Page 98 of Taming the Beasts

She raised her eyebrow at me. “Okay, you already have five men.”

I laughed. “I just meant in an appreciative way. What restaurant were you thinking?”

“Just not the Italian place.”

“Fair. That would be way too much garlic in the air.” My phone started buzzing. I pulled it out to see Grudge’s name on the screen.

“Are you going to take that?” Emma asked.

“I kind of have to. He’s the only one with eyes on Kebe.”

“But...you gotta stop talking to him all the time, right? Or your boyfriends will be very jealous. And when they’re jealous, they...”

“Turn. I know. It might be important though. And I’ll tell the guys about Grudge tonight.” I answered the call. “Hey,” I said. “I’m putting you on speaker. I’m with Emma.”

“How are you two lovely ladies this morning?” Grudge asked.

I ignored the question. “Grudge, is it possible that Elias went to Egypt and killed someone?”

“Nice to be speaking with you too, hot stuff. And...um...I guess so? I haven’t been able to locate his whereabouts the past couple of days. Maybe he hopped on a plane and went to Egypt.”

“Or,” Emma said. “Is it possible there are more werecats loose in Egypt and they may have killed someone?”

“Emma,” I said.

“I thought we agreed that it might not have been a vampire.”

“I’m really confused,” Grudge said. “Did someone die?”

I sighed. “We’re not sure. Bennett reached out to one of his contacts in Egypt so we could find out more information on the cure. The guy texted him saying he wanted to talk to him on the phone about it. But then he never called. And he was reported missing.”

“Interesting,” Grudge said. “Can we change this to a video call? I always do my best thinking when I see your tits.”

Emma’s eyes grew round.

“No,” I said. “I have five boyfriends that would be very displeased by that.”

Grudge sighed. “Fine. Sorry, what was the question?”

“I don’t really know if there was one,” Emma said. “We’re just freaked out that Bennett’s contact went missing right before he told us what he knew about the cure. It feels like the timing is too much of a coincidence to not be concerned.”

“Yeah, definitely. You’re smart and gorgeous.”

Emma blushed.

“Stop flirting with my friend and focus,” I said. “Could you maybe do some digging?”

“Already on it.”

I could hear his keyboard keys clicking. “And maybe you can text me what you find?”

“Huh,” he said.

“What, did you already find something?”

“I think there might be a serial killer loose in Egypt,” Grudge said.

Emma and I looked at each other. It wasn’t very long ago that we’d thought there was a serial killer loose in Crooked Point. It ended up being much more supernatural than that.