Relentless (Vampire Awakenings #11) - Brenda K. Davies Page 0,24
on the rocks,” he said.
“You got it,” the woman replied and walked away.
While she was gone, Dante pulled out Julie’s picture. Placing it on the bar, he surveyed the crowd. Just because he didn’t see her here didn’t mean she wasn’t somewhere in this place.
From this angle, he could see two hallways on the other side of the room. He wasn’t exactly thrilled about the idea of taking Cassidy down one of them, but he couldn’t leave here without investigating them.
When the bartender returned, he pushed the picture and twenty dollars toward her as she set his drink on the plywood. “Have you seen this girl? She’s human.”
The woman’s eyes flicked from him to the picture and back again. “Why are you looking for her?”
“Her mother has asked me to help find her.”
“And you are?”
“A friend of the family.”
The woman snorted and pushed the picture back toward him. “I haven’t seen her.”
Dante had been around enough criminals to know when someone was lying to him, and she was lying. Stepping closer to Cassidy, he rested his hand protectively on her waist while he pushed the picture back toward the woman.
“Take another look,” he said. “This girl needs help.”
The bartender held his gaze for a minute before her eyes returned to the picture. Her face remained distant as she studied Julie’s face.
“She’s only sixteen,” Cassidy said. “I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t the best decision-maker back then.”
The bartender’s mouth quirked in a smile. “I’m still not the best decision-maker.”
“But your choices didn’t get you killed.”
The bartender glanced at her. “They got me here.”
“You’re alive.”
The bartender held her gaze before looking at the photo again. Her features softened, and Cassidy held her breath as the woman pushed the picture back to Dante. Then her no-nonsense attitude returned.
“This is a place of anonymity,” she said in a clipped tone. “Our patrons come here because they expect their identities to remain secret.”
“I understand,” Dante said.
Maybe he did, but Cassidy didn’t. How could someone be unwilling to help the girl? “She could die,” Cassidy said.
The woman collected Dante’s money and walked away. Cassidy gazed after her in disbelief. She knew people and vamps could be cruel, but this indifference was somehow worse. At least they could fight against cruelty; there was no way to fight someone who didn’t care.
“She’s not going to tell us,” Cassidy murmured.
“She has to protect her customers,” Dante said.
Dante stroked Cassidy’s waist when her sorrow-filled eyes met his. Forget being concerned about her safety; now he wished he hadn’t brought her because he didn’t want her exposed to these patrons. Years of being a police officer and hunting for the missing had brought him into contact with some of the worst forms of human and vampire life; Cassidy shouldn’t be exposed to that.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go?” he asked.
“I’m sure,” she murmured.
“We’re going to run into a lot of walls in here. It’s the nature of the beast.”
“Hmm,” Cassidy muttered, and lifting his glass, she sipped his whiskey.
The liquid burned down her throat, but she somehow managed to refrain from making a face or choking before she set the drink on the bar again. At the end of the twenty-foot bar, the bartender waved at someone standing in the shadows before returning with Dante’s change.
She set his money on the bar and walked away. Dante left the money where it was as a tall vampire rose from one of the booths and walked over to meet the bartender at the end of the bar. The bartender said a few words to him and jerked her head in their direction before walking away to pour more drinks.
“Now what?” Cassidy asked.
Dante studied the occupants of the bar as he waited for the vamp to approach them. No one in this place was going to tell him if they’d seen Julie.
Lifting his glass of whiskey, he finished off the contents and pushed it back toward the bartender as he prepared himself for a possible fight with the vamp approaching them. No matter what happened, he would get Cassidy safely out of here.
When the vamp who spoke with the bartender sidled up to the bar and stopped a foot away, Dante nudged Cassidy back a little and lowered his hand from her waist. It would take less than a second to get his stake out, but unfortunately, he only saw one way out of this place, and that was back through the crowd and employees. He doubted they would take