I lifted my own wrist and slashed a vein there. Holding it against her lips, I let a few drops slip down, onto her tongue and down her throat. Just a bit, just enough to hold the Thrall lightly and know all that she heard and saw. I could influence her actions and questions. There were ways she could get Ginter to talk and react that no one else could.
I sealed my wrist and carried her over to the couch.
Haley would be out for a while—an hour or two.
I leaned down to her ear and planted some suggestions. “You’re curious about Timothy’s money. Where does it come from? Who handles it? Who is he beholden to? I want you to find out who he associates with, who would bring him down if they had the chance. What would destroy his reputation.”
She opened her mouth and let out a breath. “Samson.”
Ooh, she already knew things?
I searched her memories that I’d shared from her—and sure enough, there was a gentleman there named Samson. He was handsome, tall and had tried to rape her after trying to bargain with Ginter for a night with her. Disgusting human.
He needed a visit.
I walked out of the house through the door, pulling it closed behind me. I strolled toward the woods where Nial was feigning disinterest. I tried not to grin at the asshole as he turned the page of his retrieved book.
“Tasty snack?” he probed.
“Oh quite,” I answered. “I’d offer, but I need her alive. For now.”
I waved and walked back into the trees the way we had come.
He dropped out of the tree and followed me. “Where to?”
“Need to find a man named Samson. He knows things.”
“Because that narrows it down.”
I tapped my temple. “I have his address.”
Samson’s house was nothing like the gorgeous, well-kept grounds of Ginter’s.
Stuffed between two older homes, there was quite literally six inches of space between his walls and the property lines. The monstrous faux-Italianate disaster glowed an incandescent yellow, with too many lights and too much gold for the accents. The small piece of property had no way for anyone to squeeze back behind it with the fences on either side. A fence I was sure his neighbors had erected to stop the spill of gauche into their yards.
“Ugh,” Nial grumbled, launching himself up onto the first branch of a tree on the neighbor’s property. He sat and pulled out his book. “If a neighbor did this to my property, I’d gut him and drain him, and destroy the house just after.”
“Hideous,” I agreed. “And it looks overpopulated this evening.”
“Good luck.”
I gave him the middle finger as I moved closer to the back door.
Standing in the shadows, I stood on the massive deck peering in. Men sat around a table, smoking cigars and laughing and gambling. My lips curled back from my teeth. I despised the tobacco habits of modern men. These in particular probably sported small cocks that they were trying to compensate for. I was positive if I went around front, there would be very flashy, very overdone cars.
I spotted the one named Samson. Overly plump and, unfortunately, not much to look at. No wedding ring that I could see, but that didn’t mean much with a man like that. Anyone can take a ring off, to go to a strip joint and to take advantage of the complimentary strippers or prostitutes. He seemed to be the type to accept that as well.
I listened to the conversation at the table, but it was all typical misogynist shit that some men bantered back and forth. Bored stiff with their topics, I wandered back to where Nial was perched in the tree.
I mumbled, “Too much testosterone and light in there. I’ll have to wait.”
A hmph escaped past his lush lips, and he turned the page of the book again.
I couldn’t stand the smug bastard.
Leaning against the tree, I concentrated on the connection with Haley back at Ginter’s.
She was just starting to come around, and her senses were clearing rapidly.
Someone was in the house with her. A non-threatening person, familiar, and she was delighted. A moment later, I recognized Timothy Ginter had come home.
I left them alone. I didn’t need to know about dinner and jobs.
Too bourgeoisie for me.
Great. Stuck between a hausfrau and a fatass.
I sat. What could I do? I had to wait out these asses so I could get in there and talk to Samson. I contemplated walking back to the car and taking a quick nap—that’s how boring this was, but I also didn’t want to waste time like that.
Damn, damn. I hadn’t brought the file. Or anything to occupy my time.
Big fearsome, awesome, Queen Novitiate, and I was plucking grass under a tree in some miserable suburban shithole in back of a pseudo-Italianate mistake. Oh, and my Monitor of Challenge was sitting up in a tree probably staring down my shirt—as usual.
I was not feeling the bad ass.
A half a second after, I leaned to the right to look up at Nial, and something whizzed by and embedded itself in the tree next to me.
I gasped and found a bullet lodged there, as four more quickly followed.
“What the fuck?” Nial whispered, jumping down and narrowly missing getting shot.
“They aren’t aiming at us.” I grabbed his arm and pulled him closer to the house, hoping for a little protection from the bullets under the massive, useless deck at the back. “They’re shooting at each other. Or it’s someone else.”
The slam of car doors out front and the pound of boots up the front stairs attacked my sensitive hearing. A portion of the fence was ripped apart, stomped down into the ground, and a half dozen men came flying around the corner with guns drawn. Their aim was at the back door, shooting at will.
That much firepower would injure even Nial and me if we took any measure of it at once. We ducked back into the shadows, and my eyebrows rose as Nial cloaked both our forms so they couldn’t see us.
The amount of wasted ammunition these fools were using shocked me.
Didn’t they ever learn how to aim?
“Lost art of marksmanship,” Nial mumbled as if reading my mind. “If this is a mob hit, they’ll be done in a moment.”
“If this is a hit, we’re going to lose whatever information Samson has. I can’t take his memories if he’s dead.” My fists clenched.
“We could lose our heads with that much spray. And I can’t technically help you win this Challenge.” His hard gaze met mine. “Think, Gwen. If you can’t figure this out yourself, you don’t deserve to be their queen.”
I took a deep breath. I would be the queen. I should have enough power—enough influence, to take them all in Thrall at once. I was freshly fed, and I was well rested. It shouldn’t be hard at all. I just had to get in there and look at them. I couldn’t do it from the shadows under the deck.
“Wait here.” I ran to the far side of the house where there was another set of stairs.
Nial wouldn’t help. He was just there to monitor me.
I leapt up the stairs into the shadows at the top and moved along the back wall of the house. The Mafioso were shoving and stumbling through the back door, two men dead at the main back stairs. Waste of blood. One of the men trying to push glanced over at me, and I caught his eyes.
Mine. Easily.
His mind was clay, and I easily backed him up.
Another man glanced over at the one I had controlled, his brows furrowing.
I threw a touch of persuasion, and he looked at me. Another was mine.