Page 92 of The Shade of Things
“Teresa and Okeyo are fine. She went back to her family, and he’s at the airport waiting for his flight to Kenya. Juliette brought Daw to another healer she knows for extra help.”
To my surprise, when Emmett led me into the kitchen, Ryann and Tatiana were sharing an open tin of homemade cookies. My employer had crumbs on her dress.
“Have fun,” the golem said and left.
I waved bye to him over my shoulder. “This is cozy.”
“Ryann brought a little something to thank me for our good work on the missing person case,” Tatiana said smugly.
Our? Tatiana hadn’t done much beyond find us a way into the game, but I let it lie, because the room smelled of gingerbread, and I craved one of those babies.
I sat down at the table with them and reached for one, only to have Tatiana slap my hand away.
“These are mine.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying the gift,” Ryann said. “They’re not much, but hopefully it expresses my gratitude for your helping get those poor people out safely.” She bit into her cookie. “Mmm. This batch turned out well.”
Tatiana brushed crumbs off her lap and selected another cookie. “Bullshit,” she said pleasantly. “This isn’t a gift. It’s a bribe because the Lonestars aren’t allowed to touch the Consortium so you’re buttering me up hoping I’ll do the rest of your righteous dirty work.”
Ryann choked, coughing.
Tatiana sighed. “The cookies were a good touch, but your fake smile needs some work, because oy vey.”
I thumped Ryann on the back. Say what about the Consortium?
The Lonestar’s eyes widened even more cartoonishly than normal. “How did you know that? Did you speak to someone?”
Tatiana helped herself to another cookie. “You think I’ve got rocks for brains? We hand you proof that some secret organization is violating your precious prime directive in a big way and then you show up with cookies? Someone high up kiboshed your investigation.”
“Whoa.” Ryann bowed, her hands in namaste formation. “But the cookies really were a gift.”
Tatiana huffed a sigh. “Stop making puppy dog eyes, Miriam. It’s pathetic. Take one already.”
“If you insist,” I said cheerfully. “Were you given a reason that you had to stop?”
Ryann shook her head. “I was told to allocate my resources to local matters.”
“You think Lonestars are involved?” I bit into the gingerbread, savoring its spicy kick.
Ryann’s shoulders drooped. “You always think the worst of us.”
“It’s not like she doesn’t have reason.” Tatiana flapped a hand. “One of yours covered up her parents’ murders.”
My lovely cookie turned to sawdust, forcing me to muscle down the lump. Tatiana was defending me over my parents of all things. I felt like shit on the bottom of Satan’s shoe.
“In this case, she’s wrong.” Ryann tapped the six-pointed gold star tattoo on her wrist. “There was never an official decree to stay away from the game before. My Lonestar predecessors didn’t think we had to bother. To me, this signals new pressure on my organization from the Consortium.”
As expected, the cop wrung every last detail out of me, though I was completely forthcoming except about the Ascendant. I even told her that I’d spoken to Jason Maxwell to confirm what the Consortium was up to. Needless to say, she wasn’t too happy about that.
“As one of the few people capable of killing dybbuks,” I said, “I had a right to know if I’d correctly surmised their agenda. Your permission wasn’t required.”
“Tatiana is growing on you.” Ryann didn’t sound like she thought that was a good thing, but my boss didn’t apologize her way through life.
The elderly woman smirked.
“Anything else?” Ryann said.
I debated whether to mention Ian, but he didn’t know anything about the Consortium and wasn’t relevant to the Lonestars. “That’s it. Are you going to let the Consortium get away with this?”
