Page 34 of The Vampire and the Barista

“Plus, Annie would probably stop feeding you,” Kayden pointed out.

“And that,” Stefan agreed.

“Bad luck, puppy,” Troy said, with a grin.

Bert went to move, but Cairo dropped the folder he was reading and grabbed Troy’s arm. “We’re off to annoy Donald; we’ll be back soon.”

Troy put down the folder he had in his hand and let Cairo pull him out of the office.

“I hope Gavin is okay,” Sean said, pulling his phone out and texting him. Gabe had messaged them earlier. Sean felt bad for Gavin; he was so sweet and gentle. Sean was also in awe of Gavin, as Gavin wrote his favourite computer games. Indeed, he and Kayden were going to be helping Gavin write a new game, Vampires versus Witches.

“His Hunter and brothers will help him,” Stefan assured him as Sean’s phone pinged with a message.

Sean looked and saw it was Gavin replying. He read the message and laughed. “So Gavin is feeling better, even more so now that Raz called Thomaz, Tom Tom. Apparently, Thomaz warned them not to call him that in front of Dave, so Gavin texted him instead.”

The others burst out laughing.

“You just know, someone will call him Tom Tom tonight,” Kayden replied. “Bert, I meant to ask, how are you and Max getting on?”

“Talking nightly and last night he actually sat next to me and didn’t move away when I touched his arm.”

“That’s a good sign,” Stefan said.

Bert nodded. “It is. It helps that we’re chatting every day.”

“You know you can go back and ask him to meet you for dinner, right?” Stefan told him. “There are enough of us going through everything here.”

“I probably will do in a couple of days.”

The General looked at Bert. “Do you want me to kidnap your mate and bring him here?”

Bert laughed. “As tempting as that would be, no, my mate is human and is trying to overcome his fear of the paranormal world.”

“That sucks. My brother had the same problem with his human mate, but now they are happily mated and expecting twins,” the General told him.

Bert nodded. “Thanks.”

“I don’t believe it,” General Goldberg exclaimed, going back to reading more of his folder.

“What have you found?” Stefan asked.

“Tanner Henshaw, a captain in my guards, was involved in this as well.”

“Do you know where he is at the moment?” Bert asked, putting down the papers he was reading.

“He should be on the fourth floor, guarding the reception area. I’ll go and get him and drag him down to the interrogation room,” the General said angrily.

“Or we could let the kitty drag him down,” Bert suggested.

“He’ll like that,” Kayden said.

“Let’s do that then, and I can finish reading this file before I go down and gut him.”