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“You’d be surprised.” He was standing next to me now but I never even heard him move. Being around him for two days was going to force me to keep my guard up more. I was used to dealing with low level scum who often let their power get to their heads. It made them sloppy. When they made a mistake, I could sweep in and collect.
This dude wasn’t going to make any mistakes.
I walked over to the flipped couch and started pushing it. It didn’t budge. The odd pieces sticking out made it difficult to slide. “Want to give me a hand?”
Elias walked over and set his hand on what used to be an arm rest. The couch seemed to leap off the ground and flew over to the wall, slamming into it with a crunch.
I stared at him. “Subtle.”
He shrugged. “It’s not like you’re getting your security deposit back.”
Rolling my eyes, I got to my hands and knees and started feeling the floor to find the loose floorboard.
My fingers finally caught the edge and I lifted it, revealing the undisturbed contents. There was probably about five-hundred dollars of mine in an old Crown Royal bag. Lola’s stash was in a beautiful carved wooden box.
I lifted both items out and set them on the ground before re-covering our hiding place.
“How did they miss that?” Elias asked as he crouched down next to me.
“I’m not sure the trashing of the place was about looking for things,” I said. “Otherwise they would have been more precise and less destructive.” I traced my fingers over the carved wood, sadness making my heart hurt. “They were counting on Lola cracking under torture to tell them what they wanted. They probably trashed it cause they were mad or to make it look like they searched the place.”
“How come you’re a hunter and not an enforcer?” Elias asked.
I laughed. “I’m not really the enforcer type.”
“Yeah, probably not,” he said.
I looked up at him. “I get the feeling you’re not, either.”
His lips twitched and I got the sense I struck a nerve.Interesting.
“What’s in the box?” He lifted his chin.
I shrugged. “Cash, I’m guessing. That’s what I kept in here.”
I opened my Crown Royal bag and dumped the bills on the floor. Then I took a deep breath and looked down at Lola’s box. I felt guilty just opening it but she was gone. I wondered if the box held any value or if it was important. She’d never once told me about her family but now that I knew who they were, I wondered if they’d want to collect what remained of her belongings. Then again, she left them. She was hiding here from something. That I knew, but I never realized it was from a famous family. I thought it was from an ex-boyfriend or something. My intuition really let me down there.
Elias sat down cross legged on the floor. I glanced over at him, surprised by how comfortably he appeared to settle in. It wasn’t an aggressive position or even a position that he could strike from easily. In a weird way, I could sense it was the closest thing I was going to get to him trying to show me he meant no harm. Not that I believed it or trusted him for a second.
But right now, I was stuck with him. Part of me wanted to take the box somewhere more private. It felt weird to open her little stash in front of a stranger. Though, I figured if I walked away, the enforcer on my floor would follow.
With that unpleasant thought, I let out a breath and opened the box.
There was a pile of money and a little red velvet bag. I lifted the money and peeked under it. That was it. All I had left of my closest friend was this little box. I didn’t care about the money. It wasn’t like I’d stay in this place now that she was gone. But whatever was in the little bag had to be important.
I pulled on the drawstring and opened the pouch before tipping out the contents. I expected jewelry. Instead, a small white stone fell into my hand. It was about the size of a quarter and smooth and shiny. It reminded me of one of those stones you could get from the box at the museum gift store. It didn’t look like anything special. My guess was that it was sentimental somehow. At least I wouldn’t feel guilty hanging on to it. I doubted anyone in her family was looking for this or expecting it back.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Elias said, reaching for the stone.
I pulled it away from him. “Hey, find your own pretty rock. This is staying with me.”
“You muted your senses, didn’t you?” he asked.
I blinked at him in surprise. I never told him what my abilities were. Most shifters couldn’t sense magic. My dad told me it was a rare result of my body taking in half of the supernatural abilities. How did Elias pick that up?
“Go ahead,” he said.
I closed my fingers around the stone and allowed my senses to grow. The rock in my hand pulsed like it had a heartbeat. An unusual vibration hummed through it, as if it was made of music. I’d never felt anything like it before.
