As inviting as the bed looked, it was still a strange bed in an unfamiliar place, the mattress and too-soft pillows feeling all wrong. I turned about, trying to find a position to lie in that would allow me to finish shutting my brain up and relax. Eventually, being up for far too many hours and traveling entirely too many miles in the space of a day exacted its toll fee and I crashed into slumber.
I woke up thanks to my bladder aching and my stomach protesting the lack of food within it. I took a quick piss and after washing my hands and face and finger-combing my hair into a semblance of something that didn’t resemble a nest of some kind, I rapped on Pilar’s door that led from the bathroom to his room. I don’t know why, but I felt the urge to speak to him first without the prying eyes of servants who might be lurking about.
I listened hard, hoping to hear footsteps making their way across the wooden floorboards and fell back half a step in surprise when after hearing nothing, the door suddenly opened, revealing the neat figure of the Hunter. He still wore the same clothing as the previous day, the same as me, but unlike me, he’d had luggage with him. Luggage with changes of clothes, among whatever else he deemed necessary. Thanks to that, he held a small bundle of clothing in his hands.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt you changing,” I said. “Only, I thought we should talk before going to find some food and talking to everyone to get their side of things.”
I hoped I sounded casual, but fucking hell, my dreams had been filled with the playback of our ride here together, only not precisely as it had been. Pilar sure as hell hadn’t ridden slightly ahead of me on his own mount, coyly tossing glances back at me, biting his lip flirtatiously. The thought of him in front of me now, about to get naked had me mentally going through my department's financial budget in my head as I tried to distract my errant libido.
“That’s a good idea,” he replied, stepping inside. He placed his clothes on the sink vanity and began running his fingers along the seams of the mirror.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“There’s a camera in my room,” he said. “I’m checking for more hidden tech.”
Fury welled within me. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I yelled, causing Pilar to shake his head in warning.
“Check the light,” he said.
He was right, that would make an excellent hiding place. I reached over, flipping the light switch to the off position, taking note of how the frosted glass light cover distracted the eye from a tiny yellow pinprick of light I could only just make out by looking carefully.
“Huh,” I grunted. “Well, that’s not right.” Pilar moved out of the way to give me room to clamber up onto the toilet’s lid so I could reach the glass cover. The ceilings were high and it was one of those covers that clipped into a metal ring screwed into the ceiling. Undoing the clips, I handed the cover to Pilar.
“Yep, lookie what we have here,” I said. “I don’t see a lens, though. Just listening then. Well, I object to someone eavesdropping on me taking a shit,” I said crudely for the benefit of those listening. I yanked on the device, breaking it as it came away. “Oops.”
“That was probably irreplaceable tech from your ship.”
I shrugged. “Assholes shouldn’t have used it to spy on us, then. Stuff like this should be only held by us law enforcement people, to monitor cells and stuff. But can we get it? Noooooo. It’s always, ‘tech is expensive and much of it invaluable as it is all but impossible to replace.’ And here I find it in a bathroom to eavesdrop on folks taking baths and taking a dump! And watching people sleep!” Anger vibrated within me. “If it was placed long before we arrived, Roe could have been getting his jollies by watching guests have sex, for all we know!”
Pilar regarded me solemnly. “Well, that was one of the things I wanted to discuss with you, actually.”
I blinked. “Roe being a peeping Tom?”
“His possible addiction to piloris,” he replied evenly.
I’d heard of the drug, but never encountered it. It was far too expensive an import from the vamps, not to mention illegal here in the colony.
“Oh, hell. So now I’ve got an illegal drug route to investigate on top of these murders, and a councilman is part of both cases.”
“Unless they are the same case,” Pilar replied softly.
Ice ran through my veins. I could see all too clearly where he was coming from. An illegal trade in an aphrodisiac, dead omegas, one of them the son of a prominent citizen who used said drug and who was in a position to help keep eyes off of incoming shipments from the station, and who was spying on guests. Fuckity fuck fuck. Things had gone from shitty to FUBAR in the blink of an eye.
I swiped a hand down my face. “Where did you find the camera in your room?”
He told me where, and how he found it. I nodded. “I’ll leave you to shower and change or whatever and go see if these assholes have been looking at me as well.” I turned on my heel, my dick no longer twitching in arousal thank the gods. I closed the door behind me and looked around. Yep, there it was, positioned perfectly to view the occupant in the bed. I swaggered over to it, gave a little finger wave, then rubbed a fingerful of spit over the lens to smear it. I knew they’d have someone come clean it, but damn, it felt good to thwart them for a little bit and this was going in my report to the Council.
I also wasn’t going to keep my mouth shut about it to anyone I met. I’m sure the guys down at the tavern would stand me a few drinks while I regaled them on how a certain high and mighty lord perved on people he offered the hospitality of his home to. Best of all, I’d have a Hunter there on the stool next to me to back my story up. “Telling me he hoped we didn’t get up to anything and then spying on us hoping to watch us do it. Nasty.”
I opened the door to the hall, happy to catch a young maid cleaning the baseboards.
“Hi there,” I smiled down at the youngster in what I hoped was a friendly manner. “Which way to get something to eat?”