“Infamous?”
She grinned. “Sure. You’re a walking scandal. Not only are you a girl, but a James, and the cop who took down a corrupt police captain. That took balls to nail someone that high and with all his connections to the Hundred.” She shrugged. “You know, you’re a lot prettier than I thought you’d be. I sort of expected an ogre.”
My ears burned, and I decided to change the subject.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention to your cousin that I’m looking for Sarah,” I said. “I’m sort of doing this as a favor to someone.”
“No prob. I already like you better than Mychal, and we just met. You’re cool, and he’s a pompous prick with a silver spoon up his ass.”
I decided I liked Jeri, too. At least at first blush, our taste in men had some similarities.
“So, tell me about Sarah. She’s been missing for a week, and no one’s heard from her.”
Jeri sobered and shook her head. “I dunno. I’d like to think that she’s just having a fling. You know, flew off to Bermuda with a handsome billionaire or something. But it doesn’t feel like that. There was a guy at Hopkins she was seeing, but he called me asking if I’d seen her lately.”
“A student at Hopkins?”
“Oh, no. A professor. A mage.”
“Cassie told me she liked older men, but I thought she was talking about college guys.”
She gave me a conspiratorial grin. “That’s Cassie’s thing. And Sarah’s sometimes, too. But Sarah has a kinky side that includes much older men.”
“Like how old? My age?”
Jeri grinned and shook her head. “Your age on the lower end. You’re what, thirty? Thirty-five?”
I nodded. Close enough.
She looked around as if to see if anyone was listening, and her voice dropped. “Yeah. Forty, fifty, sometimes older. She had this thing about being a dominatrix. One of her older guys turned her onto it, and it really got her off. She showed me a diamond necklace one guy gave her, and one time, we went shopping with a debit card another guy gave her.”
“You don’t happen to know any of their names, do you?”
“Only one, the prof at Hopkins, but…” She pulled out her phone and showed me a picture of a man, then scrolled through two more men. “I can send these to you.”
I nodded. “Please. Does Cassie know about this little sideline of Sarah’s?”
“Oh, no. Cassie is kinda straitlaced, and definitely not into men that old. She wouldn’t have understood.”
“But you’re not shocked.”
“Ms. James, my mother is a dominatrix. That’s how my father met her.” She shrugged. “Not my thing, but I don’t judge. And I do like older men. Sex is so much better when the man knows what he’s doing, don’t you agree?” It was strange to hear a sixteen-year-old talking like that.
I found Jeri to be quite interesting, and we chatted for a couple of hours. I enjoyed the conversation far more than I would have expected. Not only was it informative about Sarah but about Mychal as well. She also verified some suspicions I’d always harbored about the lives and children of the Families. Although I’d spent a lot of time at Findlay House and briefly gone to the same high school as Jeri, Sarah and Cassie, I had always lived with my mother. We spent our time foraging for berries, fishing, and hiking in the hills.
The magikal Families had a reputation for licentiousness, to the delight of the gossip-hungry lower classes. Just from what the kids were telling me, it was well-earned. Kirsten and I had gotten started around the same age, but we hadn’t been nearly as wild as Sarah and her friends. I definitely wasn’t playing grown-up games with men three times my age.
When I gave Jeri a ride to her neighborhood, she grinned at me as she hopped off the bike. “If you ever do want to have a lezzie hookup with a sweet young thing, give me a call. You’re really cool.”
Chapter 11
I had promised Kirsten that I would take a look at her pump, and I also promised I would go out with her that evening. I drove over to her shop when I finished with Jeri Novak.
After attending university on scholarship and taking a degree in pharmacology, my roomie had studied at the Cambridge College of Magikal Arts. A boyfriend she met while in England—a younger son of one of Europe’s ruling Families—provided funding to start her business. Another wealthy boyfriend in Baltimore donated an unused parcel of land in the harbor tourist area.
A third pair of boyfriends—identical twins—built the shop and two greenhouses, and I re-engineered and magikally enhanced all the equipment and systems. I was the only one who didn’t get laid, but they were all out of her life, and I was still getting fed regularly.
I walked my bike through the side gate and parked it next to her bike, then walked around to the front. The shop faced the harbor, with six parking slots directly in front of it. The hand-painted sign over the door read:
ENCHANTMENTS
Apothecary and Herbarium
Tinctures, potions, poultices, and charms
A painting of Kirsten, wearing a pointed hat and riding a broomstick sidesaddle, adorned the left side of the sign. A pair of sexy gargoyles—how she made gargoyles look sexy I still didn’t understand, but she managed it—framed the front door. Did I mention that in addition to being beautiful and magikally talented, she was also artistic? A lot of women found it easy to hate her, but she was really sweet.
She and Julie, her assistant and apprentice, were waiting on several customers when I entered. The women Julie was helping were obviously tourists, and the two young women Kirsten was speaking with were obviously mages—flashy, expensive outfits, and patronizing attitudes.
Kirsten’s shop seemed much smaller than it actually
