She’d spent enough time with fools like that in the past. It wasn’t something she tolerated anymore. There were plenty of other willing fish in the sea who would love to wade in her waters while not judging her for her work.
The boss looked between her and blondy a few too many times with a smile before he finally introduced them.
“Now that I can see how well everything is going here, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to one of our top agents. We flew him in, same as you. This is Agent Aiden Reyes.”
Aiden held out his hand. “Guess we were on different flights. I would have remembered your face if I’d seen it before.”
Delilah didn’t shake his hand.
Aiden’s smile faltered before he closed his fingers and backed off. “Right, sorry. I guess because of what you do, you don’t like shaking hands. Germs?”
Delilah shook her head. “No, not at all.”
The knowledge that she simply wouldn’t shake his hand because he’d annoyed her flashed across his face. “Right,” he said, still grinning, oddly enough, before he laughed a little. “I guess I deserve that.”
At least he didn’t look like he was about to be sick all over the floor. If he looked like he was about to puke, Delilah was resolved to immediately grab him by the ear and yank him to the nearest toilet.
“Will you forgive me?” The tone to his voice had her thinking the question was about more than just a bad first impression.
Like he might follow up the question with an ask for her phone number. If that were the case, he was going to be sorely disappointed.
It didn’t matter how attractive they were, how much she might want them, or even how much of a good time they’d shown her… or if her badger was trying to claim him for her mate. For Delilah, her number was never on the menu.
But… just in case things got desperate while she was in ATTF territory, she might as well play a little nice.
“We’ll see.”
2
“You must be good at what you do if they flew you in so fast.”
Delilah fought to not roll her eyes.
Jack had taken her report and was long gone, insisting that he had an important meeting to attend to, but Aiden had stuck around, tailing her to the vending machine and trying to make small talk as she was getting some coffee.
“I’m good at what I do. I’m sure others were higher on the priority list but just couldn’t be spared from their work.”
Aiden, leaning against the vending machine now, looked perplexed as her coffee finally began to pour from the machine, filling the Styrofoam cup with a dark sludgelike liquid.
“That’s not exactly boastful. I thought all you honey badgers were overly full of yourselves.”
Delilah was already beginning to regret being nice to him. “I wasn’t disparaging myself. I’m proud, but I’m also smart. And I know I’m not the tip-top best of FPU—yet, anyway. There aren’t many better than me, but they’re there.” She shrugged. It was what it was. She was good enough to be one of the best, but not a high enough rank to be able to turn down assignments in lieu of projects she wanted to prioritize.
Aiden smiled at her, flashing white teeth that nearly blinded her. Why did it make her knees just a little bit weak?
Damn. Her weakness was strong jaws and killer smiles.
“Glad to hear it. We need someone in here with confidence, who can’t be shaken, and I was starting to worry that we’d gotten a defective honey badger.”
Defective, pfft. If only he knew how badass she really was. She just made it a practice to rein it in when she was around non-badgers. She didn’t want to add any to the rumor that the badgers didn’t work well with others.
Delilah turned away from the machine, bringing the Styrofoam cup to her lips and sipping on her terrible coffee. The bitter taste was horribly disappointing. What she wouldn’t give for a sweet, comforting cup of the good stuff after the job she just finished.
“I don’t know what your clearances are. We shouldn’t be talking.“ She was still hyper-aware that anyone in this unit might have a hand in the killings, and Aiden might just be trying to pump her for information.
But then again, Jack had said that they’d flown Aiden in. Which meant he wasn’t on the list of regular agents, nor was he a potential suspect. The suspect pool was made up of agents who had regular access to the cases.
Delilah avoided the small table in the break room, opting instead to drink her swamp-water coffee standing. She didn’t want to give the impression that she was open to company or socialization.
Not that Aiden got the message.
“I’m cleared for all the information on this case, anything you have to report on that dead body, or any other body that happens to show up on your table for that matter.“
“I’ll need to see proof of that.“
Aiden actually whistled. “You’re a tough cookie to crack, aren’t you?“
Delilah pressed her lips together, forcing herself to not point out that he was thinking of a tough nut and not a cookie.
Back on the badger squad, they often told her that she was too literal and a bit on the perfectionist side. The term “pedantic” had started to become a bit of a trigger word for her, which her teammate Teddy had found out the hard way. Whatever. He’d needed a good wallop for a while.
In any case, she would let the cookie remark go. Accuracy and precision in speech wasn’t important when the only thing she might want from Aiden was an ability to get her off when she wanted him to.
She changed the subject to something different instead. “You seemed quite bothered by the thought of me cutting into the body back there.”
Shit. That probably wasn’t exactly how she should have said that. She wanted to make him uncomfortable, not insult him.
“If it’s for the job, then I can suck it up and handle it. I can be professional and not like something.”
That was what she liked to hear.
Then he had to go ahead and ruin it by speaking up again. “You, uh, are done with that man, though, right?”
Unbelievable.
She sighed. “Yeah. I’m about to head back to my desk and finish up a bit of paperwork before I’m done for the day. Should I expect you’ll keep following me there?”
Aiden stopped and looked at her as though she had lost her mind. Then he smiled, as though figuring out a funny little secret. “You weren’t paying attention.”
A rush of heat immediately filled her chest, and Delilah found herself stiffening, her shoulders bunching up. “What’s that supposed to mean? Of course I paid attention. I pay attention to everything.”
Why did he have to look so fucking pleased with himself? “Now that I think about it, the boss man didn’t properly introduce us back there, but I know they said they were going to send you an email about it. Which means you weren’t paying attention somewhere.“
He said it as though he knew perfectly well how much something like that would annoy her, how much Delilah had to keep on top of things. Emails didn’t sit unread; paperwork wasn’t turned in late.
To the other badgers, she seemed stuffy. She preferred to think that she was just savagely efficient.