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The place had the skeleton night crew and he only passed a few random desk jockeys who were burning the midnight oil.
Laying Marius down with a little more care this time, he turned and was about to leave when he remembered the hat, which he still clutched. As he went to set it on the floor by the little bed in the cell, he noticed something on Marius’s forehead. It was part obscured by his hair. Inching a little closer, Dax carefully brushed the hair out of the way, being careful not to rouse the man, though he was pretty sure he could start yelling and the guy wouldn’t have budged.
Huh.Seemed he had gotten a bump on the head or something. Or maybe he was just laying on his face the whole ride, Dax thought as he shut and locked the cell door, locking Marius in.
He thought about taking a second look when he was brought out of his thoughts by a familiar voice.
“Hey boss, who do we have here? You nab another fae criminal mastermind?”
He laughed as he turned. “Hey man. Just Marius, I’m afraid. Looks like he got tossed out on his ass by The Tree. I found him out by the quarry.”
“Oh boy.” Rollo gave him a knowing look. “So, I guess you’ll be heading out to visit your lady friend tomorrow, then?”
“Very funny,” Dax growled. Then a beat later in a more mellow tone, he continued, “I don’t see that ever working out at this point. And no way I’m going to go deal with her wrath. Besides, why would I go when I can just leave that to you?”
“Well, you are the boss. But you know I have been promising the boys all month that we are going to head to the coast for a beach weekend, remember? You wouldn’t want them disappointed, would you?”
Inwardly, he groaned. Was that this weekend? Wasn’t he just the lucky guy. “No need to disappoint them. Tomorrow’s Friday. You can head to the bar before the crowds tomorrow evening.”
“We’re leaving midmorning. Remember, I told you?”
Shit. He did remember. And if anyone deserved a beach weekend, it was those boys. Especially the younger two. “Yeah, man, no. Sorry, I forgot. Do the beach thing, a hundred percent.”
“Thanks, Dax.”
“Are you bringing a lady to the beach?”
“What? No way. Kids are just getting over Brie walking out on us. Last thing they need is a new mom right now. Add that to what the little ones have been through, and just no. I don’t want to add to that trauma.”
“Who said anything about a new mom? But maybe just a cute nanny?” Dax said, giving him a knowing wink.
“Come on, man. That’s creepy.”
Dax laughed, “I’m serious, though. You must be losing your mind with the four of them.”
“You don’t know the half of it. But they’re good kids. I can handle them. Still, I do need to decide on a nanny. Just haven’t found the right one.”
“Got it,” Dax said.
“And hey, nice try. I see what you did there,” Rollo said, “turning the focus onto me.”
“Whatever,” Dax said, sidestepping the assertion.
Looking back at Marius, Rollo returned to the original topic, “So, The Tree ‘ported him into the middle of nowhere? I still don’t get what the big deal is? Last time I checked, that’s within fae limits of acceptable. We don’t need to get involved. I mean, definitely not in light of the other investigation. It will only get messy.”
“That’s my fear exactly, but seems like this has to be dealt with, whether we like it or not. Marius is acting weird. I’m just getting a crazy vibe from the whole thing. It is feeling like it could be one big clusterfuck, though. He kind of threatened to get the council involved too.”
“Fan-fucking-tastic,” Rollo replied.
“My thoughts exactly. Now get out of here. Have a good weekend, and more importantly, make sure the pups have a great weekend. I’ll get one of the other guys to handle this.”
“Thanks, boss.” Still, instead of leaving, Rollo stood there.
“What is it?”
“Just… Maybe handle this one yourself. You never know what might happen if you meet with Bloom again.”
He shot him a look, “You must be high. Are you high?” Dax asked as he pulled out his penlight to shine it in Rollo’s eyes.
