Page 6 (2/2)

Uncertainty filled the other wo her a silent question

Bria sighed and nodded "Go ahead, Callie You can trust her Gin’sused to situations like this"

I raised an eyebrow at the sarcasain

Callie looked back and forth between the two of us for several seconds before shaking her head and starting her story "There’s this guy named Dekes ants to buywith several other "

I nodded I knew exactly the type of iants in Ashland and beyond hired theuards to rich folks, since it paid so well Of course, for those rich folks who dabbled in things that weren’t quite legal, the giants acted uards, which was exactly what I illing to bet Trent was

"Anyway, Pete, Trent, and the others have been co me more and more money every time if I’ll close down the restaurant and sell out to their boss Lately, they’ve gone fro Violent"

"And your arhed "It was so of an accident I told Pete to leave, and he shoved past et to the bar I stuize, now, did he?" I asked

Callie didn’t say anything

"Wait a second," Bria said "Did you say Dekes? As in Randall Dekes?"

Callie nodded Bria cursed and quickened her pacing,from one end of the bar to the other with sharp, precise movements

"I take it you’ve heard of him?" I asked my sister

She nodded "Unfortunately He’s a real estate ul and developer who’s had a home here forcenters that we drove by today? Dekes built all of those"

"He’s practically bought up the whole island," Callie added in a soft voice "He plans to build a big resort coolf courses, spas, restaurants, the whole nine yards It’ll put everything else on the island to shame and probably out of business as well There were a few initial holdouts like me, but everyone else has sold out to him already"

"Why?" Bria asked "Because of thefor their property?"

Callie nodded "That and the fact that there have been someaccidents Vandalism, mostly Another business oas beaten up pretty badly one night when his store was robbed"

Accidents Right

"Where is Dekes going to build this resort?" I asked

"He’s adding it on to the Blue Sands hotel" Callie held her hands out wide A brittle s to the plans that I’ve seen, we’re sitting in the middle of the round on construction in teeks, but he’s having a press conference tomorrow at the Blue Sands to formally announce the project He owns the hotel, and his rounds"

Bria let out another curse, one that was longer and louder than all the ones she’d muttered so far I eyed her My sister wasn’t et her riled up Usually, only Finn could ruffle her feathers like this

"There’s more, isn’t there?" I asked her

There alas in situations like this one

"Real estate isn’t all that Dekes is into," Bria said "I started investigating hio back to Ashland Extortion, intiot quite a racket going, and his hands are in practically every legal and illegal business on the island And it’s not just here He has interests up and down the East Coast, from the Outer Banks of North Carolina all the way south to Key West"

"In other words, Randall Dekes is the Mab Monroe of Blue Marsh," I said

Bria nodded "Only he hides it a lot better than she did He’s buddy-buddy with all the local politicians, gives money to the fire and police departs like that He’s a very slick salesman that way He also happens to be a very old and very powerful vah I don’t know if that’s true or not"

Despite all the popular myths and stories out there, vampires were born, not made, just like everyone else was They had heartbeats, breathed air, and could walk around in the sun just as easily as I could Vaarlic didn’t do any estion

Just about the only myth that was true when it came to vampires was that they all needed blood to live, in addition todown a pint of O-positive was just like regular hu down on a steak Animal blood would do in a pinch, but most vamps preferred people blood, and there were dedicated vampire blood banks that paid folks very well to come by and donate as often as they could The blood banks then turned around and distributed all those precious pints like cartons of ht oton whose platelets they were dining on Regular old huive -fast reflexes It hen they drank fro<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>