Keeper of the Shadows - By Alexandra Sokoloff Page 0,55

Rhiannon was on a roll.

“That’s not edgy, that’s perpetuating a damaging Hollywood-created stereotype.”

Sailor rolled her eyes and held up a hand to stop her cousin. “Rhiannon, it’s DJ. He’s being a movie star.”

Rhiannon wasn’t placated. She turned to Barrie. “Is Mick going with you?”

Barrie hesitated. “DJ only asked me.”

“I’m not sure I like that.” Rhiannon frowned. “Is it going to be safe for you?”

Sailor chimed in, “Yeah, last we heard DJ was one of your suspects for Johnny Love’s murder.”

“If it was murder,” Barrie corrected absently, but she knew her cousins had a point.

“And DJ is a vampire,” Rhiannon reminded her. Rhiannon never let her cousins forget that vampires were potentially the most dangerous of the Others.

“I don’t think you should go alone,” Sailor said.

“That’s two of us,” Rhiannon said firmly.

“I’ll go with you,” Sailor said.

“We’ll all go,” Rhiannon corrected.

Barrie stood, raising her voice just to get a word in. “Wait a minute, wait a minute. What do you think he’s going to do, murder me in his own house?”

“Mansion,” Sailor said. “More like a palace. With lots of grounds to bury you on. In.”

“He’s a vampire,” Rhiannon repeated. “And it’s a murder case.”

Barrie threw up her hands in frustration. “We can’t show up en masse. I’ll never be able to get anything out of him. I need to have a casual, personal, one-on-one chat with him, and I can’t do that with you two hovering.”

But she knew immediately from the stormy look on Rhiannon’s face that that wasn’t going to fly, so she reversed tacks. “I’ll take Mick, then,” she said quickly. “All right?”

Rhiannon and Sailor looked at each other, and after a moment they both nodded warily. “That should be all right,” Rhiannon said.

“I guess,” Sailor said.

Rhiannon added, “And you make sure he knows that plenty of people know you’re there.”

“I will,” Barrie promised, although she intended no such thing. She wasn’t going to scare off the best lead she’d had so far.

* * *

She came into the Cave with her arms full of the flowers Mick had sent, feeling light-headed from the sweet and heady fragrance. She wanted to call him to thank him, but found herself in that classic female dilemma: the man is supposed to call first or you look too eager, too clingy.

Screw that, she thought. She set the flowers down on a side table and reached for the phone, an old-Hollywood-style Sultan with a huge silver receiver and a big rotary dial. Then she hesitated, visions of Dorothy Parker floating unwanted in her head.

But he sent flowers, the eager part of her piped up. He wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t want to see you again.

Unless he wanted to let you down gracefully, the cynic replied.

That’s not a let-down bouquet, her eager side argued, and she reached for the phone again.

Don’t you dare, the cynic snarled.

Barrie pulled back her hand as if the handset had burned her. She bit a nail, looking at the phone, debating....

And it rang.

She caught her breath—and snatched up the receiver. “Hello?”

“Is this the staggeringly beautiful, breathtakingly sexy Barrie Gryffald?”

His voice absolutely turned her molten; she felt as if she were going to pass out.

Somehow she managed to sit on the plush chair by the telephone table and smiled into the phone. “Never heard of her.”

“Damn, I was afraid it was too good to be true.”

“I got the flowers,” she said, almost whispering, though there was no one but Sophie the cat to hear them. “They’re gorgeous, thank you.”

“The pleasure was all mine.”

She laughed and blushed. “If that’s what you think you weren’t paying attention.”

She could hear the smile in his voice. “I’ll have to look again. What are you doing tonight?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“I plan to show you,” he said, and she nearly swooned again. Then his voice got serious. “But first, we need to talk. I don’t think you should see DJ alone.”

Barrie came down from her dreamy cloud in a rush of irritation. Did everyone think she was going to be stupid about this? She had to see DJ alone; she was sure it was her best chance of having a real talk with him.

“My cousins beat you to it. They’ve already insisted I not go alone,” she told him. It wasn’t really lying. She didn’t say that she’d agreed to take them.

Mick sounded relieved. “Good. Even if he weren’t a possible suspect, DJ is unpredictable. A vampire and a substance abuser.”

“And an actor,” Barrie quipped, but Mick didn’t seem to think it