Vampire Dating Agency III (10 page)

CHAPTER
THIRTY-SEVEN

Dino’s address was not only the first
on the list, but also the closest to them. After a brief conversation with his
girlfriend at the front door they learned that Dino was not at home, it was his
day off from work, and that he could probably be found at the local bar with
his drinking buddies. Jason plugged the location into his GPS and once again
they navigated along to a new area. Thankfully the bar had its own car park and
there wasn’t any trouble in getting a spot. Both Nadine and Jason got out of
the car on arrival, Jason gripping the cane in his right hand.

“What’s that
for?” Nadine asked sounding confused.

“This is how
I get around now,” Jason explained. “I’m lucky I can walk at all.”

“Alright. No
undercover work for you then, I suppose.”

“Very funny.”

They made
their way across the car park and through the bar’s entrance. Once inside, they
surveyed the room.

Clouds of
cigar smoke and heavy metal music separated the back of the bar from the main
area. Jason could see several heavy set men crowded around a pool table,
talking loudly, joking with one another. His eyes peeled across each of them,
until he finally found Dino, standing at the side of the table.

He nudged
Nadine. “Got him.”

“Can I get
you guys something?” the bartender asked suspiciously as they made their way
over.

Jason
stopped.

“I’ll handle
this,” Nadine said quietly. “You go talk to Dino. Bring him over here.”

Jason nodded.
He continued on as Nadine pulled up a stool, distracting the bartender.

He stepped
slowly into the back area, leaning on his cane for support.

One of the
men turned to Jason. “Do you need something?”

“I’m looking
for Dino Hinch.”

The man at
the side of the table turned slightly. Now that he was closer Jason wasn’t sure
it was him.

“What the…”
Dino muttered, squinting. He walked over. “Jason?”

“Hey,” Jason
managed.

“What are you
doing here? You came to see me?”

“I’m here
with Nadine.”

“Nadine? As
in Nadine Blue?” He grabbed Jason’s arm. “As in Nadine, the traitor?”

“Yeah,” Jason
nodded. “Though she might disagree with you on the last one.”

“What the
fuck’s going on?”

“Can we – can
you come over to where we are?” Jason asked. “Just for a little bit. I’ll buy
you a beer or something.”

“What is this
about first?”

“It’s … It’s
about everything,” Jason said shaking his head. “It’s about that night. It’s
about Haley. It’s about … how fucked up everything became. We just … we just
want to talk.”

Dino’s eyes
shifted down towards the cane in Jason’s hand.

He let go of
Jason’s arm.

“Alright,” he
said. “Sure.”

“Thanks,”
Jason said apologetically.

“And you know
what,” he said putting an arm around him, “I’m going to buy you a drink, buddy.
I’m gonna get us fucked up. Ha, ha, ha…”

Jason laughed
with him.

For a moment
it even seemed … that the laughter was real.

CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT

Dino had gotten fatter. He was still
a muscular bloke but some of that muscle in his arms had bled out as fat into
his gut. All of his youth was gone. He was starting to go bald and he’d grown
an untidy looking beard. Sure enough, to look in his eyes it was the same Dino
that Jason knew. But of course as he realized he was never that friendly with
the big man to begin with.

“So then,” he
said after they’d finished their story. “Mystery callers, killers,
conspiracies. And a whole lot of misguided nostalgia.”

“What do you
mean by that?” Jason asked.

“Yeah,”
Nadine added. “What do you think this is some fun trip down memory-lane?”

Dino paused,
drinking his beer. “In this world I’ve come to realize, there’s big people. And
there’s little people. If you’re one of the little guys – which most of us are
– then no matter what your strengths are, you’re never going to beat the big
guys. Who are the big guys in this story? Let’s start with the whole vampire
organization. They’re rich. Absolutely rolling in money. The Count – if he’s
still around – will have bought out the entire paranormal police, if that even
is a thing anymore. As for the killer – so what. Big deal. There’s a million
other killers out there. This one, he got away. End of story. You’re not going
to solve the mystery all these years later. And even if you did, what would the
point be? You don’t really think Haley’s still alive do you?”

Jason looked
to Nadine. “We don’t know what happened. That’s the whole point. That’s what we
have to figure out.”

“And like I
said,” Dino continued, “what’s the best that can happen for you if you do? Even
if Haley is still alive and you ‘save’ her from who I don’t know – what
difference would that make? She wasn’t our friend. We didn’t know her. She was
just a first day kid, drowning in arrogance, thinking she knew the game when
she clearly didn’t. People die all the time. Bleeding Maurice. Cresh. My
fucking guys. What’s so special about her? Why climb Everest when there’s
happiness at home?”

“These
analogies are getting lost on me,” Nadine remarked.

Dino took
another chug of his beer. “All I’m saying is, there’s more to life. Than …
trying to investigate shit. It was a job. We got paid for it. It was hard work.
Now, was it worth it? Did we do good for others? Sure. That’s what we signed up
for. But now you’re here, five years later, thinking that you owe them
something. Well, I don’t think we do. And I don’t subscribe to the notion that
you’ll be doing anyone any good, by digging this all up again. After all, what
leads do you even have?”

Jason
exhaled. “We haven’t really had a chance to go through that. We just wanted to
see if we could get everyone back together. Put our heads in the same place for
once. See if we could figure it out –”

“Alright,”
Nadine interrupted. “Since you’re so skeptical, I’ll tell you the grand
scheme.”

Dino smiled.
“I’m all ears.”

“If we do a
search online – we’re gonna find the VDA all over again. We fill in the forms.
We dress ourselves up and take the photos. And we submit ourselves wanting
dates. Just as we did with Haley before.”

“Oh okay,”
Dino nodded. “So you’re going in undercover to the vampire’s den again – hoping
to find the Count I presume. Even though there’s no reason for you believe that
he’s still in charge of things. That anyone there would have any recollection
of Haley … or the murders…”

“We got to
start digging somewhere,” Nadine persisted. “And that’s how we do it. I figure,
at the barest minimum, we’ll need the undercover. Someone with a computer
recording everything, guiding them through – and the backup. The means to
launch an assault if things go wrong.”

Dino laughed.
“You’re serious. You really want to do this shit again?”

“When you
think about it,” Nadine went on, “All you need is the three of us. We don’t
have to bother Luna or Riley – you just need to hook us up with another team to
–”

“And put more
people’s lives at risk?” Dino thundered.

“Calm down,”
Jason said.

“All due
respect, my friend – but you gotta be nuts chaining yourself to this psycho.
Can you really not see it? This woman is mad. She’s fucking delusional. And she
belongs in a cage. To rot. Where all traitor scum belongs.”

“At least I
didn’t walk out on us,” Nadine seethed.

“What?”

“You heard
me, you chicken-shit.”

“What the
fuck are you talking about?” Dino barked.

“When we were
in the middle of solving it last time – you walked out on us. We didn’t have
your guys anymore – and you were out there all by yourself. What did you do,
Dino? When you left us that night? Did you just go home? Watch a fucking TV
show? Did you go to sleep? When the real people were at work –?”

Dino stood up
from his chair at the same time as Nadine.

“Yeah, I got
out,” Dino exclaimed. “I got out when I saw it had gone too far. When I saw
that someone had sold us out. I knew that –”

“Well, maybe
it was you,” Nadine screamed. “You could have been the one working with the killer
the whole time! After all it was you who –”

“How the fuck
do you even get the nerve to accuse me –”

“Hey, hey,”
Jason said putting himself between them. “Let’s not fucking do this. Alright.
Please.”

Dino bore his
teeth at Nadine.

Her own face
twisted into something menacing.

“Fine,” she
said. “Forget it.”

She walked
away from the table and towards the exit.

Jason turned
to Dino. “I’m sorry about that.”

“No,” he
said, slapping him on the back. “You’re alright, buddy.”

“Okay.” Jason
drank what was left in his glass. He looked around, disorientated.

“I’m not
going to help you,” Dino said. “I know that’s what you’re ultimately doing
here. But I’m not part of that world anymore. Instead, can I offer you some
advice?”

Jason
shrugged. “Yeah. Sure.”

Dino leaned
forward. “Don’t let that bitch drag you down.”

He smiled and
slapped Jason on the back again.

Then he left
him alone at the table.

Jason’s gaze
moved from Dino heading back to his friends, towards the hollow exit where
Nadine had disappeared. He could feel it pulling at him. The doubt. There was
so much doubt in all of this.

But then
Jason realized something else.

He wouldn’t
know where he stood, until he was standing with her.

Riley
McCormick needed to be a part of his future.

Urgently.

CHAPTER
THIRTY-NINE

This wasn’t Riley’s house. Not the
Riley he knew at least. Not the Riley that was his friend.

Nadine was
out at the top of the driveway already, waiting for him to make his way from
the car. Jason counted three sports cars all parked separately at the base of
the drive. One red, one blue, one green. He blinked the colors away.

“Looks like
whoever lives here is doing alright for themselves,” Nadine remarked. “So is it
Luna? Or is it Riley?”

“Maybe it’s
Cresh,” Jason muttered.

“You okay?”

Jason forced his
eyes open. “Yeah. Sure. I’m fine. Let’s head on then.”

“Let’s.”

They made
their way down the driveway till they reached a small gate on the left hand
side. Nadine pulled the latch back revealing another path leading up to a
staircase.

“Are we
supposed to go this way?” Jason asked.

“I don’t see
any front doors down there, do you?”

She had a
point.

Jason closed
the gate behind them, fixing the latch. Then he followed Nadine across the
pathway to the bottom of the stairs.

He winced.
This was going to take him some time.

“You go on
ahead,” he said, ushering Nadine forward.

Nadine
glanced back at him. “Nervous?”

“What?”

“Nervous to
see your old friend. You two were a thing, weren’t you?”

“How do you
know it’s Riley anyway?”

“A hunch.”

Jason didn’t
know what she had to smile about.

After a
grueling few minutes of climbing, he made it to the top of the stairs. He and
Nadine were now standing on a wide reaching terrace which overlooked a colorful
garden and swimming pool down below.

The ocean was
on the horizon.

“Anyone
home?” Jason asked sheepishly.

Nadine moved
to the doorway leading into the house. She opened it and peered inside.

She then
quickly pulled her face back, grinning.

“What?” Jason
asked. “What is it?”

Nadine moved
back to where Jason was.

A figure
loomed in the doorway. “Is someone there?” a male’s voice called.

Out he
stepped then, a tall, dashingly handsome young man. He was dressed
professionally in a shirt and jacket.

“Hi there,”
Jason said uncertainly. “We’re looking for someone who might live here.”

The man
folded his arms.

“Luna Evans?”
he said hopefully.

The man
stared back blankly.

“How about
Riley McCormick?” Nadine asked.

The man put
his head back through the doorway. “Yo, Riley! Get over here.”

He turned
back to them.

They waited.

And then she
appeared in the space of the doorway.

Flourishing
red hair, vibrant skin, perfect eyes and gorgeous figure…

The cane
slipped out of Jason’s hand.

Wincing, he
stooped down to retrieve it.

“Do you know
these clowns, babe?” the man asked.

Jason looked
up from his place on the ground.

Riley’s cold
gaze met his eyes.

“No,” she
said. “I don’t know them.”