Page 27 of Curse of the Wolf
“That it’s at under-market rents, poorly maintained by uncaring and inexperienced management, and a candidate for an easy value-add resulting in a huge profit?” Rory asked dryly.
“It’s also haunted, I understand.”
Rory snorted. “Luna has been our property manager and on-site maintenance person for more than twenty years. It’s a cash cow. If anything, new ownership may have trouble keeping it quite as profitable.”
“Is she also the reason it’s haunted?” Izzy twitched her eyebrows.
A touch of panic welled up in me as I realized this woman whom I’d never met—thiswerewolffrom Scottsdale—could out me to my employers. I’d considered before that Rory might already know about the lupine aspect of his property manager, especially since he had paranormal blood himself, but he didn’t radiate as much druidic power as his son, so it was possible he’d never detected my magical nature. And Kashvi… She was completely normal. I couldn’t imagine her stern no-nonsense business acumen approving of something as mercurial as a werewolf working for the family business.
“It’s not haunted,” I hurried to say. “Those are rumors started by some of the tenants. They walk around at night with ghostometers.”
“But therehavebeen incidents there.” Ivan raised his eyebrows. “People killed.”
“It’s near the freeway and not in the best neighborhood.” A bead of sweat slithered down my spine. “But the police are helping out. There’s been a patrol car there lately.”
Rory looked at me. Maybe I should have shut up. This wasn’t the kind ofnetworkingI’d wanted to do here.
“I handle what I can myself,” I added, feeling self-conscious since others around us had stopped talking to look over. “When thugs on motorcycles come by, I’m not above hurling the landscaping rocks at them to keep them from vandalizing my tenants’ cars.”
Izzy surprised me by laughing. “I’ll bet.”
“Motorcycles, you say?” Ivan’s eyes had sharpened. Had parking-lot footage here caught his thieves departing on Harleys?
The girl tugged on her mom’s sleeve, pointed at Bolin, and walked off in that direction. Great, the rest of my paranormal allies were going to be outed as well.
“Davenport tends to email his people the same spiel no matter how well-run a complex is,” Ivan said. “He’s better at gathering money from his LPs than actually improving properties and giving anyone great returns.”
“I’ve noticed,” Rory said.
“What brings your property manager here?” Ivan looked at me, though he directed the question to Rory.
“She wants to start investing in real estate herself is what my son said,” Rory said, surprising me. Was that what Bolin had told his parents to snag invitations for us? Maybe people fishing for jobs weren’t encouraged to come.
“Investing in what?” Izzy asked. “Suitable lairs for her pack?”
I was starting to dislike her. “I’m hoping to start with a four-plex so I can get a conventional thirty-year loan.”
“You’ll have plenty of experience with leasing and maintaining it.” Rory gave me a friendly nod. “And keeping it secure.”
I kept my face neutral, but was that an implication that he knew about my werewolf status? It made me uneasy. How many of the newspaper articles had he seen? The one that hypothesized awolfmight have killed those thugs?
“I do live there,” I said. “It’s important to watch out for your home.”
“Indeed,” Rory said.
“Security?” Ivan looked me up and down. “Because of your heritage? Or do you practice martial arts?”
“I… absolutely.” I’d had those six lessons at the dojo, after all. “I’m becoming an expert on keeping apartments secure, and I have allies who can help me find those who do my tenants wrong.”
At the least, Rue could give me dreadful-tasting potions to assist in that capacity.
“Oh?” Ivan’s eyes sharpened with interest. “Like a skip tracer?”
He seemed to have gone from suspecting me to wanting to know more about my abilities for some other reason. Was he looking for someone to get his stolen artifact back? If only I could. But I’d yet to retrieve even my own sword.
“She probably tracks them through other means.” Izzy touched the side of her nose.
“I can find people,” I said, not going into mymeans.“I’m mostly the muscle, but I have an acquaintance who can make all manner of things that assist with the finding.”
