Chapter 14 #4
Hadn’t heard that name in a while. But bringing up Jack’s FBI-given nickname signaled a turn in the conversation.
Which meant it was official, Officer Ellis had nothing else useful to say.
And I wasn’t here to feed into his curiosity, nor say anything that would stoke Jack’s ego if my comments got back to him through the grapevine. It was time for me to leave.
“I wouldn’t know.” I flicked my hair over my shoulder, hickey on full display as I crossed onto the asphalt. “I’m clearly just a vamp-lover who happened to be hanging around a police station parking lot.”
?
After my abrupt departure, I treated myself to ice cream and took a long, long, walk along the water.
There may have been some truth to Officer Ellis’ words, since I didn’t miss the judging looks from passersby in response to my hickey.
Looks that were not unlike those I received from the dry cleaners when I dropped off Jezebel’s dress a couple days ago.
Something I planned to bring up with Jack and Todd, when I joined them at the motel later.
Despite the questioning looks, my walk was successful in clearing my mind. I had been unfair to the agents, I knew that. My reaction to having to follow due process had been… childish. I was a big enough person that I could admit it. Even if my acknowledgement had been somewhat delayed.
Before reaching that point, however, I may have worked myself into a vicious cycle.
And my circling thoughts may have leaned toward the self-destructive side.
The murders. The false confession. Due process.
Inaction. The ‘prophecy’. My passenger. My leash.
Lawrence. The murders. The false confession.
Due process. Inaction. The ‘prophecy’. My passenger.
My leash. Lawrence. Round and round and round they went, my frustration, my anger, escalating along with them.
Which may have led to me doing something I regretted.
Like calling Mads.
I’d be lying if I said it had been well thought out. So, I kept it brief. Without mentioning his name, I told Mads where and when to meet me. He agreed immediately. And while I admit my emotions were running high, the call to Mads, while not well planned, wasn’t entirely spontaneous.
As soon as Mads had given me Lawrence’s letter, reaching out to him had been a matter of when, not if.
He knew as well as I did that I needed him, and the key he carried, to access whatever it was Lawrence left for me in the safety deposit box.
It didn’t hurt I also had questions Mads was in a position to answer.
But he wouldn’t give me the time of day if he knew, or even suspected, Jack and Todd were close by.
So, I needed a story to spin so that my rendezvous with Mads would go believably unnoticed. As far as I was concerned, the story only had to be believable to Mads. Which got me thinking…
Given the elfish woman’s confession, she wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, meaning the agents and I were more than likely D.C.-bound while we built up the evidence against her involvement in the familiar’s deaths.
Our impending departure was the perfect opportunity for me to meet Mads at the rendezvous point, and leaving from Huntington, rather than Alexandria gave me an advantage. Not only was it closer, but leaving from Huntington decreased the likelihood that Mads would trail me—at least successfully.
The agents, on the other hand, had increased their surveillance and phone-monitoring from my latest… outburst. There was no doubt in my mind that they were going to find out about Mads. And when they did, they were going to be furious. For all the right reasons.
But I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.
Okay, more like when I forced myself in front of it.
“Delilah.” Todd opened the motel room door, skin glistening like he just stepped out of the shower. It didn’t look like he was expecting me.
I don’t know why he was so surprised. It wasn’t hard to figure out which room the agents occupied. Not when I spotted a rental car sporting fuzzy dice hanging from the rear-view mirror.
“Can I come in?” I asked, hoping the ‘gifts’ I bought were enough to support my apology and soften the eventual blow.
Todd widened the door and I stepped in under his arm, ignoring his clean pine and cedar scent. Yeah, he definitely showered.
“Delilah.” Jack jumped to his feet, ditching his laptop. “Here, I’ll grab you your room key. We can leave the adjoining doors closed to give you some space.”
“As much fun as it is to have you both walking on eggshells around me, I came to,” I riffled through the grocery bag I was carrying to pull out my first item, “give you this.”
“Is that—”
“Apology ginger ale?” Todd’s too warm fingers wrapped around mine to take a hold of the bottle.
“And a bag of powdered donuts.”
Jack and Todd shared a look. It was fast and not easy to decipher. It wasn’t anger, or shock it was—
And now they were laughing. Not a low and slow chuckle either, it was full-on creasing-around-the-eyes laughter.
The edges of my mouth pulled upward. Their laughter was contagious, even if it was at my expense. “What, what’s so funny?”
Todd stepped around me, placing a palm between my shoulder blades as he opened the mini-fridge, pulling out a second bottle of ginger ale and offering it to me.
I palmed my face.
“Oh my god.” This apology was off to a better start than I anticipated. Still, it didn’t mean that they were going to like what I had planned. “We need some time apart.”
Jack crossed the room in three ground-eating strides, accepting the donuts. “That won’t be happening any time soon.” He flipped open the top and brought a powdered circle to his lips. “You’re stuck with us.”
“For a long long time.”
“So comforting.” The fizz of the ginger ale tickled my nose as I sat on the foot of the nearest bed. The apology ginger ale and donuts were meant to warm the waters a bit, but weren’t enough on their own. “But as you might have guessed, I came here to apologize.”
“You don’t need to—”
“Yes, I do.” Both agents quieted themselves and gave me their full attention. “I’m fully aware I’ve been more of a pain-in-the-ass than usual. That I’ve been acting out.”
“No… really?”
“Oh, shut up, Todd, I’m trying to apologize.
” He raised his hands in defense, a glimmer of a smile on his lips.
When I felt confident he wasn’t going to interject again, I continued, “I’ve been acting out, I’ve been making your jobs more difficult.
I know that. Since we got back from the Almeidas…
” I stopped, maybe I should have thought the words through more.
Ugh. Why couldn’t I have just handed them their goodies and left it at that?
“When my life is in chaos, when decisions are being made for me, or I have no say, I need a semblance of control. So, I go out of my way to make situations where I hold power over the outcome.”
“Like pickpocketing a room full of FBI agents?”
“Or breaking into a private mausoleum before sunrise?”
I didn’t know apologizing was a group activity. “Do you want the rest of the apology or not?”
“…We do.”
I took another sip of ginger ale, before setting it down, squaring my shoulders.
“I fully realize that my need for control has caused some headaches. I also know it’s not an excuse for how I’ve acted.
” I started tracing the lines of my left hand.
“I’m sorry for how I handled earlier. Everything in that room, in that police station, it was all hitting too close to home. And it made me feel…. stuck.”
“Stuck?”