Chapter Eight

The community center was crowded, because the neighborhood residents were getting desperate.  Even with the windows and doors shut, the sour smell of garbage permeated the air.  Jordan sat in the front row, in his flashy suit and nice shoes.

Zoey, Danielle, Stewart, Lorenzo and Andrea were up on the podium in the front of the room, facing dozens of business owners and frustrated renters and homeowners. 

They let Zoey do the talking about her plan for the community gardens, because her enthusiasm tended to be contagious.  She had organized several successful fundraisers. Danielle, who had taken the night off from work, stood next to her and drank coffee, with her usual sour expression.

“We’ll have the greenest space in all of Encantado! And we can use the fruit and vegetables that we grow to set up a free community kitchen!” Zoey finished.  That had been her favorite part. 

But apparently the audience didn’t agree.    They just stared at the women with expressions of horror on their faces.

“Gee, tough crowd,” Zoey murmured to Danielle, taken aback.

“What a bunch of butt-wipes,” Danielle said indignantly. “We worked hard on this plan. Well, you and Stewart and Andrea worked hard on this plan and I offered moral support. Well, I whined less than usual.”

“Yes, you did.” Zoey bobbed her head in agreement.  Andrea had kept Danielle’s mouth stuffed with apple dumplings, and as long as Danielle was chewing, she wasn’t bitching.

She cleared her throat and pasted a big smile on her face.  “If we can help out the homeless community here, there will be less crime, which benefits all of us!” she said into the microphone, her voice bouncing off the walls.

  Not a word.  Everyone just stared in her direction, in frozen dismay.

“Oh. It’s not you.  I think there’s actually something behind us,” Danielle said, in a low voice.

Zoey stood perfectly still, suddenly very aware of every beat of her heart.  In Encantado, “something behind us” could be…very scary.  She just prayed it wasn’t a ghoul.  She didn’t want to spend her final hours in a killing rage ripping her friends’ flesh from their bones with her teeth.  They probably didn’t want that either.

Then again, she’d have smelled a ghoul, because from what she’d heard, they reeked enough that even garbage wouldn’t disguise their odor.

The two women turned around very slowly.

Ottavio and Carlo, of the Blood Oath Pack, had just walked in the room from the back door, and were standing behind them.  Lorenzo’s face lit up and he looked at them admiringly.  “The Blood Oath pack? Wow!” His mother smacked him on the arm.

The room was completely silent.

Danielle went pale and her coffee cup slipped from her fingers, a sure sign of how shocked she was. 

Ottavio opened his mouth to speak, but Dominic and Romano burst through a side door, and his mouth snapped shut again. From the look on Ottavio’s face, he hadn’t been expecting them and he wasn’t happy to see them.  Carlo just stood there, glowering at the room with dull menace.

Ottavio stormed over and started talking to Dominic and Romano in low, angry tones.  While the men argued, the audience members jumped to their feet and began streaming from the room.

Jordan stood frozen in place, with an uncertain look on his face, his eyes darting between Dominic and Ottavio.

Ottavio crossed the room swiftly, stopping in front of Jordan, whose eyes widened in terror.  “I understand that you have been collecting fees, but not paying the garbage collection company,” he said in a loud voice, although there was hardly anyone left in the room to hear him, and those who were still there were running in fear, not listening to Ottavio. 

Jordan started to protest.  Ottavio shifted so fast Zoey barely saw it coming, and ripped Jordan’s throat out with his teeth.  A fountain of scarlet jetted up from Jordan’s throat, and he staggered backwards and crumpled into a heap.

Andrea went pale and grabbed Lorenzo’s arm and dragged him off.  Stewart hurried after them, taking care to put his body between them and Ottavio.

People ran out of the room screaming.  Danielle followed them.  She paused in the doorway, looking for Zoey.  “Zoey, you moron, you can’t Pollyanna your way out of this one! Come on!” she screeched, and then ran for it.

Ottavio’s cold gaze swept the room.  He met Zoey’s gaze as she stood alone on the podium.  “Collection will resume tomorrow.” He scowled at Dominic.  “You didn’t need to come here. I had it handled.”

“Since it involves my mate, yes, I did need to come here.  And you shouldn’t have tried to keep me out of it.” Dominic’s voice held an edge of steel.

“I don’t report to you,” Ottavio growled. “You’d do well to remember that.”

And he left without a backward glance.

Dominic walked over to the podium and helped Zoey climb down.

 “You all right?”

She struggled to find her voice.  “A little shaken.”

“You should have told me about the garbage problem,” he said mildly. 

Zoey shot him a dirty look. “Excuse you? I mentioned that my neighborhood smelled bad.”

“But I…okay, you did mention that,” he conceded. “I haven’t been here myself in months.  I wasn’t aware that this was happening.  Next time there’s a problem, let me know right away.”

Zoey was swaying on her feet and struggling not to barf.  Jordan had been a horrible human being, but seeing him killed right in front of her, so casually, made her feel ill.  She backed away from Dominic.  “Is that an order?”

He didn’t pursue her, so she stopped moving.  “That is a request,” he said, in a calm voice.  “Your friends live here, right?  I would think that if this neighborhood has issues, you’d want them taken care of, wouldn’t you? So, if you need help, ask me.”

She glanced at Jordan’s body.  She couldn’t stand here having a conversation with a dead body ten feet away from her and the smell of blood clotting her nostrils. She turned and hurried out of the back door.

Dominic was right on her heels.   He moved to block her as she hurried down the steps. “Where do you think you’re going?” he snapped her.  “I was talking to you.” Romano trailed behind him, but stood back, giving them space.

“I just saw a man killed right in front of me! Excuse me if I can’t make casual conversation when there’s a dead body ten feet away from me.”  And she burst into tears.

“Oh,” he said, sounding chastened.  “I’m sorry.  Really sorry.” And the next thing she knew, he’d gathered her in his arms.  She sagged against him.

“I apologize,” he said gently, stroking her back.  “I’ve lived this lifestyle so long that death just doesn’t have much impact on me.”

“Well, maybe it should,” she said, sniffling hard.

“Yes,” he said, his voice surprisingly wistful. “Maybe it should.”

She leaned against him longer than she should have, just because it felt so good.  Finally, she stepped back.  He let her go reluctantly.

She heaved a sigh. “Thank you,” she said stiffly.  “Are you saying that your boss didn’t know that the garbage wasn’t being collected?”

“Of course not.” Dominic looked offended. “Jordan was supposed to be paying the garbage disposal company.  I don’t know how the hell he thought he could get away with this.”

“Well, he wasn’t the brightest bulb on the tree.” She tried to wrap her head around what he’d just told her.  She didn’t think that he was lying.  She got the impression, somehow, that he would never lie to her.  He might tell her things she didn’t want to hear, he might refuse to answer her questions, but he wouldn’t lie.

That changed her view of him just a little.  One of the things she’d been most furious about was the thought of the Blood Oath pack ripping off poor communities and leaving them to live in filth, with no recourse.  Now that she knew that wasn’t true, how did she feel about Dominic? She still didn’t know.             

He was violent and aggressive and a killer - but he was also capable of surprising tenderness and protectiveness.

“It will never happen again,” Dominic told her.  “I’ll be visiting the head of the garbage disposal company first thing tomorrow to see why they didn’t report the issue back to us.”

Alarm flashed through her. “You’re not going to kill him, are you?”

He looked puzzled.  “Why wouldn’t I?”

“What’s the point?” Zoey said, feeling a surge of frustration.  “They’re criminals.  You’re criminals. The people in power here take whatever they can get away with.  How are they any different than you?”

His voice took on a crisp edge. “Is that how you see things?”

She gestured around her at the piles of stinking trash that were heaped up around overflowing garbage cans.  “That’s how it is, Dominic.”

His brow creased.  “That’s not how Arturo runs things, and it will not happen again. I’m going to spend the next few days putting out the message that if anyone collects fees and doesn’t perform the services they are paid for, they will die in more pain than they ever dreamed possible.

“That’s the kind of thing a criminal would say, isn’t it?”

He raised his eyebrows questioningly.  “Do the police give you protection, Zoey?”

She shoved her hands in her pockets.  “The police force can’t really handle magical threats all by themselves, even with the mage division and the shifter division.  They’re overwhelmed.  There are entire neighborhoods that are no-go zones.  There’s only so much they can do.”

“Exactly.  We provide a service.  We charge people for that service.  If you visit any other neighborhood in our territory, you’ll see that the promises we make, we keep.  What we charge is like a tax, except unlike the government agencies, we can deliver on our promises.  They won’t go out of business if they fail.  We will.” He was staring right into her eyes now, his gaze holding hers captive.  The intensity in his voice made her feel like he really, really cared what she thought.

“I hope so,” she said grudgingly.

“I was going to take you out to dinner, but I understand you probably don’t have much of an appetite now.  So I’ll just walk you home instead.”

“Would there be any point in arguing?”

He grinned at her.  “Well, arguing with your mate in front of his second in command is a spanking offense, at the very least.  And I’d love any excuse to get my hands on your delectable ass.  So please do.”

She shot him a sidelong look of defiance.  “I greatly look forward to being walked home by you. Thank you so much for that chivalrous gesture.” 

“Spoilsport.” He flashed her a charming grin, and before she could stop herself she replied with a smile of her own.  Then she quickly rearranged her facial features into an indifferent mask, but it was too late, he looked entirely too smug and self satisfied.

They walked back to her apartment without another word.  Halfway there, he slid his arm around her shoulders, and it felt so natural that she didn’t notice for several blocks.  He was so big, so warm, and she found herself letting him pull her up against him so her hip pressed against his.  As they walked, they fell into a rhythm somehow, his stride matching hers even though he was easily a foot taller than her.

Warmth rolled over her, and a pulsing arousal.

Was he proportionally big all over?

She choked down a mortified laugh at the thought, and he gave her a bemused glance but didn’t say anything. 

They paused in her doorway.  The protection wards glowed, and the door clicked open.

Romano stood half a block away from them, pretending not to watch.  She thought Dominic would insist on coming in, but instead, he slid a finger under her chin and tipped her head back to receive a soft, feather light kiss that sent a jolt of desire rushing through her.  Then, he turned and walked away.

Zoey swallowed a moan of frustration and hurried into her apartment.  She was dying to ask him why he wasn’t just grabbing her and dragging her home with him, if he was so sure that she was meant to be his.  But she didn’t, because she was afraid that he might take her up on it.  And she was even more afraid that she wouldn’t have the strength to say no.