Page 70 of A Trial By Blood

“I’m sorry,” the guy said.

“Don’t say sorry to me. Apologies to my female.”

His female.

The cat’s terrified eyes came to me. “I-I’m sorry.”

Ronan shoved him aside. “Now we need to look around, then we’ll leave. And if we have any questions, you will answer them, truthfully.”

They all nodded.

“You can leave,” Ronan said to the two tables with people still sitting at them. They rushed out, then Ronan glanced at me, silently telling me to start looking.

I jumped to it, checking out the place, the main restaurant, the storeroom, the office, and even the bathrooms. I made my way back to the bar. The big picture of the cat family seemed to call to me, so I took it in again.

Then I spotted it.

“The statue on the bar in this picture, where is it now?” It was only several inches high and looked to be made of carved wood.

“Answer her,” Ronan said.

“It was stolen,” the female said. “A couple days ago, during the dinner rush.”

I turned from the image and to the older female. “What is it? Where did you get it?”

She shrugged. “It was here when we took over the place. The previous owners left it as a good luck charm.”

I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture. Another demon effigy, it had to be. That was the third one stolen, including the one from the reptile guy’s house and the museum. If that’s what it was, of course, but I was positive that’s what I was looking at. Why else would I have been called here?

I turned back to the cat family. “Thank you for your help.”

“It wasn’t exactly voluntary,” she said, that scowl back on her face.

“If you had better manners, none of this would have been necessary,” Ronan said. He took some money from his wallet and dropped it on the bar, then held his hand out to me.

I took it and we left.

“What do you make of that?” Ronan asked.

“Someone’s getting desperate.”

“Desperate enough to summon a demon and make some kind of twisted bargain,” he said.

I looked up at him. “But why? What do they want?”

He shook his head, his gorgeous eyes locking with mine.

He didn’t need to say it, I could see it in his eyes, and I was thinking the same thing.

Nothing good.

CHAPTER 21

Rose

I didn’t want to go inside.

We stood at my door as low music drifted out from inside. Probably Else, she liked to listen to music while she worked.