“We could go on a cruise. Somewhere tropical. It would be nice.”
“Let me think about it.” She glanced at me with a grimace.
I couldn’t help but smile. Talk aboutsmitten .
My cell phone rang. I fished it out of my purse and looked at the display, hoping it was Thierry.
It wasn’t.
I flipped it open and held it up to my ear. “Hi, Amy.”
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Oh, you know,” I glanced at Janie, who was checking the ammo in her gun. “Just a boring afternoon.
Same old, same old.”
“So?”
“So what?”
“Did you investigate Barry? You said you were going to check things out.”
“Oh. Um. Yeah,” I switched the phone to my other ear. “Right. About that. I really don’t think you need to worry about it. Barry . . . he doesn’t strike me as the cheating type, you know?”
“But—”
“But nothing. Listen, Amy. He might have some stuff on his mind, but cheating? Nah. I don’t think so.”
“We’re here,” Janie announced as Lenny pulled up in back of a boarded-up, abandoned theater.
“Who’s that?” Amy asked.
“Oh,” I glanced at Janie as she got out of the car, holstering her gun under her red jacket, which I noticed still had the rip under the arm from her tussle with the hunter yesterday. “That’s just Janie.”
I heard Amy start to sob. “Oh, my God! You’re . . . cheating on . . . me . . . too! You’re seeing another friend I don’t know about behind my back!”
“Amy, you’re talking crazy. Janice’s one of my bodyguards. Just . . . just have fun at the spa and I’ll talk to you later. Okay?”
She sniffed. “Okay.”
I ended the call and put the phone away. Then I got out of the car. Lenny did, too.
“This isn’t going to take long, is it?” I asked.
Janie shook her head. “Should be just a quick retrieval. He’s supposed to meet us inside.”
“Then what’s with the gun?” I glanced at it nervously.
“Just a standard precaution.” She looked at the theater.
Lenny leaned against the car and shrugged. “What do you want me to do?”
She looked at him. “Just stay out here. Make sure he doesn’t leave out the back until we get what we came here for.”
“You don’t want me inside?”
“Just stay here.” She looked at the back door. “But can you take care of this?”
He walked over to it and kicked the door in. I heard the old wood splinter as it met his left Doc Martens boot.
Inside it was very dark. Janie fished in her jacket pocket and pulled out a small flashlight that helped to light our way down a hallway. Old paintings hung on the walls, heavy with dust and age.
“What are you retrieving?” I asked.
“A necklace my boss wants. The delivery guy’s supposed to be around here somewhere.”
“And this is supposed to help me learn self-defense how?”
She turned to face me with a small smile. “The guy we’re meeting isn’t all that reliable. Let’s just leave it at that for now.”
“Seems like a strange place to meet somebody.”
“He’s a strange guy.”
I stared at her for a moment. “Maybe I should wait outside with Lenny. I don’t feel good about this.”
Her smile widened. “For a vampire, you’re a big fat wimp, you know that?”
I frowned at her. I wasn’t a wimp. Well, not much.
We turned a corner and I realized we’d been parallel to the actual theater area and had come out to the front where the box office had been once upon a time. There was a man wearing a long black coat standing next to the ticket window up ahead. We approached him, Janie walking with a confident stride.
The lights were on, but still fairly dim. She switched off the flashlight and put it away.
“Janelle,” he said as she approached. “I didn’t know you’d be the one sent.”
“Long time no see,” she replied.
The man wore a fedora pulled down low. He seemed very cloak and dagger. More cloak than dagger,
though, I hoped.
He nodded in my direction. “Who’s that?”
“A friend.”