He laughed. She liked his laugh. She wanted to slap herself for thinking it. With everything going on in her life, the last thing she should be doing was clouding her judgment with an attraction to someone who might have shot her. “Yeah, I do.”
Laura stopped looking at him. While they didn’t speak, the silence didn’t stretch to uncomfortable. Assessing, Laura thought. They were assessing their next moves. Offering the raid reports and now hinting at dirty cops was a little too much too soon for her taste. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to bite on something or if she was being warned off. As far as Sinclair knew, she was a low-level staffer from InterSec, farmed out for the cleanup chores and no-brainer jobs. In other words, no one powerful, so no one likely to bring in any noise from InterSec. Considering where they were, if Sinclair was a regular at the Vault, he had plenty of opportunity to connect with someone who might be interested in stirring the pot in a SWAT-team squad room.
Someone on the team had taken a shot at her, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to assume that the same person had killed Sanchez. Laura had to consider the possibility that the bread crumbs Sinclair was laying out could be a trap to see what she knew or remembered.
He finished his second drink. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to give Gianni a heads-up that the woman whose ear he just licked is a congressman’s daughter.”
“So now you care?” Laura shot at him.
He gave her a cocky grin over his shoulder. “He’s my ride unless you take me home.”
She rolled her eyes. The woman in question did not look pleased, and Gianni wasn’t getting the message. Sinclair slipped between them and ordered another beer. He spoke to Gianni, then turned to the woman and introduced himself.
The bartender slid another drink in front of Laura. “On the house,” he said, and walked away before she could respond. She picked up the fluted glass and sniffed. Brandy, an Armagnac by the shape of the glass. Sinclair caught her eye. She raised the glass and toasted him. He smiled uncertainly as his gaze shifted to her glass. Gianni said something that distracted him, and he looked away. The amber fluid spread across her tongue and released shades of vanilla and apricot and something earthy she couldn’t identify. The crowded bar made it difficult to parse the scents, but it was delicious. Another pleasant surprise from Sinclair.
Intent on watching Sinclair and Gianni, Laura didn’t pay any attention when someone stood behind her. The barroom was crowded, and the bar itself was, too, so the sudden presence next to her did not seem amiss. Until the person behind spoke in her ear. “Good teammates watch each other’s backs.”
She looked into the face of a tall elf. She recognized him immediately from media reports. Tylo Blume smiled pleasantly down at her, his pointed ears showing through long dark hair tied loosely at the middle of his back. Apprehension rippled through her. Blume was a high-profile mover and shaker on Capitol Hill. He had friends in all the right places and was worth millions. The same Tylo Blume that Senator Hornbeck wanted Laura Blackstone to meet and secure a speaking role for at the Archives’ exhibit opening. And suddenly here he was, talking to Janice Crawford. Washington could be a small town, but she hated coincidences and always suspected them.
“Teammates?” she asked.
Blume made no overt indication to the bartender, but another glass of Armagnac appeared at his elbow. He must have done a sending. Laura looked down at her own glass. Not Sinclair then. She felt foolish, accepting a drink without knowing who it was from, as if she were a kid from the country on her first city visit.
Blume glanced over at Gianni and Sinclair. “As are you, Ms. Crawford.” He held out a hand. “Tylo Blume.”
She shook. “And you know me because…?”
He sipped his drink and peered down at her. She debated whether he was sneering or amused. “I heard about what happened to you and wanted to meet you.”
Laura played it cautiously pleasant. “Really? Why?”
He nodded up the bar. “Your friends, Gianni and Sinclair, do some work for me occasionally. I could use a druid with backbone.”
Laura decided Janice would be clueless about Blume. “I’m sorry, but who are you?”
He continued staring at her with his thin smile. His essence felt amused. Laura had the sense that he was buying the dumb act. “Well, I own this place, for one thing. The building, in fact.”
“Nice place. And for another thing?”
“Let’s say I have several business interests in town,” he said.
She feigned loss of interest, looking around the room. “Oh. I don’t really follow politics.”
She caught Sinclair’s watchful eye. He looked away a fraction of a second later, as if he didn’t want her to know he was watching. Blume stayed next to her.
“Are you interested?” he asked
“In a job? Depends. What do you have in mind?” she asked.
Blume took a turn scanning the room. “Look around. Even if you don’t follow politics, you probably recognize a few faces in here. We keep the press and the tourists out. Off-duty law enforcement helps our clients and keeps the place safe.”
Laura twisted her lips. “I don’t know. It sounds like you want a bouncer. I became a police officer to get out of that gig.”
“There are interesting security issues as well,” said Blume.
“I’ll have to think about it,” she said.
“My offices are upstairs. Shall we discuss it in more appropriate surroundings?” he asked.
She was tempted. She had followed Gianni and Sinclair to learn what she could about them. Blume was unexpected, and unexpectedly respectable, but clearly one of her “teammates” had told him about her. Under normal circumstances, she would have taken advantage of such a turn of events. But now the timing and situation felt wrong. Two and a half drinks had taken the edge off her alertness, and drinking with a concussion hadn’t been the smartest move in the first place. She didn’t need to follow up tonight.
“Maybe another time,” she said.
“You could use the money,” he said.
In one sense, it was true-part of the Janice biography. But Blume spoke with a tone of conviction that revealed he knew it for a fact. She faced him with a touch of indignation in her face. “Excuse me?”
He pursed his lips, his amusement turning smug. “You live in a small apartment and have no family to help you financially. InterSec throws you a short job once in a while, and the D.C. human force has no interest in hiring you. You’re three months late on your student loan, and your cable was turned off last month.” He placed a business card on the bar. “Do think about it.”
He melted into the crowd without another word. She picked up the card, a plain cream with two evergreen stripes down the side and across the top. The only text gave Blume’s name, email address, and a phone number, no title or business.
“I see he made his pitch,” Sinclair said.
She glanced at his sudden appearance. He didn’t startle her, but she was surprised she hadn’t detected his body signature until he was right next to her. Her limited sensing range became more constricted in crowded rooms; but once she knew someone, she was usually more sensitive to the body signature. She frowned. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
“It wasn’t my idea. Maybe I wanted to see how you reacted,” he said.
“Did I pass your test?”
“Did you take the job?”
“No.”
He toasted the air. “A-plus.”
“I don’t like being played, Sinclair. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She decided to establish her own role as the druid with a backbone. She pushed through the crowd. She’d have plenty of time to make nice in the squad room.
“Wait a sec,” Sinclair called to her, when she reached the foyer. He followed her. She continued forward but waited for him on the sidewalk.