Grumpy Orc Warrior: A Monster Romantic Comedy by Zora Black

Author:Zora Black [Black, Zora]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-15T18:30:00+00:00

16

GORAN

I show up at Adira’s house at seven that evening. “Come in!” she exclaims, opening the door.

“Hi,” I say, smiling at her.

“Hey,” Adira grins. “Thanks for coming over.”

“I’m excited to brainstorm with you tonight,” I say, following her into the den. The coffee table is covered in file folders. “What’s all this?” I ask, sitting down on the couch.

“I printed out all of the documents you emailed me earlier,” Adira explains, sitting next to me. “All of the background checks, logs of internet activity, surveillance reports – it’s all here.”

“Wow,” I say, gazing at the neatly-stacked folders. “I don’t know whether to be impressed or scared.”

“I’m a visual thinker,” Adira says with a shrug. “I like having something tangible to look at and touch when I’m working.”

“Oh really?” I grin, moving closer to her. “You can look at and touch me, if that would help.”

Adira blushes and shakes her head. “I think we did plenty of that earlier,” she reminds me.

I grin, too, remembering our supply closet make-out session. “What can I say? I’m insatiable.”

Adira laughs. “Good to know. But getting together tonight was your idea.”

“I know, I know,” I say, turning serious. “I really do think that our best chance of figuring out if someone is targeting you directly is to go through all of this with fresh eyes.”

“I agree. But I also ordered some dinner for us,” Adira says, getting up and going into the kitchen. She comes back with two heaped plates, a bottle of wine, and two wine glasses. “I think we’re going to need a lot of sustenance to make it through all of this.”

“You read my mind.”

We eat and begin to comb through the files. Some of the documents we discard quickly, and others we discuss in more detail, trying to decide what information could be useful and what is just extraneous.

After an hour, we’re both wiped out. “I think I’m going cross-eyed from all this text,” Adira says, slouching down against the couch.

“Take a break,” I advise, standing up and gathering the empty plates and glasses. “I’ll clean up.”

“Thanks,” Adira says tiredly.

In the kitchen I see a bottle of vodka on a shelf above the fridge. I grin and grab the bottle and two clean glasses. “I have an idea,” I say, sitting back down.

“I don’t think that getting wasted is going to help,” Adira deadpans, sitting up straighter.

“We’re not getting wasted,” I chuckle. “We’re playing Investigation Bingo.”

“What’s that?”

“One shot for every person we rule out.”

“What’s the bingo part?”

I shrug. “There isn’t one. I just think that bingo is a fun word to say.”

Adira laughs. “Goran, we have dozens of people to rule out. One shot for each will land me in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. Humans don’t have livers of steel like orcs do.”

“Okay, one sip,” I say.

“Agreed,” Adira nods.

I fill our glasses and grab a piece of paper. “Rule in or out?”

Adira leans over and laughs. “That’s a background check on my grandmother, Goran. I think we can safely rule her out.

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