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“Sorry, Hart.”
I tried not to sound like a complete dick. “Thanks for calling us in.”
Dan’s skeptical expression told me I hadn’t entirely succeeded.
“Really.”
He sighed. “I hope I won’t have to do it again,” he replied.
I nodded, gripped his shoulder, then turned to collect Ward and Doc and make ourselves scarce so that when someone came to tattle on Dan, we wouldn’t be here. Dan didn’t need any more trouble than he already had on his too-narrow shoulders.
19
I’d emailedIzar Pelayo and asked her to come back in to BTV to further discuss her case—which I’m sure seemed weird as fuck to her, because what could I possibly have to discuss with her other than ‘we figured out where your creepy pendant is.’ Maybe inviting her back would tip her off that we’d realized she was Xipe Totec, and she’d just come clean. Or maybe she wanted to keep toying with us and would deny it…
Or maybe I needed to stop fucking speculating, stop drinking coffee, and just figure out how I was going to actually broach the weird as fuck subject that I knew she’d sent me a cryptic message that may or may not have been a warning about an impending shifter murder. A murder that we’d failed to stop.
I was not currently enjoying my job very much.
I wasn’t sure whether it was a good sign or a bad one that when Rayn escorted Izar back to the conference room—which did not currently have summoning sigils drawn on the table in chalk—the elegant faun looked nervous.
“Ms. Pelayo.” I gestured for her to choose a seat.
“Izar, please,” she replied, her horizontally slit eyes flickering around the room. “Are we—expecting others?”
I nodded. “Doc Manning, you met him last time, and Edward Campion, our medium, will be joining us.”
“Medium?” A frown crossed her features.
I shrugged. “I don’t expect we’ll be needing that particular skillset today,” I replied, nervousness making me a little more formal than usual. Also because I didn’t want to piss her off and make her less helpful. “But he owns the company.”
“Is there a problem?” she asked.
“In a manner of speaking,” Doc answered as he entered the room, Ward right behind him. The orc sat in a chair across from Izar, and Ward rolled himself up to the empty spot at the table reserved for him. I plopped myself down at the far end. “It’s come to our attention, Ms. Pelayo, that there may be more to this than you’ve divulged.” He paused for a moment. “Either in person or via… email.”
I saw the minute she realized what he meant, her shoulders sagging a little.
“You’re Xipe Totec,” I accused.
She nodded, her eyes staring at the surface of the table, a few smudges of chalk still trapped in the joins in the laminate.
“Why didn’t you say so when you first came in?” I asked.
She looked up at me then, and even in her inhuman features I could see the worry, stress, and what looked like grief. “I—I don’t know you,” she said softly.
“You didn’t know me when you emailed me that cryptic fucking warning, either,” I pointed out irritably.
“Hart,” Doc murmured, clearly—although gently—warning me to keep a rein on my temper. I grimaced.
“No,” Izar agreed. “And I—” She sighed, spreading her long-fingered hands, several of them adorned with Aztec-style rings, on the surface of the table. “I should have been more forthright. But—” She swallowed. “I don’tknowall that much.”
“You know that the Culhua is killing canid shifters,” I pointed out, anger still edging my voice, although I was proud of myself for not actually swearing at her.
Doc’s raised eyebrows told me he was much less impressed than I was with my self-restraint. I ignored him.
Izar’s gaze dropped back to the table. “Yes,” she whispered.
“Why didn’t you justsayso?” I asked her.
