I looked at Roma questioningly.
She answered my unspoken question. "Bran and the goblins are staying with Rey. He's been here a lot longer and has established himself and a bit of wealth."
That made more sense.
"Make use of Eldora’s connections?" a goblin asked.
"No," Bran replied sharply. "I know she's supposed to be on our side, but I don't trust that woman as far as I can throw her. Since I could get a good fifteen feet, easily."
Carissa, who had thus far been in the corner glowering and occasionally typing on her phone, stepped forward. "This isn't good enough. I've got the wolves on their way to Reynard's place to attempt to track his scent. I should've done that from the get-go, instead of leaving his rescue to you bumbling fools."
Yeesh, woman. Tell us how you really feel. Every time she spoke made me like her a little less.
"Is the horrible attitude a Carissa thing or a shifter thing?" I whispered to Roma.
Bran, who was close enough to hear, laughed. He opened his mouth to speak, but a voice came from behind us. "Definitely a Carissa thing. You’d be cranky too if you had to babysit shifters."
I whirled around to see Rey standing in the doorway, holding a laptop and a black box. "What's everyone so riled up about?" He stepped into the room, set his things down on the big conference table, then reached underneath, sliding his hand around the underside of the table. In a few moments, he held up a small object. "We've been bugged. Probably for a while. And, by the way, the alchemists’ office is just a few floors away. Thirtieth floor."
The room stared at him in shock, but when he said the floor number everyone sprang into action. "Let's go before they disappear," Carissa said. "I'm ready to stamp on those bastards once and for all."
"It's not been five minutes since I left their offices," Reynard says. "Let's go."
Bran and Reynard glared at Roma, Cassie, and me. "You three stay here."
Bran's gaze shifted from Roma to me. "Don't be a hero."
"Okay, okay," I muttered. "You be careful."
We didn't have to wait long. Rey and Bran returned not five minutes later. "Gone."
Rey slumped into a chair. "Literally, it was maybe three or four minutes from the time I left and when we went back. There are plenty of things left behind, but I doubt they'll find anything incriminating up there. They took everything but those." He nodded toward the laptop and black box. "Hopefully they've got something good in them for us."
7
CATHY
The loud clickof my laptop as I slammed it shut nearly made me jump, which only made me angrier. Ugh. This whole week had been way too stressful. Opening my laptop again, I stared at the blank page. My first task was to create a website people could visit that would help them navigate the monsters coming out. They would have a ton of questions, and a website FAQ was the easiest way to field most of them. Frequently asked questions were literally the easiest thing in the world to do, and yet I couldn’t even begin to get started.
I had worked on the site for hours, but no matter what I did, it just looked blah. It needed to be perfect, to give off the right vibes and make people feel like they were in good hands. Nothing I was doing seemed to fit the bill. This was the fourth or was it the fifth, time I'd deleted the whole damn thing in frustration.
Sighing, I shut my laptop again and checked the time. Time to get ready for my date with number five—Martellus Lefevre, a troll. If it didn't work out with him, and it didn't work out with Reynard, I had one more opportunity to go on a date. After that, I either gave up or had to deal with going on another six dates, since there was a money-back guarantee. That was one of the main reasons I had done this in the first place, along with Roma’s insistence.
Martellus and I were meeting at the same restaurant all my first dates had gone to. I didn't even know why I was going on this date. I couldn't stop thinking about Reynard, but Anna Fortuna had chewed my ear off until I'd agreed to try one more, just in case. Maybe it impacted her numbers or something, but whatever the reason, she had refused to take no for an answer.
After a quick blowout, a couple of layers of Lash Blast, and a swipe of lip gloss, I headed out and arrived at the restaurant a few minutes early. Martellus was already there waiting for me. He was handsome, far more than I would've thought a troll would be. As a matter of fact, in some ways, he would've been considered more classically handsome than Reynard. The man looked like he could be in an ad for the army. Blond hair, a chiseled jaw, and a body that was toned to perfection.
Martellus smiled as I approached him, and it almost felt like there was an electricity in the air. Too bad it didn't last. Within five seconds of meeting, I was ready to leave. It was like talking to a brick wall.
"Hello, Martellus," I said, extending my hand. "I'm Cathy."
"Cathy," he droned in a carefully even tone. "What a lovely name. Please, call me Marty." His voice was deep and had the potential to be sexy, but I was pretty sure he could've put a classroom of history students to sleep with it. If he kept this up I would be snoring before our food got here.
He pulled out my chair, a gentleman, and when he sat down he picked up a pair of thin gold-rimmed glasses I hadn't noticed on the table.
As soon as he put them on, he went from sexy Superman to studious Clark Kent.
Which, in theory, should've been majorly attractive, right? Somehow it wasn't.
