CHAPTER 31
While Izzy slept under a mountain of blankets on my couch, I prepared for what was to come. I stuffed my really big gun in my waistband, shoved a wicked-looking knife in my boot, and pulled on a pair of my thickest gloves.
Izzy moaned in her sleep as I slipped past the couch. I paused, staring down at the sleeping fairy. Fear rose in me. Would I be able to save her or was she already too far gone? “Hang in there, Izzy. I will make things right,” I said, brushing my thumb down her cheek. Her face bunched and then relaxed. I swallowed hard, taking one last look at her asleep on the couch before heading out my front door.
Less than ten seconds later I was across the hall, knocking on my neighbor’s door. Gizelle answered immediately, her head stuffed inside an overly large turban. “Blue.” She threw her arms wide, showing off jiggling arm fat and gauzy fabric. “I knew it was you.”
I hid a smile. Of course she’d known it was me. She’d peeked through the peephole before she answered. “Gizelle.” I nodded. “Would you mind doing me a favor?”
She playfully moved to slap my arm, but I stepped back in time. The landlord frowned on me frying his tenants. Gizelle didn’t seem to notice my sidestepping, though. “Of course I will. Your wish is my command.”
Rather than sounding generous, her offer set the hair on the back of my neck on edge. I liked Gizelle just fine, but in an absolutely hands-off way. But I did need her help.
Someone had to check in on Izzy. I didn’t want to leave her alone—not now—not when she was too weak to protect herself. Not that I’d been much of a protector so far. Hell, under my watchful eyes she’d been shot, kidnapped, and singed in an apartment fire. Now this. I vowed to make it up to her, to keep her safe and healthy, no matter what it took.
From this moment forward.
I hoped.
Taking a shuddering breath, I shot Gizelle my best smile before asking her to watch over Izzy for the next couple of hours. Lucky for me, Gizelle agreed without question, but I still had a problem.
Izzy.
From past experience I knew she would not be pleased, not only with my absence but also being left alone with my kooky neighbor. I’d be lucky if she didn’t string me up with one of those rolls of dental floss when I returned. Or worse, I’d find Gizelle hanging in my linen closet. Not that I had a closet for linens, mind you. But the point was the same.
I’d just have to deal with the fallout.
With Izzy in Gizelle’s overly ringed but safe hands, I headed from my apartment to the street below with one goal in mind. A goal that grated on my every nerve, but I wasn’t in the PI business to have fun. Or make much money. Which made me wonder just why the hell was I in the business at all?
The answer to my question wasn’t an easy one. Neither was what I was about to do, which was locate a dealer in the heart of Fairyland willing to sell me what Izzy desperately needed to survive.
Everything was for sale at the right price.
Unless, of course, you were a blue-haired PI with electricity issues in a neighborhood run by fairies, who, from the dirty looks I received, weren’t fans of the aforementioned. My lack of funds didn’t help matters either. Dealers rarely afforded credit to strangers, let alone strangers without wings in a community full of their own feathery kind.
After nearly getting my ass kicked by the seventh dealer I approached, I settled on a different tactic. I pulled my cell phone from the pocket of my jeans, wincing as the dealer smoldering on the ground moaned. “Quiet,” I said, kicking him in the side as I dialed Little Bo Peep.
“Not a good time, Blue,” she said in greeting.
Didn’t I know it. I cleared my throat. “Hey, Bo, it’s good to hear your voice.”
“What do you want this time?”
“I need a little help.”
“Dream on,” she said, her soft chuckle turning to full-on laughter. “The burn marks on my thighs haven’t healed from the last favor I did for you.”
I grinned at the memory. “I apologized, right?”
Her sigh burst through the line. “Just tell me what you want.” She listened intently while I explained what I needed, interrupting a few times for clarification. When I finished she was quiet for a long moment. For a few seconds I thought she’d hung up, but then she spoke. “It’s gonna cost you.”
Great. After paying rent on my apartment with Penelopee’s retainer check, I had less than a hundred bucks in my bank account, and much less than that in my pocket. “How about a discount for old times’ sake?”
“How about I hang up right now?”
“Fine,” I said, crossing my fingers behind my back. “I’ll get the money. Do we have a deal?”
Silence filled the phone line, and then she finally spoke. “A friend of mine will meet you in the park by the Three Little Pigs memorial in an hour. Don’t be late, and Blue . . .” She paused, and the bluish hairs on the back of my neck rose with electricity. “Leave the hardware at home. If my friend so much as thinks you have a weapon, the deal is off.”
“Thanks, Bo,” I said. “I owe you one.”
“I’ll make sure to collect.” With that she hung up, leaving me to wonder when she planned to do just that. Bo wasn’t known for her generosity, and I suspected I’d find out soon enough what her help would cost.
I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like the price.
Not that I could afford it anyway.