“Thanks for sharing.” I offered her the shot on the counter before me. “Maybe this will help?”
“Can’t hurt.” She tossed it back, and her eyes watered as she coughed out, “What the hell is that?”
“Paint thinner,” Claudia told her with a wink for me. “You guys are heading out?”
“Yeah.” I checked the time on my phone. “I have to get to work.”
“Do you think…?” Claudia studied her hands. “Would you like to grab dinner one night?”
The ache in her voice, the dip in her chin, the fact she couldn’t meet my eyes as she asked cemented an answer before I considered the ramifications. “Sure.”
“We can make it a girls’ night.” Ares invited herself. “I’ll need a day or two to catch up on sleep first.”
“That would be great.” Claudia jerked me into an impulsive hug. “Text me the time and place?”
“Sure.” Passing over my phone, I let her enter her contact information. “See you later.”
Once Ares and I cleared the bar and crossed the street, I gave her a bland look. “Girls’ night?”
“Tisdale would murder me in my sleep if I left you alone with Claudia.”
“She seems nice enough.”
“Her dad was nice enough too, once upon a time.”
“Sins of the father, really?”
“Claudia was his beta. A lot of the blood on his hands is on hers too.”
I had no room to talk. I had done terrible things. I had blood on my hands that would never wash out.
But a wake-up call had saved me. My friends had saved me. When I least deserved their mercy.
Claudia and I weren’t friends after a few drinks, but I could sympathize with her position. She struck me as a woman without many people to confide in, and she had chosen me. That didn’t indebt me to her, but it did sway me enough to hope that I could become a positive influence while she was here.
We can’t know until we glance behind us who or what will alter the course of our lives forever. A kind word, a hug, even listening worked miracles. For someone who lacked the support system I had, I could afford to lend that word, give that hug, or sit and let my ears do all the work.
“Who sent you to play I Spy?” I changed the topic. “Ford, Midas, or Tisdale?”
Chuckling, she stretched her arms over her head. “Why pick one when I can blame all three?”
“You’re wiped.” I shoved her, and she actually stumbled. “I’m going to work. You should go sleep.”
“I can go home but...”
“The baby?”
“The baby,” she agreed. “Cutest little torture device you’ve ever seen.”
“I can give you the keys to our place. You can nap wherever.”
Her lips parted, and a yes poised there, but she shook her head. “It wouldn’t be fair.”
“The offer stands, for either of you, if you need it.”
“Thanks.” She fell back a step. “I’m out.”
Once she had turned to begin the walk back to the Faraday, I got out my phone and began texting the string of code back and forth to locate HQ’s location for the day. As luck would have it, Bishop had set up shop across town from where I was, which meant I either had a lot of walking to do or a Swyft to call.
About to try my luck with the rideshare app, I hesitated when a glint caught my eye.
Having learned from past mistakes, I didn’t chase after it. I texted Bishop, and then I chased after it.
Ambrose shot ahead of me, which was ten kinds of strange, as he was never one to volunteer for work, but he was invested in that glint too.
All of which told me whatever caused it was magical in nature and probably wasn’t anything good.
For a second, I thought I was seeing the fading trail of a Martian Roach and cursed under my breath. We had busted our butts to get rid of them, but roaches being roaches, I figured there were still one or two we had missed. Upon closer inspection, the sparkles weren’t quite right for that, thank the goddess.
About the time I got near enough to track the origin, Ambrose glanced over his shoulder.
Pivoting on my heel, I turned in time to watch the bar where I had left Claudia burst into flames.
The raw force of the explosion punched me backward and threw me sliding across the asphalt.
Once my ears stopped ringing, I rose on raw palms and abraded knees to survey the damage.
Ambrose hovered beside me, hands on his hips, his head angled where the glimmer had been.
“Thanks,” I muttered. “You couldn’t have helped?”
A shrug rolled through his shoulders.
“No chocolate for you,” I grunted as I stood and tested to make sure nothing was broken. “Jerk.”
Big surprise, the shadow wasn’t paying attention to me. He had already returned his focus to where the glint had been, a distraction that might have saved my life. Any closer to the blast, and it would have roasted me like a marshmallow.
Others hadn’t been so lucky, and I set off at a limping jog as I dialed Bishop. “I need you to—”
“Already done.” Keys tapped in the background. “The fire department is on the way. Paramedics too.”
“Midas?”
“He was my second call.”
“Thanks.” I had reached the epicenter, and the heat made my eyes water. “I have to go.”
A string of impressive curses left his mouth before I ended the call, but they were in Faelic, or whatever obscure language he spoke, and I didn’t understand more than the gist.
A wall of fire licked the sky, and the stench of black magic charred the air. The closer I inched, the higher the roaring flames burned until I retreated a safe distance to watch as the bar, and the bar alone, spouted plumes too thick for me to see more than a foot in front of me without retreating farther.
Phone in hand, I did what protocol demanded and called Tisdale. “We have a problem.”
“Claudia?”
The immediate leap made my heart hurt for the untried alpha. “We went to a bar tonight.”
“Oh, God.” Tisdale lost her cool. “Is it still standing?”
“Not for much longer.” I exhaled a ragged breath when the sirens reached my ears. “It’s on fire.”
“Is…?” She cleared her throat. “Is she…?”
“I don’t know.” I had the urge to rub my upper arms, but sweat beaded on my forehead. I was nowhere near cold, yet I was chilled to the bone. “When I left for work, she was still there with her pack. Ares and I chatted for a while out on the sidewalk, but then she headed home. I was leaving for HQ as the bar exploded.”
“Exploded?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “This wasn’t simple arson. This was a bomb.”
Like the one that went off in my apartment.
“Like the one that went off in your apartment,” she echoed my thoughts exactly.
“The fire department is here, so I need to go.” I had other company too. “I just wanted to update you.”
“Thanks, sweetheart.”
With those words ringing in my ears, she ended the call. I was still staring at the screen, wondering if I misheard, when Midas yanked me into his arms and plastered me against his chest.