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His heart skipped an important beat or two.White bolts zipped along his fingers.Goblin?He should’ve guessed.A goblin and the stones would be Vori’s reasons for wanting to solve the murders.His magic buzzed harder, brighter.
She held out a hand.He swallowed his fear.She’d saved him so far.He let her wrap her fingers over his, and his power snapped toward her.She didn’t flinch.
“The amount of force it would’ve taken to commit those murders is unimaginable.How strong could a female goblin be?”Maybe he should’ve asked the question first before getting this close to Vori.
“Do you mean how strong am I?Very.Goblin women are tougher warriors than the men.Royals especially so.The same way your witch women have powers, we have strength.”
He darted a look at her slim frame, from her glossy hair to her toes.
“Size isn’t always the issue.”She mimicked his glance with what appeared to be an intentional pause below his waist.
He ignored the flirtation.If it had been flirtation.He wasn’t sure.“So who’s the killer?”
She dropped his hand.“I don’t know every goblin personally.I only know that sheisa goblin.”
“Did she have any distinguishing marks?Tattoos?Weird hair?A big nose?”
She hesitated, the pause brief but important.“No.”
“You’re lying.”
She lifted a shoulder in the tiniest imitation of a shrug.
“Fine,” he said.“Let me see what you have from the LA murder.”
She opened a large envelope and dumped its contents onto the table.A dead man stared out from the top photo with an open sightless gaze.His body had been ripped to pieces.One arm was missing, and a hole gaped where his midsection should’ve been.A familiar scar streaked over those empty eyes.
Perry’s skin went clammy-sticky, and his breath caught somewhere between his chest and his throat.“He was my client, acquitted of child abuse charges.”He flipped to the New York murder again, leaning for a closer view of the slashed face.“This one.I represented a family member, but the dead man had a preference for young girls.”
“Hurting kids.You think that’s the connection between the dead men?”
“Maybe.I’d need raps for all the victims, and everyone knows child abuse is mostly unreported.”He’d seen proof of that too many times in the courts.“But why would a goblin be dispensing vigilante justice on humans?”
“It has to be the amethysts.”
Dread pooled in his gut.“What ifI’mthe connection?Except I don’t recognize the other victims.”
“No.It has to be the cursed amethysts.”
Cursed.His heart pounded as if a fist had curled around it and squeezed, squeezed, squeezed.His sapphire?The one his client had given him?Its rich blue gleamed so dark it could almost be purple, and the client had laughed about a curse.
Perry fought to keep his voice level, his expression neutral.He’d mastered the technique in courts throughout the years, but fear threatened to rip away his mask.“Have you found any of these amethysts?”
“Two.”
“Can I see them?”
She gave him a look that was shrewd, scary, and still sexy.“If you plan to take them for yourself, you haven’t been paying attention.There’s a killer collecting them.Touch it, and I’ll have to protect you from yet another threat.If you’d agreed to my proposal, I could’ve at least hidden you in Kradnovtl so the demon and witches you’ve pissed off couldn’t find you.”
So that’d been her plan to keep him safe from the Senate’s kill squads and the mother of all demons?This warded warehouse was merely backup.It’d been brilliant.But the prospect didn’t undo the cursed-stone-sized lump in his throat.The one that made it hard to swallow, hard to breathe.“It may already be too late.”
“Why?”
“Because I own one of those amethysts.”
