Bloody Freak (A Bloody Series Book #1) by Emily Barker Page A

along fine. Thank you." He dismissed him and turned to find a quite place to make a discrete phone call. The King would surely hear about this and he wanted it to be from his lips, not someone who would give him too many details.
        "Harker & Murray Legal Firm, this is Lillia, how my I direct your call?" The Kings private line, quite obviously based on Bram Stoker ’ s Dracula. It was silly.
        "Lillia, it's Ethan. Is the King available?"
        "Let me che ck, just a moment." She put him on hold. While he was waiting, they were letting Alex out of the cell. She talked briefly with a young man, touched his shoulder in reassurance and walked down the hall to her office. She never looked up to see him.
        "Yes , Ethan, I ’ m here." The King sounded distant.
        "Am I on speaker phone?" Ethan asked.
        "Yes, sorry, I'm in the lab. I know I shouldn ’ t be tinkering but the Scanners have found nothing yet and Jones has been sending me notes every hour demanding an upd ate. I'm positively nerve wracked. It was a bad idea sending you away." The King sounded less like a patriarch and more like a child.
        "You handled Jones wonderfully at the board meeting. Just threaten to have his hands removed if he pens one more lett er to you." Ethan smiled thinking on that satisfying idea.
        "I think his secretary pens the letters," the King said absently.
        "Your Majesty, you handle everything in the lab with precision and a steady head. Just apply the same to your work elsewher e. Now, I called for a reason. There was a small incident with a co-worker today that might get back to you, and I wanted you to here it first from me before it was blown out of proportion."
        "Yes? What happened?" He could hear the King shuffling papers around.
        "One of the Lab technicians grew quite upset at my arrival, they fired the man previously running the lab you see, and she was so upset she, well, she threw some things. It ’ s all handled now though." He hoped that sounded less dramatic then it was.
        "She what?"
        "She threw some things at me. Everything is fine now, all smoothed out, but just so you know things didn ’ t go one hundred percent. I've seen to it though. It's not a problem, I assure you." Liar, liar, liar.
        "Okay, Ethan. Well , I hope you had her fired. No one threatens my friend and gets away with it." He laughed at his small joke. If only he knew this particular female.
        "No, I didn ’ t have her fired. She was upset, you know how females get." If she heard him say that she'd be throwing things again. Probably him, off of the roof.
        "Yes, I see. I trust you Ethan. Any news on the case yet?"
        "No, nothing substantial yet. If they don't find anything within the next twenty-four hours we might have a shot at diverting thi s fiasco. As long as the Scanners can spin the story online, spread rumors and such, we might be all right." He hoped.
        "Alright. That ’ s good news. Have you heard from Adam?"
        "No, I think he's arrived but I haven ’ t spoken with him yet. I'll give him a call when we're done here."
        "Good, good. How is your skin holding up? Not burning I hope."
        "No, everything is fine. You ’ re a genius as always, your Majesty." He truly was.
        "Oh, stop with the Majesty crap. I'm working on something new as we speak actually. I'll tell you more when I have it refined. I'm very optimistic."
        "That's great, your Majesty. I have to go. I'll report back at the end of the night."
        "Good luck Ethan. We're counting on you." He hung up.
    Grea t. That was comforting. He dialed Adams cell number and listened to his phone play some horrendously loud music.
        "Ethan. I was just going to call you." Adam said by way of greeting.
        "Yeah right. Are you at the precinct yet?"
        "Yes, just got set tled in. The King sure is a genius isn ’ t he?" Adam laughed.
        "Yes, quite