(Blood and Bone, #2) Sin and Swoon(51)

“When do you report in with the new profiling job?”

I wince, realizing I haven’t yet explained the job offer to him. I haven’t even had a chance to look at the details of the job. “I don’t know much, just that the first year of the job is in Manhattan.” That was the part I was not looking forward to discussing with him. Relocating when you’re a couple is not easy.

“Manhattan? My job is here; why would you agree to a job in another city?” He slumps, immediately looking annoyed. “When were we going to talk about this?”

I grin like a jackass. “I’ll leave you that to mull over while I go and help solve those eleven murders. You don’t have to decide now. You can think on it.”

“Have fun.” He lifts his middle finger in the air and then looks at it like he’s surprised to see it. I blow a kiss and walk out the door muttering obscenities and wishing I’d just taken the piece of cake.

On the drive over to the office I process; I can’t stop processing. My brain won’t stop sorting the details. We have lived in DC for a long time. Manhattan sounds appealing, but it’s no life for a couple talking about surrogates and marriage and old, crappy English churches. Manhattan is more single-friendly and fun-loving with amazing takeout. However, Manhattan has never been a place I have wanted to live, even when I was young and into takeout, and fun-loving at times.

The job felt like the right choice when I was offered it, after I did the mind run with Samantha Barnes. I accepted before I knew all the details. I just knew it was the one way I could do another mind run for Ashley Potter without a fight with Dash. He has always said seven was the limit for any mind runner. We take on small parts of the person we enter, and seven was the number all the doctors felt was low enough that enough of the mind runner would be left behind to ensure the person remained sane.

But now, knowing it’s in Manhattan, I don’t know if I can do it. Maybe when I was younger.

Who am I kidding? I have never been fun-loving, and I have never liked Manhattan.

I’ve done UN security detail, and the UN headquarters creep me out. The whole international soil bothers me. What happens there stays there. I’ve seen it a lot. American rules do not apply, and I happen to like our rules regarding rape and women’s rights. A whole year there is unappealing. Especially when I have a job I like.

Granted, I won’t be able to do any more mind runs, I have clearly done too many already, but maybe I can help the new people who are set to take it on. I could even go back into active duty as far as tracking goes. Profiling terrorists for the military and living in Manhattan sounds about as much fun as having my teeth pulled out.

When I get to the building downtown, Angie gives me a warm hug. “How are ya?”

“Tired and annoyed.”

She lifts my finger. “And still engaged, I see. Dr. Dash did his magic, did he?”

I sneer. “You know how adorable he is when he begs.”

“The most adorable. It’s unbearable.” She laughs. “What’s the plan with the new job?”

“Not sure. The details have started rolling in since this job is nearing its end. They want me to move to Manhattan, and Dash is here in DC, and my life is going to be poo.”

She wrinkles her nose. “The UN is a rather interesting spot.”

“Worst job ever, and Manhattan. I’m not a New York kind of girl. I don’t do high heels and brunch and gluten-free and the next new thing that’s hot for seven seconds.”

“Stop, ya love brunch, and we both know it.” She laughs again and points at the sheet of paper in her hands. “Anyway, we have the backstory on the girl, Ashley Potter. I need to cross-reference what ya know with what we know. We apparently have some blanks that need to be filled in. I haven’t ever done this before, so bear with me, eh?”

“It’s easy. We can be casual; the details can be fixed up to sound smart later when they transcribe the whole thing. Start the recorder.” I cross the room to the huge desk and sit, getting comfy so I can start sifting through my brain. “This is Special Agent Jane Spears and Dr. Angela O’Conner doing the detailed report on the mind run for one Ashley Potter. As far as the details of the mind run are concerned she has given many of the details of her kidnapping, capture, confinement, escape, recapture, and attempted murder. Ashley Potter arrived at nursing school in Seattle from her hometown, Tanner, Washington, in the late summer, starting freshman year in 2014. Her mother smuggled in a cat, a ginger tabby named Angel. Her first roommate, a girl I did not ascertain the name of, but I am certain the report has her named, was a complete ass about the cat. They fought for a week or so, resulting in a girl named Stephanie Banks, or Steph, as Ashley knew her, proposing the great roommate switch. Steph was actually an assy bigot—that’s not a technical name but it is what Ashley called her—who our girl Ashley rarely hung out with. It was believed the old roommates were lesbians. I don’t recall their names, but Steph hated them. Flipped out when she discovered her roommate was a lesbian. Again, they are named in the file done by the patrol officers.”