smiled at her and said, “Ada.” He couldn’t say “Aidan” properly yet.
“Oh, I know.” Maggie’s fingers flew over the keyboard. “The DNA is strong. Almost done…there, okay, it’s printing.” She swiveled her chair to face Leah. “You got many interviews lined up?”
“Uh…well…”
The printer chugged to life, spitting copies of her resume out into the tray.
“Ah.” Maggie chuckled. “I get it. Having never actually interviewed for a job” – she gestured to the Dartmoor main office around them – “I absolutely get it.”
“I looked online last night,” Leah said. “There’s some places I’m gonna apply to.”
“Geez, hon, don’t sound so excited about it,” Maggie joked, but softened the words with a motherly look. The same worry and sympathy her own mother had turned on her last night. Leah both appreciated and hated it. “You know, if you’re interested, the offer still stands that we can help you find something.”
Her smile felt more like a wince. “That’s really sweet.”
“But you want to be stubborn and do it on your own,” Maggie said, not unkindly. “I get it.”
“But you think it’s stubborn.”
“I think it’s brave, and admirable. But there’s no shame in taking help from friends, sweetie. Ghost’s name opens doors in this city, and if he can open one for you, I say why not take it?”
It was a very valid point. Even her parents had agreed. “They’re offering to help?” her dad had asked last night, brows lifted. “Well, damn, that’s great.” He’d thought she was stubborn, too, but she thought her mom had understood.
“I don’t–” she started.
And the door banged open.
She twisted around in her chair and saw three people crowded in the threshold: two young guys she didn’t recognize, and between them, his mostly-limp arms draped across both their shoulders, was Carter.
“Holy shit,” Maggie said, without inflection. “What’s going on?”
Carter had a bloodied nose; red had dripped all down his mouth and chin, and stained the front of his white t-shirt. His head hung low, but he was awake, Leah noted – or, at least his eyelashes were fluttering.
The guy with the dark hair said, “Boomer decked him.” He had a crisp British accent. (Honestly, how many Brits were there around here these days?)
Maggie pushed her chair back and got to her feet. “Boomer did? What the hell for?”
“Carter had sex with Chanel,” the blond guy said, his voice toneless, his expression very blank. Spookily blank.
The British guy breathed a harsh laugh. “Him and every-bloody-one else.”
Maggie muttered under her breath and moved to stand in front of Carter; took his chin in her hand and lifted his head. He was conscious, but glassy and out of it. “You get your bell rung, kiddo?” she asked.
He swallowed. Licked blood off his lips. “Yeah.”
She lifted a hand. “How many fingers am I holding up?”
“Uh…five?”
“Lucky guess.” She stepped back. “Sit him down, then. We need some ice.”
“Reese has it in his pocket,” the Brit informed her as they shuffled Carter into the office and got him situated in the chair beside Leah’s.
Reese produced a cold pack that he pressed into Carter’s hand.
“Thanks,” Carter mumbled. He tipped his head back and pressed the pack to the bridge of his nose. “I think it’s stopped bleeding.”
“Did you black out?” Maggie asked.
“Fell like a tree,” the Brit said with a malicious grin that Leah found herself recoiling from physically. He demonstrated with his arm. “Right back on the coffee table.” The grin became a sneer. “He spilled coffee on my boots.”
“Tenny,” the other one, Reese, said, a bit of inflection touching his voice. A reprimand.
“Well, he did.” The Brit – Tenny – gestured down at his feet. “And these are brand new.”
“They need a little character, then,” Maggie said, sharply. “No self-respecting Dog oughta be walking around here in squeaky new boots.”
The tiniest smile flickered at the corners of Reese’s mouth.
“You two go do – whatever it is you do on a Wednesday. Shoo.” She waved, and they both left.
“She doesn’t like you,” Leah heard Reese say, as they slipped out the door.
“The tragedy. How will I survive?” Tenny shot back.
Maggie stared at the door a minute after it was closed, hands on her hips, shaking her head. “If Fox doesn’t get hold of that one, I’m going to.” It sounded like a threat, and knowing the queen, it wasn’t an idle one.
Then she turned to Carter. “Well. Let’s take a look.”
He lifted the ice pack away and Maggie tutted and fussed over his face, touching the already-swelling, already-bruising line of his nose with careful