White Night (The Dresden Files #9) - Jim Butcher Page 0,34
sitting on them. Two hundred pounds of Mouse: is an awfully effective restraint, and though he had his teeth bared, he wasn't actively struggling or making any noise.
To my right, Anna Ash stood frozen like a rabbit in a spotlight and my gun tracked to her immediately. "Don't move," I warned her. "I don't have any magic at the moment, and that always make me really, really ready to pull the trigger."
"Oh, God," she said, her voice a rough whisper. She licked her lips, visibly trembling. "Okay," she said. "Okay. D-don't hurt me please. You don't have to do this."
I told her to walk over to Mouse and his prisoner. Once she was standing where I could watch both of them at once, I could relax a little, and though I did not lower the gun, I took my finger off the trigger. "Do what?"
"What you've done to the others," Anna said, her voice thread "You don't have to do this. Not to anyone."
"The others?" I demanded. I probably sounded at least half as disgusted as I felt. "You think I came here to kill you?"
She blinked at me a few times. Then she said, "You came here, broke down my door, and pointed a gun at me. What am I supposed to think?"
"I did not break down your door! It was unlocked!"
"You tore apart my ward!"
"Because I thought you might be in trouble, you twit!" I hollered. "I thought the killer might be here already."
A woman let out a couple of choking gasps. After a moment, I realized that it was the person Mouse had pinned down, letting out breathless laughter.
I lowered the gun and put it away. "For crying out loud. You thought the killer was coming for you? So you laid a trap for him?"
"Well, no," Anna said, now looking somewhat confused again. "I mean, I didn't do it. The Ordo… we hired a private investigator to look into it. It was her idea to trap the killer when he came here."
"A private investigator?" I looked over at the other woman and said, "Mouse."
My dog, tail waving gently, backed off right away and trotted over to stand beside me. The woman he'd been holding down sat up.
She was pale—not the sickly pallor of no time in the sun, but the color of the living, healthy skin of a tree beneath the outer bark. Her lean face was intensely attractive—more intriguing than beautiful, with wide, intelligent eyes set over an expressive, generous mouth. She had a slim build, all long legs and long arms, and wore a simple pair of jeans along with a black Aerosmith T-shirt, and brown leather Birkenstocks. She propped herself up on her elbows, a tendril of wheat-colored hair falling to almost insolently conceal one eye, and gave me a wry smile.
"Hello, Harry." She dabbed her fingers at a little bloody spot on her lower lip and winced, though there was still amusement in her voice. "Is that a new staff, or are you just happy to see me?"
And after my heart had skipped a couple of beats, I blinked and said, in a very quiet voice, to the first woman I'd ever everythinged, "Hello, Elaine."
* * *
CHAPTER
Eleven
I sat on the love seat while Anna Ash made coffee. Mouse, ever hopeful to cadge a snack, followed Anna into the kitchen, and sat there giving her his most pathetic, starving-doggy body language and wagging his tail.
We sat down together with coffee, like civilized people, a few minutes later.
"Ms. Ash," I said, taking my cup.
"Anna, please."
I nodded to her. "Anna. First, I wish to apologize for frightening you. It wasn't my intention."
She sipped her coffee, frowning at me, and then nodded. "I suppose I can understand your motivations."
"Thank you," I said. "I'm sorry I blew up your ward. I'll be glad to replace it for you."
"We put a lot of hours in on that thing." Anna sighed. "I mean, I know it wasn't… expert work."
"We?" I asked.
"The Ordo," she said. "We worked together to protect every one's home."
"'Community' project. Sort of a barn raising," I said.
She nodded. "That's the idea." She bit her lip. "But there were more of us, when we did that."
For just a second, the capable exterior wavered, and Anna looked very tired and very frightened. I felt a little pang inside at the sight. Real fright isn't like the movies. Real fear is an ugly, quiet, relentless thing. It's a kind of pain, and I hated seeing it on Anna's face.