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He was wary. I should tread carefully around this subject. Unfortunately, tonight I had the desire to fight. To argue. The jealousy over Freya and Cas was making me rash. “She’s a person of interest in our investigation.”
Not false, though not one hundred per cent true either. We didn’t know if she was relevant yet. Caspian released my shoulder and stepped back, which meant I would have plenty to answer to once we were out of here.
“She’s my best bartender and a close friend. There’s no need for you to dig into her personal life.”
“That’s for us to determine. Please answer the question.”
He glared at me. I couldn’t tell if he was going to answer until he spoke. “She takes a week's vacation every couple of months.”
“Do you have an idea of what she does on said vacations?”
“I imagine she visits family or relaxes. Her parents live on the East Coast.”
There was no record of any plane tickets in her name for the past five years, nor did she own a car or have any record of renting one. It was possible she’d slipped the notice of our tech department, like she had with her apartment. Possible, but unlikely. She hadn’t gone home to visit family. Freya had sequestered herself inside her house to keep Alphas off her trail while she was in a delicate heat state. Time and time again, for years.
“What does she do with her spare time, when she’s not at work?” I asked.
“We’ve explained she works six days a week, usually ten-hour days. I doubt she has time for much else.”
“Do you know of any places she frequents? Relatives or friends that might be in town?”
He stood at the onslaught of questions, travelling across the room in the blink of an eye. I’d never seen Matthias use his vampiric speed. He preferred to appear non-threatening. Throwing the lock off, he pulled open the door and gestured out into the hallway that led back to the VIP lounge. “Feel free to leave and ask her your damn selves.”
I didn’t move other than to turn my head and look at him, but Caspian started to uncomfortably shift toward the door. “Is there a reason you’re unwilling to chat about Freya when you were happy to talk about the bouncers who were initially persons of interest? Does she have something to hide, Matthias?”
She did. He may not realize the depth of what she was hiding, but he knew there was something there. His face went red, his mouth opening, but no answer falling out. There wasn’t an answer he could give without implicating Freya, informing me I was on the right track with my questioning, and he didn’t want to be the one to out her. “Get out of my office. Don’t come back until you’re going to have some respect for my employees, and more importantly, the woman you’ve been flirting with since you arrived. If you suspect her of something, stop leading her on to get your information. It’s fucking low.”
“Your opinion of my actions is noted, but please ensure you don’t impede my investigation. You won’t like the consequences.”
Standing, I gestured for Caspian to exit the room before me. Then I stopped in front of Matthias, my lips tilted up in a tiny half smile. “It’s good that you keep her secrets for her,” I murmured, low enough that Caspian wouldn’t hear. My partner was already halfway down the hallway. “But I’m not the most horrible person who’s going to come asking about her. You’d better give everyone else the same answer you just gave me and tell them to fuck off. If you cave, remember you’ll be answering to me.”
His shoulders tensed and eyebrows scrunched together, but I didn’t give him a chance to respond. I clapped a hand on his shoulder and raised my voice. “If we see Thereon on our way out, we’ll send him in your direction,” I said.
Then I turned and followed Caspian out of the club at a more leisurely pace, waving at Matthias’ Omega on the way down to the main floor. He was quick to turn and head back down the hallway, and his perfume followed me down the stairs. By the time I got out the front doors of Club Chaos, Caspian was pacing and waiting for me.
Pacing was a bad sign. As was the way his hands didn’t leave his hair, running through the soft tresses repeatedly until he’d completely mussed the style, brown strands sticking up in all directions. When he turned to me, his eyes were bleeding into the pure black they often turned to when he was aroused. Or furious. I’d been on the receiving end of both emotions before.
He grabbed my arm and tugged me down the street and into an empty alley between two shops that had closed down for the night. I was pinned against the wall with all the force in his lithe limbs, though we both knew I could break his hold if I wanted to. For now, I let him have his anger. It was warranted, after all. “What the fuck was that about?” he asked. “She’s not a suspect. We don’t need to ask about her personal life from strangers.”
“Everyone’s a suspect,” I said, knowing the truth would only irk him further. It wasn’t often I saw him angry, and I wanted to rile him up. Caspian’s two modes were laid back and emotionally needy. No room for anger. “I doubt she would tell us anything suspicious about herself.”
The growl that left him was a feral sound, reminding me of the potential of his race. Fae were animalistic fighters, going for the throat and other fleshy bits that bled profusely. Cas could be the same if you pissed him off enough. The only other time I’d seen him like this, he’d given me enough bite marks and bruises that my angelic healing had had trouble keeping up. And I hadn’t been the source of his rage that time.
“If you want to be angry at me for doing our job, feel free. But I will continue to do our job, just as you’re free to go out with her if you so choose.”
He snarled, lips curving up as a muscle twitched in his jaw. I should apologize. It might calm him down enough to spare me whatever rough treatment was coming next. I deserved it, though, for keeping secrets from him. More than just Freya’s designation. My partner didn’t know I’d been having dreams of my past lives from before I was an angel, which was forbidden by the Executive Director and board of Virsphere. I should have reported to my superiors the second I had my first one, years ago. I’d also neglected to mention that even before meeting her, Freya had featured heavily in those dreams. Though she’d looked different, it was her. Cas deserved to know, and I couldn’t bring myself to tell him.
Besides, fighting and fucking Caspian would turn me on more than anything else ever could. Getting out some of my sexual tension would be good for me.
The fist connected with my cheek before I had time to react, my head whipping to the side. He’d used more force than we ever did during practice bouts or sexual fights. I smirked. His fist aimed again at my face, but this time I had time to react, pulling myself out of its path. “You’re not going to speak, huh? Too enraged?”
His knee surged up toward my groin, but I caught him with my hands, pushing it down to the ground. “You’re going to need that later, Cas. Don’t damage it.”
Black was receding from his eyes, but he was still upset. The next punch he threw caught me in the stomach, a whoosh of breath leaving me. He did it again, and again, and I let him punch me in the torso until the black had left his eyes completely. A broken rib was easy for my body to heal, bruises fading as fast as they appeared.
Catching his hand before he could hit me again, I used his arm to switch our positions, pulling the limb behind his back and pressing his chest against the wall. “Feel better?” I asked, nipping the lobe of his ear.
“You should have warned me,” he grumbled. “Then I might not have been that mad. Or, fuck, done it when I wasn’t there. Gods know you don’t include me in every chat you have with Matthias.”
