My cheeks flushed hot, but I swallowed the last of my hot dog and shook my head. “Nah. Mr. Goody Two-shoes?” I laughed it off, though something in my chest buzzed with nerves. “Too straight and narrow for me. I’d eat him alive.”
“I’ll eat you alive,” Will muttered, without looking up.
I rolled my eyes, a familiar weight tamping down the excitement in my chest, and I spoke more seriously. “Besides, he’d never be interested in me.” I pinched my thumb and forefinger close together. “He only has a little inkling of just how much of a mess I am.”
Will nodded. “Finally some introspection.”
I stuck my tongue out at him, and he looked up.
“Real mature, Jolene.” He cocked a bushy brow.
As he returned to looking at the pictures, I slumped lower in my seat and licked my fingers clean of mayo and ketchup. It was true, though. I was fundamentally damaged. I’d clawed my way out of the slums, out of the orphanage, to become a lawyer and—lose it all and end up back where I started. Which meant the Darkmoon District must be where I belonged. Why fight it?
My shoulders heaved as I let out a heavy sigh. Still—some stupid part of me didn’t want that to be true. I was tired of being defined by all my limitations (and there were many). I was cursed, had no magic, and was a shifter running an unlicensed, struggling business.
It was kind of nice being around Peter—someone who didn’t judge me for all those things, or view me as just a sum of those parts. I bit my lip. Then again, that was, in all likelihood, only because he was unaware of most of them.
“This isn’t a spider bite.”
Will’s proclamation jolted me out of my depressing reverie. “Huh?”
He turned the pictures so I could see them better. “See there?” He pointed his thick finger to the center of the black, veiny skin.
I squinted. “What am I looking at?”
Heidi hopped off the counter, bowl in hand, and leaned over Will’s shoulder.
“Do you see the puncture wound?”
“Oh. Yeah. So?”
“So…” Will looked bored. “If it had been a spider bite, there would be two punctures—one for each of the fangs. Your victim only has one.”
I frowned down at the images.
Will sniffed. “The pattern and discoloration are typical of a highly venomous bite, but not the wound itself.”
I thought it over while fishing out a chunk of hot dog bun from behind a molar with my tongue. “So we can definitively say someone injected Bel Hahn with the spider poison.” I frowned at Will. “How would someone do that? With a poison dart?”
He shrugged. “Or a syringe.”
I nodded. “But odd that she wouldn’t have noticed being hit by a dart, or someone sticking her in that way.” I shook my head. “And nothing like a dart was found on her body.”
Will folded his arms and shot me a saucy look. “You’re welcome. Thanks to you, I’ve lost my appetite.”
“Ooh.” Heidi leaned around him and reached for his sushi with her chopsticks. “Does that mean I can have—”
He slapped her hand away. “Touch it and you die.”
“Hey!” She shot him a hurt look, then hopped back up on the back counter.
Will scrunched up his face in a smile, though his eyes narrowed into tiny, glaring slits. “Well, you’ve got a real mystery on your hands, Jolene. By all means, throw yourself into the center of it with your cop buddy. I’m sure there won’t be any consequences at all.” He batted his lashes.
I rolled my eyes. “Here we go again.”
“Oh, sorry if my talks are boring you, Jolene.” He leaned forward, face flushed red. “I just think it’s my duty as your friend to warn you that Ludolf is going to find out, and when he does, he will not be happy. If he thinks you’re a threat—that you might reveal the secrets of shifter culture, to a cop no less—you’ll just disappear.” He snapped his massive fingers. “Poof!”
“Are you done?” I shot him a flat look.
“No.” He sniffed. “I call dibs on your beaded curtain—it’s the only not disgusting thing you own.”
Heidi scoffed. “Will! That’s so mean!”
I smirked at my friend. “See, Heidi’s on my side.”
She shook her head, braids swishing over the shoulders of her white lab coat. “No, I just meant the curtain isn’t the only not disgusting thing you own.” She tapped Will’s shoulder with a chopstick. “I call dibs on her Walkman—I think it’s pretty awesome.”
My mouth fell open. “Gee. Thanks so much for your concern, you two.”
“Oh! We should be concerned?” Will widened his already enormous eyes, and I shrank back from the intensity of his expression. “You can’t even be bothered to think about protecting your own life, so why should we?”
Tired of being ragged on, I pushed to my feet and gathered up the photos Peter had let me borrow. “Look, is it so bad that I just want some semblance of my old life back?” I flashed my eyes at Will. “I just want to enjoy having some extra cash and excitement in my life.” Not to mention a cute guy who gave me the warm fuzzies. And maybe I was ignoring Will’s warnings and some red flags, but what did I really have to lose anyway?
Will sighed, but his face softened a bit.
“Thanks for this.” I shook the photos at Will and turned to go.
“Aw, Jolene, don’t be like that.” Heidi pouted, then turned to Will. “So what if she gets caught and cleaned? At least she’s having some fun.”
I froze, goose bumps prickling the back of my neck. “What did you say?”
Heidi’s dark eyes grew round. “At least she’s having—”
I waved a hand. “Before that.”
She blinked at me, confused, and repeated herself, faltering. “So what if she gets caught and cleaned?”
I snapped my fingers and grinned. That phrase. “Heidi—thank you,
