didn’t know I was holding, and Detective Hayes raised one concerned eyebrow.
“Everything okay?”
I licked my dry lips and avoided his ice-blue stare. “Of course. Just checking out your office.”
Hayes grinned again, leaning back in his chair and opening his arms. “Well, it’s not exactly as posh as the UDA offices. I don’t know if you know this, but us humans aren’t always great decorators. I hear vampires really have a knack for that. Am I right?”
I rolled my eyes and Hayes chuckled, settling a coffee mug on a stack of boxes. “Besides, I just moved into this office not too long ago. They had me in a utility closet before this.”
I was at a loss for witty banter, so I began rifling through my bag and stacking the file folders I had brought onto his desk. I decided it was best to go all business, especially since every flash of Parker Hayes’s blue eyes or sexy smile seemed to make my heart thump painfully while putting my female parts on high alert.
“Okay, so I went through our files and I figured we’d start with the most likely candidates—or—suspects. So, I brought you—”
“No, not yet.” Hayes was holding his hand up, palm forward. His sat up straighter, pulling his legs from the desk and planting them firmly on the ground. “Lunch first, work later.”
I didn’t move, and he chucked me softly on the shoulder. “Come on, I’ll even buy.”
“Such a gentleman,” I said, sliding the files back into my shoulder bag and standing up. “Shouldn’t we get to work right away? Isn’t this kind of pressing though? The case, I mean?”
Hayes headed out the door, and I nearly had to run to keep up with his long, purposeful strides.
“The case is definitely pressing. And lunch is more pressing. Besides”—he patted his trim stomach—“I work best on a full stomach.”
We walked outside into the moist San Francisco air and stood on the curb, waiting for traffic to pass. Hayes had his hands in his pockets, his lips and forehead puckered as he thought.
“So explain to me again how the UDA operates. And what is it, exactly, that the Underworld Detection Agency detects?”
I shrugged. “We detect paranormal activity to some extent. And more or less, we detect who and what is traveling through the Underworld or becoming active in the other world.”
Hayes smiled. “The Overworld?”
I looked both ways and then stepped into the street. “Frankly, this world is rather wrapped up in itself. It doesn’t really recognize the Underworld as actually existing, so it’s pretty much just ‘the world’ up here. As for how we operate …”
Hayes reached out and grabbed my shoulder, his fingers digging into my flesh as he yanked me back and a rusted-out van zoomed past us.
“Whoa,” I said, my heart pounding. “That was close.” I looked at Hayes’s fingers on my shoulders as his grip softened, but he didn’t move his hand. “Thanks,” I said.
Hayes didn’t look at me, but he was smiling. He dropped his hand to his side, leaving a sudden cold spot on my shoulder where his palm had been. “So you were saying …”
“Right. How we operate … well, it’s a little like the Social Security office, I guess. Demons register themselves with us. Once you’re on the UDA radar, you’re entitled to all the perks of the Underworld— unemployment, workers’ comp, protection from labor and personal disputes …”
Hayes steered me toward the double doors of the Fog City Diner and paused. “Demons get workers’ comp? In case what? A vampire breaks a fang on a particularly stubborn artery?”
I rolled my eyes. “Very funny. The UDA just works to keep a sense of order and harmony in the Underworld. We allow demonkind a little protection from a regular world that really disregards them.”
“Until they scoop your eyeballs out.”
I rolled my eyes. “Can we just get something to eat now?”
We walked into the warm diner, and I inhaled the comforting scent of club sandwiches and too-crisp French fries, smiling. “Smells good,” I murmured.
Hayes nodded and held up two fingers to the woman behind the counter. She grabbed two menus and a couple of place settings, then beckoned for us to follow, leading us to an empty table by the window.
We slid into the booth and Hayes handed me a menu. He scanned his while I played with the laminated corner of mine, my stomach churning, my mind going a million miles a minute. Hayes looked up, eyebrows raised.
“What’s wrong? Oh, don’t tell me. You’re vegan or something, right? Fruitarian? Only eat orange things?”
I wagged my head. “No. Nothing like that. What’s a fruitarian?”
“Girl I dated in college …”
I looked up expectantly, but he just shook his head and went back to reading his menu.
“I guess I’m just a little nervous,” I said.
Hayes grinned at me—a wide, lady-killer grin. “Really? I couldn’t tell.” His cobalt eyes traveled to my hand, to the loop of red hair wound absently over one finger. I quickly dropped the lock of hair and sat on my hand.
“Nervous tic,” I said. “I hate it.”
“Actually, I think it’s kind of cute.”
My heartbeat sped up, and I sat on my other hand.
Hayes shrugged, scanning his menu again. “So what’s there to be nervous about? I’d tell you if you had spinach stuck in your teeth or something.”
I blew out a long sigh. “There’s a killer out there. Doesn’t that bother you even a tiny little bit?”
Hayes turned over his coffee cup, and the waitress came by, giving him a nod and sloppily sloshing coffee into his mug.
“Honey, there’s murderers everywhere.” He lined up three sugar packets and dumped them into his cup, clinking his spoon against the mug as he stirred. “It’s just another day at the office.”
“But these are different—and don’t call me honey,” I said, my voice a hissing whisper. “Eyeballs are missing. Blood is missing. People are being torn apart. You can eat when people are being torn apart?”
I looked up to see that the waitress had returned and was working on a piece of Hubba Bubba, blowing large bubbles and then sucking them in.
“Are you guys ready to order?” she wanted to know.
I gulped. Either she didn’t hear my comment, or I was the only one in the entire city worried about a supernatural predator hunting the San Francisco streets.
We placed our orders, and Hayes sipped his coffee, staring over the rim of his mug at me. “So what’s your story, Lawson?” he said finally. “How’d you end up a secretary at a place like the UDA?”
I rested my arms on the table, lacing my fingers together. “Sophie. Lawson sounds way too
Hayes’s lip curled into another one of those delicious half smiles, and I reminded myself that this was business, and that when Parker Hayes wasn’t looking sexy and brash in his navy blues, he was kind of an anti- demon asshole.
“Sorry, of course—executive assistant. So, how’d you decide on pushing papers in the demon underground?” he asked.
“It’s amazing what you can find in the want ads,” I said, averting my eyes and tearing my napkin to shreds.
Hayes continued to eye me, and I breathed a little harder, pinned under his steady gaze.
“Well, first of all, I could get down there.”
Hayes sipped his coffee and shrugged. “So what does that mean? Lots of people can use elevators.”
“Nice. Theoretically, you can only get into the Underworld if you’ve got”—I bit my lip and glanced out the window, trying to choose my words carefully—“some supernatural in you.”
“What?” Hayes snorted. “You’re some kind of demon, too? I never would have thought….”
“Keep your voice down!” I hissed,
“Sorry. It’s just that you look so regular.”
