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It was high fae magic. My gut said so. Nothing out there was more powerful than high fae magic. Nothing was as untraceable—simply because the ODP hadn’t explored it the way they had most species out there. They didn’t have enough knowledge and had never conducted as many tests. It was impossible to capture a high fae and use it for studying, and that in itself was a confirmation of my suspicions. If the ODP didn’t know what magic Crackdown had in it, it was probably high fae magic.
And that made this a hundred times more important—and dangerous.
Eventually, Patricia ran out of rumors to tell us. None of them had been about Dominic, and though my mind kept going to him every few minutes, I was in control of my thoughts for the most part. I hadn’t seen him today, which was for the best. But the unease I got every time I remembered Derek and those kids at that house drove me nuts. Had Dominic picked up the phone? Had he gone back home?
Better yet—whyhadn’t he for two weeks? Was he in trouble? Was that why he looked like that yesterday?
None of my business,I reminded myself. What he did was not my concern. If he could pass right by me like that and not even look my way, I would not spend a second worrying about him. No way.
But the more time passed, the harder it got to ignore the feelings.
“I need to use the toilet,” I said, when Hunter was in the middle of telling us about all the things he did with Lynn. He was a pretty creative guy, I’d give him that, but my bladder was going to explode if I didn’t find a toilet soon.
I made it to the other side of the bar, a few feet from the counter’s corner. The door to the ladies’ room was closed, but I only had to wait a few seconds before the girl I thought might be a banshee came out with glossy eyes and a lazy smile on her face.
“Cute hair,” she said as she went back to the bar, making me flinch.
“Thanks,” I muttered. I wasn’t feelingcuteat all. I was just tired. And impatient. And already feeling guilty about not being able to find the people who were making that drug. It wasn’t fair that Miles Douglass and all those other people had had to die because of it. And how many more of those bodies would show up before I found something?
I swear, my own mind messed this up for me on the regular, but at least I got to use the toilet, splash some cold water on my face, and by the time I came out again, I was feeling a bit calmer.
A bit more focused, too.
Maybe that’s why I heard the growl coming from the end of the narrow corridor.
I froze, looking at the guy who was walking into the men’s room, barely seeing anything in front of him. He slammed his shoulder on the door and grinned at me.
I smiled automatically.
“Hey, beautiful. Wanna have some fun?”
Ugh. The smell of whiskey and tobacco reached all the way to me.
“Thanks, but I’m with someone,” I said and turned my back to him, taking out the phone from my pocket so I could pretend to be texting while I moved deeper down the corridor. That way, if someone saw me, they’d just assume that I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.
More people came to the toilets. I had to press my back against the wall and pretend to be typing on my phone for what felt like hours.
Until the last guy went into the men’s room, and nobody was in the corridor for a moment.
I didn’t hesitate—I turned and practically ran to the end of the hall, where it was way too dark to see anything.
A door made of metal was at the end of it. Now that the beat of the music wasn’t as loud here, I heard the sound of people shouting perfectly. My heart skipped a loud beat. The gun was in my holster, strapped around my left shoulder. Hunter and Patricia were right outside.
If I went out there and called for them, these people would know exactly who we were. And whoever was behind that door would have plenty of time to run away.
No—I had to take advantage of the situation myself. I could just say I was lost if I saw something I didn’t think I could handle. At the moment, it sounded likea greatplan, but it wasn’t.
It really,reallywasn’t.
I pushed the door open anyway, and it gave.
The cold air from the other side made me shiver. Another narrow corridor was in front of me, this one with the overhead lights on, showing me the three doors along the sides.
The first one on my left was open. That’s where the voices were coming from.
Holding my breath, I pushed the metal door behind me slowly, hoping it wouldn’t make any noise. The grey tiles of the floor made me move extra slowly, too, for fear whoever was shouting could hear my footfalls.
“If nobody can vouch for you, why should any of us believe you?” a man was saying, and he sounded pretty pissed off.
