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I shone the phone around and found I was in a slim, cobweb-filled passage that seemed to go between the men’s and women’s washrooms, judging by all the exposed pipes on either side of the walls.
How many of these opened up so someone could grab an unsuspecting victim? Could I go back the way I came in?
I prodded at the wall behind me, scanning for any sign of a latch or handle, something that would show me how Bruno had gotten it open in the first place. On the low part of the wall was a small button, and when I pushed it, the entire panel swung towards me silently, opening back onto the stall I’d been in minutes earlier.
Thankfully, since I’d locked the stall door from the inside, I didn’t jump out and surprise anyone mid-pee and was able to climb out of the wall in my short skirt without giving anyone a show.
I wasn’t sure I should shut the wall again, if only to keep anyone else from peeking around inside and hurting themselves. It was a pretty fucking suspect thing, having doors that opened into the stalls, making me think the owners of this establishment had designed it with this in mind, and this wasn’t something Davos and Bruno had devised on their own.
After snapping a photo of the open wall and the space behind it, I texted the images to Mercedes along with the name and address of the bar. Then I kept the door locked and climbed out over the top of the stall, which was also a comical balancing act in this skirt.
At least I knew no one else would come in here, and the bar would be shut down before sunup.
In the meantime, I still had a nasty vampire to question.
Davos tried and failed to hide his surprise when I sat down across the booth from him. I pulled the bloody silver knife out of my purse and set the clutch and the weapon side by side on the table.
“I’m guessing you weren’t expecting me back so soon,” I said.
“Nonsense.” He glanced over my shoulder, probably checking the place where his two guards had stood.
Now there were none, though it hadn’t been particularly easy to get rid of the old one without anyone seeing. His body was currently tucked behind one of the large swaths of curtain that kept Davos hidden from the rest of the club.
“Oh, it’s just us,” I told him, leaning back in the booth and making myself comfortable. “No one will be interrupting us.”
His eyes narrowed, and all the charming pretense he’d worn to get me here melted away, leaving nothing but a sneering, sinister glare, one that might have made me quake in my booties if I hadn’t seen many things scarier than him in my day.
“So, I gather you are not J-J-Jessica,” he said, mocking my earlier stammer.
“Not last time I checked.”
He gave me a cool once-over, then as realization sank in, he let out a weighty, annoyed sigh. “Of course.”
“I’m guessing when they sent out my last press release they didn’t include a photo.”
“Tiny, blonde, annoying. I’m not sure why I didn’t see it sooner.”
“You were looking with your fangs. You know what they say about that. Only gets a vamp in trouble.”
“Evidently. I was under the impression you weren’t based out of New York anymore.”
“I made a special trip home just for you.”
Davos scoffed. “We both know I’m not that important.”
“Aw, don’t sell yourself short, buddy. Maybe I’m not here to kill you. Seems like you have a sneaky way of getting out of that sort of thing.”
He gave me an assessing look, and I was sure he was trying to figure out how much I knew. He leaned back in the booth, mirroring my relaxed pose. The knife sat on the table between us, Bruno’s blood drying on the blade.
“Perhaps I have something that might be of some interest to you,” he said.
He was testing the waters, and as much as I wanted to reach across the table and shake him until he told me where Sig was, I couldn’t act rashly. This was the kind of thing I would only get one shot at.
“What could I possibly want from you?”
A serpentine smile spread over his lips, giving me the willies in a serious way. Killing this guy, when I eventually could, was going to be a pleasure. I wouldn’t even charge the Tribunal my old fee.
“It’s funny. Where I come from, there is a word for a woman like you. We call you jedza. This is the reputation you have built for yourself.”
