Sleight Of Hand

Sleight of Hand.

Lauren Dane.

As always, for Ray, who is everything. And thanks to Marie for her great edits!

Chapter One.

Lissette Norris slammed her fist onto the bar, barely leashing a snarl of frustration at the man standing before her. "No! You guys get enough from me. I"m drawing the line right here and now."

"Lissette, please. Just this once. We need a place to keep him. It"s just for a few days. We"ll move him elsewhere once this gets cleared up."

The man speaking to Lissette was Henry Brown, one of the business managers for the Emerald City vampire tribe. His voice had a pleading note. She knew he was uncomfortable with the task at hand. She also knew he"d do it without question. Brown"s boss and Lissie"s soon to be ex-boyfriend, Xander Stryker, instilled that kind of unquestioning loyalty in his people. Through love or fear.

"Look, Henry, if her highness has trouble with a kid, that"s her business. I take this boy in and suddenly it"s my business, too. You know that. Problem is, I"m not a vampire. I"m not super strong or super fast, I"m just a human bar owner who can be snapped in half like a f.u.c.king twig."

"It"s not forever. Stryker will be sure that you"re safe, you know that. The boy just needs a place to stay until the politics of his presence in town are solved."

"And he"s planning to keep me safe how? Poof! I"m safe by divine decree? Come on, Henry. Sure, the vampires can"t enter my home, but they can sure as h.e.l.l come into my bar. And they can always send humans to take care of the job."

Heaving a frustrated sigh, she shoved a hand through her hair. "And anyway, they"re all millionaires. Why not stay at the freaking Four Seasons? My spare room is not luxurious, I can promise you that."

Henry steeled himself, drawing his shoulders up, taking a deep breath. "Stryker wants him with you. It"s close to him, and he knows you"re safe and can be trusted. Hotels will involve human helpers and a bunch more politics." He paused significantly. "He told me to remind you that you owe him one."

Her stomach sank, and her heart constricted in her chest. But for the moment, she chose to let the rage push away the hurt. "That f.u.c.ker," she growled through clenched teeth. "How many times have I saved his a.s.s, and this is the thanks I get? Blackmail?" Reaching out, she poured herself a shot of good Scotch and drank it. Eyes closed, she let the fire of the amber liquid fill her as she made up her mind.

"Fine. He wins. But not without a cost. Henry, you tell Stryker that he can store his brother at my place.

You better also be sure to tell him that he and I are done. I don"t want to see his face here or at my house. He can see his brother when I"m here at the bar."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "And you also tell him that from now on this is a neutral bar. His exclusive grant is rescinded. Vampires of all tribes are welcome. But not him. He is not to set foot in this bar ever again. Stryker wants to f.u.c.k with me? He can kiss my a.s.s," she paused for emphasis, "figuratively, that is."

Henry nodded tiredly. "Thanks, Lissette. I"ll tell him, but he won"t be happy. Someone will contact you to make arrangements to get Alex to your house." He stood. "You know, he doesn"t want to hurt you.

He cares about you. Give him a chance to make this right." He hesitated as if he wanted to say something else but shook his head and quickly left the bar.

Xander Stryker, the Scion of the Emerald City tribe, sat behind a mahogany desk, phone to his ear. He ran his fingers through his hair and tousled it further. Looking up and seeing Henry, Xander motioned him into the room.

"Well?" Xander asked, hanging up the phone. "What did she say?"

"She agreed." Henry shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

Stryker smiled. "Good. I knew she would be reasonable."

"Uh, well, about that..."

Stryker sighed. "I knew it was too good to be true. What did she say?"

"She said-and I quote, so don"t kill me-that you are never to come to her home while she"s there or the bar again. Oh, and that the bar is now neutral and open to all tribes. Your exclusivity is rescinded and that you can kiss her a.s.s." Henry sighed and looked at his hands clasped on his lap. "And then she said that the two of you were done."

Stryker winced. "She didn"t! She said that? All of it?"

"All of it. She"s really p.i.s.sed, boss. More than that, she"s hurt. You should have seen her face when I reminded her that she owed you one."

Stryker shook his head in denial. "No. I refuse to take this silly female behavior. I knew I should have gone to ask her myself. I know she"ll get over it. She can"t resist me. Even Lissie can"t stay mad forever." But he said it more to convince himself than anyone else, and though Henry looked doubtful, he wisely remained quiet.

"When does Alex get into town?"

Henry opened his PDA and double checked. "Tomorrow just after sundown. We"re bringing him to the local airport rather than our airstrip. We"ve let it be overheard that he is coming into town three days from now and have arranged for a flight to come in that evening. I don"t know how long it"ll fool your mother once Alex gets here, but it should be enough to get him to Lissette"s house and settled in safely."

"Good man, Henry. My mother will get over this ... unreasonable dislike of Alex soon enough. But until then, I want guards there. Put Dominic there starting today. And be sure that Dom checks her security system. Silver ammo at all times. If anyone threatens Lissie or Alex in any way, he"s got my clearance to shoot them in the head."

"Got it. And boss? If I were you, I"d give her a day or two to let this die down a bit. Maybe send flowers in the mean time."

Stryker smirked and then nodded. "You"re worth every penny, Henry. Please arrange to have a dozen red, a dozen pink, a dozen yellow, a dozen white, and a dozen lavender roses sent to her house. Have them sign the card with my name."

"Nothing else? Just your name?"

"What else is there to say?"

"Uh, an apology, perhaps? Send her your love?"

"In a card written by a florist? I think my signature should be enough."

Henry raised his eyebrows, clearly not convinced, but Stryker waved him out of the room, dismissing him.

Chapter Two.

The next evening, Lissette waded through the dozens of guilt roses that Stryker had sent the night before to get to the front windows. She"d seen the lights of a car in the drive, and Dominic had told her to expect Alex that night.

Peeking out, she saw Stryker approach her front door with a boy of about twelve. They were obviously brothers. The boy had Stryker"s ice blue eyes, and his hair was only slightly darker than Stryker"s own golden blond. Both had those luscious lips and were tall and athletic looking.

Before Stryker noticed her staring, she allowed herself a long look at him. G.o.d, he was beautiful. He was wearing faded jeans and a sweater. Not very vampire king looking, but it worked for him.

His hair kissed the top of his collar in its usual s.e.xy disarray. She knew firsthand that it was soft and scented of amber and sandalwood. His features were perfect. Nose regal and just the right size for his face. Oh, and those eyes, so pale and yet deep. The contrast of the palest of blues with the dark sooty lashes made her melt the first time she"d seen him at the bar.

The thing was, she always felt outmatched by him, and it made her defensive. He was so d.a.m.ned charming, so good looking and powerful. It always felt as if people wondered what he saw in her. She"d been dumped hard by the good looking playboy once before, and she"d vowed to never let her heart get broken again. But there he was, trampling over her without a thought.

He walked like a predator, suave on the outside, but just beneath the surface lurked menace and violence if necessary.

Straightening, she hardened herself and went to the door, opening it just after they rang the bell.

"I told you, you"re barred," she said to Stryker, her jaw tight. And like the sun came out from behind the clouds, she turned and smiled at the boy. "Hi, you must be Alex. I"m Lissette. Welcome." She held out her hand, and he took it.

He nodded, giving her a beautiful smile in return. His smile was more innocent than Xander"s, but they both clearly picked up their father"s genes and perfect teeth. "Thanks, I really appreciate you letting me stay at your house."

"Come on in, Alex." She took Alex"s bag with one hand and held the other up at Stryker. "Oh no,not you. You can go now. Alex and I will do just fine. Dominic is here with one of your other vamp minions, so if we have any pressing vamp issues, they can deal with it."

He arched a brow at her. "Come on, Lissie. Let"s not be hasty. Can"t we talk about this?" Stryker"s voice was silky, velvet and sensual, and he gave her his most engaging smile. He added a bit of magic to his eyes, just to keep her attention.

Lissette looked back at Alex. "Honey, your room is up the stairs, second door on the left. After you check it out, you can head into the TV room. I"ve got some video games and loads of movies. There"s some dinner for you in the fridge. If you"re hungry, Dom will warm it up for you. I"ve got to get back to the bar, but Dom will be staying here. I"ll check in later, all right?"

Alex, at the mention of video games and food, waved his thanks, and with a quick goodbye to his brother, scampered off to put his stuff away.

Once he was out of sight, Lissie called out that she was leaving to Dominic and pushed past Stryker, stalking toward her car.

He kept pace with her. The man not only had that creepy vampire stealthy speed but long legs, too. "You know you can"t stay mad at me, Lissie. Come on."

She stopped at her car and spun to face him. "Come on what, Stryker?You come on! You went too far. You blackmailed me into getting involved in vampire politics. I hate vampire politics. You"re all too complicated and quick to kill people. d.a.m.n it, you know how I feel about all of this stuff. Ican stay mad at you, and I plan to do so for a very long time."

He touched her face, and she had to fight the urge to lower her lashes and lean into his hand. He always did this to her! Even at that moment when she felt hurt and betrayed, she loved him so much it made her ache.

"Lissette-gorgeous-come on. I can"t trust him to anyone else. You"re home during the day when he"s awake. You"d never hurt him or manipulate him. It"ll just be until I can negotiate his living in town, and then he can be with me."

"Your mother is a stone cold b.i.t.c.h, Stryker. She already hates me. Now that Alex is here and with me, how do you think that"s going to play out?"

"She can"t come into your house uninvited. She wouldn"t dare harm Alex again. She"s just hurt over my father"s infidelities right now. She"ll get over it."

"Stryker, why is Alex with me now? Because she tried tokill him! Do you think that she doesn"t have humans to do her dirty work? Humans who don"t get stopped at the door because they haven"t been invited." She was so frustrated with his blindness about his mother that she wanted to scream and cry at the same time.

"Think about this, you momma"s boy! Alex is with me because she tried to kill him, and she"s now using your stupid arcane vampire political bulls.h.i.t to kick him out of the city! Don"t you tell me she"ll get over it. She"s a psycho. And now because of you, I"m in the middle." Slapping his hand away from her face she pushed around him to get to her car door, but he held it closed.

"Lissie, you know that I won"t allow harm to come to either one of you. Trust me, please."

"Trust you? f.u.c.k you, Stryker. And I mean that figuratively. There"ll be no f.u.c.king between you and me ever again. I did trust you, and look where it got me. In a heap of vampire trouble with some crazy b.i.t.c.h out to smack me down to get to a kid she"s trying to kill. You got what you wanted. Now get back and let me in my car."

"You don"t mean it. You need me, Lissie. I need you."

She narrowed her eyes at him, eyes flashing. "You need me? You didn"t even bother to ask me to get involved in this s.h.i.tstorm yourself! You sent a lackey. And worse, you use something that you know I promised in a moment of ... weakness to force me into it." She had to stop before her voice broke and tears appeared. She"d almost said a moment of love.

A month before, he"d gotten a shipment of bottled blood through vampire customs. Another thing she hated about the vampires-their bureaucratic processes were ridiculously complicated and time consuming. h.e.l.l, they were the reason she needed the bottled blood anyway. If they"d drink whiskey instead of blood she wouldn"t have to dance through their hoops. The normal human customs process took her five sheets of paper, the vampire customs sheets numbered in the dozens. But he"d pulled strings for her. And she"d had bottled blood when others didn"t.

At the time, she thought he"d done it because he loved her. It had made her feel special that he"d gone out of his way-unasked-to call in favors for her. She"d flung her arms around him and had proclaimed that she owed him a big one in return. Of course, she"d been hoping he"d want a b.l.o.w. .j.o.b or something, not for her to risk her life and her business for his personal issues with his mother.

"Stryker, you"ve just treated me like an employee. And great in bed or not, I quit."

Unease began to slither through him. For the first time since the whole thing started the evening before, he began to worry that he"d be unable to get her back. Still, he continued to block her way, an arrogant look on his face. Until she growled and kneed him in the b.a.l.l.s.

He heard the satisfied sound she made as he went down. And then without a word, stepped over him, unlocked her car and roared away, leaving him in the street, writhing in pain. * * * *

Later that night, he strolled into Velvet Underground, Lissette"s bar, still smiling to himself. The minx had caught him by surprise with that knee to the b.a.l.l.s. It"d hurt to the point of paralysis for about ten minutes, but he had to give her credit. She was fearless and utterly f.u.c.kable, especially when she was angry. And she wouldn"t have reacted so viciously if she hadn"t cared for him. He knew her too well.

It was too late anyway. Truth was, Xander Stryker had been falling for Lissette Norris from the first moment he"d seen her behind the bar nine months before. He"d pursued her relentlessly for three months before they finally went on a date.

When he"d had her that first time, made love to her as she lay beneath him naked, skin glistening with sweat, writhing and making those soft sounds of desire he"d grown to adore, she"d begun to move into his heart and his life.

Stryker had always had a terrible weakness for strong women, and Lissie was all of that and more. She was powerful, smart, savvy, and fearless. When Alex had called him, saying that he didn"t want to go to the expensive boarding school he"d been attending in Colorado, Stryker knew that of everyone, he could trust Lissie to care for Alex. Could trust her to protect Alex with her own life. He just had to deal with his mother before she went off the deep end again and tried to harm Lissie or his younger brother.

Stryker sighed heavily when he thought about the whole situation with his mother. She hated Alex. Even though Alex wasn"t to blame for his and Xander"s father"s constant philandering, she didn"t want any reminder of it in her world. She considered his presence a slap in the face and was extremely unhappy in her opposition.

The problem was that, as she was the highest ranking vampire in his tribe, tradition demanded that rather than just bringing a future blood drinker into their ranks, he needed her okay. Technically, he didn"t-as the king of his tribe, it was up to him-but the old school vamps sided with his mother. Not with the a.s.sa.s.sination attempts but on the issue of Xander getting her permission to have Alex in town and to bring him into their tribe when he achieved maturation later that next year.

Stryker was desperate to keep Alex safe and stashed at Lissie"s until he bullied his mother into agreeing.