J.R. Ward the Black Dagger Brotherhood Novels 5-8 - J. R. Ward [150]
He turned to his computer and did a search of his files. No such photograph existed. What the fuck?
He checked his watch. No time to keep digging, because he really did have to eat before he went to operate.
As he left his big-cheese office, he decided he was going to be an old-fashioned doctor this evening.
Tonight he was going to pay a house call, the first of his professional career.
Vishous pulled on a pair of loose black silk pants and a matching top that looked like a smoking jacket from the forties. After he put the godforsaken Primale medallion around his neck, he left his room while lighting up. On his way down the hall he heard Butch swearing out in the living room, the rolling, under-the-breath litany marked by a lot of F-words and an interesting twist on a-hole V was going to have to remember.
V found the guy on the couch, glowering over Marissa’s laptop. “What’s doing, cop?”
“I think this hard drive has bitten it.” Butch glanced up. “Jesus Christ…you look like Hugh Hefner.”
“So not funny.”
Butch winced. “I’m sorry. Shit…V, I’m s—”
“Shut up and let me look at the PC.” V picked the thing up off Butch’s lap and did a quick maintenance scan. “Dead.”
“Should have known. Safe Place is in a cluster fuck of IT shit. Their server’s down. Now this. Meanwhile Marissa’s up at the mansion with Mary trying to figure out how to hire more staff. Man, she doesn’t need this.”
“I put four new Dells in the supply cabinet outside Wrath’s study. Tell her to go get one, true? I’d set it up for her now, but I gotta go.”
“Thanks, man. And yeah, I’ll get ready to come with you—”
“You don’t have to be there.”
Butch frowned. “Fuck that. You need me.”
“Someone else can stand in.”
“I’m not abandoning you—”
“Wouldn’t be abandonment.” Vishous wandered over to the foosball table and spun one of the rods. As the row of little men did backflips, he exhaled. “It’s kind of like…I don’t know, if you’re there, it’s all too fucking real.”
“So you want somebody else to back you?”
V spun the rod again, a whirring noise rising up from the table. He’d chosen Butch on a knee-jerk, but the truth was, the male was a complication. V was so damned close to the guy it was going to be harder to front his way through the presentation and the ritual.
V looked across the living room. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I want someone else.”
In the short silence that followed, Butch assumed the look of someone holding a plate of food that was too hot: uneasy and insecure. “Well…as long as you know I would be there for you, no matter what was doing.”
“I know you’re solid.” V went to the phone, thinking over his choices.
“Are you su—”
“Yes,” he said, dialing. When Phury answered his call, V said, “You mind standing in with me today? Butch is going to hang back. Yeah. Uh-huh. Thanks, man.” He hung up. It might be an odd choice, because the two of them had never been particularly close. But then, that was the point. “Phury’s going to do it, no problem. I’m going to bounce to his room now.”
“V—”
“Shut it, cop. I’ll be back in a couple hours.”
“I wish like hell you didn’t have to—”
“Whatever. This isn’t going to change things.” After all, Jane would still be gone; he would still be a bonded male without his mate. So yup, yup, nothing different, nothing mattered.
“You’re absolutely positive you don’t want me to go?”
“Just be here with the Goose when I get back. I’m going to need a drink.”
V left the Pit through the underground tunnel, and as he walked over to the mansion, he tried to give himself some perspective.
This Chosen he was mating was just a body. Same as he was. The two of them were going to do what needed to be done, when it was necessary. It was just male parts meeting female parts, then thrust and repeat until the male ejaculated. And as for his complete and utter lack of arousal? Not a problem. The Chosen had salves to ensure an erection and incense that