Page 52

Dane

I tucked the newspaper under my arm and crossed the street to the coffee shop just across from AFF headquarters. The owner of the small shop, Jack’s friend , looked up and gave me a nod.

I pulled my baseball cap low and moved to the counter.

“Morning, Dane.”

Resting an arm on the counter, I leaned toward him. “Can you spare a minute?”

He looked around the nearly empty shop. It was too early for most of the regular patrons. Nodding to a table at the back, he moved around the counter and I followed, glancing at the door.

Sitting, he whipped a towel over his shoulder and eyed me. “What can I do for ya?”

“I’m looking for Jack.” I kept my tone light, like I was asking about the weather—not my missing son.

Leo didn’t answer right away. His eyes drifted to the back room. He thought he was subtle. He wasn’t. “Not like Jack to stay away so long.” His gaze darted to the back room again. Where he kept the food stores he and Jack used to feed my prisoners.

I had let it slide to appease Jack and keep him compliant. After all, it wasn’t as though it did anything other than prolong their suffering. They deserved every moment of agony I tore from them.

I set my newspaper on the counter, pushing it toward Leo.

He glanced down at it and back to me. “What’s that?”

“Open it.”

Leo peeled back the paper, blinked at the bills inside. “Dane, I—”

“This is a good shop,” I said. “It would be a shame if something… happened.”

His shoulders tensed and he nodded.

That was all I needed.

“Leo.”

He looked up, eyes burning with shame.

“I would never harm my son. I only want to know he’s safe.”

He nodded, looking away again.

I stood. “I’d like a coffee. Black.”

Leo slid his chair back, curling the newspaper under his arm, and moved behind the counter once more, setting it inside the box where he kept his guns. Although he’d been a war hero in another life, I knew he hadn’t started keeping guns in his shop until the fae arrived.

He may enjoy my son’s company. He may have even derived some satisfaction from helping the creatures in my prison, but deep down, Leo was no different from the rest of us. He would put himself above the fae if it was his life on the line. And our lives were all on the line.

Handing a cup across the counter, he met my eyes hesitantly. “On the house.”

I laughed. “I should hope so.”

He grimaced, turning away from me.

Taking my coffee, I left his shop, turning right, away from headquarters, and toward ISHFA.

It was time I pay Janet Glassdon, ISHFA president, a visit.

We needed a fresh dose of meds to feed to the satyr who was exceptionally receptive to their mind-altering qualities.

More than that, Janet owed me for allowing her to experiment on my prisoners. And I intended to collect.

I pushed open the glass doors to ISHFA headquarters and grinned at the petite blonde receptionist who always wore too much lipstick and never remembered to wipe it off her teeth.

“Hi, Dane.” Her lips tipped into a seductive grin, out of place on her youthful face. She tried too hard. A sign of insecurity that made her less attractive.

I nodded, removing my baseball cap and running a hand through my hair. “Morning Leslie. Is Janet in?”

She leaned forward, giving me a full view of her cleavage. “Sorry, Dane. She’s out, but Morgan’s here.”

I ground my teeth. Working with the autumn court emissary was a necessary evil if I wanted to continue receiving funding—and intel—from ISHFA, but that didn’t mean I had to give Morgan the respect she thought she deserved. Her kind would never be my equal.

“That’s alright. I’ll come back later.”

“Dane Clyde,” a sultry voice called overhead.

I tipped my head back, staring up at the golden-haired fae with strange crimson eyes whose blood-red nails matched her business suit.

She wasn’t wearing her wings today. She kept them tucked away among so many people in an effort to appear more human.

Even her pointed ears seemed blunted, as if she’d subtly glamoured them to lull us into a false sense of trust.

But something was going on in the autumn court, something Morgan was keeping secret, and she had only to open her mouth for me to know she was lying.

“You missed your chance to speak with Janet,” Morgan said, descending the stairs with regal authority. I had no doubt she was a member of her royal court in Faerie. “But perhaps I can help.”

Her crimson eyes glinted menacingly. “I hear you’re looking for your son. I may have information you’ll find interesting. You certainly have something I want. Shall we make a bargain?”