Three pieces of iron, each about as long as my thumbnail and thin as a hair curled in spirals.
“I often wonder the same thing about silver.” Her expression pinched. “What do you think they are?”
“Stavros wore brass knuckles forged from cold iron during the fight. I figured it was from that.”
“A chunk, maybe, but these guys are tiny.”
Now that she mentioned it, I had to agree it was peculiar. “What are you saying?”
“The general guy gave Stavros his personal weapon, which meant he knew how to manipulate it better than anyone.” She gave them a shake. “What if he ordered strands to peel away from the whole and work their way throughout Asa’s body? Makes for a heck of an insurance policy if Stavros had lost.”
The metal threads would have kept Asa weak, and weak kings don’t last long.
“True.” I forced myself to look away from the blood. “Are you sure Dr. Vandross got them all?”
“Between the magnet, and the magic she was throwing around, I feel confident he’s cold iron free.”
Not long after that, Dr. Vandross returned to examine Asa and sign off on discharging him from her care.
After collecting my signature, she ditched us, leaving Marita and me to wrangle Asa into the wheelchair.
We reached the lobby before the nurse rounded her desk and thrust out her hand for the visitor’s pass.
That was it. No sticker. No lollipop. No toy. I felt insulted on his behalf.
Back at the SUV, Marita and I loaded Asa—still in his hospital gown—into the passenger front seat.
A soft yawn caught my attention as Colby shook off sleep and glided onto his shoulder.
“You look rough.” She poked his cheek. “What happened in there?”
With great enthusiasm, Marita launched into a play-by-play that popped Colby’s eyes wide as moons.
“How’s Clay?” I asked brightly, shoving Marita in beside the woozy golem. “Looking better?”
As much as I wanted to crack open the trunk and put eyes on him, I couldn’t shake the creeping sense of paranoia that stemmed from having a wounded mate in an SUV, in an empty parking lot, while an unknown threat stalked us.
I didn’t take an easy breath until we were on the highway, and then I hit a mental roadblock.
Leaning forward, Marita braced her forearms on the backs of the front seats. “Where are we going?”
“To a hotel.” I watched the GPS queue up directions to a location Colby must have booked for us. “From there…” I puffed out my cheeks. “We’ll see.”
A call lit up the screen, interrupting the map view of our route, and I recognized the number with dread. “Agent Hollis.”
“An attempt was made on your life,” the director announced, as if this should be news to me.
The big boom was my first hint was what I wanted to say, but I was determined to play nice.
Be the cat to his mouse, I reminded myself. Be ready to pounce when he least suspects.
“We don’t know for certain I was the target.”
“You’re Deputy Director of the Black Hat Bureau. Of course you were the target.”
As far as Inga knew, I had gone to lunch with Clay, which was what she would tell anyone who asked for me. Between Clay and me, yeah, I was the likelier target. But the real odds were much higher it had been an attempt to collect the bounty on Asa.
“I need to follow up with Jase Isiforos. He’s the AIC.” I ground my teeth. “Thanks for checking on me.”
I mashed the end button with a bit more force than necessary, glad he hadn’t called me out for ignoring him when Marty approached me earlier. Marty hated me. I knew that. Always had, always would. The feeling was mutual. But did he hate me enough to shadow me for the director?
Ha.
Like that was even a question.
The ward on the director’s office door announced that I was in the doghouse with him. He was definitely paranoid enough to sic a brownnoser like Marty on me to ensure I wasn’t spending my hour lunch break meeting with Dad and planning to overthrow Black Hat.
Ordinarily, I would be thrilled he got the shoulder tap. Marty was a mediocre agent with zero interest in doing his job. But his hatred of me burned hotter than his laziness. With official backing, he could be a problem.
“Are you sure you ought to talk to your boss like that?”
Marita was quick to speak her mind, and I liked that about her. “Yep.”
The noise she made in the back of her throat told me she was picturing how an alpha would take it.
“He already wants to use me as bait to lure out Dad.” I adjusted the AC when Asa shivered beside me. “If he can frame this incident as an attack on me, as the Black Hat deputy director, he’ll do everything he can to drag me back to the compound and lock me down until the danger passes.” I snorted at the notion anything was a bigger threat to me than him. “I can’t give him an opening to make it an order, or things will get sticky.”
Thanks to my poking and prodding, I had a good idea what spell he’d used to bar me entry to his office.
All I had to do now was figure out what I wanted to do about it.
If I brought in Luca, he would see me. As long as Clay came too. But I needed free access to the director.
Just in case he wasn’t impressed enough with Luca to forgive me, I required the means to bust in and drag him out of his office by his hair. I would too. Even for an infinitesimal chance at trading him to Calixta for Aedan.
“This is why,” Marita advised, “you should never work for family.”
“Spoken like someone who works for her family.”
“That’s why I’m an expert on why not to do it.”
We reached the hotel, and I slid out to handle check-in while Marita moved into position to protect Asa. As much as I hated to leave him, and as unhappy as it would make Colby, Clay had to stay in the SUV. He was too weak to walk and too heavy for Marita and me to carry between us.
Twenty minutes later, I was back at the SUV with a room key to help Asa into the elevator to our floor.
Marita stuck close to his back, and Colby burrowed deeper into my hair.
To be on the safe side, we didn’t talk on the way to the room, but everything unsaid thickened the air.
Not until after I cleared the room and warded it—and put Asa to bed—did Marita and I speak.
“You think the bomb was meant for Asa?”
“Yeah.” I picked a dry scab of burnt sauce off my cheek. “Probably.”
“The director thinks otherwise.”
“The director had no idea we were meeting you and Asa and Colby.”
“He isn’t wrong that you’re a big deal at the Bureau, and this happened mighty close to the compound.”
“I haven’t done anything to paint a target on my back.”
Wild laughter burst from Marita, who sucked in huge gulps of air as she brayed her amusement.
“Lately,” I clarified. “I haven’t done anything lately.”
“Your definition of haven’t done anything is not the same as mine.” She wiped tears off her cheeks. “You go around kicking ant beds then blowtorching what crawls out of them. You’re always doing something.”
“I have nothing against ants.” I scuffed my heel. “And you make me sound like a homicidal maniac.”