Everyone laughed, except Dubrosky. “Seriously, Mulroney, if you don’t ask Gillian out on a real date when this case is wrapped, then you don’t deserve her.” She sat back in her chair and sighed, looking a little starry-eyed. When the room grew silent, she cleared her throat. “Moving on. We can take turns keeping an eye on her. I can stake out the shop, and pretend I’m a customer. But I think it’s time to poke the tiger. What if we have Gillian go out in public to draw Lawrence’s thugs to her with one of us hiding nearby?”
“Great idea, Dubrosky. Make it happen. In the meantime, we need to make a deal with someone from the party.” After Denopoulos opened the Lawrence file and flipped through the pages, he pulled out his pen and began scanning the pictures inside. “We find one of them with a lot to lose, and see who’s willing to make a deal. Hold on, what about this guy, David Jackson? If memory serves, he’s an assistant to a local congressman by the name of Johnathan Stevens. I say we put pressure on him to talk. We make sure to offer him a deal to keep the congressman’s good name from getting dragged into this. No formal charges have been made against Jackson, but that can change.”
Teague mulled it over. “I think it’s time for us to go have a long talk with Mr. Jackson before we go directly to his boss. In the meantime, we applied to the Council for an exigent warrant to get the credit card number Lawrence used at the hotel in Clinton. What about the connection between this dating website Lawrence and Malcolm Strauss are involved in?”
“We’re still running some background checks on him to see how Malcom fits into all of this.” Garrett rubbed his chin. It was still too early to reveal his hunch that Malcom Strauss and Malcom Von Scrivner were one and the same. That is his sire was back. No, he couldn’t say anything until he had proof. “Any ideas where he may have gone and taken Brooke Corey?”
Denopoulos glanced at his tablet before looking up. A line appeared between his dark brows. “We sent a squad car over to Lawrence’s residence. He’s gone, and we checked two of his businesses here in the city. They’re empty. It’s like they never existed. I don’t know how he managed to pull this off. I’m going to keep digging. I guarantee he may have closed up shop here, but he’ll start up somewhere he has a connection.”
“He’s been mixing the proceeds from the blood ring in with the legitimate businesses,” Garrett said, desperate for something to turn up soon. “He could be hiding Brooke in the basement of one of his bars or restaurants, but it’s unlikely. Either way, I’ll keep checking. Did forensics pick up any fingerprints at her apartment or on the box that was sent over to the coven?”
Dubrosky sighed. “Not a one. Whoever did it wore gloves. I checked the witness accounts and did a quick scan of the signed statements. There’s nothing that leads us to Lawrence or where he could be hiding any of these women. As for his other operations, we could go over there to question his staff and get a warrant for his files.”
“This is all going to take time,” Garrett shot back. “We need to find a way to infiltrate his operation, and that’s how we find him and Brooke Corey. He’ll probably lie low for a while, and then reach out to his clients, maybe some from Rowena’s Cherry’s list. We come up with an op from that. We need to act fast. The longer Brooke Corey is with him, the harder it will be to break their bond.”
“I’ve read his profile.” Dubrosky took a sip from a mug and gestured with her hands. “He's a borderline sociopath. But the question remains, did he kill Serena Bensen on purpose, or by accident after he bit her?”
Garrett’s phone pinged. He glanced at the text from Lawrence’s office manager and shook his head in bewilderment. “Well, Lawrence might be guilty of a boatload of twisted shit, but he’s not a killer. His alibi checks out for the night the Bensen woman was killed. We’ve got him on camera and it’s time-stamped.”
“That’s the trouble with vampires,” Teague muttered. “They stalk their prey and turn them into their personal feed bags.” His gaze narrowed in Dubrosky’s direction, before glancing over at Garrett with a sheepish expression. “Sorry, Mulroney, no offense.”
Garrett cleared his throat. “None taken.” Cayden Teague had roamed the Earth for centuries, but somehow never managed to let go of his distaste for vampires. Garrett could understand how any female, even a vampire, could get intimidated by the barrel-chested demon. He stood almost seven feet tall with a booming voice and gray horns curling along the sides of his head. Deep down the guy had a heart of gold. But he wouldn’t get a pass for acting like a dick to his partner. His behavior was not okay. “Don’t you think you’re coming off rather gruff?”
Dubrosky glanced over at Garrett and held up her hand. “Thanks, Mulroney, but I’ve got this. Why don’t you let us go over ideas for my cover at the shop?”
She glared across the table at Teague and hissed a curse in Russian, her fangs extending from her lips. “How dare you judge my kind? Who are you to talk? Demons are notorious for being egotistical male chauvinists, and you’re no different.”
“Have you been checking up on me?” Teague surged to his feet and leaned his enormous body over the table. “I’m flattered, but let’s face it, sweetheart, it wouldn’t matter anyway. I’m guessing you’ve already formed an opinion. Demons are third-class citizens outclassed by both vampires and witches. But hey, maybe being a male chauvinist is just in our brute nature.”
“If you’re third class citizens then you have no one else to blame but yourselves by holding onto grudges and lacking decorum.” Dubrosky wrinkled her nose at the coffee stain on Teague’s Metallica t-shirt, the one he wore under his suit jacket. “And stop calling me sweetheart.”
Teague’s horns elongated and flared red. “Do you prefer shrew? How about harpy?”
“I think this would be a good time for a coffee break. You in?” Denopoulos asked over the shouting.
“I’m right behind you.” Garrett stood and followed him into the hallway.
“Did I miss something?” Denopoulos poured what looked like black sludge into two mugs and handed one to him. His mind immediately drifted to Gillian. Having her at his place, drinking coffee and eating breakfast, filled him with excitement, something he could get used to. And then he wondered if they’d ever get past the invisible barrier between them. She might be physically attracted to him, but he craved so much more from her. She may have accepted his apology, but he could tell from her body language, something still bothered her. Clearly, she still didn’t trust him. He was determined to find out why. But he wouldn’t let it detract from the case. She would never forgive him if he didn’t find her cousin, and he would never forgive himself.
“Hey, we were talking about Teague and your new partner.” Denopoulos prompted, breaking into his thoughts. “I like her by the way. She’s whip-smart and not bad on the eyes.”
Garrett never thought of Dubrosky in that way, but he supposed with her crisp white shirts and conservative pantsuits, she could be deemed attractive in a penal sort of way. Garrett inclined his head to where the shouting continued. “My guess is this all goes back over a thousand years to the battle of Ramayana.”
“The battle of Ramayana?” Denopoulos shook his head, looking confused.
“All before my time. It took place on Arcadia, the demon plane.” Vampire and demon relations were at an all-time high. Garrett refused to let a centuries-old rift between creatures get in the way of this investigation.
“Whoa, there’s a demon plane? That’s a new one.” Denopoulos sipped his coffee, staring at him in disbelief.
Garrett’s phone buzzed. “Excuse me for a moment.” He walked off to the side and glanced at the text.
Hey Garrett, are you free tonight? Want to open a bottle of wine and hang out?
It was from Michelle, his interior designer, a woman he’d taken out and slept with recently.Big mistake. They hadn’t spoken in weeks. He’d made it clear he wanted to keep things casual.
He’d explained to Michelle—along with every woman he took out—that he didn’t do relationships. He kept things light. Being a vampire just made it complicated and painful all around if either party got attached. He made sure to always be upfront so no one got hurt. After she’d finished the job at his home, she seemed fine continuing a professional relationship. But he shouldn’t have gone there in the first place. It was a lapse in judgment he wouldn’t repeat.
And right now, he was focused on this case and Gillian. An image of her in that short robe she wore at breakfast flashed through his mind, but he shook it off. Eventually, when he didn’t make plans with Michelle, she’d find someone who could offer her something real and long-term. He shot out a text and hit send.
