Hot Demon in the City (Latter Day Demons Book 1) (13 page)

I know. At least I'll be able to tell if he ever lies to us about any of that.

True.

"Excellent meal, onion," Kory said, breaking me away from my silent conversation with Anita.

"Why, thank you, Single J," I gave him a smile.

"Hey, now," he grinned. Honestly, when he smiled, I could definitely understand why Hannah wanted her red-polished hooks in his underwear.

"Sex is natural," Uncle Aurelius always said. "There's nothing to be ashamed of." I knew he was right, but still I'd never been tempted.

Until now, that is, and it was with someone that my family wouldn't approve of. Lifting my bowl from the island, I headed for the dishwasher. I could see and hear the conversation with my father now.

Dad, I think I want to have sex with a human
.

I figured the fireworks would commence after that. In his mind, humans were not only weak, but short-lived, while I was of an immortal race.

Not a good pairing.

Besides, sex could complicate everything. Perhaps it was better to back away from Kory, because we had mysteries to solve. In a very plural sense.

* * *

Kory knocked on my bedroom door the following morning, at an unacceptable hour. "Get your stuff together, we'll go to the gym close to the station," he said. "I'll take you to breakfast afterward."

"Will there be more of those," I didn't know what to call them.

"The people there at this hour are only interested in getting their sweat on. They're not looking for a date."

"Awesome. Let me get my stuff."

He was right. Nobody bothered either of us and I was grateful. I got through my workout, realized I was still sore from Sunday's exercise and worked through it anyway. Uncle Sal would be disappointed if I hadn't.

Breakfast came next, and I had to admit I didn't mind sitting across the table from Kory, who knew exactly what he wanted to eat and ordered it with coffee. I had eggs and toast, with coffee. He got me to work in plenty of time, but had to drive Fiona Hall to the downtown offices right away.

Perhaps she knew the others talked about her and her long-term affair with an exec, but chose to ignore it. I merely hoped the exec's wife was fully informed and accepting of it; if she weren't and found out, trouble would surely come.

"They found the third kidnap victim in a field outside Vichy Springs," Lee said, handing me a thumb drive as I walked toward my cubicle. "See what you can make of that information. Hannah isn't here yet," he added. "Probably won't be for another two or three hours."

"On it," I nodded.

The early-morning crew had already reported on the sketchy information released by the police, and a reporter was in Vichy Springs, hoping for updates. Lee wanted information to feed to Hannah for the evening news.

Stuffing the thumb drive into my computer, I settled in with a cup of coffee to see what we had so far.

* * *

Kordevik

I'm worried
, Watson texted.

About what?

About the body found east of Vichy Springs
, came the reply.
No, it's not close to Claudia's new place, so don't start with the speculation
, he said.
I heard from another source that prints were found around the body. Not human prints
.

I'd already heard the story from Fiona—all the way to the downtown office building. How the third kidnap victim, who worked at the hospital, had been found in a field near Vichy Springs.

You thinking it could mean exposition?
I texted back. I'd pulled into a hardware store parking lot to have this conversation—I didn't want a ticket or an arrest, because Watson was having a werewolf meltdown.

Yeah. Look, if I hear anything, I'll let you know. I thought the other, well, you know, was involved. This doesn't look good.

I hear that
, I agreed.
Stay out of trouble. You're in enough as it is
.

Only because I know you
,
and I have to keep that to myself
, he replied.

Right back atcha
, I texted, surprised that autocorrect didn't intervene in my unconventional wording.

Sorry, man. Keep forgetting about that. I'd be in wolf heaven if it weren't for you.

You got that right
.

Gotta go, dude. Break time's over.

OK
.

* * *

Lexsi

The body looked as if it were attacked by wild animals. Police were consulting rangers and other experts, who also examined the tracks around the body.

Wolf prints.

Very large wolf prints.

I knew what that meant; they didn't.

With Claudia being Watson's boss, I suspected she was in this to the tips of her ears. At least I knew what she was, now. It was possible she was either a Packmaster, a Second or high in the pack she belonged to. She had too much authority to be otherwise.

Watson did her bidding, I knew that much. I worried that she'd eventually tell him to do something we would all regret.

It made me want to follow him to her new bar in Oakland, but there was probably a way around that. I turned to searching city and county records for any business in Oakland that had recently applied for a liquor license.

In the middle of that research, my cubicle phone rang. "You have a call on line two," the receptionist du jour informed me. "They asked to speak only to you."

"All right," I said. "Thanks."

"This is Lexsi Silver," I said after punching line two.

"That body doesn't belong to Brad Nolen," a voice growled. "They have preliminary ID through clothing and jewelry. That's not Brad." The line went dead before I could ask questions.

After stewing about that information for a moment, I called Lee on my cell phone to get the name of the journalist in Vichy Springs. I then placed a call to Dan Logan, the early-morning investigative reporter.

"Hi, Dan," I said when he answered. "You may not remember me, this is Lexsi Silver."

"I remember you," he suddenly had a smile in his voice.

"That's great," I said. "Look, I just got a tip that the body may not be the third kidnap victim, like everybody says. Are they doing forensics and running dental records?"

"Yeah, but the cops think this is a done deal—the body's pretty chewed up, but the clothes match the description."

"I'm concerned about that," I said.

"I'll look into it. Man, if this is true, we could have a real scoop on our hands."

"Exactly," I said. "Keep me informed, if you wouldn't mind."

"Sure will. Thanks for the call."

* * *

By three o'clock that afternoon, after some pushing and harassment of the Coroner's Office by Dan Logan, we knew the dental records didn't match. In fact, they weren't even close. News Seventy-Four was the first to have the information, too.

Hannah was almost gleeful as I handed the information to her. She began her evening broadcast with the information I'd given her, peppered it with more speculation as to what may have happened to the real Brad Nolen, and ended with the question as to why someone had gone to a great deal of trouble to make the unidentified victim appear to be Brad Nolen.

I left work after seven that night and skipped home because Kory called saying he had an errand to run. He'd told me to take a taxi or get another driver to take me.

I didn't intend to do either. I had a perfectly good way to get home; I just had to be careful enough that nobody noticed. That meant I walked out the employee entrance, waved at the guard on duty and then traveled several blocks toward the nearest bus stop before ducking into an alcove housing the locked door of an empty shop. After making sure nobody had noticed, I skipped to the house.

"Bout time," Anita said when I set my purse and jacket on the island.

"Hey, one of us was stranded at the station. I won't name names, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't you."

"I have lasagna in the oven," Anita put on her best, self-righteous tone.

"Then I forgive every transgression you ever committed," I sighed. "I love lasagna."

"Any word on who the poor soul actually was? The one found east of here?"

"Forensics has the body, and they're working to match dental records. The last word I had was that it definitely wasn't Brad Nolen. I hate that his family went through that—thinking he'd been found that way. They identified his clothes and shoes. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to do that."

"This whole thing is just crazy," Anita agreed. "Look, change into your comfy clothes and help me put a salad together. Lasagna should be ready about then."

"It already smells good," I said. "Be out in a few." Gathering my stuff, I took off toward my bedroom.

* * *

Kordevik

"Man, you look like you moved into a cave with spiders," I said when Watson climbed into my Jeep. He was covered in cobwebs and smudged with unidentified dark substances.

"I told you they hadn't used that cellar in a while," he grumped. I could tell he wasn't happy with his current line of work, too.

"Who's been tending bar?" I asked.

"Stella and Jake," he shrugged. "Half weres," he added. "When the cellar's cleared, I'll be back at work as usual."

"Where is it?"

"The bar?"

"No, the cellar."

"I promised Claudia that I wouldn't say."

"What about the bar, then?"

"Look, I don't want you going down there. Granger's already seen us together, remember? I don't want to jog his memory."

"I'm surprised he hasn't looked harder for either of us," I pointed out. "Mason, too."

"He had bigger fish to fry, with those three he snatched from the hospital."

"Yeah, but he has them already. Doesn't he? What's to keep him from tracking us, now?"

"What if he doesn't have them?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I jerked my head in Watson's direction.

"It's the way Claudia's been acting. Since I haven't seen Granger, I can only go by the way she is. She isn't happy about something, I know that much, and if it were due to something I'd done, she'd sure as hell let me know about it."

"Then how can we go about finding out if Granger doesn't have his hostages, or that he's not involved in that fiasco east of Vichy Springs?"

"No idea, and I'm not about to ask Claudia. Every day I go to work, I worry that the hammer will drop."

"Someday, you're gonna tell me what she has on you, man."

"Fat chance," he muttered and went silent. I'd just confirmed my suspicions. Claudia did have something on Watson, and I'd managed (in a backhanded way), to make him admit it.

My next quest was to discover what it was. That could take time. Lexsi's text came while I mulled over my options.

I waited until we were stopped at a stoplight to glance at my phone. "We're having lasagna—Anita made it," I said after reading the text. "It'll be waiting when we get there."

"Aw, man, I need a bath first," Watson whined.

"I can toss you off the bridge and into the bay," I offered.

"I like my water warmer than that," he shot back.

"How much longer?" I asked.

"Huh?"

"Until Claudia's cellar is emptied?"

"No idea. She sold the old barrels to another winery. At least I didn't have to truck them down the valley."

"If you hurry with your shower, we may be able to save lasagna for you," I teased.

"You better save some."

"You better hurry."

"Bet on it."

* * *

Lexsi

"No, completely coat the pork loin in the seasoned flour, then brown on all sides in the sauté pan. Once that's in the slow cooker, then sauté the mushrooms in more butter in the same pan," I told Farin on the phone. "Put the mushrooms in the cooker, then use the wine to deglaze the sauté pan. Add the cream and roux after that and stir until it thickens. That covers the pork loin in the slow cooker and four hours later, you have a wonderful meal."

"You make it sound so easy," Farin sighed.

"Come on, you can do this," I said. Kory and Watson stepped into the kitchen at that moment; Watson looked like he'd been shoved through a sewer pipe—to clean it.

Kory grinned at me; Watson grimaced at Anita's disapproving look before loping down the hall toward his bedroom.

I barely recalled my agreement to help Farin cook on Friday because Kory walked toward me, pulled me close and kissed my forehead.

"I uh, have to call you back," I told Farin and almost dropped the phone.

Daddy, I want to have sex with a human
ran through my head as Kory let me go and went to the cabinet to get plates for the table.