by Elle Cross
"You mean Corbin, right?" Megan whispered.
I pressed my lips together and nodded once. Not saying anything felt less like a betrayal.
"Don't you worry, boss, don't you worry about a thing. I got this." She hugged the big folder to her tiny frame. "I'll hunt down every last piece of information, every scrap. Nothing is locked away from me for too long, just you see."
Then she tore out of my office and straight to her desk like a pint-sized juggernaut.
The quiet that Megan left in her wake unsettled me for a moment, and I hoped I was doing the right thing.
My eleven o'clock had been an easy consultation involving a family dispute around a beloved heirloom. After I cut through the anger there, it was easy to decipher the artifact’s country of origin and the artist. I could have shared everything else about the piece, the emotion that went into it, why the artist chose to work it, what inspired her. But these people didn't seem to care, and stuff like that, those memories, I'd rather keep private than share with people who wouldn't cherish or value the thought.
Besides, they just wanted to sell the piece off and pocket the money. In our unspoken language, I asked Megan not to pass along a referral card to them, and made a note to be circumspect over future referrals from the one who had referred them.
Corbin had called some time during the eleven o'clock appointment. Megan said she had seemed like she was in the field, and would be swinging by the neighborhood for lunch. My stomach had fluttered at the thought that Corbin found some key lead or news about Jack, and I needed to take a few deep breaths to keep focused on my client.
It was deep enough into fall that we experienced three seasons in one day. Steel gray clouds hid the sun and turned the air crispy cool so that I didn't feel conspicuous in my jacket and demi gloves.
My private office was just catty corner to the end of this block, nestled in a row of stoic townhouses in varying shades of straw-colored brick, sandstone, and cream masonry. We often ate lunch there whenever Corbin swung by the neighborhood. It was best for all parties to remain willfully ignorant that there were gun runners operating out of my favorite bakery.
Megan swung a bag of pastries on her arm, insisting that Corbin ought to take them back to her team. Her colorful energy a barely-contained firework waiting to explode into the sky.
I punched in the key code at the door, my only concession to the security that I'd allow. I couldn't stand all the electronics and things that took over for security, didn't trust it over the feel of a deadbolt and key. Actual physical things.
I just couldn't see how an electronic whatsit was going to help keep me more secure than a deadbolt. If an intruder wanted in, they'd get in no matter the fancy hardware. Knowing my background, Corbin and Megan humored me. Never said anything about what I needed to do to help make me feel safe.
I preceded Megan into the apartment, closed the door behind her and rearmed the alarm.
Corbin arrived soon after. She barely had the Chinese food takeout on the table, when Megan started grabbing boxes and platters and sorting through them. She quickly claimed a spring roll, and ate it while finding silverware.
I smacked her on the shoulder. "Dude, chew!"
"If I could figure out a way to eat via osmosis, this wouldn't be a problem," Megan said around a mouth full of cabbage.
"But then you'd miss out on enjoying food and all the delicious!"
She plucked a wayward broccoli from the table where it had fallen off a dinner plate and popped it in her mouth. "I like food as much as the next cat, I just don't get off on it like you do." Then she reached over and grabbed a beer out of my fridge. "This baby, on the other hand." Then knocked her head back in a long swallow.
I shook my head. Unlike her, I built my plate carefully, picking through the food, balancing them all out to represent them evenly.
I shook my head and turned toward Corbin who was trying to figure out how to squish an entire crab Rangoon in her mouth. I waited for her to chew it down and swallow before questioning her. "So, whenever you’re done re-hinging your jaw back together, any news?" I twirled the noodles with my chopsticks. Corbin wouldn't have come this way to mull over noodles if she hadn't.
"Yes and no." Corbin dug through her pocket and passed me my phone. "We listened to it and basically found just a whole bunch of static."
I deflated a little. Okay, a lot. Tears stung my eyes and I shoveled noodles into my mouth to cover my disappointment.
"But what was interesting was that there was a whole lot of static and that it kept going. The noises they heard on there weren't random. The tech guys are sure they can unravel them."
They'd be sure to unravel it or die trying. No one wanted to be the one to deliver bad news to Corbin. At least with Corbin on this case, I'd be sure that anything humanly possible that could happen would happen.
"Did you find out anything else?"
"We had the other precinct canvass the neighborhood, see if anyone saw anything unusual. I had my men on it, too, to observe anything else that might be off." Her eyes clouded over for a moment, as if she were replaying the day's activity in her head. "There wasn't anything different, not really. But I think Bailey had a lead that he wanted to pursue. Been logging a lot of hours." She folded a snow pea in her mouth.
Bailey. That officer didn't miss a trick. I made a note to check and see if he was able to find something.
Megan slurped her noodles, then wrestled the ends of those noodles off her face. "Hey, so are you gonna tell Corbin about your da-a-ate?" She added extra syllables to that word, waggled her eyebrows at me.
Corbin was all ears, her hawk eyes honed in on me. She wouldn’t be able to miss my face that was currently on fire. "I see this should be an interesting story. This isn’t that other date rescheduled, is it?"
Megan snapped up. “What other date?” Then, she slammed her hand on the table and stuck her finger at me. “I knew it! You bailed on the blind date the other night, didn’t you! Ugh, no wonder I didn’t hear anything about it!” She shook her head. “You’re lucky you’re hooking up with Deimos tonight, or else I’d be pissed!”
I choked on my soup, and started a coughing fit, while Corbin shrieked, “What! You’re doing what with who?”
Megan clapped her hands as she bounced in her seat. “Deimos wants her bad!”
“What!” Corbin looked between the both of us in shock and awe at this turn of events. And here I was coughing over the shock of it. “The last I’d heard, he was you know…” She had no words.
“Hot? He was hot? Because that’s what he is.” Megan popped her eggroll in her mouth, sucking her greasy fingers one by one as emphasis.
After downing about a gallon of water, I was finally able to say my piece. “First of all, I am not hooking up with anyone. Second of all, we do not know that he wants me bad.” Although the thought made me squirm in my seat.
Megan flicked her wrist at me. “Whatever, dude, he had his admin hunt down your unlisted office number to see about your schedule for an appointment.” Her eyebrows were so high they were nearly off her face.
I shook my head laughing. Corbin was still looking shell-shocked at Megan’s gossip bomb, so I with a little editing, I recounted to her my conversation with Deimos, and then inviting me to dinner. I also tacked on the bit that he would be happy to keep Corbin in the investigation.
“Hey! You worked with me all morning and you didn’t tell me that!” Megan huffed.
I sipped my bubble tea, my eyebrow cocked high as I side-eyed her in silent sass.
Corbin fairly jumped on that news, though. "Okay, first, I don't need his permission, I don’t care how much of the world his corporation owns. But, it's nice to know that he wasn't going to be a fucker and shut me out."
I held my tongue, because he felt like he had every intention of doing so before I’d spoken to him. I found that I was suddenly anxious and couldn't finish my food. I swirled the leftovers around, before I decided that I should just pack these
up for leftovers.
Megan looked up from her phone. "Ready to head out already?"
I waved her to stay seated. "No worries, and no rush. I’m just feeling restless like I need to move. Maybe we could get back to the office, get a fresh pot on and stuff."
"Yeah, you do. Stuff and people and things." It was the closest to a giggle that I'd ever heard from Corbin.
I felt fire creep up my neck and suffuse my face.
"O-M-G! Vesper is blushing. What do you mean, Corbin?" Megan squealed out, looking back and forth between the both of us. My increasingly reddening face, and Corbin’s barely contained laughter. "Now you have to tell me! Corbin!"
Megan was all movement as we traipsed back to the public office. She somehow managed to move twice as much as Corbin and me, yet still hovered beside us.
"Oh man, Deimos, the Deimos, I can't believe it! You met him not once but twice, right? No! Three times! Right? I would have just died! Did your eyes melt in your face?"
I hadn't realized she expected an answer from me until her huge eyes were on me. "My eyes melt?"
"Yeah, because you were up close and personal with all the hot?" Her eyes grew even larger in her enthusiasm, easily taking over half her face.
"Uhm, well..."
"Let's just say," Corbin interceded, "that her eyes might have been intact, but her brain definitely melted a little."
"Corbin!"
"Hey," she said, hands up in surrender, "you were the one talking about people and stuff."
"Okay fine. If you must know...my brain did not melt a little." Before Corbin could debate me, I rushed in, "My brain melted a lot. Like, completely! There, you happy? Is that what you wanted me to say?" I shot out to Megan.
Megan squealed in rapture, clutching Corbin's arm, bouncing up and down. "I bet brain goo melted out of her ears!"
"It definitely dribbled out of her mouth," Corbin added.
I laughed as I slipped my key from my purse, then stopped as I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I looked up to see a sleek black sedan glide its way to this corner, and come to a purring idle at the curb.
Megan stilled, curious about this new arrival. Corbin was alert, her posture loose and defensive all but bracing for an impact to come.
The rear passenger door opened and the rolling thunder clouds that pooled out mingled dark spices and ozone.
Deimos exited, to the consternation of the driver, who seemed like he had been ready to come around and open the door for him. The aura of thunderclouds and lightning that I'd seen around Deimos countless times dissipated as he walked toward me, so that there was only that tight halo of silver when he drew near.
Megan's eyes popped wide, as her jaw dropped to her chest. I reached over to help her close it.
"Ah, Ms. Tallinn, a pleasure as always." Then he took in Corbin and Megan, frozen by the stairs. "Ladies," he said, nodded at them.
"What're you doing here?" I blurted out. Realizing how sharp that sounded, I attempted to smooth out the rough edges. "Uhm, what I meant was, what an unexpected surprise. We were about to grab some fresh pastries from Max's, would you like some?" I gestured lamely toward Max's Bakery.
"You need an order, kochanie?" Max's mother stood just outside her door and called out from beneath the awning.
When had she popped out?
"Sure thing, Babcia." I had said it more to get Babcia away than for the pastries themselves. But, she seemed insistent on being there to watch this new visitor, calling out an order of pastries to her boys.
"Don't trouble yourself for me," Deimos said.
"Who said they were for you?"
His smile brought the sun.
There was a collective feminine sigh around me.
"I happened to be in the neighborhood when I saw you. Thought to say hello."
I decided not to hear the squeak that leaked out of Megan.
"Oh, hello." I smiled.
"And since your detective was here, I thought to talk about her case on the ride downtown." He turned to Corbin and gestured to his limo. "It's about twenty minutes to your precinct from here. And it's on the way to my current destination. I figured it was a way to kill two birds with one stone."
She raised her eyebrows at me, a question like permission.
I shrugged. Go for it. Why not?
She nodded back in answer. “So long as there’s no actual killing. I don’t need any more paperwork.”
“No worries, Detective, I’d make sure you would have plausible deniability if the need arises.”
"Well that's rather magnanimous of you," she said brightly.
I wondered if ‘magnanimous’ was on her word of the day calendar for today. She got in, flashing me with a final look, unspoken between us was the understanding that I'd take care of her car.
Deimos then turned to me. “Well that was rather convenient. Tonight, then, I'll send my car to you. Eight o’clock. Dinner."
I was so dazzled be his smile, I realized I didn’t know if I needed to respond since he hadn’t asked a question. Instead I asked, "Do you need my address?"
"La Serenissima."
Of course. I'd told him what building I lived in earlier.
"Well, then, I'll be ready and waiting by eight." Babcia and a box of pastries appeared at my side. "Here. For the road."
He blinked, and I could tell by the refreshing spring-time scents of fresh-cut grass, that he was truly surprised at the gesture. It melted my heart and made me wonder if he had ever received gifts of any kind. He raised his hands up. "I couldn't—"
I smiled up at him. "Trust me, you'll want to throw a couple at Corbin when you'll eventually find her too...insistent during your conversation."
"I always appreciate all manner of weaponry." He took the box from me.
His fingers brushed against the few areas of bare skin available to him. I never realized how sensitive my wrists were, but they should definitely qualify as an erogenous zone.
With a smile and a slight bow, he retreated into his limo and left.
"Now there's a strapping young man for you!" Babcia pronounced, with a healthy whack on my shoulder. "Although, you will need to eat more if you will let someone like him have his way with you."
My face was on fire, and Megan fueled it with her own commentary. I left them to their erotic hypothetical play-by-play so I could get to my office.
It was comforting to be back in solace, but I was suddenly restless. Unfocused. All I could think about was the fact that I had a dinner with Deimos tonight. And he had hinted at finishing our conversation from earlier. And that conversation had been about sex.
Dammit. He was beautiful, alluring, and mysterious. But he was also just another man. There was no reason to lose my mind like I was some kind of obsessive teen.
But he wasn’t just a man…that was the problem.
Restless, I went to my side table where I kept a bit of sage in a decorative box. I struck a match and set it to smolder as I walked around the office, then set it back onto its stand.
Megan came bounding into the office finally. Not surprising, she had yet another petite box of pastries with her, courtesy of Babcia. She sniffed. "Sage? Who left the nasties behind? Nevermind, I can guess. I thought it felt a little cobwebby here the last couple of days."
"Yeah, no worries, I got them all." I snuffed out the sage, but left the box lid off so that it could cool. No sense trapping the residual vapors when it could continue to do its job.
Megan had gone into the kitchenette. "Do you want me to put another pot on?" I heard her rinsing the pot in the sink, cleaning out the reusable coffee filter.
I strummed my fingers on my desk, taking stock of the papers there and the searches running in the background of my computer. Then I thought popped into my head. "You know what? No thanks."
A clamor of jars and pots rang from the kitchenette. Megan stomped into my office as if needing to hear better. "I'm sorry, I thought I heard, 'no’?"
"Yup. No." I nodded in e
mphasis.
"O-M-G! Some evil juju was lingering around here, and you were infected!" Megan exclaimed, rushing over to put a hand to my head, then wafting some of the sage vapors my way.
I giggled. "No, silly! I was just thinking: it’s Friday night, you'd cleared the rest of my schedule until next week...why not go on a little field trip? Do some field work like Corbin does? That is, if you don't mind taking a break from computer work." I stared meaningfully at the work I'd given her piled on her desk.
She paused. "What're you saying, boss? Are you suggesting we...play hooky!" She twirled on her toes. "I would be completely on board with this idea! Of course, that doesn't mean you can't have coffee to go if you need it!"
I thought about it a little. "Okay, why not. One for the road."
Megan beamed, and got back to making the coffee. "Don't ever turn down coffee again! I was afraid something was seriously wrong with you!"
I swallowed a giggle. "I promise I won't."
Megan and I went through our normal choreography of closing down the office. There was a cheery illicitness to it, knowing we were closing down in the middle of the afternoon.
As Jack had always told me, as a business owner, I should be able to make my own hours and not feel guilty about ‘closing early.’ It's not ‘early’ when it's the time I'd decided to close for the day.
But, he didn't know how much I loved what I did despite how much it drained me.
And, until now, I never realized that I always had a need to work. This thing I did—this work—was my life. The same way that I knew Corbin's work was her life. She needed it the same way I needed it.
Besides, it's not like anyone waited for me to get home. Except for Rajah. And Jack...
Jack.
"So, where we going, boss?" she called out from behind her desk while I was straightening up my own.
"How about we start in Chinatown? I need to get my tattoo redone anyway."
"Perfect! Let's get some more bubble tea?"
We took Corbin's car downtown, parking it at Midtown, her precinct, so we could hoof it the rest of the way down to Chinatown. I made sure to text her to let her know her car was there, and to let her know that Megan and I were playing hooky.
