Don't Blackmail the Vampire by Tiffany Allee Read Free Book Online Page A

this was different.
    He couldn’t demand that Noah trust him. But he’d damn well prove to him that he could be trusted.
    “Good,” Noah said gruffly. “Call me when you have news.”
    “Yeah,” Charles murmured, but Noah was already gone.
    Breaking into Brent and Kristen’s suite proved almost too easy with the help of a flirtatious front desk worker who probably would have given Charles the key, even without the influence of his vampire powers.
    Of course, he’d have used his powers anyway. Better to be safe than sorry. He wasn’t going to leave a mess behind this time. He would prove to his brothers that he was reliable when shit got real.
    Brent and Kristen were staying in one of the nicer suites. The room smelled of Brent’s cologne with an underlying perfume that he recognized as Kristen’s. Together, the scents were a little much, and he blew out a puff of air through his nose, as if that would clear it.
    All right. If Brent was the one calling Alice from the burner phones, then it was likely that he’d have at least one extra cell phone somewhere in the room. He just had to find the damn thing.
    Neither Brent nor Kristen had unpacked anything but toiletries, save for a couple of dress bags hanging in the wardrobe.
    Quickly, he rummaged through Brent’s bag, careful not to muss things up too badly. If Brent was the culprit, then there was no sense in giving him any hint that someone was onto him. And if he wasn’t…well, as unlikely as that was, it was still better he not know that anyone was going through his stuff. Never let your prey see you coming.
    The Tumi bag was plain and more utilitarian than Charles expected from Brent. And no extra cell phones were hidden within its pockets.
    Charles grimaced and reached into Kristen’s bag. It didn’t make sense that it felt like an invasion of privacy. He didn’t know Kristen, not really. And he’d barely gotten to know her sister. She was a stranger to him, and he wasn’t going to allow his sliver of interest in her sister make him feel weird about searching her bag.
    Her clothes proved to hold nothing of interest, but there was an odd square form in one of the inner pockets.
    His pulse ratcheted up. Noah hadn’t even mentioned Kristen as a suspect, but that could be Alice’s influence. Alice was naive. Trusting. All too human.
    The woman had an odd amount of faith in her friend—a friend who had not only slept with Brent when Alice was still engaged to him, but who had gone back to him even after he’d hit on Alice at her sister’s wedding.
    Kristen made almost as good a suspect as Brent. Sure, Charles hadn’t noticed a malicious vibe from her when they’d met briefly, but that didn’t mean much. She’d seemed a little frail, not tough like her sister. But jealousy made weaker people act out.
    He slipped his hand in the pocket and tugged out the square object.
    Cigarettes.
    Well, she had the gumption to keep something hidden after all. Good for her. But the fact that it wasn’t a cell phone was more than a little annoying.
    Voices tickled his ears, coming quickly down the hall. Familiar voices. Hell. He didn’t have enough time to get out of the room, let alone finish his search. Using reflexes that would have been difficult for a human’s eyes to follow, he dropped her cigarettes, shut her bag, and slid under the bed.
    It was a tight fit.
    Charles fought the immediate panic that the enclosed space forced on him, and pushed away the urge to jump out and simply force them to forget him. There was no guarantee that Kristen wouldn’t have some resistance like her sister—some weird genetic anomaly. If Brent was the one making threats against Alice, then he knew about vampires. And if he knew, it was possible that he was impervious in some ways. That might make it harder to persuade him.
    Strange how Rachel’s resistance to his suggestive powers after decades as a vampire could make him doubt himself, but it had. His brother and Alice were