Page 6 of Silk Skullduggery (Haven Hollow #40)

Two people dying a night apart wasn’t that usual, not for Haven Hollow anyway. Two people, who lived next door to each other , dying one night apart though? That rocketed the situation from odd to highly suspicious, at least in my books.

In Taliyah’s books, too, apparently. She’d been very interested in what I’d told Maverick, and he’d said she was considering the cases linked at the moment. One man drained of his life, the other died in his sleep. But the neighbors had said that the old man was spry for his age, in good health. What if something or someone had come along and stolen his remaining years? Stranger things had happened in this Hollow.

The whole situation made me uneasy, but it was officially a police matter, not a Council matter, so that meant it wasn’t any of my business. Taliyah wanted to do her sleuthing on her own, or with Maverick’s help, and frankly, I was more than happy to let them. I had plenty of my own problems to focus on.

Chief among them: why was my vampire husband dodging my calls and not coming home?

To be fair (and by rule I didn’t like being fair), it wasn’t exactly radio silence. It wasn’t like the last time when I’d thought he was sneaking around because he was busy ushering a geriatric vampire snoop around town and avoiding me. No, Lorcan had been sending me regular texts, even pictures of himself at the office, and one short video where he waved with a very confused but friendly dental hygienist whom he’d obviously roped into waving at the camera too.

So, I knew he was exactly where he said he was, but I just didn’t know why .

And honestly, while I would never admit it out loud, I missed hearing Lorcan’s voice—missed that faint hint of a brogue that got thicker when strong emotions came into play. Just thinking about him whispering against the shell of my ear had shivers racing up and down my spine.

The store was quiet after Maverick had left, and I’d finished everything that needed finishing. Now there was nothing to distract me but a pile of silk scraps that I still wasn’t sure what to do with, and my mood was getting darker and darker to the point where I was half surprised a little storm cloud hadn’t sprung to life over my head.

I did poke at the silk scraps a little. They were delicate, fragile with age and crumbling around the edges. Yet, I still couldn’t bring myself to just get rid of them. For one thing, they were my evidence, and I had every intention of giving that auction house a piece of my mind. For another thing, Goddess, that had been a lot of money. It had also been so sweet of Lorcan to shell out that kind of cash for something just because I liked it, and to see it all crumpled apart now left me very frustrated and unhappy.

So, the choice was I could either wander around my shop like a sad, aimless ghost, mourning a ruined dress, or I could go and actually do something about what was bothering me.

I’d never been a hand-wringing kind of woman. And, frankly, ghosts were so yesterday.

***

If I’d had any doubts of my suspicion that something was up where Lorcan was concerned, it shriveled and died the second I walked through the doors of Lorcan’s dental office and the receptionist, a middle-aged lady with graying blond hair, went pale. Her smile fell away for a telling second before coming back a little too brightly.

“Good evening, Ms. Depraysie.” The woman’s (whose name I believed was Yvonne) eyes darted around, like she was checking the exits or searching frantically for something that might call her away from the front desk. “I wasn’t expecting to see you tonight.”

My smile was more of a snarl, a quick flash of teeth to make it clear that I knew what she was doing and didn’t appreciate it. “I’d like to talk to Lorcan, thank you.”

The smile didn’t falter, Yvonne was made of sterner stuff than that, but my fancy new and improved vision meant I knew that the shine on her forehead was from nervous sweat. “I’m afraid Doctor Rowe is with a patient right now, but I will go and let him know you’re waiting for him when he’s done.”

My eyes narrowed, but what could I say to that? This was Lorcan’s office, and I didn’t want to interfere. Besides, the idea of being in the same room as a stranger with their mouth open and possibly plaque flying around, that was a hard pass for me. I wouldn’t even curse my worst enemy with that fate.

What else could I do? I sat in one of the surprisingly comfortable waiting room chairs and prepared to wait. Yvonne returned after a minute with a faint smile in my direction and slunk reluctantly back into her seat. All her attention was on her computer screen, like she was worried she’d turn to stone if she met my gaze directly.

I’d never been the most patient person in the world, but I sat there as the minutes ticked by on the obnoxiously loud clock. Legs crossed, I bobbed my right foot, trying to burn off some of my annoyance, but every third bounce or so had Yvonne flinching in her chair and hunching a little lower behind her monitor.

The tension in the room built, piano wires yanked tight to the snapping point. How long did it take to finish off a patient? As far as I was concerned, it was taking forever, even if the clock said it had been less than ten minutes. Would it really have been so difficult for Lorcan to pop his head out to check in with me?

Another minute, and my temper snapped. I stood up, smoothed my coat and cashmere sweater out, and stormed past Yvonne and the reception desk towards the back rooms.

“Ms. Depraysie,” Yvonne yelped, half rising from her chair. “You can’t go back there.”

I shot her a look that dared her to try me, and she sank back into her chair, just as she should have. My temper definitely wasn’t pretty. My heels clacks angrily against the tile floors as I stormed down the hall. My worry and annoyance surged higher with every empty examination room I passed, right up until I reached Lorcan’s office, yanked open the door, and found it empty too.

There was no one in the building but me and Yvonne. The only other way out of the building was the emergency exit at the end of the hall, and the larger window in the bathroom, and I didn’t know which I found funnier or more rage inducing for Lorcan to have chosen as his exit strategy. If he chose the window, hopefully he got stuck. Or nailed his balls—it would have served him right.

When I very calmly, collectively, stepped back into the waiting room, Yvonne shrank down into her chair with the aura of a woman who knew that she’d messed up. Still, she made a show of checking her phone.

“Where. Is. Lorcan?”

“Oh my gosh, Ms. Depraysie, I’m so sorry. Doctor Rowe stepped out to take his lunch. But I’ll make sure to let him know you dropped by.”

She wilted as I stared at her, but she didn’t crack or back down. What the spell was going on? Lorcan didn’t even eat lunch. He didn’t eat, unless you counted the bagged blood at home in the fridge. So, this meant one thing: Lorcan was avoiding me. Not only was he avoiding me, but he was recruiting his staff to help him do it? Whatever the reasoning, it was clear that I wasn’t going to get any information from Yvonne, not without resorting to magic, and since she was a normal human who didn’t even know about her boss’s nocturnal proclivities, that seemed like a step too far. Especially against a mother of two who was just trying to do her job, even if she was pissing me off in the process.

My smile was frosty. “Thank you, Yvonne. Please do.”

I couldn’t have sworn to it, but I was pretty sure Yvonne held her breath until I was out the door.

I should have known that she’d tattle on me, because by the time I reached the car, there was already a text coming through from Lorcan.

Hello, Sweetling. I’m so sorry wires got crossed. I had to pop out to take care of an errand and forgot to tell Yvonne. I’m taking care of it now. I’ll see you later.

There were a lot of things I could have said in response, but really, what was the point? For some reason, Lorcan was going to fairly extreme lengths to avoid me, and he wasn’t volunteering why. But he was also doing his best to keep me updated as to where he was, like he was proving he wasn’t up to anything. When he clearly was.

As much as it grated, as much as I wanted to track him down and demand to know what was going on, or to just shake him until answers fell out, I had to let him handle whatever this was. Why? Because at the end of the day, I trusted Lorcan. I knew he would never do anything to destroy our relationship, and I knew he loved me more than he loved anyone else on the planet. He would do what he needed to.

It was just… I missed him. I missed waking up with him, missed talking about our nights. It had only been a couple of days, but I was already feeling that sense of loneliness. And I didn’t do well with emotion in general. Truly, feelings were intolerable. Haven Hollow had ruined me. I’d never gone around missing people before. Especially a vampire. It was all really quite ridiculously stupid.

I’d also never angrily buckled my seatbelt before, but it was a day of firsts for me.

There are some things that just shouldn’t be done while upset and frustrated. Talking to customers is one of them. Sewing delicate things is another. So, I decided not to return to work. The store had been quiet anyway, when I’d closed up to go to Lorcan’s office, so I didn’t see much reason to go back and reopen for only another hour or so.

At least at home, I had wine and a couch to curl up on. I might as well be comfortable, while I was drafting my complaint to the Emerald city auction house. At least I might get to vent some of the rotten feelings roiling around in my gut.

Haven Hollow wasn’t the kind of town that closed shop the second the sun set, but there were still only a few cars on the road at this time, especially once I left the downtown area. City center made way to suburbs, and patches of woods. Everything was quiet, just me, the purr of my car’s engine, and the pale circle of my headlights against the road.

It was almost meditative. Right up until that golden glow of headlights spilled over the body lying in the middle of the road.