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I didn’t keep up much with news around tech billionaires and their heavily-documented lives, but of course I knew the name. How had I missed the inevitable feeding frenzy over his death in my cursory scan of headlines over coffee?

“It’s not in the news,” Black said, obviously hearing me.

Okay. Maybe this wasn’t an ordinary murder case.

Black glanced over his shoulder as he pulled out onto California Street. We were leaving his building’s garage in one of the company SUVs.

“They’re sure it’s murder?” I asked, as he merged into traffic.

“He was shot in the head while leaving one of his buildings last night.” Black gave me a tight smile as he glanced at me. “So yeah, they’re pretty sure it’s murder.”

From the back seat, Nick grunted.

I scanned my mind for what I knew about Lucian Rucker.

Most of it wasn’t very flattering.

Like most of his type, he’d inherited his start-up money. I was pretty sure he’d then stockpiled even more capital by buying up a bunch of distressed companies with his father, liquidating all but a few for the cash. He’d also played on the crypto markets for a while; I was pretty sure he’d owned a large exchange before it got shut down by one regulatory agency or another. Somehow he’d come out ofthatlegally clean, but he’d gone bankrupt at least three times that I remembered.

Family money allowed him to bounce back.

I also suspected he had cash squirreled away, likely hidden under shell companies or possibly something even more legally sketchy. He’d been focused mostly on biotech lately, hadn’t he? Or had he switched to robotics and A.I., where most of the Valley seemed to be obsessed these days?

“Does that mean we’re under contract with the S.F.P.D.?” I asked.

Black and Nick exchanged looks in the rearview mirror.

When I turned around in my seat to look at Nick, he gave me a slight shrug, then shifted his gaze in the other direction. His eyes, distorted through the muddy-brown contact lenses he wore, returned their motionless stare to the nearest side window. He blinked in a way that told me the lenses were already bothering him.

He needed them to avoid awkward questions about his eyes, though.

Humans couldn’t help but react to his cracked-crystal, nearly colorless vampire irises. Those irises, clear when he was emotionally neutral, calm, and relaxed, had a habit of turning blood red when Nick felt angry or threatened, or when he had a strong emotional reaction of any kind. They also changed color when he was hungry.

Or when he was turned on.

Or when he was in pain.

Nick cleared his throat.

I waited, thinking he might speak, but he didn’t.

I turned to stare pointedly at Black. “If it’s a murder, why isn’t Angel with us?” I knew Angel wouldn’t be meeting us there because she’d offered to take Panther for the day. She said she’d take him to Golden Gate Park over lunch. “I would’ve thought she’d be coming along for this first interview. Won’t you need your liaison to the S.F.P.D.?”

Black gave me a sideways look eerily similar to the one Nick just gave me.

“We decided it would be better if she sat this part out,” he said cagily.

“Why?” I asked. When neither of them answered, I frowned, now feeling a bit put out. “What part is Angel sitting out? Why amInot sitting that part out?”

Nick grunted a laugh from the back seat.

“Angel’s sitting out the illegal part,” the vampire offered dryly. “As S.F.P.D. liaison, she’s getting a pass on the part that could get us all in a fuck-ton of trouble. The part Black is shieldingherfrom, but apparently not you and me.”

I blinked, and turned to Black. “What is Nick talking about? Isn’t this Angel’s case? She’s the one who brought you onto this, isn’t she?”

Nick snorted again.

It was closer to a scoff that time.