Women of the Otherworld 10.5 - Counterfeit Magic by Kelley Armstrong Read Free Book Online Page A

up. Only it wasn’t Lucas.
     
    “Lucas Cortez’s phone,” Ava chirped. “How may I direct your call?”
     
    She sounded drunk. Music boomed in the background. Annoyance darted through me. I felt… I wasn’t sure what I felt, but there was an extra snap to my voice when I asked to speak to Lucas. She passed the phone over, giggling as Lucas said something I didn’t catch.
     
    “Hello?”
     
    “It’s me.”
     
    “Paige.” He sounded relieved. “Just a moment.”
     
    He murmured something to Ava. She twittered that she’d get him a refill. The music receded as he moved to a quieter spot.
     
    “You sound like you’re in a bar.”
     
    “Hmm.”
     
    His tone suggested it wasn’t by choice. He went on to say he’d gotten my message and had been trying to get away to return my call before I went to bed.
     
    We talked about the case. He agreed with my theories. His own leads weren’t nearly as promising.
     
    “Chasing gambling debts is rather mundane, particularly when they don’t seem to be leading anywhere,” he said.
     
    “I bet.”
     
    There was a pause. Probably looking around, wondering when Ava was going to show up. I waited. After a moment, he cleared his throat and said, “I suppose that any lead should be followed to its end.”
     
    “Unfortunately.” I remembered what Savannah had said. “And if we don’t finish ours tomorrow, I could always swing by there. It’s not much of a drive.”
     
    “To San Francisco, no. To L.A., yes.”
     
    “L.A.?”
     
    “It appears that’s where the loan sharks are based. They have a hangout here, which is where Ava met them with Jared, but they’re back in Los Angeles now. If I continue on this lead, I’ll need to go there tomorrow, which means notifying Sean, so he can let his family know I’m in town.”
     
    Sean Nast was Savannah’s half-brother and heir to the Nast Cabal, based in Los Angeles. Now that Lucas officially did some work for the Cortezes, he needed to notify other Cabals if he’d be in their territory.
     
    “Travel has gotten a whole lot more complicated, hasn’t it?” I said.
     
    “Among other things. So, while I would love to see you tomorrow night, it won’t work out.”
     
    “Oh.”
     
    I let the silence hang. He could come here tonight. There was still time. Just ask where I was staying… I shook off the thought. That was silly. Selfish, too. He had leads to follow and couldn’t spend half the night commuting to see me.
     
    We talked a while longer, then I hung up. When I looked over at Savannah, she was watching me. She said nothing until I crawled into bed, then, “Are you guys okay?”
     
    “Sure.” I must not have sounded convincing enough because worry clouded her eyes. “We’re fine, Savannah.”
     
    She watched me for a few more seconds, then turned off the light.
     
    * * * *
     
    I was disappointed that Lucas wasn’t coming, but I had to be careful around Savannah. Even the hint of trouble between Lucas and me brought out a side of her we didn’t see very often. A vulnerable side, a little girl who’d lost her beloved mother and hadn’t known her father, then got a second chance at a family with us. No matter how often we’d told her, when she was younger, that our little spats meant nothing—and they certainly were nothing compared to the knockdown, blowout fights our friends had—she felt threatened and she got nervous. Even now that she was an adult, that hadn’t changed.
     
    But Lucas and I were fine. Just fine.
     
    I rolled onto my stomach, crossed my arms under my chin and stared at the headboard.
     
    We were fine, weren’t we?
     
    Yes, my issues with the Cabal were gnawing holes in my self-esteem, but I was being careful not to let that spill into my relationship with Lucas. He was right to help his father with the Cabal. I believed in that and I believed in him, and I wanted to fully support him, which meant keeping my problems to myself .
     
    Whatever external