Page 7 of Five to Love Him
Ezra gasped. “That’s a—wow. Some PI work. I’m actually impressed.”
“I guess.” I shot him a lazy grin. “I thought it was a front for sex work.”
“Wait, the Moonlight is that safe place, right? The one under protection by that boogeyman character?”
“Shh. The Black Shuck isn’t a character, but yes, the Moonlight is safe. He won’t allow violence there.” Ezra looked at me. “I told Tate already, but if you’re ever in trouble, go there and call help. Why did you think there was sex work happening there? It’s a family diner.”
“There was a guy on a laptop being all busy, a bouncer-type dude who was trying not to stand out, and everyone was really good-looking. It matched the conversations I’d been overhearing at the time as well. Don’t judge me.”
“Oh, Ez doesn’t judge. Do you?”
“Yeah, I do. Just because there’s good-looking people there…seriously. So what did you do then? Ask what the hourly rate was?”
I shrugged. “I walked out. There was a cab parked in some alley a few steps away from there. I opened the door, and some guy with tentacles was all over another guy. I sort of screamed, and then the bouncer from the Moonlight was just there. It was so stupid, really. I didn’t think there was anything at all to the people talking about the cab conspiracy online.”
“There’s a cab conspiracy?” Tate asked. I’d never mentioned that to him before given we’d gotten stuck talking about tentacles and how you’d hide sucker marks.
“Not anymore. I told the Hawthorne people about that and, well, they are good at deleting stuff fast.”
Ezra folded his hands in front of him. “That keeps all of us safe, you know. Especially people who can’t pass. Your instructor is a chimera, right? Can you imagine what a bunch of scared humans can do to someone like that?”
“He discussed that with us,” Tate said. “At length and in detail.”
Ezra hummed. “Still, I do wonder how they picked up on the cabs.”
Tate nodded. “Me too. I mean, who are these online people looking for conspiracies anyway? A bunch of incels who live in their mothers’ basements and have the spare time to watch and follow cabs? No offense, Leo.”
“I’m not an incel.” I really, really wasn’t, but I couldn’t fully deny that I ticked at least some of the boxes, however clichéd.
Ezra put a hand on Tate’s shoulder. “My roomie has a nose for that kind of thing.”
Tate snorted. “I don’t. The chemicals ruined my sense of smell. But Leo doesn’t work. He just sits at home and thinks about tentacles all day.”
I groaned. “Well, apparently, I have to go and find a job now.”
“You are looking for work?” the cute server asked. He’d appeared without me noticing, easily balancing a tray with our drinks and small glass bowls with salted nuts and crackers.
“Forgot about the supernatural hearing,” I said.
“You were not whispering, and we were right here,” the server said. “We made sure Coral made you something tasty. It has blueberry and mint in it.”
He placed the glass in front of me. The drink was opaque, purple, and a sprig of fresh mint along with lemon peel had been arranged atop the froth like some small work of art.
“Looks good. Thanks.”
“And the daiquiri and margarita of course. We also brought nuts.”
He put everything on the table. And then didn’t leave. He was still looking at me.
“Uh, thanks,” I repeated. I caught Ezra and Tate exchanging a look.
“Please taste it. If you don’t like it, Coral will make you something else.”
I shrugged and took a sip. “Whoa. Nope. Whatever it is, it’s good.”
He beamed. “Please enjoy.” And off he went.
I turned to look after him and found that the twin behind the bar was looking my way, totally catching me…staring after himself? I knew that a hive was one being split into however many bodies, but Instructor Arick hadn’t had a definitive answer about whether the individual bodies had any sense of self at all or whether it was really just one consciousness. Hives didn’t disclose much information about themselves, that was what Arick had said.
