Chapter Thirty-Three
Micah’s face wavered, flickered, and then stabilized into his usual cocky countenance on Cadmus’s computer screen. Perhaps it was picking up on Cadmus’s inner turmoil, as he listened to that brown-noser prattle on. But then Cadmus sat at attention, every cell in his body instantly alert.
“I’m sorry, you went out there for a bit,” Cadmus smoothly lied. ”Would you repeat that again?”
Micah grinned. It was a look that said he saw through Cadmus, but he was going to play along. For now.
“I said HTM wants to come out to Gardendale and check it out for himself. After he heard all the things that I said about it, he’s intrigued. So what’s the progress so far on finding out about the properties you talked about?”
Cadmus grimaced as if the computer was acting up again, to buy himself a little time. He needed to think fast, find a way to hedge. It could be deadly to admit failure or reveal vulnerability to the younger man, who would be all too quick to exploit it. He had trained Micah himself, after all.
Cadmus should have killed him when he had the chance. Before his skills made him indispensable to the Merciless, his cunning channeled towards his ambition.
“The realtor who had the information I was looking for met with…an untimely death, so I have to retrace some of my steps.” Cadmus prayed that Micah didn’t push deeper. “And with the holiday coming up, there will likely be delays until afterwards, so to make best use of His Terrible Majesty’s time, perhaps he could delay his visit until then, when I have more concrete information as to which properties are available?”
Micah quirked an eyebrow. “Oh right, July 4th. There’s a spectacular fireworks celebration that HTM would want to see a few miles from here that we heard about, so yeah, maybe we’ll swing by afterwards.”
“Then perhaps I can rent a larger place that would be more suitable to His Terrible Majesty’s taste and needs.” Cadmus purred. “Although you found the decor of my rental…charming…I was merely looking for something serviceable at the time.”
And Cadmus would make sure he could stay there too during His Terrible Majesty’s visit, if only to defend himself against what Micah no doubt had been saying about him. But most importantly, the delay would buy Cadmus the time to snare that man-wolf for His Terrible Majesty, and return Micah to the irrelevance he should rightfully occupy in His Terrible Majesty’s eyes.
“All good points, Cad-man. Glad to hear you’re staying sharp out there, and haven’t succumbed to whatever it was that was bugging you when I saw you.”
You. You’re the one bugging me.Cadmus smiled anemically. “No, it was something passing, after all.”
“OK, so we’ll plan on coming down after July 4th.”
“Sounds good,” Cadmus jabbed at the keystroke that ended the call. It was a tiny, petty satisfaction that he was the one to hang up on Micah, but those were the types of victories he had to settle for these days.
Until he got the man-wolf. And now the clock was ticking.
* * *
“How was your date, thief?” Aylwyn’s mocking voice greeted Col as he walked into Simon’s large living room. The fourBredhren, Miller and Simon all stopped what they were doing to stare at Col.
And then Merek started a slow, loud hand clapping. “You stole the evening from Aylwyn. Well done.”
Barric growled. “I am angered that I have admiration for you for this maneuver.”
Col grinned at Aylwyn. “Did you like the joke I played on you?” And watched as everyone’s jaw dropped open.
He couldn’t tell if it was at the uncharacteristic expression on his face, or the even more out-of-character-for-him claiming to have played a joke.
It didn’t matter. He had an unforgettable evening, and the novel experience of…fun. With children, no less. It was worth any consequence that happened now. His wolf was even behaving, as if having spent time pleasing Katie Cooper had soothed it.
It was altogether unsettling, but for the first time, the confusion was a happy one.
Look at him, talking about beinghappy. No wonder the others were acting as if he had been swapped out like a changeling.
Simon cleared his throat. “I was telling the others that I’ve spent the past couple of days poring over the admissions and security footage from the Faire, as well as looking at details from Brad’s, uh, office.”
“Including some of the information that I was able to get from the police.” Miller added. He had been fortunate that the detective who had arrived at the scene was a friend of his, a woman who also shared a military background and keen instincts.
Unfortunately the information wasn’t much more than what they could have guessed. No one in the restaurant below heard anything because of the loud music that was playing, and the time of death was narrowed based on the coroner’s assessment and when one of Brad’s agents recalled saying goodbye to him on her way out to meet with a client, wearing an immaculate white suit.
“So the next steps are to go to the Faire tomorrow morning, and see if I can get footage from all the other entrances into the Faire.”
“Like the one we use,” Tybalt said.
