Page 13 of Blood and Bone

“But he’s still in contact with you, yes?”

Eoghan nodded. “Every two weeks like clockwork. I get a voice mail at the office. It’s always the same message. A Hispanic woman named Luisa asks me to call as soon as I’m ready to order more of her homemade empanadas. She rattles off her number—always a different one—and says she’s moved and will need to give me her new address before I drive over to pick them up.”

Ari smiled. “I assume you don’t know anyone named Luisa who makes homemade empanadas.”

“No.” Eoghan shook his head. “I know she’s calling on the king’s behalf and the reason the phone number is constantly changing is because he’s dumping burner phones at regular intervals. I just feel terrible that I haven’t been able to give the woman a message to pass on to him.”

“I know, Eoghan.” Ari reached across the table and took hold of his hand, giving it a squeeze as he looked into his eyes. “I know it seems hopeless but we’ll figure this all out. You know Night has been working on identifying Flagstaff vampire king, Tillis Bradshaw’s drug pipeline. She’s confirmed that all the drivers of the trucks hauling synthetic blood have been replaced with members of the Phoenix Pagans, his motorcycle gang. I know it’s been almost two months since he got away and I know it’s frustrating that it’s taking so long.”

“Itisfrustrating but at the same time, it’s necessary to be so careful. We can’t get caught investigating this case right under the Agency’s nose,” Eoghan said. “And I know if it’s frustrating for us, it’s ten time worse for the chief. She never complains but I know that she’s working extremely hard not to get us all caught before she can identify whoever’s working with Bradshaw.”

He suddenly yawned, and Ari let go of his hand, smiling. He glanced around and spotted their server walking down the aisle toward them, carrying two small plates. He nodded at her and she stopped beside their table. “Whenever you have a chance, we’ll take the check, Kyla.”

“No problem. Let me drop off this pie and I’ll be right back with it.”

“Um…did you say pie?” Ari asked, sitting up straighter as he looked longingly at the plates.

She grinned and lowered them to show him. “We have a wide selection of pie. Would you like a dessert menu?”

“Yeah. Thank you,” he said.

“I’ll be right back with those.”

Ari watched her walk away and after she’d gone, he turned back and caught Eoghan staring with his mouth hanging open. “What?”

“Pie? You just ate a whole pizza.”

Ari held up his hand, showing a small space between two fingers. “A little slice.”

Eoghan shook his head and laughed. “On one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“On the condition that you get up early and run five miles with me in the morning.”

Ari groaned and reached up to scrub a hand over his face before glaring at him. “Really?”

Eoghan nodded, smirking at him.

“Ugh. Do I have to?”

“We need our exercise. We don’t know how long we’ll be on the road, and we missed our run this morning,” Eoghan replied. “The lifestyle we lead and the food we eat is going to kill us if we don’t take care of ourselves. That’s one thing Gladys always stressed when I was her trainee and as your training officer, I’m telling you the same thing. If you want to live past fifty, you’ll at the very least, get your exercise…especially when we eat like this.” He pointed at the empty pizza plates.

In defiance, Ari reached out and grabbed a stray olive off the empty plate and popped it into his mouth.

“You’re a horrible person,” Eoghan said.

“Which is why you love me,” Ari said, winking at him. To his delight, Eoghan didn’t even flinch. They’d never said that little four-letter word to each other. After dating each other for two months, they hadn’t moved into that phase of the relationship yet and Ari wasn’t sure Eoghan wanted that. It wasn’t that he doubted his lover. He knew their relationship was exclusive even though they’d never had that conversation but as far as Ari was concerned, he was in this for the long haul. Eoghan was a good man, a good marshal, and sexy as hell in bed when they weren’t sitting in a car all day long on the road. As far as a good traveling companion, their chemistrywas on point. It was a good thing too. Ari couldn’t imagine traveling the highways and byways of California with someone he couldn’t stand.

Their server came over and handed them two menus. “I’ll give you a couple of minutes with those.”

Ari caught her eye. “You know what, I changed my mind. We’ll just take the check.”

“Good enough.” She held out her hand for the menus, and Ari handed his back before looking over at Eoghan who was perusing the inside of his.

He smiled up at her as he handed his back. “Let us have two Dutch apple pies and make them ala mode, please.”

She grinned widely as she took his menu. “Good enough. Be right back.”

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