Hard Bitten - Chloe Neill [26]
“The forecast is strong.”
“Call me if you need backup,” Catcher said.
“Of course,” I agreed, but I actually had an idea about that, as well. After all, Jonah had been offered up as a partner.
“And if you do go,” Catcher added, “look for identifying information, listen for any word about how they’re contacting vamps or identifying humans.”
“Will do.”
“You want me to find Chuck before you leave?” Jeff asked.
I waved him off. “No worries. He’s busy. Let him handle his open house.”
“I’m pretty sure I can manage a job and family both,” said a gravelly voice at the door. I glanced back and smiled as my grandfather walked into the office. He was dressed up tonight, having traded in the long-sleeved plaid shirt for a corduroy blazer. But he’d stuck with the khaki pants and thick-soled grandpa shoes.
He walked over to where I sat at the edge of the desk and planted a kiss on my forehead. “How’s my favorite vampire?”
I put an arm around his waist and gave him a half hug. “Are there any others in the running?”
“Now that you mention it, no. They tend to be rather high maintenance.”
“Amen,” Catcher and Jeff simultaneously said.
I gave them a snarky look.
“What brings you to our neck of the woods?”
“I was filling in Catcher and Jeff about our latest drama. Long story short, black ops and raves two-point-oh.”
He grimaced. “That wouldn’t thrill me even if I weren’t your grandfather.”
“Nope,” I agreed.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news myself,” he said, “but your father tells me you haven’t spoken in a few weeks.”
I didn’t care for my father, but I cared even less for the fact that he’d put my grandfather in the middle of our feud.
“Actually, I saw him leaving the mayor’s home last night. We had a very pleasant exchange,” I assured my grandfather.
“Good girl,” he said with a smile.
I hopped off the desk. It was time to get the rest of the investigative show on the road. “I need to run, and you need to get back to your party, so I’ll let them fill you in on the details.”
“As if there’s a chance I could avoid it,” my grandfather said. He hugged me one more time, then let me go.
I said my goodbyes and walked back to the front door, the river trolls nodding at me when I passed as if I’d been vetted. Not as a vampire, maybe, but at least the granddaughter of a man they trusted.
Friends in high places definitely helped—especially if you had enemies in even higher spots.
My phone rang just as I was getting back into my car. I pulled the door shut and flipped it open. It was Mallory.
“Hey, Blue Hair. What’s up?”
She didn’t speak, but she immediately began sobbing.
“Mal, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“Catharsis,” she said. “It’s one of those catharsis cries.”
I blew out a breath. I’d been prepared to squeal tires in the rush to get to her if she’d been in danger. But every girl knows the importance of a cathartic cry—when you aren’t necessarily crying over something specific, but because everything has worked itself into a giant, contorted knot.
“Anything you want to talk about?”
“Kind of. Not really. I don’t know. Can you meet me?”
“Of course. Where are you?”
She sniffed. “I’m still in Schaumburg. I’m at the Goodwin’s off I-90. I know it’s far away, but could you meet me out here? Do you have time?”
Goodwin’s was one of those ubiquitous twenty-four-hour restaurants that you saw in office parks and hotel parking lots. The kind frequented by senior citizens at four in the afternoon and teenagers at midnight. I wouldn’t call Mallory a foodie, but she definitely had an interest in hip cuisine. If we were meeting at a Goodwin’s, she wanted either bland food or anonymity.
I wasn’t crazy about either option.
“I’m just leaving the Ombud’s office. It’ll take me about forty-five to get there. That okay?”
“Yeah. I’m studying. I’ll be here.”
The studying explained the choice of restaurants. We said our goodbyes and I looked back at the office door for a minute, wondering if I should head back in and warn Catcher that his girl was a stressball. But I was a BFF, and there was a code of honor. A protocol. She’d called