Page 56 of Heat Me

He waved his hand dismissively, the bitterness still saturating his tone. "Sooner or later, they’ll get me anyway."

"Maybe not," Damien said softly, his voice full of empathy. "If this detective of yours has solid evidence, the police could raid that mafia boss’s headquarters and finally arrest him. The charges would be pretty sound!"

Blue still looked unconvinced. "Maybe. But when it comes to this mafia family, their leadership is so spread out. Anzo’s nephews all have their own operations. Even if you cut off one head of the organization, the others won’t go down so easily."

"Then you need better security," I said, spreading my hands.

Blue let out a dry laugh. "Volunteering? A purple alpha like you might actually get the job done."

"Sorry, not my line of work," I said with a smirk, coughing meaningfully. "I'm in the business of finding True Mates."

Blue made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a scoff. "Good luck with that. I’ve been in the business of True Mate hunting for years, and it’s not as easy as you think. There are no clear genetic markers."

I grinned triumphantly. "I'm not talking about genetics, but about intuition."

Blue gave me a look I couldn’t quite decipher—disbelief, irritation, or maybe even amusement.

"That’d have to be real magic to pull something like that off," he said in a tone that tried to sound diplomatic but didn’t quite hit the mark.

"Sometimes, I even manage it on the spot," I shot back, my gaze boring into his.

The number of skeptics I dealt with on a daily basis was getting a bit old.

Damien glanced at me, curious, as if he wasn’t sure what I was getting at.

"You trying to tell me something?" Blue raised an eyebrow.

"All I’m saying," I replied, "is that you might want to show up at the next open fair hosted by Fate’s Choice in two weeks."

"I don’t attend events like that. And I’m not looking for my TM. I’m a skeptic about the whole concept. Relationships aren’t everything. There are plenty of other fulfilling things in life," Blue said, his tone haughty.

I gave him a pointed look. It sounded like he was trying to rationalize his situation, but that wasn’t my business.

"Well, suit yourself. But I’ll just say this—you might find someone there who could also help you with your security issues."

I froze for a moment, blinking. Where had that come from? It felt like I’d been in a trance.

Blue and Damien both stared at me, as though I’d suddenly started speaking another language.

"Right. Well, I think it’s time for us to go," I said quickly, attempting to smooth things over. "Of course, we’ll show up for questioning at the scheduled time."

Blue adjusted his glasses. "Most of what happened is already recorded. Thankfully, that electrical surge didn’t fry the circuits in my glasses. Everything is uploaded to the cloud, and the police will have access to it."

"You were recording all this?" I asked.

"Of course. I record everything around me—it’s just common sense when you’ve survived over a dozen assassination attempts." And he winced.

"Fair enough," I muttered, suddenly feeling like my life was a breeze compared to his.

"I hope you catch that mafia boss," Damien added sympathetically.

"Me too," Blue said with a sigh. "Detective Arnold is new, but he’s thorough—unlike the others, who I suspect were bought off. He’s digging in hard, so maybe we’ll finally see some results."

"I wish you luck, Uncle. We’ll be on our way now."

"Thank you," Blue said with a faint smile. "I’m sorry my problems dragged you into this, but I appreciate your help. You’ll see soon enough—I know how to show my gratitude."

Whatever that meant.

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