Page 54 of Smokescreen (Knight & Daywalker)
I’d fucking done it, though. Giant free pizza for the win, even if it had been a painful win.
So I shrugged it off and went back to my burger, trying not to dwell on the awkward moment.
We were okay, probably.
We had to be. We were going to be business partners, and against my own will, I was starting to like the idea of having him around.
After eating, we cleaned up, and he helped me even though the majority of the mess was Twist’s, so I thought we were probably okay.
“All right, I better head out,” I told him, and he groaned.
“Seriously? You’re still going?”
“Of course I am.” Twist sauntered up to me and I tucked her into my inside pocket after I put the jacket on. “It’s an opportunity to find out more about the murder, and that’s what I’m supposed to be doing right now. You’ve been doing your part, making plans for Doc’s new security system. It’s my turn.”
He scowled at me, like there was something faulty in my logic, but I was pretty sure I was right. “We could stay and plan more about the doctor’s system,” he suggested, instead of arguing.
“Or we could just follow the plan you already have, since you’re all done. I’ll call him later tonight and we can set up a time to install it.” I waved him off, grabbing my keys and stuffing them into the right front pocket. “Stop worrying. I’ve done worse things than meeting someone at an abandoned night club to discuss an investigation. Promise.”
He followed me out of the office as I went, but he didn’t seem especially appeased. “It astounds me you think that’s a good thing.”
Broken Dreams fit its name even better at night. Not that an abandoned night club was a lovely vacation spot in the daytime,but now that the sun was mostly down and the light waned, it was downright foreboding.
I stopped on my bike and just stood there for a while, considering. Maybe Davin had been right. Maybe meeting a possible vampire, possible murderer inside an abandoned building in a bad part of town wasn’t a great idea.
Hell, maybe investigating a murder wasn’t a good idea at all.
I was a private investigator, not a cop. I investigated cheating spouses and missing pets and paintings.
What did I know about murder? I didn’t even like that cows died to feed me, and I couldn’t have possibly killed them myself. I sure wasn’t an expert on killing sentient human beings.
Still, this meeting was the only lead I had.
I shook off my nerves and headed toward the back of the building.
That part looked exactly the same as before, which was...was that good? I didn’t know.
A few steps inside the building I stopped short when tiny claws bit into my chest. Twist was halfway out of her pocket, her eyes wide, the pupils so big I couldn’t have seen the blue around them even in full light.
She let out a low growl. “Interlopers, Father.”
“We’re supposed to be meeting someone here,” I whispered back, though it didn’t pass my notice that she had used the plural. More than one of them. That was less than great.
Still, I was on my guard thanks to her.
It was the only reason that when I heard a tiny noise behind me, I instantly dropped into a crouch.
That, in turn, was the only reason I didn’t take a baseball bat to the back of my head. It whiffed over me, the silver of it gleaming in the low light as its wielder stepped out of the shadows and took another swing at me, this time straight down,like I was a piece of wood they were planning on chopping in half.
Twist straight up hissed, and used her back legs to launch herself out of my pocket.
This time, the distraction was what saved my life, oddly enough. I lunged after her, falling on my face and immediately turning onto my back as I heard another noise. When I rolled over, I found that a second person had joined the first. This one had a long, wicked-looking knife that appeared to be in just about the same place my ribs had been a moment before.
Worse, Twist had gotten away.
Well, no, Twist escaping would have been good. But I didn’t think Twist was actually trying to escape.
When a tiny growl came out of the shadows, that notion was confirmed.
