Page 55 of The Tracker's Revenge

I set my burger down on the end table. “Interesting. So what do you have so far?”

He pointed at a stack of papers. “A list of all the registered Midnight Mages and Midnight Witches in the city. Another list of abandoned warehouses. They’re bound to need another one for storing their drug supply. Stephen’s known accounts. I thought I might be able to track his financial transactions. Credit card usage. Money withdrawals. There’s a lot of stuff on Bernadetta also, but none of it has led anywhere.”

They all sounded like interesting and legitimate ideas. “Maybe I should take a look. See if something speaks to me.”

“Be my guest.” He pushed the stack of papers in my direction.

I grabbed it, set it on my lap, and started leafing through it. We sat quietly for a moment while I slurped my drink, and Jake typed on the keyboard. The pages were full of names, numbers, addresses, but nothing gave me any ideas. I felt disappointed, wishing there was a way I could use my tracking skills to find our enemies.

I shook my head and set the papers back on Jake’s desk. “Nothing,” I said.

He didn’t say anything, which probably meant he hadn’t expected me to find anything.

“I heard from Tom about an attack at The Scourge. Was that part of the Pack Rule’s plan to fight the distribution of rhabo?” I casually set what was left of my fries next to Jake’s keyboard.

He smiled crookedly, snatched the box, and popped a fry in his mouth. I would keep the meat, but I could do away with the carbs. Maybe they would go straight tohistight ass.

“It was,” he mumbled as he chewed.

“That’s what I thought.” I walked around the room, nibbling on my burger and sipping my milkshake until I finished them and threw the wrapping and cup in the bin under Jake’s long desk. I reached for the token at my neck to rub it, but it was under my shirt. “I’ve been thinking...”

Jake didn’t glance away from the screen but acknowledged me with a drawn-outhmm.

“I would like to put the spare elixir that Damien gave me in a safe place.”

His hands froze over the keyboard, and he finally abandoned his work, whirling in his chair to face me. “I thought it was in a safe place. You left it in Eric’s house, right?”

“Yes, but I don’t know... I thought, elsewhere might be safer.”

“Elsewhere? And safer than with Eric? Or is it that maybe you don’t trust him?”

“Oh, I trust him. It’s not that. I don’t know. It’s just a feeling I have. That this cure is important. That it can save someone who needs to be saved.”

“Where else could you hide it? What do you have in mind?”

“Elf-hame,” I said hesitantly.

“Elf-hame?” Jake looked completely confused. “Who do you know there who could hide it for you?”

“There’s a guy.”

“A guy, huh?” His features hardened and he stood from the chair and towered over me. His raw masculinity hit me like a hammer blow. The T-shirt he wore strained over his strong pecs, and his corded, tanned arms made me dream of his embrace. He was such a specimen. I rolled my eyes to disguise the way he affected me.

“Jealous,Jakey?” I asked, though if anyone had a right to be jealous it was me. He was the one with a fiancé that called him cutesy names.

“I already told you not to call me that,” his voice rumbled in his chest.

I threw my hands up in the air. “Fine.”

Since he’d promised me to find a way to be with me, I hadn’t asked him how his quest to get out of his engagement with Allison Blackridge was going. I figured if he’d come up with a way out of his unbreakable pact, he would tell me, but maybe calling himJakey,like his fiancée did, was a little jab in that direction. Maybe I wanted to know if that research took second place to the one he was doing here.

“So who is he?” he pressed.

“Just some guy. He’s nice, and he helped Damien and I find the Prince when we were looking for the bitterthorn. If I give it to him for safekeeping, no one would suspect he has it.”

“Then you should take it to him,” Jake said.

“Um, want to... go with me?”