Page 52 of Bishop's Flight
“Why isn’t he home already?” Rose screamed and sprang to her feet. “Where is my child?”
Agnes rushed over and grabbed her mate by the neck, closing a firm hand around Rose’s throat until her mate settled. “Rose, no.”
Rose twisted her neck and bared her teeth at Agnes, who lifted her lip and growled at Rose. In seconds, the blond vampire’s face crumpled in grief and she reached out for Agnes. “What do we do? What do we do, baby?”
Agnes’s eyes immediately softened, and she pulled Rose into her arms in a swift embrace. “We’re going to find him. I’ll take care of Oleg.”
Brigid had been speaking with Agnes and Bernard on the other side of the room, watching the dramatic burst of grief from Rose with a distanced eye.
“You can use this.” Brigid’s words fell like a stone in a quiet pool. “It’s all in how you frame it. Emphasize that Lucas is a human under your aegis. You take care of your people and won’t put up with insults against them or questions about your authority. No one can doubt that Rose is a lethal leader after this. You frame it as swift retribution for a committed wrong, not a loss of control.”
Carwyn raised an eyebrow. “And you say you’re not political.”
Agnes had her eyes on Brigid. “You know the Russian.”
“I do, and I am willing to act as an intermediary. This wasn’t unprovoked,” she said. “Oleg will be reasonable. He doesn’t suffer fools, and it sounds like both of these men were fools.”
“The more important question right now is how these two Sokolov soldiers knew about Lucas,” Carwyn said. “Brigid didn’t share anything with Oleg at their meeting the other night, so no one could have overheard gossip. We only know that Oleg was aware of Lucas’s kidnapping because Mika Arakas met with her privately. According to Mika, Oleg wasn’t keen to speak to Brigid because he didn’t want to upset the apple cart as they say. He doesn’t want you two out of power, so how did these two know about it?”
Agnes cocked her head. “I didn’t consider that Oleg wouldn’t have told his people.”
Brigid said, “I suspect if he didn’t bring it up at our meeting, he doesn’t want his people to know. If nothing else, he would have offered polite concern if it was public knowledge. It’s not. So two of his men knew about it.” She looked at Carwyn. “I’ll arrange a meeting with the Russian and Agnes.” She looked at Rose. “Do you want to be there?”
“Is it a good idea?”
Brigid walked to her. “Can you be cool? Aloof? Cold like an avenging angel dealing out punishment? If you can’t be, don’t come.”
“Avenging angel?” Rose smiled a little. “I can be that.”
Seventeen
For her second meeting at the Enclave, Brigid arrived first, her mate at her side. She had been careful to satiate her hunger with blood-wine at Agnes’s office so she wouldn’t appear ravenous to the Russian’s people.
Oleg arrived wearing a navy-blue suit and a chocolate-brown tie that set off the cool grey of his eyes and the smattering of silver in his full beard. Mika followed behind him.
The fire vampire sat across from Agnes and Rose in a private room at the Enclave, a large conference table between them. Brigid was sitting at the table next to Rose, and Carwyn was standing at the end of the room, keeping an eye on everything.
Agnes and Rose wore impassive expressions, and while Oleg’s jovial manner wasn’t in evidence, he didn’t look angry.
Irritated? Possibly.
Brigid was annoyed by the entire charade. Nothing about this was going to result in any additional information to help them find Lucas. This was a politically driven waste of time.
A vampire manager stood at the head of the table and greeted both parties. “Welcome to the Enclave, an exclusive membership-only property by Wallace Ventures. While you are here, please abide by the rules governing all of Mr. Wallace’s properties and refrain from violence.” The man nodded at Rose and Agnes, then at Oleg, and after that he left them alone.
“Before we begin,” Brigid said, “I want to note that I am acting as a neutral party in this meeting, but I feel honor-bound to inform you, Oleg, that this was not an unprovoked attack.”
The man’s face turned to stone. “The surviving soldier informed me that they were… joking. Obviously their humor struck a nerve.”
Rose stared at Oleg with unwavering focus. “Would you stand for a stranger in your own territory to call your child a pet?”
Oleg lifted an eyebrow. “I no longer have children.”
Agnes sat ramrod straight, her eyes never shifting as she looked at the Russian fire vampire. “While we do not apologize for defending our territory or those under our aegis, we do regret that this matter was settled without your input.”
Oleg cocked his head and sat back in his chair. “Input? How would that work?”
Agnes’s lips didn’t move, but Rose was quick to speak. “It wouldn’t, of course. Agnes is being polite. But you and I aren’t all that different, are we Oleg?” She leaned forward, and Oleg would have had to be truly dead to ignore the spill of cleavage from her dress.
