Chapter 5

Shit. Orion knew he'd flubbed the moment he said her name. Would she notice? Maybe she'd assume she'd told him already.

Fuck.

As he climbed into the SUV, a napping Ambrose opened an eye and muttered, "What did you do now?"

"What makes you think I did anything?" Orion huffed, handing over a sandwich.

"I've known you too long. I know that face, the one that screams, ‘I messed up.'"

Orion sighed. "I used her name."

"Let me guess. She never introduced herself."

"No, but she did tell me when I told her mine that she knew a dog by the same name." He glared at his friend.

"When I first went to your rescue, I thought she'd killed you and might have mentioned it."

"Great, when she thinks of the name Orion, she's going to associate it with a dog."

"You are one, both figuratively and literally," Ambrose pointed out.

"Not helping," he grumbled, taking a bite from his epic sandwich. He spent a few minutes groaning through each savory bite before leaning back with a sigh. "What's on the agenda for today?"

"Watching our target."

"Yeah, we both know we're wasting our time parked on the street."

"What are you suggesting?"

"One of us should be checking out her apartment."

"Checking it for what exactly?" Ambrose asked with a furrowed brow.

"Threats. Other points of egress. Perhaps a reason why our goddess and a soulless wererat are so interested in her.

"Actually, not a bad idea. Go ahead."

"Me? Why not you?"

"Because you've already been inside her shop today. Meaning, if she spots you out here, then she might have questions."

"She might have some if she sees you as well, seeing as how you met last night."

"I won't be seen," Ambrose confidently declared. "Although I will be checking the alley."

"For what? We have cameras watching the rear door into the shop." Not actually their camera. They'd hacked into the security ones already available.

"I noticed an interesting lack of the usuals in the alley." Before Orion could ask, Ambrose listed them. "No goblins, despite the two dumpsters with food scraps." Goblins being nature's solution to food waste recycling. "There's also been no hint of any cryptids at all in the space."

"We've only been watching a week."

"Watching an alley with food waste that connects to a major thoroughfare and has not one but two sewer grates. It should be a hotspot."

Orion pondered the very valid point. "Maybe I should take the alley. I've got a keener nose."

"Which will be perfect for her apartment. Me, I have this." Ambrose held up a bag of herbs.

"Smells nasty." Orion wrinkled his nose.

"It's charmed to glow around stationary spells and give me an idea what kind it is. Red for danger, AKA a trap. Green for monitoring of the area. Yellow for concealment. And blue for repelling."

"You never told me you suspected her alley was hexed!"

Ambrose shrugged. "Seemed kind of obvious after a few days, so I had Mindy over in Nexus whip me up something to use."

"You could have mentioned it," Orion grumbled.

"I am."

"Ass."

Ambrose grinned. "You're just peeved I thought of it."

A reply didn't happen because his phone rang. He glanced at the number. "It's my contact at the Montreal CA." He answered. "Hey, Carly."

Rather than greet him, she whispered, "What the heck are you involved in?"

"What do you mean?" he replied cautiously.

"That wererat we picked up? The one you wanted me to look into?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"It's been confiscated. And by confiscated, I mean dudes in dark suits and glasses showed up, seized the rat, decontaminated the cells, took all the paper trail to it, deleted the request for it to be picked up, and now people are being called in one by one to the boss's office."

"Who are the suits?" he asked.

"Dunno, but the boss isn't arguing with them."

"Sounds like a coverup of some sort," Orion mused aloud.

"Which is why I asked what you're involved in."

"Any idea what people are being told in your boss's office?"

"I'm about to find out; it's my turn. Hold on. I'm going to slip you into my pocket so you can have a listen." Rustling ensued as Carly tucked him away, muffled but he could still make out noise, such as the voice of the woman saying, "Agent Mathews?"

"Yes, that's me."

"Please have a seat."

"Okay. What's this about? What's going on?"

"Please look at this medallion."

"Isn't that a…" Carly trailed off, and a hum had Orion holding the phone away from his ear. When the noise ended, the same woman said, "Thank you, Agent Mathews, you may return to work."

Orion listened as Carly exited, the door shutting with a firm click. She strode back to her desk, and he heard a creak as she sat then a curse. "Why is my phone in my pocket?"

He held the phone away again, as the noise of her removing it proved annoying to his ears. Once it stopped, he whispered, "Carly?"

"Hello?" She spoke tentatively. "Who is this?"

"Orion," he answered with a frown.

"Did I butt-dial you?"

"No, you called me, remember? To talk about the wererat and the suits?"

"What rat? What suits? Are you drunk already?"

Orion's mouth rounded, and he glanced at Ambrose, who pursed his lips and mouthed, Hang up.

Orion cleared his throat. "Ha, just messing with you. Was going to say we should meet up for a drink while I'm in town."

"Sure, but I'll have to bring my husband. He got insanely jealous the last time we had a coffee together."

"Sounds good. I'll text soon." Orion hung up and glanced at Ambrose. "They whammied Carly."

"And everyone else in that office," Ambrose's grim reply.

"Over a wererat?" Orion couldn't hold back an incredulous note.

"Not just a wererat, one without a soul. Meaning there's something big afoot, with enough clout behind it to wipe all records, even memories, of the incident."

Left unsaid—somehow Adeline was involved.