The Redemption of Boaz Pritchard

by Hailey Edwards

  “He’ll owe Gustav a cut since they’re operating in his territory. Not as big as what we would pay him, since we work for him, but a sizeable amount. This is a kick in the pants to tell us to find Ari, and the killer, first.”

  Having never spent time with bounty hunters, he was curious about Addie’s world. “How does that work?”

  “All bounties must be awarded through a licensed broker. Patel isn’t one. He depends on brokers in whatever area he’s hired in to receive and disburse funds for him. Gustav is a rarity. He’s licensed in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. That means he gets regular business from guys like Patel, who freelance in a region rather than belong to a specific state or county agency.”

  Nodding that he understood the basics, he got back on track. “What’s our next move?”

  “Patel was here for a reason, and it wasn’t funnel cakes.”

  Fourteen

  Patel made a complicated situation that much more intense, but Cass and I could handle it. As long as Boaz didn’t get any chivalrous notions, we could avoid Patel and beat him to the bounty. Of course, with Ari missing, this had become about so much more than that.

  The list of people Cass cared about was short, but Ari was near the top.

  “Any idea what brought Patel here?” Boaz kept pace with me. “He’s not the farmers’ market type.”

  “He saw the Oracle.” I led the way. “I would bet my share of the bounty on it.”

  “The Oracle?”

  “She’s an information broker.” I cut him a smile. “A very exclusive one.”

  “Who works out of a farmers’ market.”

  “Out of a pickle stall, actually.”

  “Will she sell you the same information she gave Patel?”

  “She would sell the same information ten times over if it turned a profit.”

  “Then why wouldn’t she give Patel everything she had to start with?”

  I cut him a look and waited until he figured it out for himself.

  “More money.” He chuckled. “Feeding him breadcrumbs will tempt him back for the whole loaf.”

  “Exactly.” I flashed him a smile, more comfortable in my element than one on one with him. “We, however, are going to buy the loaf before he can take another bite.”

  “The Oracle will sell it to you?”

  “Anything for this.” I rubbed my fingers together. “Just like everyone else.”

  To save us both the embarrassment of him asking if I had the cash for a bribe on that scale, I flashed him a debit card in one of Cass’s many aliases.

  “Mina Harker.” He examined the card. “I don’t get it.”

  “She was the object of Dracula’s obsession—”

  “I got that part,” he said dryly. “Why do you have a debit in her name?”

  “Cass foots the bill for bribes. She uses various cards with different aliases on them for different people/purposes so she can keep it all straight. This is the card for the Oracle.”

  “You guys use her often enough she gets her own card?”

  “No.” I put it away. “She’s just that expensive.”

  Boaz didn’t say anything else as I led him to a stall selling a variety of pickled vegetables.

  A girl who looked around fifteen sat behind her table of wares with her face glued to her phone.

  “Mary Sue,” I greeted her by her preferred alias. “How’s it going?”

  “Business is good.” She squinted at the screen. “The booth is really hopping tonight.”

  We were the only ones standing around, and most of the jars had dust on them from how long she had used them as props. I didn’t think pickles could go bad, but I didn’t want to find out the hard way.

  “Do you have a minute to talk?”

  “Sure. Just let me finish this…” Her gaze flicked up and landed on Boaz. “Oh. Hey. Hi.”

  “Hey hi yourself.” He grinned at her, full of charm. “What are you playing?”

  “I’m addicted to crushing candy,” she confessed. “Mom won’t let me have the real thing.”

  “How is your mom?” I doubted she remembered I was there after setting eyes on him. “Feeling better, I hope?”

  “So-so.” She never took her eyes off Boaz. “Anyway, you’re not here to be neighborly. Come on back.”

  The back was a tent pitched behind her table, the kind you saw at family reunions meant to seal out bugs and weather. The area was warded to prevent anyone from entering her space without her permission, and I got a zing down my spine when I stepped over the threshold.

  “You’re the Oracle?” Boaz checked out the otherwise empty tent. “I thought your mother…”

  “The gift hits hard, and it hits young in my family.” Mary Sue shrugged. “We only get a few good years after the onset before we start losing our minds. I have to earn enough for a comfortably padded room to hole up in for the rest of my life before that happens.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “It is what it is.” Her smile was sad. “Anyway, on to cheerier topics.” She stuck out her arm. “Addie?”

  “What did Patel want?” I pulled out the card and slapped it onto her waiting palm. “How much did you tell him?”

  “He wants to know who’s killing vampires so he can collect on the bounty. Same as you, I assume. He’s also interested in recovering Ari. Her mate is desperate to get her back, and the reward is through the roof. Have you checked in the last hour? Demaryius has doubled it.”

  Cass hadn’t mentioned a reward for Ari’s return, but Demaryius would have known Cass would help for free. I had noticed there was a major reward, as in six figures, for any information leading to the capture of the killer. Or, of course, the body. Cass hadn’t breathed a word about that either.

  As much as it felt like it when disconnect notices began piling up, money wasn’t everything.

  “Patel is a brute, and he’s a cheap brute.” Mary Sue stuck a card reader into her phone and slid the card through the slot. “I told him the truth, but not much of it.”

  Since I joined Gustav’s guild and Cass and I began working together, Mina Harker had bought hundreds of thousands of dollars in farmers’ market pickles. It was the only thing purchased with the card, which made me wonder if it left the card company scratching its head. They must not care so long as the bill got paid on time. Should that change, Cass would burn the identity and move on to a new one.

  “Keep the meter running,” I told her. “I want it all.”

  “That’s why you’re one of my favorite customers.” She flashed a smile. “I don’t know who the killer is, he—or she—is too murky for me to see clearly, but I can tell you they’re after rando vampires.”

  “Oh?” Boaz leaned in closer. “Do tell.”

  Flushing at his attention, she dropped a bomb on us. “They’re after one vampire. The others are all a means to an end.”

  Boaz dialed his charm up all the way. “How do you figure?”

  “They’re tracking someone across the country.” Her eyes turned opaque, and she fastened her gaze on Boaz. “So many bodies.” She shook her head. “So much death.” Her expression darkened. “They’re almost finished.” Her attention slid to me. “This death will be the last one.”

  “Do you mean Ari?” Chills danced down my spine. “Or the person he’s searching for?”

  She blinked free of her vision. “I don’t know.”

  Fifteen

  Boaz figured Oracle was a code name, not a designation. Otherwise, he might have told Addie to skip the spectacle, bought her a funnel cake, and then walked her back to Cass’s car to follow up a real lead.

  “I know what you’re thinking.” Addie slanted him a glance. “You think it’s a bunch of hooey.”

  “Given I know people who raise the dead for a living, I have a much less rigid belief system than you’re crediting me.”

  He could have told her about Odette Lecomte, about how he had grown up around the famed seer, but then Addie would ask how
he knew her. He would have to tell her about Grier to explain the connection, and he wasn’t ready for that. He might never be ready for that, but the day was coming on fast when he would have to confess all. She couldn’t very well live in Savannah, as his wife, and not hear about Grier.

  Goddess, what a mess he made of everything.

  “So you’re willing to believe in the divine message,” she mused. “Just not this particular messenger?”

  “Something like that.” He had heard enough of Odette’s prophecies to understand they weren’t straight lines. Mary Sue had given them more direct information than he ever got from Odette. “You trust her?”

  “Yep.” She patted his arm. “What she told us is pure gold.”

  One thing was bugging him about the Oracle’s accessibility. “Why didn’t you go to her at the start?”

  “How much do you think we get paid for bounties?” She laughed. “We can’t afford her to lead us around by the nose. She costs a small fortune. We’d go broke if we relied on her. The only time we use her is if kids are involved and we come up empty on our own.”

  “You were hunting bounties,” he said, thinking it over, “not a killer. The priority wasn’t there.”

  “That too,” she agreed. “They were reported to us as runners. That’s how we pursued them.” Her lips curved in the beginning of a smile that forced him to do a double take. “Now we know that all the steps the killer has taken up to this point lead to one target.”

  “That’s much vaguer than you seem to believe.”

  “Lucky for us, I happen to know an Elite sentinel with access to all of the case files. That’s got to cut down on the amount of time it takes us to identify the perp, the target, and locate Ari.”

  Mild amusement trickled in, and he couldn’t help but return her smile. “You’re using me.”

  “We’re using each other,” she reminded him, a bit somber. “Are you in?”

  Any small thing he could do to smudge the black marks on his soul was worth his time and effort to do. “What do you think?”

  The spark returned to her eyes, and she led him back to the car, where Cass waited for them.

  The vampire swept her gaze up and down Addie then relaxed to see she was in one piece. “Any news?”

  “Patel hit up the Oracle.” Addie rolled her eyes. “Mary Sue gave him what he paid for.”

  The killer was moving fast, his timeline accelerating beyond what he had done in Savannah or the other cities he hit on his way to this one. That hinted the Oracle might be onto something with her intel. He would have to pull the files on the other killings and share what the sentinels had pieced together so far.

  “Well?” Addie smiled up at him. “Are you still interested in a little interdepartmental cooperation?”

  His unit wasn’t the type to share information, or give it away for free, but lives mattered more to Boaz than procedure. If they had a chance to stop the killer here, then he would be a fool not to take it.

  “You don’t belong to a department.” A flicker of uncertainty crossed her features, and he felt like an ass for teasing her. “Come on.” He opened the door for her. “Let’s go find us a killer.”

  On their way back to the old Whitaker place, he texted Honey an update and a request that included her bringing the files on all the local cases with her when she came to meet up with them.

  Cass pulled in and found two unmarked cars sitting in the yard. “Are you sure this is wise?”

  “I can handle it,” Addie assured her. “I give a statement, and they go away, right?”

  “Not exactly.” He got out, and she followed him. “Honey brought the local files. I can pull up everything in the cleaner’s database on the other killings. We’re going to make this a joint effort to show the locals we’re willing to play nice.”

  There was that pesky we again.

  These were his coworkers, and Honey was his friend, but he hadn’t hesitated to pitch his lot in with Addie.

  “That won’t get you in trouble?” She raked her teeth over her bottom lip. “I don’t want to make this worse for you.”

  “Pritchard,” Honey called from across the yard. “This better be good.”

  Parker and Abernathy stood behind her, and Abernathy froze when he spotted Cass.

  “Jessica Honeywell.” He took Addie’s hand in his. “This is Adelaide Whitaker.”

  “You’re in my thoughts and prayers,” Honey told her. “I’ll light a candle for you.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Addie chuckled at the joke, but it was clear in her expression she hoped that was what it was—a joke. “Boaz was singing your praises just yesterday.”

  Honey’s eyes rounded. “Oh?”

  “He said you’re very good at what you do.” Addie pinned her smile in place. “He also said you dated.”

  “I don’t know that you’d call it dating.” Honey palmed her forehead. “I did not mean that to come out the way it sounded. I meant it wasn’t a relationship. It wasn’t going anywhere. It was just…what it was.”

  Addie appeared to consider that, then she angled her head toward him. “What?”

  “What?” Boaz echoed her, certain he sounded a fool. “What are we whating about?”

  “You’re sweating.” She reached up to drag her finger across his forehead. “Are you that worried what I think about you?”

  The answer was out of his mouth before his brain let him consider it. “Yes.”

  Honey whistled long and low, and her eyebrows climbed into her hairline and made a nest there.

  “You asked me to marry you. I said yes.” Addie searched his face. “You’re not getting rid of me that easy.”

  There was too much at stake, for both of them. Yet the warmth in her expression… He wasn’t worthy of it. That didn’t stop him from wishing he could be. He had done what he wanted with his life up to this point, all in pursuit of what felt good at the time. Now he had to man up and start taking others into consideration, putting them first. That started with Addie.

  “I’m glad,” he said, and he meant it. “I’m going to screw up more than you can imagine, but I’m in this.”

  The smile she flashed him was blinding, and the hope for more he read in her eyes made him want to hold up his end of the deal with both hands. No one had ever had that kind of instant effect on him. Addie was just that good. She made others, even hypochondriac vampires, want to be better.

  “I take back what I said about thoughts and prayers,” Honey murmured. “I want to sit at your feet and learn from the master how to reform bad boys. I can’t quit them, and I’m getting too old to deal with their shit. Either you help me, or I’m going to start shooting them when they act like a bag of dicks.”

  “Or you could forget boys,” Cass purred, “and let a bad girl show you how much better life can be without them.”

  “I appreciate the offer,” Honey said politely, “but I’m not down with playing blood donor.”

  Addie groaned, and Boaz realized Honey’s mistake. She hadn’t told Cass no. All she’d done was put a limitation on how far she was willing to go with her preconceived notions of vampire sex. Cass was quick to notice as well, and she sidled up to Honey with her eyes alight.

  “I swear I wouldn’t bite unless you begged me.” Cass ran her finger down Honey’s arm. “I’m a woman of my word.”

  With a gentle swat, she shooed off Cass’s advance. “I’ve never begged for anything in my life.”

  “There’s a first time for everything.” The vampire smiled. “I would love to be your first.”

  Addie heaved a sigh, crossed to Honey, and shackled Cass’s wrist. “Why can’t you act normal for five minutes?”

  “I refuse to be a slave to the hour hand of a watch. Why would I want to be aware of my life force ebbing away? My days are not infinite, Addie. I find the concept of time depressing.”

  “Drama llama.” Addie hauled her a safe distance away. “You’re all welcome to come in.” She yanked on Cass’s arm. “
The vampire will keep her fangs, hands, and innuendos to herself.”

  Somehow, despite Addie’s best efforts, Boaz doubted it.

  Sixteen

  I gave my statement to Parker, who stared at me like I was a unicorn. Talk about awkward. I hadn’t tamed Boaz. I hadn’t won his undying love. I had entered into a business arrangement. A good ninety percent of Society marriages were a calculated negotiation between families. Love matches were myth unless you were rich enough to not require a blessing for your union.

  Abernathy, on the other hand, had settled into a sulk over Cass’s outrageous flirting with Honey. If Honey didn’t give her a hard no soon, she would wake up one day to a vampire watching her sleep.

  With a tray of ice teas in my hands, I joined the group in the dining room. The table sat twelve, so there was plenty of room for the team, their laptops, maps, and snacks.

  Boaz and Honey stood with their heads together, reading off the same piece of paper.

  A curl of unease in my gut caused me to pause on the threshold, but Boaz glanced up with a grin for me that went a long way toward urging me forward. Beside him, Honey noticed what held his attention and jogged over to me.

  “Let me help.” She took the tray. “You can forget the guys offering.” She rolled her eyes. “Sentinels are the worst. They forget our society is matriarchal, and therefore, I outrank them based on sex alone. Instead, they pretend their legs and arms are broken and expect me to wait on them hand and foot.”

  “Hey,” Parker chortled. “I brought sushi to the office last week.”

  “You set the bag on my desk and waited for me to plate everyone.” Honey threw an ice cube at his head. “How do you expect your mother to marry you off with manners like a human?”

  “Dang.” Abernathy winced. “That was cold.”

  “Brutal,” Boaz agreed. “But is she wrong?”

  Neither Parker nor Abernathy said a word.

  Once Honey passed out the tea, I moved to take a seat only to have Boaz gesture me over to him.

  “This is the first known case.” He pointed to a spot on the map. “Puyallup, Washington.” He slid his finger down. “We didn’t figure out we had a serial killer until these two deaths in Reno, Nevada.” He eased it right. “Then another in Springfield, Missouri.” He moved it over. “Three in Greenville, North Carolina.”