Heaven Sent (Lupine Bay Book 1)

by Maribel Fox

  No use interrogating the human anymore now that I have found both targets organically.

  “What are you doing here?” I ask, skipping all other formalities. Seamus never was one for appreciating those things.

  He shrugs again. “What’s it look like? Havin’ a drink. Care to join?”

  “What about you?” I ask the Devil. “Your superiors have sent you here to keep an eye on him. Why?”

  Raj scoffs and takes a seat at the bar next to Seamus. “I have no obligation to answer to you, Angel.”

  “You are going to want to answer to me rather than the person that comes in next,” I say, trying to appeal to their better sense of reason.

  “Will ‘e ask less daft questions?” Seamus asks with a snort into his drink.

  “I’m not sure what gives you the impression that I’ll answer to any of you moral crusaders, or that you have any methods with which to coerce me. You have no power here, Angel. Quit while you’re ahead.”

  I consider what he is saying, then look to his drinking partner. Both seem equally obstinate.

  “To be clear, you are both staying here?” I ask.

  Seamus is the one that looks at me like I have lost it. “Hit one too many windows, eh bird boy? Little wibbly in the noggin?”

  He is not worth the glare, but it happens anyway. I have lost my patience with this situation already and need time to regroup. For all the briefing Heaven did on this situation, what I am finding here is more mysterious than we anticipated.

  “And you are not going to give me any explanation for why this is suddenly a great place for a vacation?” I ask.

  “Why should I?”

  “It’s gotten admittedly less desirable in the last half hour or so. There’s an overwhelming stink of judgment clouding up the place,” taunts the Devil, his dark-lined eyes laughing at me, challenging me to take his bait.

  Now is not the time for fighting though. Not when they may still have information I want. It may not be forthcoming at the moment, but there is a reason Heaven sent me to do this job instead of someone else. I am good at what I do. Subtle. I may be able to get the information I want without them even realizing it.

  “Would I also be correct in assuming that you are not going anywhere anytime soon then?” I ask, casting a sidelong glance to the maid-owner who is back to mopping, bent over the long arm of the mop, pushing it back and forth across the floor with small grunts of exertion. She wipes the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, and for a moment, I catch the faintest whiff of pine needles.

  “I’ve already answered more of yer questions than I’m keen to, now leave me well alone,” Seamus says, waving me off, sloshing beer over the back of his hand. He’s quick to lick it off, a drop never spilled.

  “My choice of lodging, including the duration of my stay, is no business of yours. If you continue to harass me, this won’t end well,” says Raj, sounding more bored than irritated. I know his type. I read about him. He has always gotten everything he wanted, always had everything handed to him.

  I, on the other hand, had to work for everything I have. I had to break my back, earn every scrap of respect, claw my way up every rung of this ladder that I am finally near the top of. He had the good fortune to be born into the right family. Wealth, power, nobility, respect, all just handed to him the moment he was born.

  Of course he fails to see me as a threat. Of course he thinks that I cannot touch him. He has never had anything touch him.

  He has also never faced the full force of the ERS.

  Today is not the day for that fight though. At the moment, calling in reinforcements would be overkill. Right now, I do not know what I am dealing with, and intelligence is going to be harder to gather than usual with a group of people immune to my persuasion.

  “You boys enjoy your drinks,” I say, tapping the bar twice before turning away.

  “Excuse me, Ava?” I ask, coming up behind the human. She starts, flinging the mop in surprise. I reach out and snatch it from the air before it can clatter to the ground. “My apologies. It was not my intention to startle you.”

  She shakes her head and blows out a heavy breath. “No, I’m sorry. I was just in my own head—”

  “I believe that might be my fault as well?” I say, sending a look back toward the men at her bar.

  Ava makes a face. “A little? Trust me, you’re more the final nail in the coffin than a shocking revelation.” She stops, looks at them for a long moment, then looks back at me, her mouth twisting with uncertainty. “I’m not in like… danger, right? You’re an auditor so this is just money stuff? Is it… mob money?”

  I shake my head, laughing softly. “No, Ava. It is not quite like that. The circumstances of my investigation are classified, but I assure you you are not in any danger—”

  She slumps with relief, letting out a huge breath.

  “—Because I am going to be staying here.”

  Ava’s mouth parts, then her brow furrows. She looks past me, then up at me, then past me again.

  “You…?”

  “If there is a room available?” I add, though with only two patrons currently, I have a hard time imagining a lack of vacancy.

  It looks like she is going to object, but then she stops herself, sighs, and nods.

  “Yeah, of course. Come on, I’ll get you checked in.”

  I don’t look at any of the other people in the bar as Ava leads me out, but I feel every single eye on me, every one of them with different questions. Good. Let them wonder. They had no inclination to answer my questions; we can all play that game.

  “Do you have any room preferences?” Ava asks, pulling up a computer, the reflection bright in her eyes.

  “Preferences?”

  “At this point, your options are limited to what floor you want,” she says.

  “The top, please.”

  Her eyes flick up to me, brows lifting, then she brushes it off. “Third floor’s the attic tower. King-size bed, three-sixty views of the forest and the bay.”

  “Sounds perfect,” I say, producing a card that will pay her somehow. When they issue me a wallet, I take it without question. Things have changed since the last time I was down here, but things are always remarkably the same.

  “Do you have luggage?”

  I look around me and shrug.

  She sighs. “Why do I ask? You all just show up here seemingly without any plan, no luggage, no reservation…”

  “Is that what happened with the others, too?”

  Ava purses her lips, eyes darting to the door of the bar. “Look, I’m not trying to snitch on my only customers, you get that, right? Whatever trouble they’re a part of, I’d appreciate being left out of it.”

  I nod, following her up the creaky stairs to the second-floor landing. “I will do my best,” I say. That is the truth. What I keep to myself, is that I am sure my best will fail to achieve the results she wants. I may not know what is happening here, why there is an impromptu meeting of the factions happening in this B&B, but I am fairly sure this girl will not escape without being tangled in it. If she isn’t already.

  The way she resists me, the way she draws me — two magnetic poles at once, pushing and pulling. There is something unsettling about her. Something more powerful than meets the eye. Something I am not sure I have seen before.

  “Have you noticed anything unusual since your guests have arrived?”

  Ava laughs. “You mean besides more guests arriving?”

  I manage a smile too. “Yes, besides that.”

  She sighs, leading up a tight spiral staircase that ends at a trap door. “I can’t say I have, to be honest. Here’s your room. The bathroom is that blue door right down there. If you need anything, just call the front desk.”

  I nod, sensing that she is desperate to get away from me. Why though, I cannot say.

  Is she conspiring with the Fae and Devil? Perhaps she is eager to get back to them and talk strategy.

  My stomach sinks a
t the thought. Despite not being able to get a read on her, I want to believe this girl is genuine. I want to believe she is good. But if she’s working with them, it is already too late for that. The damage has been done.

  “Thank you for your hospitality, Ava,” I say before she descends down the stairs, leaving only the cloyingly-sweet scent of honey in her wake.

  I am left alone in this tower room — octagonal shaped with windows on all sides, a turreted-ceiling keeping it from feeling too large and open. Cozy. There are gauzy curtains on all the windows, a simple brass bed in pride of place. There is a reading nook off to one side, a dressing area tucked behind a folding screen in another.

  The first thing I do is open every window and sit in the middle of the room, awash in the cross-breezes.

  The next thing I do is pray.

  7

  Ava

  “That sanctimonious prick isn’t in here, is he?” Seamus asks under his breath as he crouches and creeps through the bar, head on a swivel.

  “My last sighting of the Angel placed him on the lawn. Praying or some other nonsense, I’m sure,” says Raj, rolling his eyes as he passes me a glass from the box that was delivered this morning.

  For some reason, they have a lot of ways to refer to Micah — none of which use his name. It seems that all three guys are familiar with one another in some sense, but none of them are altogether friendly and it’s been…

  Well, it’s been weird.

  My newest guest has only been here for a few days, but he’s already thrown everything into upheaval. Whatever business he’s got with these two seems to center mostly on Seamus, and poor Seamus wants nothing more than to be left alone.

  To hear him tell it, he keeps getting cornered in the unlikeliest of places. Of course, when I bring up how to get rid of Micah — by answering his questions or whatever else he needs — Seamus brushes me off.

  He’ll be lucky if the IRS doesn’t get the cops involved soon or something. I have no idea what kind of case involves stalking a guy for the better part of a week, but I have to imagine it’s pretty serious.

  “He’s really got naught else to do but be a thorn in my arse,” grumbles Seamus before he turns to me. “Be a lamb and offer me a drink, won’t you? Might be pressed for time,” he says, adding a wink for good measure.

  “Good thing you never take long,” I say, passing his drink off.

  Seamus’s forehead wrinkles, one brow cocked, a lopsided smile following as he slides his fingers over mine to take the tumbler. “I take my time when it’s warranted,” he says, his voice a low husky whisper that I feel more than hear. It sends shivers down my spine.

  I manage to give him my normal response — an exasperated sigh and eyeroll combo — but there’s no follow-through in it. This crazy guy has somehow managed to charm me with his lame parlor tricks — not to mention how well he and Ian get along; I don’t see them hanging out a lot, but Ian always seems to have a new story about something cool Seamus did or said.

  No, instead of being annoyed with him like I should be, there’s a smile fighting its way onto my lips as I poured his whiskey. There’s a hot, fluttery feeling in my lungs, and his comment about taking his time?

  Well, let’s just say my mind goes to all the wrong places.

  How can it not when I’m constantly being flirted with by a guy of this otherworldly level? He’s trouble and I know it. He’s got people following him, people investigating him, and still, there’s a magnetism I can’t ignore and it’s driving me crazy. Knowing he’s right there in the same building as me, all the time — when I’m sleeping, when I’m showering, when I’m trying not to think about him joining me in either of those situations and failing miserably — doesn’t help matters at all.

  “Behind,” Raj says, just in time to warn me of the imminent impact. I’m pretty sure there’s plenty of room behind me for Raj to squeeze past, but he takes the opportunity to press himself against me, his expensive sandalwood and vanilla scent wrapping around me, nearly overwhelming in how lovely it is.

  I feel my face heating up immediately and break away from Seamus, rejoining Raj with the unboxing.

  That’s another major complication.

  Besides the fact that Seamus is a B&B guest and sleeping with your guests just is not done, Seamus isn’t the only one I’m feeling this way about.

  It’s crazy, I know. I’m not even sure how it started, but at some point in the last couple days Raj decided he’s going to help here at the bar. Maybe it’s boredom — I’m not paying him, and I don’t think he’d need the money even if I was — but maybe it’s something else?

  Part of me — a really crazy part that I know I should not listen to — thinks maybe he’s using helping at the bar as an excuse to spend time with me.

  Because he does little things like that, he brushes against me, his touch lingers, his eyes find me when he thinks I’m not looking.

  But I am.

  Of course I am.

  As gorgeous as Seamus is, Raj is just as beautiful. It’s different though. There’s something dark about him, something that’s tightly controlled, measured. Precise. Seamus is much more carefree.

  I get the feeling that not having a plan is one of Raj’s worst nightmares, and Seamus’s standard operating procedure.

  Ever since Raj started helping out at the bar though, we’ve bonded — albeit mostly over Seamus’s attempts at avoiding Micah — and he has this way of talking to me like I’m the only person that’s important to him in that moment that makes me do crazy things. Like believe it.

  I will say one thing though — both, no all three, of these guys are crazy. Like, possibly living in a different reality than me kind of crazy. Part of me is sure they must be talking in some kind of code when they call each other Angel or Devil. I mostly ignore it. There’s a lot going on here that I don’t understand, that I’m not sure I’ll ever understand, so I’m trying to keep my head down and my hotel intact.

  “I can handle the rest of it from here if you wanna join Seamus on the other side of the bar,” I say, unconsciously licking my lips when I turn and see Raj reaching up high, dress shirt rolled up to his elbows, muscular forearms flexing in the overhead light.

  He turns and winks at me. “What if I’d rather stay near you?”

  “I—” I know he’s flirting but I don’t know how to flirt back, especially when I shouldn’t be flirting at all. He’s my guest. They both are.

  “No mind, I’ll be taking my leave,” Seamus says, pushing back from the bar, eyes lingering on me. Unless I’m imagining it. I keep thinking I must be imagining it. There’s so much I don’t know about all of this that a meaningful look could mean any number of things I’ll never understand.

  “You sure?” I ask, frowning. “You only had one drink. Are you feeling sick?” I tease, ashamed of how obviously I want him to stay.

  He’s fun to have around. There’s that. But then there’s also the chance that Micah will track him down and we’ll get another glimpse at the normally unflappable guy getting completely flustered with undesired scrutiny.

  It’s not that I want him to get pestered and harassed but seeing him squirm under unwanted attention is too funny not to laugh at. Especially with Raj right there laughing with me.

  “Ye’ve yet to amend your wretched policy banning me from taking my drinks with me.”

  “That’s state law, not my policy.”

  He scoffs. “An unreasonably-sized mound of bull excrement if you’re askin’ me.”

  “Hear, hear,” cheers Raj, now leaning against the back bar with his ankles crossed, looking highly amused.

  My phone starts vibrating in my pocket and I frown, pulling it out. Alistair? Why would he be calling me right now.

  “Slán,” Seamus says, waving to us both.

  I hold up a finger to Raj and answer the phone as he’s nodding.

  “Hello?”

  “Ava, I hope I didn’t alarm you with my call,” Alistair says, concern in his voice
. I imagine he could hear the confusion in my tone.

  “What’s up?”

  “Has your brother made it home from school yet today?”

  For an instant, I go cold all over at the thought that something happened to Ian. But no, I remember seeing him earlier. He told me he had a lot of homework and was going to his room…

  “What did he do?” I ask with a groan. Ian’s a good kid. Easy to deal with. Most of the time. He’s got his moments though, just like any other kid. And if he’s avoiding me, I’m willing to bet he’s had one of those rare-but-no-less-awful moments.

  Alistair chuckles softly, easing my worries some. “I cannot confirm. I am but the messenger.”

  “Get on with it,” I grumble, though not seriously.

  “One of my neighbors — the shop across the street, have you ever been? Well, it’s a lovely little shop, full of delightful—”

  “Alistair, Ian, remember?” I groan, pinching the bridge of my nose. Raj is casually tidying things around the bar, but I feel him watching me, trying to read what’s going on.

  “Right, right. Well, one of my neighbors saw him hanging around the maple outside her shop. She told me that there’s been a nesting family of squirrels there, and she saw him leaving with something bundled in his shirt.”

  I sigh. “I’ll check on him. Thanks for calling,” I say, hanging up to Alistair’s soft chuckles.

  “Everything okay?” asks Raj.

  “Can you watch the bar for a few minutes? I need to talk to my brother.” I hate putting him in charge, but there’s no one else in here, so what harm is it really going to do? If he has to pour someone a drink, I’m pretty sure he can handle it. Raj seems like a capable guy.

  “Of course,” he says with a stiff nod. “Take all the time you need.”

  That’s not going to happen, but I can take enough time to figure out what the hell my brother’s up to. I am grateful that he’s here in instances like this though. Taking the time to close everything down when it’s possible my brother’s smuggled in a wild animal isn’t really efficient.

  I hurry through the house to the back portion that we keep to ourselves. Ian’s got his own room, and generally I respect his privacy, but not today.