Page 27 of High Stakes and Soulmates
Julian is quickly off, nose to the ground. We pass behind three houses before he starts past the fourth and hesitates. He turns around and sniffs this way and that before rushing over to the back door of the house and barking.
I stare at the house, confused why the smell led him here, but it’s not like Julian would insist on going inside if there wasn’t a reason.
Uncertain, I head around to the front of the house and knock on the door. There are no lights on and many of the curtains are drawn, making it hard to see inside.
“The mailbox is pretty full,” Ezio says as he flips the lid shut.
“Let me see what I can find on the house. Zach, can you run back to your car and see if you can get a name and phone number?” Maeve asks.
“Of course,” he says before he jogs back. That’s when Maeve waves us over to a dark corner of the yard, behind the privacy fence so it breaks the view of anyone watching. Thankfully, it’s quite dark so even if someone was watching, they probably wouldn’t see anything.
“Can you shift?” she asks.
Julian does and glances back at the house. “There’s something dead in there.”
“It’s bad enough I could smell it before we even reached the house,” Ezio adds.
“Fuck,” she says. “What led you to this house?”
“There’s a clear scent trail from the house of the crime scene we were just at to here.”
Maeve frowns. “Okay. Let’s hope we can see something through the windows to help us get in quickly. Ezio, take the west side, see what you can through the windows. With your ability to see in the dark, it should be easiest for you.”
“I’m on it,” Ezio says, and the two of them rush off, leaving me alone with Julian.
“I’m glad Ezio thought to invite you,” I tell him.
“Yeah? You want to hear the funniest story? Ezio is convinced Zach asked you out on a date,” Julian says with a look that tells me that maybe he knows a bit of what’s going on.
“Yeah? Zach did make it seem like that when he asked me to meet him after I was done working…” I trail off.
“But that man… that man clearly likes Ezio,” Julian says as he watches me closely. “Like… I’m pretty sureanyonewould notice that… besides maybe Ezio.”
“Hmm… you think?” I ask. He gives me a look that makes me decide I should get back to work. “I think I have things to do.”
Julian isn’t convinced. “I thought you didn’t like Ezio, so why exactly are you keeping this a secret? I would think that someone who wants to get Ezio off their back would jump at an opportunity to do so.”
“Yeah?” I ask. “Obviously, you’re confused. I just… felt like it wasn’t my right to tell Ezio anything.”
Julian snorts and I glower at him.
“Ezio’s a pretty good guy.”
“I’m not dating anyone.”
“Casimir was also all, ‘I will forever be alone and live with the weight of my past doings on my shoulders.’ So what’s your excuse?”
“My excuse is that a vampire killed my family, and I don’t feel overly comfortable letting them into my life after that.”
Julian hesitates. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Yeah, I know you didn’t. I didn’t mean it like that… I just…” I stare in the direction Ezio is in, although I can’t see him through the fence. “During my search for who did it… some information led me Ezio’s way.”
“As in… Ezio was involved? There’s no way he would have been involved.”
“Right? I feel that now that I know him. But before I knew him, I’d built up this horrible idea of how he was involved. It’s taken me a bit to… rewrite my thoughts. But if he wasn’t involved at all, then why did his name come up? I’m not saying he was involved inkillingthem. I know it wasn’t him. But was he somehow tied to it?”
Julian opens his mouth before pausing, and I can’t help but wonder if he knows something, but he quickly shakes his head. “Just… trust me when I say that Ezio would never do anything to harm you or anyone in your family.”
