Page 97 of Road Trip with a Vampire
It was all the confirmation I needed that he’d been lying to me all this time.
I thought of how adeptly Peter had fixed my wobbly table and my car. The attention to detail he brought to even mundane tasks like cleaning my studio. He was obsessively observant and missed nothing—not even offhand comments I’d made about caffeine affecting my sleep. All skills that would come in extremely handy if what you did to pay the bills was evil people’s bidding.
Why hadn’t I taken to heart the way those employees at the chicken restaurant and the bowling alley reacted to him? The incident at that convenience store, when he’d wanted to rip that poor kid’s head off over nothing at all, should have clued me in that something about this man was very off.
I should have trusted my instincts and my brains. Not my heart.
And here I thought I’d left poor decision-making behind when I’d become Zelda.
John Richardson was watching me expectantly, as if waitingfor me to say something. Possibly about this safe I was almost certain I didn’t have. Telling him I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about wasn’t the right play, though. If I’d learned anything from my own adventures and from old episodes ofScooby Doo, it was that keeping the bad guy talking was almost always how the good guys won the day.
“My safe. Oh yes. How I do so love my safe,” I babbled, drawing myself up to my full height for an extra spike of confidence. Of course, my full height of five foot two wasn’t too impressive, but I was working with what I had. “Why do you want to crack it?”
“You can drop the act, Ms.Watson.” John Richardson’s tone dripped ice. “We know what’s in that safe, and we’re prepared to get it by any means necessary.”
If you know what’s in that safe, that makes one of us, I thought.
Peter took a step closer to the older vampire. The older vampire who I wasdefinitelystaking the second I figured out what the hell was going on. “So help me gods, John, if you lay afingeron her—”
John cut Peter off with another dismissive wave of his hand. “Thank you for your service, Peter. Couldn’t have done this without you. Much obliged. The rest of your payment is waiting for you in my office, so why don’t you run along now and collect it like a good little hired hand. Then you can be on your way.” He paused, then rubbed at his chin. When he spoke again, it was in a more thoughtful tone. “On second thought, why don’t you stick around for a little while. If she refuses to tell us how to get into the safe, even when we ask her nicely, we may need your help toconvinceher to give us the information we need.”
“Fuck off,”Peter spat.
“Of course,” John Richardson continued, as if Peter hadn’t said anything, “should thoseextra servicesbecome necessary, wewill provide you with extra compensation per the original terms of our agreement.”
The original terms of our agreement.
It was true, then.
I never enter an arrangement without knowing all the terms. Isn’t that what he’d said when I proposed our bet at the bowling alley?
Gods, I’d been so stupid.
“No,” Peter said. “I’m breaking our contract. I’ll return all the money you’ve paid me. Just…leave her be.”
Peter turned to me, his eyes pleading. But I was done letting him play with my emotions.
I was also done hiding who I was. But what was my plan? Charging John Richardson straight-on would be foolish. I had magic, but he was a lot bigger and probably a lot stronger than I was. All those cars out front suggested he had cronies in here with him, too, hiding somewhere.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to come up with a good plan. I spent another few seconds frantically weighing options, and—
“Mr.Richardson,” I said, invoking my old Grizelda the Terrible swagger. “Actually, we’re old friends, right? Can I call you John?”
John Richardson blinked at me, clearly not expecting this. What had he thought I’d do? Hand over what he wanted? Of course, I couldn’t have done that even if I’d wanted to, since I had no idea what was in the safe he thought I had. Regardless, the stupid man hadn’t done his homework on me at all.
I could exploit that.
Richardson shifted his weight from foot to foot, uncertain how to proceed. Good. Let him be uncertain. “I…don’t see how calling me John would be a problem.”
“Wonderful,” I crowed. I surreptitiously slipped my hand into the pocket of my coat and, quick as a viper, slipped my sparkly ring onto my finger for good luck. My dagger stakes and the powders were still in there, waiting.Soon, I thought.Very soon.“Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, why don’t we see if we can reach some kind of deal.”
“Zelda—” Peter said, reaching for me.
I sent a glare in his direction that had him backing away. I would handlehimlater.
John Richardson ignored Peter’s interruption and continued eyeing me with suspicion. “What sort of deal?”
“Um.” Damnit. I hadn’t thought that far ahead.Think, Zelda. Think!“The…the deal is this. Tell me why you want what’s in my safe so badly. And…” I licked my lips, tried frantically to think of what to say next. “And if I think your reasons are solid, you can have whatever’s in there with my blessing. If not…” I smirked at him. “I walk out of here and you forget all about it.”
