Page 76 of Goblins Don't Count
I was wearing my gray suit, washable, and mass-produced.
My phone took that time to explode in chimes as all my messages came through after being underground where they couldn’t reach.
He blinked at me while I pulled it out and frowned at it. There were a dozen messages from my mother, a few from Gabby, one from Clary, and several numbers I didn’t know. But that number, of the werewolf bar, I did.
“The pixie dust dealer,” I muttered as I pressed play on the message on speaker.
The alpha’s voice was less relaxed than usual. “I found him. He’s more of a user than a dealer. He’s on the streets hiding from some company that gave him compensation for testing their drugs. Seems he was the only one from his experiment group who isn’t dead. He’s messed up, though. So messed up. I’ve got him in a secure location. I’ll keep him until the drugs are out of his system, try to undo some of the damage those test drugs did. Also, good work taking out that Carratta demon.”
The message ended and I was left facing Sashimi who looked so pulled together while I…didn’t. I raised my chin and tried to sound like I knew what I was doing. “I need to see the maid.” Maid seemed like such a small and normal term for the demon-summoning murderer.
His brows came together. “She’s in a secure facility.”
“That’s good. I need to find out if she was working on her own or whether there’s a greater threat to uncover.”
He shook his head. “You did your job. The city is safe. She’s no longer your problem.”
I smiled at him and crossed my arms. He was going to be difficult today. It was one thing for him to not want to be involved, but I had my job to do. “Really? But if I don’t find out from her if the demon was part of the scheme to destroy the city and summon a greater evil, how will I know if he’s safe to date?” I wiggled my brows at him, but my heart ached and my stomach twisted at the thought of being with anyone other than Sashimi.
“I’d like to apologize for that,” he said after another moment. “I’ve been preventing other males from approaching you for years. A stubborn demon who refuses to see reason, simply because he enjoys making me squirm, is not your only option. What about Tim from the coven?”
For years he’d blocked other men, but now was over it? After he called me love? I wanted to slap him for not being possessive now, after he’d made me fall in love with him. I raised my chin instead, my words flat, my whole heart smashed. “That was a joke. I’m not interested in dating a demon. Or a warlock. I have my job to do. If you aren’t able to help me personally, I’d appreciate if you loaned me one of your people, someone who can smell lies. Also, since I’ve already invaded your space and taken your time…” I stepped against him, wrapped my arms around him as tight as I could, and pressed my face to his throat, where I’d bitten him.
His pulse beat more and more rapidly against my cheek. “What are you doing?”
“Not turning green. You know my wardrobe would clash. Is this bothering you? I can come while you’re sleeping if you’d rather. Where are you sleeping?”
He took my shoulders and pushed me away from him, frowning down at me. “What are you doing?” he repeated.
Couldn’t he see what I was doing? I was clinging to him as well as I could. I punched him in the stomach. He oomphed, apparently not expecting that. I grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the door. “Going to interview a maid. Come with me or not.”
“But you are dragging me.”
“You are capable of letting go of me.” Stupid goblin who couldn’t make up his mind about what he wanted, who let me go when he was supposed to be obsessed with my safety.
He sighed heavily and then moved to walk beside me so it seemed like he was coming on his own. “I have a few minutes.” We left his office, into the room with the large window and larger desk, which was now holding five goblins, each of them freezing when they saw me with Sashimi.
“As you were,” he said in a low voice.
They immediately dropped their eyes and ignored us as we walked to the elevator, holding hands. I dropped his hand, hating this feeling of not knowing where I was with him. Or thinking that I did know, but it wasn’t what I wanted.
In the elevator, he pushed a series of numbers and then leaned against the wall, staring at me with a languid expression. “She’s in the basement.”
“You have secure holding cells in the basement? How convenient. I guess you have real vaults here as well.” Perfect. We’d get this over with and then we wouldn’t have to ever see each other again. But he was still staring at me while I tried not to notice. Finally, I stared back, filling my eyes with the sight of the smooth-skinned man with cutting cheekbones and sharp chin. Soft lips. Burning eyes. He looked so good.
“I like your hair,” I finally said, tugging on the end of my own basic braid.
He didn’t respond, just kept staring at me.
I started feeling self-conscious. No, I’d been feeling self-conscious since the moment I’d seen him looking so sharp when I’d crawled past his feet feeling like a nauseous raccoon. Rejected. What had changed in the time since the circle where we’d contained the demon, and when I’d woken up in his vault?
The doors finally opened, and he gestured me out. “After you.”
I walked into a high-ceilinged armory with balconies and vaults that went up at least a dozen floors, filled with goblin assassins like you never see before they kill you. A thousand pairs of eyes were on me, on Sashimi, every one of them analyzing the threat. Me. I was the threat.
I took a deep breath of the slightly pine-scented air and walked towards the nearest assault-suited goblin. “I’m here to see the woman who hosted a Carratta demon,” I said in my best goblin. “I brought Corcarn to check for lies, but he’d prefer to do his other business. Are there any others who are good at gauging truth?”
There was a beat of silence before Sashimi took my arm and tugged me away from the goblin and down a side hall. “No one can taste lies as well as me,” he said softly.
