Her eyebrows rose at that, and she glanced at her colleague, then back at him. He hadn’t meant to insult her or get her back up, but it looked as if he’d managed to do both. He just wanted to do what he needed to do, then move on. The less time in the vampiress’s presence the better. Sweat was already starting to drip down his back. He was known for being one of the coolest men in the agency, like ice under pressure, but this woman was testing him far beyond anything he’d experienced before. She had some power.
“Well, Agent Braxton, I believe the only ego we have to worry about on this case is yours. There’s hardly enough room in here for the four of us.”
The redhead looked from Olena to him and back, then gathered her camera and shoved it into her crime-scene kit. “Ah, I’m going to go take a break and see if I can catch Kellen before he interrupts this, um, conversation.” With a backward glance at Olena, she made her escape.
It was obvious the vampiress wasn’t going to make this easy on him. She stared at him, venom in her eyes, her arms crossed over her chest. She struck quite a menacing figure. Power radiated off her like a sonic beacon. Most humans would be cowering by now. But he wasn’t like most humans. He’d been trained to work with Otherworlders. Trained in ways to combat their supernatural powers. He’d tangled with a lot of powerful folks both in and outside the Otherworld communities. He’d battled with terrorists and evil men bent on destroying the world. He could handle this one woman.
He hoped.
“Could you turn down the power, Ms. Petrovich?
I hardly think it’s necessary, considering we’re on the same side.”
Her eyebrow rose again. “Are we really?” She gave him a slow, sly smile. The potency of it punched him in the gut. “I’ll tell you what. When you show me some respect, I’ll reciprocate.” Her Russian accent thickened as she spoke.
Sighing, he pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. His head was starting to throb.
As were other parts of his anatomy. “Let’s start over, okay?”
She regarded him expectantly but made no move to concede to him.
“Interpol would like to help in this case. I can’t tell you right now why that is, but if you could bring me up to speed on the particulars, I may be able to divulge certain aspects that we are interested in.”
“Hmm, that looked like it hurt.” Olena let her arms fall to her sides, and her smile became more genuine.
“It did, a little.”
“Now we can get down to business.” She approached him with a swagger in her step and filled him in on the details. “As far as anyone can tell, they only took whatever was in those boxes. Henri, the bank manager, will do a thorough inventory of their money reserves, but so far that doesn’t look like what they were interested in.”
“Do you have a register of who owned the boxes?”
“Not yet. But Henri assures me he will get me one as soon as possible.”
“I’m sure with a little pressure we can make it even sooner than that.” He walked around the vault, taking in the damage. They were smart, these thieves. They knew exactly what they were doing and exactly where to place their explosive charges.
They weren’t amateurs.
“Do you know what they were looking for?”
Olena asked from beside him.
“Maybe.”
“You know but won’t tell me, or you don’t know quite yet? Or is it all above my pay grade?”
Cale glanced at her. She was eyeing him with one elegant eyebrow arched. Most women couldn’t pull off a look like that, but Olena did it with style.
“It’s not important right now. Right now, we need to establish a timeline, and we need a list of names.”
“The timeline’s been established.”
“Okay, then maybe you could go talk to Henri again about those names.”
The temperature in the room dropped by at least six degrees. He shivered inside his suit jacket. The look Olena gave him was one of bitter fury. If he’d been another man, he might’ve been afraid. But he’d been around a lot of tough people in his life, so one angry vampiress didn’t scare him too much. He knew she could end his life in a matter of seconds, but he also knew she wouldn’t. She was a professional. He could tell that about her the moment he met her gaze in the bank lobby.
“Do you always get your way, Agent Braxton?”
“Yes.”