Page 81 of Bitten By Desire
“No,” Zoey said. “Never.” She breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, that’s great. Nothing to worry about.”
I didn’t think it was that simple. “Unless he happens to listen to voicemails.” Because my mom was a fan of them. And she was born in the 60s. Who knew how much someone born in the 1700s loved stupid voicemails? Probably a ton. Or maybe he didn’t even know how to use a telephone. Wait, when were phones invented? He probably still used telegraphs or something basic from the early 1800s. Wait, no. He had allthose old phones in the attic. Maybe he still preferred one of those...
“There’s nothing we can really do about that,” Zoey said. “It is what it is.”
“We could try to steal his phone…”
“I’ve done enough breaking and entering for one day, thank you very much. Come on, we need to debrief over big juicy burgers. I always crave meat after a good workout.”
Yeah, she was definitely screwing her clients. And I’d hardly classify her standing guard for two seconds a workout. Bennett and I were the ones running all over the house trying to escape. “Really, how did you get out?” I asked him.
“Easy,” he said as we started walking down Main Street. “I hid behind the car. And moved whenever he walked around it so he never saw me. Then I followed him out of the garage. He turned at one point so I had to bolt up the stairs. But eventually he went into his office, I think. And I walked out the back door.”
“You did all that without being seen?”
“I said I could be pretty stealthy when I need to be.”
“Well I’m very impressed.”
He smiled down at me.
“Here we are,” Zoey said and opened the door to an Italian restaurant.
Bennett stepped inside.
“Italian? For burgers?” I whispered.
“Just in case you’re somehow actually right and Theo is a vampire. He won’t step foot in here. The place smells deliciously of garlic.”
“Smart.”
She shrugged. “I know. And they actually do have really good burgers. Anyone that can make a mean meat sauce knows their way around some ground beef. Oh, I’m going to get extra cheese on mine.”
If there’s one thing I could trust Zoey on, it was her knowledge of meats.
We got a table in the back corner, per Bennett’s request. He kept looking around like he was worried someone was going to pop out and kill us.
I cleared my throat. “So…” I waited for Bennett to start talking, but he was saved by the waiter.
After we all ordered, I leaned forward. “Bennett, you swore you’d tell me everything you knew about Theo Gold after we got out of his house.”
He glanced at Zoey and then back at me. “I kind of thought we’d maybe do that in private.”
“Anything you tell me you can tell Zoey.”
He sighed. “You’re going to think I’m crazy.”
“Trust me, the only crazy person at this table is Emma,” Zoey said. “She thinks Theo Gold is a vampire.” She laughed. “Can you believe that?”
Bennett looked back and forth between us again. “Did Theo tell you that?”
Zoey laughed. “No. Of course not. Because that’s insane.”
“Look,” Bennett said, lowering his voice. “I’ll start from the beginning. Titan has always had this fascination with ancient artifacts. He collects them. You saw one in his office, Emma. That golden pen?”
I nodded. But I had no idea what that had to do with anything.
“Specifically he collects things that are rumored to have…interesting powers. Powers we can’t quite explain.”
