been at The Jackalope not long after dark, which meant he had just arrived in Phoenix, probably using a body bag while he slept to get transported into the city. He obviously had at least two people he trusted with his life, and they were in the city with him.
When nothing came from my search, I gritted my teeth. I was going to have to do this the hard way.
“Time to go hunting,” I said, grabbing my leather jacket off the back of my chair. Pulling it on as I walked out of my office, I considered the places I could find Sinclair at this time of night and figured I needed to give Carter a call. He picked up after the second ring.
“Kaliya. I didn’t think I would hear from you so quickly,” he answered, not even giving me a chance to say hello. “Yes, I know he’s in town. No, I don’t know why.”
“Do you know where he’s staying?” I asked, hoping he might have an idea.
“Not with the Nest or in any of our hotels. Our Mistress hates him with a burning passion. He makes the rest of us vampires look bad. You probably don’t need me to say it, but none of the legit werewolves, fae, or anyone else would hide him either. Everyone in this city knows who and what he is and that you two have history.”
“At least the city knows whose side to be on,” I commented lightly. “Look, if you hear anything, let me know. Oh, and try to find the names of anyone working for him while he’s in Phoenix.”
“Kaliya, what are you doing?”
“Digging where I’m not supposed to.”
“You’ve only been back for a day. You can’t be serious—”
“Just let me know if you learn anything and give me a call or text back,” I said quickly, cutting him off. “Have a good evening!” I hung up on him. I didn’t need to be told to let it go or relax. Paden made the mistake of giving me a scent, and I intended to track it until I figured out what it was and how it might connect to The Board. Considering Sinclair was also a hunter on the job only raised the stakes.
There’s no turning back for me now.
To pass the time, hoping Carter worked on my requests as soon as he could, I went back to trying to break into Mygi’s shit. They had damn good firewalls on the backend of their websites. They had no logins available to the public and considering their public pages were only a cover, I knew I had to find a better deep web version of their site if I wanted any chance to get into them.
Every supernatural knew tech wasn’t secure. They all had the best that could be done, but any practiced supernatural tried to stay on top of the game. I personally wasn’t on top of the game, not like the way real Investigators or professional hackers were. Mygi’s systems were top-of-the-line. Only the best could break in, and I was wary of making too many attempts and getting exposed for my activities.
I’m stuck.
I hated it. It was like a worm of an idea in the back of my mind, wriggling and annoying me as I stared at the monitor, wondering if there was any way I could get the information I needed. There were options— all of them even more illegal than what I was already doing—like breaking into Mygi’s headquarters, which were located in Georgia in the middle of nowhere. That wasn’t convenient, and Sinclair would definitely have the human before I even tried that.
Frustrated, I turned off the computer and left my office to refill my coffee. There was also the option of stalking Sinclair around the city.
That…might actually work. I know Phoenix much better than he does, and if he leads me straight to this human, I can get the drop on him, take custody of this guy, and find out what I need.
Too bad it’s illegal for me to turn him in. Ten million is good money.
I drummed my fingers on the counter while I sipped coffee with my other hand. That was a very, very good idea. Risky, but not impossible. I would have to be careful, which meant I needed to prepare for the task. Hopefully Sinclair wasn’t getting Raphael tonight, because I needed to prepare and find a place to start.
My phone buzzed, and I looked down to see who it was.