“Sir? There’s, um, a visitor.”
“Visitor?” Kieran asked, his tone implying he had never received an unsolicited call in his life.
“Yes, sir. A Mister Gideon Blair?”
“Captain!” A deep voice from just behind Meera carried through the door.
Poor Meera turned white. She stepped aside to allow Gideon to stroll into the room like he lived there.Jackass. He was out of uniform, which was strange because Sera wasn’t aware heowned normal clothes. Instead of the Watchmen navy he wore dark pants, boots, shirt, and a long coat. His fair cheeks and nose were red, probably from the cold.
“Captain Blair.” Kieran bowed his head in greeting, but Gideon rolled his eyes. “What brings you to my home?”
“What the hell do you mean? My sister lives here.”
“I don’tlivehere. I amstayinghere,” Sera clarified and this was one of those occasional moments where she wished she was an only child. The fact that they were twins was bad enough, sharing a birthday, looks, and a few other questionable personality traits made his embarrassing arrogance all the worse.
“Maybe we should leave them—” Kieran started, possibly addressing Seth and Varian, but Sera held up a hand.
“No, you can stay. Gideon is the one being rude. He can leave.”
“Rude? I came all this way to check on you.”
“Oh?” Sera leveled him with a stare. “And this has nothing to do with finishing your investigation? I believe there were questions you were meant to ask me. I’m sure you didn’t even think of work when you considered traipsing all the way through the Winter Court.”
He crossed his arms, adopting a haughty tone. “No. This has nothing to do with that investigation. I asked Rachel to worry about getting your statement. I’m here entirely out of concern for my sister.”
Sera locked her jaw, cursing in her head. Itwasa nice gesture, the asshole. “Well, you checked. I’m fine. We’re fine. The house is fine. Thanks for coming, see you at the next check-in.” She started to push him from the room, but there was no pushing Gideon anywhere. He was too damn solid.
“Not so fast,” he said, swerving easily from her arms and out of her reach. Sera wished for just two minutes of strength. Just twominutes of being as strong as him so she could land one decent hit.
Gideon’s eyes took in the room. Kieran had sat, one leg crossed over the other like he had resigned himself to a long containment. Varian stood, but his awkwardness showed in his wandering gaze and tense posture. Seth… oh great. Seth was grinning, a glint in his eyes that Sera did not condone.
She forgot he had never met Gideon beforeandthat Gideon was considered ‘attractive.’ But this was not happening. Seth could set his gaze somewhere else.
Sera attempted to block Seth’s eyes, but she was considerably smaller than her brother and Seth simply craned his head around her.
Sera blew out a breath of exasperation, puffing the fine hairs that had come loose of her pins.
“Did I interrupt a meeting?” Gideon asked.
“No,” Sera replied through her teeth, “you were just about to leave.”
Gideon’s eyes landed on her, accusation flaring in the annoying depths of brown.Here it comes. “You’re hiding something.”
“What? From you? Never.”
He held his damn finger in her face and she’d have reached out and tried to snap it backward if she thought it would do anything other than annoy him. He was nearly shouting, voice loud and accusing, “I never hear a word from you unless you’re being booked at headquarters.”
“Then quit,” she retorted with a shrug. “Then you can simply read about my failures in the newssheets.”
“Or when you’re working with rogue vigilantes in dark alleys.”
“For the last time, she came to my aide becauseI was about to be murdered.” She took a deep breath and Gideon did the same. For a few seconds, he was blessedly silent.
He rubbed his neck and, well, his silence was bound to end sooner rather than later. “Hell, Sera, it wasn’t supposed to end up with you thinking you couldn’t tell me if you were in trouble. But I get the feeling something significant is going on.”
Sera’s fingers twirled together, around and around. “Nothing. Nothing I can’t handle.”
“And if I can help?”
