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“He got a job at a club downtown,” Liv offered.

“Is this his usual work?” Lee asked. It was a good question. If I hadn’t known the man we were discussing, it would have been my next line of inquiry.

“He’s worked in restaurants mostly.” Liv sighed when she realized I really was letting him help me.

Hugo sat in the background, studying one of the many volumes lining the walls of my office. I noted it was a book on forensics. I wasn’t certain when I would need that unless Quinn intended for me to become a medical examiner as well. Unlike Lee, Hugo didn’t seem terribly interested in playing detective.

“Scott managed some restaurants, mostly fast food and delis,” I explained to Lee. “It’s different than running a nightclub, as your papa could tell you. The last time I talked to Scott, he was managing a burger joint in Addison.”

“That’s when he met this guy named Julius,” Liv said with a grim expression. “I knew he was bad news. He was starting a club downtown. Brimstone is the name I heard it called. It’s underground. Ether has become too mainstream for some folks. Dev doesn’t allow drugs and he’s serious about the whole ‘place of peace’ thing. Some folks want a more…liberal establishment.”

“So this is where the criminals go,” Lee observed astutely.

“Probably,” Liv admitted. “Scott turned him down the first time, but this Julius guy came back with an offer for a lot of money.”

That didn’t seem right to me. Scott was a dipshit. He rarely held a job for more than six months. It wasn’t that he was dumb. He was intensely lazy. He started out well, all full of enthusiasm and vigor, but then work would mess up his football-watching schedule or conflict with bowling night. Inevitably, his good intentions failed and he either walked out or got fired. Why would some guy with money want Scott on the team? “What exactly did this Julius want Scott to do?”

Liv’s hands fidgeted with the strap of her leather purse. “He wanted Scott to be in charge of the bar. He was supposed to do all the ordering, deal with vendors, liaise with the kitchen staff, and hire the bar staff. He’s done it before.”

I nodded, thinking about the problem. Scott had run bars in restaurants before, but I wouldn’t call him an expert. “Why Scott?”

Hugo glanced up over the book he was reading. “What sort of being is your fiancé, Ms. Carey?”

Liv bit her lip as she turned to the vampire. Nervous. She was actually nervous about being close to the academic. I could have told her Hugo was harmless unless he decided to have an intellectual discussion with her, and then all bets were off. Academics will fight if they have to, but they prefer intellectual pursuits to anything else. Well, almost anything else. Marcus was pretty fond of sex, I’d discovered.

“Scott’s a shapeshifter.” I answered for my reluctant client. “He’s not what I would call powerful though. He doesn’t practice often. He mostly does dogs. It’s easiest for him.”

Hugo’s intelligent eyes narrowed as he considered the problem. “He’s a true shifter, then. That’s rare and fairly innocuous. He wouldn’t have a pack, per se, so he wouldn’t have loyalties to outside forces. In addition, he would be managing people who more than likely do have packs or families. Often shifters and were creatures have prejudices against each other. Your fiancé is an excellent choice if his employer wishes to make all creatures welcome.”

Liv nodded and I could see her start to relax. “That makes sense. The club was supposed to open a month ago. I was going to attend the launch, but the night before Scott told me I wouldn’t be allowed in and I shouldn’t ask questions. He kept going in to work at night but he stopped talking about it. Then last week, he stopped coming home. I tried his cell but I get voice mail every time I call. I went to the address I had but they wouldn’t let me in. They told me to go away if I knew what was good for me.”

Despite my anger with her, I certainly didn’t like the idea of Liv in danger. I wanted her safely miserable. “Liv, you should never have gone there.”

“What was I supposed to do?”

“Talk to your coven leader. Or you could have called Jamie.” Anything but walking in there herself without any backup. Again, I felt the guilt of avoiding her. Anything could have happened if she’d walked into that club.

“I did call Jamie,” Liv admitted. “He put me in touch with someone else.”

The hair on the back of my neck stood straight up. Dots I didn’t want connected were on a collision course. There was only one person Jamie would have sent Liv to with me out of the country. “I need that address, Liv.”

She pulled a piece of paper out of her purse and slid it across the desk. My heart sank. It was the same address the demon had passed me.

Grayson Sloane was in serious trouble and I had a new client.

Chapter Four

By the time I met my assistant, I had a ton of work for him to do. After Liv left, two more clients had popped up, but their cases seemed fairly inconsequential. One needed me to track down a spouse who’d run out on his child support and the other wanted to know if her boyfriend was cheating on her. The first was solved by a simple skip trace and the other answer was probably yes. She was obnoxious. I would have been cheating on her.

“Hi.” Justin Parker greeted me with a somewhat uncomfortable smile. His eyes looked pretty much everywhere but where I was standing.

“You didn’t want this job.” It didn’t take a lot of detective work to see the kid was anxious and a little intimidated.

“But it’s a cool job,” Lee argued, frowning at the vampire.

“I just got here. How can I already be in trouble?” Justin was a new type of vampire. I like to call them veeks. Geek turned vamp. They like blood and MMORPGs. They can’t dress for shit and are socially awkward. I couldn’t blame them much for the last two parts. Marcus tended to lay out my clothes¸ and he was forever telling me which fork to use.

Justin Parker was prime veek. He was all arms and legs and big sad eyes. He wore a Halo T-shirt and sweatpants and carried a thermos in his hand.

“Tell me your mom didn’t send you a snack.” I wouldn’t put anything past a veek. The millennial vamps aren’t known for their raging independence.

Justin shook his head. “It was my girlfriend. I get hungry. Do we have a fridge?”

“There’s a kitchen next to the bathroom,” I offered. “Look, I’m sure Quinn pressured you into this. I assure you I can work without an assistant. I did for years.”

Lee looked up at me. “I can help you. You don’t need another assistant.”

“You have to go do homework, buddy.” I’d talked to his mom not five minutes before. She’d known exactly where to find him and, unlike her husband, she hadn’t sent the cavalry in to save him. She’d called and politely requested I send him home for dinner. “Your mom wants you home. If you want to be allowed to come back tomorrow, you need to get your butt upstairs.”

Even Lee could see the sense in that. “Okay. Tell Uncle Marcus I’ll see him tomorrow and to save me some candy.” He stopped at the door and came back to me. He motioned me to kneel down before whispering his question in my ear. “How are you going to get to that club?”

I smiled at the sweet, smart boy. “Don’t worry about it. I won’t be able to leave until one thirty in the morning. You’ll be asleep by then. I’ll find a way out and I’ll tell you all about it after school tomorrow.”

Lee nodded and hugged me before running out the door.

“The king’s son seems taken by you,” Hugo noted as he glanced around the office.

“I like him, too,” I said, smiling. My smile disappeared as I took in my veek assistant. It was best to put our relationship on a realistic footing. He was really a spy for Donovan. I wasn’t an idiot. I handed him the list of things I had for him to do. “As long as you’re here, I could use some help. I need you to run a skip trace on Greg Houston. I want to know where he is and how much money he has. Second, find out if Lance Belton is screwing someone other than his girlfriend. We have a file on him. Call his friends and lean on them for info. Call a man named Alan Kent. He’s a shifter so we probably have his number on file. I need to talk to him tonight. Tell him to meet me at Ether at ten or so. If he gives you trouble about it, remind him who I am now. You’re a vamp, use that persuasion thing.”

Justin’s eyes had gone wide. “I’m actually not very good at that.”

“Consider it practice then,” I offered as Hugo and I edged closer to the door. “Also, this place needs snacks. There isn’t any food in that fridge. Get me snacks and some beer. No one has beer around here. And peanut butter cups.” Another thought struck me. “And find me a comfy couch. That thing Quinn bought is pretty, but I can’t nap on it. Think big pillows. If you need anything, don’t call me. I’ll be screwing my boyfriend, eating, or sleeping. All of those are serious things for me, Justin. Do we understand each other?”

The veek shook his head, clutching his thermos. “What’s a skip trace?”

“Look it up on the Internet, Justin,” I said, swinging the door open. “I bet you’re damn good with computers.”

Hugo was laughing as he walked beside me down the hallway. “I feel sorry for Mr. Parker. I believe he will find you a difficult employer.”

“I’ll give him more of a chance tomorrow.” The elevator started toward the seventh floor and some small amount of freedom. My heart was starting to race as the doors opened and I got out. Marcus was here. I could feel him. Warmth spread through me.

Hugo stayed in the elevator. “Tell your master I will call upon him later this evening, after he’s had suitable time to welcome you home, of course. Kelsey, it was a pleasure to meet you. I look forward to seeing more of you.”

I waved to the vampire as the door closed and then raced down the hall. I hadn’t seen my apartment yet, but I didn’t care what was in the place. I cared who was in it. I pulled out the key Quinn had given me and threw open the door. Marcus was standing there waiting like he’d known I was coming, and he had. He’d known I was there the same way I had known he was. He’d felt my presence deep in his soul.

“Good evening,
bella
,” Marcus said warmly, his eyes already heating up.

I stood and for a moment I couldn’t move. I simply stood there, taking him in. He was heartbreakingly beautiful. He had pitch-black hair that he slicked back, but I loved it when it got loose and fell over his eyes. His face could have been carved by Michelangelo. Marcus always reminded me of a gorgeous bird of prey, with dark eyes and a lean body.

“I missed you,” I breathed as I went to stand in front of him.

His hands pulled me into the firm strength of his body. “Not as much as I missed you,” he said, tilting my head back.

His mouth covered mine, and I thrilled as his fangs popped out. I loved the feel of them. I loved to work my tongue around them while we kissed. If I accidently nicked myself on those sharp teeth, Marcus would groan as he tasted the blood. He would go a little wild. I nicked myself as often as possible.

His tongue played with mine and I felt his hands drop below my waist, cupping the cheeks of my ass. Marcus would play the gentleman much of the time, but when we were alone, he let all of that go. There was no gentleman in our bed. He tugged on my hair, and I let my head fall back. He growled as he ran his nose along the side of my neck.

“Mine.”

“Yours,” I agreed. My whole body softened in response to his dominance. Marcus could be incredibly indulgent, but he liked to rule in the bedroom.

A vision of Gray Sloane, his massive, muscular body working over mine, assaulted me. I shoved it aside. Even when I was with Marcus, Gray was somehow with us. Sometimes I wished I’d never met that half demon because it seemed nothing I did could loosen his hold on me.

“Bed?” I asked, coming up for air.

“Later.” Marcus pulled my shirt over my head. It was tossed to the floor. He flicked the front clasp of my bra, and I was naked from the waist up. His hands covered my breasts. “Have I told you how beautiful you are?”

He was good at that. Sometimes I thought Marcus’s goal in life was to make me feel good about myself. “Not today.”

The tips of his fingers brushed my nipples, making them hard and ready for more. “Then allow me to correct the oversight. You are stunning,
bella
. I dream about your breasts.”

My breasts aren’t the biggest in the world, but when Marcus’s voice went low and he couldn’t take his eyes off my chest, I couldn’t help but feel sexy. I let my hand slide down his hard body to find his cock. Marcus might like to be in charge, but he also liked it when I misbehaved. I cupped him. “I dream about your cock.”

“
Voglio fare l’amore con te
.” His hands found my hips and he pulled me against that magnificent erection. My hips rolled against it of their own accord.

I want to make love with you
, he’d said. I smiled as I kissed him and gave him my own wording. “
Ti voglio scopare
.”

Marcus growled, and suddenly I was straddling his hips as he carried me toward the couch. His hands cupped my ass as he pressed my core against his. His big cock pushed against me, and my clitoris was ready for action. “I want to fuck, too. I love it when you talk dirty to me.”