no reason to track you down.”
The woman lifted her chin, but added nothing to Giovanni’s account.
“When you came to my attention the second time,” Giovanni continued, “you were Elise Lambert who had been in a seemingly legitimate relationship with Nick Mortimer for over two years. If you’d truly turned over a new leaf, it wasn’t my place to interfere with your future.”
“And when René showed up?”
“Fucking little frog,” Terry muttered. “If I see ’im, I swear—”
“Terry,” Beatrice said. “My friend. Just a little patience. René is gone. I promise you.”
He fell silent, but Giovanni could feel him brooding across the room.
“I admit that stumped me at first. Until I realized that you and René weren’t working together at all. And while René had good reason to hide his presence in England, you did not.” Giovanni kept his eyes on Elise. “I was cautious, but I had no idea you’d turn violent. That was my mistake. Thank God my mate was there. What was the plan before we arrived, Elise? Kill all of them and take the gold? Take the gold and simply disappear? Security was nonexistent in the library; it would have been easy.”
“No one was supposed to get hurt,” she spat out. “If you and your woman hadn’t been there—”
“But we were,” Beatrice said. “Why not wait? You had to know we’d leave eventually and then you’d be clear to break into the vault. It would have been so easy to wait. Even after Giovanni told me about you, I gave you the benefit of the doubt.”
Elise pressed her lips together.
“She couldn’t break in,” Giovanni said. “It’s exactly as she told you. She knew where the vault was located, but she didn’t know the combination. And she didn’t have the patience to find a thief to break into it properly. She was always going to go after the family.”
Her eyes narrowed, and Giovanni knew he was right. Elise Lambert was a good actress but a poor thief. She hadn’t planned well enough ahead.
“You’re alive now, but we’re handing you over to Terry.” Giovanni sighed. “He and Gemma will decide your fate. I’m sure you wish we would call the police, but that won’t happen, Elise. Emilie. Whatever your name really is. If you’re lucky, Arosh might vouch for you and make restitution since a human didn’t actually die.”
“I myself will be making restitution to my neighbors,” Terry said. “We’ve made sure they don’t remember the worst of it, but you can bet I’ll tell your boss that because of your foolishness, his treasure is back in the Mortimer vault and if he wants it, he’ll need to go through me now. For that and anything else that English party took.”
Elise’s eyes burned with anger.
“Don’t like that, do you?” Terry shrugged. “Don’t much care, Miss Lambert. And the Mortimers will be getting a brand-new security system, courtesy of me.”
Giovanni and Beatrice exchanged a look. Thank God they’d already secured permission from Terry to finish their search.
“Any questions for these two?” Terry asked. “Or me?”
