Page 64 of High Stakes and Soulmates
“Right? I was thinking about proposing,” he teases.
“Before meeting? That sounds promising.”
“Thank you,” he says. “She’ll reveal that she’s in her late sixties with a husband and seven kids and I’ll reveal that I’m a vampire. I think they cancel each other out alright.”
“Sounds healthy.”
“You better tell me about this damn dog show on the drive home.”
“I will,” I say with a grin.
We head inside the club where a woman greets us at the door.
“Good evening. You were hoping to speak to Donovan, right?” she asks as she gives Joaquin quite the smile.
“We were,” Joaquin replies.
“Right this way,” she says, leading us back to an office where Donovan is on the phone. He gives us a nod of greeting and after a minute or two, he hangs up.
“Sorry about that.”
“Not an issue at all,” Joaquin tells him. “I apologize that I couldn’t come yesterday.”
“I heard about what’s happening over there in Casimir’s territory. I swear the area is cursed or something. We’ve been ridiculously quiet here lately. No fun here at all. Just joking. We really don’t need much fun,” he says with a grin. “What can I do for you?”
“Have you heard anything else lately?” I ask.
Donovan slowly shakes his head. “I haven’t. It’s been four years at this point. It might be time to throw in the towel.”
It’s really not that easy, even if he thinks it is. “What about the person who told you Ezio was involved? You… the way you stated it made it sound like he was involved, as in… involved in playing a part in their deaths. But instead, he was assisting as a consultant on the case.”
“That’s what he told you?” Donovan asks.
“Why do you say it like it’s wrong?”
“I’m not, I’m just stating that if he really was involved, I don’t envision him giving you the truth, but I could be wrong.”
I ignore that jab because I know Ezio significantly better than this man and am confident that there’s no damn way that he’s lying to me.
“So that’s it? Your tip is that Ezio is probably lying and is secretly involved?” I ask.
Donovan stares at me for a long moment. I can tell from the tension in his body that he doesn’t think he should be dealing with me, but I’m sick of being jerked around.
“Just tell me who told you he was involved.” I really need something out of this, and if someone was trying to shift the blame onto Ezio, they might not be as innocent as they’re pretending to be.
“You think I remember? It was years ago,” he says.
Fuck.
“Why don’t you try and see what happens?” I ask, feeling irritated about the whole thing.
“Why don’t Cyrus and I get you two something to drink,” the woman who had lingered behind suggests, telling me that she thinks I should leave the room for some reason. It’s not like I’m saying anything wrong, but I’m surprised she knows my name when I don’t even remember giving it to her.
She leads me out of the room and gives me a soft smile. “He can be a bit of an ass to humans. Maybe Joaquin can get something better out of him,” she says as I look back and see a man slip into Donovan’s office.
“Who was that?”
“I don’t know. Must be a friend of Donovan’s. He gets a lot of visitors. I wanted to ask you about these… people who are dying in Casimir’s territory. Can you tell me more about them?”
