I raised an eyebrow. “Got a fetish for women in uniform, have you?”

“Especially when they’re leggy redheads.” His breath caressed my mouth, then his lips found mine and our kiss became a long, slow seduction that had my knees wanting to buckle

“Enough, you two,” came Rhoan’s comment from behind Quinn. “Some of us have to stomach food.”

I came up for air and accepted the plate my brother shoved at me. “What’s this?”

Rhoan gave me a flat look. “What does it look like?”

“I don’t know. I think it resembles steak and fries, but it can’t be. I mean, it’s not black.”

He picked a bean off my plate and flicked it at me. His steak, I noted, was very, very rare. “When we get home, you’re on cooking duty.”

I caught the bean midair and shoved it in my mouth. “That means you do the laundry, bro.” Which was a good threat, because Rhoan hated washing as much as I hated cooking. We both hated ironing, which was why our living room was overflowing with clean, unironed clothes. “Maybe you should take some cooking lessons from your lover.”

“I can think of better things to do with my lover.”

“So can I,” Quinn whispered into my ear

I blew a breath across my forehead, but it did little to ease the fever assailing my skin. Why did I have to meet this man right in the middle of a disaster?

“When you’re ready, people,” Jack said from the table

I glanced past my brother and saw Jack had laid the maps we’d found out on the table. At one end was his computer unit, currently lit up with diagrams. I followed Rhoan over and sat down. Quinn sat next to me, his knee brushing mine and sending little tremors of electricity up my leg

“I scanned in the diagrams you found and did a cross-check of all known military installations,” Jack said. “We found three possibles—all of them sold off fifty years ago by the government.”

“Any idea who owns them or what they’re now used for?” Quinn said, his gaze on the computer screen

“One was bought by a residential development company and now has several thousand homes on it. Another is currently owned by Hoyle-Brantin, who make household products. The last one is owned by a company called Nashoba, which lists itself as being a cosmetics research and marketing organization.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Nashoba is not a brand of makeup I’ve ever heard of.”

“Nor I,” Liander said, and flashed me a bright smile. “And I probably use more makeup in a day than you use in a year.”

“When you’re naturally beautiful like me, you don’t need makeup,” I said, and ducked the fries thrown at me

“Considering Nashoba itself doesn’t seem to exist,” Jack commented, “I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of it.”

“It’s a front for another company?” Quinn asked

Jack nodded. “The paper trail is a mile long. The computer system is working on it as we speak.”

“We seem to be hitting more than our fair share of paper trails lately,” Rhoan said

“And while the computer system searches, what are we going to do?” Quinn said

“Undertake our own search of both premises.”

“How well guarded are they?” I shoved some steak in my mouth and groaned when it all but melted in my mouth. Damn, I’d forgotten how good a properly cooked steak was. I gave a thumbs-up to Liander

“Nashoba is extremely well guarded. Rhoan and I will be tackling that. Hoyle-Brantin has foot patrols and wire fences. Nothing you can’t get around.”

I nodded. “You got floor plans?”

He pushed over some paperwork. “It’s pretty similar to what you saw in the plans you retrieved from Brown’s office though there’s a new wing added to the main building.”

I took a quick look at them, then kept eating

“What about the White Phantom Project—did you discover anything about that?” Quinn asked

Jack shook his head. “There’s nothing on the records, and Alex can’t recall the project. White Phantom might have been a code name for something else. I’ve scanned the contents through to her so she can cross-check.”

“And the disks?”

He looked at me. “I posted those. She doesn’t mind a bit of voyeurism.”

Normally, I didn’t either, but the thought of watching Brown doing the nasty over and over was enough to turn me off

“So when do we hit these places?” Rhoan asked

Jack gave him a wry smile. “Given the approaching full moon and the fact that three of my current staff are werewolves, as soon as possible.”

Rhoan pushed his empty plate away. “How are we stocked in the way of equipment?”

“You and I will have to stop by the Directorate.”

“That safe?”

“We’ll take the emergency tunnel. Only the directors can get into it, so if someone does attack us, it’ll narrow the field of suspects.” Jack glanced at me. “I’ll take that blood sample with me, too.”

I could feel Rhoan’s curious gaze but didn’t bother meeting it. If he ever found out what Talon had done, he’d kill him. And I wanted to throw the first punch. “Fine.”

Jack glanced at his watch. “We’ll leave in half an hour. Liander, you right for holding down the fort again?”

“Do I have any other choice?” His voice was dry, yet something in his pale eyes suggested he wanted action almost as badly as he wanted sex. Perhaps I’d been wrong in my estimation that he’d be as unwilling as I to get involved in Jack’s schemes

“Not on this you don’t.” Jack hesitated and glanced at Quinn. “You’ll have to stay here, too. Riley’s Directorate, and I can protect her if she gets into trouble. I can’t offer you that.”

“I’m not expecting you to. Nor will I be left behind on this.”

“I can’t let you go.”

“You can’t stop me, and we both know it.” The two men stared at each other for several seconds, then Quinn added, “You know my reasons for doing this.”

“Yes.” Jack hesitated. “Just don’t expect my help if things go wrong.”

Quinn’s smile was wry. “Forgive me for saying it, but I have more than enough politicians, judges, and lawyers ready and able to help me out of any situation. Being a multibillionaire has its advantages.”

Jack nodded and rose. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Ten minutes later, Quinn and I were in the car and heading back to Melbourne, him driving and me studying the plans for the old army base in Broadmeadows. “There’s an industrial estate on one side and an old graveyard on the other.”

Humor crinkled the corners of his eyes as he looked at me. “You’re voting the graveyard, aren’t you?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Can you think of a more appropriate entry point for the dead and half-dead?”

His soft laugh sent tremors of desire skimming my skin. “No one in his right mind would ever call you half-dead.”

I grinned. “You were pretty lively yourself, too.”

“And will be again, once we get this little jaunt over and done with.”

I couldn’t wait. I folded the plans and threw them on the backseat. “So, tell me, why can’t Jack stop you? Is it simply an age thing?”

“And the hierarchy system.”

“Vampires have a hierarchy?”

He glanced at me. “Of course. The older the vampire, the more powerful he is. Having a power system in place prevents an all-out war—which wouldn’t be good for any race.”

That was an understatement if ever I’d heard one. “Meaning the pecking order is merely a matter of waiting for those above to keel over?”

“Crudely put, but yes.”

“So what’s to stop an underling aiding that event?”

“The wrath of the others that would fall on him or her if it happened.”

I couldn’t see how that was going to prevent unexplained deaths, especially if the one bumping off the hierarchy was more powerful than everyone else. But then, vampires generally didn’t think like the rest of us. “Where do you stand in the pecking order?”

“There are three above me.”

“And I’m guessing Director Hunter is one of them? That’s why you phoned her—a vampire professional courtesy.”