Page 51 of Don't Bait Me (Nora Jacobs 3)

After breakfast, Terrance and I help Rook get all his stuff into the house, and I help him unpack his room. Like Oliver and Parker, it doesn’t take too long. Most of his stuff is being held in storage at Wulf’s place.

After that, I shower and get ready to meet Oliver’s sister. I’ve never met anyone’s family before, and no matter how many times Oliver has promised Elle will love me, I’m still nervous as hell. When Oliver gets home from class, he practically has to drag me out the door.

Being the gentleman that he is, he hurries to open the passenger door for me. I step back and whistle at the vehicle parked there. It seems Terrance came through on his promise to replace Oliver’s car. The black Cadillac SUV crossover is shiny and sparkling. I don’t recognize the model. It’s a size down from an Escalade, but it still must have cost a pretty penny. “She’s a beauty.”

Oliver sighs. “I told him it was too much.”

I nod sympathetically and glance at my little Cadillac sports coupe. “I know the feeling. But hey, at least it won’t break down on you in the snow, right?”

Oliver never responds. Instead, he stumbles back against the car. He reaches for his neck, blinking slowly, then slides to the ground out cold. I don’t even get a scream out before something stings my neck and my thoughts go fuzzy. I reach for the small dart sticking out of my neck, and everything goes black.

I wake up with apounding headache, a mouth as dry as cotton, and a stomach threatening to turn inside out. It takes me a few minutes to orient myself and remember what happened.

When I sit up, I experience a strong sense of déjà vu. I’m on a canopied four-poster bed in a grand suite with an eighteenth century gothic feel. I recognize it instantly. I’ve woken up in it before. The very first time I was abducted by underworlders. It’s Henry’s private suite in his penthouse atop his casino hotel.

The last time I was here, I was terrified. Now I’m just pissed. I waste no time storming out of the room. The door slams open, and I march into the main living room of the penthouse. There are nearly a dozen vampires lounging around dressed like it’s cocktail hour—some drinking, some reading, some playing pool, and a even a few making out like they’re trying to get a group orgy started—but my sights are set on only one.

Henry is sitting with one leg crossed over the other in a tall, leather wingback chair, lording over his clan. Some scantily-clad vampire skank is draping herself over his shoulder. His face carries a bored expression, but his eyes are glued to me.

“Damn it, Henry!” I shout. “You son of a bitch!”

Every vamp in the room stops what they’re doing and watches me with either intrigue or disgust. Henry’s eyes narrow. “Is that any way to greet your host?”

“Host?”I bark an incredulous laugh. “Hostsinvitetheir guests. They don’t shoot them with tranquilizers and kidnap them!”

Henry smooths out his pants and rests his hands on his thigh. “I have extended you invites numerous times. You ignore them.”

“Then take the damn hint!”

Henry rises from his chair in one languid movement and prowls toward me like a lion hungry for dinner. I stand my ground, refusing to cower from him, but it probably does me no good, because I’m sure he can hear my frantic heart. He stops when he’s toe-to-toe with me, and he stares down at me with barely-concealed malice. “You would be wise to show me some respect,” he warns in a quiet voice that is anything but soft.

I gulp. I can’t help it. Henry scares the piss out of me. He’s supposed to leave me alone—he’s been warned by the FUA before—but I don’t trust him not to break the rules in my case. “Why am I here?” I ask, my voice shaking with both fear and fury. “And where the hell is Oliver?”

Henry narrows his eyes once again and purses his lips. He stares me down for a moment, then wanders over to a wet bar and pours a tumbler full of something brown and no doubt alcoholic. “I don’t drink,” I say when he holds the glass out to me. “Where. Is. Oliver?”

Henry places the decanter back on the bar and takes a swig of the drink he offered me. “My instructions were to bringyouto me. Not the sorcerer.”

My heart stops when I realize what he’s saying. “Youlefthim there? Unconscious, in the freezing cold and snow? He could die! Damn it, Henry, if he gets so much as a cold, I swear on my mother’s grave, I’ll kill you.”

Henry grits his teeth and snaps his fingers. “Leave us.”

Immediately, all of the vampires in the room drop what they’re doing and file into the elevator, leaving the penthouse. Only the two enforcers that were with Henry at the FUA office last night remain behind. They stand in front of the elevator doors, blocking my exit like a couple of well-trained dogs.

“I’m sure your preciousOliveris fine,” he says, throwing back the last of his drink and setting down the glass. “I gave specific instructions for no one to be harmed.”

“Gavewhoinstructions? Your thugs are all vampires. It was midday when we were attacked.”

Henry makes a face, and if I didn’t know he considers himself above such an action, I’d swear the man rolls his eyes. “My men are notthugs, Nora, and you were hardlyattacked.”

I wait, eyebrows raised, for an answer to my question. Henry sighs. “I hired a couple of mercenary shifters to bring you to me. I needed you here as soon as possible, and I don’t have time for games.”

“What games?” I throw my hands up in exasperation. “What do you want from me?”

“You have a face that I need, and Iwillget it from you.”

I groan. “Is that all? I was on my way to get that face for you when your damned mercenaries kidnapped me. I was going to get a composite sketch done. If you hadn’t interfered, you’d have a drawing already.”

Henry stalks toward me again. I back up until I bump into the pool table and am forced to stop. Henry crowds me, gripping the pool table on either side of me, effectively trapping me between his arms. “A drawing isn’t good enough when I can have the actual memory.”

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