3
An Entrepreneurial Omega
“Well?”
I stared at the photo in the file again, committing every line of her face to memory.
Sage Hexwood… You’re going to make meveryrich.
I looked up when the valet brought up my car, cringing at the sound of her gears shifting horribly. Didn’t anyone know how to treat perfect classics like her these days?
The valet hopped out and gave me my keys, holding his hand out expectantly.
“Oh, you want a tip?”
He nodded.
“Learn how to drive stick.”
The smile dropped from his face and he rolled his eyes, heading off to get Garrick’s car next.
Garrick still stared at me, waiting for an answer.
“Well, what?” I asked.
“Can you do it? I want my fifteen percent.”
My jaw ticked in annoyance. “I’ve never taken a job I couldn’t handle, and considering I’m still standing here, alive and breathing, it’s rude of you to even ask.” I got in my baby, cooing and apologizing for the valet’s rough handling as I patted the dashboard. Then I rolled down the window and yelled out to him. “And it’s fifteen percent of the original amount, by the way—your cut doesn’t include negotiations.”
His mouth dropped open before his eyes narrowed. “Oh, you son of a—”
I revved the engine and peeled out with a satisfying screech, leaving him behind and chuckling to myself.
Every second was costing me, and as much as I reveled in pissing Garrick off, I needed to get to work and deliver, the sooner the better.
I pulled up outside of a nearby coffee shop, grabbing the file and my laptop and heading inside to snag a table in the back. Then I bought a green tea, put on my headphones, and got to work.
The report the Premier had provided me with was scant at best, and most of the pertinent details were from five years ago or earlier. He didn’t have anything more recent on her?
I mean, it wasn’t that hard to gather intel these days. Anyone could type a name in a search engine and find almost limitless results. Most Magiks probably weren’t even aware of how much free information was available about themselves online, as long as you knew where to look. And for a young omega who grew up in the digital age, she’d likely have several pages worth of results.
So imagine my surprise when nearly nothing came up. I found an old blog post from a high school “young entrepreneurs” club in Cindralis mentioning her as an officer, and an article about the soft opening of a new cafe from the newspaper for Umbris University,The Midnight Quill.According to thereporter, she had gone there on a date with an elf named Kaleb Evandell.
Date… a weird knot formed in my stomach that I suppressed with a sip of my tea.
“The Pistachio Latte is really good,” said third-year business and computer science double major Sage Hexwood. “I’ll definitely be back.”
I clicked on the link for the cafe just in case, but it had shut down last year.
“Hm,” I said to myself, moving on to the friend.
A search for “Kaleb Evandell” yielded a player profile page for a local chapter of aStarlight Dominionguild, a niche tabletop RPG that was growing in popularity these days.
I fought a swell of jealousy and the urge to snort and call him a nerd. Why would I even care? Besides, I’d always wanted to try playing myself, if I ever found the time. Or the friends.
But that page was also from several years ago, and included a picture of him from a city-state-wide event promoting the game. I spied a familiar head of brown curls at the table next to him and smiled.
“Interesting…”
