Chapter 10
Ophelia drew in a sharp breath as Gideon spat his coffee onto the sidewalk, coughing.
Felix inspected his nails, looking way too satisfied with himself, and Ophelia wanted to strangle him.
Gideon was prickly enough, and his temper had been simmering all morning without Felix egging him on.
If he kept it up, someone was going to get hurt.
“I mean, he’s obviously the guy you told Jena about. No wonder you’re always drooling all over Chase,” Felix continued with a huff, openly appraising Gideon. “The two of them could stunt double for each other.”
Ophelia’s burst of fury over Jena blabbing died at the gargoyle’s furious expression.
“Who is Chase?” he growled staccato, his skin graying with his temper.
Felix’s brow rose, and he took a step back. Smart man. Ophelia moved between them. Gideon glanced at her and flicked coffee from his hand, still glowering at the warlock.
“Jena’s husband. I wouldn’t worry about it. They’re extremely devoted to one another, though not for someone’s lack of try-ing,” Felix said all singsong, eyeing Ophelia.
Gideon’s growl deepened, and his features coarsened.
“Will you shut the fuck up?” she snapped at Felix, grabbing Gideon by his lapels and jerking hard. “Hey, stop it.”
His eyes dropped to hers, and she squirmed beneath the intensity of his turquoise gaze. Ophelia wet her lips, and he focused on them. Her breath quickened, that whisper of desire back from earlier. “H-he reminded me of you, but I only flirted with him to piss Jena off. It’s done.”
“Is it though?” Felix asked.
She whipped around to face him. “Do you seriously have a death wish?” Because if Gideon didn’t kill him, she might.
Felix buzzed his lips. “That depends. At the moment, no, but I’ll take a rain check.
Rehearsals for Cats starts in two weeks, and Sway got a part, presumably because her singing actually sounds like a very, very sick feline.
” He pinched the bridge of his nose, then looked at Gideon. “Did you say you were driving?”
The gargoyle sucked in his cheeks and strode past them both without a word to the long black car she’d seen last night. The door slammed behind him, and the engine roared to life.
“So, is sleeping with Fayet’s lawyer part of our defense or just a side benny?” Felix asked, brow raised as he sipped his coffee.
“We’re not sleeping together.” Ophelia gritted out, waiting for a line of cars to pass so they could cross the street.
“Mmm hmm…” Felix tongued his cheek. “Which is obviously why he’s here before sunrise on a Tuesday in sweats, taking you to breakfast and hulking over you like a cave man.”
She scowled at him. “We knew each other before I was a vampire, okay? Now stop pissing him off.”
“No promises, that seems like a pretty tall order. He’s even less pleasant than you are.
And I’m totally taking you ‘knowing him’ in the biblical sense, by the way.
The man is obviously smitten, though lord knows why.
I mean you’re cute, but…” Felix made a face, letting the rest of what he was going to say to her imagination.
“Fuck you.”
“See? That right there. You know, Jake Overbeck has been trying to get up the nerve to ask you out for weeks.”
“Who?” Ophelia’s brow furrowed, tempted to dart out into traffic. It was way too fucking early for this.
“Tall, glasses, wears flannel.”
She snorted. “You’ve just literally described half the town.”
“Okay, you have a point,” Felix said, flicking a curl, “but mine is that I figured he finally had, and you’d turned him down—unkindly, as expected. He came out of Cups looking like he was about to piss himself.”
“I didn’t notice.” And didn’t care. Besides, who the hell was stupid enough to ask a vampire out on a date? She started across the street.
Felix followed, still running his mouth. “Exactly, which means someone else put the fear of God into him. I wonder who it could’ve been…perhaps another jealous suitor?”
“You need to drop it,” she hissed, waiting at the passenger door for Felix to get in the back. She was pretty sure Gideon would drive off and leave him there if given half a chance. Though why she didn’t just let him…
Felix smirked as he climbed in.
Fuck my life. Ophelia closed her eyes for a breath and got into the car. The look on Gideon’s face when she slid into the posh leather seat confirmed her earlier theory. A muscle in his jaw ticked as he waited for her to buckle up, then pulled into traffic, following his GPS.
“So, where did you two meet?” Felix drawled from the back.
A low growl started in Gideon’s chest, and she put a hand on his thigh, struggling with her own temper. “We worked at the same firm, got engaged, and then I left him at the altar to become a vampire,” she said, turning around to bat her lashes at Felix.
He blanched, throwing his freckles into stark relief. “Oh.”
Gideon turned a corner, glancing at her askance as she sat back. The rest of the car ride was awkward but blissfully silent, save for Felix’s rapid texting in the back. Ophelia gritted her teeth, sure what she’d just spilled would be all over town in the next few minutes.
Ghandi, she fucking hated Havers.
They pulled into an unpaved parking lot in front of a low, brick building about a mile away from the main drag.
Gideon killed the engine and grabbed his briefcase and their breakfast from the back.
Habit took over, and she stayed where she was until he rounded the car to open her door.
His lips twitched as he offered her his free hand.
“Ophelia.”
“Gideon.” She smiled as she took it, then scowled at Felix’s raised brow, striding past him with Gideon’s palm at the small of her back.
This time she didn’t flinch. Instead, she felt almost…
safe. He held the door for her, and she entered the Sheriff’s Department.
Why these places were always in shades of baby-shit brown…
Felix waved at the unkempt, uniformed woman behind the glass, and she nodded, buzzing them through into a room partitioned into low cubicles.
A deputy was working at one of the desks, his head bobbing to what was playing on his earbuds.
Liam Montgomery sat at another, laughing with an unfamiliar man.
Whoever he was, Ophelia hadn’t seen him around Havers before.
Liam looked up as they entered, his smile faltering. “Sperry. That was fast.”
“I was in the area,” he said, frowning at the lackluster facility. “Has the witness given a statement yet?”
“No. He’s waiting for his lawyer.”
Gideon grunted. “Well, then I suspect you should let him know I’m here.”
What? Ophelia shot him a glance. He couldn’t represent Patrick and prosecute the case.
“Yeah…” Liam drawled. “I’m pretty sure that would be a raging conflict of interest—”
“And I’m positive that ship has long since sailed,” Gideon said, cutting him off.
“Recent events have made it impossible for me to objectively represent Fayet, so I’ll be recusing myself from the case shortly, if I haven’t already been removed.
However, at this juncture, you have two options: you can either let me into that room to find out what I can before the Vampire Court has him killed, or I can bludgeon you to death and then do it anyway. ”
They all stared at him.
“What do the vampires have to do with this?” Felix asked.
“He works for them,” Liam answered.
Felix pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, I think I’m gonna need a minute.”
“And I think I’m gonna get going,” the other man said, standing up and clasping Liam on the shoulder. “Call me if you need me again.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
The man waved a hand over his shoulder as he left. He was ridiculously tall, with feathers braided into his wavy auburn hair and a massive knife riding at his hip. That had to have be Ryland, the bounty hunter they’d hired.
Ophelia shook off her shock as the door closed behind him. “Y-you’re going to recuse yourself from the case?” she stuttered, agape. What was Gideon thinking? The Vampire Court was going to go mental.
He turned to her. “There’s a reason the court didn’t call me as soon as they knew he’d been taken in, Phe.
And even if they had, do you honestly think I can continue working for them, knowing what I know?
You’re right, this is more than a civil case, but it’s also more than criminal.
Those inconsistencies I mentioned, my gut is telling me this is a full-blown conspiracy, and I’m willing to bet that Patrick Montgomery’s the lynchpin. ”
Felix laughed. “A conspiracy. Great. I need more caffeine for this.” He headed past them to a makeshift coffee bar set up against the far wall.
“Whatever you found out wouldn’t be admissible,” Ophelia said, still fixated on Gideon.
Liam clicked his tongue. “Maybe not, but I don’t know that it needs to be.
If we can get enough information to follow a trail ourselves…
” He shook his head. “Look, Patrick is an asshole, but he’s a smart asshole.
If the Vampire Court is involved, he would’ve kept something to hold over their heads.
Records, transcripts of phone calls, bank statements.
If we can get access to what he’s got squirreled away, we wouldn’t technically need his testimony.
A witch could summon a specter from their auric residue if the court needed context.
It’s standard practice in arcane cases.”
Ophelia frowned. “I still don’t like it. Gideon could get disbarred for misrepresenting himself to a potential client.”
“I don’t care,” Gideon growled. “You’re not losing this case.”
Liam looked between them. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Oh, they’re a thing,” Felix said from the other side of the room, then mouthed “fill you in later” at Gideon’s glower and pulled out his phone, texting again.
“Now,” Gideon rolled his shoulders, “I’m assuming whomever the Vampire Court has tapped for Montgomery’s defense is on their way. We’ve limited time.”