“Did you enjoy your meal? More hot water for your tea? Dessert?” She gave him a wink and he chuckled at her teasing. When she acted this way, it was like old times. He hoped they could return to that relationship on a permanent basis.
“More tea and dessert would be delightful.” In a lower tone, he tacked on a question. “Can you give me the first and last names of your coworkers and any other information you know about them? Ages, birthdays, phone numbers or addresses?”
“Um…yeah. I’ll jot down whatever I can remember.”
“Good. Bring it to me as soon as you can. I’ll do some research while you work.” He pulled out his phone and began to send a message to Ryne. If the shifters he’d scented were part of the staff, it was possible Ryne would be able to find them listed in Lycan Link’s database.
Lou performed her duties very aware of Armand sitting in the corner of the room. The other girls had commented on his presence and quizzed her thoroughly about who he was, where he came from and if he was ‘hers’ or not. She firmly laid claim, not liking the idea of the others making a play for him. Not that Armand would respond…or at least she assumed he wouldn’t based on what she’d seen in Stump River.
Of course, he had been known to go on unexpected vacations, disappearing for a few days or even a week at a time, much to the distress of those who frequented the Broken Antler. Before Ryne and his crew had arrived in town and offered to help, the bar had closed down when Armand left. He’d once explained he sometimes felt the need to go hiking and liked to camp out.
Her inner voice presented an unpalatable possibility. Maybe those had been euphemisms for a rendezvous with a woman.
The idea had her giving the table she was cleaning extra vigorous wipes. Why hadn’t she thought of that before?
He’s not pretty like a model or classically handsome like an actor but there’s something about him. Other women must’ve noticed it too.
Other women. A wave of possessiveness swept over her. Glancing towards where he was sitting, she noted the subtle shifting of muscle beneath the material of his shirt, the sexy stubble on his chin, a stray dark curl that fell on his forehead. She’d always had a thing for him but now it seemed more…intense.
“Almost finished there?” Megan gave her a nudge. “We’re done in ten.”
She gave a start and nodded. “Oh. Right. And yes, I’m almost done.” A glance around the diner showed Dylan was already beginning to clean the kitchen and the last customers were paying for their meal.
The King’s Plate closed at seven, early by most standards but the noise from Bowlerama escalated as the evening progressed, discouraging late night diners. As a result, Mr. Henderson had cut back on the hours of operation saying it cost more to pay the staff than the diner was earning.
“I’ll only be a few more minutes.” She stopped by Armand’s table and gathered his tea cup and napkin.
“I’m ready when you are.” He ended whatever message he’d been sending and tucked the phone in his pocket.
By the time she was done, he was standing at the window, hands clasped behind his back.
“Ready?” He looked down at her with a smile.
“Yep, let’s blow this popsicle stand.”
“Popsicle stand?” He cocked his head.
“Just an expression.”
“Ah! Do you want to take a bus or taxi? You’re probably tired after working.”
“Tired yes, but it’s a nice evening so let’s walk.”
He seemed happy to comply and they strolled companionably through the streets, making their way to the more upscale areas, pausing to listen to some of the street musicians before continuing on their way.
“Art in the park, street musicians…your city has more activity than Stump River.”
“There’s always something to do, if that’s what you like.”
“And do you? Like all this activity?”
“Sometimes.” She shrugged.
“Hmm.” He fell silent, seeming lost in thought.
They walked for a while and she absorbed the sights and sounds of a city slowing for the evening. It was still busy but there was a different quality to it; the pace wasn’t as frenetic, the people seemed less stressed. With fewer vehicles, the air was fresher, and the roar of traffic had lessened. As the sun lowered in the sky, the windows on the high rises began to reflect the changing colours of the sky, while at street level the neon lights of the bars, restaurants and theatres became more noticeable against the lengthening shadows.
She sighed, allowing herself to relax and take it all in.
It’s not the same as home, the voice in her head pointed out. There are no crickets chirping, no rustling of trees. The stars in the dark velvet of the sky are hard to see and no one waves from a porch and offers a cup of coffee and conversation.
Yes, Chicago was different, but it was also good if you opened up and embraced it.
Could Armand ever do that?
She studied him out of the corner of her eye, trying to picture him living here but the image wouldn’t come together in her mind. Skyscrapers kept being replaced by towering pines and paved roads morphed into leaf covered pathways through the woods. A wave of sadness washed over her and she forced herself to change her line of thought, not wanting the night ruined by maudlin musings.
She cleared her throat. “Did you find out any information about Jeff or Gin or Kathy while you were waiting for me?”
“No, not yet. Ryne’s checking.”
“Ryne seems to have access to a lot of information, doesn’t he?”
“He’s a resourceful man.”
She was curious as to what those resources were, but they’d already arrived at her apartment building.
Armand glanced around. “We’re home with no unexpected adventures.”
“That makes for a nice change. Do you want to come up for dinner? Or maybe you’re still full from what you ate at the diner?”
“I’m sure I could eat something. And you haven’t had a proper meal yet.”
“Okay.” She did a mental inventory of the contents of the fridge. “We have leftover Chinese from last night and I think there might be a steak in the freezer, provided Roxi the ravenous hasn’t eaten it yet.”
Somewhere in Chicago…
“What the fuck are we going to do? The others are tired of waiting.”
“It’s not like we haven’t been trying.” Defensive tones laced the words.
“Trying isn’t good enough. They want results. I want results.” Pacing began, quick angry steps that circled the room.
“We need a plan. A good plan that’s carefully thought through.
“Blah, blah, blah. I’m getting sick of your caution.”
“If we’re caught the information will be lost forever.”
The statement was met with a snort. “If we don’t get our hands on it soon, it will be useless.”
“True.” Shoulders slumped.
“I say it’s time we upped the ante.”
“Exactly how far?”
“As far as we have to.”
Chapter 16
Roxi stared at Lulu and Armand, doing her best to look innocent. “Honestly, the leftover Chinese and the steak just…disappeared.”
“Into a bottomless pit.” Lulu shook her head. “Sorry Armand, we’re down to a can of soup and a TV dinner.”
He didn’t look impressed.
“Okay, in reparation, how about I take you both out for dinner?” Roxi relented, realizing this could very well play into her hands.
“I thought you said you didn’t know where the food went.” Lulu folded her arms. “Reparation means you’re feeling guilty so you must have done something wrong.”
“Well…”
“It’s very generous of you,” Armand inclined his head. “However, I can pay for the meal.”
She beamed at him. “I’m liking you more and more, Armand. I’ll pick the restaurant and you pay; that seems like an equal division of duties, doesn’t it?”
>
Lulu opened her mouth to speak but Armand agreed and Roxi began to organize them.
“Great! I’ll get cleaned up. Lulu, you go get changed and Armand…” She waved her hand around, “you do whatever you want. We’ll meet back in five minutes. I’m starved!”
“Take your time.” Armand pulled out his phone. “I have messages to deal with.”
It took slightly longer than five minutes to get ready but eventually they were heading out again, Roxi leading the way to a small place she knew.
“They serve great pasta with fresh baked bread and salad. And it’s all you can eat night!” She extoled the virtues of the place she’d chosen while mentally planning her strategy. “A family friend owns it so I know we’ll get a good table and great service.”
“All you can eat? Between you and Armand, he’ll be losing money before the night is over,” Lulu warned.
“Nah, pasta is cheap and besides, I’d never do anything bad to a friend. Plus, I already had a...er…snack earlier. I won’t be at my prime for eating.”
The other two looked at her in amazement and she shrugged. Her hyper metabolism had always been a source of amazement; the calories she consumed never seeming to impact her size. She attributed it to the fact that her brain was always coming up with new ideas. All those synapses firing had to use up a lot of energy.
As it wasn’t too far to the restaurant, they’d opted to walk. She shoved her hands in her pockets and cast a sidelong look at Lulu and Armand. They were holding hands but not acting too mushy, thankfully. She tried to ignore them, keeping herself amused by studying the contents of the store windows. While it was still August, signs of fall were appearing in the displays; apples and coloured leaves and back to school supplies. She liked fall and lingered for a moment at an especially elaborate arrangement.
“Look Armand,” Lulu paused as well. “Whenever I see red leaves it reminds me of that story you once told me about the bear in the sky.”
“A bear in the sky?” Roxi turned to look at him. “I didn’t know bears could fly.”
“It’s an old tale about three hunters who chased a bear into the sky. They eventually turned into the stars that form the Big Bear constellation.” Armand explained.
“It’s sad, too.” Lucy added. “The hunters shoot the bear and his blood lands on the trees turning the leaves red.”
“Blood? Eww.” She made a face. “Thanks for ruining my enjoyment of coloured leaves.”
“Sorry,” Lulu gave her an apologetic smile.
“But it’s not the end of the bear.” Armand continued the tale. “The bear rises from its bones and the chase begins again, the hunters following him through the sky for another year.”
“Can’t keep a good bear down, can you?” She slid him a look and was going to comment further but the restaurant was in sight and food took priority over trying to get a rise out of Armand.
Pietro’s Pasta Palace was a small restaurant despite the name and didn’t look that impressive from outside, but the food more than made up for the atmosphere and those who lived in the area knew it. As usual, there was a line outside.
“Don’t worry,” she assured her friends as she breezed to the front of the line, ignoring the glares of those she passed. “Hey Bella!”
Bella was the co-owner and current guardian of the door. “Roxi! I got your text. There’s a table for three in the corner. You know the way.” She ushered them inside.
“You seem to have connections,” Armand noted.
“Roxi is always pulling out some relationship or friendship, it seems,” Lulu explained as she sat in the chair Armand held for her.
“Interesting.”
Roxi smiled innocently as Armand pinned her with a speculative stare. He was beginning to get suspicious of her. Damn shifters never took anything at face value. And, of course, she wasn’t good at being subtle. What you see is what you get; that was more her style. If people chose not to believe what was right before their eyes, that wasn’t her problem.
They placed their orders and made appreciative noises as a basket of fresh baked bread was set on the table.
“Dig in.” She grabbed a slice and slathered it with butter.
The meal progressed as Armand regaled them with stories of happenings at the bar he ran. She loved his accent and could have listened to him read a dictionary but thankfully the Broken Antler seemed an endless source of entertaining anecdotes. In fact, the whole town was rather quirky. She supposed small places were like that. Chicago had its fair share of characters as well, but they were lost in the mass of humanity.
“The dog really uses the crosswalk?” She leaned back in her chair feeling pleasantly full.
“He does.” Lulu took a sip of her wine, her cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling. “Ryne sat down and talked to him one day and ever since then Harley’s obeyed the traffic lights.”
“This Ryne guy talked to the dog? That’s…fascinating.” Her gaze drifted to Armand. “Isn’t it?”
Armand’s expression remained bland, but she knew she’d made her point.
“Do you want more wine?” She took the carafe that sat in the middle of the table and poured more into Lulu’s glass even before she answered.
“Oh, I really have had enough.” Lulu pushed her chair back. “In fact, I need to use the washroom. Watch my purse for me, okay?”
Roxi held back a smile. Her plan was working. Lulu would head to the restroom and she and Armand could spend some time getting to know each other.
“Lulu seems really pleased you came to visit. I’ve never seen her this happy.”
“Despite the wine you’ve been plying her with?” Armand quirked his brow.
“You noticed that, huh?”
“I did. However, I agree she’s changed over the few days I’ve been here. Now she’s more like the Lucy I knew; laughing and relaxed, not so controlled.”
“She told me once that she’d made mistakes in her life and was starting over fresh.”
He nodded. “She said as much to me, too. However, Lucy isn’t what we need to be talking about, is it?”
“Right. We do seem to have a certain something in common besides her.”
They eyed each other across the table, neither wanting to play their cards first. This is what she sucked at though. She’d never been the patient kind and cracked first.
“We need to talk about the…Others.”
“Yes, we do.” He leaned forward clasping his hands on the table. “We’re not always what we appear on the outside, are we?”
“True for you at least. I believe you have an affinity for…bears?”
“And you find the caricatures of Halloween witches annoying.”
“To some extent. My family does. Me, not so much.”
He cocked his head. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
She scowled then hitched her chair closer to his and spoke in the quietest voice possible. “Screw all this pussyfooting around and talking in code crap. I know you’re a bear and you know I’m a witch. Well, a demi-witch.”
“Demi?”
“No longer functioning. I showed a few sparks of promise as a child and then it fizzled into nothing.” She waved her hand. “That’s not the important point. What matters is the contents of the flash drive.”
“Industrial espionage; that’s what I told Lucy.”
“Yeah and you lie like a rug. A great big bear rug.”
“And what makes you think that?”
“I have a side business. I engage in information exchange, especially the kind that has to do with Others.”
“I fail to see what this has to do with the USB drive.”
“Listen, I suspected what you were the moment I met you.”
He shook his head. “Witches don’t possess the ability to detect shifters.”
“I’ve spent enough time around your kind to know the signs, though you do seem to have better manners than a lot of them.”
“My mother insisted her sons knew how
to be gentlemen.”
“Huh. Anyway, I figured if you were a shifter, the friend you contacted was probably a shifter. And then, when you said it was industrial espionage that clinched it. If it really was just human stuff, you’d have handed it over to the cops or sent it to them anonymously in the mail, but you didn’t!” She leaned back pleased with her deductive skills.
Armand, disappointingly, did not seem impressed. “That’s it? I fail to see the connection.”
“Well,” she frowned, “there are a few more details.”
“Such as?”
Damn, she hated sharing all her information at once, especially when she wasn’t getting paid for it. However, the good thing about information was that it could be sold over and over again with the buyers being none the wiser. “Okay, I’ll spill. Have you ever heard of Club Mystique?”
“I’ve heard the name in passing. One of my cousins works there as a bouncer.”
“Let me guess. Rudi?”
He nodded.
“Well, in case he didn’t explain, it’s a place for Others to gather, a bar. Nothing special, though the owner is starting to swank it up a bit. Anyway, I hang out there, picking up bits of info.”
“Eavesdropping.”
“Information acquisition.”
“It’s not honourable.” There was a look of distaste on his face that rankled.
“Honourable, schmonourable, it gets me extra cash. You think I can live on what I make at a dry-cleaners?”
“I have no idea.”
“Well, I can’t so I do what I have to do, all right?”
He didn’t reply. Stuffy, judgemental bear!
She took a deep breath and got her attitude back under control. “I was at the club the other night and overheard something about sensitive information pertaining to Lycan Link. Someone inside the organization is selling it to the highest bidder. I put two and two together and decided that must be the data on the flash drive Lulu found.”
“That’s quite a leap; the USB could have come from anywhere.”
“Yeah, well my mind works in wild and wonderous ways.” She waggled her fingers to simulate her brain waves, then cocked her head. “So, am I right? That flash drive is full of Lycan Link secrets, right?”
Wolves, Witches and Bears...Oh My! Page 89