“Are we going to look into it?”
I wasn’t sure I wanted my dog playing detective again. The last time he’d stuck his nose in places it didn’t belong, he’d almost gotten himself killed.
My wolf’s alertness and Mrs. Chen’s careful phrasing told me there was a high probability something rotten was afoot in Amberford again.
“I’ll ask Samuel about it,” I conceded.
Bo’s tail drooped as he headed for the stairs. “That’s boring.”
I grimaced. “What happened to you wanting a quiet life?”
“I changed my mind.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, I’d like to go one month without stumbling into trouble. That’s not too much to ask, is it?”
“Boring,” Bo huffed.
5
COMPLIANCE CONCERNS
Charlene wason the phone when Bo and I walked into Hawthorne & Associates the next morning, her voice hitting frequencies that made the lobby’s new crystal chandelier vibrate.
“No, Mr. Pemberton, we cannot insure your collection of bearded dragons against ‘spontaneous combustion.’” She paused, her face darkening. “Because it’s a lifestyle choice, not a covered hazard.”
“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the coffin,” Bo observed.
“Banshees don’t sleep in coffins.”
“You sure?” my dog said skeptically. “Also, whose bright idea was it to put a crystal chandelier in here?”
“Janet’s,” I replied as the lights began to shake.
We gave the banshee a wide berth and were headed for the express elevator when Fred waved us over from behind the other end of the security desk.
“Hey, did you do something to Didi?!” he hissed as we approached.
Existential guilt had me hunching my shoulders a little. “No. Why?”
“She’s looking for you. She seemed pretty”—the demon paused, searching for the right word—“intense.”
“Didi’s always intense,” I pointed out carefully.
“More intense than usual.” Fred shuddered. “She had that look. You know the one.”
I made a face. “Which one? Didi has many expressions.”
Most of them uncivil, but I kept that one to myself.
“The one she gets before she turns somebody into a frog.”
Bo’s tail drooped at the demon’s words. Yeah, that sounded bad.
My dog and I rode the elevator in tense silence. It deposited us on the fifth floor faster than either of us liked.
Samuel was standing outside his office at the end of the corridor, deep in conversation with Barney. Even from this distance, the mate bond hummed with his presence, a warm pulse of awareness that made my wolf perk up. He caught my eye. His gaze smoldered a little behind his glasses.
My hormones started a mutiny.
