Reed put down his pen, the move slow and deliberate. “Your manners leave something to be desired.”
“My manners?” Ethan said, turning back to him. “Do you know, Adrien—may I call you Adrien?—what isn’t mannerly? Being a loan shark. Facilitating a vampire’s addiction. Extorting murder. Assault. Oh, and leading a criminal enterprise.”
Reed’s eyes widened, this time with amusement. “Have I done all that? That’s quite a list of accomplishments.”
“Games are beneath you.”
He clucked his tongue. “I’m sad to say that’s wrong. All the world’s not a stage, but a game. Most are pawns. Some are kingmakers. Only a chosen few are kings.”
Ethan tilted his head. “Are you a king? Is this your castle?” He paused. “Is the Circle your kingdom?”
Reed went very quiet and very still. “I understand you fancy yourself a leader of vampires and think highly of your connections and your power. But I’m not sure you have as much of either as you believe, Mr. Sullivan. That could be dangerous for a man in your position.”
As if Reed had paid him the highest compliment—or been baited right according to plan—Ethan grinned wildly, took a step forward.
“And I’m not sure you understand real danger, Adrien. Celina made a bad business deal? That’s not my business. But you threaten vampires? You attempt to hurt my people? That makes it personal. And when it’s personal, it will be your house and mine. It will be you and me, and there will be no one to stand in front of you. No one else to fight your battles. That is the dangerous situation.”
But Reed knew how to play the game, just as Ethan did. His gaze shifted to me, and the chill in it lifted the hair on the back of my neck. There was nothing soft, nothing compassionate, barely anything human, about Adrien Reed.
“The personal matters to you, does it?” he asked, the implication obvious. If Ethan wished to battle Reed, Reed would simply target me.
Ethan’s magic seeped forward, a cold and sinking fog. “You’d be wise to keep your eyes on me and your men away from my people.”
“My ‘men’? Unless you’re interested in mergers and acquisitions, which I highly doubt, I can’t say I know what you’re talking about.”
“We’ve had several unpleasant run-ins with Jude Maguire. He’s one of yours.”
Reed frowned, pursed his lips, feigned confusion. “I’m not sure I know anyone named Maguire.”
“You might remember him as Thomas O’Malley,” I suggested pleasantly.
His smile widened. “Oh, I haven’t heard from Tom in years. I hope he’s doing well.”
This time, I let my smile bloom vampiric. “Actually, he’s nursing some fairly serious injuries at the moment. Accident with a throwing star.”
Ethan glanced at me, grimaced. “Oh, that sounds unfortunate.”
I nodded. “It was. And bloody. I’d like to get some of those stars.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Reed’s lip curled at the comment and the byplay, but only for an instant. However dangerous he might have been, he was very well schooled at masking his emotions, playing the businessman. It was an attribute a vampire could appreciate. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“In that case,” Ethan said, “how about Balthasar? Are you aware your companies are paying his way?”
“Don’t confuse me and my companies, Ethan. I don’t oversee every decision made in my expansive, shall we say, kingdom.”
“You may have money,” Ethan said, “and you may have friends in very high places. But you forget one thing: You are human, and we are not. We are strong, and we are immortal.”
Reed snapped out a laugh. There was no mirth in it, only insult. “You are two-bit celebrities with short memories and whose popularity shifts like the tide.”
Footsteps echoed down the hallway, drawing nearer.
This time, the smile was all Reed’s and a bit maniacal. “Ah,” he said, lifting his cell phone, wiggling it a bit. “It looks like help has arrived. And lest you think I’ve called them because I fear you—let me clarify things for you.” He put the phone on his desk and leaned forward. “I’ve called them to remind you that you don’t hold the upper hand. You never have, and you never will. This city is beholden to me, and its debt has come due.”
I’d thought Balthasar narcissistic, psychopathic. But the crazed desire in Balthasar’s eyes had nothing on the utter malevolence in Reed’s.
With that statement freezing the air, Detective Jacobs walked in, two uniformed cops behind him. Reed pasted on a relieved smile with shocking speed. “Thank you for getting here so quickly.”