Page 6 of Shadow Dreaming

“We need to search Dante’s apartment to see if she planted any bugs or cameras. However, I don’t want her to know. If we charge in there to search and she’s listening in or watching, she’ll know we’re on to her.” I glanced over at Carson. “Do we have anything we can use to check his apartment?”

“I think so,” Carson said. “We have a couple dampeners that can interrupt spying devices long enough for us to do a sweep. And I know that we have something that can uncover cameras and bugs. We should be able to take care of this in about an hour.”

“All right, then Dante, you, and I’ll go through his apartment. That’s first on the agenda. Sophia, did we have any appointments?”

“Two, one this morning, one this afternoon,” she said.

“Reschedule whoever’s coming in this morning. This takes precedence. Okay, let’s get moving.” I stood, stretching. “Okay, everybody move.”

Sophia returned to her desk, while Orik armed himself with cameras, a couple weapons in case he might need them, and he then talked to Sophia to get Rowan’s address.

Carson headed to the storage room to gather the equipment we’d need, and Dante and I suited up. The weather was chilly and rain was pelting down at a frantic pace.

“We’ll take care of her,” I said, patting Dante’s arm.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t mention this earlier,” he said. “I thought she’d get bored.”

“Obviously, she’s more tenacious than we hoped. Well, at least she’s got good taste,” I said with a laugh.

Dante was a serial dater—he got invested in relationships, but the investment didn’t last and he’d broken it off with more women than I could count. He was a heartbreaker, but he didn’t mean to break hearts. And he always apologized and took the blame for the failure. Women may have been left hurting, but they weren’t left feeling bad about themselves after dating him.

Carson carried out a bag of equipment. “I’m ready,” he said, the beads in his braids clicking against one another. His twin sister had made them in her kiln. She lived in California, and I wondered if she was as smart as he was. He always said she was an artist rather than a science geek, and he sounded incredibly proud of her.

“Okay, let’s go.”

Outside, the rain was pelting the ground, forming puddles in the potholes. We crossed the parking lot to my car, trying to keep as dry as we could.

I had a four-door black Jeep Wrangler, which converted to a hard top for the autumn and winter. When it rained hard in Seattle, it often rained sideways—the wind whipping the droplets in a scattershot manner, and they stung, hitting like tiny hailstones. I jogged over to my car, pressing the fob as soon as we got near enough.

A gust swept past, chilling me to the bone and I yanked open the driver’s door, scooting inside and fastening my seatbelt. Dante called shotgun. He’d wisely left his faux fur coat back at the office and was wearing a double-breasted trench coat, cinched at the waist with a belt. Even in a storm, he looked dapper. Carson slipped into the backseat, wearing a windbreaker with the hood up.

I turned on the heat and, as the car warmed up, I eased out of the parking lot, cautious because the roads were slick and the risk of hydroplaning was a real thing. In Seattle, too many people drove like the rain meant nothing, and fender benders were commonplace.

As I wove through the streets, a bright flash of lightning illuminated the sky. I counted to five before the rumble of thunder echoed behind.

“Well, it’s not right on top of us, but it’s near enough. Dante, call Sophia and ask her to shut down if the storm gets any worse. We do not want to fry the computers.”

“Will do,” he said, pulling out his phone.

As he was talking to Sophia, Carson fiddled with the equipment in the back.

“What do we need to do when we get there?” I asked.

“First, outside of Dante’s door, I turn on the dampener. That will suppress any cameras and bugs for thirty minutes. We also have a bug and camera locator, but it’s going to take a little time. So, we have to focus, if we want to get done in that half-hour time frame. They have a limited range, which means moving a step at a time.”

“How will we know if the dampener is working?” I asked.

“We won’t. You have to go on faith. But it has never failed me before, and I tested it back at the office. Once we start the dampener, we go into the apartment.”

Dante got off the phone. “She’s shutting down now. Apparently the storm’s supposed to get worse.”

As if to underscore his words, a brilliant streak of blue flashed across the sky, and this time, the thunder was almost simultaneous. It rolled, deep and sonorous, echoing through the streets. Right on top of it, another flash, and another thunderbolt.

“It’s ramping up,” I said. “Thor must be mighty upset.”

“Or drunk,” Dante said with a laugh. “That’s what Orik always says—Thor’s having a good time when it storms.”

“He would know,” I said. I was half-joking. I had no idea what the gods were like, though I did accept that they existed. But their world seemed a long way from ours.

---