Leonie nodded. “Absolutely. I can also visit one of the marked graves and pick up traces of the spell, which can be tracked back to the individual. Unless they’re very, very good, there’s almost always a signature. A tell-tale sign of who owns the magic. I made a mental note of the closest graves, so maybe Vivian and Itztli can go with me there first before we go to New Orleans.”
“I may want you to meet Regina too. Do we have an update from Sekh or Frank’s team yet?”
“Hold on!” Gina called from the front of the house as she made her way to us. “I’m coming with an update. I heard Frank’s name.”
:I’m almost to you, my queen,:Sekh said.:Though my quick update is that she appears to be exactly as we saw on the television. Unless she has a way to completely change her appearance or knowingly mask an alter ego, the redhead is just a very curious college student. I certainly didn’t See any evidence she was involved in the goules.:
Looking elegant and polished as usual in a beautiful indigo pantsuit and ivory silk blouse, Gina joined us at the table carrying her large leather satchel. “You’re up?—”
“Early, I know,” I broke in, smiling. “Don’t get used to it. I’ve actually been up all night.”
Instead of giving me a salacious wink and nudge, she frowned. “You need to rest, young lady. You can’t keep up this pace.”
Nodding, I sighed. “I know. I’m resting today, I promise. What’s the update from Frank?”
“We have two people stationed outside in the hotel parking lot. The man used the name Alex Manning to check in. As far as we can tell, he’s a private investigator licensed in Texas and Louisiana. Our surveillance indicates he’s awake and packing to leave shortly. The rental car’s in his name, and it was rented in Houston. Do you want Frank’s team to intercept him?”
Everyone looked at me, waiting for my answer. I tipped my head back so I could look up at Rik. “What do you think?”
“I want to know why they’re here investigating my queen. Though my curiosity isn’t as important as keeping your privacy against humans.”
“That cat’s out of the bag,” Guillaume said. “If you wanted to keep a low profile, then we shouldn’t have done the stunt on the beach.”
My lips quirked. “But that was so much fun.”
He chuckled. “The best ride of my life, my queen.”
“Let’s pick them both up and bring them in. They already know where I live, so there’s no sense in pretending otherwise.Sekh can get a good look at the man’s face and see what he’s been up to.”
Speaking of the general, he stepped in through the back door. “I’ve already Seen him since he was in the woman’s recent history. After she returned to her hotel room in Galveston, she called the man. She was still in her swimsuit. That’s how quickly she acted. The man picked her up the next morning and they drove to the Isador house in Galveston. Luckily we’d already left. The man buzzed the front gate, and his mouth appeared to move as if he was talking to someone, but I unfortunately can’t hear conversations.”
Rik grunted. “Probably trying to find out if we were still there. How’d he find the house so quickly?”
Gina grimaced. “We made no effort to hide who owns most of the properties. If Alex is as good a detective as he appears to be, he probably figured out which boat we took out too. The only part of our operation that’s covert is the Talbott Agency. We keep all the field offices under its umbrella instead of House Isador. I’m texting Jensen now to see if she has record of a visitor.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have screamed House Isador at the top of my lungs.” I sighed, shaking my head ruefully. “I really didn’t think anyone would understand, let alone start investigating us.”
“Jensen says she did speak to a male the morning we left.” Gina looked up from her phone. “He asked to speak to Ms. Isador. Since he had your name, she thought he was affiliated with our house in some way, so she told him you’d already returned home. She feels terrible.”
“Tell her not to worry. There’s no way she could’ve known we had a couple of humans poking around where they shouldn’t be.”
“I think we should put out an alert to all the staff warning them not to interact or provide any information to anyone not completely vetted and known already to our people. I’ll coordinatewith Frank and we’ll send out a picture of both Alex and Regina to be safe.”
I nodded. “I think that’s smart. If Regina really is just a college student, how is she affording to hire a private investigator? That’s not cheap.”
“I didn’t track her life all the way back to birth, but the house I See her leaving to head to college is as large as this house,” Sekh said.
“If we can get her full name, Frank will do a complete background check on her,” Gina replied. “It’s possible she’s just from a wealthy family, but it’s also entirely possible her family is affiliated with another Aima house. Even the Dauphine’s, without even knowing who she was.” Her phone rang and she answered the call. Nodding, she met my gaze. “Alex is on the move. Still a go?”
I nodded. “Tell the team to say Ms. Isador will see both him and Regina now.”
30
SHARA
It only took fifteen minutes for Frank’s team to knock on Regina’s door and bring her along with Alex to my house. I kept Rik, Guillaume, and Sekh close, but the rest of my Blood stayed out of sight. I didn’t need Ms. Curiosity counting heads and then trying to track down even more details about our life.
Or worse, passing that information on to another queen, even unknowingly. I liked my privacy inside the nest. I didn’t need other queens knowing my private life. How I interacted with my Blood, or how Rik cycled them through guard duty.
