JAKE
“What do you mean a new partner?”It was a struggle to keep the whine out of my voice, but I must’ve managed it because DCI Clarissa Thornton didn’t sigh or roll her eyes or glare at me.
“The Fae High Court are keen to start sending members of their guard here to give them experience working with our paranormal police force. I’ve arranged with Lady Sarhin for one of them to start next week, and since you currently have no partner, it seemed the obvious choice to pair him with you.”
When she put it like that, yes, it did make sense, but Goddess above, a new partner was about the last thing I needed right now.
Even if his presence here had a time limit, I’d be spending all day every day with him, showing him how we did our job. How was I supposed to investigate that night at the bar if I had a fae guard shadowing my every move? And what magic did he have?
Unease settled like lead in my belly, but all I could do was smile and nod. “Sounds great.”
“I realise you don’t have the same experience of dealing with the fae like Detective Knowles does, so feel free to assist him on any of his cases if you’re at a loose end. It might help our new recruit acclimatise quicker if he can spend time with Dathal and see for himself how he’s adapted to working here.”
Also not ideal. Max and I had been trying not to spend time together at work. Living with him and having to keep him at arm’s length was hard enough. Spending my workday with him too…? Max wore dark fitted trousers and crisp white shirts as his uniform most days of the week. Add in his easy confidence and commitment to the job… yeah, this might actually kill me.
I swallowed down the protests gathering on the tip of my tongue. “Of course. I’ll bear that in mind.”
With a sharp nod, she left and marched off back down the corridor.
“Fuck.” I made sure to whisper in case she was still within earshot, but seriously, fuck everything.
The text from Xen still sat unanswered on my phone, not that he probably expected one. It wasn’t like there was any other response I could give to it other than,yes, I’ll be there.
It felt like someone had set a countdown going, I could almost feel the minutes of my life as I knew it slowly ticking away.
Now that my alone time in the office was about to be cut short, I had to make the most of it before my new partner arrived on Monday. Pulling up the hidden folder I’d created, I angled my monitor so there was no chance of anyone seeing my screen as they walked past.
The notes I’d made were more like bullet points of what we didn’t know. Who’d served them their drinks all night? Who called Xen to come pick up my dad? I hadn’t thought to ask at the time—nothing had registered that night except the dead body and my dad lying unconscious covered in blood.
Some detective I was.
Now though, I had so many questions. None of which were easy to find answers for with both Max and me banned from talking about it with anyone not directly involved. My dad was the obvious place to start, but the one time I’d been to see him, he’d refused to talk about what happened. Said he remembered nothing about that night and that was that.
Guilt hit me again, sharp and sudden.
I didn’t want to blame him. But it washard.
Fuck.
I scrubbed a hand through my hair. I needed to talk to him again. The longer I left it, the harder it would be, and this was mydad. We were all each other had left.
I added a note to the folder.
Go see my dad.
Tapping my fingers on the desk, I tried to clear my mind. What would I normally do in an investigation like this?
Question the suspect.
Question potential witnesses. Which we couldn’t do under alpha orders.
No evidence was taken from the scene.
We hadn’t checked for security cameras at Stella’s or any nearby businesses either. That would require an official police request, and since we’d been banned from reporting it, we couldn’t do that either.
I knew Max was keen to revisit the bar tonight, but what would it accomplish? The bartender rostered that night might well be working, but how could we get anything out of him with our hands tied by alpha orders?
Anyway I looked at it, it was fucking hopeless.
