Page 73 of Blood Stone
“I don’t know,” Winter replied.
Garrett tried not to watch Roman’s bare upper body and the muscles working under the flesh, as he slid the tee-shirt back on. It was a reminder of too many occasions in the past.
Forbidden memories.
He studied his knee and the grain of the denim stretched over it, running his thumbnail along the groove of the seam.
“How can you not know?” Roman demanded.
“If you wake alone and there is no one to tell you what you are, then you simplyare, with no title, no classification and no identity. Your kind, at least, have the benefit of being made and a maker to guide you when you wake.”
The silence that greeted her response made Garrett look up. Roman was studying Winter with slightly narrowed eyes. “I hadn’t thought of it that way before,” he said. “Most vampires find vampirism a curse and hate their maker, even if they seek the change at first.” He turned to Garrett. “That’s how you got Sauvage, isn’t it? He wants to be turned. It’s a private contract between you and him. Good behaviour plus five million for this movie and you’ll turn him.”
Garrett was pleased to see that Winter didn’t give away by so much as a facial twitch that Roman had nailed Nial’s final terms with Pat exactly, except for the one point that he had missed – that he couldn’t possibly guess.
“Sauvage’s contract has a confidentiality clause,” he answered, glad of the shield that clause now gave him.
Roman snorted derisively. “Of course it does.” He looked at Winter. “Would you excuse us for a moment?”
Winter turned to Garrett. “Calum?”
Garrett appreciated her strategic thinking. She knew of his personal history with Roman and that Roman was asking her to leave now possibly to talk of something personal and private. By calling him ‘Calum’ instead of the ‘Garrett’ she used in front of cast and crew as his executive assistant, she was implying her own personal relationship, if he wanted to use that as a shield and keep her in the room.
“Stay, please,” he told her. He looked up at Roman. “You can speak freely in front of Winter.”
Roman glanced at her. “So it’s not ‘Annette’ then. Winter is your real name?”
She nodded.
“Thank you.” He crossed his arms. “Either ask me to sit, or stand up, Garrett. This is business.”
Winter pulled the chair she had been using over from the desk and placed it beside Roman. She sat next to Garrett. Not close, but not very far away, either. The distance between them could have meant anything. It left it up to him to continue using her as a shield, or not.
“You said business,” Garrett prompted Roman as he sat. “Something to do with the reason you took a bullet in the back and hid it from Kate?”
Roman scowled. “Your man. Terry…is that his name?”
“For now.”
Roman’s scowl deepened and Garrett grinned, enjoying the petty revenge. Roman had made him work to find out what his current name was now. It could go both ways.
“Terry has a man who was posing as a journalist pinned down in his trailer. He wrecked the servers before Terry caught him. He knows we’re here. He was looking for us.”
“Us?” Winter asked blankly.
“Vampires,” Garrett told her.
Roman gave her a smooth smile. “Maybe he knows about you, too. I haven’t had a chance to pull details from him yet.”
Garrett stood. “I can take it from here.”
Roman flexed to his feet. Garrett had seen him do it a hundred times in the past. It was a move that took sheer muscle and he did it without thought now. “That’swhy you’re here, isn’t it? It’s nothing to do with Kate’s movie. You were never that in love with Hollywood…Iknewthere was an ulterior motive.”
Garrett glanced at Winter. She reached for the cellphone on the desk. “Dialling,” she assured him and thumbed the speed dial for Nial, turning away to speak as she moved.
Roman took it in, his eyes narrowing. “I hit a nerve.”
Garrett didn’t like how close to right his observation was. “While the frank questions are flying, exactly why did you zero in on Kate?”
