Unholy Pleasures (Half-breed Series Book 4)

by Debra Dunbar

  I was working with Richard today, getting an idea of how things worked at the management end of the winery, and he waxed poetic all morning about how wonderful elves were and that if he’d hired Hallwyn months ago, the vineyard wouldn’t be in such bad shape that she’d needed to risk her life working all through the night. By quitting time, I had the mother of all headaches, wanting nothing more than to get away from all the talk of amazing, helpful, wonderful elves. Once more I brushed off Matthieu’s advances, and headed out.

  “I managed to call all of the farms on the list,” Irix told me as I walked through the door. At the same time my phone buzzed and I looked to see a lengthy text from Wyatt, giving me the information I’d requested.

  That’s right. It was payday, and he’d been tracing the transfer of money from Hallwyn’s account. A sum went to the landlord, then nearly the entire rest of the paycheck went to one bank account. Magical Interventions, a division of Banks’s Placement Services was listed as the account owner along with an address, phone number. Then my brother had dug deeper and found the name of the person who’d organized the DBA. Aaron Banks was either a human or the elf had stolen the man’s identity because the man had a paper trail going back for nearly twenty years. He’d worked for temporary placement firms, managed a few, then opened up a boutique recruitment firm specializing in accounting positions, of all things.

  A human and an elf working together. One human having the knowledge of how to get businesses to contract with him to fill job openings, the other an elf who knew how to work things with his angel contact on Elf Island, as well as prep the elven side of the equation. And the elf would have most likely been the one who contracted with the plague demons to ensure businesses were receptive to Aaron’s proposal.

  I had no idea how the elf had pissed off the demons, or how tight his relationship was to this Aaron, but I needed to find them both and stop their business in its tracks. And if they couldn’t call off the demons, then I’d need to deal with that issue separately. I glanced over at Irix as I typed my thanks to Wyatt. We’d need to deal with that issue separately, because there was no way I was going up against two demons without some significant backup.

  “Ready for my news?” Irix handed me a glass of wine and motioned for me to sit. I plopped down on the sofa, worried what he had to say that necessitated both an alcoholic beverage and not standing.

  “All the farms met with someone named Aaron Banks with Magical Interventions. A few had worked with him before through Banks’s Placement Services getting admin and accounting staff, so they knew him and were happy to share his company’s address and phone number with me. A few months ago, he started asking them about the need for elven employees, touting their special skills and telling them this new division specialized in these sorts of placements. Every single farm said they hadn’t been interested at first because the fee was expensive and the wages for the elves were high. No one had it in the budget for this year, and they weren’t convinced that the elves really had any sort of supernatural powers that would be of value to them. No one wanted to spend a ton of money and look the fool.”

  “Magical Interventions is the company who is getting the money transfers from Hallwyn’s account.” I quickly told Irix about Wyatt’s text and waited for him to continue.

  “No one wanted to hire the elves, but then things started to go wrong with crops—blights that nothing cured, insects that no amount of spraying killed off. Each day that went by, things got worse and worse until the farms were desperate. The first few who hired elves had seen dramatic improvements, but every single one of them has seen a reversal in the last week—so drastic that two farms had been on the verge of firing their elves.”

  “Did they?” I asked.

  “No. I guess the elves saw the writing on the wall and were just as terrified as Hallwyn about what would happen if they lost their jobs. They took off. Vanished. No one has any idea what happened to them. They didn’t show up for work one day, didn’t even come in to collect their things.”

  I felt a chill run down my back. Had they run off, abandoning everything to go off grid in the mountains and hide from the wrath of both the angels and the Jobber, or had this Jobber taken preemptive action when he discovered their employment was in jeopardy?

  Irix pulled the wine glass from my hand, drank down the contents, then held a hand out for me. “Come on. If we hustle we can get to this placement service before five.”

  I jumped up, knowing we’d have to hurry, and knowing that Irix was thrilled to have this opportunity to break every speed limit between here and Sonoma.

  “Fast food for dinner?” I asked, grabbing my purse.

  “Depends. If we can catch Aaron Banks at work, we might have time afterwards to find a good restaurant.”

  Chapter 23

  We pulled up outside of the address that both Wyatt and the farms had given for Banks’s Placement Service, and checked the directory. The building was a squat row house with a brick façade and a coffee shop in the lower level. Up a narrow set of stairs were two doors, one was ironically an investigative agency, the other the placement firm.

  I knocked, because that was the polite thing to do even when dealing with potential criminals, then opened the door. The office was cleared out. A few filing cabinets stood open and empty in the corner, a huge executive-style U-shaped desk off to the side, some discarded paper clips and chewed pens scattered on the surface. The trash cans were emptied, and there was nothing that would indicate the firm had moved their operations elsewhere.

  Irix and I left, and this time he knocked on the PI’s door, swinging it open at the disembodied voice tell in us to come in.

  The inside of this office was in stark contrast to the one across the hall. One wall was lined with file cabinets that barely shut around the contents bulging from the top. This U-shaped desk was battered and so full of file folders that I couldn’t see the occupant seated behind them.

  “Can I help you?” A woman popped her head above the folders. Her gray hair had a streak of blue and was cut in a stylish bob. She wore cat-eye glasses, and instead of feeling old-fashioned they seemed a hip harkening back to the late fifties.

  “What’s up with your neighbors across the hall?” I asked. “When did they leave?”

  She sniffed. “Yesterday. Banks Placement Services, although a few months ago Aaron put a little addition to the name on the door that said Magical Interventions. No idea what the heck that was about. Maybe he’d decided to become a part-time psychic or something. The placement company seemed to be doing a good business, so I was surprised.”

  “Why did they move?” Irix asked.

  Clearly they were still getting funds transferred into their bank account. Maybe their lease had run out, but I suspected Aaron Banks had a different motive to pulling up shop.

  “I assumed they were getting a bigger place or a better address, but when I asked where they were going, they said they were temporarily closing up shop.”

  “They?” I asked.

  “Aaron took on a partner about the time that stupid Magical Interventions sign went on the door.”

  Irix and I exchanged knowing glances.

  “You guys the cops?” the woman asked.

  Irix’s eyebrows shot up. “No, why?”

  “Because I think maybe they were up to something. Aaron’s been in business for seven years, renting that office space over there and he’s always done okay, but then he gets this new partner and suddenly they’re flush with cash. Then abruptly they’re throwing files and furniture into a rental truck, and running like the devil himself is after them. Embezzlement? Organized crime connections? Got on the wrong side of a gang?”

  “All of the above,” Irix said. “Did you ever meet the partner?”

  “Once. Aaron did all the client-facing work from what I could see but the partner came in to meet with him one day. Snooty guy. Tall, thin, long blond hair, accent I couldn’t place. I took him for some Eurotrash snob.”
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  “Pointy ears?” I asked.

  She laughed. “What, one of those elves everyone’s talking about but no one has seen? I didn’t see any pointy ears, but the one time I saw him he was wearing a hat. And he did have that long hair.”

  They were on the run, no doubt from two pissed-off plague demons. But they were greedy, so they’d be leaving an electronic trail to wherever they went. It gave me an idea.

  “Do you have any idea where either one lived?” It was a long shot, but I figured she could find out quicker than Wyatt could. She was a PI after all. And there was a good chance at the very least Aaron Banks hadn’t completely skipped town yet. He’d been in business in the area for a long time. Even if he didn’t have family and kids he’d need to uproot, at the very least he had a house and possessions that he wouldn’t want to just abandon, especially if he’d started spending all of that money on cars and boats and flashy clothing.

  “No idea on the partner. Heck, I don’t even know his name. But I did watch Aaron’s cat for a week once.” She wrote down an address on a sticky note, ripped it from the stack and handed me the hot-pink paper. “It’s for sale, but I’m sure the real estate agent knows how to get in contact with him.”

  We thanked her and headed out to the car, then I looked up the address on Zillow and called the agent. The property was vacant and still for sale, I set up a showing that I had no intention of going to, and when I enquired about why the previous owner had moved, she claimed he’d bought something larger out in the suburbs.

  Property search with the registrar of deeds in the two adjacent counties within a six-month time frame, and bingo. Address for a property purchased by Aaron Banks three weeks ago. And holy shit, he was moving up in the world. Aaron would be reluctant to run out on a house like that after shelling out a fortune on it. I was betting that he was either still living there and hoping no one could trace him to the new house, or he was keeping a hold on it and hiding out in some hotel. In which case, there would be lawn crew or neighbors who knew how to reach him in case something happened to his beautiful new digs.

  “You’re just as good as your brother,” Irix commented as he watched me work my magic with the cell phone.

  “Nah. This is all public record stuff. Wyatt gets the stuff that’s not public record. He hacks into bank accounts and medical information, and DMV records and corporate payroll systems.”

  And that gave me another idea. I sent a quick text asking Wyatt to do something truly illegal—reverse all of the money that had been auto-paid from all accounts to the placement service one, then block any future transfers. If anything was going to get these guys’ attention, it was draining their bank account. Plus, it gave me a sense of satisfaction to know that these elves who’d been working their butts off and living on jars of pickles and dried fruit would suddenly have their money back.

  Then I gave him Aaron Banks’s old and new addresses and asked him to dig through the cell phone services in the area and find his number. I doubted the man would be using a burner phone, since he’d want his clients and friends to be able to get a hold of him. Everyone always envisioned quickly going off the grid and vanishing if bad guys came a-calling, but that was difficult to do on a moment’s notice, and darned near impossible to do long-term. Auto registration to keep tags from becoming expired. Driver’s licenses. And don’t get me started on trying to keep everything cash-under-the-table. Unless a person went and lived in a tent under a bridge and ate out of a garbage can, or set up shop in the middle of the wilderness and grew all their own food, they were going to eventually ping somewhere on the great electronic highway. And I couldn’t see Aaron Banks, or any regular person, opting for either of those two scenarios.

  Irix and I went to get dinner, and by the time we were done, Wyatt was calling me.

  He was laughing when I picked up the phone. “You’ve got no idea how satisfying that funds reversal was. I’m texting you Aaron Banks’s phone number now.”

  I thanked Wyatt, then looked over at Irix. “We need to make a trip, after I make one quick phone call.”

  Dialing the number Wyatt had just given me, I left a message. “Hi Aaron. You don’t know me but I’m about to save your life. Check your company bank account. You’ve got no money, and some really bad guys on your ass. We don’t want you, we want your elven partner, Gallette.” I listed the address of a remote location and told the man to meet us there in thirty minutes. Then I told Irix to drive to Aaron Banks’s new home.

  “Not the address you just gave him?” Irix asked.

  “Nope. He won’t show up. He’s too scared. But with all of his accounts drained to zero, he’s going to need cash. I’m willing to bet he’s at least got a few thousand stashed in his house. He’ll grab what he can, run away, and hope he can stay away until all this settles down.”

  Irix shook his head. “You missed your calling. Forget botany, you should have been a PI.”

  We parked a few houses down and waited until Aaron Banks arrived. The man raced inside, and was back out in five minutes, stuffing something into his pants pocket as he jogged toward his car.

  My plan was to follow him in our car, but evidently Irix had another idea. Hopping out of the BMW, the incubus strolled over as if he were a neighbor out for a walk while I hissed for him to get his ass back in the car. Banks hesitated, tensing when he saw Irix. Then the man relaxed, his lips turning up in an odd smile as he returned Irix’s wave and pivoted to get into the car.

  Pheromones, helping sex demons get laid and make friends everywhere we went. Right behind the man, Irix jumped forward, grabbed him and kissed him soundly, simultaneously sending a jolt of electricity through him.

  Yeah, I could clearly see it, and I desperately hoped that other neighbors weren’t watching as Aaron Banks twitched and jerked in Irix’s arms, his head dropping limp onto the incubus’s shoulder when he’d broken their kiss.

  Scooping the man up in his arms, Irix dramatically carried him to our car. Then he crammed the man into the back seat, climbed in, shutting the car door and sitting on the human.

  “Drive.”

  I choked back a laugh and slid over to the driver’s seat, pulling the car out of the subdivision. Seconds later our captive regained consciousness and began to squirm under Irix’s weight, all the while loudly accusing us of kidnapping and offering to pay us anything, do anything as long as we didn’t give him to the demons.

  He knew. Which meant he knew a lot of other things too—things that would be very helpful for us in trying to track down the elf responsible for this mess.

  It was getting late. From Irix’s directions he clearly intended to take our captive back to my little trailer to interrogate. And while we were both fully capable of coaxing this man’s secrets from him, I wanted someone else there. I wanted the one person who’d been personally affected by this man’s scheme, who had watched a friend die at the hands of plague demons, whose entire future was tied up in this man’s company.

  About to add to the growing list of illegal things I’d done today, I picked up the phone and called Hallwyn.

  Chapter 24

  “Irix, we can’t just kidnap someone like this. What if the neighborhood had security cameras outside? You’re going to get arrested,” I whispered.

  We were back in the trailer with Aaron Banks securely taped to one of my kitchen chairs. The closer we’d gotten to my home, the more I realized we were going to be in serious trouble. Kidnapping. Assault. And what the heck were we going to do with this man once we were done questioning him? We could hardly let him go or kill him, but I didn’t like the idea of sleeping just fifteen feet from a human duct-taped to my kitchen chair.

  Irix cocked an eyebrow at me. “Seriously? I spend hundreds of years evading angels and you’re worried that a bunch of humans is going to haul me off to prison? If they saw anything it was a romantic embrace between two lovers.”

  “Then they saw you carry an unconscious body to a waiting vehicle, stuff it into the back
seat, then climb in and sit on it while I drove off. Lovely.”

  He grinned. “You’re more worried about yourself getting arrested than me, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. Yes, I am.”

  “Is this him?” Hallwyn interjected. She’d burst through the door, breathless and practically glowing with anger, then stood, juggling her weight from foot to foot while she waited impatiently for us to stop arguing.

  “Yes, this is Aaron Banks, the human half of the placement firm—”

  I gasped as Hallwyn backhanded the guy across the face. The blow was forceful enough to rock the man’s head to the side. I’ll give him credit, he didn’t do more than grunt in response.

  “Callia is dead because of you,” she snapped.

  “I don’t know who Callia is. I run a legitimate placement firm. All I’ve done is help a bunch of elves get jobs for a fee. It’s legal. And it’s a complete win-win. You elves get off that island and get a well-paying job, the businesses get an employee with a special skill set, and we get a placement fee. No different than filling a job opening for an accountant or marketing specialist. Completely legal. Completely above board. Same thing, just a special skill set.”

  “What special skill set?” I asked. “Hallwyn and the others have no skill in agriculture, yet they’ve been placed in jobs where they’re expected to heal plants and ensure a good harvest.”

  “That wasn’t my job,” he argued. “I handled the client side, and Gallette handles the elf side. He told me that he wanted clients who were in healthcare and agribusiness, so that’s what I got him. He was in charge of screening the resumes and selecting the applicants.”