by Ivy Sinclair
All other thoughts blew out of Nina’s mind when she saw the man the police escorted out of the building. How could she ever forget that face? Eric Carmichael had been her one great love. Of course, she hadn’t been his. He had proved that quite effectively by crushing her heart to pieces and stomping on it.
What was Eric being arrested for? Murder?
In track shorts and t-shirt, it looked as if he had just finished a run. Eric was a maniac when it came to running. She could see his hands were clasped behind his back. He was in handcuffs. There were dark streaks of red covering his clothes. Eric was covered in blood. As the flashes of cameras went off all around him, Eric defiantly stared straight ahead. He didn’t acknowledge the assembled crowd or answer any of the questions the reporters threw at him.
Nina watched the scene until Eric was shoved into a squad car waiting at the curb. The police pushed back the reporters, telling them to buzz off. Then the squad car pulled away and was gone.
Nina pulled out her phone. She opened the police scanner app on her phone. It came in handy during her line of work. She heard the first tinny voice come over the speaker. “Unit 51, what’s your status?”
“Homicide suspect in custody, and we are enroute.”
“The media is all over this place. Did somebody call them?”
“If it’s Eric Carmichael, there was no way we were going to keep a lid on it. Can you believe it?”
Nina could understand the incredulous tone of the question. Eric was many things, but he was not somebody that she would ever suspect of being capable of killing someone.
She flipped off the TV and the police scanner. It would do her no good to get involved in anything to do with Eric. She had spent three years trying to forget about him. It proved difficult, considering Eric seemed to be in the headlines often. If he wasn’t doing something with his company, the Urban Dwellers were on the front page news for some fundraiser or another. It made it increasingly difficult to heal a broken heart when the face of your heartbreak was plastered all over the news on a regular basis.
She looked around the room and realized that Carlos had disappeared. She began her search and found him in his bedroom. Despite the whirlwind of thoughts in her mind, she had to smile. He was sitting on the floor in the middle of his room with a shirt and a pair of pants on. It was not the outfit that Mia had picked out, and it didn’t even match. The shirt was purple, and the pants were camouflage green, but she was proud of the kid for at least trying. She decided that she would leave him in it, and Mia would have to deal with it.
As she maneuvered Carlos to the daycare several blocks away, she deliberately avoided looked at any TVs in the windows of the shops and restaurants they passed. She was intensely curious, though. She knew that she could just call up a few sources she had in the police department to get the scoop on what was happening, but she reminded herself that she couldn’t get involved. Her heart was just too fragile, and she preferred to let Eric remain in her memories as an asshole. She didn’t want to think about him as a murderer.
Her cell phone started to buzz after she dropped Carlos off at daycare. She saw the number. It was her friend, Maggie O’Hara. Maggie worked in the DA’s office, and she was one of Nina’s many sources. Whatever happened with Eric’s case, Maggie would probably be part of it. Maggie’s reputation preceded her. It seemed she was the prosecutor on all of the big shifter murder cases these days.
Nina reluctantly answered the phone. “Hey Maggie. How’s the DA’s office these days?” She tried to keep her tone neutral.
“Hello to you too, Nina. I haven’t worked for the DA for almost two weeks,” Maggie said. “I’m fine. How are you?”
“Oh, never better. On my way to the office,” Nina said. In all actuality, she was on her way back to her apartment, which also served as her office. She hadn’t been able to come up with enough money to make the last month’s rent on her office space, so she had gotten evicted. It wasn’t something she was publicizing. She had started meeting her clients in coffee shops to cover for her lack of appearing as a professional.
“Well, I need your help. I’m on a case, and I’m going to need your assistance.”
Nina was impressed. Maggie was one hell of a lawyer, and it sounded like she had finally gotten a position working for someone who could afford to pay her what she was worth. She knew the DA’s office paid squat. It was something she would have to ask Maggie about later. “I could probably squeeze you in this afternoon,” she said.
It wasn’t as if she was that busy, but she tried to keep up appearances. Nina and Maggie had been friends for just over a year and a half. She met the former assistant DA on one of her frequent trips to the police station for information, and the two women had hit it off. Maggie enjoyed a shot of hard liquor just like Nina did. It was one of the many common bonds they shared.
“I need to see you in two hours, if possible. I’ll pay you extra for it,” Maggie said.
“I guess I can make that,” Nina said trying to make it sound as if was going to be difficult. She looked down at her clothes. She figured she’d better swing by home and get out of her sweats and T-shirt. Since she hadn’t planned to meet any clients that day, she hadn’t gotten bothered with the professional get-up.
“Great. Can you meet me at this address?” She rattled off an address that Nina wasn’t familiar with.
“Sure. Can you tell me any details about what the case is about?” She was relieved, at least, to know that it had nothing to do with Eric. If it had, there was no way the police would let him out of jail that quickly, plus Maggie prosecuted shifters. She didn’t work for them.
“I can’t get into anything over the phone. I’ll see you then.” Maggie hung up.
Nina stared at the phone. It wasn’t like Maggie to be so abrupt. She thought that if Maggie had gotten a new job, she wouldn’t be as stressed as she had been at the old job. Nina shrugged. She supposed it wasn’t up to her to say what was good for her friend or not.
She made her way home and pulled her one nice suit out of the closet. It was what she usually wore when she met clients for the first time. She grabbed a cup of coffee as she walked out the door. She made sure she had everything that she needed. Her hand was on the doorknob when she saw the sign lying next to the front door. It had hung on the door of her former office for five years.
Nina Rodriguez, Private Investigator
The twisted part about the whole thing was that Nina was actually really good at her job. The niche that she had found herself in just didn’t pay that well. Nina had a growing part of her business that had to do with paranormal investigations.
People came to her when they were desperate and had no one else to turn to who would believe them. Nina always believed them. But often, by the time they got to her, they had wiped out their resources and savings, and so she would often accept barters for her services. Unfortunately, while that usually kept her fed, it didn’t put actual dollars in her bank account.
She was such a sucker. It was one of the many things that she and Eric had argued about. The list had grown dauntingly long during their short time together.
Eric ran a successful multi-billion dollar company and had no problem offering unsolicited advice on how she should run hers. He frequently told her that she should find another line of work that paid better. Where Nina always believed her clients, Eric thought it was all a load of bullshit. Then there was the fact that Eric was a shifter, and Nina had sworn to keep her life shifter-free after what happened with her older brother Tomas when she was in high school. But the worst was that she always thought Eric was ashamed of her. He was rich and came from a blue-blood, elitist family. She was a poor Latina girl from the wrong side of the tracks.
No matter how much he told her he wanted her, the way he behaved made Nina feel like she was second rate and second best. When she finally got the nerve to talk to him about it, he clammed up. After a particularly nasty fight, he stopped calling, and then he turned up with s
omeone else at several high-profile events where they were photographed together. Just like that, Eric and Nina were done.
She was better off without him. That was what she told herself anyways. Other than that one epic blowout fight at the end, Eric had always been nothing but the perfect gentleman and a smoking hot roll in the sack. Sometimes, late at night, when she couldn’t sleep, she remembered Eric’s touch on her body. That was one thing that they had always been able to do well.
Why was she thinking about Eric? This was exactly why she had shut off the story on the news that morning. If he had killed somebody, and he was going to jail because of it, he was getting what was coming to him. It wasn’t like she cared anymore because she didn’t.
She gave the taxi driver the address that Maggie gave her, and then she leaned back. She closed her eyes and thought about the rest of the day. Depending on what Maggie was throwing her way, she was going to have to think about asking Mia to pick up Carlos from daycare, even though she knew that Mia was supposed to work late.
She had been trying to do her best to help her sister, as Mia had recently gotten divorced and was trying to cope with being a single mom. They lost their parents when they were little, and her grandparents had raised the three of them. Losing Tomas and then both her grandparents over the course of just a few short years had been a devastating blow. Nina valued family above all else, and she wanted to do whatever she could for Mia to make her life easier.
After watching the battles and shouting matches going on between Mia and her ex-husband over custody of Carlos, and seeing just how nastily people treated the people they supposedly loved, she was just glad that was at least one thing she didn’t have to worry about when it came to Eric.
A broken heart was just a broken heart. It was a wound that you could carry around, but it wasn’t visible to other people. There were no ties between them, so once it was over, she never had to see him again.
The taxi driver turned around and said something to her, and that was when Nina realized they had arrived at their destination. She looked out the window. It was a nondescript building she had never seen before. She glanced through the windshield and noticed that they were not in the best area of town. She was tempted to tell the driver to wait for her. Then she shook herself. Maggie wouldn’t have asked her to go somewhere that wasn’t safe.
She paid the driver, got out of the taxi, and walked up to the door. There was no one around, and yet she felt eyes on her. She raised her fist to knock on the door, but before she could, it was opened by the largest man she had ever seen. He looked like one of those bodyguards she saw in mafia hitman movies. He stared down at her and said nothing.
“I’m here to see Maggie O’Hara?” Nina surely hoped this wasn’t Maggie’s new office. Maggie deserved a raise and a fancy new office in some high-rise building downtown. Not this crappy place. The man nodded and then turned to the side so she could move around him. She walked inside and saw that she was standing in a waiting room that look like it could easily be transported to any luxury office building downtown. She never would have guessed by the outside that the inside was so nice. There was a woman sitting at a receptionist desk who looked up at her expectantly.
Nina felt disoriented. There was something strange about the whole situation that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. She had to put her game face on before she met with Maggie. She crossed the room with a confident stride.
“Ms. Rodriguez, I presume?” the woman asked.
“Yes?” Nina wanted to smack herself. She sounded uncertain. That was one thing she never wanted to appear. She wanted to appear nonchalant and completely in control.
“You can go ahead and go back,” the woman said. “It’s the door at the end of the hallway. They are expecting you.”
They?
Nina nodded to the woman as if this tidbit of information wasn’t a complete surprise. She followed the woman’s instructions and found herself in a long, narrow hallway. There were closed doors on either side of her. She could hear voices on the other side, but she had no idea what they were saying. She arrived at the door at the end of the hallway. It was closed as well. She rapped softly on it, wondering what she would find on the other side.
The door opened. When she saw Maggie standing there, Nina sighed in relief. Maggie gave her a tight hug, and that was when Nina saw the three men standing in the room over Maggie’s shoulder. She froze. “What the hell?”
At the same time that she said her words, she heard it in stereo with a slightly different variation.
“What the fuck?” There was one thing about Eric. He used cursing like other people used adjectives. It was something she had grown accustomed to when they were together, but it had been a long time. Hearing his voice again was jarring. She saw Maggie’s look of confusion as she looked between the two of them.
“Do you two know each other?”
“I’m sorry, Maggie. I can’t help you,” Nina said suddenly. She spun on her heel wanting to catapult herself back down the hallway. She heard him coming behind her.
“You are already here. You might as well listen.” His voice was low and taut, as if he was holding himself back from pouncing on her. It made her insides feel weak.
Nina’s mind was a whirlwind of chaos. She wasn’t ready to see him again. She wasn’t ready to face him. The situation had completely spun off of the rails.
She heard Maggie’s voice then. “Nina, we need your help. Please come back.”
She closed her eyes and counted to ten. She was a professional, and it had been three years. Would she give Eric the satisfaction of knowing how deeply their break-up had affected her? She also trusted Maggie. Taking a deep breath, Nina turned back around and slowly crept back into the room. Once again, she was face-to-face with the three Urban Dwellers.
She had only met Tony and Kyle a couple of times. It was usually when they were already out and Eric needed to do something at the club before they went back to his place. She wasn’t even sure that the other two men would remember her. The three of them together formed a daunting presence, but the awkwardness in the room was obvious.
“You didn’t tell me your private investigator friend was Nina Rodriguez,” Tony said to Maggie. Eric remained silent.
“I didn’t know that was relevant,” Maggie said, crossing her arms over her chest.
Nina sensed that there was something between these two, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, even if she wanted to focus on it. It took everything inside of her to keep her feet planted to the floor while Eric stood there, staring at her as if it was the first time he’d ever seen her.
“So I take it you’ve heard the news,” Eric said the words as if they were being ground out of his mouth.
“I did. Did you do it?” Nina couldn’t help herself from being a smartass. She saw Maggie’s mouth fall open at her rudeness. The looks the two other men exchanged told her that they were less than pleased at her comment. Maybe she could get herself fired before they even hired her.
“Let’s sit down and talk,” Maggie suggested. She motioned to Nina to have a seat on the couch in the corner of the room. The men dragged three chairs over to form an awkward circle.
“It would be helpful for me to understand how you know my client, just to ensure there isn’t any conflict of interest,” Maggie said formally.
“Since when do you represent shifters?” Nina asked her friend incredulously. She heard a growl. She wasn’t sure which man it came from, though. They all looked agitated. Nina had to control her emotions, but it was proving difficult.
“I started working for the CAF Foundation a few days ago,” Maggie said. “But that’s irrelevant. Do you have an association with Mr. Carmichael that I should be aware of?”
“Not anymore,” Nina said. She felt like she was the one on trial all of a sudden.
“What the fuck difference does that make? Why are we digging into our past? This is about what happened this morning.” Eric stood and s
tarted to pace the room.
“This is your client. Really?” she asked Maggie. She could see that Maggie was having a hard time talking. Finally, Maggie took her arm and pulled her to her feet, and they stood up. “Gentlemen, I think it might be best if Ms. Rodriguez and I have this conversation without the three of you present.”
“This is my office. If you want to have a private girls’ chat, you can use the office down the hall,” Eric growled.
Tony stood up then. He put a hand on Eric’s shoulder even though Eric tried to brush it away. “We need to let Maggie do her job.” He looked at Maggie. “We’ll be in the back. Call me when you need us.” He dragged Eric out of the room, followed by Kyle bringing up the rear.
Maggie looked at Nina. “I think we have a lot to catch up on.”
Nina felt as if she could finally catch her breath. “Indeed, we do.”
CHAPTER THREE
“The Back” referred to the small restaurant in the back of the building, set behind their office space. It was a small space that had a low-slung bar and only six tables. It catered exclusively to shifters, and it was obscenely expensive. That was because all the food at The Back was served cold and raw: raw meats of every variety that anyone could ever ask for. It was food that was never going to be available on traditional menus in integrated restaurants. The Urban Dwellers had discovered a niche market and served it. There were several restaurants just like it all over the city, and it was just one of many side endeavors they had created to meet the needs of shifters.
Today, though, it was empty. Eric knew why.
The shifters weren’t going to come anywhere near any of the Urban Dwellers’ underground businesses until things settled down. He was still stunned at what had happened on today, of all days. He had no idea what the fuck had happened. One minute, he had been on top of the world. The next, he was being arrested for killing a woman that he thought had been dead already for the last eighteen years.