“Doesn’t your system track who goes in and out of rooms?”
“I...” he blinked, then cursed harshly and slid up to the desk so roughly I winced as he scrambled to get the computer powered up. “I was so caught up with everything that it completely slipped my mind to check the logs to back up hisstory. You do realize what it means if there isn’t anything to show, right?”
“Sure,” I said with a shrug. “But I know he isn’t responsible for this. He’s responsible for lying to us and coming here like a sneaky little spy to keep tabs on us, and responsible for not confiding in me despite...well, despite the fact that I thought we were close.”
“It’s those we’re closest to that we keep the most secrets from,” Reggie said wryly as he began typing.
“Save me from your pearls of wisdom; they only piss me off.”
“Yes, because you’re already a beacon of self-restraint right now,” he said dryly and then frowned. “It’ll take a minute, but at a glance, I can’t see anything unusual.”
“That’s why you have your computer system,” I told him. “That brilliant AI or whatever you want to call it.”
“And it’s working on it,” he snapped, glaring at me. “Are you going to be belligerent the entire time?”
“Are you going to be an arrogant dick who doesn’t know how to apologize or admit he’s wrong the whole time?”
“I’m following evidence. Not my own bias, unlike someone else I could mention.”
“Then mention me.”
“I am! I’m looking you dead in the eye as we speak!”
I glowered. “Is your computer done, or am I going to have to sit here and stare at you all day?”
He snorted. “You have no patience, you know that?”
“I have plenty of patience,” I muttered, though that wasn’t strictly true. I could be patient, just like I could be calm...except when I wasn’t. What I wanted, what I needed, was to get this entire situation settled before I lost my mind. I also wanted to have words with Rowan, but that was going to have to wait until he was free from Mr. Shepherd’s office. “Just not right now.”
Reggie rolled his eyes and froze as he looked at the screen, and sighed. “Oh...well that’s...not good.”
My heart tripped over itself, “What?”
“Well,” Reggie said with an ugly grimace. “It seems there’s a really good, if not definitive chance that Rowan is not the one I’m looking for.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?” I asked in confusion.
“For Rowan, and you, yes,” he said with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. “However...give me a moment.”
Before I could say anything, he was out of the chair and leaving the room. After a few seconds, I got up and leaned over the desk, scowling when I saw he’d locked the computer screen, which meant once again I wasn’t going to get answers anytime soon. With a grumble, I flopped back into my chair and tried to decide if I was more pissed at Reggie, Rowan, or myself.
I didn’t know how long I sat in the chair, stewing on my own feelings, before the door slid open again, and this time, Reggie wasn’t alone. I leaned forward. “Uhh, what is going on?”
Mr. Shepherd had the same stony, serious expression he’d had when we’d first been escorted into his office. “Rowan and I will continue our discussion another time. For the moment, Reggie and I have something far more important to worry about.”
“What the hell is going on?” I wondered as Rowan entered and Reggie peered in to frown at me. “What?”
“Sit tight, maybe you can have your little tantrum at him instead,” Reggie said with a dirty look.
“Reggie,” Mr. Shepherd chided in a tired voice. “You two can have your little squabble later. And you and I will continue at a later date, Rowan.”
“Of course,” Rowan said, and I frowned, trying to understand what seemed different about him. It took a moment, but then I realized that he was holding himself differently, stiffer thanusual but not wooden. It was authority, it was the body language of a man who was used to being listened to when he spoke, and expected weight to be put behind his words. I was seeing Rowan as he was when he was on the job rather than the man I knew...or thought I knew.
I glared as he looked me over, and now his tendency to evaluate other people made a whole lot more sense and pissed me off all over again. I saw the moment he was going to speak, and downed the rest of my drink before chucking the now-empty glass at him, watching it shatter a good two feet in front of him. He probably didn’t feel a single shard.
He blinked, looking over his shoulder and then down at the remains of the glass and back at me. “Hello.”
“Eat shit,” I told him furiously, though taking some of my anger out on the glass had helped to calm me a bit.
