by SM Reine
I stood back with the beer and candy as she ravaged my DVD rack, searching for something that she liked better. Suzy didn’t need help finding things in my apartment anymore. She had no trouble making herself right at home.
The last time we’d spoken, she’d been yelling. I hadn’t expected her to show up and be so…normal.
Suzy grabbed a different boxed set off of my shelf. “Is this show any good? Dead Like Me. Fits my costume and everything.”
“It’s good,” I said. “I mean, I wouldn’t have it if it sucked.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, why are you acting as awkward as a middle schooler with his first public boner?”
“You’ve been acting like you hate Fritz and me for days. I didn’t think you’d want to hang out after all.” Plus, I’d fallen asleep mourning Isobel and had completely forgotten about our arrangements.
“I’m pissed at you,” Suzy agreed, “but it’s not a newsflash that you’re a dumbass. We made plans. We’re keeping them.”
“Did you get into trouble on the way over?” I asked, gesturing to her bloody shirt.
“Nah. Just haven’t gotten my shit to the dry cleaner yet, and I didn’t have a costume, so I thought, you know, waste not. It’s holiday appropriate. Stop gaping and open the beers.”
I popped two of them. Suzy took both, drained one immediately, and sat down to work on the second. That was all right—I didn’t drink much anyway.
“It’s microbrew,” Suzy said, noticing that I wasn’t drinking. “It’s better than the normal stuff. It won’t kill you to drink it.”
Maybe she was right. I opened a third for myself and took a whiff. Not too bad.
The TV show started playing, but she didn’t actually seem interested in watching. Now that she had semi-forgiven me, she just wanted to talk as she stuffed her face with candy corn. “Someone up high in the organization redacted all of the Paradise Mile files. The case has already been wiped from our databases.”
“Really?” I couldn’t make myself sound interested. I popped a handful of candy into my mouth.
“We usually keep cases visible longer than that. Any idea what they’re hiding?”
My guess was that Fritz was concealing details that could compromise Isobel. But I said, “No clue. It’s probably just the OPA being the OPA again.”
Suzy extended her beer toward me. “Well, here’s to a fucked up job, fucked up life, and fucked up everything.”
She had no idea.
I clinked my bottle against hers. She chugged. I ate more candy corn.
My phone buzzed before I could get another handful. Probably for the best. I was already feeling kind of sick from the sugar bender and we’d barely even started. But once I traded the candy jar for my phone and saw the name blinking on my screen, I didn’t feel much better.
Fritz Friederling.
I winced.
“What is it?” Suzy asked. I showed her, and she made a face, too. “Ignore him. We’re off tonight.”
I was tempted. Really tempted.
But I owed him about a hundred apologies. And he kind of owed me apologies, too. He’d never told me the truth about Isobel. Whatever had happened between his wife and me was just as much his fault.
Better to address it now. Putting everything off would just make it worse.
I managed to answer the call right before the last ring ended.
“Fritz,” I began. Suzy rolled her eyes and muted the TV.
“We’ve got a case,” he interrupted. His tone was clipped, professional, but I could hear music playing in the background. He must have been at the company Halloween party.
I was perversely curious to know what costume Fritz might wear for Halloween. Bet it had been made by Italian seamstresses.
“What kind of case?”
“A coven of students has broken into Torrance High School. They’re attempting to cast a Halloween sacrifice using cows. We have footage of them moving the cattle onto the property and enough information to validate an arrest.”
I’d been so braced for some kind of verbal lashing that it took me a minute to catch up. “Cows,” I said. “At Torrance High School.”
“Yes. Are you busy?”
Busy? When it came to cows and a coven of teenagers? Never. It was my favorite kind of case. Mostly harmless, completely hilarious, probably wouldn’t result in any dead bodies.
“I’m not on call tonight,” I said even as I got off the couch and set my beer bottle on the counter.
“Yes, I’m aware of that. Aniruddha is on call. However, he’s at the company Halloween party, like almost everyone else—barring one or two conspicuous exceptions.” Meaning Suzy and me. “I could make him leave the party to handle this case, but…”
But Fritz knew that I loved these kinds of cases. They were like a birthday and Christmas all rolled up into one package.
He’d never say it, but this was an apology of his own. Or at least a gesture of peace.
I was surprised that I felt better once I realized that.
“I’m on it,” I said. “I can be over there in an hour.”
“You’ll want to hurry. The lives of cattle are at stake. No pun intended. You know—stake, steak.”
A laugh escaped me. Bad pun from Fritz? He must have been drunker than he sounded.
“I can take Suzy,” I said. “Uh, Agent Takeuchi.”
“Good idea.”
I was tempted to leave it there. Hang up, head out, enjoy Halloween night. But one last thing was nagging me. “Hey, Fritz… About Isobel. About her contract, actually. In six months—”
“I know,” Fritz said. “I know everything. And now so do you, I suspect.”
The last bit of tension in my muscles eased. “Yeah. I know.”
“I’ll take care of everything. Don’t worry.” He sounded confident, and I believed him. If there was anyone who could find a solution—anyone who Isobel might allow to help her—it would be the billionaire ninja of Beverly Hills.
“We’ll take care of Torrance,” I said. “Enjoy the party.”
“I am.” And he hung up.
“That didn’t sound as dire as I expected.” Suzy watched me from the couch as I hurried to pull jeans on over my boxers.
“There’s a case. A teenage coven getting into trouble. He wants us to take care of it.”
“Aniruddha’s on call and the Union’s out there in full force tonight. All Hallows’ Eve is covered. They don’t need our help.”
“They don’t need it. But we can sit here and watch TV shows, or we can go get into trouble. What do you think, Suze? Feel up to raiding a ritual sacrifice featuring twelve pimply teenagers and some filet mignon?”
A smile blossomed on Suzy’s lips.
“This job,” she said with a lot more fondness than she had before. “This fucking job.”
Damn straight.
***
Deadly Wrong
The story of Hope Jimenez—
Preternatural Affairs Book 5
Get it now!
Dear reader,
I hope you’ve enjoyed Shadow Burns! The next Preternatural Affairs story is going to be a detour into Isobel Stonecrow’s life without Cèsar—who she is, who she used to be, and how she deals with it all. And we’ll learn a lot about Fritz along the way, too. You can find links for Deadly Wrong on my website!
If you’d like to know when my new books come out, make sure to sign up for my new release email alerts. I hope you’ll also leave a review with your thoughts on the site where you bought Shadow Burns. It helps other readers find the series!
Happy reading!
Sara (SM Reine)
http://authorsmreine.com/
http://facebook.com/authorsmreine
