Dante pulled out a business card and handed it to the other man. “If you think of anything, call me, all right?”
“Yeah, sure.” The young man sat back down and slipped the card into the pocket of his shirt. He resumed typing on the keyboard and within seconds Dante could tell he’d been dismissed. Or forgotten. It was hard to be sure which.
Dante tucked his notebook into his pocket and looked around for Nix and Tobias. He saw them waiting at the door and had to fight back a grin when he saw the look on Tobias’s face. The vampire seemed a little bemused and a lot befuddled as he gazed down at Nix. Dante knew he’d worn that look before, as had just about every man on the planet. As he walked over to them he heard Nix say, “I’m telling you, he’s bad news.”
“Who’s bad news?” Dante asked.
“Finn Evnissyen.” A muscle twitched in Nix’s jaw. “He’s a demon. A bastard.”
“A bastard demon, huh? Well, apparently he’s also a loomer,” Dante said. At the identical blank looks from his colleagues, he muttered, “Never mind. It was something the kid said.” He cleared his throat. “He mentioned a Finn but didn’t know his last name. You think it’s the same guy?” Nix and Tobias shared a look. “Will someone tell me what’s going on?”
Nix’s full lips pressed together a moment before her tongue swept out, leaving them moist and inviting. Tobias found himself staring at her mouth as she continued to speak. “Our lady didn’t give a last name either, but if she’s talking about who I think she’s talking about, it’s Finn Evnissyen. He’s the only Finn around here that I know of. He’s a demon, don’t know which clan. It’s rumored he’s one of Lucifer’s sons, but it’s never been proved.” She spread her hands. “He’s very mysterious.”
“Lucifer’s son? As in Lucifer Demonicus? The king of demons?” MacMillan paused. “Well, let’s hope this Finn knows something, because no one I talked to here seems to know anything.”
That tongue came out and slicked across her lips again. “I have no idea why he would want to see Amarinda—he’s a loner, much more so than most demons.” She stared at Tobias, her slender brows knit in a frown. “But it can’t be coincidence that he came looking for Amarinda and then she ended up dead.”
Tobias stared at her mouth a second longer, remembering what those lips felt like against his skin, sliding down his abdomen to… He dragged his gaze up to her dark eyes. “Whether or not he killed her, when you’re talking about murder there’s no such thing as coincidence.” He shoved open the door and blinked in the strong sunlight. Yanking his sunglasses out of his pocket, he slipped them on. “Let’s put together our next plan of action on the way down the mountain.”
Before Nix could get to the SUV, Dante opened the back door and jumped inside, grinning like a Cheshire cat when she scowled at him.
“Is there a problem?” Tobias asked as he opened his own door. He stared at her from over the roof of the vehicle.
“No, other than with a certain underhanded detective,” she said, and yanked open the passenger door. She got in and fastened her seat belt. As Tobias started the Porsche, she rolled the window down and leaned her head against the headrest. It smelled fresh and clean up here, the air crisp and cold. As Tobias started driving down the mountain, the air whipped into the car.
“Hey, you trying to freeze us?” Dante rapped the back of her headrest. “Roll up the window, please.”
“Wuss.” She reached down and pressed the window button, enjoying the whirring sound of the window sliding up. Even that sounded expensive.
“It’s gotta only be about forty degrees out there.”
She glanced over her shoulder to see him hunched down in his seat. “In about half an hour or so we’ll be back down in the valley where it’s seventy.”
“Yeah, well, then in about half an hour or so you can roll the window back down. Besides, I hit a couple of cold spots in the observatory.” He looked from her to Tobias and back again. “Not everyone in this car is a hot-blooded demon or a cold-as-ice vampire, you know.”
“Well, not everyone’s perfect.” Tobias looked in the rearview mirror then put his eyes back on the road. Nix was astonished to see the hint of a crease in his cheek.
She leaned her elbow on the middle armrest and murmured, “You’re going to ruin that tall, dark, and scary impression you keep trying to give off by grinning, you know.”