“Most of the men this Penny chick talked to online were located here in Cognito, so it didn’t help narrow my selection by much. It looks like she wanted to move out here and was searching for a male companion in the area. I sent out bait to all the men she was corresponding with and invited them to check out Blue’s profile. I got a lot of messages, and some of them are nasty men who need to be locked up in a cell somewhere in Guam. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to burn some of those photos from my memory. Anyhow, I didn’t want to open up the net too wide, so right now I’m just focusing on the same men who corresponded with the dead girl.”
“Don’t call her that,” I said.
Wyatt rolled his eyes. “Romeo was the only one who gave a thoughtful response. So I did a little back and forth with him.”
I snorted. “Did you get yourself a hot date?”
He rubbed his nose. “It’s not easy pretending to be a girl with all those feelings,” he said, using his fingers to make invisible quotation marks. “But I got invited to a ball.”
“You better pick out a fancy dress,” Christian said.
A smile touched my lips. “Is this the same masked ball we’re going to?”
“The very one.” Wyatt stood up and paced toward the window, then turned around. “If he’s got tickets, that means he’s a man with connections. Of course, a lot of people are going to be there, so it’s hard to say just how important he is in the grand scheme of things.”
“Can we bring outside dates?”
Christian gave me a cold stare. “If we’re baiting a killer, I think dates would be a distraction.”
“He’s right,” Claude said. “If Blue’s going in as bait, we’ll have to keep an eye on her at all times with no outside distractions. These parties are big. Someone needs to buy the costumes so we can blend in.”
Wyatt rocked on his heels. “What kind of costume? Because if someone puts me in furry go-go boots and a miniskirt, I’m protesting.”
I threaded my tangled hair away from my face. “I wouldn’t write off skirts. Do you know how many women find kilts sexy?”
“Stop fibbing.”
“If you have the legs to pull it off, wear a kilt and find out for yourself.”
All three men shared a private look.
Claude erupted in laughter. “The day I wear a dress is the day Christian eats steak and potatoes at the dinner table. We should come up with a strategy. No one can know we’re attending… except for the host. How are we going to spot each other at a masked ball?”
Wyatt shrugged. “Don’t Scots have clans or something? We can all wear the same tartan. Chances of anyone dressed like that will be slim to none, and if they are, we’ll have our own pattern. I shouldn’t have any trouble spotting a man in a plaid skirt.”
I tapped my finger against my chin. “Not a bad idea. Gem’s not going to like it, though. She wants to be a sorceress.”
Wyatt rumpled his hair with a quick gesture. “That’s a therapy session I ain’t got time for. I’ll tell Romeo to leave Blue’s name at the door so they can meet there. It’s safer that way, and he doesn’t need to know that she already has an invite. I’m with Claude. Since we don’t know who we’re dealing with, we can’t tell anyone we’re going. This is Keystone business, and the last thing we want to do is tip off the killer.”
Christian abruptly got up and left the room.
Claude’s frown made him almost menacing. “Do I need to shave my legs for this?”
Wyatt’s laugh ended with a snort. “I think we should tell Shepherd it’s mandatory.”
“Careful, Spooky. He might drop you off at a human morgue for that one.”
Wyatt puffed out his chest. “Let him try.”
“When you’re dead to the world, a nuclear explosion couldn’t wake you up. How do you think he got your bed all the way to the cemetery that time? All he has to do is add a little sensory magic to make you deaf long enough to last the drive.”
Wyatt’s gaze steered toward the empty doorway. “What did I tell you about coming into the rooms? … It doesn’t matter. This isn’t a party.”
When my phone vibrated, I excitedly read the text message from Glass. “I have a date tonight, Wyatt.” I stood up and passed by him. “If you have any pervy ghosts, tell them I’ll be taking a long, hot shower.”
“Don’t say stuff like that. It’s not a joke, and some spectersareperverts… No, I didn’t mean you,” he said to the empty doorway. “Holy Toledo, can’t a man have a minute to himself?”
I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get used to Wyatt’s solo conversations, but it left me wondering if there was any truth to his claim about ghosts. I hadn’t seen anything convincing outside of a few candles flickering when there was no draft in the room and cold chills that came out of nowhere, but that wasn’t enough to make me a firm believer.
