Free Requiem for the Dead by Kelly Meding Page B

like she was about to burst into hysterical sobs. I angled around her and past her husband, and Milo came up behind me. We walked to the door like that, him a physical barrier between me and the Frosts. Reilly stayed quiet and stayed behind—good thing, too. I was angry enough at him to break his nose and not think twice.
    Halfway back to the car, Milo moved up to keep in step next to me. I took a few deep breaths before I asked, "So what was the phone call about?"
    "Nothing. When I saw who was at the door, I texted Gina to call me in exactly three minutes. Figured you'd want a retreat plan."
    "Thank you."
    "No problem. You okay?"
    "Pissed as hell at Reilly for ambushing me like that."
    "That stands to reason. I mean about seeing the Frosts."
    "It was weird. I'm not their kid, not really, but feeling them bearing down on me like that made me feel like their child, you know?"
    "You looked like you were going to cry at one point."
    "Yeah, well, the last time my own mother told me she loved me I think I was five years old."
    He made a soft grunting sound. "She did say it, though."
    "I guess." I slipped my left arm through his as we walked. "So, you up for visiting a communications company on the other side of town?"
    "Can't think of a better way to spend a Monday morning."
    "Glad to hear it."
    #
    We had a long drive to the other side of town, which gave us plenty of time to call Kismet and explain the meeting at Sally's. She had a few choice curse words of her own for Reilly's ambush. Then she gave us directions to Alucard Communications, which had us going Uptown in morning rush hour traffic, so what should have been a fifteen-minute trek across town took nearly an hour.
    I tried to not bring up Milo's earlier confession about Marcus. He didn't seem eager to talk about it, and my bringing up something personal made my own current Frost family drama fair game to his questions. But the longer we sat in traffic, not talking, barely listening to a pop hits radio station, the more my curiosity got the better of me. I needed to know something, but I also had to phrase it in a way that didn't make it sound like I thought that, a) Marcus was some sort of forceful asshole, or b) Milo couldn't defend himself.
    Got it. "Milo, can I ask you one question?"
    He flexed his right hand around the steering wheel, then sighed. "Yes. One."
    "Did you kiss him back?"
    "No. I was a little too surprised at the time."
    "Do you wish you had?"
    He gave me a sideways look. "That's two questions, Evy."
    "I know."
    His attention went back to the road, which left my second question hanging there. And something about his silence made me think the answer was yes.
    Alucard Comm was north of Uptown, on the outskirts of where most of the city's higher end businesses and restaurants were located. The place reminded me of a military compound, with its electric perimeter fence and rolling front gate. The building itself was an experiment in modern art, with strange angles and architecture I couldn't hope to understand the aesthetics of. The exterior was mirrored to reflect the city around it and the sky above, giving no hint as to which parts were actually windows and which were walls. Seductive and scary, just like the Bloods.
    I didn't have much of a plan in mind when Milo pulled up in front of the guard hut. An older woman with gray hair and a boring blue uniform stepped out of the hut, then crouched down to peer in through Milo's open window.
    "Do you have an appointment?" she asked.
    "Not as such," Milo said.
    "My name is Evangeline Stone," I said, leaning closer to his window. "This is Milo Gant. We're friends of Isleen."
    None of the names earned so much as an eyebrow twitch from the lady guard. She eyeballed me, then Milo. "One moment." She disappeared into the hut.
    "You wanna lay odds on whether or not she's calling security to have us escorted off the premises?" Milo asked.
    "I've been surprised too many times today to lay odds on anything."
    We waited,