The Swyft driver, who rolled up in a bland white sedan and not the racy lime-green number I hoped to continue avoiding, didn’t speak a word to me, even when I asked permission to bring my dog, so that was nice.
Less nice was how the doorman ran his eyes over us as we entered through the front door of the Faraday, his attention lingering on Bonnie then jerking back to me when he felt my stare.
“What?” I stopped on the threshold. “Do I have something stuck in my teeth?”
Maybe I was a tad irked Ford had ghosted on me, or maybe this confrontation had been a long time coming.
“Midas asked me to let him know when you got home. Just checking to see if you’re intact.”
“Oh.” All my righteous anger evaporated in a blink. “Well, here I am. Two arms, two legs, so forth. Unless you count the dog. Then it’s six legs—or maybe six arms? Either way, all limbs are accounted for.”
At least he waited until I was through the door before reaching for his phone to tattle.
Goddess knows, I had enough keepers. What was one more? Midas must be worried about Bonnie. As soon as she got herself unstuck, she would be out of my hair, and so would he.
The elevator had been repaired since Bonnie took a bite out of it, but that was magic for you.
Since I refused to carry her up the stairs, we stepped into the booth and rode it up to my floor.
A tiny part of me expected Midas to be standing there, waiting to spark our next argument.
I wasn’t sorry to be wrong.
Rubbing a hand over my breastbone, I let us into the apartment and hit the lights.
Bonnie shimmered on the edge of my vision before exploding into her gwyllgi form. The appearance of a pony where a corgi had been knocked me out of the doorway, into the hall, and onto my butt.
“What’s gotten into you?” I got to my feet and leaned around her. “Oh no.”
The canopy over the bed, shredded to ribbons. The fabric draping the walls, ripped down. The futon was flipped over, stuffing everywhere, the TV—goddess, the TV—was torn clean off the wall and smashed to bits.
Sinking onto the floor in the carpeted hallway, I pulled out my phone and dialed Bishop.
“No luck with the surveillance so far. Whatever did this tricks the eye. I’m cleaning up the footage. I ought to have something by dusk.”
“I need a room for tonight.” I cut into his update. “Which base is empty?”
“Base One and Six,” he said automatically. “What’s wrong?”
“Call the cleaners for me, will you? Send them to my apartment at the Faraday. Someone tossed it while I was out. We need to find out if that person is our killer.”
“I’ll be right there.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Shut the hell up,” he snapped. “I’m not leaving you to deal with this alone.”
He ended the call, and I just sat there while Bonnie reapplied her glamour and crawled into my lap.
The response time for cleaners never ceased to amaze me. I discovered five minutes after hanging up with Bishop that a few lived in the building next door, as they were first to arrive. I didn’t have to wait much longer for Bishop himself to storm through the door. I expected him to keep going until he shoved through the cleaners to see what had been done, but he gathered me in his arms.
The offer of unsolicited comfort caused my brain to skip and my knees to go weak with gratitude.
“Thank the old gods,” he breathed into my hair. “I’m glad you’re all right.”
I hadn’t realized how much I needed a hug until he offered one to me, and I clung to him. “Me too.”
Though, if this was the work of our killer, he would have saved us all a lot of hassle by dropping in on me while I was home and letting me lop off his head.
Maybe it ought to worry me that decapitation as a punishment fit most any capital offense among paranormals, but I had learned from the best, and he was really into the neck-and-head-separation deal.
“Do you need anything?” Bishop released me, making a point to ignore the corgi. “Clothes? Toothbrush? Deodorant? Woman stuff?”
“They’ll need to process all that, and I don’t want to hang around to watch. I’ll just borrow sweats from HQ for today. I can make do with samples from the shelter supply cabinet for the rest.”
“What about that?” Bishop recoiled when Bonnie wagged her butt at him. “Does it need anything?”
“The shelter kitchens are always stocked, so she’s good to go.”
On our way out, we ran into Ford waiting for the elevator we were exiting.
“Lee.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “You all right, darlin’?”
News traveled fast when you lived in a building run by pack. No doubt the doorman had dialed up Midas for clearance when the cleaners showed up on the Faraday’s doorstep. Ford would have been his next logical call.
“I’m not great,” I admitted, “but it comes with the territory.”
“We’ll find out who did this,” he said, keeping up with us as we crossed the lobby. “We’ll find out how they did it.”
“Keep me updated on anything you spot on the security feeds.” I lifted a hand. “Later, Ford.”
The doorman was on his phone, but he spared me and then Bonnie a lingering glance as we passed him. Probably updating Midas. Bishop led me to the ride he must have ordered for my sake on the way down.
After we got settled, Bishop gave me a look. “You were joking back there, right?”
“About the security feeds?” I snorted. “I have to at least pretend we don’t have access to the entire city’s network.”
“Reece will have the footage ready for viewing by the time we get where we’re going.”
A thought occurred to me, and I was only half teasing when I asked, “Who will send us fifty-billion strings of text to guide us through the city without you there?”
“It’s automated,” he said blandly. “I’m a genius, but the evil part is debatable.”
“That’s not evil, that’s lazy. Automated? Really?”
“Do you know how old it gets passing those codes back and forth manually?”
“Um, yeah.” I cuddled Bonnie on my lap. “I do.”
Scooching closer to the door, he gave me plenty of space. “You shouldn’t cuddle that thing.”
“It’s not a thing.” I scratched her pointy ears. “Besides, she’s adorable.”
“Until she bites your face off,” he muttered, then noticed the car slowing. “This is our stop.”
“You sure you want to get out here?” The driver frowned at us in his rearview mirror. “This ain’t exactly a safe place to go walking at night.”
“It’s all right,” I assured him. “I brought my dog with me.”
His expression told me what he thought about that, but I was only a fare, and he was ready to move on to the next one.
Once Bishop and I were alone, we started following the automated codes to HQ. I wanted to shake him, point out since he was here, he could lead me there, but he was big on protocol, and protocol demanded we jump through hoops until our knees wobbled before we got where we were going.