Making the Rent the Hard Way - 11

 

Rocky eyed me pensively. "How come you can do that?"

I've been asked before, so I gave him the same answer I always do. "You're a shifter, so you can tell if someone else is, right?" He nodded. "Okay, as far as I can figure, that's genetic. At least that's what my dad told me when we found out I could do it. It seems my great, great grandfather was a shifter. He met a human woman, they fell in love, and had a son, making the son a half-breed. The shifter genes were there and were passed down to his son, and…you get the picture."

"Yeah. So, you're whatever-percent shifter. Can your father spot us?"

"No. From what he said, I'm the first one in the family, after my half-breed great grandfather, who can. He says the gene must be recessive and, lucky me," I smiled wryly, "it decided to…activate, I guess you could say, in me."

"Makes sense, I guess." Rocky glanced at his watch. "I have to get back to work."

"Okay. Look, if Luca does get in touch with you, would you let him know I'd like to talk to him? Just that. Talk. By phone is fine." I gave Rocky my number.

"So you can track him down when he does?" Rocky said tightly, pushing off the wall. "I don't think so."

"No. At the moment, I only want to talk." I stopped him as he opened the door to go back into the club. "Just so you know, I'm going to do some research on Farnham. If I don't like what I find out, I'm dropping him as a client. From what you've said, there's obviously more to Luca's disappearing than his just deciding to move on."

"No shit." He paused. "If he does call me, I'll pass on your message. After that, it's on him whether he gets in touch with you." With that, he went inside. I decided not to. There was no reason to hang around because, if Rocky was telling the truth—and I had no reason to think he wasn't—it was unlikely Luca would show up there.

"Or anywhere else public," I said under my breath as I walked down the alley to the street. I had a sudden thought that I didn't like one bit. Did Farnham have someone following me? Right now, I wouldn't put it past him. Follow me, and if I did find Luca, dive in and grab him fast, before either Luca or I could stop them. Not an idea that made me a happy camper.

I took out my phone and called the club, asking to talk to Rocky. It took a minute before he came on the line.

"I'll keep this short," I said, quickly explaining my idea then saying, "Be real careful. If I'm right, you could become a target if one of Farnham's people was around and saw us go out back together."

"Got it. I will be. Thanks for the heads-up."

With nothing else I could do at the moment, I went back to my apartment to try and get some sleep. I'll admit it, on the drive home I watched my rearview mirror almost as much as the road ahead of me to make sure I wasn't being followed. Even though I might be "a second-rate PI", to use Rocky's words—and my own at times—I do know how to spot a tail and get rid of one. Neither happened and I made it home without incident.