“I haven’t made my decision yet, but it does sound interesting.I guess I’m a bit hesitant about working with humans.”
“It’s not only humans.I’ve worked with at least one shifter.”
“How did that go?”
“She wanted somethingdifferent.I said no, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d found someone else to kill her husband.”
“I thought shifters had mates?”
“If she did, she didn’t seem to care much about him.”
Tex had an idea of what was happening, and it wasn’t good.He could be wrong, of course, but just in case, he leaned forward into the bushes to try to get a good look at the demons.
They were both male, both dressed casually.One wore a green jacket, while the other was only wearing a gray sweater.That one had his phone out and was typing something on the screen.
“Look, I’ll give you my contact’s number, all right?”he asked.“You call him whenever you’re ready.”
“It’s not dangerous, right?”
“You might not even have to leave town.It depends on what the client wants.”
“Leave town?Don’t tell me you’ve been leaving Starhaven.”
The demon with the sweater looked around and leaned closer.Tex did the same thing, making sure not to lean too much.The last thing he needed was to fall on his face in front of these two, but he needed to hear what was being said.
“A few times,” the demon with the sweater confessed.“It’s the easiest way to make more money.From here, you can do a few small jobs, but the ones which you have to leave for are the ones that pay a lot.”
“How do you do it?We can’t leave.”
“My contact takes care of everything.He helps me get out and back in.”
“What if you get caught?”
Tex didn’t know the penalty for that, but he was curious.It felt like it would be excessive to punish every demon who left, but also like the leaders needed to find incentives to convince people not to.Clearly, those incentives weren’t working.
“Arkya,” someone called out, making both the demons jump.Tex quickly retreated deeper into the bushes and watched as a demon wearing a skirt rushed forward.She hooked her arm around the arm of the demon in the sweater and beamed.“What are you two talking about?”she asked.
Tex had enough.He didn’t have any proof of what was happening, but proof wasn’t why he’d been sent.He was here to gather information and find out who was involved, and he had at least one name, and he’d recognize the two demons if he had to.The town wasn’t that big.It probably had a few thousand inhabitants, if even that.It should be fairly easy to find all the Arkyas here so that Tex could identify him, and someone could interrogate the demon to find out more about his contact and who else was involved.Tex was sure that Gregory had people who could hack into databases and find everything they’d need now that they knew more.
Which meant that if he told Gregory about this, he might be told to leave, but he couldn’t.His mate was here, which meant he needed to stay.Maybe he could find more information and make this easier for everyone.Maybe he could even talk to his mate.
He hated having to choose between his job and his mate, but if he was forced to, it would be easy.Nymon would win every time.
* * * *
NYMON WALKED INTO THEforest and hesitated.Where had the wolf gone?How was he supposed to follow a wolf in a forest?Especially if that wolf didn’t want to be found and had human intelligence?
He looked around.He couldn’t see or hear anything, but the wolf seemed interested in Starhaven.It was clear that the wolf was watching the town, which probably meant he’d found another spot to do just that.Nymon wasn’t sure the wolf realized he’d been seen.He hoped not.He definitely wouldn’t be able to find the wolf if they were trying to hide.
He had a decision to make and a fifty-fifty chance to make the wrong one.He looked left, then right, then shrugged and decided to go left.He might be wrong, and if he was, he wouldn’t find the wolf again, but that was okay.Something told him that he’d have another opportunity.
He still wanted to try to find the wolf today and talk to them.Part of him hoped he’d be able to convince them to shift so they could talk.He didn’t even know if the wolf was male or female, but that didn’t matter.He was more curious about why the wolf was here.How had they found Starhaven?Why were they hiding in the forest?Nymon was sure that Kael would find a logical explanation for it.Just like he was curious about the human world, it would make sense that humans and shifters would be curious about the demon towns.Maybe that was all there was to it.
Or maybe there was more.Whatever the case, Nymon was nosy, and he wanted to know.He’d find out if he had the opportunity.He just prayed that the wolf wasn’t here for bad reasons because he’d hate to tell Kael that he’d been right.As much as he loved his best friend, he didn’t want anything bad to happen.
Nymon stayed in the forest, but he moved closer to town.He was pretty sure that the wolf was looking for something or someone, and he wanted to offer his help.Maybe if the wolf needed information, Nymon could give it to him.He knew a lot of people.
He wasn’t sure how long he walked, but he was careful because he was so close to the street.He could hear people coming and going, children screeching, and many other sounds he was used to since he’d lived here all of his life.This was what the town had always been like.There was nothing exceptional or strange about it.
