LOVER UNDER COVER by Justine Davis

Author:Justine Davis
Format: epub

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Chapter 10

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"So you moved for your health, is that it?"

Quisto grinned at Alarico. "Climate, actually. I needed someplace a little … cooler."

"And just what was making it so hot?"

Quisto shrugged. He glanced up at the map on the wall behind Alarico's desk, studded, as were the others outside, with various colored pushpins. He wasn't sure what it depicted, but the pins covered an area that was disturbingly large. Marina del Mar was the one mostly blank spot, he noted with satisfaction. Not bad for us "fancy types," he thought.

"I ask questions, I expect answers," Alarico said.

Quisto shifted his gaze back to the man behind the desk. He'd been grilling him for a couple of hours now. Quisto had fed him the story he'd prepared, in bits and pieces, hoping the man would buy it before he ran out of things he'd been able to prepare for on such short notice and without many of his usual resources. He hadn't gotten the warning he'd been expecting, that no one did anything in Pack territory without their permission, and that encouraged him. A little.

"One damn cop had it in for me. Wouldn't let it drop."

Alarico lifted one scraggly eyebrow. "Why didn't you just take care of him?"

"Kill a cop? No thanks. That earns you a coffin."

"So you let one cop run you out of Sacramento?"

"Better to move here than into Folsom," Quisto retorted. "I've done time once, and I don't ever intend to again."

Quisto saw Alarico look at his hands, his neck, his face. He knew the man was looking for what was usually considered proof of time served, and gave a snort of disgust. "Tattoos are a kid's game. You can't do what I do with your rap sheet inked across your chest."

Alarico flushed angrily, and Quisto guessed there was a permanent record or two of his own time inside on the man's body somewhere.

"He's right."

It was the first time the man Alarico had referred to only as Ryan had spoken. His voice was as big as he was, but low and controlled. And utterly inflectionless. He never looked up, merely concentrated on apparently destroying a tiny piece of wood with that six-inch knife blade.

"What?" Alarico said, seeming as startled as if the chair the man was in—still having never moved—had spoken.

"Marks that advertise you're a con are for fools. If you wish to walk between worlds, you must blend into both."

Alarico said nothing to the man, just turned his gaze to Quisto again. "Is that what you do? Walk in two worlds?"

Interesting, Quisto thought. Whoever Ryan was, his words were taken seriously, even by the leader of the Pack. He nodded in answer.

"And I do it well."

"And you plan to do this here?"

Quisto laughed. "Hardly. No offense, my friend, but you don't have my kind of targets in this town. But your friends to the west, in that lovely, rich town of Marina del Mar, are ripe for the plucking."

Quisto knew he wasn't imagining the sudden tension in the room.

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