Chapter Thirty-Seven
MacDonald answered the door himself and didn’t seem to be surprised to see them. He stepped back, raising a brow as he took in the six of them crowding the hotel corridor. “You’d better come in,” he replied in his proper English accent. He turned his back on them and walked away, back into his hotel room.
Garrett stepped into the room first. “You knew,” he accused, anger building rapidly as more and more facts dropped into place. “You knew I was vampire all along.”
“Of course I bloody well knew,” MacDonald replied, stepping behind a full bar and lifting up a heavy glass full of what looked like whiskey. The room was an elegant lounge room complete with bar and fireplace, for this was one of the most expensive suites in the hotel. MacDonald sipped his drink and smiled at them all as they came to a ragged halt in the middle of the room. “You hired me for my intelligence, but you always underrated it.”
“You resented it that much you had to resort to abduction?” Garrett asked.
“Now who’s being stupid?” MacDonald replied. “For someone who has lived so long, you’re quite wet behind the ears, aren’t you?” He nodded toward everyone else. “Ask your friends. From the look on their faces, I’d say they’re a few steps ahead of you.”
Garrett looked. Nial was staring at MacDonald with an expression that could strip paint from boat hulls in one pass.
“Nial?” Garrett asked.
“He’s with the League for Humanity,” Nial said.
MacDonald looked pleased. “Give the fellow a cigar. Oh, I forgot, you’re not a fellow really, are you?” His false cheer evaporated. “I thought you’d come to realize it, Garrett. You’re an absolute top of the milk genius in some ways, but when it’s to do with people you’re completely out of your league. You just don’t see them at all, do you?” He sipped again. “The League told me and I didn’t believe them. It took me years of watching you to actually believe it, but you kept doggedly proving them right.” MacDonald grimaced. “Thank you for the lesson, Garrett. It has been most educational.”
“And the point of today? Taking me and Winter?” Garrett demanded. He wasn’t surprised when his voice emerged hoarse. MacDonald was handing out a double handful of hard knocks.
“You’ll have to check with my superiors for the answer to that.” MacDonald drank deeply. “I don’t know.”
“I don’t believe you,” Roman ground out.
“He probably doesn’t,” Sebastian said. “The League assholes that grabbed Winter and me a year ago were working under orders from above, too. It fits the pattern.”
“Maybe,” Winter said. “But there’s ways of finding out if he’s telling the truth. He’s only human.” She moved confidently toward MacDonald, reaching for him across the bar.
He grabbed her wrist and yanked her around to his side of the bar, forcing her arm up behind her back. His other hand curled around her throat, holding her against him, like a shield.
He started backing up, away from the bar.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going to run to, that we won’t track you down?” Sebastian asked, sounding amused.
“If I kill her, she won’t be able to wake to heal herself,” MacDonald told them. “So you have to let me go.”
“You won’t hurt her,” Nial told him. “You know if you do you’ve lost whatever protection she gives you and then we’ll kill you anyway.”
MacDonald was still edging toward the far corner of the room, where there was another door. A bedroom, possibly. He would pass within three feet of Kate, who stood silent and subdued, hugging her arms about her body as if she was very cold, or very afraid.
“I’m really getting tired of the League clinging to my heels like an unwelcome cow paddy,” Nial said. “Doesn’t it piss you off, MacDonald, that you’re being used like so much human cannon fodder? You’re unpaid servants at the beck and call of unscrupulous vampires who clothe their agenda in idealism and platitudes. You’ve been had.”
“They believe in the current world order,” MacDonald shot back, dragging Winter a few more steps toward the door. “They believe it shouldn’t be disturbed, which is exactly what you want to do.”
“What, vampires living in secret and silent harmony with humans?” Nial asked, derision rich in his voice. “If they’re so gung ho on human and vampire harmony, how come they haven’t hot footed it to your rescue as soon as you knew we’d busted in at the safe house?”
MacDonald stopped his shuffling sidestepped, staring at Nial. He licked his lips. “They had more important…. I didn’t… That’s not the critical……”
Kate moved, then. Her arms unfolded and she flowed into what looked like a balletic spin on one foot, as she turned, her arms out. One knee came up and then shot backwards in a vicious, powerful mule kick. It slammed into the side of MacDonald’s knee.
The crack of bone and snap of tendon was loud in the room. MacDonald howled as he clutched at his thigh, just above the knee, wobbling madly as he tried to keep balance.
“Nial?” Winter asked softly.
“We’re not going to get anything more out of him now,” Nial said, with a sigh.
She rested her hand on the back of MacDonald’s neck and after a few seconds, he toppled sideways, like a bent and crooked tree. The floor reverberated as he landed.
Kate pushed her fingers into her temples. “Oh Jesus, I forgot you could do that! Fuck!”
Winter grinned. “I was holding out, waiting for Nial to get as much information as possible from MacDonald as he could. Never mind.” She threw her arms around Kate. “You saved me when you thought I needed saving.”
Kate closed her eyes. “Now I really feel stupid.”
“I think there are at least two people in the room who think otherwise,” Winter replied.
Garrett pulled Winter gently away. “I can take it from here.”
Winter smiled and stepped back. “Be careful. She bites.”
“I noticed.”
Kate threw herself into his arms. She was shaking.
Roman pressed up against them both, his hand on Garrett’s shoulder and his arm around Kate’s waist. “Come on. I’ll take you home,” he said in a low voice.
For a few seconds Garrett tried to figure out who he was talking to. Then he realized.
He’d been speaking to them both.
* * * * *
The wrap party for the movie was the next afternoon. It seemed like a subdued affair after the last forty-eight hours, but everyone dutifully turned out for it, maintaining a human façade for the cast and crew, for Kate’s sake and for the media that were mingling. Sebastian, Winter and Nial returned to their public personas as Terry, Annette and David the nanny, for Patrick Sauvage also attended and added some sparkle to the occasion.
There were a lot of copies of trade papers and L.A. dailies being swapped around as everyone caught up on the reports of the Emmys and Kate’s starring role as the hottest item in Hollywood, with her maybe-ménage lovers.
Roman found Kate standing at the outer edges of the swirl of bodies, a Solo cup in her hand as she observed everyone. “This is familiar,” he said, sliding up behind her. “I remember another party like this one, where you stood watching everyone and scowling.”
“I was scowling at Micheil, then. And I’m not scowling at anyone tonight.”
Roman slid his arm around her waist and she leaned back against him. “Where is he, anyway?” he asked.
“He’s a sponsor, remember? He’s probably off somewhere being honoured for his squillions in contributions.” She snorted.
“A plaque?”
“I think so. With a strip of film mounted on it.”
“I think he probably prefers what he really got to mount while he was on set.”
She turned and smiled at him. “Did you read the tabloids?”
“Just one. They already had us shacked up together for the last year.”
“They’ll have me pregnant by next week. You watch. And there’ll be a secret baby scare in my history, that I got rid of because I didn’t know which of you was the father and you were both outraged with jealousy, forcing me to make the hard choice.” She laughed. “They’ll feed off this for months and months.”
Roman rubbed his chin over her shoulder, nudging the wide neck of her sweater closer to the edge, where it could drop down her arm. Her skin was soft and smelled heavenly. “The dailies were a lot nicer.”
“Mmm… They’re straddling. They don’t know which way to jump yet. They’re waiting to see which way public opinion falls, the gutless wonders. Entertainment Tonight was supportive, so they’re getting an exclusive on opening night.” She lifted her chin. “There’s Micheil.”
Garrett was moving through the party, talking to some people, shaking the odd hand.
“He’s a politician,” Roman murmured.
“More than I’ll ever be,” Kate said. “He’s natural at it. I have to force it.”
“He’s coming over,” Roman judged. “That’ll cause a flurry among the press that are here. They’re already watching us.”
“Let ‘em,” Kate said complacently.
Roman straightened his arm loosening. “Are you sure, Kate?”
She turned in the circle of his arm, facing him properly. “I know I was in bed right up until the party started tonight, but I wasn’t sleeping for all that time. I spent some of the time thinking.”
“Among other things,” Roman said, with a small smile.
She grinned. “Squeezed in right at the end there. It was shameful. We have to do better than that tonight.”
“You won’t get any argument out of me. But…you were thinking?”
She nodded, sobering. “Mostly, I was thinking about tonight. About the media being here. And about Nial’s mission to bring vampires out – the ones that want to come out. You’re going to, aren’t you?”
“I just don’t want to go back to pretending anymore,” Roman replied. “Nial’s right on the button there. Once you get a taste of living as yourself, you can’t go back. And now I’ve got you and Micheil and suddenly, a life building around the real me.” He shook his head. “I won’t give that up.”
“I had guessed as much,” Kate said. “I’m pretty sure Micheil feels the same way.”
Roman grinned. “Only five times as strongly. He’s been stuck in neutral a lot longer than me.” His grin faded. “Thanks to me.”
Kate rested her hand on his chest. “Stop that,” she chided him.
“Yes, ma’am.” He gave her a smile. “You were saying?”
“I like this idea of coming out and living your life as it really is, instead of pretending. Hollywood is the ultimate land of pretence, of course. Even after the cameras stop rolling, everyone keeps acting. I’ve been doing it for years. I hid the fact of Billy my ex down deep until he caught up with me. It was only thanks to you and Micheil I side-stepped that mess once more.”
Roman shrugged. “Everyone has messy histories. It’s part of being human.”
“But messy isn’t sexy in Hollywood. Everyone vacuums and glosses and hides. That’s exactly what I mean. You’re not allowed to be human or different, or sub-par. That’s what I decided today. If you and Micheil can step out, so can I.”
Roman glanced over her shoulder. “All the way, Kate? Micheil’s probably within his hearing range of us now, so you can talk to all three of us. Just don’t look at him.”
“All the way?” she asked, puzzled.
“This is still Hollywood and you still have a high profile career to maintain,” Roman said, speaking quickly. “Neither of us will jeopardize that without your express direction.” He gave a tiny smile. “We’ve been thinking, too. There’s press everywhere here tonight. When Micheil reaches us, which he’s going to do in about twenty seconds, he can just kiss you hello, and there’ll be a few photos taken, or he can kiss both of us hello and every camera, both still and video, will raise the temperature in here by two degrees because they’re being overworked so hard. Answer quickly. You say you’ve thought it through.”
Kate didn’t hesitate as she looked up at him with her marvellous eyes. “Both of us,” she said firmly. “Truth is truth. I love both of you. No more hiding.”
Roman took a breath and let it out. “I love you.”
“And I love you both,” Garrett murmured as he stepped up behind her. He bent over her and his hand slid up into her hair. “You look delicious,” he told her, and turned her head up to his and kissed her.
Roman saw swift movement over Garrett’s shoulder. There was a little flurry of cameras snapping away.
Garrett lifted his head to look at Roman. He smiled a little and reached out his other hand and rested it on the back of Roman’s neck.
The sound of camera shutters became a steady buzz.
Kate pressed her hands against their chests, turning her hips to wedge herself between them. “No, forget the cameras are there,” she said firmly.
Roman looked at her, puzzled. So did Garrett.
She shook her head a little. “You’re about to become infamous and very public figures. The media is going to run your life if you let them. Don’t let them. Micheil, if you want to kiss Roman, kiss him, but don’t do it for the cameras. Do it because you want to and do it the way you would if the cameras weren’t there, or you’ll be letting them direct your private life. You have to live your life despite them from now on, whether they’re there or not.”
Garrett let out a breath. “You’re right.” His fingers on Roman’s neck tightened. “We’ve got a smart lady here.”
“We have,” Roman agreed, as Garrett pulled him closer.
Roman mentally dismissed the cameras, or tried to, as Garrett’s lips met his. Kate’s hand was still resting against his chest and it seemed to grow heavier and hotter as the kiss deepened. His body hardened, his cock stirred, everything began to rouse as the kiss seemed to go on and on. Micheil wasn’t sparing him a single inch and it was heady, it was good, so good…
Roman realized he had forgotten about the cameras the moment Garrett released him. He drew in a long uneven breath and only then registered the applause and cat-calls, cheers and whistles.
Kate pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. “I think my cast and crew approve.” Her cheeks were touched with a slash of pink. She turned in their arms to face the rest of the room.
Everyone, not just the media people at the party, were now looking at them. Everyone not holding a cellphone or a camera was clapping or cheering or holding up their cup in salute.
“Well, we’re out now,” Kate murmured.
And the cameras were still clicking.