Drown Under Earth - Shadows of the Night 3

Chapter 17

Hi!

Phew! Another week that passed within what felt like three seconds. The story moves on and we're getting closer to the resolution of the case. Also, we are heading slowly towards a part of the book I absolutely love. It will have a lot of a certain someone in it. I think you can guess who... ;-) So, thank you all for reading, and let me know what you're thinking!

Lara

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Chapter 17

If this was a date, I would have given him his marching orders. Cole did show up, but he stumbled into the bar twenty minutes late. No message, no nothing. Maybe I should simply be grateful that I finally got a hold of him at all. The man was harder to reach than the Pope.

The barmaid placed Cole's drink on the table, walking back to the counter with her hips swaying to the beat of laid-back hard rock music. The bar was empty of vamps, true to its no-fang policy. The perfect place for our meeting.

Sitting opposite him, I watched his black hair with mild fascination. It looked even frizzier than usual. My eyes darted to our left. Yup. The barmaid was back to staring at Cole. He might look like any other John Doe at first glance, but now that I knew him better, I could see why the barmaid was staring. It wasn't all about the chocolate-colored muscles underneath that white shirt. It was the way he held himself. Self-confidence – he had it in spades, and it attracted.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Cole picked up the conversation again. We hadn't made it past trivial introductory commentary and him ordering drinks.

"The case, what else?" I said with forced lightheartedness. I took a gulp of coke and set the glass down, looking him in the eye. "You remember when we were at Bad Blood? ... I saw you."

He shrugged. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Look, Cole. I saw you place two bugs, first in that bar and then at Goshanger's. I may look like a beginner in this, but I'm neither stupid nor naïve. Is this CIA standard operating procedure? Cause it certainly isn't what we do in the TF3, and I doubt that Brown or the mayor got any memo about it." I leaned forward, lowering my voice. "Do you have any idea what will happen once the vamps get wind of it? And sooner or later they will. Trust me on that one."

He stared at me. "As I said, I don't know what you're talking about. And you still didn't tell me why I'm here."

I took a deep breath. "You're here because I want to know why and how you're keeping tabs on the vamps. And before you come up with another one of those I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about-comments, if you don't tell me I'm gonna bust you."

I grabbed my coke and took another gulp, looking up at him.

He leaned forward, elbows on the table. "Not that this is any of your business, but let's assume that I did place this bug you're bitching about and I tell you about it. What do you care? It wouldn't concern you. I would have placed the bugs. If someone was in trouble it would be me, not you. So, why the whole fuss?"

With my luck someone – and I was thinking about a pale-faced, blue-eyed someone – would blame me for the thing anyway. However, that wasn't the reason why I wanted to talk to him. I leaned back and took another sip of my coke. I set it down and looked at him.

"I want in," I said with a stony deliberateness.

Cole gave me a round-eyed stare, which in his book ranked as unmasked incredulity. "What?!"