is the one we have been looking for. We haven’t found him because he moves restaurants regularly.”
“Well, then we will take care of this after dinner. You cannot let on that you are aware of his intentions. Storm, care to help us out with this guy?” Dan turned to face her, his expression a mixture of exhilaration and curiosity. Storm remembered the stories in the paper, the guy carving runes in his victims and then splaying them in very public settings to bleed out. Dan and Shane had been searching for him for months. She shuddered remembered the body count, at least a dozen women over the past year. This could be just what she needed.
“I thought you’d never ask. That creep needs to be locked up. What do I have to do?”
Dan leaned in to whisper in her ear, it must have looked intimate to anybody who didn’t know better, “Just flirt with him a bit. Make him think you are interested but play coy. Now push me away and laugh, he is walking our way.”
Storm did as instructed, giggled in a way that made her seem vapid. It sounded strange coming out of her mouth but delivered the desired reaction as their waiter raised his eyebrows in her direction. Storm arranged her lips in a slight pout and used her Marilyn Monroe impression to order. She finished with a little wink. For the remainder of their meal, Storm behaved as such whenever the waiter returned to their table. He was definitely invested and Shane seemed to be having a difficult time with the mental images he projected. Storm paid with cash and slipped a note in the small black leather binder asking the waiter to meet her in the alley in ten minutes. She signed it with a fake name and a little heart for good measure.
Dan and Shane made a point of going out to the car first while she loitered for a few moments and caught the waiter’s eye. He nodded in agreement, his gaze hungry. Storm made a show of leaving out the side exit.
Ryder
Ryder found himself struggling to finish his meal. How could she be there? Of all the restaurants in town why Il Bistro? He worked to focus on the conversation, to laugh appropriately with his companions. Fortunately, Roane had chosen not to join them. It proved impossible to extract his eyes from the Seer. She sat at a booth directly across from them on the opposite side of the restaurant but stood out in the crowd like a beacon. He barely noticed the seraphs on either side of her, their power suddenly paled in comparison to that emanating from Storm Sullivan. How did his companions not see it? A golden glow around her entire being, far brighter than Trin’s had ever been. For that matter, far brighter than any he’d ever seen. She had to be the Emerald.
Eventually Lucian caught his wavelength and worked to keep Kell and Pollux occupied but Angeline clearly noticed his obsession with the redhead across the room. She nudged him under the table at one point to break his eye contact. He was not sure if Angeline worried more about his fixation for business reasons or because he failed to acknowledge her appearance. Ryder had actually noticed, even appreciated what she’d done with herself, but Angeline was not Storm Sullivan. Lucian seemed interested however and had nodded approvingly more than once in her general direction. Angeline garnered a more appropriate response from Kell and Pollux whose eyes bulged slightly when she entered the restaurant. The black satin dress hugged every curve, dipped low in the appropriate places, and had a slit up one leg that left little to the imagination. She’d done her hair in a glamorous twist and added dangling diamond earrings for added effect. Every man in the place had eyes on Angeline, every man but four – Ryder, the seraphs, and the strange waiter.
The waiter. Something seemed off about that kid. When Angeline got up to apparently powder her nose, Ryder leaned into Lucian and asked his opinion on the situation. Lucian
C. J. Cherryh
Learning to Kill: Stories
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