Free Mercy's Destiny: Montgomery's Vampires Trilogy (Book #3) (Montgomery's Vampires Series) by Sloan Archer Page A

curling iron. Why not give myself a hot ‘do? Just in case Bitch Face Serena did hear about the state of my appearance.
    When my hair was nice and fluffy, I did my makeup. I took my time with my eyes, drawing them into two sexy cat-eyed shapes. Since my eye makeup was so heavy, I selected a light brown sugar gloss for my lips. I knew I was going a little over-the-top for an at-home blood draw, but getting dolled up was making me happy (or as close to happy was I was going to get under the current circumstance). Also, I had a feeling all the way down to my toes that it would be beneficial for me to look attractive. Ever have one of those? You’ll be heading out to grab coffee or whatever, and then at the last second you’ll decide to throw on some lipstick, and then you happen to run into somebody you know? It was a feeling like that—an inclination to look good.
    I had some trouble deciding what to wear. Had I been Liz, I would have thrown on any old thing and still ended up looking disgustingly gorgeous. I reminded myself to give her a jingle later to catch her up on the events of the day. She would freak when I told her about my surprise at the bank.
    Liz had always been a good friend to me, so I planned on offering her some money to help her get back on her feet during her split from David. (Liz had a lot of pride, however, so I’d have to phrase the offer in a way that would make her think that she was somehow doing me a favor by taking a little money off my hands.) Before Liz and David got married, she’d moved into his house. David had owned the property free and clear prior to their union—it was an inheritance or something of that nature—so I assumed Liz would be the one who would have to do the moving out. (Join the club, girlfriend!) I wasn’t sure how much Marlena paid her to do hair at Dignitary, but I imagined Liz was probably worried about moving costs.
    I selected a dark pair of skinny jeans, a tight-ish grey sweater that made my breasts look a cup size larger—which I’d never noticed before but, hey, great—and a brown pair of knee-high boots. It felt kind of odd wearing the boots inside. I hardly wore shoes in the house in general, but I figured it would be shoddy of me to entertain the VGO rep in sheepskin slippers. I threw on a simple thin gold chain with a teeny tiny rose gold skull charm to complete the look.
    A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. I nearly passed out when I saw who’d come. I opened my mouth to speak but . . . nothing.
    “Hello, Mercy.”
    Finally, I managed a meek: “Oh. Hello, Joseph.”
    Joseph was head honcho at the VGO in Scotland. The VGO had headquarters all over the world, but the one in Edinburgh was especially important. Joseph was over a thousand years old and beautiful in every single way a man could be beautiful. His eyes and hair were dark and deep, his accent crazy-sexy, and his muscles plentiful.
    Joseph had sampled my blood not too long ago, and when I’d first opened the door he’d been looking at me like he wouldn’t have minded sampling it again. But now he was staring at me like I was mentally unsound, probably because I was gaping at him like he’d just thrown a pie in my face. I bit the inside of my cheek, reminding myself about the vampire I was dealing with. Joseph was so powerful that he could kill me with mere words. Seriously. If he gave the order, dozens of less important vamps would eagerly slay me for the sake of proving themselves to the VGO. And in a very indirect way Joseph was my boss, since I currently had a standing contract with the organization he represented.
    “Won’t you please come in?” I asked politely.
    I faltered for a beat once he was inside, undecided where to go. Should I lead Joseph into the living room and offer him a seat on the sofa or take him into the kitchen so we could pull up chairs at the dining room table? The kitchen would be better, I decided, since it was less intimate.
    First, I took Joseph’s coat.