Awake and Unhappy - Part Fifteen

Or someone woke up hangry.

Previously on - Laurent took Helen back to her place to tend to her wounds and learn more about the woman. He discovered that she lived radically differetnly than her brother and had excellent taste in wine and weapons.

Helen sat up slowly. The pain, though still held somewhat at bay by my powers, was etched onto her face. "I see that you changed me."

I smiled. "It was the least I could do after having gotten you shot up."

Her eyes narrowed. "I hope for your sake that's all you did."

I pressed a hand to my breast. "I am frequently less than a gentleman, but I prefer my partners conscious and hale." I'd taken the liberty of changing my own clothes. I still wore the black jeans as I rather liked the way they made my ass look, but I now wore a crimson tee shirt that proclaimed me to be "FUCKING AWESOME". Low black boots completed my ensemble. "You have good taste in wine."

She cradled her skull. "Thanks. Glad you helped yourself." She looked to where I had collected her small arsenal. They lay on the coffee table between us. Her hand flew to the small semi-automatic. I gauge that it was about three ounces of pressure away from being fired at my own head.

I didn't flinch. "They're not loaded. I'm not an idiot."

The dry click was loud in the apartment's still air. "Had to be sure." Fire danced in her eyes. "Thanks to you I've been shot and kidnapped. That and you got to see me naked. Now what are you going to do for me?"

"I only got to see you mostly naked. As I said though, now that you're awake we'll go look at your brother's place. I've had some time to think." More time than I would have liked. It was now near dark and my clock was ticking. "Your brother was what I would call a dabbler. Based on what you've told me and on something I learned from Hunter, I'd say he was scared enough by something to get in over his head. He knew something that he shouldn't have known and people wanted him dead. I don't think it's arcane knowledge. Most practitioners wouldn't be able to field men like the ones that shot at us earlier. I think the only answers he could find to counter the threat were ones in my camp. Based on those assumptions I'd say that we need to look into organized crime."

Helen nodded. "Go on."

"Well it's hardly my field of expertise, but I've read some things." I'd been pouring through the knowledge of the men I'd run into the previous evening. "I really don't think this is a gang affiliated problem. Their type doesn't usually wear suits and I do think I saw at least one of the men in the SUV had quite the expensive three piece on." Glimpses of dark wool behind the brightness of muzzled flash played out in my mind. "So we're going to need to look higher up the food chain. The only way he'd be in place to see something he shouldn't is on a job. It probably wasn't working on a loading dock. Maybe he had a client on the supernatural side of things that told him something that he shouldn't know?"

"You are quite the armchair detective." She stood, put the pistol down, and moved slowly to the kitchenette. She filled a glass with water and took a pill bottle from the cabinet. After swallowing two of its contents and a healthy draught of water, she put the glass down. "I hope we can find something out at his apartment. It gives us a place to start." She looked around the space. "You're also good at searching someone's apartment without disturbing too much. You have a couple of strikes against you, Laurence. One more and I find out what happened to Willy on my own."

"You can't blame a gent for wanting to know a little more about his new associate."

She shrugged. "No, but I can break his kneecaps if I think he pawed through my frilly things."

I nodded at her and smiled. "Pawed isn't the word I'd use."

She didn't return the smile. "We'll take my car from here. I'm driving." She stepped forward and almost lost her balance.

"I don't think that's wi.."

She held out a hand. "That's half a strike. Want to rethink that sentence?"

"I don't think that's a bad idea. You know the roads better than I do."

"Load the weapons. I'll grab my keys and we'll get on the road."

I did as I was charged while she stepped to her bedroom. There was no scream of outrage, so I don't know if she had detected how invasive my search had become. A few moments later and we were in a car named after one of the gods. I marveled at mortals and how odd they were.

We hadn't been driving long when I sensed that we were being followed. I started to say as much.

"I know. They were waiting outside my apartment. It's a couple of detectives from my precinct. They're probably wondering what happened to me after I was taken out to a police car and seemingly abducted."

"Why wouldn't they have simply called and asked you?"

"There are a few reasons why, none of which makes me feel all warm and squishy. It would be a lot easier to think straight If I weren't suffering from blood loss and some trauma. Let's stop and ask them."

I loved the sarcasm that dripped from her tongue. "So do we go ahead to your brother's? I'm on something of a tight schedule."

"Tell me about that. You seem to be in a rush."

"I'll be leaving town in no more than three days." I looked at the position of the sun. "To be more precise, two days and twelve hours."

"You seem awfully confident of that fact."

"It's out of my hands sadly. The only way to avoid it is to find out more about the events leading up to Willy's death." We rode in silence for a bit. I kept glancing back, trying to see who was following us.

"Stop that. We don't want them to know we know."

I hunched my shoulders, a little ashamed at having been caught.

"If we solve Willy's murder you can stay. If we don't, you have to leave? How does that make sense?"

"I'd tell you, but I'm certain you won't believe me."

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