Dark Secrets - Linsey Hall Page 0,38

backdrop for the narrowboat.

“Eve.” His voice was smooth as whiskey with a burn at the back end, and he didn’t rise. “Been a while.”

“Hey, Xavier.” Eve’s voice was strangely tight and breathless.

I looked at her. The slightest hint of a flush rose to her cheeks, and she shifted. Her raven sat on one of the boats behind her, almost blending into the scenery. Xavier glanced at the raven, confusion flickering in his eyes, then back at Eve. Her flush seemed to deepen.

I grinned. There had definitely been something here.

Xavier’s gaze moved to me. “Hello, new girl.”

“I’m Carrow.” I didn’t step forward to offer him my hand.

Xavier rose with a long, lean grace. His cigarette was almost down to the filter, and I half expected him to flick it into the water. Instead, he bent low and stubbed in out in a small ashtray, looking up through the sweep of his dark hair as he did so. “What can I help you with? Because I assume it’s not me you’ve come to see, Eve.”

“You’re correct.” Eve’s voice had regained its usual tone. “We’re here to see Michael.”

Xavier’s brows rose. “Michael, is it?”

“We need some ingredients,” she said. “And if you could take us, we’d appreciate it.”

“For a price, of course.”

I reached for my pocket, but he shook his head. “Not money, new girl.”

“Then what?” I asked.

“You’re the one with the familiar, the raccoon?”

“Cordelia?”

“That’s the one.”

“How do you know about Cordelia?”

“Not many raccoons in London.” He shrugged. “And that one gets around. I have a job for your Cordelia

.”

“You’ll have to take it up with her.” My mind was already spinning with ways to bribe the raccoon.

“You’ll put in a good word for me?” he asked.

“Yeah, of course.”

“Now?”

My eyebrows rose. “What, you don’t trust me?”

He grinned and shrugged, his movements so graceful that he might have been a ballet dancer. “I trust one person: my brother. And that’s it.”

“Would that be Michael?” I asked.

“That’s the one. Now, about Cordelia?”

“Sure. I’ll see if I can get her here,” I said. “She doesn’t always come when I call.”

“Promise her a kebab,” Eve suggested.

I nodded and met Xavier’s gaze. “Just a hint—you’ll get better work out of her if you bribe her.”

The corner of his lips tugged up in a grin. “All right. Thanks.”

I called Cordelia with my mind. Come on, dude, get over here. I need some help.

A moment later, Cordelia appeared on the dock behind me, her teeth bared and her fighting face on full display.

“Not that kind of help,” I said.

She looked up at me, frowning. Then what’s the rush?

I gestured to the poet. “Xavier needs your help with something. And if you help him, then he’ll help me.”

She shifted to sit upright on her butt and stared at him. What does he want? Does he know I work for kebabs?

I looked at him. “Can you understand her?”

“No. But it’s a thieving job.”

I like thieving.

“She’s interested.” I frowned, my former cop self not quite liking the sound of this. “But who would she be stealing from?”

“No one good, that’s for sure,” Xavier said.

Strangely enough, I believed him. “Is it dangerous?”

He shrugged. “Not more so than anything else. I need her to sneak into a club through a back alley and retrieve something.”

I can do it. Cordelia looked at me. We’ll have to talk terms, though. Kebab terms.

I nodded at her, wondering where the hell my life had gone off the tracks. I was the intermediary between a man and a raccoon as they discussed payment for theft. Not what I’d imagined for my life.

This was ten times better.

“She’s agreed to it,” I said. “Can we work it out after you help us?”

Xavier nodded, his gaze moving briefly to Eve, then away. “Sure. Come aboard. We can deal with payment next week.”

“Thanks.” I stepped onto the boat, feeling like I was venturing into a whole new world.

12

Carrow

The narrowboat rocked underfoot as I moved closer to Xavier. Eve and Cordelia joined us, and he gestured to the bench. “Have a seat, and we’ll be on our way.”

We sat, and he moved gracefully around the boat, untying it from its moorings and turning it on. The fog had grown thicker over the river, but he piloted expertly away from the small marina and out into the wide expanse of the Thames.

I leaned closer to Eve and whispered. “You have a history with this guy?”

“Not one that I’m going to discuss right now.”

“Fair enough.” I leaned back and looked out at the city, trying to see