Dungeon Games(17)
And just like that it all fell into place. “You’re handling the case.”
She shrugged a little. “I did put together the team. I do know the lifestyle. I outed myself, too, Derek. The DA thinks this case would best be handled by a female, and I was going to make damn sure I was the female. Besides the only other chick who can handle a case like this is Marian Greeley, and she’s sixty-five with a face like a horse. She is so not ready for TV. She would likely say the girls had it coming because she’s a dried up old prune who thinks sex is evil. It had to be me. It’s best for the victims. So, see, I didn’t shove you out alone into shark-infested waters. Consider me your life jacket.”
A life jacket that would likely strangle him in her deep need to get ahead. “You still had no right.”
“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that. Now what’s your plan? I want you to coordinate with me. This is the rarest of cases, Derek. This is a serial case the feds haven’t taken yet. Bastards. We need to solve this and fast because at some point they will figure out how hot this case is, move in, and we’ll lose all our control. The Rangers are willing to work with us because apparently their kinks aren’t the same as ours and they’re really high on Eve St. James.”
“McKay. She remarried.”
“Hmmm, well, that’s nice. I suppose that means McKay’s on the case, too.” She grimaced a little. “Did the Rangers bring in Ian? Because he hates me.”
“You’re in luck. Big Tag’s in Europe.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank god. The last time I applied for membership at Sanctum, he put me through a ton of paperwork and when he sent me the letter that would state the date I could start it simply said when hell freezes over. Jerk, though I suppose he’s loyal to you.”
He would have to send Big Tag a bottle of Scotch. The last thing he needed was to have his club invaded by Maia. “Back to the case, please?”
“Fine. So is Eve working on a profile? Tell her to come to my office when it’s done. I don’t want that profile leaking to anyone. If the feds get it they’ll swoop down and scoop up all my work and take all my glory. I hate them.”
Derek felt his eyes narrow. She only ever got truly angry over one thing. “Who turned you down?”
The slightest hint of pink hit her cheeks. “No one turns me down. Well, mostly. I might have been dating one of the SACs. He turned out to be an asshole and now he’s out for some kind of revenge.”
“What did you do?” Because there was no way she was innocent.
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” A little huff came from her chest. “I might have given his son a blow job. You can’t blame me for that. You should have seen him. He’s a college quarterback with the tightest ass I’ve ever seen on a man. He’d just won a bowl game. If you really think about it, I was taking one for the state of Texas. We owe the kid.”
“You’re a sexual predator, you know.” A barracuda with a vagina that sucked up all the air around it. Actually that was a much better analogy. Her vagina was a black hole from which no man escaped. Or woman.
“I refuse to apologize for my appetites.” She stood up and paced, her heels clacking against the floor. “Are you going to be difficult?”
“About the case? No. It’s important.” For many reasons, the chief one being protecting Karina, but he didn’t want to put her on Maia’s radar by mentioning that. It was irrational since Karina was every bit as tough as Maia, but he didn’t want Maia to hurt Karina. She could be brutal when she thought another woman was threatening her place. Not that she had a place with him. She simply had a delusional belief that they were still some sort of a team. It was just habit. They’d known each other since they were kids in elementary school. Sometimes he sat and talked to Maia just because she was the only one around who remembered what he’d been like before. Before adulthood. Before the war. Even before their divorce.
She sighed and moved to the chair in front of his desk. “Good, because this is the one, Derek. This is the one that moves us both up. If you can crack this case, you could move over to the Rangers if you want to, though I think you’re better off where you are. If you really want to be a bastard, tightwad asshole, we might even be able to talk to the feds about a job. They don’t all hate me.”
He was getting a headache. “I like my job, Maia. I’ll work with you on this, but I’m not doing it because I want some magical promotion. Some cops do the job because it’s the right thing to do. Some of us enjoy actually doing the work and solving the case because it brings someone justice, not because it might increase our paychecks.”