Chapter 16

Simon sat uncomfortably at his desk.  He had moved his Jag out of the way of the fire trucks and made his way up to his office quickly from the parking garage.  He felt Vivienne down in the sub levels moving toward her Charlie’s room with her fiancé and he sat back in his chair, sulking over what he was feeling in their aura from her.

Seeing her with Jameson before had always been with other people, never quite feeling her entire focus on the other man, but as they slowly made their way down to the sub levels, their aura pulsed with such intense love for Jameson that it almost made Simon puke.  If there was any doubt before about Vivienne’s affections, there was none now.  She was one hundred percent devoted to that idiot.  Simon had never felt anything remotely close to that kind of love with Viv directing her focus toward him.  Her feelings for Simon were so different, so…platonic.  Rolling his eyes, he swiveled his chair with an annoyed sneer.

He knew he should not be jealous of Jameson.  Simon did not want Vivienne to want him as a…mate, I guess she’d call it.  Simon wasn’t interested in being a father.  Sure, he cared enough about Vivienne to make sure she and her descendants were taken care of, but a monogamous relationship?  He had enough problems with Ellis.

This is what he told himself and he almost believed it.

With a deep sigh, he cut tried to ignore Viv and their aura and focused on what happened with Evans.  The reporter had just disappeared into the crowd.  No trace of him anywhere – not even the quick pace of his heartbeat.

The entire convention area was full of sweaty men looking at half naked porn stars.  Their heartbeats were churning like butter and immediately hid Kyle’s racing own.  Simon stood dumbfounded, looking into the crowd of people.  It was impossible for Kyle to just disappear.  A human being able to out run him, or god forbid, outsmart him?  He felt his ire rise as he pooled everything he had into his perception and searched for that distinct heartbeat, but with the flood of the others, it was a blur.  There was only one other way for the reporter to just disappear and humans couldn’t do it.  Turning, he broke off his pursuit and had returned quickly to Duibne to speak to the incoming firefighters and Marshal.

So as Simon reflected on the past hour, he wondered if it really was Kyle in DI or at the motel room.  Leaning forward, he summoned a Merc.  Within two minutes a capable Merc entered his office silently.

“Get the video surveillance from the Motel 6 that Evans was spotted at.  Any means, no loss of life.  Use your discretion.  I don’t want to hear about it on the news.”  With the Merc dismissed, Simon pulled up the security footage from the sub levels.  Nova’s lab was audio only due to the sensitive nature of her work, but the elevators had both audio and visual feeds.  Calling up that footage, Simon leaned back in his chair and rest chin in his left hand.  He watched the time footage from fifteen minutes prior to Viv calling out to him.

“Fuck,” he drawled.

The image Simon was looking at was Vivienne in the elevator car.  Backing the digital feed, he looked at the lobby and watched as Viv signed into the front desk.

“Fuck,” he said again.

Closing the windows, the sent a message to Carol with the marked stream of video, then shut his computer down completely.