Jack got the impression that Kiki lived a rather conservative life. She didn’t drink. She dressed somewhat primly at work, and even at home. She was wearing jeans, but they weren’t skin tight or a designer label, and the blouse was the same one she’d had on under her business suit. A high-necked number that was about as plain as plain could be. Just a shell, really. In a prim pink that made her look like a kindergarten teacher.
Jack suddenly liked the idea of corrupting her a bit. He wanted to see what she looked like when she really let her hair down. That silky-looking golden hair was still drawn back, off her face, and secured somehow at the back of her head, just as it had been earlier in the day. Did she never wear it loose? Suddenly, Jack wanted to know the answer to that question more than anything, but it wasn’t something he could just ask. He’d have to find another way to discover all her intimate secrets. The wine might help there.
The waitress came, and Jack placed his order for three different appetizers, a bottle of the Maxwell Chianti, and what was advertised on the menu as a fish feast for himself, with a giant side of pasta. Kiki added her own comparatively small order of baked gnocchi before the waitress left the table.
“I hope you don’t expect me to eat half of those appetizers. I usually take home half the gnocchi and eat it the next day for lunch,” she told him, laughing.
“You should at least try some of them,” he told her. “I’ve had those little rolled up eggplant things before, and if these are anything like those were, you’ll be glad you tried it.”
“Where did you have them?” she asked, slightly altering the trajectory of the conversation.
“New York,” he answered truthfully. He’d traveled widely with his brothers, and one memorable trip had taken them all to New York to help out with a werewolf turf war that had been instigated by a local mage who was toying with the city wolves to carve out more territory for himself and his followers. “There’s a lot of great Italian places in Little Italy. We’d eat there then stroll to Chinatown for dessert. Or the opposite way around.” He shrugged. “There are a lot of good restaurants downtown in Manhattan.
“I’ve never been there,” she said, looking down, but not before he caught the dreamy look of wanderlust in her eyes. This was a woman who wanted to travel, but who had likely never had the chance.
The waitress returned with the chilled bottle of wine and made a production out of opening it at the table for them. It might be a small, local restaurant in a backwater town, but they did things right, he noted approvingly. The waitress offered him the first sip, and he nodded in accordance with the ritual he had learned years ago when his older brother had been on a vintage wine kick.
They’d been hired to ferret out a swindle happening in one of Maxwell Vineyards’ distribution channels, and his brother, Ace, had taken to the hoity-toity wine world like the proverbial duck to water. He’d left the grunt work to King and Jack on that mission, but it had all worked out. The miscreant who was diverting cases of Maxwell’s best was among the elite wine sniffers, as King called them, and Ace had done the actual take-down while the two younger brothers had been the muscle in the warehouse.
As he’d expected, the Chianti was up to Maxwell’s standard of excellence. The Napa Valley vineyard wasn’t known as one of the best in the world for nothing. Only the magical folk, living in secret among regular, clueless humans, knew that Maxwell, himself, was an ancient vampire. It was rumored—and Jack knew it to be fact—that vampires could drink wine. The fermented fruit of the vine was their last link with the sun, and it healed them. They still drank blood, of course, but they drank wine in public. Much more civilized, Jack thought with a private smile.
The waitress poured a glass for Kiki, and he raised his to clink against hers in silent toast, inviting her to take a sip. He watched the jewel red liquid flow over her luscious lips. They looked so soft and full. He wanted desperately to kiss those lips, but he knew it was too soon. This fragile little homebody would be scared off like a gazelle under a lion’s gaze if he moved too quickly. He counseled his inner bear to patience.
Then, he had to remind his human half that she was still a suspect. Though, more and more, he just couldn’t picture Kiki as having a sinister bone in her body. A naïve one, maybe, but not anything crooked or evil. If she was playing him for a fool, she was a master at it. Personally, he thought she was on the level, but he still had to be cautious around her until he figured out more about what was going on in her workplace.
If he’d learned anything today, he’d at least been able to confirm that magic was definitely afoot there. Not wholesome, good magic. More toward the other side of the spectrum, but it was hard for him to see. He’d have better luck in his fur, later, but for now, he would ply the pretty woman with wine and see if she would be indiscreet and help him do his job by spilling all she knew.
“This is really quite good,” she said, lowering the glass after a rather large sip.
“Maxwell’s is one of the finest vineyards in the country. He’d say the world,” Jack corrected himself, putting his glass down.
“You’ve met the man who makes this wine?” Kiki asked, her eyes wide.
“Once or twice. We did a job for him a few years ago. My brothers and I are troubleshooters. We’ve worked for various concerns over the years.” That was one way of putting it, Jack thought with inward amusement. “Maxwell is scary but fair. At least, that’s how my brother, Ace, summed him up. We all agreed.”
“How many brothers do you have?” She took another sip of her wine, appearing a bit nervous as they made small talk while they waited for the food to start arriving.
“Just two, but they’re enough.” He chuckled, and she joined in, as he’d hoped. He didn’t like seeing her ill at ease. The furry bastard inside him wanted to reach across the table and soothe her, but he couldn’t. Too soon. Way too soon, he warned his bear side.
“I have three brothers and three sisters,” she volunteered abruptly. Kiki wasn’t skilled at the small talk, he was coming to realize.
Jack didn’t mind. He wasn’t usually much of a talker himself, though he had picked up some social skills he used on missions… Like this one. He had to keep reminding himself that he was here to do a job, not romance a woman.
“Wow. Six siblings? That’s a lot,” he commented, reaching over to top up her glass.
She was sipping nervously, which depleted the glass faster than was probably advisable, but he wasn’t going to say anything. If she got drunk and spilled all her secrets, it would save him having to wheedle them out of her some other way.
“My family, historically, were Anabaptists. You know, like Amish?” She seemed even more nervous revealing that tidbit.
Perhaps she’d faced ridicule or rude questions over the years about her background. Well, Jack was the last person to make fun of someone’s family history. Not when his parents, who had worked as dealers in the big casinos in Tahoe for a long time, had decided to name him and his brothers after playing cards.
“I don’t know much about Amish people, except I think I remember that they often have large families,” he commented, hoping his words were innocuous enough to put her more at ease.
She smiled, and he was glad he’d opted to keep things light. “Yes, exactly,” she said, nodding at him. “We’re not Amish anymore, but I guess old habits die hard. My family still lives on the farm, and most of our neighbors are still members of the faith, even though our grandparents broke away from the religion many years ago. We still live pretty plainly, though we do embrace technology like cars and computers and mechanized farm equipment for our land.” She blushed a bit and looked down. “You must think us very backward with the exciting life you lead. I mean, the farthest I’ve ever been is Pittsburgh.”
“Traveling isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” he told her.
“Where do you live? What’s your home base?” she asked, seeming truly interested.
“Well, if you’d asked me that a few months ago, I’d have said Phoenix, Arizona, but both of my brothers recently married and moved to Grizzly Cove, Washington, where SeaLife Enterprises is headquartered. That’s how I got this job,” he said, knowing there was much more to the story that he might never be able to tell her.
This girl was human, through and through. Of Amish ancestry, for goodness sake. No way she knew anything about magic, or things that went bump in the night—either rhetorical or sexual. Everything about her screamed prim and proper. Hands off.
“So, both your brothers are married?” she asked, surprising him. He’d have thought she’d ask more about work. That was the safer topic, after all. Instead, she’d chosen to delve into personal information. Interesting.
“Yeah, Ace met Sabrina first. She’s from Canada, originally. They got paired up, and when King was on his way to visit them, he stopped to escort Sabrina’s best friend, Marilee. King and Marilee hit it off, which nobody expected, and they tied the knot next. I went to see all of them and got roped into this job. The three of us used to work as a team. I have to admit, being on my own on this mission is a bit daunting. I’m used to having my brothers around for backup.”
Damn. He’d said more than he’d intended. And he’d used the word mission. Had she noticed?
“When my brother, Arthur, got married, and then Brendan and James followed soon after, I felt a bit abandoned, if I’m honest. They wanted the simple life on a farm, but I wanted more. I left for college, and it was really hard to be away from home for the first time ever, a plain girl in a dorm that was a bit of a madhouse, if I’m honest.” She smiled and rolled her eyes, her cheeks flushing a becoming pink. “I missed them all, but I managed. I’m the youngest of the first group, then my folks took a break. The twins came along about ten years later. A bit of a surprise, you might say.” Her blush deepened, and he was entranced.
The waitress returned with the appetizers and Jack encouraged Kiki to at least try a little of each of the dishes he’d ordered. He ate quickly, noting she’d been right about the quality of this restaurant. Everything was delicious. The ingredients were fresh and top-notch, and the chef had done a stellar job putting everything together.
Jack was sure to keep Kiki’s wineglass topped up. She was drinking steadily and was already a little tipsy, if he was any judge. He decided to ask some questions about her workplace, hoping to find out a bit more about the plant while her guard was down.
“I’d never been to a paper mill before today,” he said between bites, hoping to turn the conversation in the direction he wanted it to go.
“No?” She looked adorably puzzled for a moment, then her expression cleared. “Oh, I guess SeaLife Enterprises has a lot of different businesses under its umbrella.”
Jack nodded. “Exactly. To my knowledge, this is the only paper business in the SeaLife portfolio. Did you always want to work in the paper business?”
“Me? Oh, no. My degree is in Business Administration. I would’ve taken any job in my field, and this just happened to be the one that was offered,” she said, sipping her wine, again. She was going to have a bit of a headache tomorrow, if she wasn’t careful, but right now, Jack was just as glad to have the opportunity to question her.
“Do you like it there?” he prodded as he ate steadily. She nibbled on the little tidbits she’d taken from the appetizer plates but drank more than ate, which suited him, at the moment.
“Like it?” She tilted her head a little unsteadily. “Actually, if I’m being honest, no. I did, at first, but there have been some things…” She trailed off, and he let her think for a moment before prompting her.
“What kind of things?” Hopefully, she’d keep talking.
“Really strange things,” she went on, and he felt a moment of triumph, even as a little frown formed just above her eyebrows. “Bad things.”
“Bad things?” he repeated, hoping to coax her into saying more.
She looked around, as if checking if anyone was listening to them, then leaned in a bit. Her voice lowered, but he could easily hear her with his superior shifter hearing. He leaned closer to her, anyway, knowing the feeling of intimacy might cause her to share more.
“A week ago, I stayed late and decided to check something for myself in the warehouse because everyone else was gone that I would have usually asked for the information.” Yes, her words were convoluted. She was definitely more than a little tipsy. But Jack was following so far. “I’d never been to that part of the warehouse before, but I figured I would just go quickly and get the lot numbers I needed, then go back to my office and complete my report. But when I got there…” Again, she looked around. “When I got there… It was horrible.”
She reached for her wine and drank a healthy sip. When she didn’t keep talking, Jack had to prompt her some more.
“What was so horrible? Was the warehouse disorganized?” he asked, his tone somewhat bored.
“No.” Her volume rose a bit with her vehemence, then she lowered her voice even more. “They were standing in a circle around an…an…altar. They were chanting. It was bad. Evil.” She shook her head in horror.
Jack tried hard to hide his interest. Now, they were getting somewhere.
“Really?” He tried to inject just enough interest into the single word to make her go on.
“They were wearing robes. Black robes with black embroidery that was glowing red.” She paused, shuddering a bit. “The hoods were up, so I couldn’t tell who they all were, but I think I recognized some of them. They work in the factory.” She took a sip of her wine, shutting her eyes as if to shut out the memory.
“What did you do? Did they see you?” Jack prompted her to continue.
“I don’t think so. I went back the way I’d come, and when I got back to my office, I packed up and left as quickly as I could. I went straight home and got out the salt.” She nodded in emphasis, as if pleased with her own actions. She was drunk, but he wasn’t going to stop her from drinking, now. Not when he was learning things he needed to know.
Jack didn’t know exactly what to make of the last comment, though he had some vague recollection that human mages sometimes used lines of salt in their incantations. Maybe that’s what it was about Kiki that drew him. Maybe she had magical knowledge, if not actual magic of her own. Although, he couldn’t be exactly sure about her yet. She might just be really good at hiding her talents, if any.
“Then, that weekend, Mr. Boehm invited me to a barbeque at his house. I was surprised, to say the least. I had no idea they got together socially, but maybe that’s just because I’m so new. Anyway, I couldn’t refuse the invitation, so I went. Everything was fine until I stepped into his backyard.” She sipped at her wine again. “They were all out by the grill. It felt like the place in the warehouse had felt. Dark. Sinister. Evil. I pretended to trip and twist my ankle so I could leave.”
Smart girl. “That was probably wise,” Jack said aloud. He was trying to figure out how to play this, but he figured some truth wouldn’t hurt. Not too much, but enough to keep her talking. “You know, I’ve seen some weird stuff in my time. My brothers and I came across a group of devil worshipers a few years ago.” Elspeth, the so-called Mater Priori and Destroyer of Worlds, was a kind of devil, to his mind. “Bad business, that.”
“The worst,” she agreed. “I don’t know what these people are doing, but I decided, then and there, that I’d just do my job, so I could pay my bills, and I began job hunting that very afternoon. As soon as I find something else, I’m out of here.” Her gaze rose to meet his as if she’d just realized she could be in trouble for what she’d said. It was adorable, but he didn’t let her see his amusement. “I probably shouldn’t have told you that. Sorry.” She put down her wineglass and looked at it as if it had betrayed her. “I told you I don’t normally drink much.”
“That’s okay. Honestly, I don’t blame you for feeling that way about the company after what you’ve experienced. Remember, I’m from corporate. I have no allegiance to the current leadership or employees of this particular operation, beyond the general feeling that I want all good, honest workers to be treated fairly, and that the company operates within legally mandated guidelines.” He sighed and hoped she was still with him. “I was sent here because SeaLife believes there’s some kind of problem. I’m the one who has to figure out what it is. It just may be that your candidness about what you observed will help me do that job, so I thank you for it.”
She seemed placated, but he noticed she didn’t touch any more wine. The waitress served their entrees at that point, and he asked the woman to bring over a carafe of water with lemon wedges. He figured he’d gotten all he could out of Kiki for tonight—and it was plenty. Better to let her sober up and try to avoid a pounding headache in the morning. The food would help.