Page 5

Maxine

High Stakes headquarters was a hive of activity, but it was a chaos I was comfortable in, strutting the labyrinthine hallways in a brand new Armani coat, shipped fresh from Italy. I was quite proud of my co-ord fit, freshly-steamed blazer and mini suit skirt all pastel pink and perfectly lovely.

I flitted about the upper levels like a butterfly, a stack of papers tucked under one arm while my fingers sifted through the file in the other.

I was halfway to Jordan’s office – and preparing to put her on blast for refusing to stick to the new filing system I’d so carefully come up with – when I realized I’d forgotten one key ingredient to my day – coffee.

I paused, groaned, and turned on my heel, stomping back to the elevator and hanging my head in shame. I was distracted today – monstrously so to have managed that glaring oversight. All because of her , all thanks to that lingering ache from my confrontation with Leah.

I didn’t know if I’d call it a fight, exactly. It wasn’t loud or overly dramatic, but it left me feeling hollow. Leah’s words had stuck, looping in my head like a bad catchphrase: ‘Try harder.’

I grimaced, shying away from that enduring seed of guilt in my chest.

By the time the elevator dinged my arrival at the lobby floor, I had slid the last of the documents into their rightful place in my file and banished the encounter from my mind.

The alluring scent of freshly brewed coffee wafted through the air and I followed it like a moth to a flame, craving that bitter cup of pick-me-up to survive the day.

The little coffee stand tucked in the corner of the lobby was my favorite haunt. Vampires didn’t need coffee, technically, but it was one of the few human beverages we could indulge in and most of us found the ritual rather comforting.

Two Leyore employees were already there, casually docked against the coffee stand, deep in conversation. I hovered nearby, balancing my elbows on the wooden countertop and squinting at the chalkboard menu – all the while keeping one ear tuned to their chat.

“…left babbling in terror,” one of them was whispering, low and conspiratorial.

“Who?” the other asked, fisting a hand at her chest like she was clutching imaginary pearls.

“Jenson. A Leyore noble, too. They found him in his apartment, ranting about some man in a hat.”

I stiffened, gouging a small valley in the countertop with one manicured nail.

“A man in a hat? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“No idea. But he was terrified. Like, actually terrified. They tried questioning him, but he just kept mumbling the same thing over and over. He’s practically catatonic now.”

The woman clicked her tongue. “That’s… unsettling. The highborn vampires don’t scare easily.”

“Exactly. Whatever happened to him, it wasn’t normal.”

I filed the information away, making a mental note to bring it up with Jordan later. Anything that could shake an ancient vampire to his core was worth investigating. My mind fluttered back to that morning in my apartment, and the mysterious man watching me from the street. A man in a bowler hat…

The conversation beside me shifted and I shook my head abruptly, clearing the unsettling image from my mind, though I kept listening out of habit.

“…heard about Liesle? She’s having an affair. With Darius. ”

“ No .”

“Yes!”

“How scandalous.”

“I know. And get this – rumor has it someone’s been stealing money from the Duvall family vault.”

I smirked, biting back a chuckle. Vampires loved their gossip, and High Stakes was a goldmine of juicy tidbits.

I quietly ordered my coffee, smiling at the barista while I mentally pieced together the threads of the stories they were spinning. Liesle’s affair was old news to me, but the theft from the Duvall vault caught my attention.

The Duvalls were connected to the Belmonte family – my family – through some convoluted web of alliances and bloodlines. If someone was stealing from them, it wasn’t just a crime; it was a scandal that sent ripples through the entire swarm of vampire elites.

I tucked the information away, adding it to the tangled map of connections I’d been quietly maintaining.

It wasn’t a perfect system, more like a web of whispers and half-truths, but it was enough to keep tabs on my estranged family – the Belmontes.

They were all pompous, highborn, well-known, and as such, their every move was fodder for gossip.

The barista handed me a steaming cup of coffee and I swirled the dark liquid under my nose. The sting at the thought of my family had long since faded. They were not my family anymore. Now it was more of a dull ache, like an old wound that had not healed quite right.

I harbored no love for my family, and I was fairly uninterested in stories of their antics that trickled down to me through the grapevine. But the thing about collecting gossip was that it was never just entertainment – it was leverage. And leverage, in the vampire world, was power.

It was a survival tactic in a world where information was everything.

“Maxine! There you are.” My musing was momentarily disrupted when Jordan sauntered over, heels clipping on the tiled floors and her perpetually messy locks swinging at her back. Hunter trailed after her, exuding her usual air of blasé indifference.

“ You –” I poked an accusatory finger at Jordan’s chest, lifting the leatherbound file in my free hand. “It took me all morning to reorganize your shoddy filing work.”

“And it took me all evening to bring Sky to a glorious climax. Priorities, Maxine.” Jordan redirected my finger with her own, looking rather put out that she was expected to file papers in the first place.

“Unbelievable,” I mumbled, then turned my glare on Hunter when she snickered behind Jordan. “And you – don’t you have some poor secretary to terrorize? I know you’ve been shoveling your paperwork onto Claire instead of doing it yourself. Does nobody respect the filing system?! ”

Hunter shrugged nonchalantly and I bristled, reaching around Jordan to whack her with my file. Slackers, both of them.

“Actually, I’m off duty as of right now.” Hunter preened, dodging my attack and leaning against the coffee stand. “Addison and I are heading out on vacation.”

“Ah, so you’re terrorizing her instead.”

“Something like that.” Hunter chuckled, waving over the barista who popped a fresh pot of coffee on the counter. “We’re meant to be heading upstate, but Addison wants to make a stop in San Francisco.”

My smile faltered for a fraction of a second. “San Francisco huh? Why – What’s in San Francisco?”

Hunter rolled her shoulders, but her expression softened. “Something about wanting to see the Bay again. She’s been all nostalgic lately. Which, honestly, works out, because I…” She trailed off, rubbing the back of her neck.

Jordan raised an eyebrow. “You…?”

“I’m –” Hunter hesitated, then sighed. “I’m thinking of… proposing.”

The words hung in the air for a moment before I yelped out loud, no doubt startling every poor sod in a three-block radius. “Hunter! That’s amazing!”

“Yes, yes. Shut up,” Hunter grumbled, suddenly very enamored with the steaming coffee pot, though her flushed cheeks betrayed her embarrassment.

“You’re nervous,” I twittered, my grin turning sly.

“Of course I’m nervous!” she shot back, setting down the sloshing pot and throwing her hands up. “This is Addison we’re talking about. She deserves… I don’t know, perfection. And what if she says no?”

Jordan snorted. “Addison’s been dropping hints about this for a while now, hasn’t she? If she says no, I’ll eat my hat.”

“You don’t wear hats.” Hunter glared at the both of us, simultaneously pouring herself a coffee and damn near draining it over her shoes in the process.

Jordan flicked up a brow, red lips stretched in a wide grin. “You’re spilling a little there, Hunter.”

“So help me, I will pour this over your head.”

The banter continued between them and I did my best to ignore the icy knot that had formed in my stomach at the mention of San Francisco.

But despite my best efforts, a flicker of memory resurfaced – a sprawling estate, the fog rolling in from the Bay, and the weight of expectations that had suffocated me until I could take no more of it.

Until I packed my bags at the tender age of nineteen and left San Francisco behind.

I left Leah behind too. With no warning, and no farewell. My goal had been radio silence, it was the only way to keep her safe. But now she was here and the past had tagged along with her. It showed up in brief flashes of memory, in strange men in bowler hats watching me from the street…

Speaking of – “By the way, Jordan, I heard something strange earlier. Apparently, a Leyore noble was found babbling about an encounter with a ‘man in a hat.’ Know anything about that?”

Jordan wrinkled her nose, tilting her head while she contemplated. “No – that’s rather odd but I’ll look into it. Things have been pretty peaceful lately, we’re about due for another crisis of sorts.”

Hunter, happy that the heat was now off her back, rolled her eyes, mumbling into her coffee cup, “You , peaceful is supposed to be the norm, Jordan. Bloodthirsty cousins, evil mafias, and man-eating elves are not inevitable.”

“They are in this city.”

Hunter’s phone buzzed suddenly, cutting the conversation short. She glanced at the screen, her expression snapping from placid to tense in an instant.

“I’ve got to take this,” she muttered, stepping away with a curt nod to Jordan and me.

I watched her retreat, my curiosity piqued.

“I’ll… be right back.” I patted Jordan’s shoulder, already moving to follow at Hunter’s heels.

Hunter rarely looked that serious unless something was wrong. And when something was wrong, it usually meant trouble for all of us.