Page 74 (1/1)
They walked through the businesspeople and the tourists, the occasionalto talk the out to thener” handbags It was loud and chaotic and it was New York
“I wasn’t sure I would like this city,” he said to her “Yet theunder a h, don’t you?” Rich and dark, her eyes saw to the heart of hiht “That old hut I tracked you to once—”
“You mean the place where you threatened to bury me in a swamp hole then dousevaot” her That ti jeans only partially buttoned, his body lazily relaxed as he leaned up against the doorjamb of the house surrounded by water on aled cypress trees in that water had been lush with foliage and heavy with Spanish moss in the thick humidity, the landscape unearthly in its beauty
A different, bright greenit into a part of the bayou, and to the right she could see a haht to make it hile At any other tih, happy to spend the afternoon watching the bayou water ht then, however, she’d been sorely teh the bayou for weeks,” she ht when I had you, you el you’d pissed off” It wasn’t the first time he’d done that, either “You knetheir clasped hands, he pressed a kiss to her knuckles “I was courting you”
“Only someone with a twisted sense of humor would consider that a courtship” Turned out she was one of those people, but damn if she hadn’t had fun when she didn’t want to kill hi to ask if that place is yours”
“Yes It is close to where I grew up” She saw hi them, and suddenly, the curly-haired teen with spotty skin decided he had to be across the road “It is a simple, quiet place There is no rush there, non?”
“Yes” She could i all the cares of the world slide away “Let’s go thereafter this is over After Felicity can rest”
Eyes the shade of his ho welcome of it as he said, “After Felicity can rest”
They kept walking, going nowhere in particular, the air cold in their lungs and the sunshine bright from a winter blue sky When Ashwini’s phone buzzed, she took it out with her free hand “Guild confirmed her accounts have all been closed, and our contacts in banking say it appears she did it herself”
“Her killer talked her into it,” Janvier said with absolute confidence “Told her he’d take care of her, that if she loved him, she’d do as he asked”
Ashwini could al Felicity to do just that Except“She kept her apartive up her cat,” she said slowly “I bet you she set up an account somewhere else”
“Or,” Janvier said, “left money with someone she trusted”
“No” Ashwini shook her head “He’d cut her off froeniuses to search across all possible banking institutions”
She sent thethat’d lead theardless of her atte woman had been almost totally dependent on her “lover” by the end In all probability, she’d been i her no chance to access anyto quietly track down and talk to the servants ork in the houses of the angels and vampires who may be capable of such cruelty,” Janvier said, the strokablein the breeze “Often, they are aware of ht be able to help with that I generally coer vamps, and a lot of them are at the servant level”
“We’ll ” He was quiet for aat me”
“About how the va a couple until she had her ‘ at her, a sharp barb in her gut
“Yes, exactly I don’t believe she was ever part of his official cattle, that he held that out as a lure—if she was good enough, pleased hie in every word “In the interied to meet her outside his usual haunts, where there would be little chance he’d be seen with her”
The more Ashwini learned about theher spirit, the more she hated him “It puts all our suspects back in the pool” And still there re fatal injuries so eerily sile is still worth following—one ns of a woh his hair “I e didn’t have to tiptoe through this investigation Someone had to have seen her with the bastard, if we could only ask!”
Even as he bit out the words, his eyes lingered on a giggling child who’d just tugged his roup of wohing secrecy “But to give Felicity justice, ould have to rip open the wounds of a city that has barely stopped bleeding”
Ashwini had no answers, torn between the sa the details of Felicity’s death under wraps was no longer an issue