Putting on latex gloves, the other two federal agents carefully searched the three guys who the team had restrained, bringing out IDs and confiscating weapons.
“Old guy is Viktor Radu,” one of the agents reported. “We’ve been lookin’ for you, Mr. Radu.”
Ruby marched over to him, poking him in the chest with her finger before slamming her hands on her hips.
“What is wrong with you?” she asked. “I’m sorry your daughter killed herself. She was a sweet girl and a great player, but clearly she had some mental health issues that needed to be addressed. You can’t blame the damned winning team for her deciding she couldn’t go on anymore. Someone with those kinds of issues was going to hurt herself sooner or later regardless of the outcome of one game.”
Radu just glared at her, hate in his eyes.
“Well, you’ll have plenty of time in a nice, cushy American prison to think about what you did,” Murphy told him.
Lois rolled her eyes. “The damned politicians will trade him back to Romania for some leverage with the Russians, we all know that.”
She stalked closer, giving the mob boss one of her patented glares.
“You bother any of these players again, I will unleash hell on you and your people,” she said in a voice that was deadly calm. “I know all about your secret bunker outside of Sibiu. I also know that your wife is the source of most of your money, and she’ll cut your hairy old balls off if she finds out about Tereza, your girlfriend in Oradea. Do. Not. Test. Me.”
Radu paled, blinking rapidly. Lois really had him spooked, and I loved it. I wasn’t sure how a middle aged dyke wolf managed to intimidate literally everyone she came in contact with. It was a skill I wish I had.
“Do you understand me?” she enunciated slowly.
“Yes.”
“Good.” She gestured dismissively to Murphy. “Get these assholes out of my clients’ house. We’ll deal with the bodies.”
We all watched as the feds left, then Lois turned her attention to me.
“So it’s official?” She nodded at Ruby.
Nothing got past Lois.
“Last night,” I confirmed.
Lois sighed. “Damned vampires, you people have no sense of decorum, falling in love on the job like you’re freaking speed dating. You’re not gonna quit on me too, are you? I’ve invested a lot in your training.”
“No ma’am,” I answered quickly. “I love my job.”
“Okay then.” She turned her attention to Ruby’s parents. “We’ll have cleaners in here within the hour to take care of the bodies and the blood. They can also board up the windows for you until you can get someone out here to fix them. We also have a medic en route who can stitch up that wound if you’d like to avoid a trip to the hospital. In the meantime, please don’t touch anything. They’ll need to document the crime scene.”
Lois turned back to me. “Meeting at the office in thirty minutes, and I want a full written report on my desk by the end of the day.”
“Understood.”
My boss turned to Ruby and did something with her lips that I was pretty sure was supposed to be a smile. It was terrifying.
“Welcome to the Sapphic Security family, Ruby.”
Epilogue – Ruby
Six months later…
“I can’t believe you made me wait six months for a wedding.”
I gave my mother an exasperated look. “Mom, I told you I wanted to wait until the season was over so neither Dad nor myself would be distracted. Besides, this way you got a Christmas wedding.”
Mom brightened. “That’s true.”
It was hard to believe that Cassie and I had been officially mated for six months. As Lois predicted, shortly after Radu went into federal custody the Romanians arranged a prisoner swap. Supposedly he was on house arrest in Bucharest, but Lois’s sources shared that he’d gone right back to running his criminalempire. Fortunately he’d given up on his vendetta against the International Games women’s soccer team, no doubt taking Lois’s threats seriously.
