Deadly Desire (Riley Jenson Guardian 7)

"No. I'm not able to get into them for another couple of years."

She might be under a geas, but it wasn't as complete as her vampire had presumed, because the legal age for getting into strip clubs was eighteen.

"So he never mentioned a favorite?"

She frowned. "There was one. Man Hard, or something like that."

"Man Hard? Really?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I told you, I never really listened when he was going on about the clubs."

"So did he ever bring home women from those clubs?"

"The strippers? Yeah, a couple of times. He seemed to like them showing us how to strip. Like we don't know how to take clothes off or something."

"Compared to a professional stripper, you probably don't."

Her blue gaze flashed up to mine. "I strip better than any of them bitches did. And I was built better."

I resisted the urge to tell her there was more to life than boobs and stripping, and said, "So, did either of the last women he bought home strip for you all?"

"No. He just shuffled them into the bedroom, like. One of them was a screamer, though."

I barely managed to contain my smile. "Which one was she?"

"Vicki. The reluctant one."

Who obviously wasn't so reluctant in the end. "And she worked at Man Hard?"

"I think that's where he met her, yes."

Then Vicki from Man Hard would need to be talked to-though whether she or the club was the connection or not was anyone's guess. "And there's nothing else you can tell me?"

"I don't think so."

I pushed to my feet. "If you do think of anything, contact the Directorate." And if she didn't, someone from the Directorate would follow up with her regardless.

She nodded and wiped a hand across her nose again. I headed out. Cole was kneeling near the victim's head. "You ever heard of a strip joint called Man Hard?"

"Now why would you think I'd be visiting strip joints?" he said without looking up.

"Uh, because you're a man?"

He snorted softly. "Being a man doesn't automatically mean I have a preference for visiting strip clubs."

"Well, being a werewolf doesn't automatically mean I'm a whore, but half the world holds that opinion of us."

"Touche." He flashed me a grin that was more than nice. "Doesn't change the fact, though. I don't visit clubs. Stripper or wolf."

"You must live a sad and lonely life, Cole Reece."

"Only in comparison to some werewolves. By wolf shifter standards, I'm very outgoing."

Then the wolf shifters had very different standards from the rest of the supernatural community. "Found anything else of note?"

"Dust."

"Dust?"