“Fitzpatrick? As in Liam Fitzpatrick?” I asked.
He sighed. “Yep. That's my Dad.”
“Ok. Well, you know you didn’t need to come to the office if you needed something right? I’m sure your Dad....”
He smiled, and my heart skipped a beat. “See, that’s the thing. I don’t want my Dad to know that we’re talking, and if I hire you officially you are bound by client privilege, right?”
I smiled. I liked this one. “Absolutely. Hopefully it’s nothing I could get in trouble with your Dad or the pack for?”
“I’m the heir apparent,” he smiled slyly at me. “My Dad may get annoyed but he’ll get over it. It's not that serious.”
“So it’s about a girl?”
“What was your first clue?” he ran his hand through his hair, his eyes shifting away from me.
I pulled out a notepad from in my desk. Resting the pen on top, I eased back in my chair to listen. Surely this would be interesting, and possibly rather amusing.
“So I met this girl, and we clicked. I mean, we clicked in a way that I have never clicked with anyone. We spent a bunch of time together and then she ghosted.”
“Maybe you didn’t click like you thought you did.”
He chuckled, his eyes widening a bit. I caught a quick glimmer of fear in his gaze, the look of a man used to getting what he wanted and clearly not handling it well that he didn’t.
“Oh trust me. We did. Something must have happened.” He shifted in the chair. “I just need you to find her, than I can do the talking.”
“What was she?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Could she have...I’m new to this, so I don’t know what the word is. Bamboozled you? Bewitched you?”
He laughed again, this time his arrogance started to show. “Absolutely not. I am 90% sure she was human. And if she wasn’t she was powerful enough to be able to hide what she was from me. That’s not easily done.”
His power crept up around me and I felt it brush up against mine; this strange magnetism that felt very primal, and strong.
“Did your Dad tell you anything about me?” I asked him.
“Sure did. That's why I’m here.”
“Great. So you know how new this is to me?” His expression showed that Liam left out a few key elements to my story. “I have only known about all of this for literally like a month. So all this,” I gestured widely, “is kind of lost on me. Where did you meet her? I am guessing that you’re also here because Daddy would not approve.”
“Promise you won’t laugh?”
“Sorry, I can’t.”
“Fine. I met her at a bachelor party.”
“So she’s a stripper?” I started to laugh but covered my mouth.
“I prefer the term ‘dancer’ but yes. She’s only doing it to pay her way through school.”
“Now that makes me laugh. In my experience, that’s the story that lots of strippers give. Sometimes it’s genuine, other times not so much. I don’t see why those who enjoy it don’t just cop to it. I see no shame in that. What club does she work for?” I asked, this time lifting my pen.
“Ren. Do you know it?” I tried to hide my facial expression after he said the name.
Of course it had to be Ren. It always leads back to fucking Ren.
“Yeah I do. What’s her name? Can you give me a physical description?”
“Her name is Meg. And I can do better. I’ll send you a picture.” He grabbed his phone out of his pocket, and after telling him my email he sent photos. “Sorry that some of them are....provocative.”
“What is it exactly that you want me to do, Mr. Fitzpatrick?”
“Please call me Lorcan. I want you to find her, and in her habits find me a chance to randomly bump into her. Is that cool, Miss. Bishop? Or does it come across as desperate?”
“If you want me to call you Lorcan then you really should call me Camille. And yeah, I can locate her.” I wrote some things down and, more importantly, did not speak my mind. Thinking for a few moments, I looked up at him and said, “Would a locator spell not do the same thing?”
“I don’t have access to magic.”
“But surely it must be easier and cheaper to access spell casters?”
“It’s like I said when I got here. You're bound by confidentiality. Them, not so much. And you never told me your opinion.”
“Well, Lorcan, you’re not paying me for my opinion. I know this may be a weird question, but isn’t there a princess or something that you’re supposed to marry? I figured the heir apparent would have a string of eligible women fawning at their feet.”
He laughed again, a little colour just touching his cheeks. Lorcan didn’t seem like the type who would actively pursue a girl in any way unless her presence changed him.
“Girls throw themselves at me all the time. But they don’t want me, they want me.” He gestured at himself. “They have no interest in me as a person, only what I signify.”
“I am new to this world so I don’t totally get it.”
“You’re part of a prophecy. You’ll get it. Eventually.” His tone seemed almost amused, like what came next for me made him laugh. “I would just like to be with someone who wants Lorcan, not Lorcan Fitzpatrick, heir to the Southern Ontario Wolf Pack.”
Not having asked Liam the size of his actual territory, I gasped a little. Southern Ontario covered a lot of landscape, which explained why Liam wielded so much power. You needed to be King Shit to rule that much space with that many different cities.
“So what happens in the North?” I asked.
“Because there is so much open space it’s different rules. Another pack governs the North.”
“Right. Ok. So I will locate this girl for you. Should I ask the dumb question of why haven’t you gone back to Ren looking for her?”
He smiled. “I did. Sent my buddies in too. She hasn’t been there.”
I sighed. I really didn’t want to go to Ren. “Alright, I’ll find her. But if you do anything fucky I am telling your Dad. Are we clear?”
“What do you mean ‘fucky’?”
“If I find her for you and you do something bad to her I will tell your Dad. Are we clear?”
“Crystal. You can trust me.” He smiled and stuck out his hand for me to shake it.
“My receptionist informed you of my fee?” I smiled a big toothy grin at him.
“Of course.” Extending my hand to him, he quickly snatched it up and sniffed the inside of my wrist. It took some effort for me to remain expressionless; I knew this as something shifters and vampires did but never experienced it firsthand. He did not seem bothered that my hand looked like I dipped it in a glass of milk.
“Well, it was lovely to meet you. Hopefully I will have something soon.” I stood up and went to step forward so I could slide over my desk.
“Call me when you do. I’m hopeful that I’m not wrong.” He smiled and waved, leaving the door open slightly as he left.
A figure walked past my door and excitement rushed through me. My insides tingled and I knew that Eric arrived. Climbing out from behind my desk, I quietly crept down the hall towards his office.
His back was turned when I got to his doorway. His black leather jacket seemed cut perfectly and framed his broad shoulders. His short dark hair looked still damp in the back from when he showered this morning, he smelled like cinnamon and cloves.
I paused before I approached, unsure if I did what I felt in my heart if I would be rejected. With him being older than me and I often worried that the novelty would wear off, that he would figure out that I’m a total spaz and run like hell. It’d only been a few months since all the craziness went down; since Jesse died, since Bliss’s cross to the dark side, and since I became the prophecy girl. Our relationship just started.
He turne
d around and I felt my eyes widen as he stared at me, totally confused.
“Good morning.” He said, and I felt like an idiot.
My cheeks got a little hot. “Good morning. Sorry, I was going to...but I didn’t know if you’d be cool with it so I didn’t, then you turned around and yeah.”
Eric took two steps in my direction, stretching out his left hand and using it to close the door behind me. Once I heard the click his hand caressed the back of my head, entwining his fingers in my hair. He pulled me closer, my heart fluttering in my chest as he leaned down and kissed me.
His lips were soft, and my hands moved up to his collar in an attempt to pull him closer. All the nonsense and shit that happened since last night just faded away, leaving only me and him.
“Wanna hang out later?” I asked when he pulled away. “Or now? Let’s go now. I can say we have to do shit for my new client....”
“You mean Lorcan Fitzpatrick?” Eric asked, backing up a little so he could see my expression.
“Yeah. Do you know him?”
His brow furrowed. “Yeah, I know him. Don’t tell me, you think he’s attractive.”
I stayed silent for a moment, studying his face. My mouth twitched up a little as I cracked a smile. Pulling him back to me I kissed him again, this time with more passion and force. I wanted him, not just physically. I wanted him to want me. My relationship experiences were limited to say the least, and more than anything I wanted someone to reciprocate the insane lust and need that I felt in my strange little head.
“No, actually. Sure, he may be pretty but he’s not my type.” We were separated by mere inches when I spoke. “He wants me to find some stripper who ghosted him.”
Eric chuckled. “Does Daddy know?”
“No. And he won’t, unless things get fucky.”
“Are you sure that’s wise? Pissing off Liam....”
I sighed loudly. “It’s not going to piss off Liam. This girl ghosted him for a reason. When we find out for sure that he got played he will run away with his tail between his legs and we’ll never hear from him again.”
“So where do we go looking for this girl?”
“Ren, apparently. Are you down to go today?”
“Are you worried about running into Bliss?”
I shrugged. “Should I be?”
“I wouldn’t. You made your point the last time you saw them.” He leaned in and kissed my cheek, nuzzling his face into my neck. My heart hurt a bit thinking about the last time I saw my former friend; there'd been a showdown with her and her vampire buddies after they kidnapped one of my tech’s and blew up her lab at the university. In the fight with Bliss I forced a demon, the demon that formed when my prophecy got thrown off course, into her body. No one knew, not even Eric.
You should rephrase that. You didn’t force anything. You didn’t stop it, but you didn’t make it happen. I think we can call that plausible deniability don’t you?
Pulling away from him I looked deep in his eyes. If he found out the truth he would reject me for sure, but it would be better if I just told him instead of him discovering the truth.
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
I smiled, kissing him softly on the lips. I felt my hands tingling. “Nothing.”Spending the better part of the day looking into this ‘Meg’, I wasn’t surprised when I came up with nothing. Close to the end of the day I left my office and went to the end of the hall to knock on Chris Lewis’s door.
My Uncle Ted's partner and the L in L&B Investigations, Chris Lewis could be referred to as a man of many talents. One of them is keeping shit in line for the owners of Ren. He would be able to tell me something about Meg, and what I would be getting myself into walking back into Ren.
“Come in,” he called through the door after I knocked.
I smiled and waved as I put my head in the door. “Got a sec?”
He motioned for me to come in and sit down, not looking up from his laptop.
“Can you tell me anything about a stripper named Meg that works at Ren?” I asked.
He stopped for a moment, his eyes turning to the ceiling. “Long white blonde hair?”
“That’s the one. Is she there tonight?”
He looked back at his laptop, and I heard him clicking through some files. “Yep, she should be. Why?”
“I need to ask her some questions about a case I am working on.”
He looked out from behind his laptop. “Do I need to know?”
“Nope. It’s nothing super serious.”
“Alright. Just a head’s up, she’s feisty. She'll probably give you a hard time.”
I sighed loudly. “Great. Have you seen Bliss lately? Or the Kinkaid’s?”
He looked up at the ceiling again, clearly trying to remember. I could feel the tension in my stomach, knotting up in anticipation.
“I haven’t seen the Kinkaid’s in a while, and Bliss is there every night. But I wouldn’t be concerned, her and Meg hate each other so she won’t come around if you’re talking to her.” He clearly knew that Bliss and I were no longer friends, which I assumed my Uncle covered. They knew nothing about my prophecy, my new title, magic, or supernatural craziness.
“Good to know. Thanks for the tip.” I got up and started for the door.
“And Camille?” He called back to me without looking up from his laptop.
“Yeah boss man?”
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
I saluted him before closing the door behind me.
Eric and I finished up our day and headed out. We decided we were going to stop by Ren early in an attempt to talk to Meg before she started her night, then go grab some dinner when we were done. We ended up outside Ren before it got dark.
Eric turned to me as I stood outside the front door of the club, staring at the neon sign. “Are you good, Cas?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good. Let’s do this.” Smiling brightly, I pushed open the door and we headed inside.
Tor the bartender stocked the bar when we approached; she smiled at me when she saw me. “Hey girlie! Surprised to see you.”
“Hey Tor! Is Meg around?” I kept my smile as big as I could while trying not to seem like I faked it.
“Yeah, she’s in the back. You know where the lockers are, right? You can head back, but your dude will have to stay out here.” She gestured towards Eric, who stood a few feet away from me.
“That’s not a problem. Thanks Tor.” I smiled then turned to Eric. “Go find a seat, I won’t be long.”
He looked at me awkwardly, staring around the room. “Any advice on where? I’ve never been here before.”
I pointed to a table off to the side in the dark, with a view of the stage but where he wouldn’t be easily spotted. “You’ll be safe there. Call me if anything happens.”
He kissed me on the cheek then went and sat down, immediately taking out his phone.
Walking past the far end of the bar, I headed through the door to the lockers. I only went back there once or twice, my brief stint as a waitress to help out Chris Lewis didn’t last long. During that time I hadn’t seen hardly any of the strippers, mind you I probably couldn’t tell the difference at the time.
Walking into the room, a woman stood in front of a locker slightly turned away from me. Her long white blonde hair cascaded down her back, barely touching her naked body; her creamy pale skin looked blemish free and flawless.
“Excuse me? Meg?” I stopped about a foot away from her, trying not to seem too assuming. My hands started to tingle, and I knew golden boy wasn’t as good as he thought. She turned around, her pupils dilated as she looked me up and down.
“Yes. Do I know you?” She asked sweetly.
“No, I don’t think so. My name is Camille Bishop, I’m a private investigator.” Her smile grew wider when I said my name. “You made quite an imp
ression on a young man, and he sent me looking for you.”
She laughed. “Honey, making an impression on men is my job. You’ll have to be more specific than that.”
“His name is Lorcan Fitzpatrick.”
This time she laughed harder, tilting her head back and shaking her hair as she did. “Oh, the royal wolf himself?”
“Excuse me?”
“Let’s not play coy, Camille. Can I call you Camille? I know who you are. I knew the second you walked into the building.” She grabbed a bottle of coconut smelling lotion and began to smooth it onto her bare skin. It felt very strange having a conversation like this with a completely naked woman.
“He thinks you’re human.” I said.
“Do you?”
I stared at her and thought for a minute, trying to assess what sort of feeling I got from her. “No. But you are something I have not encountered yet. My experience is....limited.”
“That’s quite alright. And why is the little wolf lordling looking for me?”
“Because he thinks you had a real connection. He says he genuinely cares for you.”
She put her hand on her hip, leaning slightly to the side, standing perfectly in her enormous stripper heels. She reminded me of the cartoon character Jessica Rabbit from that movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, all exaggerated curves and full lips.
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” She stated. “I hear stuff like that all the time, but if they knew the real me they wouldn’t want to be with me.”
“He seemed pretty genuine.”
“He doesn’t even know what I am, Camille.”
“So enlighten him. Give him the chance to prove himself.”
“Even if I did, I am not a werewolf. He has to marry someone who would help the pack.”
I smiled. “Who said anything about marrying him? There is a whole lot of shit in between random hookup and marrying someone. Pick one of those and see where it goes.”
“I think I like you.”
“I think I like you too. Can you do me a solid and keep an eye on Bliss Fiori and the Kinkaid’s when they are here? I need a general idea of what they are doing.”
“I would prefer not to be involved with anything associated with....” she shivered a little. “Bliss Fiori.”
Rise (Camille Bishop Book 3) Page 2
