He was extremely close with some of them, but he’d never had a friend he just clicked with. His friendships were more of a, we all go to the same school, live in the same area, or play the same sports scenario.
However, he knew how to bullshit someone he was interviewing. “Friends like that are special and rare.”
Paris bowed her head, but not before he saw the glimmer of tears in her eyes. “She’s the only friend I’ve ever had like that.”
Cassidy had decided to stay out of the conversation; this was Dante’s terrain, and she was afraid of messing it up by saying something wrong. However, when the young girl sniffled, she couldn’t resist resting her hand on top of Paris’s.
When she lifted her head, she was in control of her emotions again. “Things changed after Julie’s dad died. It was like she didn’t care about anything anymore.”
“Sometimes, when someone loses a loved one, they don’t know how to handle their grief and push away their remaining loved ones. It’s not that they don’t still love those people, but they’re scared of losing them too,” Cassidy said.
“Yeah,” Paris muttered. “I get that, but I’m still mad at her for it. Then she started in with all the vampire crap.”
“Missy told me she got involved with people who believe vampires are real,” Dante said.
“Not only that,” Paris said as she leaned closer. “But some of them made themselves look like vampires. They wore red contacts, sharpened their teeth, dressed in black, and put on makeup to make themselves paler. Thankfully, Julie didn’t get that crazy with it, but those people are nuts. I mean, who really believes in vampires?”
“It is a little crazy,” Cassidy agreed and somehow managed to keep a straight face. Why did people think vampires would walk around looking like Dracula? If that were the case, they wouldn’t exactly be incognito, and people would have known about their existence thousands of years ago.
“Right? But when I tried to tell Julie that she got pissed at me. She was convinced they were real, and I was an idiot for not believing in them.”
“Julie was hanging out at bars with these people?” Dante asked.
Paris started to speak again but stopped when the waiter returned with her coffee. Dante was amazed to discover it was a drink.
“Thank you,” Paris said as she took a sip. She waited for the waiter to leave before speaking again. “Yeah. She got a fake ID and thought it was the greatest thing ever that she could get into those weird clubs. She also went to a lot of house parties.
“All I pictured was a crack house every time she talked about them, but she said they were nice. After a while, I started to get the impression these “houses”—” she held up her fingers to make air quotes around the word houses— “were people’s homes and not some abandoned building. And then I started to realize that while their mommy and daddy were out, these big bad vamp wannabes were throwing parties on their parents’ dime.”
Paris’s tone dripped venom with each of her words. “Does that sound like what a bunch of bloodthirsty vamps do with their weekends? No, it does not.”
Cassidy studied the girl with a raised eyebrow. She’d gone from crying over her friend to being so mad her eyes glittered with fury.
“Of course, I couldn’t tell Julie that either; it made me an idiot. I mean, I understand she lost her dad, and she’s looking for something permanent to grab onto, and these freaks gave it to her, but we were friends for eleven years, and not just friends; she was my best friend. She knew everything about me, and I knew everything about her. And then she tossed me aside for those lunatics.”
Tears glistened in Paris’s eyes again as she focused on her cup and sniffled. Dante was beginning to understand her reluctance to talk to him; someone she loved had tossed her aside, and this conversation was picking at her scab.
“Did you ever go to any of these parties with her?” Dante asked.
“One,” Paris muttered. “She got mad at me because I made fun of everyone there. At the time, I thought it was still a joke, even to her, but that night I realized she was buying into it. I was a little afraid of her afterward. I mean, it’s kind of impossible not to be afraid of someone who’s living in fantasy land, am I right?”
“I imagine it was a little frightening,” Cassidy agreed, and Paris gave her a grateful smile.
“Do you know someone named Preston?” Dante asked.
Paris’s lips flattened into a thin line. He hit a nerve with that question.
“He’s not going to know I’m talking to you, is he?” she asked and glanced nervously around the coffee shop.
“Absolutely not,” Dante said. “Why does he bother you so much?”
“The guy is a freak. I mean a full-on, freak. If it weren’t for him, Julie wouldn’t have gotten mixed up in all this. But she thinks he’s the greatest thing ever.”
“Are they dating?” Dante asked.
“Oh, God, I hope not!” Paris blurted. “But with as weird as Julie is now, maybe she is banging her brother.” Paris clasped her hands over her mouth and looked guiltily between the two of them before lowering her hands. “I shouldn’t have said that. It was mean and weird or not, Julie would never do such a thing.”
Dante wasn’t concerned about Paris’s words so much as what she revealed. “Preston is Julie’s brother?”
Paris paled visibly. “You didn’t know that?”
PB means Preston Brother, Dante realized. He sat back in his chair as he recalled the passages about Preston in Julie’s journal, but there wasn’t much information about the man. At least not anything that would help Dante track him down.
“No, I didn’t know that,” Dante said.
“Shit,” Paris said and sipped her concoction.
“Does Mrs. Abbott know he exists?” If she did, she never mentioned it to him.
“I’m not sure,” Paris said. “The last I knew, Julie hadn’t told her about him, but that was a few weeks ago. He contacted Julie after their dad died, and they started talking. She was so excited. I think she almost felt like she was getting a piece of dad back with Preston, but he was so weird I didn’t understand how she could be excited.”
“Was Julie sure he’s her brother?” Dante asked. “The Abbots have a lot of money; he could have made it up in the hopes of getting some of that money.”
However, Zan did say Preston was a vampire, and Dante didn’t know many vamps desperate for money. They always had a way of getting it. Trying to scam it out of a sixteen-year-old girl was going to a lot of trouble when he could take money off any stranger on the street, and they would never remember it.
But maybe Preston got his rocks off by toying with people’s emotions and scamming them out of money. He wouldn’t be the first vamp who enjoyed fucking with people’s heads before killing them. Was that what happened to Julie? Preston got bored toying with her and decided to kill her?
Dante ground his teeth together and tried not to snap the pen in his fingers. If that were the case, he would make sure Preston paid.
“I said the same thing!” Paris exclaimed and slapped her hand on the table. “But that made me the idiot again!”
“So, Julie has no proof he’s her brother, but she’s convinced he is?” Dante asked.
“Yeah. I have to admit he looks a lot like their dad, and I do mean a lot. Still, it could be a coincidence.”
Dante set his pen down as he contemplated what Paris had revealed. Preston, a vampire, had walked into Julie’s life after their father died, but why? What did a vampire want with his human sister… if she was his sister?
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Do you know why he contacted Julie after their dad died?” Dante asked.
“At first, I thought it was because he was trying to get money, or into the will, or something along those lines,” Paris said. “But Julie said he never asked for money.”
“Do you know anything about his mother?”
Paris glanced nervously around the coffee shop before le
aning closer to them. “Are you going to tell Mrs. Abbott about this?”
“This conversation will stay between us,” Dante assured her. He saw no reason to upset the woman further by revealing her husband possibly had another child out there. If it became necessary for him to confront her about Preston, he would keep Paris’s name out of it.
“Julie said she used to work for her dad; she was a nurse or a receptionist or something like that. Soooo cliché if you ask me.”
Paris paused as if she were expecting a response, and Cassidy jumped in. “It totally is.”
Paris gave her an approving nod before continuing. “Anyway, her name was… Lydia, Linda… no, maybe it was Lindsay. Anyway, it was something like that. Apparently, he dated her before Julie’s mom, and there was an overlapping, but he broke it off when things started getting serious with Mrs. Abbott. However, the woman told him she was pregnant a month later.”
“I see,” Dante said as he made a couple of notes in his book. “Do you know what happened after that?”
Paris sipped her drink as she sat back and glanced nervously around again. “Julie would be so mad at me for telling you this.”
Dante didn’t push her, and Cassidy didn’t speak as the young girl fiddled with the earpiece of her glasses. If what Paris was saying was true, then Preston might have a bigger reason than money for contacting Julie.
Preston was the tossed aside child, the unloved one, and Julie was living the high life with their dad. He might have decided to mess with Julie for revenge, and he might have killed her for the same reason.
“But then, Julie doesn’t talk to me anymore anyway, so what does it matter?” Paris said, and fresh tears filled her eyes before she ducked her head. “Her father gave the woman some money to go away. He sent her money every month for their kid, but I’m not sure if he ever saw Preston.”
“And Preston told Julie this?” Dante asked.
“Yeah. At first, Julie was upset about it; she believed her dad was perfect, you know? But for some reason, she likes the guy. Don’t ask me why; I think he’s a complete douche for inserting himself into her life and telling her that. She’d just lost her dad; she should have been allowed to continue thinking he was perfect. Plus, he believes in vampires, so he’s also out of his mind.”
“Clearly,” Cassidy said.
“Do you know where Preston lives?” Dante asked.
“No.”
“Do you know his last name?”
“No. I’ve told you everything I know about him. I have to go,” Paris said as she rose and lifted her sunglasses off the table. “I hope you find Julie. She’s been… well, she’s been plain awful lately, but I miss her, and I love her, and I want her home.”
“I’m going to do my best to make sure she comes home,” Dante promised as he and Cassidy rose.
“It was nice to meet you,” Cassidy said and extended her hand to Paris.
Paris shook her hand. “You also.”
“Can I call you again if I have more questions?” Dante asked.
Paris hesitated before replying, “Yeah, I guess. Good luck.”
With that, she lifted her coffee, turned away, and wound her way expertly through the crowd before exiting the coffee shop.
While Dante searched on his phone for some hint of the woman who was Preston’s mother, Cassidy rose from the table. “I’ll be right back,” she said. “I have to make a phone call.”
Dante glanced at her and then around the coffee shop. For some reason, he didn’t like the idea of her out of his sight. “I’ll come with you,” he said.
He started to rise, but she rested her hand on his shoulder. “Stay,” she said. “I have to call one of my brothers. It won’t take long.”
Dante reluctantly settled back in his chair. He needed to calm down with his increasingly caveman attitude toward her, but he had to know she was safe. His hand tightened around his phone, and his teeth grated together while she glided through the crowd.
He would push her away if he wasn’t careful, but it took everything he had not to follow her out the door while knocking out every guy who turned to look at her. That unfamiliar knot of jealousy churned in his stomach and burned up his chest as most of the men watched her go.
He kept his eyes on her when she stepped outside, but she didn’t go far beyond the door and remained in front of the plate-glass windows as she pulled out her phone. His eyes traveled between her and his phone while he continued his search for Preston’s mom.
Cassidy bit her bottom lip as she hit Brian’s number and waited for him to answer. His jovial tone greeted her on the fourth ring. “What’s up, my youngest sister-in-law?”
“And by that, you mean your favorite sister-in-law,” she said.
“Well yeah, but your sisters are crazy.”
Cassidy chuckled as she glanced inside the coffee shop to make sure Dante hadn’t followed her. He remained at the table, but his eyes were on her. She could feel the tension he radiated and gulped.
With his increasingly protective behavior and her growing need for him, she was starting to lean toward him being her mate. But that was a problem for later. She had something else to deal with now. She smiled at Dante and gave a small wave before turning her back to him.
“They are,” she agreed; she loved her sisters, but she was the sanest one of them. “But you also have my brothers’ mates too.”
“Now, there you have a lot of competition.”
“I’m still the best, though.”
“Weeelll,” he drew the word out in amusement. “I don’t know; Maggie is entertaining, and Paige’s paintings are beautiful, and Emma—”
“You’re my favorite brother-in-law.”
“Oh, okay then, you’re the best.”
“I knew it.” In the background, a baby squealed. “Is that Rhys?”
She’d been home for Christmas and again last month, but it sounded as if her brother Aiden’s nine-month-old son, had grown a lot since her previous visit. But then, she already knew that from the proud pictures, Aiden bombarded them with every day in their family group text.
“It is,” Brian confirmed. “Abby volunteered to babysit so Aiden and Maggie could have a couple of days away.”
“He sounds thrilled about it.”
“Surprisingly, he is. The kid finds me irresistible.”
“Someone besides Abby has to.”
“And just like that, Willow has replaced you as my favorite sister-in-law.”
Cassidy laughed. “Liar.”
Brian chuckled. It had taken him some time to adjust to their large family, and his role in it, but he’d grown to love them all. He would probably vehemently deny it, but she suspected he also loved all the chaos and relished being a part of it.
“So, I know I’m the most wonderful conversationalist in the world, and everyone’s dying to talk to me, but I don’t think you called to confirm you’re my favorite sister-in-law,” he said.
Cassidy glanced into the coffee shop again. Dante was staring at his phone, but his eyes rose to her before returning to whatever he was reading. “I didn’t. Do you think you could find someone if they were dead?”
Brian was silent for a minute before replying, “No. I follow the soul of a person.”
“And the dead wouldn’t have a soul?”
“Not one that I can track.”
She tried to bury disappointment, but she knew it came out in her voice. “Oh.”
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“It’s not my story to tell.”
He paused before replying. “I understand.”
And she knew he did. “Could we not tell Abby about this conversation? I’m not ready for more of my siblings to meddle in my life right now.”
“What conversation?”
Cassidy smiled. “Thank you.”
“Julian and Kyle driving you crazy?”
“What do you think?”
“I think they’re lucky you haven’t superglu
ed their asses to the couch and their hands to their game controllers by now.”
“You are so right! And what a great idea.”
“You did not get that idea from me.”
Cassidy laughed. “What idea?”
“And that’s why you’re my favorite. Will I eventually get filled in on the details of what is happening?”
“I’d like to say yes, but…”
“Not your story to tell; got it.”
“Would it be okay if I offered your services to locate someone else?”
“If it helps you, then yes, but my ability doesn’t work well when there are a lot of souls around like in a big city.”
“I see,” she murmured. “Thank you. Now, go spoil that baby for me.”
“Your wish is my command.”
The phone went dead, and she turned to discover Dante making his way toward the door. Cassidy buried her disappointment as she returned her phone to her pocket. If Maya was dead, then Brian couldn’t help them locate her, but there was still a chance, he could help them find Julie. She would run it by Dante and see what he thought.
“Are you ready to go?” she asked when he stepped out the door.
“Yes.”
“Did you find anything?”
“Not yet. I need a computer, and I have some calls to make.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Cassidy settled onto the recliner in the corner and watched Dante as he sat on the bed and his fingers flew across the keyboard. The glow of the screen illuminated the concentration etching his face.
Her heart raced as she watched him. He looked so intense, but his furrowed brow, the black stubble shading his jaw, and the determination he emanated were endearing. She was pretty sure he’d forgotten she was there, but she enjoyed watching him.
He muttered to himself as his fingers flew over the keys before he sat back and ran a hand through his hair. The dark brown strands stood on end as he tugged at them. When he let them go, some remained standing while others fell back into place.
Relentless (Vampire Awakenings Book 11) Page 13