but Graeme, I’m a cop. I can’t have someone with me or––”
“Oh no, you never see a shield,” he snorted. “I had one for years when I went to school abroad, and I wouldn’t be able to give you a name or tell you what they looked like.”
“Really?”
“Yes, it’s all very cloak-and-dagger. But I’ve known Shivani for years, even before she became a member of the vraekae, so we have a different relationship, which is why she’ll be at the wedding.”
“I can’t wait to tell my father that your family has a vraekae, but okay, thank you for letting me know. I’ll get the CPD detail off your cousin and save the city some money.”
“Good.”
I hung up then, even though I didn’t want to, and was going to find Wade, but he found me first.
“Hey, I just got a report that Talmadge has private security now, so I’m gonna pull the guys we have there with him. Once Talmadge is released from the hospital, we can have a patrol car roll by his place, but it sounds like his cyne has it covered.”
“Yeah, I was just gonna come tell you. I talked to Mr. Davenport, and he explained that his family has a vraekae, so––”
“No shit?”
“I know, right?” I wasn’t sure I’d ever get over being in awe of that.
“Jesus, who is this guy? I’ve never heard of a cyne who had a vraekae. A dryhten, sure, but how big is his holt?”
“I have no idea.” But I was damn sure going to find out.
An hour later, Peck was pacing in front of the rest of us; Wade was sitting next to me, slouched in his chair, arms crossed; I was leaning so hard on my fist that if it slipped, I’d hit my head on the table; and Ness was doing that thing where you squint to try to keep things in focus.
“I wanna know how Muscle Guy fits in, and who the girl was that Talmadge got beat up over,” Peck informed us. “I mean, I don’t know that this has anything to do with the rest of the case, I feel like a lot of things were happening at once, but we still gotta find that guy and the girl he was trying to protect.”
“Okay, so how do we find Muscle Guy?” I asked Peck.
“We know he was warning Talmadge about a girl with platinum hair, so maybe we do like Talmadge and check the society pages and see who’s got platinum hair.”
There were so many dead-ends, but that one actually sounded promising. Bannerman came in and told us that new leads would have to wait until the following day. He was sick of looking at us—and smelling us—and it was time to sleep on it and see what, if anything, we came up with. I was going to argue, but the man’s glare was sharp enough to cut glass, and I was too exhausted to be logical.
Driving home, after dropping Wade off, was dicey. I was exhausted and afraid I’d fall asleep at the wheel, so I called Graeme. I could have chosen anyone to talk to during the ride home, but I picked him because, more than needing just any voice on the other end of the line, I wanted to hear his. If I could have driven to his house instead, I would have, but that was––
“Avery,” he greeted me, sounding genuinely pleased to hear from me.
The fact that his voice was gruff and deep, like he just woke up, pinballed through my chest, lighting everything up. The whimper escaped before I could even think about stifling the needy sound.
“Where are you?” he wanted to know.
“In the car driving home so I can—were you sleeping?”
The yawn and the sound of stretching was ridiculously sexy. “I was,” he rumbled. “I wanted to make sure I was fresh and alert for this evening, since I didn’t get much sleep last night, as you well know.”
“Yeah” was my brilliant reply.
“Wait, driving home?” He growled at me. “Do you mean to say you haven’t slept? It’s almost two in the afternoon, and you haven’t slept yet?”
“I’ll be fine for tonight. I just––”
“You should pull over and I’ll come get you,” he apprised me. “I wouldn’t want you to fall asleep at the wheel or––”
“Why do you think I called?” I teased him. “And I’m really not that far from home.”