Savvy Negotiator (Untraceable Succubus Book 2)

by Erin R Flynn

  “It’s hope,” I muttered, bobbing my head. “I get it.”

  “Yes, hope.” He sighed and sipped his drink. “I was experimenting with a woman, and I had hope again, but then she was murdered and I felt the loss hard. Virginia was full of life and—”

  “Virginia Fisher?” I checked, blinking at him.

  He nodded, sadness filling his eyes. “Yes, you knew her?”

  “No, but of her,” I answered, realizing that sound lame. “You were trying ideas out with a hooker?”

  He flinched. “She wasn’t a prostitute. She was an experimentalist. She liked to help people push to learn more about themselves. She was studying to become a therapist. She never had sex with any of her clients.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” I offered, filing that away for later.

  The others left back through the portal, and the angels started to leave. David hung around as if up to something, and when he shared a look with Nathanial, I knew they wanted to be alone with me.

  I could give them that. I dropped the robe and headed to my bag. I pulled out three things and went over to the pole I hadn’t gotten to dance on yet. I handed each of them one of my favorite toys before locking my wrists around the pole.

  “Do whatever you want to me as long as it’s not sex,” I offered, moaning when heat filled their eyes.

  Did they ever. I was a pile of mush when they finished. My lips were swollen from kissing, and my nipples were tender from attention, and I’d orgasmed so many times I’d lost count.

  “I would give anything to be inside of you,” David admitted.

  I smiled at him and told the fattest lie I ever would. “David, that was so much better than sex. If you felt what I did, you guys got more than sex could ever give you, and I’m not even sore like I would be if all those orgasms came from fucking.”

  “Truly?” Nathanial checked, smiling when I nodded.

  I was a demon. I was fine with telling big fat lies if it helped them. It wasn’t their fault God or his plan fucked everything up for them. The lie was kindness repaid for helping me feel completely full for the first time in forever.

  I rested for a bit and then cleaned up and got dressed. I argued when they tried to give me way over what was agreed to. “Just for the food and stuff. I never even danced.”

  “Oh, you danced all over the place,” David chuckled.

  I felt my cheeks heat. “Yeah, but I did that on my own and got a lot from it too. I don’t want the money.”

  “We don’t need it, Acadia,” Nathanial whispered gently, closing my hand around the money.

  Damnit. I had no way to argue that without outing myself, and something was holding me back from doing that just yet.

  David said he’d see me Tuesday and left when I did. I almost felt bad leaving Nathanial all alone. There was something so… Off about them. Yes, I lusted for them and they were all attractive, but it was nothing like I even felt for the elf twins. This was more like not wanting to leave a puppy alone?

  Which was ridiculous because they were angels and thousands of years older than me. But we couldn’t help the way we felt. It also wasn’t for me to fix everything.

  10

  Saturday morning I met with Lt. Pine at Pamela Owen’s place since the guys didn’t work out on weekends. Made sense since the clubs were open so much later on Friday and Saturday nights and even if we didn’t have regular schedules, some sort of routine was nice.

  “I met someone who was a client of Virginia Fisher’s,” I told him, holding up a hand when he opened his mouth to ask who. “No, I won’t tell you, and she wasn’t a hooker. She was an experimentalist.”

  “I have no idea what that is,” he admitted. “It sounds like a loophole around prostitution like being a mistress.”

  “That’s not a loophole,” I snapped, a few of the officers with us flinching. “Sex is penetration, clearly outlined as such by the law and especially rape laws. If a slap on the ass is only assault, then being a mistress is certainly not the same as prostitution.”

  He held up his hands in surrender. “Fair enough. I admit I don’t know much on the topic or the scene. I’ve only seen the side where people hide behind it for prostitution.”

  I nodded. “Fine, that’s fair. But people abuse everything so it’s not the fault of the area, but the people.” I waited until he nodded. “I looked into it, and an experimentalist is actually pretty fascinating. Basically it’s… It can range wildly too. So it can be help overcoming fears, as she was helping one client get over social fears in a way a therapist wouldn’t get so personally involved.”

  “Plus, people like guarantees and stuff so saying it’s experimental is pretty much in the name that she’ll try but no guarantees,” he muttered as he unlocked the apartment. “So what was the person you met going to her for?”

  “Um, that was a bit sexual,” I admitted, having cracked into her computer we’d recovered at her apartment. Or I’d hid it from the police. Bad me.

  “Uh-huh,” he chuckled. “What were they doing?”

  “So you’re a happily married man,” I answered instead. “Say you wanted to try something new, spice up this and that, but most women won’t just let you explore or play however. That was what she was letting him experiment on.”

  “Uh-huh,” he drawled, shaking his head. “How is that different than prostitution?”

  “He paid her to let him learn how to please a woman,” I shot right back. “I’ve known enough prostitutes to know that’s not normally how it goes. It was more like personal sex education.”

  “I wish I could sign my boyfriend up for that class,” the officer admitted under her breath at a level humans wouldn’t have been able to hear.

  It was hard not to laugh.

  Pamela’s place was nice, not big, but well tended to, and she had been fairly neat and on top of things. I couldn’t blame her for the dust and dirt when she’d been killed well over a week ago. The mold on the bowl in the sink and leftover coffee in the mug was the same. She didn’t have a landline, and I really wished they would give me access to their cell phones because I could find out a lot more than they would.

  I caught the wilted flowers she had on the counter and swallowed down sadness. Yeah, she seemed the type of woman to pick flowers up at the store just to brighten her house up, valuing herself enough to appreciate she deserved that. I glanced around. No more flowers for her here or anywhere which seemed extra horrible to me for some reason.

  “What if it’s not about what they do but what the killer doesn’t get from them?” I asked Pine, nodding to the vase full of numbers customers had obviously slipped her that she’d kept on her entertainment unit. “Two of the people were listed as hookers but weren’t. This club was raided for more than dances, but she wasn’t implicated, right?”

  “You think someone is wanting sex or something and angry when they don’t get it?” he surmised, nodding when I shrugged. “It would explain the amount of anger even after death. I was reading over some similar cases, and they just had one in Canada where the preacher was strangling girls he couldn’t ‘save.’ Popping someone in the back of the head is either clinical or a betrayal kill.”

  “And anger after is personal too,” I muttered, trying not to react to what he said about Canada. Most cops didn’t venture out like that for information unless they had worked a serial killer case before.

  “Pine,” he answered his phone and then started cussing up a storm. “We’ve got a new murder. Found just a bit ago. Let’s go. We’ll have to come back to this.”

  “I get to come?” I checked.

  “Yeah, just hang back though,” he muttered as we all pulled off gloves and filed out of the apartment.

  I followed him to the scene, glad at least I’d been with him when he’d gotten the call. I texted Lewis and the team at a stoplight so they could pull the 911 call and dispatch stuff for me later. Making sure to park away from the others when I arrived, I hurried to hide my hair under a cap an
d meet up with Pine so I could get past the police tape.

  And wish I hadn’t.

  I was a step behind him when he squatted down and gestured for someone to pull back the sheet. At first my brain couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing. Yes, bullets in the back of the head messed up the face, and that was awful, but the violence was escalating, and her breasts had been cut off and were lying there. Still I hung on.

  Until I saw her ink.

  I turned and darted past the police tape and puked up everything in my stomach by a tree.

  Damn.

  Fuck.

  Fuck, fuck. It was so much harder when it was someone I’d seen alive on the case.

  “Okay, maybe you’re not as useful,” Pine drawled from behind me.

  I flicked him off as I kept puking but then pointed to her and made the gesture of talking while waving between us. It took me a few tries, as using my words wasn’t an option at the moment.

  “You talked with her?” Pine checked, sighing when I gestured affirmatively. “Fuck, okay, yeah, I’d react badly too. We’ll talk once you get it all out.”

  I flicked him off again, and he chuckled. Yeah, it was crack jokes and lighten the mood or just drown in it.

  It took me a few minutes to get myself together, and then I headed over to Pine, apologizing to the other officers and personnel working the scene. “Talk to Badin. She was working the area we were busting. I remember her ink, but it wasn’t like we traded names.” I thanked someone who offered me a bottle of water so I could wash out my mouth. “I got the feeling I wasn’t acting like her competition.”

  Understanding filled his eyes. “Like she only did something else. Got it. I’ll talk to Badin.” He glanced around and saw all the media. “You should get gone before your cover is blown. I didn’t think we’d have so many cameras here.”

  “Six dead in less than a month and a half is fast work,” I reminded him. “Can I get a copy of the report?”

  “You going to share with me what you got off that computer you swiped?”

  I didn’t even flinch. “Yes, once my team finishes unlocking it all. She had professional level encryption like hospitals do on her client files.” I gave him an appraising look, glad at least he was good enough at his job to have caught that I’d taken it. “Any chance I can get an afternoon with their cell phones?”

  “Yes, because I know vice wants you to work with them again tomorrow night and our people are backed up.”

  “I’m working tonight, but I just need to copy them to get what I need.”

  “I can swing by wherever your team is set up.”

  “Nice try,” I drawled. “We can finish Pamela’s apartment tomorrow morning, and if you bring them there, I can copy them fast.”

  “Not going to let me see the clubhouse?” he teased me.

  “Naw, I think you’re good at your job, and I wouldn’t want anyone to have to drain you for learning our secrets.”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  I shrugged. “You picked on me for puking.”

  A few people chuckled, but I left it at that, heading out to get into the case until I had to go to work. I decided to take a chance on the way home and swung by the area I was working with Badin where I’d met the woman. I changed my glamour as I pulled up and looked all around. Where I had been was clear, I wouldn’t ever have made a mistake like getting myself on camera, but there was a security camera close to where she had been.

  At least close enough that it was worth getting the footage.

  It tickled me to no end that it was a bakery across the street from a known hooker block that I was going to ask for their security tapes. The owner hadn’t been too keen on giving me access without a warrant, but when I told her it might help solve a murder and asked about her cakes for all my sweet teeth, she was more accommodating.

  I skipped over the chocolate cake with strawberries on it, trying not to think of sharing the cake O’Malley had sent with Dylan. I tried not to think about either of them at all actually.

  Forty minutes later I had way too much food and the footage. It helped my mood when I arrived at home base because my metadata searches were striking out on the locations of the previous body locations. Whoever this was, they were picking the locations well, and even if the anger level was rising, he wasn’t getting sloppy… Yet. They always did. Something was missed or pride made them be stupid, but they always slipped.

  I spent the afternoon enhancing the footage so Kyle and the others could comb through it and find what we needed. I crossed my fingers and rushed my ass to get ready for work. I was running so behind I actually dressed in my costume and locked everything in my trunk besides my keys and iPod when I arrived. Kitty didn’t even have the chance to bitch at me as I gave my stuff to the bartender so I could go on stage first.

  The early crowd just starting to gather on a Saturday was amused by my giraffe costume as I danced to Meghan Trainor’s “Me Too.” I saw Nathanial in the crowd as I flipped around the pole and smiled wider, wondering why he was there and how he’d found out from David when he’d told me to keep where I danced quiet.

  Then again, they were angels so I wasn’t sure how much they could even keep from each other.

  I did my customer TLC service and had to retrieve my costume from someone who snagged it off the stage. He wasn’t going to give it up and also not tip me. I reminded him that was theft and the cops would search him for anything else he had.

  He handed it over so fast I was worried what else he had on him.

  I went over to Nathanial who had stayed standing by the bar and gave him a questioning look. “David said not to tell, but then he did?”

  “No, but I know where he visits now and again. I would guess I won’t be the only one to stop in,” he admitted, leaning in and kissing my cheek. “You went somewhere to smoke cigars?”

  “Yeah, there’s a smoking patio, but my coat is in my car, so I’d have to get it, and I don’t have cigars tonight.”

  “I do,” he promised, gesturing for me to go ahead.

  The owner grabbed my arm as I walked past, yanking on it hard. “Hang on. You’re scheduled to dance for me and my friends before that party comes in at eight.”

  I looked from him to the group. “You know my rules. I’ve seen how the girls dance for your friends. They suddenly going to keep their hands to themselves?”

  “Fuck no, and we want to see your titties,” one called over before holding up two fingers to his lips and wiggling his tongue between them.

  “That will never happen,” I shot right back.

  “Hey, you work for me,” the owner reminded me.

  I met his angry gaze with my own. “What was the deal? I extend my trial as long as you keep to my rules. Now get your hand off of me before I walk out that door and don’t come back.”

  He let go. “You aren’t as hot of shit as you act. Go make money. No more fucking dates on the patio. Shake your ass and show your tits like a good bitch.”

  I bobbed my head, like sure, sure and walked off with Nathanial.

  “Why are you putting up with that shit?” he asked when we were outside.

  “There’s a reason, I promise.”

  “You could do better. You are insanely talented just from what I saw tonight.”

  “Thank you, and it’s worth it in the end.”

  He chuckled. “A woman of mystery, I love it.” He opened the trunk when I popped it and leaned in. “So I can have your attention until just before eight?”

  “If you would like it,” I teased him.

  “I would and to have some fun,” he admitted under his breath. I wasn’t sure what he meant until he helped me into my jacket and I found something extra in my hand.

  A wireless adult toy. The kind that went inside and teased the clit, vibrating. I blinked at him and burst out laughing. “Okay, even I haven’t done this.”

  “You corrupted us, and now I doubt I’ll be the only one who wants more,” he muttered. �
�Too much?”

  “Maybe, but I do like fun,” I chuckled. I turned like I was going to put something in the trunk and quickly slid the toy inside me, glad the panties I was wearing covered the other part enough. Then I closed up and kept my keys until I locked up my jacket again later. We ordered a couple of whiskeys from the bar and headed outside.

  “I’ll wait until cigars are cut and lit,” he teased me, mischief dancing in his eyes. “I love that you just did it.”

  “It was a bad day,” I admitted, flashes off the dead hooker hitting me. “I was thinking of tying one off after work, but I’d prefer this kind of crazy fun.” I cleared my throat when I saw he wanted to ask more. “Keeps my darker side at bay because we both know what’s said about us isn’t always exaggerations.”

  He nodded as he clipped the first cigar. “It’s in all of us. I’ve lived so long that I could tell you stories of the darkness in humans that would shock you.”

  “Please don’t,” I muttered, taking the cigar and lighter from him.

  “I wondered why you weren’t pounding us with questions,” he said gently.

  “I’m afraid once I start I won’t stop, and I’m still angry. I don’t want to transfer that because it’s not your fault, but we’re not always rational, are we?”

  “No, and believe me, I understand your anger. It’s why we’re our own group if you will.” He left it at that, and I was glad when he did. I couldn’t take any hard truths when working a murder case of this magnitude.

  My mind didn’t click with what he was doing a few minutes later when his hand slipped into his pocket. I bit back a groan as the thing inside me started vibrating at a level humans wouldn’t be able to hear.

  But we could, and I wasn’t the only one excited by that.

  He kept it on low as he told me about his business. Nathanial was my kind of person who screwed over bad companies and invested in good ones with ecofriendly endeavors. It wasn’t like an angel needed to have a business, or maybe they did for all I knew, but it was obvious he didn’t do it for the money.

  Then he turned it up and leaned over and whispered everything he wanted to do to me next time I was handcuffed to the pole at his house. Our fun was interrupted by Kitty who came strutting out and offered to refresh his drink and give him real entertainment and take care of his needs since I wasn’t.