Leaving Corin and Maya alone.
Maya took a deep breath and spoke before he could. “Shall we get started? Tomás loves hanging out with Tally and her siblings, but if it goes wrong it goes wrongfast.We could have all morning, or we could have twenty minutes.”
She spoke with the quiet authority of someone who’d experienced ‘going wrong fast’ more times than she could count.
“I’m not sure we’ll be able to tell anything from what’s left of these,” she went on, picking up the mail bags from where Corin had put them on the kitchen table. “They’ve been torn open by tiny talons, possibly chewed on, definitely rained on…”
“And they’re all addressed to you.”
She went still. Corin lined up the pieces he’d been looking at. Slowly, she set down the others next to them. Most of the addresses were torn, some were almost unreadable, but together, they made a pattern.
---y -----s
-a-y --or--
---- Flor--
Maya pushed them away, then wrapped her arms around herself. “Nothing we didn’t already know. But seeing it laid out like this … they must have been sent overmonths.The whole time I’ve been here.”
“Nobody is going to harm you, Maya.”
“Sure. Not before I throw myself out a window of my own accord, at least.” She shook herself. “What now?”
“My grandfather is performing an audit of our family vault.”
“How long will that take?”
“Several days.”
“And what happens if he finds something else missing? You’re going to storm in and be a big, bad dragon at everyone?” Mayapushed her hair off her face, frowning. “That won’t work. I’ll talk to—”
Her mouth snapped shut. “No. I won’t talk to anyone, because that’s not my job anymore.” She gave a wan smile. “Almost forgot.”
He felt strange. “This reminds you of working for me?”
“Except I never involved you in my Mr. Blackburn counter-measure conversations.” She leveled her gaze at him, and a wry smile flitted around her lips. “Look at us. Talking like people. I haven’t snapped at you or torn either of our clothes off in whole minutes.”
Corin cleared his throat. “We still have several minutes left of your twenty-minute safe zone—”
“And I’m terrified I’m going to mess them up. Can we—” She stopped, and took a deep breath. “I’m not going to ask you for anything you don’t want to give me. But can we—can we go somewhere, with some food, and just … talk? There are some things I want to ask you.”
They headed to the waterfront and, from there, to the local restaurant. Corin had already heard a number of stories about the establishment and was interested to see how true they were. He had assumed they would dine in, but after a few quiet words with the orca shifter who ran the place, Maya reappeared with a picnic hamper and a cooler that clinked encouragingly. Corin hoisted the hamper over one arm.
“Will this support of local business be sufficient defense against the town turning on you for disloyalty?”
Maya flashed him an unimpressed look. Not as ferocious as some of the looks she’d shot his way the last few days; she wasstill distracted, worrying over the questions she wanted to ask him.
He was worried, too.
But they were both putting on a good show.
Maya shrugged. “We should book in dinner and at least one brunch, just in case.”
“Understood. And to put your mind at ease I dined last night in the privacy of my own home, on dry bread and crackers, so I wouldn’t impugn the honor of your local establishment.”
“Are you serious right now?”
“I’m only partially joking. Avi seems to think your Caro will be able to sense his inferior cooking from her own kitchen. Apparently she’s infamous at the school they both went to.”
