I growled and started pacing again.
Matthias groaned and buried his face in his hands. “Should have asked them to bring me a tranq gun,” he muttered against his palms.
“Ha, ha.” I crossed my arms and walked to the fireplace. “I just keep playing it over and over again in my head.”
“They’re going to find her, Lacey.”
Slowly, I turned, one hand working through my limp blonde strands. I’d showered earlier but hadn’t bothered to blow dry afterward. “How do you know?”
Matthias rounded the counter and came to stand before me in the living room. “I just know, okay?” He set his hands on my shoulders and met my eyes. “Jupiter is well liked in the Court. Besides that, it wouldn’t make your father look good if one of his own people goes missing without an obvious effort on his part to bring her back. I know you don’t like that she’s a servant in your father’s house, but on the flip side, that does afford her some standing. He has to do everything he can to find her.”
He was right. Beyond that, I’d made him a promise. I would play nice with the suitors and not publicly humiliate him in exchange for using his resources to finding Jupiter.
I should have stipulated that he also provide me with daily updates. When would I learn that I needed every minute detail in writing when it came to dealing with him?
Matthias continued, “Look at it this way—she obviously wasn’t the killer’s target, or she would have been found right next to Ivan. Maybe she ran off. She could have gotten scared and escaped. She might be lying low until Ivan’s murder is solved.”
“Then why isn’t she answering my calls? Or texting me back, if she can’t talk.”
“We don’t even know if she has her phone with her.”
“But, what if she—”
The doorbell rang.
I perked. Matthias slid his hands from my shoulders and went to answer it. I wrapped my arms around myself again and followed a few steps behind.
It was another guard. He informed us he’d be on duty until the following dawn. I peppered him with questions, but just like all the others, he was a stone wall and refused to give up a morsel of information.
“I’m sorry, my lady, but there’s nothing I can tell you,” he said.
Matthias put a hand on my forearm. “Let’s get some dinner.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Come on, Lacey. The fresh air will help.”
The guard eyed us warily. We hadn’t been stopped from leaving the building, but the guards made no secret that they would prefer us staying indoors.
I grabbed Matthias’s key ring from the table beside the door and stalked into the hallway. “Fine. We can go, but I’m not interested in food.”
Matthias jogged to catch up to me as I stalked toward the elevator. “Then where are we going?”
“My father’s house.”
Matthias groaned. “Please, Lacey. I really didn’t wake up this morning thinking gee, ya know, my head would look pretty good on a spike.”
“He’s not leaving me any choice!” I threw my hands up in the air. “He won’t answer my calls, the guards are under strict gag orders, and no one has even come to question me or you about the things we saw on the night of the gala, so if he’s telling the truth, and there really are investigators, I want them replaced with ones who have a better grasp on the job.”
Matthias held my stare for a long moment. I could see it in his eyes. He was begging me to back down, to abandon the fight. I narrowed my eyes and he relented. “Fine.”
The elevator doors opened and I stepped inside. Matthias followed.
Inside, I pressed the button for the underground level where the resident-only parking lot resided. Matthias didn’t say a word as we rode down to the lot and got into his SUV.
When we hit the freeway, a tangle of traffic greeted us. Impatience surged up inside me and I tapped my feet against the floorboards. “We should have stayed in the tunnels,” I said.
Matthias didn’t reply. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. He stared straight ahead, his eyes moving over the row of taillights.
Over the past four days, we’d settled into something of a routine, and despite my efforts to remain detached, I’d gotten to know him well enough to know he was furious. He’d spent the majority of his life building a careful cocoon and, as far as I could tell, was relatively happy to live within the safety of those self-imposed boundaries. Then, I’d come along and blown the whole thing up. He’d been nothing less than a gentleman the entire time I’d been staying at his home. He was generous with his space and belongings, never once complaining. We’d even had fun together, in the rare moments I was able to set aside my anxiety long enough to crack a smile.
In some ways, I supposed we weren’t all that different. During my time away from the Court, I’d done the same thing, really. I’d built a safe life with an easy routine and enough familiar faces to not feel lonely. At the time, I’d told myself it was because it was the easiest way to fly under my father’s radar, that if given the choice, I would have done something more extravagant with my life. But seeing how easily I’d settled into a new routine with Matthias, I wondered if maybe that was the piece I’d really been missing: someone to share my life with.
“I’m not mad at you, you know,” I said, my tone still edgy.
He nodded, still not looking at me.
“Matthias, I—”
“At least tell me you have a plan,” he interjected. “Because if you think bursting into your father’s office with a list of demands is going to do the trick, I can pretty much tell you how that’s going to go and save us both the headache.”
I buttoned my lips and gave a solemn nod. “I want to talk to the staff. According to Jupiter, they’re the ones who really know what’s going on. They’ll know what’s been going on with the investigation. Besides that, they knew Jupiter the best. If she’s hiding out, they might know where.”
“Wouldn’t they have already told the investigators?”
“At this point, I don’t even know if there are investigators. I highly doubt he’s called in the SPA. For all I know, he’s relying solely on his guards, and in case you haven’t noticed, they’re not exactly on par with Scotland Yard.”
“Why don’t we call in the Supernatural Protection Agency? Couldn’t we do some anonymous tip or something? Tell them there’s a missing vamp.”
“He’s probably got cronies on the inside. They’d use some spell and figure out where the information came from. Then we’d both be dead ducks.”
Matthias inclined his head, silently awarding me a point. “You think the servants will talk to us?”
“They’ll talk to me,” I replied. “I need you to keep my father busy while I dig around.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Matthias choked. “Keep your father busy? How am I supposed to do that?”
“He likes to talk. Get him going, he’ll take it from there.”
“Okay.” Matthias exhaled. “Well, what does he like to talk about?”
I shrugged one shoulder. “Himself.”
“Great plan. I mean, really, what could go wrong?” he muttered.
It was half past eight by the time we arrived at Vaughn House. We parked and went to the front door. I glanced up to the stone birds and smiled faintly, but didn’t address them. Matthias already thought I was unhinged. There was no need to give him further ammunition by talking to carved granite.
Matthias lifted the knocker and I grimaced when it fell against the wood. “Always feels a little like voluntarily walking into a haunted house.”
He chuckled. “Good, so it’s not just me.”
The door opened and we were … well, greeted wasn’t the right word. The woman standing before us wore a scowl that all but screamed bite me.
Geez, my father sure knows how to roll out the welcome wagon, doesn’t he?
When the disapproving woman didn’t say anything, I stepped forward and heaved a sigh. “Not that I need you to allow me entrance—this is my own home, after all—but it would be nice if you could at least try to do your job properly.”