Page 50 of Smokescreen (Knight & Daywalker)
Bannockburn? He sniffed my hand and gave it a good lick, then nodded to me. “It’s settled then. We’ll see more of you. We’re already staying just down the beach.”
“I tell you what,” I said, looking up at the twins, first her, then him. I went over and snatched a business card off my desk—yes, my mother had thought of everything—and handed it to them as I continued. “You two think about what you can afford, and get back to me. I won’t rent the place out in the next few days, so you give yourselves a minute to do your budgeting and all that. Then we’ll see what happens.”
“Perfect,” Amelia agreed, hugging her dog to her chest as her brother took my card.
Arthur bowed his head. “That’s very kind of you, Mr. Knight.”
“Just Flynn, please. It’s been lovely to meet you all.” I nodded to each in turn. “Amelia, Arthur, Bannockburn.”
For some reason, as they left, Amelia turned to give me the oddest look.
I frowned after them. “What did I do?”
“Renamed her dog,” Davin said, artless and simple, for which I was incredibly grateful. “Or, I assume, he gave you a different one than ‘Bannie’? Because that’s all she called him.”
“Shit.”
“Indeed,” he agreed. “But at least she didn’t seem to be offended.”
She had not, it was true, and Arthur hadn’t even seemed to notice. Surely he knew the dog’s full name, so it hadn’t surprised him to hear it.
I sighed and shrugged, then looked up at Davin. “I’d be really screwed if I took them on, wouldn’t I?”
He looked up to where they were headed off on the path down the beach, considering. Then he shrugged. “Maybe a little. To be fair, we can charge the local vamps a fortune to install security on their properties. Captive audience and all that. You might be able to manage even without much from rent.”
“I mean, I never really wanted to be a landlord. It’s kind of a terrible job, you know? I’d always feel like I was taking advantage of people.”
He stared at me for a moment, then shook his head. “Completely understand why your mother sent me.”
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”
But he wouldn’t say.
CHAPTER 21
The rest of the afternoon was quiet, other than meeting with a few more potential renters, which went about as well as most of the previous ones, and another enormous meat delivery for Twist—what I was pretty sure was an entire smoked salmon. The thing had to weigh like twenty pounds.
It was even more impressive, frankly, because for the first time ever, she didn’t finish every scrap of food in front of her.
Davin and I ordered sandwiches while she ate, and sat there and watched as she steadily worked her way up one side of the fish, then asked me to turn it over, and ate back down the other side.
“Never seen anything like that in my life,” Davin muttered, shaking his head before taking a deep drink from a beer he’d walked down to the nearby bodega to grab.
Suddenly, it was all I could see. The way he tilted his head back. The way he swallowed, throat moving...well. I probably needed to not stare at him. Also, maybe get laid so I’d stop staring at every hot guy I saw, especially the ones who I was going to have to deal with for a long time to come.
“I’ve seen stranger things,” I announced, instead of focusing on my annoyingly hot business partner. I didn’t wait for him toask what stranger things I’d seen before motioning to him. “For instance, I once met this vampire who has excellent taste in beer. Except that vampires don’t drink beer. Plus I’d have thought you’d buy Guinness. Is that rude?”
I figured if he didn’t bite on the vampire stuff, he’d at least point out that stereotypes were shitty.
Instead, he rolled his eyes at me. “Guinness is fine. I prefer this. As far as a vampire eating, I’ve heard of stranger things than that.” He set down his beer bottle on the side table next to him with a heavy thunk and leaned forward in his chair, meeting my eye steadily. “I once met a human with a vampire for a mother, who speaks to animals. Tell me that’s normal.”
“I mean . . . it probably is for him.”
“Day I stop being hungry, I’ll stop eating,” he said, like that was any kind of answer.
Well, it might be.
I felt the same way myself.
