Dash offered a business card. “I’m a P.I. currently looking for a missing alpha who might or might not’ve been at the Dragon after one of their last raids. I’d love to talk.”
“You’re only looking for one of them?” Meade asked before taking the card and eyeing it.
“I wasn’t aware there were more missing alphas until I heard you pressing the commissioner. Nor do I know for sure if the man I’m looking for is tied to any of that. All I know is he was somewhat of a regular at the Dragon and no one’s been able to find him for three weeks now.”
Meade searched his face. “And you know he was a regular how?”
“I was there last night,” Dash murmured. “I asked around.”
“You were there?” Meade held his stare. “Helping the Guard?”
“Not hardly.”
“You reek of them.”
“Iwasthem,” Dash said. “In a past life. I retired a few years ago.” He cringed, knowing he needed to get the man’s trust and the quickest and easiest way to do that was share a little truth. “I left disillusioned. The Guard I thought I’d joined wasn’t what it turned out to be. The entire Palatinate is riddled with corruption.”
“The entire Palatinate?” Meade stared at him closely, narrowing his eyes. “Were you Black Guard?”
Dash nodded.
“I bet you havea lotof stories to tell,” Meade murmured. “Maybe we could do a trade?”
“Perhaps,”Dash said, sure he could toss the guy a small fish.
“Like?” Meade asked.
No way was Dash dishing on the steps of the Municipal Center. He needed to change the conversation. “Don’t you worry that pushing the commissioner like that might end up causing the Dragon to close?”
“It’s been closed before. Never lasts long. It just pops up somewhere else.” The reporter moved closer to him. “We donothinghiding in silence. Nothing will ever change. Not unless we confront those in power and force them to see us. I, for one, don’t want to live in the shadows. Do you?”
Dash drew in a shaky breath. He’d always considered himself brave but in the face of real courage staring him down, he felt shamed. He lived in the shadows and wanted to remain there, safe.
“I don’t but outside of them leads to prison.”
“They can’t put us all in prison.” He scoffed. “If I could only convince my compatriots to rise up with me, I’d have it made.”
“Revolution takes time and persistence.”
“I’ve heard stories that the Black Guard was pretty good at starting those,” Meade said.
“Wasn’t my department,” Dash murmured.
“But you know the playbook?”
“Maybe not the whole thing but I know a thing or two.”
Meade eyed him closely before lowering his gaze to shove a notepad into a backpack at his feet. He hefted it over his shoulder when he was done. “Yeah, I suppose we can chat. I’m on deadline, so it can’t be now. I can call you tomorrow. Or Monday. We can set up a meet.”
“That would be great,” Dash said.
“Later,” Meade said before wandering off.
He never looked back. Dash watched him jump into a beat-to-hell inexpensive sedan parked a ways down the block. After the car quite literally roared down the street, Dash made his way into the precinct, hoping he’d get a call and perhaps a lead.
He’d found little so far. More than the previous investigator, but he was still no closer to finding Jaye.
15
