tickets. “Front row seats.”
She took the tickets and smiled at me, still a little uncertain. “Another try at a real date?”
“Exactly—just you and me this time, some quality time together.” I lowered my voice, felt awkward. “Spooky, you know there was nothing between me and that succubus. I just felt sorry for her, like a big brother.”
“I knew she wasn’t your type, Beaux . . . but a girl gets worried when her boyfriend finds excuses to keep going to a brothel day after day.”
“Not excuses—business reasons.”
Robin retreated to her office. “I’m staying out of this one.”
Travis sauntered through the door and made our day even worse. After he had hurt Sheyenne—repeatedly—and then become the poster child for Senator Balfour’s crusade against unnaturals, I couldn’t think of any persona more non grata in our offices. Oddly, he seemed oblivious to his own sliminess. Smiling as he entered, he pretended to be everybody’s best friend. “Hey, sis! It’s been a long time. I just wanted to say hi.”
Sheyenne gave her interpretation of the old cliché if looks could kill. “What are you doing here? You’ve already pawned the last of our family heirlooms, and I don’t have any more money for you to rip off.”
Travis reacted with clumsily feigned shock. “That’s not very nice, Anne! You’re my sister. Can’t I stop by just to see you?” He noticed the tickets in her hand. I thought he turned pale—and I’m an expert in seeing people turn pale. “Ooh, Shakespeare in the Dark. You’re not one for that highbrow stuff—when did you get so snooty?”
She stuck the tickets in the desk drawer. “Dan and I are going on a date. He’s taking me to the play—alone, without any extra company.”
“Well, la-di-da. Why don’t you go out with me instead? We can talk this out, resolve our differences.”
Sheyenne stared at him in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? I watched you at the press conference! You’re a sock puppet for that vile senator. What did he pay you? And how can you stick up for him, after his people planted a bomb at the Full Moon to kill all kinds of unnaturals—and humans, too?”
“Senator Balfour didn’t have anything to do with that,” Travis said quickly.
“One of his minions called in the threat,” I interrupted. “Sheyenne and I were there when it happened.”
Travis’s expression of indignation looked far more genuine than his previous smiles. “You know, I wish somebody would blow up that place. The Full Moon is a cesspool of unnatural acts. That succubus almost killed me!”
“Only because you went to her!” Sheyenne snapped. “You did it to yourself. You signed the waiver. You were warned, but you went ahead anyway.”
He sniffed. “Doesn’t matter. I should have been protected from myself. I can’t be required to know all the inherent hazards of unnaturals.”
Sheyenne floated directly in front of him, in his face. “I’m an unnatural, Travis, whether you like it or not.”
He looked hurt. “Don’t you realize how embarrassing that is to me?”
“Sorry I came back from the dead and inconvenienced you,” Sheyenne said with bitter sarcasm. “Maybe if you’d been at my funeral you could have told me how you really felt. I forgot what a self-centered, deceitful brother you are, all the crap you’ve pulled over the years. I want you to leave and never come back. You’re dead to me.”
“Dead?” Travis bristled. “Hah! You died first. Family’s supposed to stick together, but I don’t need you anymore. You dug your own grave, now bury yourself in it! Have fun at your stupid Shakespeare play.” He slammed the door on his way out.
CHAPTER 45
After the bomb at the brothel, Robin’s anger toward Senator Balfour was so great it overshadowed even her loathing for Harvey Jekyll, who was now her client. That afternoon, she called Jekyll into our offices to sign some paperwork for his case.
Still shaken by the confrontation with Travis, Sheyenne kept herself distracted and busy by flitting back and forth to the courthouse filing injunctions to stop enforcement of the Act, then scheduling numerous hearings, traveling so much that I considered adding “courier service” to her already lengthy job description.
She was gone when Jekyll and his bodyguard arrived, so I had to take care of the social niceties. When I offered them beverages, Larry asked for a beer, which we didn’t keep in the office; Jekyll asked for a sparkling water, but we were out, having given the last one to Bill the golem.
Heavily caffeinated but exhausted, Robin led Jekyll into