“Now we have his name and address, we’ll question him tomorrow and see where that takes us,” Gabriel answered, drawing my gaze. His words washed over me, my whole focus narrowing to the places on his body where Nick had put his hands.
I breathed in deep, imagining I could still smell him all over Gabriel’s skin. I was being ridiculous, I knew it, but the rational side of my brain had deserted me.
Max was talking and I realised I’d zoned out when I caught the last part of his sentence.
“…can’t do anything else tonight.”
Falon looked less than happy with that outcome, but Max wouldn’t lie.
“So he admitted to seeing Callum last Saturday night?” Falon asked instead.
Max nodded. “Yeah. We showed him a photo and he said he recognised him. I didn’t want to ask anything else while we’re in such a public place.”
“Do we just go home now?” Falon still looked ready to punch something, so it was probably a good idea.
“You lot can go home. Gabriel and I are going to stay for a bit and see if anyone else turns up that we recognise.”
I bristled. Suddenly leaving with Falon didn’t seem as appealing. “We should check in with Axel and Talis, see if they’ve seen anything.”
“Wouldn’t they have contacted us if they did?” Gabriel asked, making a good point, but I ignored him.
Before I could answer, Max made the decision for us. “Good idea. I want to ask him about Tehlin anyway.”
He led the way back toward the arch near the front of the club, Gabriel following, with Falon and me bringing up the rear.
Axel and Talis were in the exact same spot as where we’d left them. Talis leant against the wall with his arms crossed and Axel looked as pissed off as I’d ever seen him.
They spotted us at the same time, heads swivelling in our direction in such a synchronised movement it was almost creepy. That didn’t detract from the decidedly frosty atmosphere between them.
I raised an eyebrow at Talis, but he gave me a short, sharp headshake in return. Oh, we’d definitely be discussing this later.
“Let’s get a drink,” Max said, gesturing to the bar.
Wonderful.
We took up space at one end and Axel smiled widely at Nick as he came over to serve us. Talis’s lip curled, revealing more teeth than was necessary, and I elbowed him in the side.
“Whatever the fuck is going on with you two,” I hissed, low enough hopefully only Talis would hear, “save it for later.”
Talis tensed but nodded.
Then Gabriel eased his way to Axel’s side, capturing Nick’s attention, and I felt my own snarl building.
Talis turned to face me, eyebrow raised.
I glared at him but took my own advice and looked away.
Max asked Axel for the photos back and separated one from the others. He angled it so both Axel and Nick could see it. “He was in here tonight. Blake Tehlin, fae. Said he remembers talking to Callum last weekend. They exchanged phone numbers but that’s all.” He let Nick take the photo from him for a closer look. “We’ll ask him more questions tomorrow, but do either of you remember him?”
Nick shook his head, but Axel nodded. “I do.” He plucked the photo out of Nick’s hands. “Cute. I remember him because he was confident and easy to talk to. Set Callum at ease when he was clearly nervous.”
“Anything else?”
Axel shrugged. “I only spoke to him for a minute or so, just to check Callum was okay. Then I left them to it.” He drew his bottom lip between his teeth. “Now that I’m looking at him, I’ve got a feeling I’ve seen him somewhere before, but I can’t think where.”
“Has he requested passage through the gateway, maybe?” I offered.
Axel hummed. “I don’t know. Maybe?” After another few seconds of studying the photo, he gave up. “Anyway, he wasn’t the last person Callum spoke to, not when I was with him, anyway.”
