Jonny left his room and went to the cells located in what had been the horse stables. The building had been retrofitted with steel and concrete. One of the guards opened the door for him as he approached, and he crossed to where Charles waited outside one of the cells.
Ashley was awake and pacing inside the cell. Jonny shook his head, not at all happy to see her at his headquarters, and opened the door.
She faced him.
Jonny entered. "I don't have Brandon," he started. Charles closed the door behind him.
The small space seemed even smaller with his charged energy and her agitation. Jonny's thoughts went to the kiss last night which was followed by the hardest he'd ever bitten anyone. He had felt himself sinking in to her, losing his sense of control, when she kissed him passionately. The bite was an attempt to give her a reason to stay away, since his hands always ended up on her when they were together. He didn't want to be drawn to her, and he wanted her to choose to stay away.
"Why else would he have your address in his phone?" she retorted.
"He didn't tell you?" Jonny sat on the chair in the corner. "He was working for me."
She stared at him. "What?"
"He's helping me track the rogue vamps. We needed a second skilled hacker, and he was more than willing when I promised to leave you alone in exchange for his help."
"You blackmailed my brother." She was reaching for one of the weapons the guards had removed when she was unconscious.
"I needed his assistance."
"And now he's gone." She began to pace again. Her irritation wasn't the only thing he sensed. Without his fangs in her neck, he couldn't read more from her body, but there was a tremor in her hand.
"Charles," Jonny glanced towards the open window in the door. "Have Stuart check the link he has to Brandon's computer. Maybe he got hacked and Valon found him that way."
"Yes, ikir."
Jonny waited until Charles was gone. "You need to calm down, Ashley."
"Calm down? My brother is missing, and you want me to calm down?" she all but shouted the words.
"You're about to have a seizure."
She froze in place. Without another word, she sat woodenly on the metal cot in the cell.
"I don't have him. I'll find out if Valon does and then I've got a choice to make," Jonny said in as level of a tone as he could manage. "You challenged me on my territory in front of my vamps. You know what happens to a vamp who does this?"