“So why bring me here?” I couldn’t help myself, the question had been burning a hole in me ever since we’d crossed the magical barrier. There had been any number of fast food drive-thrus he could have stopped off at but, instead, he’d brought me here, to this place, with its cosy tables and candles, and his brother that ran it all.
A point between my shoulders started to itch. If I didn’t know better, I might have thought it felt a little too much like a date.
My question seemed to take him by surprise and he ducked his head, studying the menu with renewed interest.
“I—,” He cut off and my heart chose that moment to skip in my chest.
“Grey!” The shout went up from the back of the restaurant, shattering the moment between us.
Craning my neck, I caught sight of a willowy dark haired man making his way through the tables. He reached us, his eyes never leaving Grey’s face. There was a smudge of flour trailing down his right cheek and he wore the white uniform of a chef, minus the hat, his dark hair sliding down into his face.
He was almost handsome in the conventional sense, his sharp jaw clean-shaven, his nose a little too long for his face, marring what would have otherwise been perfectly symmetrical features. Dark lashes fringed his wide honest brown eyes.
Grey pushed up from his chair, the recognition in his face unmistakable.
“Quinn,” he said, wrapping his arms around his brother in a warm embrace. They slapped each other’s backs, the sound echoing in the empty restaurant, making me think it had been quite a while since they’d seen one another. Not that I knew much about Grey’s family. He was pretty cagey on the details. What I did know of them suggested they weren’t the kind of people you’d want to bump into on a dark night down an alley. And Grey telling me who owned the restaurant was the first I’d heard of his outcast brother.
Quinn pushed back first, his gaze drinking Grey in before he turned his attention in my direction. I hadn’t noticed it before but as I met his inquisitive stare, I noted the scar that started at the corner of his left eye, trickling over his cheek. It appeared to pull down one side of his sensuous mouth, giving him a perpetual melancholic expression that had nothing to do with the sadness that lurked in his eyes. The scar travelled onto his jaw, the white line almost perfectly bisecting his already dimpled chin, onto his throat and across one side of his neck, disappearing into the dark hair carelessly tucked behind his ear.
“Who’s this?” he asked, politely ignoring the way my eyes had followed the line of his scar. My stomach flipped with unease at being caught in the act of such blatant ignorance.
“I’m Jenna,” I said, pushing onto my feet and holding my hand out, “Jenna Faith. I work with Grey at—”
“She helps with some of my cases,” Grey said, smoothly cutting me off. “Jenna’s a talented preternatural.”
Quinn shot his brother a quizzical glance before he took my hand, his eyes widening a little as we made skin on skin contact. I felt the flush of his magic as it pressed against me, and then, as though I’d imagined it, the magic was gone, my skin left slick with sweat.
Withdrawing my hand, I discreetly brushed my palm against the leg of my trousers, trying to rid myself of the prickling in my fingers. It felt as though I’d stuck my hand against an old tv set, the static bouncing across my skin, causing the tiny invisible hairs on my arm to stand on end.
“Can I hug you?” he asked, his question ripping me from my thoughts.
“Excuse me?” I asked, meeting his eyes head on.
“You don’t like to be touched without prior consent, and well, I just…” His voice trailed off sheepishly. “I guess it sounds stupid now that I’ve said it aloud, but Grey hasn’t ever brought anyone here before and well…” His Gallic shrug was genuine as he shot a loving glance back at his brother. “You clearly mean something to him.”
“I’m not really a hugger,” I said awkwardly. If he could make the palm of my hand feel that weird, I really didn’t feel comfortable letting him get any closer to me. The thought of feeling that kind of static all over left me cold.
“Me, either,” he said quietly, his smile dimming a little. “I get it.”
I shot Grey a furtive look but his expression was unfathomable, as though we were both nothing more than two test-subjects under the microscope.
“I just can’t believe you came,” he said, his smile once more returning to the mega-watt level it had originally been when we’d entered the restaurant. “I really never thought I’d get you here, big-brother, it’s so good to see you.”
Quinn reached out, catching Grey on the shoulder and squeezing firmly. The mask of Grey’s expression slipped, his normally dark eyes lightening until they were caramel coloured. He reached up and patted the back of Quinn’s hand, a tender gesture. It was the most emotion I’d ever seen come from Grey. He was normally so repressed, keeping everything so tightly wrapped up that to get a glimpse beneath the facade was like getting a sneak peek at the fabric of the universe.
“It’s good to see you, too, Squirt.” There was such affection in his voice as he spoke. I shuffled awkwardly. It didn’t seem right that I was here to witness their familial reunion. In all the time I’d worked with Grey, I’d never seen him so soft, so open before. I’d always known he was capable of it, part of me had even wondered if maybe the front he presented to the world was to protect a more vulnerable side. I’d glimpsed it when he’d carried me away from the Pied Piper’s cave in the woods. Just thinking of it brought back his frantic fear, the raw terror that had filled his gaze. It had almost made me believe that he still cared for me.
“Have you ordered yet?” Quinn asked, pulling me back to the present with a jolt. I caught Grey watching me, his hooded gaze studying my expression and I knew he was trying to figure out just where I’d gone.
“Not yet,” I said. We’d only glanced at the menu and the sudden reminder of why we were really there caused my stomach to cramp up painfully. My vision whitened at the edges and I knew if I didn’t eat soon, the hunger combined with the alcohol I was pouring into the void my body had become meant I was going to pass out. Not something I wanted to do.
“If you’ll let me choose for you,” Quinn said, “I can give you both something I think will satisfy?”
“Uh,” I said, hesitating. What if he thought I was one of those girls who only ate salad? The thought of picking my way through a bowl of rabbit food definitely wasn’t going to make me happy.
“It’s kind of his thing,” Grey said. “Quinn has always been an expert at knowing just what you need.” Grey’s endorsement of his brother was so completely out of character that before I knew what I was doing, I found myself agreeing to the experiment.
“Trust me, you’re not going to regret this.” He threw the words back over his shoulder as he bounded away toward the kitchen. Despite not knowing him and considering I’d only met him a couple of minutes previously, I could tell his exuberance wasn’t typical behaviour. Clearly, Grey’s sudden appearance was vital to him.
“How long has it been?” I asked. Grey raised his dark gaze to mine.
“How long has what been?”
“Since you last saw Quinn?”
“A while,” he said with such longing in his voice that I knew he was holding something back. He drew in a deep breath, his shoulders slumping. “The last time I saw him was the day my mother cast him out,” he said softly. “He was due to perform the sacrifice but he couldn’t go through with it… Our mother tried to end him but I intervened and he got away.”
“Shit.” I whispered the word half beneath my breath but Grey nodded.
“Shit indeed,” he said, contemplatively.
“The scar,” I said, not needing to finish the sentence as Grey’s eyes found mine.
“He was lucky to get away with his life.”
“Why are we really here?” The question popped out before I could stop it and Grey answered with a wry smile.
“You miss nothing, do you
?”
“If I did, I wouldn’t still be alive.”
He nodded his ascent. “I suppose that’s true.” He sighed, folding his arms over his chest as he leaned back in his chair. “I want to know what Quinn has heard. I think unknowingly he might have heard something about our case that can help.”
“So you didn’t come here specifically to see him… or to introduce me?”
“That’s a complicated question,” he said, evading the answer with the skill of a polished politician.
The door that led to the kitchen flopped open once more and a woman and a man I hadn’t seen before exited carrying a large tray each. The scents floated toward us and my mouth started to water. On the table, they set plate after plate of food and a couple of moments later, Quinn arrived carrying two large baskets laden with bread.
“Most of these aren’t on the menu yet,” he said. “You’ll be my guinea pigs so to speak.” He grinned at us both and set the baskets down.
I didn’t need to be asked to start eating. Taking a plate, I started on a burger that was saturated in a mystery red sauce. I bit into it, juice dripping over my fingers as flavour exploded across my tongue. Scintillating spices merged, tingling across my lips before it washed down the back of my throat. The reaction was enough to bring heat flooding into my face.
Quinn drew up a chair, joining us at the table as he heaped our plates with more food than I could contemplate. It was strangely intimate, the brothers chatting amicably as I sat on the outside, nothing more than an observer to their reunion.
Listening in, I nodded when it was appropriate, but my true focus lay with the vibrant spread of food and the ever shrinking void in my centre.
Satiated, I flopped back in my chair and continued to pick at the sweet potato fries in the small silver basket next to my plate. They were addictive and, despite my stomach groaning against the button on my trousers, I couldn’t stop popping them into my mouth. I watched the two men across from me, their animated debate on the top ten ways to commune with the oak had me inwardly smiling.
“So what really brings you here, brother?” Quinn said suddenly, effectively cutting Grey off mid-sentence.
Everything had appeared friendly up until that moment, but as soon the as the words were spoken aloud, there was a spike in the tension. Of course, it could well have been in the air the entire time we’d sat together, the depletion of my magic made me emotionally blind to my surroundings.
“I told you,” Grey said defensively, “I wanted to see you…”
“Horseshit,” Quinn quipped back, breaking open a crispy white roll. I watched as a small ball of steam escaped from its centre, carrying with it the scent of freshly baked bread. “I might be the outcast brother, but I’m no one’s fool, least of all yours.”
Grey fell silent, staring down at his plate as Quinn slathered thick golden butter across the roll before jamming a piece of it in his mouth with surprising violence. He chewed, the sound painfully loud in the silent restaurant.
“You know who we work for,” I said quietly, interrupting the thick silence that stretched between the men like salt-water taffy.
Quinn inclined his head in my direction, his brown eyes studying my face carefully. “I’m aware,” he said archly.
“Someone is trafficking in humans,” I said, cutting across Grey before he could get a word out to interrupt me.
“What, and you think I know something?” Quinn asked, his eyes black with rage.
“No, but you own this place,” I said, gesturing to the restaurant. “Something like this is bound to attract undesirables.”
“Real-life isn’t like the Godfather, sweet-cheeks,” Quinn said, his anger barely restrained and I realised his accent had suddenly taken on an almost Celtic burr. It was too soft for me to place it. Clearly the years he’d spent living away from his people had softened the accent but I recognised it as the same affectation Grey sometimes produced when he was particularly pissed. “I own a successful restaurant but that doesn’t mean I’m the head of some nefarious crime organisation.”
“Look,” I said, leaning toward him, “I’m not saying you’re involved. I’m saying, I’ve never seen a place like this before. You hire vampires and fae alike without bloodshed. Grey here says you manage to cater to all tastes without all-out war erupting, and not only that but this is a safe-haven.” Grey hadn’t actually said as much but with everything else, I was willing to bet I was right.
From the surprise that crossed Quinn’s face, I’d hit the nail on the head with my pronouncement. He jolted back in his chair, the bread he’d been eating moments before forgotten in his hand.
“He said that, did he?” Quinn asked, darting a quick look in Grey’s direction.
“Yeah, he did.” I sucked in a deep breath. “I’m willing to bet that you can’t have all these groups,” I said, gesturing with my hands, “who would normally be at each other’s throats coming through your door and not hear the rumours and gossip.”
“I don’t deal in gossip or rumour,” he said softly.
I gave him my best version of a hard stare, which, if Adrian was to be believed, gave me an edge over even the fiercest of preternaturals.
Quinn sighed and tossed the remainder of his roll back onto the plate. “Even if that were true,” he said, holding his hands up, “and I’m not saying it is, that kind of information is not for me to trade on.”
“People are dying,” I said.
“People die every day of the week,” he said softly, “that’s not on me.”
“It is when you can do something to stop it, brother,” Grey said, the sudden softness in his voice lacked the warmth it had held earlier. Instead, it carried with it the promise of violence.
“You know,” Quinn said sharply, “you sound just like her when you do that, brother mine.” He pushed up from the table with a sudden jerk that set all of my nerve endings jangling at once. “Do you want to carve me up just as she did?”
“Quinn, no, I—” But Grey’s backtracking was too late, I could see the truth of it reflected in the pain and disappointment in his brother’s eyes.
“I should have known when I saw you sitting here that it wasn’t me you wished to see. That after all the time that passed, you wouldn’t have changed an ounce. I should have known that my desire to have my family back was nothing but the foolish daydreams of a man discarded by those he only ever wanted to please.”
“I wanted to come and see you, I—”
“You what, brother mine? Didn’t have the stomach to face the sibling you destroyed?” Quinn’s voice shook with emotion and static crackled in my ears.
Grey had said his brother no longer practiced, but I was rapidly coming to the conclusion that being outcast certainly didn’t mean Quinn was lacking in magic. A druid he might not be anymore, but that didn’t mean the power didn’t still run in his veins.
“For once, Quinn, I wish you could understand that not everything is about you.” Grey pushed up from the table and dropped a wad of notes among the half empty plates.
“I don’t need your money,” Quinn whispered, his voice husky with unspoken emotion.
“And I’m not going to be beholden to an outcast,” Grey said, stalking toward the door.
Glancing between the two men, I grabbed my jacket and pushed out of my seat. Quinn’s face was blank, his jaw clenched, another trait I could see the two men shared with one another.
I reached out to him, my hand hovering just above his arm but his words rang in my head. He’d said he understood what it was like to not want the touch of another without first giving consent. His eyes met mine and the pain and turmoil I saw there sealed the breath in my lungs.
Quinn spun on his heel, stalking back toward the kitchen, the door slapping shut behind him, and I was suddenly alone in the restaurant.
No, not alone… Energy prickled across my skin like an unwanted caress causing my shoulders to stiffen.
The lilac haired fae I’d seen outside earlier
moved up next to me, her body within touching distance of mine as she began soundlessly gathering up the empty plates. She caught my eye and pointedly glanced back at the table practically begging me to follow suit.
Wordlessly, she slipped a piece of paper over the white linen tablecloth, scooping up my empty plate as she deliberately dropped the note.
“Who are you?”
She shook her head and carried the plates away. Going after her would only lead to questions and I didn’t know what the note contained. If she was important to the case, I couldn’t risk drawing the wrong sort of attention to her. Covering the note with my hand, I swiftly folded it into my fist before I turned away and followed Grey out into the evening air.
Chapter 10
By the time I made my way out through the magical barrier that kept Quinn’s restaurant hidden from prying eyes, Grey was nowhere to be seen. The mist that had been creeping in through the city earlier in the day was thicker now. And with the evening air came the all too familiar drop in temperature. Each breath formed a small cloud of water particles that hung suspended in the air directly in front of my face.
Drawing my this leather jacket closer to my body, I tugged the zip up so that it fastened just below my chin and made a mental note to buy a coat with a winter lining. I’d made the same promise last year, but I’d allowed myself to become sidetracked by a particularly nasty case involving the murder of Shellycoats.
Scanning the area, I spotted Grey sitting in the black SUV. As I drew near, the familiar hum of the engine running whispered over the air, bringing with it the promise of warmth and shelter from the mist that caused my hair to cling to my face.
Grey’s expression was stony as I slipped into the passenger seat and slid my seatbelt into place, the familiar click the only sound that carried above the beat of my heart inside the silent car.
Stakes and Stones Page 8
