by Devin Hanson
Ethan snorted and took in the kitchen as if for the first time. “I saw the flowers in the green bin. You think she’s overbearing?”
“Once you get past her tits and her accent, I think you won’t find much you actually like.”
“She does have pretty great tits,” Ethan grinned.
We laughed and Ethan gestured toward the door. “Come on, we’ve got a bit of a drive through traffic to get to the restaurant.”
The ride to the restaurant took about half an hour, which we spent talking about the music on the radio and sharing LA traffic stories. Neither of us made a mention about work, my apartment or Elaida. The comfort of the heated leather seats and the easy conversation let me almost forget about the last two days. I was happy, I felt beautiful, Ethan was handsome and cheerful. I could almost imagine myself marrying him. This snapshot of life seemed like everything I had wanted growing up.
We pulled off the freeway and Ethan started navigating through the one-way streets, muttering curses at the idiot drivers and rude taxis. I pulled out of my daydream and reminded myself why I was here. Ethan had a girlfriend, a houri, of all things. I was here to impress a potential client, not fall in love with a business associate.
Ethan pulled his car up to the curb of a fancy hotel. “Hang on, I’ll help you out,” he muttered, and got out of the car. I had a few seconds to compose myself while he circled the car and opened the door for me. I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet, something that would have been scandalous on my own, given the cut of the dress.
The valet took the car away, and Ethan offered me his arm. “We have a reservation for four people. I should have called ahead and let the restaurant know Elaida isn’t coming.”
It was just dark enough for the streetlights to turn on and a cool breeze was blowing, raising the hairs on my arms and making me wish a shawl or something had been included with my clothes. I didn’t think my recently acquired hoodie would go well with the dress. “They’ll figure it out. Let’s get inside.”
We hurried inside and Ethan looked around, getting his bearings. The entrance to the restaurant was to our left, but Ethan touched my hand in his elbow and tilted his head the other way.
“There, on the balcony. Tall man with the cigarette.”
I looked and saw him almost immediately. “That’s your client?” I asked.
“Sir David Caradoc.”
“Sir? He’s English?”
“Welsh.”
“Huh.”
Ethan’s description was apt but didn’t really do Caradoc justice. He was tall, with broad shoulders, but lean without the extra weight such men typically put on. He had a full head of black hair with a dusting of white at the temples, a neatly trimmed beard and wire-frame glasses. He wore a formal dinner jacket with the comfortable ease of someone who had worn it for hundreds of occasions.
That was a physical description, but, more than that, he had an almost palpable presence. Once I laid eyes on him, I couldn’t look away. There was something about the quiet contemplation of the city while he smoked that suggested he owned everything he laid eyes on.
He must have felt our gazes, because he turned, locked eyes with me, and smiled.
I gulped. His eyes stabbed me straight to the pit of my stomach and I felt the color rise in my cheeks. With a casual gesture, he flicked his cigarette into the ash tray and entered the lobby. I felt like my feet were nailed to the floor.
“Easy, Alex,” I muttered. I swallowed and lifted my head high. I was an adult, for fuck’s sake, not some blushing teenager. I was here for business.
David joined us in the middle of the lobby. He didn’t offer his hand or any of the other usual social routines common when meeting new people. He hadn’t taken his eyes off me since he saw me through the glass, and I felt his gaze like hands running over my body.
“Alexandra Ascher.” His voice was the same basso that I had heard over the phone, with a rich English accent. “I’m gratified to see you so radiant.” He smelled faintly of smoke. Not cigarette smoke, as I had anticipated, but the clean scent of hardwood ash.
“Thank you. I appreciate the generosity.” I was inordinately proud of delivering my pleasantry without stumbling. I wasn’t sure what it was about this man that had me so off balance. It wasn’t a sexual urge I was feeling, not really, just a reaction to the proximity of power. His physical strength was obvious, but more than that, he emanated certainty and expectation that things would go his way.
He had pale gray eyes, and they twinkled when he smiled, and seemed to see straight into the depths of my soul. Finally, his gaze left me and he smiled a friendly greeting at Ethan. “I see your other companion couldn’t make it.”
“Elaida had a business emergency she had to attend to,” Ethan said regretfully. Whatever it was that had my knees weak apparently had no effect on Ethan.
“No matter. Our table is waiting,” David said, with a gesture toward the restaurant. “I hope you’ve brought an appetite, Ms. Ascher. The steak served here is exquisite.”
The restaurant wasn’t anything worth commenting on. Five stars, single-course meals, with the expected delays and furnishings. The food was good, but not noteworthy, and the wine expensive. I was a little surprised nobody tried to card me, but I guess that was part of the perks of wealth. Besides, I was only two days away from turning twenty-one. I probably drank a bit more than I really should have, considering this was a business meeting, but David Caradoc had me off balance.
Conversation through dinner was inane, with no talk of work. I carried my own when it was required of me, but between the wine and my distractions with David, I had no real memory of what was said.
Dinner turned into dessert. The waiters more or less left us alone, only making mute appearances to refill a wine glass that ran low.
Finally, Ethan pulled his napkin off his lap and laid it across his empty plate. “Well, it’s getting late. Mr. Caradoc, it’s been a pleasure. I’ll give you a call when I have more progress made.”
Caradoc rose to his feet to shake hands with Ethan. “The pleasure is mine, Mr. Bishop.”
Wait, Ethan was leaving? What about discussing work? My head felt a little foggy from the wine, but I wasn’t so drunk that it had slipped by without me noticing. “Ethan, you’re leaving?” I asked and started to get up too.
“Yeah, I… oh. Sorry, I should have told you. Mr. Caradoc wanted his discussion with you in private. If that’s a problem, we can leave together. This is an opportunity for you, though.”
Shit. I looked over at David, wondering why my warning bells weren’t going off. I didn’t think Ethan would try and hand me off to his business buddy. Suddenly David’s desire to speak to me alone took on a whole different cast. David didn’t need another private investigator. Ethan was more than capable to handle any request in that department. David needed a different kind of assistance, from someone who was in the know.
David winked at me, clearly following my train of thought. “We’ll be somewhere public,” he promised. “The hotel has a nice bar where we can have a little privacy.”
“I’ll have my phone on,” Ethan said. He had a slight frown on his face and was looking at David a little uncertainly. “If you need anything at all, call me.”
I felt a little silly for misinterpreting David’s intentions. There wasn’t anything sinister going on here. “No, it’ll be fine. We’ll have our talk and I’ll get a cab.”
“On me,” David offered, more to Ethan than to me. “I believe Ms. Ascher will be instrumental in solving my problem.”
“That’s what I do,” I agreed, “solve problems.”
“Good.” Ethan buttoned his jacket and gave one last look between us before nodding. “Even so. I’ll be available.”
I thanked him, and Ethan took his leave.
“Who says chivalry is dead?” David asked. Amusement rippled through his voice. “I think he was worried for your virtue, my dear.”
“Virtue?” I asked automatic
ally. “Me?”
He chuckled and I blushed. Jesus Christ. Way to be professional. This wasn’t a date. It was work. Focus!
“Shall we go to the bar?”
I nodded mutely and accepted his arm when he held it out to me. Beneath the cloth of his suit, I could feel the solid mass of his bicep. He wasn’t hugely built, but there was undeniable muscle there, hard from frequent use.
My heels seemed to have gained an inch or two while I was eating dinner and I was glad for the stability of David’s arm. Without it, I might have wobbled, and then I would have had to shave my head and become a nun in shame.
I may have leaned on his arm slightly more than was strictly necessary.
The bar had some dim booths in the back and we made our way there. It felt strange, and it wasn’t until I was halfway across the bar that I realized none of the men in the room were staring at me. In this dress, I normally would have heard a few whistles and at least one man would have tried to approach me regardless of having a companion. I saw one guy, a banker or a lawyer, look up at me and then his eyes slid sideways and up, then he went back to his drink.
“They know their league,” David said with a small, satisfied smile. “We are above them.”
“Doesn’t stop them on other days,” I said a little sourly.
“Then is not now. You are mine, and they will not interfere.”
David sat me, and I mulled over his words, trying to decide if I felt offended or not. It was the perception that he was referring to, I decided, not that he actually thought he owned me.
“To business!” he said as he settled in across from me. A waiter came by before I could respond and David looked up, displeasure turning down the corners of his mouth. He took out a billfold, extracted a hundred-dollar bill. “If I give you this, will you leave us alone?”
The waiter stammered out thanks and repeated assurances and left.
“That’s one way to solve a problem,” I said. “It makes me wonder why you need someone like me. Most problems I know of can be dealt with in the same fashion.”
“Straight to the point. I can appreciate that.” David produced a cigarette from somewhere and lit it between cupped hands, before making the lighter disappear with sleight of hand.
“I don’t think you’re allowed to smoke here,” I said, already looking for the angry social justice Nazis.
“They won’t bother us. You’re right, of course. Money can solve most problems, unless the money is the problem itself.”
“Well,” I grinned, “you can just give it to me, then. I’ll take your problem off your hands.”
He smiled and touched a finger to his temple, acknowledging the point. “The wealth I have is not something that can be stored digitally and safe from problems. I… my family… has gathered it over many centuries, and the pieces of it are desirable and, unfortunately, eminently stealable.”
“Perhaps the police would be better suited to your needs, then,” I said doubtfully. “Or armed guards. I don’t know what Ethan told you my specialties are, but stopping robbers is not one of them.”
He waved a hand, dismissing my objection. “Where it is appropriate, I have guards in place.”
I waited, letting him take the lead again. I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do. I was good at tracking things down, dealing with the bits of supernatural that wandered into people’s lives, and I could mix a mean daiquiri. None of that sounded like what David was after.
David smoked, eying me in return. The curls of smoke rising from the end of his cigarette coiled about the air above the table. I smelled wood ash, but none of the chemical funk of a typical cigarette. What was he smoking? Oak splinters?
“You strike me as a person who has seen many things,” David finally said.
So, he was playing it carefully. I could appreciate that. “I have,” I said. “I’ve solved many problems having to do with earth, fire and light.”
That was a not-so-subtle reference to the three groups of God’s creations. First came the angels, crafted of light, an extension of God’s will. Then came the djinn, crafted of fire, to bring life into the world. Finally came the humans, crafted of earth, made in His image. Animals and plants came before all that, of course, but we’re a self-absorbed species, so we don’t usually count them among the best of God’s creations.
David nodded, and a subtle tension left him. I had passed his test. “That is good. My particular problem is predominately one with fire.”
“I have encountered some of that myself, recently.”
“I had heard, but you have narrowed it down? That was fast work.”
“I’ll find the bastard responsible,” I said.
“I’ve no doubt. I pity the djinn when you find him.”
Well, he had said it out loud, so the need for code was done. “I’m pretty sure it was a marid. The signs are there if you know what to look for. But we’re not here to talk about my problems. How can I help you with yours?”
David pursed his lips and smoke dribbled out of his nose. “You are familiar with the djinn,” he said. It was a bit of a question, and I tilted my head in a nod. “Protecting my wealth is easy enough, if I know where the threat is coming from.”
“You want me to track down these thieves?” I asked
“Yes, simply put. You needn’t engage with them. Simply knowing who they are and what their plans are would more than suffice.”
Oddly enough, that matched my current efforts. I would have little duplication of effort to track down the marid who had destroyed my apartment while finding this crew of thieves for David. It wasn’t the kind of work I usually engaged in, but only because most people wanted me to find things that were already lost.
“Okay. I need more details, but this is the sort of thing I can help with.”
“I am glad to hear that. Please, ask your questions and I will do the best I can to answer them.”
“Great. Uh, well, I guess the first thing is, where is your wealth located?”
David smiled wryly. “Far from here, for the most part. The target the thieves will be interested in is in my hotel room.”
“That’s secure?”
“Very. Beyond the hotel’s security, which might be more comprehensive than you may realize, I have my own safeguards in place.”
It couldn’t be that secure, if he was worried about being robbed, but it seemed churlish to point that out. “All right. Is there a timeline you expect?”
“Yes. I am in town for two more weeks. My flight leaves the night of the tenth of October. If the thieves wish to steal from me, it must be before that deadline.”
That gave me a window of twelve days. Finding anyone in Los Angeles in twelve days could be difficult, but how many djinn thief crews could there be? “Okay. Do you have any description of these thieves? How many are there? Is it a mixed crew, or are they all djinn? What kind of djinn are they?”
David held up a hand, cutting me off. “I do not know all the details, or I wouldn’t need you to find them for me,” he pointed out. “But I do know there is at least one marid associated with them. They may be with humans, or they may not.”
“How do you know?” I asked curiously.
“It is not proof of a conspiracy, but I saw the same marid behind me too often for it to be coincidence. It is why I reached out to Mr. Bishop in the first place. He directed me to you.”
“Ethan knows what I do?”
The surprise must have been evident on my face, because David shook his head quickly. “No. Only that you have unusual customers. He would not have brought you up at all, but for your recent misfortune. His intentions are pure,” David grinned, just shy of a leer, “he does enjoy aiding damsels in distress.”
“You know him well, then,” I grumbled. I hated being pegged as someone needing to be saved, but it was hard to argue it.
“We have had reason to do business previously. Is there anything else?”
I thought for a moment but didn’t have anything else
immediately to ask him. “I’ll need a way to contact you,” I said. “And I usually contract under a retainer. I charge an hourly fee of sixty dollars, or a day rate of four hundred, plus expenses.”
David nodded. “Do you wish a signed contract?”
I started to say yes, then remembered my laptop was stolen and I didn’t have my usual templates. “I will put something together if it makes you comfortable.”
“I have no need. I would like to hold you on retainer for the duration of my stay in Los Angeles, unless you have other clients?”
I shook my head. “Not at the moment.”
“Then half the payment now, and half on the completion of my stay. Keep track of your expenses, and I will reimburse you. And if I leave this city with my wealth still intact, I will add on a bonus.”
Six days at four hundred a day was twenty-four hundred dollars. With the same again at the end of David’s stay, and a potential bonus on top of it? It was more money than I had had in a very long time. “I have no argument,” I said, trying to play it cool.
“Excellent.”
David slid a business card across the table to me, and I picked it up. It read, Caradoc Family Holdings, gave a phone number and an address in a city I vaguely identified as being in the United Kingdom somewhere.
“Now that we’re finished with business,” David said with another of his smiles, “what do you say to some entertainment?”
Chapter Six
Entertainment sounded good to me. I felt a little light-headed still from the wine and now my sudden reversal of fortune.
“We don’t have reason to celebrate yet,” I responded, matching David’s smile, “but I’m not one to say no to some fun. What do you have in mind?”
David’s smile widened. “You seem like the adventurous sort. When is the last time you went to a club?”
“I’m not yet twenty-one,” I rolled my eyes at him. “This place couldn’t serve me alcohol if they wanted to. A club wouldn’t let me in the front door.”