He looked over his shoulder and pulled a pair of black leather gloves from his jacket, followed by his lockpick set. He pushed in the pick and tension tool, turning until he heard a pop! He always did love that sound. Success.
Damien quickly slipped inside. The living room was dark, smelling of old pizza, and there were books stacked into various piles on the carpeted floor.
He bent down and grabbed one. The History of Fantastic Creatures? He put the book back, mapping out a plan in his mind to comb through the house for clues. Who was Sky really? Did she have any side businesses that might’ve led to the fairy attack? What were her secrets?
“Who the hell are you?” said a female voice. The lights flipped on.
It was Sky, wearing a hideous pair of pink sweats with stains down the front. She held a baseball bat in her hands and was ready to swing. Wouldn’t do her any good, but he did not enjoy getting his head split open.
“Do not be alarmed.” He extended his gloved hands. Oops. Not the right message. He slid them off and tucked them in his pocket.
“Are you one of those fucking tabloid reporters? I told you, I’m done giving interviews.”
“I am not a reporter. I’m here…I…” What could he say? “I know you were telling the truth about the creature.”
“Who are you?” She raised the bat higher, preparing to swing.
“I’m no one. Just a man who knows you were telling the truth.”
“You don’t look like no one.”
He glanced down at his fine black suit. “My name is Damien Greystone. I am a tailor. From Los Angeles. I’ve seen this creature you spoke of, and I would like to…hunt it and kill it,” he lied.
Really he just wanted to ask the fairy a few questions. Where was it during the blast? Had it been wearing any sort of jewelry—amulets, crystals, metallic substances? Did it have any unusual breeding in its family that made it unique?
Not that he believed these questions would lead to the undoing of what was essentially the death of immortal life on the planet, but a deal was a deal. He would try to gather answers. Hopefully this would be enough to get Cimil off his back.
“So you broke into my house?” Sky growled.
“I am sorry for intruding, but I feared maybe the creature had returned and harmed you. It has been a while since anyone collected the mail.”
She narrowed her lovely brown eyes with natural thick black lashes.
“I truly did not mean to intrude. I promise,” he added. “And now that I see you are okay, I will take my leave.” He turned to go.
“Wait. You’ve really seen those things before?”
He nodded.
“Do you know what it was?” she asked.
“I do not,” he lied again. “But if I track it down, I’ll tell you whatever I learn.”
Her cell phone rang somewhere inside the house. “You stay right there.” She marched off to her kitchen. From the view in the living room, he noted she hadn’t been keeping up with dishes either.
“Hello?” he heard her say from the other room. “What? Is he okay?” Pause. “No, she’s out of town on business, and his dad is…well, he’s not in the picture.” Pause. “Okay, I’ll be right there. Bye.”
Sky appeared in the doorway, her face flushed. “Look, I’d like to help you, but I don’t know how to find that thing, and I gotta go. My nephew’s in the hospital.” Her big eyes got all glossy.
“Are you all right?”
“No.” She covered her sweet face and started crying. “Why can’t anything go right?”
Because life is a ball of shit rolled in shit sprinkles with an occasional good scotch. “You are in no condition to drive. Allow me to take you.”
“I don’t know you.”
“Yet I have the feeling you were about to call an Uber to have another stranger drive.”
“How did you know that?” she sniffled, using her sleeve as a tissue.
That is no way to treat your clothes. “The driveway has a very large pile of decaying newspapers, meaning you haven’t used it in a while. Also, there is no car parked out front.”
“I crashed it and can’t afford the deductible to have it fixed.”
“I am very sorry to hear that,” he said.
“Well, I’m the genius who quit her day job teaching at the community college to focus on her investigations—a big mistake because now everyone thinks I’m nuts.”
“Not everyone. I’ve done my research. You have quite the following online.” Some people considered her a hero for thwarting the sex-trafficking ring. Others were really into fairies.
“Are you sure you’re not a detective?” she asked.
I am much more than that. “Just a tailor. You can look up my business if you like. Plenty of photos on the internet.” He stared, offering her his most reassuring smile. “Let me save you twenty dollars on the fare. You can pay me by telling me your story—what you are comfortable with sharing—along the way. Then you’ll never see me again. Deal?” He added, “We can leave now, and you wouldn’t have to wait for a ride.”
He could see she was breaking.
“Just give me a sec to change.” She disappeared into the other room for a minute and returned with her dark hair in a high ponytail, wearing a tight gray sweater and jeans.
Very sexy.
No. Not sexy. Completely unremarkable, he reminded himself.
She grabbed her purse from under a pizza box on the couch. The zipper had a hideous unicorn charm.
Finally. Something he could focus on to turn him off of Sky. He hated unicorns. They always paid their tabs late at his store.
“Let’s go,” she said.
He followed her outside, his eyes gravitating toward her plump ass as he caught a whiff of her hair. Vanilla.
Fuck. That unicorn charm is not going to do the job. He really shouldn’t have offered her that ride. Keeping his mind clean around such a “plain” and “unattractive” woman was not going to be easy. The sooner he got what he needed and on his way, the better for her.
CHAPTER FOUR
“So you hit the creature?” Damien asked, keeping one eye on the road and the other on his GPS to guide him to the hospital twenty minutes away.
“Yes.”
“And then what?”
“The store manager busted in and found me with my underwear around my knees.”
“What did he do?” Damien asked.
“Luckily, he was a she, and she helped me get dressed and called the police. She thought maybe another customer or store employee had done something since I couldn’t speak right away. I think I was in shock.
“After about an hour, I came around and told the police everything. Of course, they all laughed and snickered behind my back. Then they called the county to have me picked up—crazy lady alert! Thankfully, my sister, Amelia, came. She’s a lawyer. Practices family law.”
“And the creature?” he asked. “Did you see where it went? Into the store, out the door? Maybe into the ductwork?” This would help him when he bribed the store security to let him review the tapes.
“I have no idea.”