"Can you prove what you've been telling me? And when it comes down to it, why did you change your mind and decide to trust me?"
Luca barely smiled. "You got me talking and I couldn't shut up. This scares me, Cade. What he's doing scares the hell out of me, which says something, since I'm a shifter."
"Doesn't do much for me, either. Can you prove it?"
"Partially. Farnham held a dinner meeting three weeks ago Monday at the restaurant. The men I mentioned were all there. A war council, as Farnham called it. I was one of two waiters for the dinner part, as I had been for two previous meetings." He finally sat down again, thankfully. I was getting a crick in my neck following his pacing. "I hadn't liked what I'd heard in the previous meetings, which I'll admit wasn't much. We were sent away once dinner was over and the real meeting started. This time, I decided to record what I could, using my phone. Obviously, I couldn't leave the room to do that. There's a bar at one end. I was able to hide behind it without them realizing it. Or"—he grimaced—"they didn't at first. I was there for probably fifteen minutes when one of the men came over to refresh his drink. He saw me. I took off. Well, teleported out."
"Then disappeared from the face of the earth," I said. "At least, as far as Farnham's been able to determine."
"Yes. I didn't plan on coming back to the city until I could figure out how to use the information I have and make people—humans—believe it. Then Rocky called about you."
"How? He told me you weren't answering your phone, and your voicemail was full."
"I dropped in at The Den a couple of nights ago to let him know I was still alive and gave him a number where he could reach me. He's one of the few shifters here that I really trust not to go to Farnham—if they were able to find out where I'd gone to ground.
"I'd like to hear what you recorded."
Instead of replying immediately, Luca leaned back, staring off into space. Finally, he said, "I don't have it with me. I transferred the recording to my laptop, not my computer." He smiled slightly. "I couldn't very well haul my computer around with me, but the laptop? Yeah. Anyway, I picked it up at my apartment the same evening I split. In and out in thirty seconds or less."
"Really? Then it wasn't you who took all the files in your desk drawer?"
He looked at me in surprise. "You've been there?"
"Part of trying to find out where you were. The files are empty. Was there anything in them Farnham might have been interested in? Like something that could clue him in to where you'd gone? Okay, never mind. If there had been, he wouldn't have hired me."
"True, and there wasn't. Everything in them related to work I did for my clients. Well, other than receipts from paying rent, utility bills, and buying business supplies. Was my computer still there?"
"Yep. I was going to see what was on it, if I could, but your protections are as good as the ones I have on mine. Speaking of which, I don't suppose it was you who broke into my office sometime Wednesday night."
"Me? No. Why would I? I didn't even know you existed at that point. Did they take anything?"
"Nope. Whoever it was went through my file cabinets. If they were looking for the file on you, they were SOL. I'd taken it home with me. They made it real obvious they'd been there, for whatever reason."
"This was after you'd been to my place?"
"Yes. I did that Wednesday afternoon, right after Farnham hired me."
Luca frowned. "If he had someone following you, they might have wondered if you'd found something in my apartment they missed in their search."
"Possible." I smiled dryly. "I'd prefer that explanation to the idea that it was someone involved in one my other clients' cases who broke in to find out what I'd learned about them. Right now, I don't need to be worrying about that on top of helping you."
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