me.
“What can I do for you, ladies? Are you here for a drink already?” he asked.
“Do you know Max Dupree?” Caitlin asked, not wasting time getting to the point.
“Yeah, I’ve heard of the guy.” He turned his back on us as he placed a bottle of liquor on the shelf.
“What can you tell us about him?” Caitlin asked.
“I guess he just came back. I don’t know a lot about him, but I do think the vampire hunters may be after him.” He stacked a few glasses behind the bar.
My eyes widened . That didn’t sound good at all.
“Who the heck are vampire hunters?” I asked.
Why hadn’t I been warned about these hunters before? I had been living in my own little world, unaware of the real vampire dangers out there.
He shrugged . “I don’t know who they are, just that they exist.”
That didn’t even make sense.
“Why would they follow him? Does it have something to do with his house?” I asked.
He s tudied me for a moment, then said, “Yeah, I guess so. How the heck am I supposed to know?”
“Well, you’re the one who suggested these hunters are after him. There has to be a reason why you said that,” I said.
He narrowed his eyes and stared at me. “They came in here asking about him.”
I leaned in closer. “Who are they? Did you get the ir names?”
He frowned. “I just told you that I don’t know who they are.”
“So these vampire hunters stalk people?” I asked.
“Yeah, they go after vampires they have unfinished business with .” He said this casually as if it was no big deal.
My eyes widened . Unfinished business? That didn’t sound good, but with all that I’d seen so far, it kind of made sense. I wondered how Mona and the house fit into this scenario. Did Max know these so-called vampire hunters wanted him? I bet he did and I bet he knew why these vampire hunters were after him. He just didn’t want to tell me. How bad could it be? And what would they do to him? That was something I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. How would I find these vampire hunters? There were too many unanswered questions.
“So you don’t know who the vampire hunters are and what they want with him?” I asked again , hoping to get a different answer. He had to have heard something around town about what was going on.
Rick wiped down the counter and shook his head.
“No, I told you that I don’t know who they are or what they want. They are not from around here, so I don’t know anything about them and to be honest, I don’t care to know either.” His voice grew louder.
Rick had asked if we were there for a drink and that didn’t sound like such a bad idea now. Too bad I was watching calories. He stared at us, probably wondering how much longer we would be around to annoy him.
“You said they usually are after a vampire because of unfinished business, so what kind of business is that? How can a house be unfinished business?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Whatever the vampire was doing wrong when they were turned.”
“You mean Max was doing something wrong when he was turned?” I asked.
“If they are following him, then I would say yes, he was into some bad things. But like I said, I don ’t know what that was,” he said.
I was disappointed that Rick hadn ’t given us more information. But I guessed this was better than nothing. At least I had an idea of who these men might be.
“Thanks for the help,” Caitlin said as we stood and walked toward the door.
“Wait, there was one thing…” Rick called out.
We spun around.
“I heard Max had some dealings with a witch. Some woman was in here and talked with the hunters. But that’s all I know, I swear.” He held his hands up.
“Do you know the woman?” Caitlin asked.
He fixed a stare on her. “No, I don’t know her and that’s the truth.”
“Thanks for the info,” Caitlin said as she grabbed my arm.
“No problem. Come back anytime, ladies,” he said with a wink.
Yeah, I doubted he’d see me back in there