“Asking you,” Terric corrected.
“Fine,” I said, “asking you to give us a day or two to hunt for Collins.”
“Before we get the police or anyone else in the Authority involved,” Terric said.
Clyde shook his head. “No.”
“Come again?” I said.
“No,” he repeated.
The rings on my right hand crackled with red. I shut my mouth on what I hoped was a smile. “No?”
Terric sighed. “You don’t want us hunting Eli?”
Clyde kept his attention on me, even though he was answering Terric. “I don’t want you hunting Eli. I don’t want Davy involved either, in case you’re wondering. And I don’t want some unknown woman anywhere near our business. We work with the law, gentlemen. We are not vigilantes. We do not pursue personal agendas or revenge. Our job is to take care of Authority business as smoothly and discreetly as possible. We have never used Breakers as assassins. We aren’t going to start that now.”
“We didn’t say we were going to kill Eli,” I said.
“I heard you. But I know you, Shame. This isn’t your call anymore. Neither of you is the Head of the Authority. I am. If you want to remain on the payroll in some other capacity, then you’re going to have to get used to my orders and follow them.”
“Why are you always looking at me?”
“Because I know which of you won’t play by the rules.”
I gave him my best smile. “I like rules. They make that cracking sound when they break.”
“Shame,” Terric said. “He’s right. This isn’t our call. It’s his. Is there anything you need from us?”
“Your keys. Dash has already given me access to the files and everything else.” He paused a minute.
I was not paying attention to him. Because I was angry, and angry only led to hungry, and most days, like say when Clyde was not telling me what I could and couldn’t do, I liked him.
“...to see you both check in here if you’re staying. We’ll need to come up with protection plans,” he was saying. “You remember there’s a meeting in a few hours with the Overseer, right?”
“We’ll be there,” Terric promised, as if I weren’t standing in the room. “I’ll make sure of it.”
Clyde pushed up onto his feet. “You and I square, Flynn?”
“Not really.” Like I said, he and I did not bullshit each other.
“You know what I don’t get about you?” he said.
“How I get all the chicks?”
“How after years of doing jack-all, you finally decide that today, and this one thing, is something you’re going to apply yourself to. The one damn thing I have to tell you not to do.”
“I could come up with other damn things you wouldn’t want me to do.”
“I’d rather you put your energy into staying alive.”
“Yeah. Well, that’s not really my thing.”
“When you decide what your thing is?” He stepped toward the door and fixed me with a look. “Warn me, okay?”
“Now, where’s the fun in that?” I asked.
I dropped the Mute spell with a slash of my hand, and black light snapped across my rings.
Clyde shook his head and walked out the door.
“Shame,” Terric said before I could take a step. “You and I have a meeting this morning.”
“I heard. I’m not going anywhere until then.”
He nodded. “And lunch. With Dessa.”
“Don’t need you to be my secretary, Ter.”
He was still sitting behind his desk, fingers resting lightly on the surface. “Good. I’ll be out in a minute.” He swiveled his chair so he could stare out at the city.
Dawn was rubbing the black off the sky. Looked like it wasn’t going to rain for a change.
I left him to his moping and joined the others in the main room.
Dessa and Dash seemed to have hit it off pretty well, laughing over something—I think a recent movie.
I wondered how much information she’s gotten out of him. Knowing Dash, zero.
She was drinking a cup of coffee, and looking . . . well, comfortable.
When she saw me coming and gave me that smile? Something inside me went warm and my heart tapped a hard beat.
What was wrong with me? It’s not like I’d never seen a beautiful woman before. But her smile. That smile. For me. It was undiscovered country and I wanted that. Wanted to make her smile.
Those thoughts set off alarms in my head. The warm feeling in my chest felt a lot like happiness. Maybe even hope. Two things that had never worked out well for me.
Things that might be best ignored.
“You two seem to have gotten chummy,” I said.
Dash leaned against one of the empty desks. I wondered, not for the first time, why we had so damn many desks that no one ever sat at.
“Good coffee, good company,” Dash said. “So, what’s the word?”
I shook my head. “We’re not going to pursue this.”
Dash nodded and took a drink of his coffee, keeping an eye on Dessa. He had excellent instincts.
“What does that mean?” she asked.
I sat on the edge of an empty desk and stuck my hands in my jacket pockets. “I don’t know how much research you’ve done on the Authority, but you must know that we have rules, structure, policies. We work inside the law. Yes, we kept Joshua’s death quiet for a few hours, but we’re getting the police involved. We’re turning the investigation of his death—and who killed him—over to them.”
Dash stood. “I’ll start making calls.” He strolled off to his office, stopping to talk with Clyde, who was on his cell phone near the far window.
“Really?” she said. “This is how you’re going to play it?”
“Isn’t a game, darling. We’ve had our see of things, and we’ll be turning all information over to the police. You’re welcome to come along if you’d like.”
She stood. Left her coffee behind. Stepped up in my space.
My body responded to her: heartbeat, blood, breath. Pounding. Needful.
I didn’t let it show. But I wanted to. Wanted to smile, and draw her in, and kiss her again until her clothes fell off.
“If you’re lying to me,” she said.
“I’m not.”
She studied my face, the corners of her mouth pulling just slightly downward. Searching for my tell.
“This isn’t my poker face,” I said. “This is my truth face. We’re off this case. Now, if you want to make everyone’s life a little easier, you could go talk to Mr. Turner over there and tell him what you know about . . . everything.”
She placed her hand on my knee. Heat scorched across my body. And I held my breath on a groan.
Keep it cool, Shamus. Keep it cool.
“You’re going to take orders from him?”
“Today I am.”
“What about tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow looks good too.”
For a second, her mask slipped, and the woman who was grieving for the brother she loved was standing there, with hope breaking in her eyes. “So you’re telling me no. Again.”
“That’s the way it has to be.”
She glanced over my shoulder. Terric was still in his office watching the sun rise on the end of his career. Dash and Clyde had closed themselves in Dash’s smaller office.
No help there.
“Shame,” she began. “You could give me a list of names, and I’ll take it from there. I can stay out of the way. Out of your way, out of the way of the police investigation. Please. You won’t even see me.”
There she was again, the woman behind the mask. The one who was willing to do anything to see that her brother’s killer was taken down. The one who rescued purple turtles for babies.
“Who says I don’t want to see you?” I said softly.
“Do you?”