Page 53 of The Tracker's Secret
“Any chance Eric might be wrong?” Rosalina asked.
I shook my head. “No. The man doesn’t talk much, but when he does, he means it.”
“Poor Aaron,” Rosalina said. “He seemed so happy.”
“God, I feel like shit. I mean, Aaron is going to be devastated when Josh...” I couldn’t say it, so I just stopped.
“It’s not your fault, Toni.”
“Isn’t it, though? If I had known about rhabo, about what that smell meant, I would have never introduced them. I would’ve told Aaron that I hadn’t found anyone for him.”
“Toni, this could happen to anyone. People meet all the time in all kinds of different ways. There are no guarantees that they’ll be healthy or decent or anything at all.”
“It’s different, and you know it.”
She sighed and nodded sadly. No matter how much we tried to rationalize it, we both felt responsible.
“I’ll call him,” I said, feeling dread just at the thought of that conversation. “We’ll give him a refund.”
Rosalina shook her head, her brow furrowed. “I can’t believe there’s a drug that can kill vampires.”
“Eric said it was worse than heroin.”
“That’s wild.”
But something didn’t feel quite right about it. A lot of ideas and questions were bouncing in my head, though one stood out. “Someone must’ve gone through a lot of trouble to come up with it, don’t you think?”
Rosalina considered, then nodded. “It would’ve required someone smart and a lot of trial and error.”
“Yeah. And it wouldn’t have been cheap.”
We exchanged worried glances.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked.
“That someone wants to purposely kill vampires?”
I bit my lower lip. “Is that crazy? Tooconspiracy-theory-ish?” I made air quotes.
“The way things have been going lately, I don’t think so.”
“Maybe I should ask Tom about it.”
“Sounds like a good idea.”
I rubbed my forehead. “What about Aaron and Josh?”
“Let’s find out more, and when we have a better handle on the situation, we’ll talk to them.”
With that agreement, we got to work, meeting with a middle-aged woman who’d just had her third divorce and wanted to make the fourth husband stick, and after that, screening a couple of new clients. I was sitting in my office, ready to tackle today’s mail when I heard Jake’s voice in the lobby.
I groaned, burying my face in my hands. I didn’t need anything else to worry about, and Jake seemed to always come with a trunk full of problems. A light knock made me lift my head toward the open door. Jake stood at the threshold, almost filling the entire space with his wide shoulders and 6’2” height.
“Hello,” he said in his deep, rumbling voice.
His intoxicating smell hit me, and I had to force myself not to inhale to avoid getting drunk on him.
“May I come in?” He had a large paper bag with him that also came with its own delicious smell.
