Page 88 of Beauty At Stake
“I love me a bad boy.” Karmen grinned. “Speaking of which—where's your bad boy leather hoodie, Killian?”
“Leather's a little hot for Thailand.”
“Ah. Well, this way, I can see the hint of your muscles through that shirt. And damn if that isn't one of my favorite things. You know, just a hint at a hot body. None of this in-your-face shit the kids do these days on Instagram. All that bare-chested posing in front of a bathroom mirror makes me gag.”
“Oh? I heard there was something else that made you gag.”
Karmen gaped at Kill before bursting out into laughter. He lifted his hand, and they high-fived. “Well done, you!” He smacked Kill's shoulder. “And let me know if you ever want to find out. You know—first hand.”
Killian snorted. “Married. But thanks for the offer.”
“Any time, Redhead Daddy.” Karmen winked. “Now, back to my rant. I like subtlety—men who don't advertise. Or even better, the men who don't know how hot they are.”
“Oh, I know I'm hot.” Kill grinned. “But I've got my girl already. I don't need to advertise.”
“You don't need to advertise—period.” Karmen brushed imaginary lint off Killian's bicep. “All that hotness justrollsoff you. Hotness heatwaves, if you will.”
“Who the fuck is this guy?” Extinguisher Murdock asked.
“I'm Councilman Dinello.” Karmen lifted his chin. “Who the fuck are you?”
Murdock cleared her throat. “Sorry, Councilman. I didn't know.”
“Oh, that's all right.” Karmen instantly returned to his sugared scheduled programming. “You'll learn, sweetie.”
Team Leader Sullivan cleared his throat. “If you're done flirting and intimidating my team, maybe I could share what we've learned with the Ambassador.”
“Oh, damn!” Karmen declared. “Put in my place. All right, sassy pants. Go on then. What have you got?”
“Ambassador Seren.” Sullivan ignored Karmen and focused on me.
Karmen widened his eyes at me and whispered, “Hot!”
I pressed my lips together as I passed him and went to see what Sullivan had found.
“We looked into Naning Industries.” Sullivan waved at his laptop. “They're a conglomerate. They have several subsidiaries.”
“Do any of those subsidiaries have brand symbols with leaves?”
“No, but each subsidiary has many brands. It's going to take a while to go through them all.”
Karmen went serious to ask, “What exactly are you looking for?”
“A Demon was summoned by the sorceress we're hunting,” I said. “When he was summoned—”
“Hold on.” Karmen held up a hand. “That's a real thing? Demons can be summoned and controlled?”
“Evidently.”
Karmen slowly and wickedly grinned.
“No, you can't summon a Demon and make him your sex slave.”
His face fell.
“Anyway,” I drawled. “When he was summoned, he saw boxes with a logo on them. The logo had leaves with letters inside.”
“Ha!” Karmen pointed at me. “This is kismet! Just point me at the Demon who saw the logo, and with his help, I can draw it up for you. Then you can search with an image.”
