Chapter 3

I remember when Augustus became obsessed with the writer Layla Storm. Nothing I or any of his friends could say was going to stop him from having her. At the time I thought he was crazy. She was just a woman and Augustus had enjoyed more than his share of women in his lifetime. Why risk damaging the peace treaty with humans?

I didn't understand. Today I am starting to. Of all the things I could spend my time thinking about that would be of benefit to this world and that world currently closed to my kind, my head is filled with thoughts of Jazz Boudreaux.

I have patents that net millions a year, plans for a dozen more and projects that could change this planet for the better, rid humans of their dependence upon fossil fuels and help restore what has been damaged. And then there's the plan to establish a stable connection with the other realm—one that can be monitored.

Yeah, I've got plenty to think about and yet it's not my big head that's in control right now. And that's all because of Jazz.

Rock glanced at the screen of his phone and pushed back from the bank of monitors as he answered.

"Augustus. What's up?"

"Severin connected with Nevaeh."

This was news of interest. Ever since Nevaeh and her family crossed over into the other realm with the Archangel, Gabriel, the Seven had received only sporadic information.

Before they made the crossing, Severin established a mind link with Nevaeh, who was part daemon. With the help of her father and grandfather, both daemons, the link was amplified, allowing Severin and Nevaeh to communicate intermittently.

"How are things going over there?"

A brief pause preceded Augustus' reply. "According to Severin, Nevaeh isn't thrilled with the latest turn of events. Gabriel ascended to the throne, despite his protests. His ascension has been a rally point for those of the light and the ranks of warriors grows daily."

"Why should that make her unhappy?"

"It is what is to come that concerns her. The more support Gabriel gains, the more attempts there are on him from the dark side. They lost two angels and three fae of late, and she fears the worst is yet to come."

"War. Gabriel hates the word as much as the act. How is he holding up?"

"Admirably. As you might imagine, everyone loves him. What might come as a surprise is the remarkable strategist he is. It's a talent he's kept well hidden from us."

"Like I said, he hates war. Anything else?"

"Yes. We have a leak. Asha has been in communication with someone. We found what is referred to in the vernacular as a burner phone but cannot trace the number we found on it. I've asked that it be delivered to you in hope that you might determine who she is speaking with."

"You might want to take a closer look at who's guarding her."

"Quite so. The person responsible for providing her with the phone is now in detention. I would like security heightened, however. Suggestions?"

"Yeah. Call the Colorado station and ask for Angelo. He has all the latest updates on security protocols. Get him over there to upgrade with the X3-9m. Better yet, I'll call him."

"Thank you. And now something closer to home—at least for you. Severin's people in Florida have detected an unusual energy. Have you noticed anything strange of late?"

Rock's mind went immediately to Jazz, but then dismissed the thought. His growing obsession with her was a bit strange, but he chalked that up to wanting and not having.

"No."

"Well keep your eyes and ears open."

"Will do. So, you and Layla going to stay in Europe?"

"For a few more weeks and then we will return to Texas."

"Okay, tell her hello for me."

"I will. Be safe, my friend."

"And you."

Rock ended the call and swiveled his chair to stare out of the window. After centuries of hiding, his people had dared to make their presence known. Years of negotiations and they'd made substantial strides toward forming a lasting peace with humans.

Asha Iltani, the queen of the vampires, had destroyed all they'd worked for in an hour. Well, that was not correct. She'd obviously spent a good deal of time planning, but the result was the same. The Seven were right back where they'd started. They could chose to hide who and what they were, or conquer humanity.

Thank the stars Augustus ruled the Council. Rock had no desire to conquer anything.

Well, aside from what was uppermost on his mind at present, namely his case of the hots for Jazz Boudreaux.

*****

Fred Mindleton stood behind the leather chair at his desk, staring out at the city through the wall of glass. Below lay his empire. Thanks to Asha Iltani, it was a city that had been his for nearly thirty years. A city he governed from behind the scenes, his money paving the way for progress while simultaneously affording him control and power.

He was accustomed to calling the shots. Used to having people jump through hoops to please him. People did not say no to him. And yet, RC Burns had been saying no for the last six months, despite the lavish offers that had been made to him.

Fred was tired of the word no. It was time to raise the stakes. If money would not prompt Burns to do his bidding then he'd find another incentive. He turned and punched a button on his phone.

"Get Barnette. I have a job for him."

He didn't wait for a response to his command. It would be carried out. He took a seat and turned his attention to the report displayed on his laptop. One of his many companies, FM Analytic, was showing phenomenal earnings, thanks to the success of the nanoscale polymer membranes Burns had developed. Using these membranes to increase the efficiency of cooling and heating systems had proved to be a highly lucrative design.

Burns had developed a polymer membrane configured exclusively for such applications by selectively engineering the size of the pores in the membrane to prevent air from passing, and at the same time allowing moisture to pass through.

He'd leased the patent to FM Analytic for ten years. Mindleton wanted more. He wanted the patent for himself. Every year his company paid Burns millions on the lease. Millions that could be going into his coffers. Mindleton was not a man who liked to share.

Particularly since he'd discovered that a competitor in LA had used another of Burns' patents to develop a consumer product that showed exemplary earning potential. The product Burns developed utilized LED technology to generate light.

LED's or light-emitting diodes had been around for years, but with the variant Burns had developed, the white LED operated on the process of electroluminescence, allowing optimum light to be generated on a minimal amount of energy.

In time, Mindleton had no doubt, this process would generate billions of dollars. Billions that would not be his because Burns would not lease the patent to him, but had gone with his competition, effectively cheating Mindleton of the revenues.

This could not be allowed to continue. Burns might have stepped out of the arena, so to speak, but Mindleton had reason to believe he was continuing his work in private. He had to lasso Burns, gain control of any future inventions and patents. Not just for the sake of potential revenue but also for the power those patents would afford him.

Left unchecked, Burns might single-handedly alter the energy demands of the world, moving man away from dependence on fossil fuels. Mindleton and others like him could not let that happen. He would profit on patents such as the heating/cooling process and even the white LED. Nevertheless, he had to draw the line on alternative energy. He had too much at stake to do otherwise.

Asha Iltani wanted Burns put in check. That fact triggered Mindleton's radar like a submarine cruising beneath the surface of his battleship. If she wanted Burns then more was at play here than alternative energy. She didn't play in the minor leagues. No indeed, Asha Iltani played with the big boys, boys far bigger than Mindleton. He wanted to get into some of that action, in a big way.

Which meant getting Burns under his thumb. And fast.

*****

Rock pushed away from the computer, crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the equations on the screen. Why was he still finding it so difficult to concentrate?

Visions of Jazz floated through his mind, prompting a heavy sigh and a raging hard-on. If he didn't have her soon, his balls were going explode.

Not that he couldn't have found other avenues of relief. He had no doubt that he could leave now and be back home within a couple of hours with a willing partner. But his taste for other women had evaporated the day he set eyes on Jazz.

As intimidating a thought as it was, she was exactly what he'd dreamed of. Strong, sassy, smart and sexy as hell with a body that would get a rise out of a dead man. And she clearly wasn't shy about letting him know that she was willing. She'd sent him looks hot enough to melt the soles of his shoes.

But fate seemed damned determined to get in his way. Each time he saw an opening to suggest some quality one-on-one time, something happened to spoil it. It was quickly getting to the point that he was going to say the hell with timing, sling her over his shoulder and nail her in the locker room.

Or not. Even as he had the thought he dismissed it. No, he wanted to be able to take his time with Jazz, sample all of her delights.

And this kind of thinking was not helping his current condition. He had to have a clear head to work on his latest project and jacking off had long ago lost its appeal. Which meant the only alternative was to either shift and run, or get in a long, exhausting workout.

He opted for the gym. It was closed, so he'd have the place to himself. Pushing up from his chair, he grabbed his keys and headed out.

*****

Jazz pulled into the rear parking lot of the gym, but didn't get out of the car. She was frustrated and didn't handle that well. It had been three weeks and in that time she'd searched every day for the dweeb. Her tracking senses told her he was close, but so far, she was no closer to finding him than when she'd arrived. Every time she went out on the hunt, she ended up here, at the gym.

That told her it had to be one of two things. Either her lust for Rock was clouding her mind, throwing her radar off kilter, or the clue to the dweeb's location was somewhere inside the gym.

She'd figured the lust aspect would be easy to resolve. Get Rock in bed and ease the wanting, thus restoring her ability. Only it hadn't worked out that way. There was enough chemistry between them to ignite a nuclear explosion, but so far every time one of them started to make a move, something got in the way.

They hadn't even been able to get on the mat together. The first afternoon they planned to spar, things went haywire. One of the women clients tried to sneak a smoke in the locker room, forgot her smoke as she chatted on her cell phone and set the towel bin on fire. That set off the alarm and the sprinkler system, not to mention alerting the fire department.

In the end, the gym had closed for nearly a week, in which time she sat around and stewed over what to do, and scouted fruitlessly.

The next opportunity for a match arose two days after the reopening of the gym. She and Rock had just squared off when a blonde weighed down in gold and diamonds burst in, screaming at Rock for causing her to lose her husband. She ranted and raved for half an hour, screaming about loss of money and cars and, oh my god, the Palm Springs house.

It wasn't hard to figure out that the woman had enjoyed a fling with Rock, gotten caught somehow and lost her sugar daddy. Jazz didn't see any indication of heartbreak over the man, but real anguish over the loss of income and material things.

After that the gym got busy, one training session on top of another. She and Rock were both slammed and the schedule always worked out to have one or the other of them having night sessions that precluded any personal involvement.

Unrequited desire was starting to make both of them testy. Before she left earlier this evening, she'd asked about the next day's schedule and he'd barked at her about checking it for herself if she wanted to know.

She'd understood the tension. No way she had failed to notice the hard-on he'd get when he watched her stretch, or she got close enough to tease him with a sexy quip. She knew he wanted her. Whether his desire was as strong as her own was still uncertain but at this point she didn't think it possible because she was about ready to jump him in public.

But right now she had a job to do, and it was one she didn't particularly relish. She normally didn't have a problem with breaking and entering to get a job done. She did what it took to achieve results. But this was different. She was breaking into a place owned by people she'd come to think of as friends.

Even cranky old Ed had grown on her. She saw through his gruff exterior to the big heart he tried to hide. He even bought her lunch a couple of times and had opened up about his past and told her about his days as a fighter, as well as the time he spent working as a guard at a state prison.

She'd come to love the old guy, and the idea of breaking into his place and snooping around was giving her a guilty conscience, something she wasn't accustomed to.

She blew out her breath, took a look around then slipped out of the car and ran to the back door.

The gym's security sucked. It took her less than a minute to bypass the alarm and open the door. Once inside she pulled the door closed behind her, locked it, and stood for a minute, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness.

Being familiar with the layout, she was able to navigate through the gym to the office with ease. It was locked, but that only slowed her down for a few seconds, then she was inside, closing the door behind her.

She turned on the small lamp on the desk and went to the filing cabinet. Ed was an old-fashioned guy, not current with technology. He kept his client files the old-fashioned way. By hand.

The filing cabinet was not locked. She quickly went through the folders, thankful that Ed was organized. Everything was neatly filed in alphabetical order. There was no R. C. Burns folder.

She closed the cabinet and took a seat at the desk. She couldn't be wrong. Her sense told her the answer was here. But where? If Burns wasn't a client then what was his connection?

She went through the desk drawers, looking for a clue. The bottom drawer contained file folders, labeled only by dates. She pulled out the folder titled 2012 and opened it. Inside were tax returns. She almost closed it but something caught her eyes.

The gym was owned by Ed Nash and R. C. Burns. "Well, I'll be damned," she murmured to herself and closed the file. Now to find an address for Burns. She remembered Ed's address book, an old ratty affair that was at least a decade old. He kept it in the desk under his ledger.

She located it and flipped through the pages. There was no entry for R. C. Burns. Odd. You'd think a man would keep an address on his business partner, or a phone number or something.

But such was not the case. She wasn't going to find anything else here. Might as well leave. She'd just have to find a way to get the information from Ed.

Rock entered through the front door, keyed in the code to the alarm then locked the door. He didn't bother to turn on the lights. He'd leave the locker room door propped open after he changed. That would be plenty of light.

He started for the locker room then stopped. A line of light came from beneath the office door. Thinking that Ed had forgotten to turn off the light, he changed directions and made for the office. Before he reached it the light went out.

Rock shifted without conscious thought, taking the shape of a large black leopard. Braced and ready, he waited for the door to open.