AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Galina shoves a thick white envelope that I assume is full of cash into a backpack and slips the pack on her back. In her hand is a single sheet of paper. I can’t see what’s written on it. It’s too dark out. “You know as well as I do that whoever is paying out the bounties on these underworlders is powerful if he’s brave enough to go after mythics. We’ve already pissed him off by killing the dragon. We couldn’t stiff him completely and sell the goods to anyone else. We had to give it to him.” She holds up the note and waves it angrily. I still can’t read it. “This is proof. It’s a death threat, Sabin. We screw up again, and he’ll come after us.”
Sabin kicks the storage unit again, but his temper calms down some. “Fine. Then let’s go find us a phoenix before someone beats us to it and we miss out on that bounty,too. I heard there’s a flock in Southern Utah, and possibly one in Montana.”
Sabin hooks the padlock on the door of the unit, locking it. As soon as he lets go, the imprint fades.
When I come to, Nick is gripping my arm. I sway and my stomach rolls, but it passes quickly. This imprint wasn’t a bad one.
“You good?” Nick asks.
I breathe through the nausea. “I’m okay. I got a vision of Sabin and Galina locking up. They were pissed because they didn’t get nearly as much money as they’d hoped for the blood and scales. There was nothing to tell us who the buyer was. They were scared of him, though. They got a warning that if they screwed up again, he’d come after them. They mentioned going after a phoenix before someone else did, so I’m assuming the buyer is still looking for his last mythic.”
Nick nods in thought. “That could be useful. We’ll have to see if Oliver can hack the message boards on the darknet. Maybe we’ll find something on that end.”
“I’m sure Illren knows how to get to those message boards.” I smirk. “He’s probably a VIP member.”
Nick grabs the padlock and smirks at me over his shoulder as he smashes the thing to dust. “You know, it’s extremely useful that you’re dating a criminal.”
I groan. “I’m notdatinghim.”
Nick scoffs.
“And I’m not sure he’s still in the assassination business. I think he’s taken over as our clan’s enforcer/security.”
Nick rolls his eyes and lifts the door on the storage unit. “Right. I’m sure he had nothing to do with all the dead vampires in Henry’s clan.”
I make a face, saying nothing. Nick’s teasing me, and I don’tthinkhe’d arrest Illren, but I’m not going to rat my assassin out just in case.
Nick laughs. “I suppose he could have gone straight. Security for your clan is a full-time job.”
I sigh. “It really is.”
The storage unit is completely empty. I spend a half an hour running my hands over every surface of the unit, but I pick up nothing other than that one imprint I got off the lock. When I’ve touched everything and my fingers are in danger of getting frostbite, we finally give up and close the storage unit. “All, right, we’ll do this the less fun way,” Nick says. “Let’s go question the night guard, see who rented this space, and get his security footage. Maybe they were captured on a camera somewhere.”
That leads to another dead end. The storage unit was rented to one John Doe, the security guard doesn’t remember seeing anyone, and, conveniently, all the security footage for the day before was missing. We’re assuming magic was involved. “Well, that was helpful.” I groan as we climb back into Nick’s truck. And I do meanclimb. It’s so high off the ground it has a stepladder to help people get in. “We’ve got nothing.”
“That’s not true. We’ve got the darknet lead—don’t underestimate Oliver’s skills with a computer—and we know they’re going after a phoenix next. I know a phoenix.” The cringe he makes with that admission has my curiosity piqued, but I don’t ask. Not now, at least. “We can have her give the others in the country a heads up and they can let us know if anyone comes after them.
“For now, it’s after 4 a.m. I’ll take you home, and this evening we’ll talk to Oliver. Hopefully he’ll be feeling up to a little research. We can look up who owns the house where Galina and Sabin dropped off the goods, too. Maybe that will give us a clue.”
I blink at him, amazed by all the different avenues I hadn’t even thought of. Nick grins at me as if he knows what I’m thinking. “I did use to have to do this job without you,” he teases. “I know a thing or two about solving crimes.”
“Sorry.” I laugh. “I didn’t mean to underestimate you, but you just seem like this crazy, fun-loving cowboy man-child. Who knew there was a smart badass detective under all that?”
You’d think Nick would be insulted, but he really is a bit of a man-child, and I think he’s even proud of that fact. He throws his head back and laughs. “Come on, rookie, let’s get you home.”
