Free The Man Who Walked in Darkness (Miles Franco #2) (Miles Franco Urban Fantasy) by Chris Strange Page A

could make me nervous. “Say, you guys don’t have anything to do with drugs, do you?”
    He glanced at me and took a sip of water. “Drugs? Medicines, you mean?”
    I shrugged. “Sure.”
    “I’m afraid not.”
    “Never mind.” Was he lying? I wanted to press him, but I couldn’t exactly be discreet here. Maybe if I ducked out for a while, I could tail him and get him alone. It was the best I could come up with, and besides, I was getting jumpy again. I left my empty glass on the table and stood up.
    Mayor White grabbed my sleeve. “Where are you going, Franco?”
    “To take a piss.”
    She grinned and waved me away. “Be back in time for the speeches. After that the fundraisers will come out to try and empty your pockets, and you’ll want to be on your guard. Don’t let ’em get anything without a fight.”
    I tipped an imaginary hat to Kowalski and the girl, said, “Nice meeting you,” and shoved my way back through the crowd.
    My ear might be stuffed, but I could still smell the bullshit. Something about that guy made my gut do backflips and set off the alarms in my head. Maybe AISOR didn’t kill Claudia, but I’d bet my shoes they weren’t as sparkling clean as they wanted to appear. In this city, no one was.
    I waited until I’d put enough suits between me and the table that I couldn’t be seen, then I went back to the bar and found the smiling girl. “Hit me again.”
    “Coke?” she said.
    “Good memory.” I drummed my fingers on the bar. Where to now? Maybe I could ask around, see if I could dig up any dirt on AISOR until I could get Kowalski by himself.
    The idea made my head pound. Good luck trying to fit in here . The air was stifling despite the air conditioning, and the armpits of my shirt were soaked.
    The bar girl passed me my Coke. I put on my nice guy face. “Is there somewhere I can get some air?”
    She pointed. “The courtyard.”
    None of the hotels I’d ever stayed in had a courtyard. Most would be lucky to have a swimming pool without a dead rat in it. I thanked the girl, shoved my free hand in my pocket, and made my way back through the press.
    It was a relief to actually breathe again. The courtyard was as swanky as the rest of the place, filled with hanging plants and tile walkways. A few of the other suits had escaped out here, and one or two even risked becoming social pariahs by lighting cigarettes. I found a bench in the corner that had a view of the garden and took a load off. My feet thanked me. I was wearing Tania’s dad’s shoes, though I might as well have been walking barefoot on tacks.
    The courtyard’s garden was so big I couldn’t see the far side of it in the dark. Trees and rose bushes stood in ordered rows alongside the lawn. A dense line of hedges and evergreens stood guard to my right. I let the earthy scent wash over me while I sipped my drink.
    Something moved in the garden. Maybe someone got too drunk, went to spew in the bushes. No, this wasn’t that kind of party. The shadow moved again. Ice dripped down my spine. I stood up quickly. The shadow ducked behind a line of trees. Hell. Was someone watching me?
    A hand touched my shoulder. My skeleton tried to jump out my nose. I spun, grabbed the wrist, and cocked my hand with the glass in it, ready to smash it in a goon’s face.
    Only it wasn’t a goon I was looking at. I lowered my arm and hoped the dark covered the color in my cheeks. “Sorry, I…uh…didn’t hear you.”
    Zhi Lu had taken a step back from me, but the fear in her face fell away a moment later. She looked much prettier when some asshole wasn’t about to sock her one. “I saw you out here,” she said. She had a hint of an accent. “I wanted to escape from the speeches.”
    I glanced back toward the main hall. Someone’s voice was crackling over a bad speaker system. He must’ve made a joke, because a wave of polite laughter rolled out a moment later, then died like an old man in an empty room.
    “Your boss was right