THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

molesting Mrs. Michaels.”
    “Very well. I will leave him quite able to leave the roof under his own steam.”
    “A moment,” Delano said. “I need to speak with my security chief.” Del stabbed the mute button. “We’ve got him! Now we just need to persuade one of the men to submit.”
    “I’ll do it,” Eli said.
    Ainsley’s objection merged with Delano’s. “No!”
    “Yes! It’s perfect, Delano. After all these years, I can be instrumental in bringing down the predator who murdered more than half my company.” Eli’s normally impassive face was wreathed in passion. “Don’t take this away from me, Del. Let me do it.”
    “Eli, my friend, I appreciate the gesture, but I can’t let you do it. I need you here. More importantly, if anything should happen to me, Ainsley needs you.”
    “The success or failure of this gamble hinges on whether or not we can set off an acute hemolysis, correct?”
    “That’s right,” Delano conceded guardedly.
    Eli grinned broadly. “Then I’m your man. I’m AB-freakin’-positive.”
    Ainsley’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding? AB positive? That’s the rarest of all blood types.”
    “Not quite as rare as AB negative, but damned close,” Eli said. “Just over three in a hundred people have it. Fortunately for me, it makes me a universal recipient in that I can receive blood of any ABO type and Rh.”
    “AB positive,” Delano murmured. “Which means that unless our friend Janecek is a member of the exclusive AB club, the results will be catastrophic.”
    Eli laughed triumphantly. “Not just AB. He has to be AB positive .”
    “Perfect!”
    “So I’ve got the job?”
    Delano glanced at Ainsley, who nodded. “It’s yours.” Then he depressed the mute button to bring Janecek back on line.
    “Radak, I’ve found a volunteer for you. It’s my security chief. As you know, he’s not exactly the trusting kind, and he wouldn’t hear of jeopardizing anyone else. Insisted on doing it himself.”
    “Ah, the formidable Mr. Grayson.” Ainsley could hear the lust in his voice. “This will be sweet, indeed!”
    “What it will be is clean and perfunctory,” Delano gritted, “and you will release Mr. Grayson unharmed and unmolested if you wish me to restore Ms. Crawford’s functionality. Is that understood?”
    “That’s so like you, Bowen, to suck all the fun out of anything.” A pause. When Janecek spoke again, his voice was all business. “Okay, when I say go, he’s got one minute to get up here. His hands will be cuffed behind his back, cuffs double-locked and snug, and looped through his belt. When he steps onto the roof, he’ll rotate a full 360 degrees so we can inspect him and ensure that you’ve complied with these instructions. On my signal, he will then approach the aircraft. He will kneel facing the copter, and will cross his legs at the ankles. Is that clear.”
    “Understood,” said Eli.
    “Go!”
    Delano muted the phone while Eli produced his own cuffs.
    “I’ll get one of my guys on the landing to cuff me. It’ll be quicker, and they’ll do it right.” With that he headed for the exit on the double.
    Ainsley wanted to call him back, to tell him to be safe, or to hug him or something, but dammit, there was no time to be lost.
    Oh, God, what if Janecek drained him dry?
    Or what if Eli decided he couldn’t wait for his blood to do its work — or didn’t trust it to do it’s work — and tried to take the vampire out in some other kamikaze fashion?
    Her stomach lurched, and she started hyper-salivating.
    Delano had already picked up the radio. While he gave a rapid-fire update to the team in the security office downstairs, Ainsley pushed back her chair and put her head between her knees.
    She would not faint. Nor would she vomit. She would not.
    “Ainsley, honey, are you okay?”
    “I’m okay.” She sat up again, wiping perspiration from her brow. Swallowing excess saliva, she wiped her mouth, too. “Just a little nauseated there, but I’m all right now.”
    “You don’t have to stay here for this. Why don’t you go sit with Devon?”
    “Is she likely to waken?”
    He shook his head. “Not for hours.”
    “Then I’m staying.”
    “He’s on the roof,” came the voice of the security command office twenty-eight floors below. “He’s turning, turning…”
    Delano came to stand behind her chair, placing his hands on her shoulders. She lifted her left hand to cover his right and squeezed.
    “Okay he’s