Page 28 of Vampire Lee

Murrie nudged the glass in his direction, and he took a sip. He’d almost forgotten what wine tasted like.

“So…you want an audience, but you don’t want to be seen.”

Dillon took a bite of the lasagna. Devin knew how to cook. Then he shook his head. “It’s impossible. Either you have an invite-only thing to control the audience, or you disguise it as something else.”

“Like what? If you have a bunch of people beating the shit out of each other, and you bet money on who’s gonna win, how do you make it appear like anything else?”

Dillon didn’t have a clue. “I guess there hasn’t been any advertising for some kind of tournament, or what do they call it when they have boxers doing their gala things? It’s all a ridiculous spectacle. Morons.”

Murrie studied him. “No advertising yet, but that’s not a bad idea. Maybe they’re doing some seedy underground fighting for an invite-only crowd to get some money, and then move it to a bigger scale.”

Dillon shrugged. He wasn’t good at things like this. “If you’re gonna be able to pull off a successful marketing campaign, you need to create a buzz.”

Murrie smiled. “You’ve worked in marketing?”

Ages ago. Now the rules had changed. When he’d been taken, social media hadn’t worked the same way it did now. He’d known how it worked then, but he hadn’t had the energy to look at any platforms, let alone which roles they played in marketing nowadays.

“What if they mean to keep it off the radar all the time, not reaching a larger audience, only up the ante?”

“Then we won’t see anything about it on social media.”

Murrie gave a startled huff of laughter. “Right. How do we hear about it then?”

“You need someone to infiltrate?” Dillon shrugged and sipped on the wine. Damn, it was good, and warmth spread through his limbs.

Grimacing, Murrie rubbed his forehead. “Infiltrating takes time. We need to cultivate a persona, and we don’t have one in the works at the moment. Plus, it’s our hometown.” He tapped a finger on the tabletop. “Who is the least known in the group, and the one who looks most likely to enjoy watching people trying to kill each other in a cage?”

Was it a rhetorical question? He’d never had a conversation like this with Murrie, not with anyone. He didn’t have conversations, and yet he couldn’t look away from Murrie. “Rei.”

Murrie shook his head. “Rei is a slut. Half the town has slept with him, and the other half has seen him hook up with one of their friends. He’s no good for undercover work here. In a different town, he’d be great, but not here.”

Dillon stared at him. Rei was a what? And he’d said it almost fondly. Could you call someone a slut fondly? Maybe the wine had gone to his head. “Even if he’s…more of a lover than a fighter—”

Murrie laughed so loud Dillon wanted to check if the glass shook in the windows. He took a couple of seconds to get himself under control, then he nodded for Dillon to continue.

“Even if he’s…” He sighed. “Even if he’s fucked half the town, he could enjoy a fight, could he not?” Dillon couldn’t understand how anyone could enjoy it.

Murrie scrunched his nose. “I guess if someone didn’t know Rei, they might believe it.”

“Faelan, then.”

Murrie nodded. “Yeah, Faelan. Faelan is better.” He grabbed his phone and started tapping on the screen.

“What are you doing?”

“Texting him and saying he’s to look for some entertainment and maybe book a hotel room and not come home tonight.”

“What?” Dillon gaped, which had Murrie looking up from the screen, grinning.

“It’s his job. We can’t have him ask around to see if there is any entertainment down low and have him come home to a house filled with people working for law enforcement.”

“Right.”

The phone buzzed, Murrie picked it up and read the responding text while the corner of his mouth twitched in amusement. “He’ll start working on getting sloshed and take it from there.” He tapped something again.

“What did you reply?” Curiosity bloomed in him, and he wondered when he’d last been curious about anything.

“Thumbs up, and then I texted Lee, telling him to run a tab and send me the bill. Work expenses.”

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