Read Online Claimed by Cammie Eicher - Free Book Online

tonight.
    Which was fine. Drunk and passed out was a hell of a lot better than sober and remembering how he deserted his partner, like a rat running from a burning building.
    Two tumblers later, Mick punched Chiana’s number on his cell phone, cursing fluently when it once again went straight to voice mail. He didn’t want to leave a message at the sound of the beep. He wanted her to answer. He wanted her to text him and tell him she was all right. They’d been partners for three years, akin to a twenty-year marriage in the outside world. He spent more time with that woman than anyone else in his life, but he’d never worried about her until now.
    Until that bastard had barged in and taken over.
    “Good evening, Mr. Hardison.”
    Mick whirled, his heart in his throat. The man before him smiled and spread his arms out, hands up, in a placating gesture.
    “I’m sorry if I startled you,” he said.
    “I thought you people couldn’t do that. Appear out of thin air, I mean.”
    “I believe I said we didn’t do it. There’s a difference.”
    “So what the hell do you want?”
    Danforth Harrington smiled, his pearl-white fangs reminding Mick what a dangerous game he was caught up in, and what a dangerous man he was. So powerful, other vampires scurried to do his bidding. So wicked, tales of his perversion and torturous executions were whispered about in his own world. He could be a formidable ally or a hideous enemy.
    Mick hadn’t known all that the night Harrington sent a minion to his door to request a meeting. He’d only cared about the money. Of all the things Mick had been deprived of in his life, money loomed the largest. The head-spinning amount Harrington offered for nothing more than a phone call from time to time had proved impossible to resist. Walking into the deal, Mick figured it was just business. It hadn’t taken long for him to realize it was far more than that.
    Mick slapped on a façade of calm he didn’t feel and relaxed against the booth back.
    “Have a seat,” he invited. “Kick your feet up. I’d offer you a vein, but I don’t swing that way.”
    Harrington lifted an eyebrow. “Perhaps we could change that.”
    Mick forced a laugh, although his stomach clenched, and his mouth was cotton-dry. Dealing with a vampire of this one’s caliber was like facing down a vicious dog. Show fear and you’re dead.
    “I’m off duty,” he said. “If anyone’s out there tonight, it’s the B team, and they’ll be lucky to catch even a scent.”
    Harrington waved a hand, as if the battle between the agency and his clan was nothing.
    “This is a social visit,” he said.
    “My guests wait to be invited.”
    “Your guests usually have extremely large breasts and small brains and consider beer and pizza a gourmet meal.”
    The undercurrent of the conversation was quickly going from verbal sparring to something more insidious. Mick knew it took little for Harrington to slide from unpleasant into vicious, and he knew the vampire’s reputation. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill a mere human. Or have him killed.
    Silence lengthened between them as Mick waited for Harrington to speak again, and the vampire waited for who knew what. The back of Mick’s neck tingled; he fought the urge to fidget. Finally, as if he’d only remembered, Harrington said, “Your partner seems to be missing.”
    Mick shrugged. “Don’t know; don’t care as long as she shows up Monday morning.”
    Harrington leaned forward, his eyes narrowed.
    “You are paid a very large sum of money from my clan’s treasury to ensure that those we seek are returned to us and not given to the agency,” he said. “Your partner trusts you. A new one might not. I would suggest that you remember your responsibilities.”
    Mick heard the door shut as the vampire left, but the terror the man engendered stayed with him. He should have looked for the down side when Harrington made the offer, but the money was so good—twice as much in a month as