Sun Broken (The Wild Hunt #11) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,40
I think we both know that.”
He snickered then, the searching expression vanishing. “Yes, I know that. Although you’d be surprised. Some of the most powerful women I’ve been with have needed that release the most. Whatever the case, you and Herne are a good match, and I’m happy he’s found someone who won’t fuck him over like Reilly did. She was a piece of work.”
Reilly was Herne’s ex-girlfriend. I’d met her a couple times. She had the body of a goddess, but she wasn’t cut out to be a one-man woman. “Thanks. I never expected any of this, you know. But stranger things happen.” I smiled. “Now, I can’t imagine life without him.” Shaking my head, I waved at him as he headed back to his office, and then put in a call to Isolde.
When she came on the line I tried to figure out a good approach. Finally, I said, “Hey, I’ve got a delicate question, but we need to know the answer.”
“Ask away. If I can help, I will.”
“Do you know if Chaya ever visited a club called Fire & Fang—” No sooner were the words out of my mouth when Isolde interrupted me.
“Damn it, do they have something to do with her death?”
“You know about them?” I asked.
“Know about them? I was livid when she said she needed to visit there. I never even thought to tell you, though.” She was crying again, I could hear it in her voice.
“When did she go there, and why?” I grabbed out a notepad and began to scribble notes.
“Three weeks ago. She was trying to help rescue a woman’s sister who had been dragged into the sex-slave scene. There’s a big difference between the sex workers at the fetish brothels, and the sex slaves at Fire & Fang. They prey on the vulnerable and needy.”
I paused. The vamps were good at getting around the rules. They controlled Wall Street and had their fingers into just about every financial institution in the country. That alone bought them freedom from a number of rules, even if it was under the table.
“Did she get the woman out?”
“Yeah, though if you want to talk to her, we’ll have to do a workaround. I shouldn’t even tell you this, but I trust you. The shelter is hiding her until they can get her out of the area and away from any potential retaliation.” Isolde paused, then added, “That club is nothing to mess around with, Ember. And it’s not even the owner who’s so dangerous. The clients who frequent it are more frightening than the vamp who manages it. He’s just out for money for the most part. The clientele are the ones who are unhinged.”
“If we wanted to talk to the woman in question, how would we go about doing so?”
Isolde thought for a moment. “Let me call the shelter and talk to them. Maybe we can set up a Zone chat, audio only. That way she can remain anonymous and yet talk to you.”
“Can you get back to me ASAP? I’d really like to ask her some questions.”
“I’ll call down to the shelter and explain the circumstances now, and call you back.”
As I set my phone on the table, Yutani peeked around from the hall. He held up his tablet.
“At least one of the other victims had a connection to Fire & Fang. The other families never heard of it, but that doesn’t rule it out.” He dropped into the chair next to my desk.
“Chaya had a connection, too.” I told him what Isolde had said.
“That doesn’t surprise me.” He paused as my phone rang. It was Isolde again.
“If you want to talk to her, it has to be now. They’ve found a place to send her where she’ll be safe, but she’s leaving in an hour. I’ll email you a link. Click on it and you can have a Zone conference with her, but it will be audio only. And the shelter asks you to please don’t record it. We don’t want her voice on record. Too many ways to trace people.”
“Email it and I’ll get right on it.” I hung up and brought up my email. “We can talk to her now, though it’s better if you just let me talk.” It occurred to me she might clam up if a man came on the chat.
“Roger that.” Yutani nodded. “I’ll take notes. I could record it and modulate her voice so it’s unrecognizable, but given you promised, I won’t.”