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Trillian snorted. “What’s to prevent you from turning on us when we find…what we’re looking for?” He was playing with his knife and now pointed it directly at Trytian.
“Put your blade away, Svartan. You deserted the Sub-Realms like the rest of us. You’re no better than me.” He let out a huff. “I’m growing bored. Okay, I tell you who the bald-headed Koyanni is, and you let me in on the fight when you find out where he is. Better hurry. My offer expires in the next five minutes. I’ll give you some privacy to discuss it while I make a trip to the john.”
As he left the table, I let out a long sigh. “He wants the spirit seal. He knows who this guy is, and he knows he has one of the spirit seals.”
“Do you buy the bit about him killing the Tregarts?” Shade looked skeptical, but both Camille and I nodded.
“Oh hell, yes. Trytian would sacrifice his own mother if he thought it would gain him another rung up the ladder. He’s on a mission for his father, and nothing’s going to stop him from his goal. And that goal is to raise an army to fight Shadow Wing. A spirit seal would go a long way in helping his cause.” I slapped the table. “Damn it, I hate dealing with him, but we need to know who this creep is.”
Camille’s phone rang and she answered. A minute later, she hung up. “We deal with him.”
“Why? Who was that?”
“Chase. There’s a massive rally going on there between the hate freaks and the United Worlds Church. This is getting out of hand. We have to get over to headquarters and get the counter-rally started.”
Trillian stood up and silently stalked into the men’s room. Within seconds, he was back, Trytian behind him. The daemon looked at me, expectantly.
“Fine. We deal. Now tell us what you know about the bald-headed Koyanni.” I pulled out my notebook.
Trytian laughed and reached into his coat pocket, withdrawing a sheaf of papers. He tossed them on the table. “Here’s all the information I’ve gathered on Gulakah, on the Koyanni, on your bald-headed man. And here’s the deal: You have my cell phone number. When you’re ready to take him down, you call me. Whoever gets to him first gets the prize, and no fighting over it afterward. You have my word. Now keep yours.”
“The word of a daemon.” Smoky simmered, glaring at him. “How do we know you’re good to your honor?”
With another laugh, the daemon shrugged. “You don’t. But you don’t have much choice, now do you?” And with that, he turned and exited the restaurant.
Chapter 18
“I’m beginning to feel like we live here,” I said as I eased into the parking lot. As we neared the building, I began to see a crowd. The signs they carried were ugly, and there were scattered members of the Freedom’s Angels throughout the throng, along with a fair number of FBHs. The majority carried signs in support of Andy Gambit. Andy Gambit the rapist and hatemonger.
“I didn’t think they’d actually gather here.” I glanced at Shade as I maneuvered into a parking spot away from the crowd. The last thing I wanted was a rock through my windshield.
“Makes sense. This is where they’re holding Gambit.” Shade shook his head. “Crowd looks pretty mild right now, but those Tregarts in the mix aren’t going to help anything. They’ll do their damnedest to make trouble and stir up people who normally probably wouldn’t do more than stand around shouting clichéd slogans.”
I shrugged into my jacket as Camille pulled in next to us. “I don’t understand how they can back him. How can they defend someone who raped—and helped slice up—a woman. She could have been one of them.”
“But she wasn’t. They see her as the enemy because Gambit and that sleazy rag he writes for paint her as the enemy. Gambit’s no better than a two-bit Hitler. Give him enough power and he’d declare open season on the Supe Community.” Shade leaned against the car, folding his arms.
“He’s already done that.” I punched in Tim’s number, and when he answered, I said, “Get the phone trees in action. We need people down here at the FH-CSI to counterprotest Gambit’s supporters. Pick them carefully, though. We need people who aren’t going to fly off the handle and cause a stink. Levelheaded…that’s the key.”
“Will do. And, Delilah—you guys be careful. Please.” He paused, not hanging up. “Listen, would you like some support from the GLBT community?”
It took me a moment to decipher the acronym, but when I did, my heart gave a little leap. “Of course we’d welcome your friends’ support. Why would you think we wouldn’t?”
He laughed. “No reason. No reason at all. I’ll call our local support group and alert them to get busy, too.”
I said good-bye and then called Neely. She sounded sleepy—apparently I’d woken her up. I glanced at the clock. Seven ten. The sun would be up in a few minutes. Menolly was already deep in her lair, falling into that dark slumber that summoned her each morning.
After I explained what was going down, she promised she’d get the United Worlds Church into action. Hanging up, I headed inside. Shade and the others followed.
As we walked past the crowd, they began to chant epithets, Faerie whores and Fleabags being among the unimaginative fare. Smoky turned to them and let out a low rumble that echoed through the parking lot and they stopped, staring at him. Camille tugged on his arm and we hurried into the building. As soon as Chase saw us, he motioned for us to follow him to one of the conference rooms, where we gathered around the table, all looking just as tired as we had earlier.
“It didn’t take them long, did it? What did Gambit say when you hauled his ass in? I wish I could have been a fly on the wall for that one. Or better yet, there to watch his face and laugh at him when you put the cuffs on him.” My hatred for Gambit had skyrocketed ever since we met Alfina.
“You are not going to believe what’s happened. The news about Gambit got out on the early news, plus his photo. We’ve had five women come in already, claiming he raped them, too. Three FBHs, another Fae, one elf.”
“That motherfucking piece of trash—”
“Yeah, I agree. Of course, Gambit’s protesting his innocence and went into martyr mode. He used his phone call to contact the editor of his yellow rag, who first staged the protests and then called a lawyer for Gambit. And the guy he hired is apparently on the payroll with the same attitude that Gambit has. This is going to be sticky, because two of Gambit’s victims are from Otherworld. Technically, I could extradite him, but the crowd out there would go insane.”
