Page 88 of Fear

Marco was in the regular basement of Homewood, and not in one of the secure areas. They didn’t want to let Ryan that far into their stronghold, and I completely understood why. I hadn’t asked Marco for permission to take him underground at the coterie house, either.

“You’ll excuse me for skipping past the niceties,” Marco told Ryan, “but I need you to tell me what you know, along with when and how you found out.”

“I spoke with Martin after I spoke with you, and notified him his life might be in danger because of what he witnessed. No one else had clued him into this. He was asleep in bed, aboveground, when I arrived to tell him.”

“And how did you know to notify him he was in danger?”

“I’m a Slayer. It’s my job to know.”

“I need more from you.”

Ryan frowned. “I didn’t think it important to ask for safe passage to meet with you. Are we back to that, vampire?”

“We are not,” Cora said, “but I’m with Marco on this one. If we’re to work together, I need to know everything you know, and I need to know how and when you learned of each thing.”

Ryan sat in a chair as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “I’ll tell Etta. Not you.”

“You promised Etta you wouldn’t ask her to keep things from me. If you tell her, she’ll tell me. You may as well tell me.”

He tilted his head. “She’s listening in. She’s in your head.”

“She is.”

He smiled, and it was a smile he only gave me, as far as I knew. “I was worried about you. I’m glad you’re safe.”

Tell him I’m glad he’s safe, and I’m sorry I can’t be there.

“I refuse to be the go-between,” Marco told Ryan, “so she’ll have to answer you later. What did you know, when did you know it, and how did you find out each piece of information?”

Ryan gave an almost-shrug and sat up a little straighter, but not much. “The first inkling I had of a problem was your phone call, but I set it aside because I was deep into another problem. However, someone called to tell me my parents had gone off the grid and no one knew where they were. That’s when I called you back. I knew Etta was meeting with Martin at the downtown TBC, so my next step was to talk to Martin, and he told me Josef had seen the perpetrators, beamed their image to Etta, and she recognized them as my parents.”

I didn’t tell him I was meeting with Martin. Neither did I tell him I’d be at the downtown TBC. I told Marco.

“How did you know Etta was meeting Martin at the downtown TBC?” Marco asked Ryan.

“Through surveillance that goes to the analyst assigned to me. She gives me the details she thinks I’ll find of interest.”

“How is this surveillance gathered?” Marco asked.

Ryan didn’t look happy, and he took a few seconds before answering, “A bug your scanners aren’t capable of picking up.”

“How many of our properties do you have these bugs in?”

“Dammit, Marco!”

“How. Many?”

Ryan stood, and the tension in the room grew. “All your commercial establishments.”

“Residences?”

The muscles around Ryan’s temples flexed. “Several.”

“We’ll deal with that later. What have you found out since?”

“My mother flew into Nashville three days ago, my father flew into Atlanta two days ago. I can only guess someone is watching for them as a couple, but I haven’t been able to ascertain who. Neither have I been able to figure out where they’re staying. Standard protocol would be for them to research cars in long-term parking at the airport and steal one with an owner who won’t return for a week or longer. If they both stole a car from their arriving airport, odds are, they’re in the one with Nashville tags, rather than Atlanta tags, but it could go either way.”

“So, you don’t know much.”