“That’s a beautiful story, if it’s true.”
“We keep an eye on them.” Addie rubbed her arms. “I want to believe there are good and decent people out there who want to help children…”
“…but selflessness is often a mask for selfishness,” he finished for her. “Those kids are lucky to have you watching over them.”
A ripple moved through the crowd, an unconscious parting of the sea of humans, and chills blasted up Boaz’s spine as four vampires prowled the stalls filled with arts and crafts.
“Boaz Pritchard,” Jean Patel barked. “What are you doing in Bumfuck, Florida?”
Jean Patel, of Clan Patel, was not the sort of vampire anyone with an ounce of common sense wanted to meet in a dark alley. He was a bruiser with a vigilante strike a mile wide, a wet works man for any clan who could afford his fees.
“Patel.” Boaz didn’t smile. “The same as you, I imagine.”
Very few vampires hunted their own, but Patel gathered them to him. They were a band of rogues masquerading as a clan in order to keep the Society and the Undead Coalition, the ruling body for vampires, out of their business.
“You know him?” Addie snarled under her breath. “Why didn’t you mention that?”
“We’ve met,” Boaz admitted. “I haven’t seen him in years.”
“Next time,” she grumbled, “I expect a heads-up.”
He met a lot of unsavory characters in his line of work, and the events surrounding those meetings were often confidential. There was no guarantee he could tell her all of what he knew under any given circumstances. That included who he knew.
The nature of her job must require similar restrictions. They would have to sit down after this and come up with a plan for what was and wasn’t fair game. It would require them both to be willing to trust, which wouldn’t come easy for either of them.
This relationship stuff was not for the fainthearted. No wonder he had avoided it for so long.
“I came to visit my fiancée.” Boaz shook Patel’s hand. “What brings you to town?”
“This isn’t a town. This is a speedbump between Jacksonville and Gainesville that someone decided to decorate with houses.” He cut his gaze toward Addie then shook his head. “Figures you would find your ideal woman out here in the sticks. You had to search every hole in the ground to find someone who hasn’t heard about your reputation.”
The dig shouldn’t have hurt. Not when it was partly the truth. But it did.
“Oh, I’ve heard the gossip.” Addie took Boaz’s hand in her much smaller one. “I just don’t care.”
Boaz whipped his head toward her, his palm slick with sweat as he wondered what gossip she had heard, if Grier’s name had been mentioned, how he was going to fix this, a million other things, but Patel had much the same reaction. Except in his case, it was as if he were surprised to remember Addie was there, let alone that she would dare speak to him.
“You’re pretty enough.” Patel assessed her with a cold sweep of his gaze. “You don’t have much sense if you don’t care about the reputation of the man you’re going to marry. Love may be blind, but you can’t afford to be. Unless you’re rich and powerful. No offense, but you don’t strike me as either.”
“Are you here for a purpose,” Boaz cut in, his jaw grinding at the insult, “or are you just in town to dispense romantic advice?”
“Work.” Patel dismissed Addie, and Boaz breathed easier for it. He had labeled her as chattel and dismissed her as being of any importance, let alone his competition. “You know how it is.” His canines were too defined. “I go where I’m needed.” He glanced at his phone, and his smile widened. “Looks like right now I’m needed to pursue a fresh lead.” He winked at Addie. “See you around.”
“Yeah.” Boaz watched him go. “I’ve got a feeling you will.”
Patel wasn’t a complication Boaz welcomed, but no one else had managed to catch the killer. Maybe Patel would be good for something for once in his life.
“Well,” Addie said, “now we know what Gustav wanted us to see.”
“Is Patel a threat to you?”
“Gustav would have told Patel we were on the job. This was his way of telling us about Patel. We have the upper hand now, because I’ll recognize Patel if I see him again, but he doesn’t know who I am yet.”
“Why would he do that?” Boaz rumbled. “That paints a target on your backs.”
Rival bounty hunters had been known to get aggressive toward their competition when the stakes were high.
“Gustav believes a little competition is good for the soul,” she said dryly. “He doesn’t play favorites. He does, however, hedge his bets.”
“How does he win if Patel collects the bounty?” Boaz wondered. “Wouldn’t Patel get that to split with his team?”
“He’ll owe Gustav a cut since they’re operating in his territory. Not as big as what we would pay him, since we work for him, but a sizeable amount. This is a kick in the pants to tell us to find Ari, and the killer, first.”
Having never spent time with bounty hunters, he was curious about Addie’s world. “How does that work?”
“All bounties must be awarded through a licensed broker. Patel isn’t one. He depends on brokers in whatever area he’s hired in to receive and disburse funds for him. Gustav is a rarity. He’s licensed in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. That means he gets regular business from guys like Patel, who freelance in a region rather than belong to a specific state or county agency.”
Nodding that he understood the basics, he got back on track. “What’s our next move?”
“Patel was here for a reason,
