Laws of the Blood 2: Partners Read Free Page A

age. To enter an Enforcer’s home uninvited was tantamount to offering yourself as the Enforcer’s next meal. Sort of like being a self-delivering pizza.
    Char grew queasy at this thought. She stepped back and said, “Please come in.”
    Once the stranger was inside, Char took the woman’s coat, made room enough for her to sit on the living roomcouch, and said, “Can I get you anything? Coffee? And you are?” she added almost as an afterthought, trying to sound cool and in control as well as polite.
    The woman dismissed Char’s courtesy with a slight smile. Then she turned a worried expression on Char and said. “My name is Helene Bourbon. I need your help.”
    A ripple of emotion went through Char that was so strong she had to quickly sit down in the chair across the narrow coffee table from the couch. She sat on a pile of paper and books, of course, but she ignored that. Help? Someone actually needed her help? She was thrilled. Excited. Happy. Terrified. Definitely terrified. Puzzled. Why would anyone need her help? This was the opportunity to aid her community that she’d been hoping for and dreading with equal zeal.
    “This is an eventful night,” she said and found that she was rubbing her forehead. She even tried the old nervous habit of pushing her glasses up on her nose and then remembered that she hadn’t had to wear glasses for years. Yes, she was shaken. First Istvan and now Helene Bourbon putting in appearances to shake her out of her quiet, circumscribed life. “I’ve heard of you, Ms. Bourbon,” Char said to her visitor. “Your nest is down the coast.”
    “Near Yachats. And I’m too old to be comfortable with being called Ms. Of course, I was never anyone’s Mrs. And Lady Helene does sound a bit silly these days. Never mind.” The woman made a sweeping gesture, as though waving away her own facetious words. Char had noticed that Helene Bourbon had been looking anywhere but at her, but then the woman made an obvious effortto make eye contact with her. She said, “I’m nervous about being in your presence, Hunter.”
    It shocked Char that a vampire would be afraid of her, but that was supposed to be one of the perks of the job. She knew who Bourbon was, some of the woman’s past as well as her present occupation and address. She wasn’t a lady in the heraldic sense of the word, and she wasn’t one of those Bourbons, but she never actually claimed to be. Char thought everyone was allowed at least a little vanity. So, rather than reveal that she had secret knowledge, Char asked, “What brings you to Portland?”
    Any sign of nervousness disappeared in the woman across from her, and all her concern rushed back. “I’ve come about my missing nestling,” she told Char.

Chapter 2
     
     
N OVEMBER
     
TUCSON
     
    “ I ’ VE COME ABOUT my son,” the woman said.
    She stood just inside the doorway, with Baker behind her.
    Haven almost said, Lady, this isn’t a detective agency . Then he remembered that, technically, it was. It was Baker’s office. Baker was a retired cop, now a PI. It was also Baker’s desk, which would make any missing-person problem the woman had Baker’s business. But from the way Baker was looking at him, it wasn’t. Ah, hell .
    The first thing Haven did was put down the gun he’d picked up when the door opened unexpectedly. The woman hadn’t seen the weapon he held just below the top of the desk, which was piled with books and papers. The second thing he did was save the file the way Baker had taught him and turn off the computer.
    Then he waved Baker and the woman into Baker’s office. Baker was some mixture of Native American, black, and Irish and said he got his stubbornness from all three. He was big and brown and bald and ugly but about as soft in the heart as he was hard everywhereelse. Haven had liked the man even in the days when they’d been playing hide-and-seek across the Southwest. Baker had been intent on returning Haven to prison, Haven had tried