Oliver stared at him with curiosity. “What do you mean?”

A sad smile played around Samson’s lips. “I was at a low point in my life, thinking of all the bad things I’d done in my past. I wanted to do good, and suddenly just running Scanguards wasn’t enough anymore. I wanted to save somebody. To turn their life around. So I chose you. For my own selfish purposes. I wanted to prove to myself that I could be selfless, that I could do something for a human being without expecting anything in return.”

“You chose me?”

“I did it to make myself feel better. To be proud of something.”

Oliver dropped his head. “And now you’re disappointed in me. I can understand that.”

Samson put his hand on Oliver’s shoulder, making him look up. “No. I’m not disappointed in you. It’s not that. I wasn’t selfless. It was selfish to think that I could make decisions for you. And when I realized that you’d started making your own decisions, I got defensive. I couldn’t let go, when I knew I had to. Oliver, Quinn might be your sire, but you’re like a son to me.”

Oliver felt a stinging in his eyes and realized that they were welling up with tears. He pushed them back. “I’ve always looked up to you.”

Samson pulled him into a hug. “I know that.”

Oliver felt the tension in his body ease. “Are we okay?”

Samson released him and ruffled Oliver’s hair. “We’re okay. Now tell me why you’re smelling like a spa.”

Shock coursed through him, making him freeze in place for a moment. What else was Samson smelling besides the bubble bath he’d shared with Ursula? Could he still smell Ursula’s scent on him?

“There’s nothing wrong with a man taking a bath,” Oliver said in a light tone then winked. “Just don’t tell Rose that I’m borrowing her expensive gels and lotions.”

Samson leaned a little closer, sniffing again. “She must have changed brands. It doesn’t smell like her.”

Oliver forced a chuckle, hoping his boss wouldn’t realize he was lying. But there was no way he could let him know that he’d seen Ursula. “Women. As soon as you think you’ve got them figured out, they change things around.”

Samson laughed. “Wiser words have never been spoken.”

This small crisis was averted. Relief flooded him just as his cell phone buzzed. Oliver pulled it from his pocket and checked caller ID, but it only said Private Caller. At least that meant it wasn’t Ursula, otherwise the number of the cell phone he’d given her would show up. Talking to her when Samson would be able to listen in on the call wouldn’t be smart.

“Let me see who wants something from me,” he said to Samson, then pressed the talk button and answered the phone. “Yes?”

“Oliver Parker?” the male voiced asked.

He recognized it immediately. “Mr. Corbin!” Oliver motioned to Samson, indicating that he wanted him to listen in. “What a nice surprise.”

“Yes, yes. Are you still interested in that address we talked about?”

“Absolutely.”

“Do you have something to write?”

He noticed Samson snatch a notepad off the sideboard and pull out a pen from the drawer.

“Shoot,” Oliver instructed the vampire on the other end of the line.

Corbin dictated an address in the East Bay, and Oliver watched as Samson wrote it down.

“Thank you so much.”

“No problem. Just one thing: if you’re going there, you should probably go soon. The email blast I received said that it was only a temporary address. Looks like they might be moving again.”

“Thanks for the tip.”

“Sure.”

Then the line went dead. Oliver stared at Samson then pointed to the phone. “That was the vampire whose wallet Ursula stole.”

“I figured.” He pointed to the address on the notepad. “Let’s alert HQ and get this show on the road.”

34

On the way to Scanguards’ headquarters, Samson already alerted the staff by phone and started giving instructions to call everybody off patrol duty and have them come in before sunrise. Nobody would be going home to sleep today, because the day would be spent working out a plan of how to extract the dozen incarcerated girls and destroy the vampires who ran the operation.

Oliver thrived on this part of his job. Like a well-oiled machine, all wheels in Scanguards’ big machine clicked into place. Everybody knew what they had to do.

The entire building was buzzing with activity when they arrived. As he and Samson walked through the corridors, busy staff members greeted them as they passed.