Free Call of the Siren by Rosalie Lario

quick glance around the crowded space was all it took to confirm Ronin hadn’t yet arrived. Lina made her way to the bar and snagged a barstool one of the patrons—a shifter of some sort by the looks of him—had vacated upon seeing her. He grinned and tried to start a conversation with her, but she ignored him, pointedly turning her back to search out the bartender.
    The bartender, a beautiful fae with long, dark hair, spotted her and sidled over. “What’ll you have?”
    Lina ignored the uncomfortable flutter of jealousy that the sight of the fae had sparked in her stomach. She’d come here once, about a month ago, and had seen Taeg and Dagan sitting at the bar. Dagan had been hitting on the bartender, who hadn’t seemed to be buying what Dagan was selling. That still didn’t stop Lina from hating her, just the slightest bit.
    “Hey, you seen Sam around lately?” When the bartender stared at her blankly, Lina added, “Lorne demon. Mercenary. Has a pretty distinctive black Mohawk.”
    “Oh yeah.” The bartender shrugged. “Haven’t seen him around for awhile.”
    No surprise there. “I’ll take a lager, then.”
    Brownie lager had a hell of a kick to it, but it went down a lot smoother than the whiskey she normally favored, and she wanted to stay on the top of her game tonight if there was a chance they’d be apprehending Sam.
    Sam—the dirtbag. She still couldn’t believe he’d rolled over on her. They hadn’t been the best of friends or anything, but she thought they’d had an understanding. He’d once been hooked on score too, the hallucinogenic drug made from ground unicorn horns, and after he’d confessed he still couldn’t think about the stuff without breaking into full-body shakes, she’d confided it was the same for her.
    Once a score addict, always a score addict.
    Even if she hadn’t touched the stuff in two years…ever since the day Sara had died.
    “You came.”
    Lina turned toward the sound of Ronin’s voice, fighting back guilt at the undertone of surprise in his words. She took a long swallow of her lager before casually saying, “Money talks.”
    Ronin’s eyes flickered, but all he said was, “My contact should be here soon.” He slid into an empty barstool beside her and flagged down the bartender.
    Forty minutes and three brownie lagers later, there was still no sight of Ronin’s contact, and Lina was beginning to suspect Ronin had lured her here under false pretenses just so she would be forced to talk to him. Though he’d given it his best, he hadn’t gotten too much out of her, and since he hadn’t mentioned anything about Sara, she figured Dagan had kept his word about giving her time to broach the subject. That was a relief. She wasn’t ready to talk about her yet.
    “Sorry I’m late,” a high-pitched yet croaky voice sounded out behind them.
    Lina whirled in her seat to see a short, squat man facing them. Though he was glamoured to look human, his physique and voice unmistakably placed him as a goblin. Yeah, there was only so much cloaking certain species could do.
    The goblin noticed her staring and prickled defensively. “Looked your fill?”
    “For now,” she replied.
    Clearly unnerved by her nonchalant response, he inched away from her and pointedly looked toward Ronin.
    When Ronin threw her a warning glance, she shrugged. What did he want her to do, use her calming ability to charm the guy? It wasn’t her fault Shortie had gotten offended.
    “Took me awhile, but I managed to track down some info on your guy,” the goblin said to Ronin in a low tone. “He’s been living under an alias.”
    Lina took another sip of her lager while he recited the address, which was about eight blocks from Eros. “Any other information for us?” she asked.
    The goblin gave her the death stare.
    She laughed, unable to help herself, but when Ronin hit her with another warning glance, she shrugged. “Fine, you handle it.”
    She turned to face the counter, waiting for