Night Shift(78)

“Yes,” she said, without hesitation.

“Is Madonna angry with you?”

“Yes.”

“Goddamn it, Fiji, this is like playing hot or cold with a kid.”

“Yes,” she said, and laughed out loud at his indignant face. “Okay, I’ll tell you about it, like I told Bobo. But I’m not telling you the whole story, because the whole thing is not mine to tell.”

“Fair enough,” Quinn said.

Fiji told him about catching Teacher coming out of her house, about what Mr. Snuggly had told her, and about her subsequent reprisal. She also told him about Teacher’s connection in Killeen, without going into any specifics.

“I get that you’re leaving out parts of the story, and I feel like those parts have to do with Olivia,” Quinn said. “What I don’t get is why Teacher would search your house if he’s here to watch Olivia. And that changes my ideas about Olivia and her background, because setting up a whole business and a whole family to watch one person requires deep pockets.”

“Yes, it does,” she agreed. “If you ask me, that’s why the hotel got renovated.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Because—oh, shit, I’m getting into Olivia’s business again!” Fiji was angry with herself. “I believe Teacher’s been searching all our homes all along, whenever he had a moment, just to see if the rest of us were who we said we were.”

“What’s so important about Olivia?”

And Fiji stared at him, her lips pressed together. Quinn felt like shaking her to knock loose the secrets. Instead, he leaned across the table and kissed her.

It was a really satisfying kiss. She was warm and soft and she smelled great, and she had that magic running internally that made every kiss zing through his blood. For the tenth time, Quinn wondered if witches were born or made. He was pretty sure that either you had magic in your blood, or you didn’t. Fiji definitely did.

He was bent across the table in a strange position, so before he was really ready to stop, he had to break off. He sat back in his chair.

For a minute, Fiji looked dazed. After she recovered herself (and he couldn’t help but be pleased that it took a moment), she said, “Okay, that was sensational. But I’m still not going to tell you.” She smiled as she said it, just a little, so Quinn would know she didn’t really believe he’d been trying to bribe her to spill all with a kiss.

“I like you,” Quinn said directly. “And I have a suspicion that in private, you work magic that we don’t even imagine.”

Fiji smiled. “You’re right. I do. No double entendre.”

“You’re not going to give me a hint about Olivia? About your problems?”

“Nope. Not mine to tell.”

“So I’ll have to approach Olivia herself.” He shook his head.

“Yeah, good luck with that,” she said. She stood, which was a pretty clear signal for him to leave.

He loped back to the hotel, not quite suppressing a smile. The kiss had been rewarding. It’s been too long since I had a good companion, Quinn thought.

Diederik was on the brink of going out on his own.

In view of that realization, his kiss with Fiji took on a much more interesting cast.





25





Olivia said, “Telling him I’m married is sure to flush them out.”

“And that’s what you want?” Lemuel was reading the translation Christine had worked so hard on. He knew what Olivia was telling him was important to her (and therefore to him) personally, but he was pretty sure the text was even more important. At least, in the Midnight universe, and just at this moment.

“I’m tired of this underhand game. I want to know who the players are and who’s backing them.” Olivia was exercising as she talked, and the flexing of her limber body was doing nothing to aid Lemuel’s concentration. Since she’d slept extra during the day, she had cleared a space for stretching in the herd of chairs occupying the pawnshop’s center. Lemuel watched from the high stool behind the counter, the handwritten translation before him.

He tore his gaze from the papers to look at Olivia. “If your father has tracked you down to watch you, he’s done nothing to make you think he will harm you. The Reeds are acting on his behalf? They haven’t raised a finger against you. In the past three years, there’s been many a time they could have acted against you.”

Olivia paused in her squats. “Okay, I concede that.”

“The more serious threat, if I’m understanding you correctly, is that your father’s right-hand man is watching you separately and unknown to your father.”