Tempted by Two Angels [Notorious Nephilim 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (10 page)

She was a singer and a damn good one. But she was also a shallow person, and these three letters proved it. Caleigh pushed back from the table and walked to the open window. It smelled like rain. She breathed in the scent, wondering how she could make this right. In her heart, she knew there was only one way. There was only one correct way to answer each of the three letters, war or no war. It was cruel to string them along. It had been cruel to let it go this far. She wasn’t in love with any of them and never had been.

Caleigh wasn’t sure she’d ever truly loved a man. She enjoyed them, she didn’t have any qualms about using them for her pleasure, but she’d never let herself get in too deep. It was safer that way. You couldn’t get your heart broken if you didn’t fall in love with them. She’d watched too many of her friends go through terrible breakups, including one friend who committed suicide shortly after her husband left her for another woman. Caleigh had no intentions of letting anything like that happen to her.

She tore up the letters and rewrote them, telling each man she didn’t want to get married, but had chosen instead to focus on her singing career. She was as gentle as possible without giving them the impression she might change her mind in the future. She didn’t want them coming home and looking for her.

After she finished those letters, she wrote Babs and told her everything, before she lost her nerve. Babs had been her best friend since they’d worn petticoats as little girls. She wouldn't judge her. She was the one person on this planet who wouldn’t. She would be shocked, and she might be upset, but in the end she’d support Caleigh, even if she didn’t agree with her choices.

Before Caleigh could change her mind, she took the tray back to the staff dining room then gave the letters to Molly at the front desk.

“You’re in luck,” said Molly. “The mail hasn’t gone out yet today.”

“Thanks.”

“Caleigh, you’re a really terrific singer. I can’t wait to hear you again later.”

Caleigh smiled. “Thank you. That means a lot to me.”

“Did you really go to Juilliard?”

“Yes, I did.”

“I would kill to visit New York again. We have family there and used to go all the time when I was younger. I loved riding the train.”

“It’s a fun city to live in. There’s always something going on.”

“Have you ever performed on Broadway?”

“No, I haven’t. Do you enjoy musical theater, Molly?”

“Oh, I love it. Of course, I haven’t seen any for a long time, but at least I can watch musicals on film. Do you enjoy those, too?”

Caleigh smiled. She and Babs had gone to see
Holiday Inn
four times earlier this year. What she wouldn’t give to see a film again. “Yes, I love them.”

Molly opened her mouth to say something but stopped as she glanced at something behind Caleigh’s left shoulder. Caleigh spun around to find Niko standing behind her, his blue eyes twinkling with amusement. She’d expected to see him upset, not smiling at her as if their conversation yesterday had never happened.

“Are you ready to knock ’em dead again tonight, Caleigh?”

“Sure. Absolutely.”

“Good. See you later then.”

Caleigh nodded like her head was on a spring and backed away from the desk. She sprinted for the elevators and didn’t take a full breath until she was in her room. Why hadn’t she heard him approach? Was he part cat?

There were too many weird things that happened every time one of the owners was around, starting with Hugh and Sterling. The scents that seemed to emanate from them, the way the air became hot and charged whenever they were around, the dizziness she felt in their presence, and the superhuman stamina they had while making love.

Her mind wandered back to the day Sterling had shown her the photographs in the lobby. Lilith’s portrait was creepy enough, but what had really given Caleigh cause for alarm was the photograph of the twelve men dressed in clothing from the twenties, gathered in a semicircle near the front doors.

She didn’t have to look at it again to know for certain that it was a photograph of all twelve owners. She’d seen each of them enough by now to know what they looked like, and she’d been here long enough to know Leo and Andras had aged since that portrait, while the others hadn’t.

Sterling and Hugh certainly hadn’t appeared to age since that photograph had been taken. And unless they’d all dressed up in old clothing for fun that day, the portrait had been taken ten to fifteen years ago. What the hell was going on here?

Sterling had guided her away from the wall of photographs that day, but not before a quick look of alarm had passed over his face. Caleigh remembered thinking she’d imagined it, but now she knew she hadn’t. He’d noticed her reaction.

Something was off kilter here. Something was very wrong.

* * * *

An hour before the performance, after Caleigh had eaten dinner in her room alone, a knock on her door interrupted her vocal warm-up exercises. Annoyed at being disturbed, she opened the door to find Willie, one of the bellhops, holding a vase of roses. “I was told to give you these,” he said.

Caleigh took them, thanked Willie, and closed the door. She placed the vase on the table, staring at the flowers with her mouth open. They were every imaginable color, and they filled her room with their powerful scent. She opened the card with trembling fingers and read:
Good luck tonight, our beautiful songbird. We’ll be in the front, cheering you on.
Sterling and Hugh had each signed their names in flowing distinctive script.

They’d sent her roses, and they’d both signed the card. They’d called her
their
songbird, as if she belonged to them both. Caleigh found it impossible to continue warming up. She’d have to do the best she could on sheer nerve, although she wasn’t sure how the hell she’d keep her concentration.

She went down to the nightclub and listened to the band warm up. No one else was in the room. She sat down at a table, sipping her water with lime slices, wondering how the other staff could have failed to notice the photographs, or all the other oddities in this place. What if they had noticed, and she simply didn’t know because she’d never asked anyone?

Caleigh whirled around at the sound of soft footsteps behind her, thinking they belonged to Sterling or Hugh, and was delighted to find Blair coming toward her.

“It’s so good to finally catch up with you,” said Blair, sitting beside her. “Your first performance was just wonderful. I can’t wait to hear you sing again.” Blair’s smile faded. “Shouldn’t you be warming up? You are singing tonight, right?”

Caleigh smiled. “I am. I’ve already warmed up. I don’t get to sit and just watch them play, so I thought I’d see how things look from this perspective for a change.”

“How are you, Caleigh? Are you enjoying it here?”

“It’s been interesting.”

“Interesting? In what way?” Blair’s blue eyes grew intense and a shadow passed through them, but it might have been a trick of the light.

Caleigh debated while pretending to be absorbed in the band running through “Moonlight Serenade.” She had no idea of Blair’s role here, or if she could keep a secret. Caleigh missed Babs so much at that moment it was almost painful. She was used to having friends around to confide in and hadn’t realized until Blair asked the question how much she needed one right now.

“I do have a few questions about the photographs in the lobby.”

“Oh?” Blair’s eyes were too bright and her tone too false. The hair on the back of Caleigh’s neck prickled. Something
was
going on here, and Blair knew what it was.

Caleigh turned her chair so that she faced Blair directly. “I was particularly intrigued by Lilith’s portrait. The resort is named after her, is that right?”

Blair’s faced relaxed. “Oh, yes, it is. Their cousin, I believe.”

“They have a large family.”

“What?”

“They’re all cousins, aren’t they? At least, that’s the rumor.” Caleigh grinned, hoping to draw her into a confidence.

“Oh, right. Yes, they are. Um…you know, they don’t really talk about their family much.”

“Lilith is dressed like a flapper, and I couldn’t help but notice the twelve of them were dressed in clothing from the same decade in one of the other photographs. The one where they’re out front in a semicircle.”

Blair blinked a few times and visibly swallowed. “Yes, that’s right.”

“But only two of them appear to have aged since it was made.”

“How do you know when it was made?”

“I don’t, but I’m assuming someone took the picture between ten and fifteen years ago, based on the clothing styles.”

Blair turned her gaze toward the stage. A tiny muscle in her jaw twitched, and she swallowed several times in a row.

“Blair,” said Caleigh softly, leaning close. “I’m not stupid. Something very odd is going on around here. I could give you a list, but I have a feeling none of the items on it would come as a shock to you.”

Blair snapped her gaze back to Caleigh, alarm filling her eyes.

“I’m not trying to cause trouble. I just want to know what the hell I’ve gotten myself into.”

“A singing gig, that’s what.”

“I’m a bit more involved than that.”

Blair opened her mouth but nothing came out. Understanding dawned in her eyes, along with another emotion. Caleigh had expected to see anger, or at least shock, but instead it appeared Blair was happy.

“Sterling and Hugh?” she whispered, glancing around.

“What?” Caleigh’s stomach lurched. How on earth did she know?

“Sterling and Hugh. You’re involved with them, right?”

“Where did you hear that?”

Blair chuckled. “The staff here gossip a lot.”

“You heard that from the staff?”

Blair leaned closer. “Not entirely. Mostly I heard it from the two men with whom I share a bed every night.”

Whatever Caleigh had been expecting, that wasn’t it. She thought back to the day she auditioned. Blair had been sitting in between Reeve and Niko, but surely she didn’t mean them, especially not after Niko’s warning yesterday? Then she remembered Hugh telling her Blair helped Leo and Sterling run the nightclub’s day-to-day operations.

“You’re wondering which two I mean,” said Blair.

Caleigh nodded. The band was playing “Sing Sing Sing.” Caleigh glanced toward the stage, but none of them appeared to be watching her and Blair.

“Leo and Andras. I’m the reason the owners are so dead set against becoming involved with staff members. I came here seven years ago to work as a chambermaid. I was caught with a necklace belonging to a very wealthy and very married guest.” Blair held up a hand. “Oh, don’t worry. I didn’t actually steal it. But circumstances were such that Leo and Andras were suspicious I had.”

“Obviously they didn’t dismiss you.”

Blair grinned and blushed. “Quite the opposite. My involvement with them caused a bit of trouble because of certain business associates of my father’s. Things turned out all right in the end, but now they’re quite adamant that each of them should maintain their distance with the staff.”

Caleigh didn’t want to be rude and say so, but what Blair had just told her made no sense. Why would two of the owners fooling around with a chambermaid cause trouble? Unless Blair’s father had found out and came here ready to blow away Leo and Andras for defiling his daughter? And what was the deal with Blair being caught with a guest’s necklace?

Caleigh didn’t have the chance to ask more questions because the rest of the owners filed in. She rose and went backstage before someone could begin asking questions. Let Blair fill in the gaps. Caleigh had songs to sing, and she’d better be up to snuff tonight.

“What did you say to Caleigh?” asked Sterling, leaning close to Blair as the crowd began to file in.

To Blair’s left, Leo shot him a dark look, but Sterling ignored it. When they’d approached the table where Caleigh and Blair sat, their heads close together as if they’d been conspiring, Caleigh looked as if she’d just drunk castor oil. She’d practically jumped out of her chair the moment she spotted him and Hugh. If that wasn’t guilty behavior, Sterling didn’t know what was.

“We were talking about Lilith’s portrait.” Blair didn’t look at him when she said it, a sure sign she was covering up for Caleigh. They had all known Blair long enough to know her body language.

“What about the portrait? What specifically did she ask?”

“That’s enough, Sterling,” said Leo. “Let’s enjoy the show, okay?”

Sterling turned his chair to face the stage. Seven years ago Leo and Andras had told Blair their secret without consulting the other owners beforehand. They were very protective of her, but sometimes their loyalty went beyond the point where they had the resort’s best interests at heart.

All of them had wondered if the curse would truly be lifted when Leo and Andras agreed to share Blair between them, thus choosing a mortal life. It hadn’t taken long to realize the curse had indeed lifted for the two of them. They began to change in subtle ways, and both men had recently confided to the others that their Nephilim powers were nearly gone.

Blair, Leo, and Andras had moved into a renovated suite on the top floor, and Blair now helped Sterling and Leo run the nightclub. It had turned out she had a talent for day-to-day operations, and she stayed out of the other owners’ business. Since they knew the other staff would begin to ask questions as Leo and Andras aged but the rest of them didn’t, and because they knew some of the staff—Blair included—had already begun to notice odd things about the owners, they had also made the decision to tell the staff their secret.

Only a few had left afterward. The others remained employed and loyal, promising never to reveal their history to any of the guests. It had been a risky move, but one they soon realized had also been the right one to make.

He hoped Blair hadn’t said anything to Caleigh. Even though Caleigh technically was staff, he and Hugh wanted to be the ones to tell her, when the time was right. The band launched into their first set.