“Hello.” She extracted herself from his grip, and if she zapped him with a tiny spell that would feel like an electric shock, no one was any the wiser. He jerked a little and shook out his fingers.
Rick made a bid to recapture her attention. “We met Laramie in the marines. Before he went Feeb.”
“Semper fi,” Jack replied.
“Oorah, Devil Dog.” Stephen growled the words, while Rick made a weird barking noise that set Grim off. Selina hauled him back before he could lunge at the cop.
“I was never military.” Peyton’s normally impassive face showed incredulity for a brief moment. He glanced at Selina as if she were the voice of sanity.
She shook her head. “I did some time in the navy.”
Way back when the U.S. was fighting Nazis, but she kept that to herself.
Stephen’s face lit with a smile. “Oh, yeah? I’d like to see you in uniform.”
Or out of it. The words were unspoken, but everyone could read the sentiment on his expression. She should have zapped him harder.
Jack apparently decided to jump in before anyone else could hit on her. “Actually, guys, since Grayson’s here, I had a question for you that might help out our case.”
“Oh, yeah? Shoot.” Stephen bent over to retrieve the ball, tucking it under one arm.
“I’m looking for a pattern, a weird one.” Jack swiped the sweat from his face. “I’m wondering if anything has come across either of your desks recently.”
Rick chuckled and met Stephen’s glance. “He always wants the weird ones. His life has been a lot more interesting than mine since we left the corps. Okay, what brand of freaky are we talking about this time?”
“Someone attacked, roughed up bad, and drained of blood.”
Rick snorted. “Yeah, we had one of those. Wasn’t my case, but they caught the guy. Some loser ex-boyfriend who thought he was a vampire or something. Went to those fetish blood-drinking clubs and shit.”
Well, that would explain why it hadn’t popped on the Magickal PD’s radar. Selina idly rubbed between Grim’s ears. “Yeah, the loser might not be the loser you’re looking for.”
“You got another one?” Interest stirred in Rick’s voice.
“Yep.”
“I’ll let you guys be the ones to tell the detective you’re taking over her case.” Rick went over to a gym bag on the side of the court and dug around until he came up with a cell phone. “Let me get you her contact info.”
“Appreciate it.” Jack fished his phone from one of the deep pockets on his shorts and punched in the number his friend gave him. “I’d like to talk to this wannabe-vampire loser, too, just in case he knows something useful. What’s the detective’s name?”
“Connie Wright.”
He tapped more buttons on his phone. “Great, thanks.”
When he flashed a triumphant grin at Peyton and her, she arched an eyebrow. “Yeah, yeah. Your hunch paid off.”
Not that she’d doubted it was a possibility that Mary Winston wasn’t their first victim in Seattle, but she’d been hoping. The fewer people who died, the better. That familiar wash of shame and failure crashed over her, Bess’s face flashing through her mind.
She jerked a bit when Stephen brushed up against her. When had he gotten closer? His gaze dropped to her chest. She gave Grim’s leash a twitch, and he let out a bark, muscling his big body between hers and Stephen’s. The dog licked his lips as if spook was his favorite meal, and Stephen backed off, his face going pale. Yeah, Grim and his evil eye had that effect on people.
Good doggie.
She stroked her fingers over her familiar’s silky forehead, swept the men with a glance, and decided it was time to bow out of this conversation.
“Jack can let me know when he gets in touch with Detective Wright.” She gave a short wave at the FBI agents. “I’ll see you guys at the office tomorrow. Bye.”
“Nice meeting you, Detective.” Rick gave her a polite nod, but there was still a glint of interest in his eyes. She refused to look at Jack and see if his gaze showed any interest. He’d planned to see another woman for lunch, and she didn’t give a shit if that made her sound jealous.
“Come on, Grim.” Turning on her heel, she jogged away from them, and ignored the fact that she could feel them scoping out her ass.
She’d barely managed to make it around a copse of trees and out of their line of sight when she heard footsteps pounding up behind her.
“Selina, wait.” Jack pulled even with her, his long legs keeping pace. “You barely even looked at me back there, and I got us a huge break in the case. What was that about?”
What did he want? A cookie? He was just doing his job. Now he could go and eat with some other woman. She shrugged, though she doubted it showed while she was bouncing along at a swift trot. “I was just trying to help Peyton out with the nose thing. I didn’t expect to end up in a professional tangle.”
“This whole separation of job and personal life is a big deal to you, isn’t it?” He dipped his head to try to meet her eyes.
She shot him an incredulous look. “What was your first clue, Laramie?”
“I get it with the sex with co-workers thing, but ... just running off like that bordered on rude and unfriendly.” He spoke easily, not even winded from running and talking at the same time.
“What was unfriendly was how all of you stared at my tits. So you’ll forgive me if I didn’t want to stand around and be ogled by my colleagues. It’s easier to think about breakthroughs in the case when no one is visually groping me. A little professional separation is a good thing, in my book.” If her voice came out choppy and sharp, she put it down to the fact that she was jogging, not that his accusation stung. So he thought she was a bitch. He wasn’t the only one.
“I’m not sure that you can’t be friends with your co-workers, which seems to be the extreme you’ve taken it to, but you’re right about us staring at you. That was rude, and I apologize.”
Damn. A graceful apology that undercut any ability to be pissy with him for not being buddies with her colleagues. Her teeth gritted together. Time to change the topic to something that didn’t have her on the defensive. “Aren’t you going to be late for your lunch date?”
“I can be a few minutes late.” He said it so casually, she wanted to smack him. Or blast him with a really nasty spell. If they weren’t in public.
She lengthened her stride a bit, but then she figured outrunning him was futile. Maybe after they went past his street, he’d stop following her. “Most women I know don’t like to be kept waiting.”
He was silent for a long moment. “Seriously, Selina. Did I do something to piss you off? I thought we had a good time last night.”
“We did. Or, at least, I did. I can’t speak for you.” She tossed her hair out of her face, annoyed by the damp strands clinging to her neck.
A strangled sound emerged from his throat. “If the ‘oh, fuck, yeah, just like that’ wasn’t a pretty good clue that I enjoyed myself, I’d be happy to get more vocal for you.”
Gods, was it hot out here or was it just her? Seattle was having a sudden heat wave. The vivid reminder of what Jack had said and done to her the night before sent her hormones into overdrive. A bead of sweat slithered between her breasts, and her breath came far faster than it needed to for the speed they were going. “You were fine.”
“Fine?” Indignation laced his tone along with a large dose of bruised masculine pride. “You say that to a fifteen-year-old who can barely find his dick. I’ve been better than fine for a long time, darlin’.”
“And modest, too.” She fought the need to smile, which just annoyed her because she didn’t want him to make her laugh, and she ignored the fact that that was totally irrational. It was just that kind of weekend. Off balance and thoroughly fucked.