Heart of Vengeance (Alice Worth #6) - Lisa Edmonds Page 0,74
a hint of silver shimmering in his eyes. That could mean a lot of things, most of them dangerous. Lucy raised an eyebrow, daring him to make a move.
Isaiah had disappeared into the crowd. I hoped he would take Lucy’s advice and stay inside Hawthorne’s rather than go looking for trouble.
The man glanced at our bottle of moonshine. “I’ll leave you all to your drinks, then. If you decide you want to keep better company, Guardian, come see me later.” He turned and shouldered his way through the crowd toward his table.
“Damn,” Lucy said, watching him leave. “I’m not sure if I want to bed him or kill him.”
“Same,” Malcolm said. “Doesn’t have to be an either-or decision, though.”
Daisy nudged my arm. “Not you too,” I told her, exasperated. She stared pointedly in the direction the man had gone.
Lucy chuckled. “Your wolf would make a good wing-woman. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was trying to get one of us laid.” She slid her phone over to me. “Tell me what you see.”
I picked up the phone and studied the map she’d made of the attacks Isaiah knew about, and some she’d added. “It’s almost a circle,” I said. “The things are coming out of somewhere and spreading in all directions. The Oakdale attack is the farthest north so far. The open door—if there is one—must be somewhere in the middle of that circle.”
“It’s a lot of ground to cover, but I think you’re right.” She rested her chin on her hand. “How you feeling? Got a bit of a buzz going?”
I considered. “A little bit. Why?”
“Just wondering if I could get some more truth out of you, or if I need to pour you another drink.” She poured more of Charles’s finest into her glass and offered me the bottle.
I shook my head. “I shouldn’t.”
She poured me about an inch of moonshine and set the bottle down. “Which is a good reason to have more. I paid for the whole bottle, whether we drink it all or not. So, how about it?”
“I can’t tell you anything more than what I’ve already said. I’ve got a confidentiality agreement with my client.”
She smiled. “You know those don’t apply if it’s law enforcement asking, right?”
“Are you asking as law enforcement?”
“Not at the moment. More like…a concerned friend who wonders why you’re so interested in finding these creatures and the open door they came out of.” Her smile faded. “Do you suspect the person you’re after has something to do with this?”
“I don’t know, and that’s the truth.” I gestured at my wolf. “Like I told you this morning, Daisy’s tracking this missing woman and I’m following her lead. She wanted us to come with you to this roadhouse, though I’m not sure why. I’m hoping she’ll let me know soon so we can get back to tracking. My client is impatient for results.”
I caught a glimpse of Leather Guy through the crowd. He’d returned to his table and his bottle of tequila. He watched the band with a deliberately casual air: low in his chair, legs straight out in front of him, nearly empty glass in his hand. To the untrained eye, he appeared to be a moderately intoxicated bar patron relaxing after a long day, but he wasn’t. His gaze was sharply focused on the band—specifically, either the drummer or the bassist, if I wasn’t mistaken. I recalled Lucy’s reference to the man possibly being here on business. If he was, was someone in the band his target?
Lucy raised her glass and waggled it to draw my attention away from Leather Guy. “I’m going to sit here and drink a little longer, and then I’ll be ready to head out. If you want to go south looking for gravelings, you and your crew can ride with me. If you prefer to stay and try to figure out why your wolf wanted you to come here and then find another ride later, that’s up to you.”
I was about to thank her for the offer when magic surged. The rush of power wasn’t nearly as intense as this morning’s colossal flare. With so many witnesses—and potential collateral damage—around, I couldn’t afford to let any of my magic escape.
To my surprise, the other bar patrons barely reacted. A bird-like creature standing near our booth shook herself, settled her feathers, and resumed bobbing her head to the music.
I tried not to flinch or let on that the flare was affecting me, but the