Roxi stared at Lulu and Armand, doing her best to look innocent. “Honestly, the leftover Chinese and the steak just…disappeared.”
“Into a bottomless pit.” Lulu shook her head. “Sorry Armand, we’re down to a can of soup and a TV dinner.”
He didn’t look impressed.
“Okay, in reparation, how about I take you both out for dinner?” Roxi relented, realizing this could very well play into her hands.
“I thought you said you didn’t know where the food went.” Lulu folded her arms. “Reparation means you’re feeling guilty so you must have done something wrong.”
“Well…”
“It’s very generous of you,” Armand inclined his head. “However, I can pay for the meal.”
She beamed at him. “I’m liking you more and more, Armand. I’ll pick the restaurant and you pay; that seems like an equal division of duties, doesn’t it?”
Lulu opened her mouth to speak but Armand agreed and Roxi began to organize them.
“Great! I’ll get cleaned up. Lulu, you go get changed and Armand…” She waved her hand around, “you do whatever you want. We’ll meet back in five minutes. I’m starved!”
“Take your time.” Armand pulled out his phone. “I have messages to deal with.”
It took slightly longer than five minutes to get ready but eventually they were heading out again, Roxi leading the way to a small place she knew.
“They serve great pasta with fresh baked bread and salad. And it’s all you can eat night!” She extoled the virtues of the place while mentally planning her strategy. “A family friend owns it so I know we’ll get a good table and great service.”
“All you can eat? Between you and Armand, he’ll be losing money before the night is over,” Lulu warned.
“Nah, pasta is cheap and besides, I’d never do anything bad to a friend. Plus, I already had a...er…snack earlier. I won’t be at my prime for eating.”
The other two looked at her in amazement and she shrugged. Her hyper metabolism had always been a source of amazement; the calories she consumed never seeming to impact her size. She attributed it to the fact that her brain was always coming up with new ideas. All those synapses firing had to use up a lot of energy.
As it wasn’t too far to the restaurant, they’d opted to walk. She shoved her hands in her pockets and cast a sidelong look at Lulu and Armand. They were holding hands but not acting too mushy, thankfully. She tried to ignore them, keeping herself amused by studying the contents of the store windows. While it was still August, signs of fall were appearing in the displays; apples and coloured leaves and back to school supplies. She liked fall and lingered for a moment at an especially elaborate arrangement.
“Look Armand,” Lulu paused as well. “Whenever I see red leaves it reminds me of that story you once told me about the bear in the sky.”
“A bear in the sky?” Roxi turned to look at him. “I didn’t know bears could fly.”
“It’s an old tale about three hunters who chased a bear into the sky. They eventually turned into the stars that form the Big Bear constellation.” Armand explained.
“It’s sad, too.” Lucy added. “The hunters shoot the bear and his blood lands on the trees turning the leaves red.”
“Blood? Eww.” She made a face. “Thanks for ruining my enjoyment of coloured leaves.”
“Sorry,” Lulu gave her an apologetic smile.
“But it’s not the end of the bear.” Armand continued the tale. “The bear rises from its bones and the chase begins again, the hunters following him through the sky for another year.”
“Can’t keep a good bear down, can you?” She slid him a look and was going to comment further but the restaurant was in sight and food took priority over trying to get a rise out of Armand.
Pietro’s Pasta Palace was a small restaurant despite the name and didn’t look that impressive from outside, but the food more than made up for the atmosphere and those who lived in the area knew it. As usual, there was a line outside.
“Don’t worry,” she assured her friends as she breezed to the front of the line, ignoring the glares of those she passed. “Hey Bella!”
Bella was the co-owner and current guardian of the door. “Roxi! I got your text. There’s a table for three in the corner. You know the way.” She ushered them inside.
“You seem to have connections,” Armand noted.
“Roxi is always pulling out some relationship or friendship, it seems,” Lulu explained as she sat in the chair Armand held for her.
“Interesting.”
Roxi smiled innocently as Armand pinned her with a speculative stare. He was beginning to get suspicious of her. Damn shifters never took anything at face value. And, of course, she wasn’t good at being subtle. What you see is what you get; that was more her style. If people chose not to believe what was right before their eyes, that wasn’t her problem.
They placed their orders and made appreciative noises as a basket of fresh baked bread was set on the table.
“Dig in.” She grabbed a slice and slathered it with butter.
The meal progressed as Armand regaled them with stories of happenings at the bar he ran. She loved his accent and could have listened to him read a dictionary but thankfully the Broken Antler seemed an endless source of entertaining anecdotes. In fact, the whole town was rather quirky. She supposed small places were like that. Chicago had its fair share of characters as well, but they were lost in the mass of humanity.
“The dog really uses the crosswalk?” She leaned back in her chair feeling pleasantly full.
“He does.” Lulu took a sip of her wine, her cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling. “Ryne sat down and talked to him one day and ever since then Harley’s obeyed the traffic lights.”
“This Ryne guy talked to the dog? That’s…fascinating.” Her gaze drifted to Armand. “Isn’t it?”
Armand’s expression remained bland, but she knew she’d made her point.
“Do you want more wine?” She took the carafe that sat in the middle of the table and poured more into Lulu’s glass even before she answered.
“Oh, I really have had enough.” Lulu pushed her chair back. “In fact, I need to use the washroom. Watch my purse for me, okay?”
Roxi held back a smile. Her plan was working. Lulu would head to the restroom and she and Armand could spend some time getting to know each other.
“Lulu seems really pleased you came to visit. I’ve never seen her this happy.”
“Despite the wine you’ve been plying her with?” Armand quirked his brow.
“You noticed that, huh?”
“I did. However, I agree she’s changed over the few days I’ve been here. Now she’s more like the Lucy I knew; laughing and relaxed, not so controlled.”
“She told me once that she’d made mistakes in her life and was starting over fresh.”
He nodded. “She said as much to me, too. However, Lucy isn’t what we need to be talking about, is it?”
“Right. We do seem to have a certain something in common besides her.”
They eyed each other across the table, neither wanting to play their cards first. This is what she sucked at though. She’d never been the patient kind and cracked first.
“We need to talk about the…Others.”
“Yes, we do.” He leaned forward clasping his hands on the table. “We’re not always what we appear on the outside, are we?”
“True for you at least. I believe you have an affinity for…bears?”
“And you find the caricatures of Halloween witches annoying.”
“To some extent. My family does. Me, not so much.”
He cocked his head. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
She scowled then hitched her chair closer to his and spoke in the quietest voice possible. “Screw all this pussyfooting around and talking in code crap. I know you’re a bear and you know I’m a witch. Well, a demi-witch.”
“Demi?”
“No longer functioning. I showed a few sparks of promise as a child and then it fizzled into nothing.” She waved her hand. “That’s not the important point. What matters is the contents of the flash drive.”
“Industrial espionage; that’s what I told Lucy.”
“Yeah and you lie like a rug. A great big bear rug.”
“And what makes you think that?”
“I have a side business. I engage in information exchange, especially the kind that has to do with Others.”
“I fail to see what this has to do with the USB drive.”
“Listen, I suspected what you were the moment I met you.”
He shook his head. “Witches don’t possess the ability to detect shifters.”
“I’ve spent enough time around your kind to know the signs, though you do seem to have better manners than a lot of them.”
“My mother insisted her sons knew how to be gentlemen.”
“Huh. Anyway, I figured if you were a shifter, the friend you contacted was probably a shifter. And then, when you said it was industrial espionage that clinched it. If it really was just human stuff, you’d have handed it over to the cops or sent it to them anonymously in the mail, but you didn’t!” She leaned back pleased with her deductive skills.
Armand, disappointingly, did not seem impressed. “That’s it? I fail to see the connection.”
“Well,” she frowned, “there are a few more details.”
“Such as?”
Damn, she hated sharing all her information at once, especially when she wasn’t getting paid for it. However, the good thing about information was that it could be sold over and over again with the buyers being none the wiser. “Okay, I’ll spill. Have you ever heard of Club Mystique?”
“I’ve heard the name in passing. One of my cousins works there as a bouncer.”
“Let me guess. Rudi?”
He nodded.
“Well, in case he didn’t explain, it’s a place for Others to gather, a bar. Nothing special, though the owner is starting to swank it up a bit. Anyway, I hang out there, picking up bits of info.”
“Eavesdropping.”
“Information acquisition.”
“It’s not honourable.” There was a look of distaste on his face that rankled.
“Honourable, schmonourable, it gets me extra cash. You think I can live on what I make at a dry-cleaners?”
“I have no idea.”
“Well, I can’t so I do what I have to do, all right?”
He didn’t reply. Stuffy, judgemental bear!
She took a deep breath and got her attitude back under control. “I was at the club the other night and overheard something about sensitive information pertaining to Lycan Link. Someone inside the organization is selling it to the highest bidder. I put two and two together and decided that must be the data on the flash drive Lulu found.”
“That’s quite a leap; the USB could have come from anywhere.”
“Yeah, well my mind works in wild and wonderous ways.” She waggled her fingers to simulate her brain waves, then cocked her head. “So, am I right? That flash drive is full of Lycan Link secrets, right?”
He shook his head. “Ryne said—”
“That’s the dog whisperer dude, isn’t it? He’s also a shifter. Probably a Lycan if he can train a dog that fast.”
“You’re quick to jump to conclusions.”
“Nah, I’m just quick to see links between facts. No jumping involved whatsoever. So, what about the flash drive?”
He pushed his chair back. “I think I’ll go pay the bill.”
“Aha! You’re avoiding answering which can only mean the flash drive does contain intel from Lycan Link.”
“Or maybe I don’t want to impose on the owners of this restaurant. We’re keeping the table longer than necessary while there are others who are waiting to come inside.”
“This conversation isn’t finished, Armand.”
“I never assumed I would be that fortunate.”
“Fortunate?” She scowled. “Hey, that’s not nice.”
“I don’t mean to offend, however you do remind me of the proverbial dog with a bone.”
“Gum on the bottom of your shoe, that’s what Lulu says.”
“And she’d be correct. Speaking of her, she’s not back yet.” He turned to look towards the rear where the washrooms were located. “Maybe you should check on her?”
“Yeah. She was a bit tipsy. I hope she didn’t get stuck in a stall. That happened to me once when I was drunk. Took me forever to jiggle the door free.” She stood up. “You go pay and I’ll get Lulu. We’ll meet you at the front door.”
She wove between the tables and made her way to the washrooms.
“Lulu, you okay? Your big, burly boyfriend is looking for you.” Her voice echoed around the small room. She cocked her head but there was no answer. Only the steady dripping of a tap sounded in the sink. An uneasy feeling passed over her and she began knocking on the door of each stall.
“Lulu?”
There was no reply.
Had she somehow missed her?
She poked her head into the dining area and scanned the restaurant. Armand was paying the bill. Their table was being cleared and new customers were crossing the room, but Lulu was nowhere in sight.
Maybe Lulu had gone out the back door. She’d had a lot to drink—Roxi skimmed over whose fault that was—and hurried to the rear entrance. She pushed open the door ready to tease her roommate about taking a wrong turn except…there was no sign of her.
Turning in a slow circle, she pushed down her increasing apprehension, hoping to see Lulu barfing up the extra wine in some dark corner. No such luck. The only sign of life was a stray cat blinking at her from behind a dumpster.
Her brain began to scramble for explanations. Lulu could have gone home without them. Or decided to go window shopping. Or… She made a face; Lulu wasn’t the flaky type who’d do something like that.
Oh crud.
She’d wanted to get Armand by himself so she could talk to him, but she’d never thought it would lead to this. Someone must have nabbed Lulu!