… Monsters.
No.
No, I was in a room filled withpeople. All of us were outside of normal, but the man we were talking about sounded like he'd been the true monster. And he'd been entirely human.
Or had he?
"Nigel, was Earl human? I mean, entirely human? No magic or… anything?"
Nigel shook his head. "No, Tess. No magic If he'd had the slightest bit of magic, he wouldn't have been thousands of dollars in debt."
"Thousands? In 1970? Yeah, I'd say you could get killed for that kind of money. You can get killed for twenty bucks," Jack said grimly, his eyes icing over at what was probably a terrible memory from his rebel past. "If you owned the gambling establishment, why did you let his debt get up so high?"
"It wasn't me. I had a strict cash on the table, no IOUs policy. No, he did a lot of side bets with other people. Less… careful people than ogres." Nigel raised his chin and gave us a steady look. "Believe it or not, tiger."
Jack nodded. "Trust me, I realize that most people in the world have far less honor than the Stone and Mountain Clans."
My eyes widened. "Stone and Mountain Clans?"
Nigel gave Jack a deep nod. "And I am honored that you recognize it."
Erin smacked a hand on the table, startling me. "Yeah, yeah, everybody's honored. Whatever. But just how did you know that, shifter? We don't exactly advertise our origins."
"Easy, daughter of the river gods," Jack said mildly. "In my former life, it was important to know things. And while I'm no wolf, Nigel has the scent of his parents' Clans."
Daughter of the river gods?
Clearly, I needed to work on my own education. I'd never heard about ogre Clans or known that nymphs were daughters of gods. But later. Now we needed to help Lorraine.
"And you said that everyone wanted to kill him. But do you know anything about the day Earl left town? Or… was murdered?"
Nigel looked down at his now-empty mug again. "No. No, I don't. I thought he ran away from the people he owed and also to escape any charges for harming his wife. This was as big a surprise to me as to you."
Jack started to ask something else, but I put a hand on his arm.
"I think we've taken enough of their time, Jack. Nigel, Erin, thank you for speaking to us. I'm sorry to have bothered you with this." I stood and smiled and Jack, looking puzzled, followed me up and out of the kitchen.
"If you think of anything else, please give me a call," Jack said, handing a business card to Nigel, who'd walked out and down the hall with us. Erin was nowhere to be seen, but a loud splashing noise from the kitchen gave me an idea about what she was doing.
Disney ideas of mermaids had taken a hard hit when nymphs showed themselves to the world.
A loud burst of laughter sounded from the kitchen. "Tess, if you ever want to know what it's like to love a dangerous monster, please call Nigel. If you dare."
Nigel winced a little, a wash of embarrassment painting his cheeks a rosy red. "She's just in a mood."
I nodded but didn't have words to answer him.
Jack and I were silent all the way out to his truck. When I climbed in, the first thing I noticed was the music box.
Somehow—some way—the music box had traveled from the vault in my shop to the front seat of Jack's truck.
By itself.
Jack, who hadn't noticed it yet, blew out a breath. "She's intense."
"The Bitch Is Back."
I groaned. "Here we go again."
