Face of Fury (Zoe Prime #5) - Blake Pierce Page 0,36

be arresting someone over, if I wasn’t looking for an actual murderer.

He was about to move on when a clunking noise from the other side of the island, loud enough to actually be heard over the music, caught his attention. Flynn began to move around the island, but he didn’t even get all the way before an elbow suddenly appeared, latching onto the counter to pull up the weight of a body.

A very familiar one, unfortunately. Flynn sighed. It was Agent Prime—clutching an empty bottle of liquor, which was unsurprising considering that the bottom had been smashed away, and struggling to remain upright.

“Agent?” he barked, shouting loud over the music. “What’s going on?”

Prime made some kind of muttered comment, inaudible over the music. Flynn stepped toward her, grabbing her by the elbow. She looked like she was going to fall again. This close, he could smell that her breath reeked of liquor.

He didn’t need her to answer the question. He could see what was going on. She’d pulled him into a frat party under the pretense of looking for a murder suspect, only to grab whatever she could find in the kitchen and get herself drunk as hell.

It was fairly impressive that she’d managed it so fast, actually. She swayed away from his contact with her elbow, nearly falling back against the counter until he jerked her upright again. Her eyes seemed unfocused, and Flynn saw right away that there was no point in trying to communicate with her any further. He just had to get her out of there before some college kid had a nice recording of a drunk FBI agent to put on Instagram.

“All right, come on,” he muttered, more to gear himself up than anything else. He shuffled forward and managed to somehow loop Agent Prime’s arm around his shoulders, even though it meant he had to lean awkwardly forward—she was shorter than him, after all. Then he began to lead her out, attempting to avoid getting stuck behind any slow-moving groups of students.

Prime’s head kept lolling around like she was having trouble staying conscious, and her feet seemed to slip and stagger with every step. A couple of times they almost tripped into various obstacles along the way—a sofa, a footstool, a discarded can lying on the floor.

“Come on, Prime, help me out,” Flynn grimaced, adjusting his grip on her arm as she staggered once again, almost taking him down with her. “Just put one foot in front of the other.”

“Floor’s movin’,” Prime murmured, her voice slurred and drowsy, as they made it out into the shock of the cold night air.

Flynn managed to pull her over to the car and get the door open before pushing her into the passenger seat. He got her seatbelt buckled and slammed the door shut, stopping to rub his forehead for a moment. Great first assignment to have. Either his new partner was a real lightweight, or she was some kind of severe alcoholic who had the ability to get completely trashed within the space of five minutes.

Or, alternatively, it was a college party, and she’d been given something that wasn’t just liquor.

The thought had Flynn’s back straightening with alarm, but he shook his head at himself. Either way, she’d still willingly drunk it, which meant he was more likely to believe she really had managed to get that drunk in such a short space of time. He crossed around the front of the car and got behind the wheel, glancing over to see that Agent Prime was already fast asleep with her head pressed against the window.

“Jesus Christ,” Flynn muttered to himself, starting the engine with a hard flick of his wrist. He paused a moment to take a deep breath before setting off. Prime’s whack-a-mole theories were bad enough, but now he had to deal with a drinking problem, too?

As soon as they closed the case and got back to Washington, he told himself, he’d request a transfer. Then everything would be fine. He drove a little smoother with this promise rattling around in his head, taking the edge off the anger he felt toward Prime. But they were still going to have to have a conversation in the morning.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The first thing Zoe was aware of was a pounding in her head. That was long before she dared to open her eyes, and it was definitely too loud for her to notice, at first, anything else about her physical situation.

When she did finally crack her