Master Juggler (Untraceable Succubus Book 3) Read online

  “Except you saw something that made you look,” I accused. “We recognize our own.”

  “Yes, I built in a backdoor to his office computer because I did not like that he demanded I come in and do it while people watched me,” he confessed after a moment. “Plus, they don’t have logins or any client information on their site, so what did they need so guarded over normal security programs?”

  “What are they protecting?” Kyle asked.

  Mason shrugged. “I have no idea. This all just happened. I sent a copy of his hard drive to an offsite server I use, and then it was the party. He wanted it done before the party though. That was the job basically.”

  I glanced at Kyle. “Did he think someone would watch him at the party or just making sure no one else could access the recordings of what he was doing?”

  “Or was he planning to do something that he wanted to make sure got recorded right?” Kyle countered.

  “What’s the other reason you’re here?” Mason asked when we were quiet in our thoughts.

  I gestured to my hair and eyes. “This is my Cara Delany cover. She’s a wealthy trust fund girl or whatever who knows the best parties, pops up now and again and makes a splash when we need her. Right now we needed her to get access to a side business the vampire coven of LA has.”

  “Which is?” Mason sounded like he wasn’t sure he really wanted to know.

  “Selling lust demons. To what extent we’re not sure, but we got a tip from someone who has a friend missing that said the last she heard she was talking with a friend in LA who said they had a safe place for lust demons, and unlike our company, it’s always bullshit. We’ve been looking into it since and found enough whispers that the vampires were inviting the wealthy to some interesting parties, so we came out.”

  “Okay, so explain to me who we is?” Mason sighed as he fixed his coffee.

  “Why are you telling a strange guy all of this?” Kyle cut in. He blinked at me a moment. “You’re thinking to hire him.”

  “Yes, as you need a me that you can use more regularly when I go undercover. We spread too thin sometimes, and last time it was almost damn near dangerous that I was burning the candle at both ends and too often. I would rather have another me running checks and pulling what we need than someone undercover.” I held up a hand to hold off his arguments. “I glanced at his system. It’s good. I think he’s good.”

  “Yeah, we heard how good he was,” Kyle drawled, wincing at whatever was on my face. “I apologize. I really, really apologize. That was seriously uncalled for. You never let anything personal affect business.”

  “I don’t so where did that shit comment come from?” I demanded.

  He shrugged. “I like Dylan. I think he’s a good guy and good for you. You’ve been ducking him, and now you’re almost gaga over a warlock like I’ve never seen you before.”

  “I think ‘gaga’ is pushing it,” I drawled. “Honestly, it was realizing the owner was crazy that had me bring him here more than wanting the larger shower and spoiling. I’m worried he’s way worse than we thought and he’s going to be pissed Mason busted the guys drugging girls to sign model contracts or whatever.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about this,” Kyle sighed. “We couldn’t get video, remember?”

  “Right, the security suddenly changed and I didn’t have a chance to re-hack it,” I about sang, nodding to Mason.

  “You figured it was him.”

  “Have you not slept?” I asked, wondering why he was so slow when he was normally much quicker on the uptake. “I told you the owner tried to drug me.”

  “Only a bit in the car while we waited for you,” he admitted with a yawn. “One of the clubs is having some issues and the manager asked me to help them out. I was reviewing footage all night.”

  “Idiot,” I sighed, taking his coffee away. “Go sleep, Kyle.” I growled at him when he reached for the coffee. “That’s an order. You just almost got bitch slapped by your boss and upset your friend. Go sleep. We’re in good shape for tomorrow’s party. I was planning on giving Mason a test you wouldn’t keep up with anyways.”

  He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “Sorry. I didn’t get the break you did last time. We need to hire more good people. We’ve been getting too many demons that think security is beneath them or treating the dancers like crap or humans who think they’re milking idiot supes for jobs they’ll start shit at or we’ll put up with crap so they don’t start anything with us.”

  “You need to warn Mindy and Elijah if this is becoming a trend. Maybe we need to add a new legal lecture to the interviewing and hiring process.”

  He nodded. “I think deeper background checks would help too. We do deep dives on the dancers and entertainers to make sure they’re not tracking mud in when they come over to us, but I think we need to do that on the other positions as well.”

  “I agree, which was why I was thinking of finding another me we could have off the books. Lewis and everyone are visible, and we can’t have them do any of that.”

  “Who said I was looking for work?” Mason muttered, his tone mildly amused.

  I glanced over at him. “You took the job for the club owner because you were bored or you needed the money?”

  He gave a slow nod that my jab was fair. “I like being independent though.”

  “I don’t blame you, and I would recommend it just like I use independent guys to get the aliases we use.” I smirked at him. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. I’m not easily impressed, and all the massages and best orgasms ever won’t influence my opinion when it comes to covering the asses of my people.”

  He moved closer, setting down his mug as he boxed me in against the counter. His upper body was naked, and he’d thrown on some pajama bottoms that were hanging off his hips in a sexy way. “And I would get to work with you? Stay in touch as you and your friend have both said you tend to run?”

  “Yes, you’d join us on assignments and work closely with us,” Kyle said with a sigh. “I’m getting noise canceling headphones.”

  “Dick. I don’t normally stay with you guys.”

  “No, but you will more often if he’s at the home base.”

  He wasn’t wrong so I let it go, pushing his butt with my foot in a clear sign to get going to bed.

  “Is that a yes?” Mason checked with me, smiling when I nodded. “Then what’s the test?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “I have several I’d give you before even considering you.”

  “Show me where to work.”

  “Fine, but my setup will make you hard,” I teased him. I ducked under his arm and brought him into the family room we had set up as our work area. His eyes went wide as he took in my workspace along with the other monitors hooked up to everything we had going along with other surveillance. And finally the glass boards we were using to lay out who we thought were missing or involved.

  “Do you want me to let you into the owner’s security first?”

  “I could hack it,” I defended.

  “Yeah, but I’m good, so it would take anyone good time and I’d prefer spending time with you.”

  I went to agree but then shook my head. “Let me check it out myself first. We were in and got kicked out and I had to get ready.” I rolled over another desk chair for him and set him up on one side of my system after I plugged in another keyboard and mouse. “For now, I want you to find everything you can on me and not from my system.”

  “That would be cheating,” he agreed. “I need a shirt, food, more coffee, and my glasses.”

  “I can work with that,” I teased him.

  Ten minutes later we were both dressed, set up, and eating while we worked. The kitchen had been loaded with everything from bakery nummies to frozen breakfast sandwiches, as we were coming and going at all hours.

  “You seriously have to be so sexy when working?” Mason grumbled, making me smile since I was in a casual sweater dress, no makeup or anything, and a messy bun to hold my hair out of my face
.

  “So easily distracted,” I sighed, clucking my tongue like I was really knocking him. He snorted, and we got back to work. Several minutes later I blew a raspberry. “Okay, I see what you did and it’s good, layered, but someone who knows how to deconstruct it could even if it takes hours.”

  He nodded. “I wasn’t guarding a bank. It was more than enough for a nightclub, as they’re not a big hacking target besides maybe credit card numbers from their networked computers and accounting stuff. I add double the layers for something more secure and alerts to them and me if someone starts deconstructing it.”

  “Nice. I’m not the best at building the security,” I admitted. “I’m better at peeling back a section to sneak in and then back out without anyone noticing.”

  “You like the challenge and thrill, whereas setting up the layers is more tedious and requires patience,” he muttered, his tone implying it wasn’t a slight. “I learned that early with spells, and I love layering of cooking, so it works for me. Flying solo means you don’t risk sneaking in unless you really, really have to.”

  “True, but given we’re normally working murder cases and I’ve got a lot of people at my back, it’s worth the risk.”

  “Murder cases?” he asked, shooting me a worried look.

  “Pass the tests and I’ll fill you in,” I mumbled. His coding and layering was immensely impressive for such a low level job. He really did pay attention to the details and didn’t skimp anything.

  “Why are you not answering your phone?” Kiera demanded as she stormed into the room, startling Mason.

  “Sorry, didn’t check it,” I admitted. “Things took a turn last night.”

  “I’ll say. There’s a man I don’t know that you’re allowing on your system when you don’t even allow me on there.”

  “She’s tracking everything I’m doing and testing if I’m on the right side, as it will flag me instantly if I try for something I shouldn’t,” Mason muttered absently.

  “You really are full of surprises,” I praised before turning to Kiera. “Mason, this is my friend Kiera and manager of our flagship club in Berlin. Kiera, this is Mason who saved me from being drugged last night, is a bit connected with the new case, and I’m giving him a job interview too.”

  “While he’s hoping to use the toy he’s got charging on you again,” Kiera muttered, flashing me a shocked look. “Wow, you really enjoyed that.”

  “I did. I so did. That—fuck, it’s my new favorite toy,” I admitted. I moved my arms in an X. “None of this is why you were calling me. What’s up?”

  “Right, the fight last night. The Aussie wolf won and announced to the world he’s looking for your cover.”

  “Fuck, right, I forgot,” I groaned, scrubbing my hand over my head. “How bad is it? You’re more into social media than I am given you’re on it for the club.”

  “It’s bad, Jasmine,” she warned. “You’ve got everything from people tagging Cara’s social media with a clip to several threats to fuck you up if you go near the suddenly popular bachelor and everything in between.”

  “Idiot. What an idiot. Why would he think anyone would want that?”

  “I don’t think he was thinking with the big head,” she drawled.

  I grumbled that men made my life more difficult always and headed for my room to get my phone. I came back and plugged it in, sighing when just about everyone who knew Cara and her number had sent messages or called. I had several from Pete saying he was about to give Bain my number, as he was not telling the scary MMA fighter no anymore.

  I texted back to give me his number and he could tell Bain he gave it to me and I was busy for the next few days. That should buy me time until I figured out what to do about him and that. If he blew up my Cara cover, I was going to be seriously pissed.

  “How do you have diplomatic fucking immunity according to Germany?” Mason demanded, staring at me with wide eyes.

  “Damn, you are good,” I whispered, just as shocked he was not only able to get that but so fast. “Anything else?”

  “Yeah, you’re seriously fucking rich, and there’s an eight million dollar payout to anyone who can get video showing you’re a begging slut they humiliate, which was what the owner was planning, and who the fuck did you piss off?”

  “That’s a very long list,” I admitted, glancing at Kiera. “How much do you want to bet screwing with our club here was a lure to try and bring in the team who has taken out so much competition? They might not be able to find my covers anymore, but they got the name of the VP in charge and that’s where they’re starting?”

  “It makes sense,” she agreed. “You’ve pissed in a lot of corn flakes, and it wouldn’t be hard to find backers and rally support.” She sighed as she leaned on one of the other desks. “I think the fact they went with the idea of a sex tape hysterical when we’re an adult entertainment company, but you’re a wealthy VP, so most would want to hide a tape.”

  “Especially a rape tape,” I grumbled, scrubbing my hands over my face. “Can they really come up with no other play? That’s not even—that was what someone tried last month too. Can these assholes really not come up with anything better than recording their crimes?”

  “They weren’t all that smart if we went after them,” she reminded.

  “There are lots of smart ones we’ve taken down,” I argued. “We’re just smarter.”

  “True, but unfortunately some have good lawyers or like fraud isn’t as long of a sentence as it should be. Pimping either. There are lots of owners or security of clubs we’ve taken over that could be free now and have scores they want to settle with you.”

  “Rehabilitated my ass,” I grumbled. “Fuck, fuck, fuck. This just got complicated.”

  “What’s the next part of my test because I really want to learn the rest of all of this?” Mason worried, not hiding his concern in the slightest.

  Yeah, I probably would have been too if I’d just heard all of that. Crap.

  5

  “Well, this is a surprise,” a deep voice said from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and tried to hide my shock to find Aidan O’Malley standing there. He gave me a tight smile. “And here I’ve been hearing how all you’ve been doing is working. I would have invited you if I’d known you were available.” His nostrils flared as I turned fully and he took in the gown I was wearing.

  “What are you doing here?” I hissed under my breath, using my wine glass to hide my mouth in case anyone was watching us.

  “I attend events like this all the time,” he answered, giving me a look like I was the one out of place.

  “If you are involved, I swear to fuck—”

  “Cara, there you are!” a voice purred. I managed to slap on a smile before looking at Tahnee, the vampire I’d “met” at the gym. I’d made sure to bump into her, thinking she was a good lead in for dirt on the coven… But now I was wondering if there was more to this as I hadn’t expected her there.

  “Tahnee, what are you doing here?” I asked, not having to fake my surprise as I leaned in and kissed her cheek. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”

  “Oh yes, I’m involved in all the events,” she boasted proudly. “I didn’t know you were coming either, but you were requested.”

  I frowned. “Requested? Am I a piece of art?” I glanced around at the gallery, gesturing with my glass like she didn’t know there were paintings all over the walls being auctioned for charity. “I know I look good in this dress, but it’s not quite the same.”

  She threw back her head and laughed, giving herself time to recover from the slip, fanning her face. “I think you look better than some of the paintings, but I meant someone requested you be invited to the next event. I didn’t know you were on the guest list for this one.”

  I didn’t need Aidan’s subtle raise of his eyebrow to know she was full of shit. She seemed to realize he was there and did a double take.

  “Oh, do you two know each other?”

  “No,” I answe
red.

  “Yes,” Aidan said at the same time, giving me a smile and smoothly covering the mistake. “We met on that charity cruise in Greece to help that ocean eco group.”

  I paused but then smiled. “Right, I’d forgotten about that. That was a crazy night. After that man fell overboard I think I forgot anything else.”

  He chuckled. “No one could forget meeting you.”

  “Yes, she is popular,” Tahnee boasted like I was hers to boast about, which was disconcerting. They introduced each other, Aidan shooting me a quick look that he was seconds from dragging me off to get answers or maybe strip the dress I was wearing off of me.

  It wouldn’t have been hard. It was a white strapless gown that had the sides and back mostly cut out, two thin bands securing the top and skirt. It had black floral edging, and it looked brilliant with my red hair for the cover.

  “So I heard from Caden that you left an impression,” Tahnee said, clearly looking for a reaction or dirt.

  “Caden?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  She couldn’t hide her shock fast enough. “The tiger shifter who fought Bain, the wolf who’s been all over everywhere trying to find you.”

  I sighed, rolling my eyes and not having to fake my response to the situation. “Right, them, I wish I could forget.”

  Again she couldn’t hide her reaction, which really made me wonder if she should ever play cards or this was part of the game. “Caden gave you a glowing review. Some of us wondered if that was why he didn’t perform like normal. I mean, being with a demon before—”

  I burst out laughing, fanning my face to calm down. “His performance was a problem at the party. I promised not to say anything, but if he’s telling people I left an impression and alluding to me doing something, fuck it, I’m not taking crap for that.” I smirked at her. “His line of ‘it happens to everyone’ left me bored because it doesn’t, and it never happens when a man is with me.”

  “I would think not,” Aidan muttered, reminding us he was there but also because he clearly wanted me to know his thoughts.

  “So whatever was going on with the tiger I met at Pete’s was all on him. I’ve partied with Pete lots of times and never had a problem, so whatever the loser is saying or implying isn’t what happened. The wolf… Well, he ate his foot, and I made sure he enjoyed it for a bit, so I appreciate a man who knows when to apologize. Pete made sure I got his number.”