Meant to Be Immortal (Argeneau #32) - Lynsay Sands Page 0,45

hopes that I’d refuse and he couldn’t be blamed for another delay.”

“But you said yes,” Mac said with a slow smile of his own.

CJ nodded. “I didn’t care when it was. I live alone and am not a partier. It doesn’t bother me to work at midnight on a Friday, so I said yes.” She shrugged. “Of course, I got here to find Jefferson was out at a fire, and then got to the fire to find he’d left for another call, so I still haven’t had the interview.”

“What are you going to do?” Mac asked at once.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I know you probably have a plan. You are not just going to return home and try calling to arrange another appointment and go through that nonsense again.”

CJ smiled faintly at his certainty, but nodded. “You’re right. I’m not.”

“So? What are you going to do?”

CJ hesitated, but then admitted, “I got the captain to agree to make Jefferson available for a 3 p.m. meeting today. But I found out Jefferson’s work schedule from Simpson, so if the captain and Jefferson find a way to weasel out of this afternoon’s appointment, I’m going to follow him around and hound Jefferson until he speaks to me.”

Mac’s eyebrows rose. “The kid just told you Jefferson’s shifts?”

“Well, I didn’t ask him outright,” she admitted. “I asked if he and Jefferson are always partnered up, and he said not always, they usually ride alone. But they worked the same shifts, so if partners were needed, they were often put together.”

“And then you asked Simpson what his hours were,” Mac guessed with amusement.

CJ nodded. “I left the subject alone for a while, but then, yes, I asked him about his hours—if they were swing shifts, or if he was always on evenings. When the shift would change again and so on.” She shrugged. “I’ll use that to my advantage if I have to.”

Mac nodded, but was thinking he should take control of Jefferson and make the man more cooperative for CJ. His very next thought was that he shouldn’t. CJ would no doubt leave town the moment she’d finished her interviews. The longer Jefferson delayed, the longer she would stay, and Mac wanted her to stay. He couldn’t woo her if she wasn’t here . . . unless he followed her back to Mississauga or wherever she lived.

His thoughts were distracted when the sound of an engine caught his ear and movement outside the kitchen window over the sink caught his eye. That window overlooked the driveway that ran along the side of the house, and the movement that had drawn his attention was a large RV . . . one he recognized by the design on the side. Mac was on his feet at once.

“What on earth is that?” Mrs. Vesper gasped with surprise as she too looked out the window.

“My delivery,” Mac announced to reassure the women as he headed out of the kitchen.

Eight

By the time he stepped out onto Mrs. Vesper’s back porch Mac’s tongue was practically tingling at the thought of the blood he hoped to soon be consuming. He watched as the RV lumbered into view and parked next to the police car. It now completely blocked Dandridge’s view of the house, he noted, and wasn’t surprised to hear the man shout out an angry protest from the other side of the large vehicle.

“That is not a courier truck.”

Mac had been about to start down the porch steps to approach the RV, but paused when CJ suddenly spoke and gripped his arm to stop him. Tamping down at the impatience that wanted to claim him, he turned to offer what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “No. That’s my aunt and uncle’s RV. They must have offered to bring me what I needed, which explains why it’s taken so long,” he added dryly. “My aunt is late to everything.”

“I resent that, Macon Argeneau.”

He and CJ both turned to stare at the woman standing in the now open side door of the RV. With long auburn hair, and a wide smile, Marguerite was beautiful, even with a stomach big enough that she could have had a beach ball under the pale blue sundress she was wearing, Mac thought with amusement as the woman waited for the RV steps to finish dropping into place and then gingerly descended them.

“The only reason it has taken so long to get here is because you did not bother to tell Bastien the address you were