He pressed his lips together for a second, thinking. “It’s not a horrible idea, but if that’s the case, then we’ve just wasted time. I don’t need to go as a woman. If keeping them distracted is the goal rather than getting them to talk, then I’d be better off going as I was.”
With a shimmer, he was back to the form I knew him best in, and I sighed, wondering for the millionth time if that was his real face.
Typical, I thought, disgusted with the situation. I couldn’t just have a normal crush. No, I had to go all complicated and be interested in a person who might be an old man, a woman, or—who knows—a wolf or a sheep or a little pink pig for all I knew. I guess the heart wants what it wants, but my brain had obviously gone on vacation.
I was not looking forward to this trip at all.
Chapter 9
We talked back and forth about how we’d work it with just the two of us.
“You don’t have to do it with just two of you. As a matter of fact, you shouldn’t. You need a lookout. The last thing we need is for you to get arrested. James may be willing to pull you out, but what if he’s not the one who answers the call? It would be an awkward position to put him in. I’ll go, too,” Eli said, smiling at me.
“You don’t have to do that,” I said, knowing he was only volunteering so that I wouldn’t have to ride there alone with Luther. He knew I was more than capable of casting the spells necessary to not get caught. “You have your mom’s thing tonight.”
His mom was a history professor at the local college, and it was pirate week. Every year for the event, she gave a huge presentation about the role of pirates in local and global history featuring several different pieces borrowed from the local museum.
He glanced at the time on his phone. “I still have a couple hours.”
I sighed. It would be nice to have a lookout even though I didn’t strictly need one, and he was great at reading people—much better than I was. “Fine but take your own car. You can’t be late for your mom’s presentation. You promised her you’d help her set up, so you can leave straight from the hotel.”
“I know what I promised,” he said. “We can do both. I’m not leaving you without backup.”
“Then let’s go.” We rushed out the back door and climbed into his sporty blue BMW. It was small, but not nearly as small as my Mustang. In deference to Luther’s height, I climbed in the back. Fortunately, we were only a few minutes away from the hotel, so we didn’t have to say anything.
Luther had called it correctly. Once inside, we had no problem finding the gaggle of women who’d been at the house. Ten women or so were gathered around a few of the high-top tables situated in the classy, understated bar area. Ambient lighting gleamed off the copious amounts of brass and dark wood, and the bartender wore a formal tux vest as he shook a drink.
“It’s go-time,” I said, nudging Luther toward them. “Think you can handle them?”
He rolled his eyes. “Like yarn around my finger. Contrary to our relationship, most women find me charming and enjoy spending time with me.”
I arched a brow. “Yeah, but do they know you peek into their brains so you know exactly what they want you to say?”
He inclined his head. “Touché, I suppose, but that’s really not something I make a habit of. Like I said, you’re ... unique.”
Irritation shot through me, both at him and myself. “Awesome. So it’s just my privacy you invade. I’d hate to see what you’d do to somebody you care about. Now go bask in their admiration while Eli and I find that diadem.” I gave him a little shove, then turned to find Eli smiling at me.
“What?” I asked, irritated but not sure why.
“Nothin’, sweetie. Let’s go break some laws.”
Since we had no idea what rooms the women were in, we’d just have to work our way through all of them. Fortunately, the hotel was “boutique” so there was only fifteen total. it wouldn’t take long even if we went through them all. After all, how hard would it be to find a diadem?
Thirty minutes—and a few eye-opening revelations about the proclivities of a couple of the women—later, we’d gone through them all with no luck.
We tromped down the stairs, disheartened. I hated feeling like it was so close, but so far away. We knew what it was, we knew what it did, and we knew where it had been last, but where the heck was it now?
Rather than leave, I figured it couldn’t hurt to take a run at a couple of the women. Since I wasn’t exactly dressed to be in the hotel, I slipped on a glamour that classed it up a bit, and so did Eli.
I started with a trio of women standing at the high top nearest the bar.
“Hi,” I said, smiling as I approached. “I don’t know if y’all recognize me, but I was with the sheriff earlier at the Swanson’s.”
“Yeah,” the blonde said, arching a perfectly drawn brow at me. “I remember you. What can we do for you?”
“We seem to have run into a problem. In the pictures everybody sent, Jaimie was wearing a diadem, and her folks can’t find it. We thought maybe somebody moved it or put it away after everything that happened, maybe to protect it. In case you don’t know, a diadem is like a tiara.”
“Of course we know what a diadem is.
