now,” she said, as I came to stand beside her. When I didn’t quite get what she was alluding to, she waved her hand to the burning building just a couple yards away. “We’re just going ask a few questions,” she said sarcastically.
I looked back at the house. Both floors were ablaze now, creating a massive orange-and-yellow ball of fire in the middle of the open field, pushing the darkness back. The kerosene lamps spread around the old building were speeding up the process, so that we were now sweating in the bitter cold as waves of heat poured from the farmhouse. The roar of the flames had become a ravenous monster set loose on the house, consuming anything within its path. God, I hoped this wasn’t a bigger fucking metaphor for the things in my life.
“I guess we should have started smaller,” Bronx said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. He lifted one bushy blond eyebrow as he looked down at me. “Just grabbed one goblin for questioning instead of going to the source.”
I gave a jerky nod, frustration eating away at my patience. I was accustomed to going to the heart of the matter rather than sneaking around. When I had questions, I went directly to the person who had the answers. Obviously, the direct approach had been the wrong tactic when it came to dealing with goblins. Unfortunately, I was too eager to have this wrapped up so I could turn my full attention to putting a smile back on Trixie’s lips. It just wasn’t going to be that easy.
“I’ll have to remember that,” I murmured.
Serah stood and dusted the last bits of snow and dirt from her jeans. “What do we do now?”
Shoving my hands into the pockets of my coat, I led the way back to Bronx’s Jeep. We were far enough out in the middle of nowhere that it was unlikely any neighbors would call in the fire, but I didn’t want to be around when someone decided to investigate. “We keep digging. I’ll see if I can find a new way get info from the baby black market. You need to see if your cop buddies have discovered anything useful.”
“And me?” Bronx’s keys jingled softly when he drew them out of his pocket as he fell into step beside me.
I paused, trying to think of any possible avenues of information that we hadn’t explored yet, when an idea hit me. “Contact Jack.”
“Werewolf Jack?” Bronx said, his brow furrowing at my suggestion. “I thought he didn’t like you.”
“He’s gotten over it. Well, mostly.” You turn a guy into a chihuahua and he doesn’t like to forgive you for it. However, this past All Hallows’ Eve I helped his pack out at the risk of Trixie’s life. We were square. It also didn’t hurt that I got his pack out from under Reave’s thumb and put him in control of the Low Town underworld.
Pulling open the passenger door when Bronx unlocked it, I raised my voice so he could hear me over the vehicle. “See if Jack’s people have heard anything. A psycho killing pregnant women has got to have stirred up some chatter.”
Taking one last look at the house as Bronx drove down the deserted country road, I prayed that tonight’s botched attempt to get us closer to the killer didn’t result in a massive waste of time. The longer it took to find this insane bitch, the higher the likelihood that more people were going to die.
CHAPTER 8
When Trixie walked into my apartment later that evening, my frustration was pushed out the window in favor of gut-twisting anxiety. We hadn’t talked about my grand reveal from the night before and I didn’t have anything positive to relay from my adventure with Serah and Bronx out to see the goblins. All in all, I was feeling pretty damn useless.
Her smile was strained and uncertain when she stripped off her winter coat and tossed it over the arm of the sofa. And for the first time since we had started dating, I hesitated to hug her. I looked at her and I couldn’t tell if she would welcome affection from me.
“How was your day?” I asked, shoving my hands deep into the pockets of my jeans just so I didn’t do something stupid with them like reach for her.
“Long. Boring,” she said with a shrug as she dropped onto the sofa. The shop was closed on Sunday, but I think she would have preferred to have been