Ripper (Hunter #1)(49)

His eyes were back to normal and so was his voice as he took another shot. The boy could drink. “Again, I apologize. I certainly have no intentions to kick you out when the ten minutes are up. Trust me, this is the most interesting thing I’ll be doing for the rest of the evening.”

I matched him drink for drink. It was starting to loosen me up. “I got the distinct impression we’d interrupted something interesting when Gray got hauled up here.”

He smiled and it lit up the room. It might be easy to see where Gray could dislike this man when he was shouting obscenities, but when he poured on the charm, it was impossible to not smile with him.

“It was getting somewhere,” he said with an intimate laugh. “Unfortunately, I’m certain that’s over. My goddess was yawning even as I walked out the door. She’s asleep by now and I won’t wake her up. Our daughter is teething and getting over an ear infection. The last few days have been rough. While Evangeline might be feeling better today, my wife is still recovering. Daniel took the baby with him. How he manages to play games with her, I don’t know. I hope she doesn’t chew up the boards. Those games are surprisingly expensive.”

“Evangeline? Are you talking about Evan?” Dan had mentioned he brought his kid with him to game nights. I guessed I was looking at the possibility Dan had embraced.

Quinn shuddered. “Only Daniel calls her that. Well, and all the wolves. It’s a terrible nickname for my beautiful little girl.”

“And Dan is your…?” I asked and then realized what a rude question it was. “Never mind. That’s none of my business.”

Quinn took his time with the vodka, savoring it. “I’m not offended, Kelsey. Daniel is my partner. We’re best friends, business partners, closer than brothers. We share a wife and our children. It is a common relationship where I come from, but it’s looked down on in this plane. The good lieutenant certainly looks down on it. My wife is hurt most by the prejudice. Daniel and I don’t care what people think of us.”

“Well, I’ve seen you both and I’d just high-five her,” I said without thinking about it. “Crap, did I say that out loud?”

Quinn threw back his head and laughed. “Yes, you did, but don’t worry about it. I find you quite charming, Kelsey. Much more charming than your…well, than I would have expected Sloane to score. Now, what is this case you’re investigating?”

I pulled out my phone. I’d scanned the files and pictures into it when I realized Liv wasn’t going to let me bring my bag. “I need to know if you recognize any of these girls.”

I passed him my phone with the pictures cued up, wanting to see if he could ID them all.

He ran a finger along the screen and his face sobered up quickly. “These girls are dead.”

“Yes, they are.” I watched his face, but all I saw there was sympathy.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I know this one’s name. She’s Joanne Taylor. Damn it. I recognize the rest of them, but I cannot place their names. I’m sorry. I can find out for you.”

“Are you the one who got them their…work?” It was a delicate question and I tried to keep it professional.

He sat back. “Obviously you know they were prostitutes, though I doubt they would have considered themselves such. They were mostly college girls who needed a little money and didn’t mind spending some time with vampires. Some of them had sex with their dates and others simply fed them. I didn’t directly get them work in the club, though I set up the system.”

“Because the king freed the slaves?”

“That was certainly part of the problem,” Quinn admitted. “The world changed quickly and we’re all scrambling to keep up with it. It seemed a smarter idea to use willing females than to tell the unattached vampires to fend for themselves.”

Put like that it made a whole lot of sense.

Quinn’s fist came down on the desk. “Damn it. When this gets out the wolves and the shifters will blame the vampires. Is there any way to keep this quiet while we find out who’s committing these crimes? Our alliances are still fragile. There are many in the werewolf community especially who think it was wrong to join with the vampires. Something like this could…it could start a civil war.”

I gnawed on my lip while I thought about that. I hadn’t considered the ramifications outside the obvious one. “I don’t intend to give any interviews or anything, but people are going to notice their daughters are missing. I have to tell my client that her daughter is dead. I can’t lie to her.”

“I understand,” the fertility god said. “I wouldn’t wish for her to not know, however if there is any way to keep the investigation quiet, it would help keep the peace. How can I help you? If Helen is your client, she can’t be paying you much.”

“It’s fine. She paid me to find out what happened to her daughter. I’m not going to stop because she doesn’t have the money for me long term. I need to catch this guy, Mr. Quinn. Even if Gray refuses to help me after this, I’ll stay on.”

Quinn opened the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a checkbook. He quickly wrote out a check and passed it to me. “Will that help your efforts?”

As it was more money than I’d made in the last several months combined, I had to nod. I was thinking of all the things I could buy with that money. I could upgrade my laptop. I could walk through the gadget stores and buy all the cool little things that would make my job so much easier because I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I wanted to take on more interesting cases. Images of night vision gear played around in my head.