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“I am prepared to waive your rent for six months if you can help me. My women are terrified, and I want to give them the freedom to leave our home. Right now, they take the tunnel into the brothel and otherwise stay indoors.”
Six months would change my life significantly, giving me the break I needed to stop living in a state of ongoing poverty. I held no doubt Cecilia understood that, using the offer to motivate me into doing the work. “How is the security at the brothel?”
“It’s good. There are two dragons on staff, four dragon-kin partway through transitioning, and my normal staff. They are on guard against anyone who might try anything, and we are monitoring our client sessions closer than usual.”
As I didn’t want to leave the impression I knew more about dragons than I should, I said, “I’ll try not to ask any questions that violate client confidentiality, but I will ask for some generic information. If they’re being targeted, it’s possible the attacker is a client.”
“That thought has occurred to me. I have a client list, and I have replaced their names with numbers. This will let you ask questions as needed without breaching our clients’ confidentiality. It is in our rules that their confidentiality is voided if it is found they have taken action against my women.”
Having access to information on the clients would simplify matters for me. I would need to take care with how I questioned Gerina, but I would have no problems with that.
Interrogation rooms annoyed me, and I enjoyed the idea of using the honeyed approach with Cecilia’s women. While making the questioned uncomfortable could serve a purpose sometimes, I had hated victimizing victims.
“I’ll need some paper and a pen to take notes while I talk to Gerina, but if I can find anything of use to you, I’m glad to help. Nobody deserves to be scared like that.”
Cecilia nodded. “I’ll be back shortly. Please make sure to keep your tone calm. She’s easily rattled right now.”
In Gerina’s shoes, I would be more than rattled. I’d be either working to find out who had done it so I wouldn’t be put in that position again or heading off to another city. Again.
I wondered if a day would go by without some form of regret over leaving Miami, from how I’d done it, the reasons for doing it, and everything in between.
Cecilia finished preparing the tea, left it to steep, and excused herself.
I went over what I’d done as a cop, compared my past with my current situation, and worried I’d need to utilize more of my training than I preferred.
The fact Cecilia had come to me, willing to take losses on the place she rented to me, told a chilling tale.
She wasn’t sure who she could trust, but I’d proven myself to be an ally, especially when it came to reviewing financial paperwork out to vex her or otherwise cause her trouble.
I ran a high risk of exposing too much, but I’d already revealed more than wise to Cedrick. If I played my cards right, and I gave no reason for Cecilia to talk to the titanium dragons, who might talk to Cedrick about my unfortunate history, I could limit the overall damage done.
In any case, I couldn’t just leave the brothel women to suffer from fear, not when I could do something about it. And as for the murdered pilgrims? They deserved justice, too.
Before the tea could become bitter from steeping too long, Cecilia escorted Gerina into the kitchen. The woman, who could have stepped out of the brothel to become a famous model with no work, sat near me and flashed her brightest smile. “I told Cecilia you would help if asked. You’re always so good with the paperwork. If there’s a money trail, you’ll find it.”
I appreciated her faith but questioned where it came from. “I’ll do whatever I can. You’re healing well?”
“Even if it scars, I will turn it into a badge of honor and a thing of beauty.” She handed me a pad of paper and a pen. “I don’t know what information I can give you. It was dark, I didn’t see my attacker beyond size. Larger than me, but not much larger. I can tell you I am confident he is male, but that is it. Unless she lacks breasts and enjoys inserting zucchini into her trousers.”
I struggled to keep from laughing and failed. “Well, I guess we can start there. How large, was he ready to roll or working up for it, and did he squeal like a girl when you kneed him in the groin?”
She held her hands out apart by about eleven inches, and then she smiled. “He had surprising fortitude when I defended myself, to the point I told him if he wanted a proper ride, he could come back when he was more polite. He was not as prepared as one might hope for such things, so if he has even an iota of skill, I’m sure he would be a joy.”
Damn. “Talk about some serious levels of frustration. Do you think he refrained from making an exclamation to prevent you from hearing his voice?”
“I absolutely do. He is deep voiced. I could tell from the grunts. It’s not something he could easily hide. Not from someone with my experience. Very deep. The kind that rumbles just from speaking. I bet he could make reading the phone book something worth listening to.”
Unlike the rest of the world, Dragon Heights still had a phone book, one that was delivered to every household every three months. While the internet existed, many of the dragons enjoyed flipping through the pages. I doubted I would ever understand the why of it.
If I wanted to flip through pages, I would go to the library to read a book, something I did often to pass the lonely hours between jobs and studying.
“Unusual,” I murmured, and I made a note about the man’s various traits. “Do you think he was a dragon or dragon-kin?”
“I couldn’t tell. If a dragon, he excels at hiding his nature, but he could be. I do feel he had more strength than most men, but he had a bigger build, and he seemed to be teeming with testosterone. Or he had been blessed by some god.”
Gerina wanted a piece of her attacker in her bedroom, and somehow, I managed to keep from rolling my eyes over her attraction to strong, well-endowed men. “I take it you have not had any clients matching his build?”
“Not that I can think of. I honestly don’t know if he meant to use his weapon initially. Perhaps a killer first learning how to kill? He did not seem skilled with his blade. At least not in the fashion he held it.”