“Yeah, but those came here anyway.” Levi glanced at the envelopes. “Does that mean something? Should I hand them over to the cops?”
“We’ll hand them over,” Angus said, turning and heading for the doorway. “I doubt it means anything, Levi. It’s just junk mail.” Right. The envelopes hadn’t gone through the mail system. They’d been left here on purpose as another clue for him to find. “Thanks for your help.”
Jethro followed him out into the rain and down the sidewalk. “What are you thinking?”
“Nothing yet,” Angus said, his jaw so tight his head ached. “Let’s just get out of here before he calls the cops and they confiscate these. The dog angle is just the way Lassiter would play cat and mouse.”
“If that’s really his game, the fact that he killed a Chinese woman is significant, Angus. He’ll be coming after your team, and it looks like Nari is top of the list.” Jethro reached the truck. “Is there any way she’ll let you lock her down or send her on vacation for a while?”
Angus pressed the button, determination flowing through him. “She doesn’t have a choice. She has to go, and now.”
Chapter Six
Nari shook out her sopping-wet umbrella and rode down the ancient elevator, almost wishing for the first time that the darn thing would just crash to the ground. After a lonely dinner, she’d decided to return to the office and finish up whatever she’d missed. The elevator groaned, jolted, and halted at the basement offices. The doors remained closed long enough to increase her heart rate. Finally, they opened with the scratch of metal scraping against metal.
She leapt out before the doors could close, gasping in the small vestibule. The smell of whiskey hit her first. Then surprise. She moved hesitantly into the main room of the suite.
Wolfe, Jethro, and Angus sat to one side of the room, leaning against the wall, their long legs extended toward the empty bullpen. Thevery emptybullpen. Dust outlined the spot where the pod of desks had been.
“They even took those old desks?” she asked.
Wolfe nodded, his brown eyes more mellow than usual. “Yep. Three armed teams showed up and cleared us out. Who’d want that scarred furniture?” He gestured, and his broad hand impacted an empty Jack Daniel’s bottle that fell onto its side and clattered away.
Nari narrowed her gaze. “You’re all drunk?”
“We had to say goodbye. We’re touchy types of folks,” Wolfe said.
Jethro snorted in a very un-British way and looked at Angus. “Drunk? Are we?” He slurred only a little.
Angus lifted one powerful shoulder. “Could be.” Another bottle—this one half full—sat by his hand. There was no mellowness in his gaze, unlike Wolfe’s. No. Angus looked at her, his eyes glittering with something she couldn’t name but made her body flush with a heat that was as annoying as it was intriguing. He cocked his head. “How’d it go at headquarters?” His sarcastic drawl helped her gain her equilibrium.
“Obviously not good.” She swept her hand around the empty and rather dusty room. The HDD had even taken the painting she’d plastered on one wall for some color. Annoyance ticked right up to anger, and she let it reign. “You three are grown men, for goodness’ sake. Stop acting like college freshmen who just lost their first love. Buck up.” Drinking never helped anything.
Roscoe padded out of Angus’s office and sat at the far end of the bullpen, his nose slightly in the air.
Nari’s eyes widened. “Tell me you didn’t let him have any alcohol.” The dog had a problem.
Angus rolled his eyes. “Of course not. That’s why he’s acting all pissy.”
Wolfe’s phone dinged and he tugged it free of his back pocket before glancing at the face and quickly reading the text. He smiled. “Dana’s here. I don’t want her in that elevator, so I told her to wait in the truck. Let’s go.”
Nari softened. Wolfe in full protective mode was kind of cute, so long as she wasn’t on the other end of it. “How’s Dana feeling?”
“Good. Finally stopped puking all day. That boy inside her is going to be a handful.” Wolfe leaned down and hauled Jethro up. “We’ll give you a ride.”
“Could be a girl,” Angus said, not moving.
Wolfe shook his head. “God wouldn’t do that to me.” He glanced down. “You and Roscoe want a ride?”
Angus hadn’t looked away from Nari, his glittering green eyes holding her captive with just a look. “No. Roscoe and I will be fine.”
Awareness prickled over Nari’s skin in a spiral of heat. Why her body reacted that way to jerks was something she should figure out; after all, she was a psychologist.
Wolfe looked from Angus to Nari and then back. A mental debate obviously went on in his head and then he shrugged. “If anybody needs me, call.” He clapped Jethro on the back and the Brit stumbled toward the elevator. “You think I could get a job teaching at your college? I know a lot of shit.”
“No.” Jethro tripped into the elevator.
Wolfe followed him, and the door closed with him arguing his case.
