“What was the meeting about?”

“I wasn’t in the room.”

“Where were you the night before last, Lieutenant?”

He didn’t miss the change in subject. “The Vault. With Gianni and Crawford, before you ask.”

She nodded. “Did you leave together?”

He shook his head. “Crawford left early. I followed her outside to make sure she was okay to drive. She was fine, so I went back inside. Gianni was gone, so I left.”

“Do you think Corman Deegan drinks too much?”

His startled expression at another change in direction amused her. “What?”

She watched him carefully, curious how he would react. “Your teammate. Do you think he drinks too much?”

Sinclair sighed as he thought about it. “I’ve seen him drink. I don’t know if it’s a problem. I’ve never seen it be a problem on the job.”

“You went drinking the night before the raid,” she said.

“We didn’t go ‘drinking.’ We went for a couple of drinks, then home,” he said.

“Deegan seems to have had more than a couple.”

Sinclair paused. “He may have. I left after two drinks. He and Gianni stayed talking.”

“Do you think the raid would have fallen apart if Deegan had been there?”

He made a noncommittal gesture with his hand. “Too many variables to say. The intel was bad. Deegan’s good, but so was Sanchez. When the intel is bad, anything can happen.”

She sensed truth from him. He didn’t think Janice had screwed up. He knew the problem was the source of the information. “One last question, Lieutenant. When you heard Janice Crawford’s mayday, who reached the room first?”

“I don’t know. Foyle and Gianni were already there.”

That made three officers claiming they were the last to arrive. “Okay. Thank you, Lieutenant. Can you send in Agent Crawford if she is no longer delayed, please?”

Sinclair held his hand out. “It was a pleasure talking with you, Agent Tate.”

Laura smiled at the unexpected gesture. “Thank you, Lieutenant.”

She checked her PDA while waiting for Foyle to tell her that Janice Crawford was unavailable. Saffin had everything under control back at the office. Rhys’s office liked her changes to the speech and sent along the Guildmaster’s compliments. Resha Dunne had decided to attend Laura’s Senate hearing in the afternoon. Laura groaned at the thought. She knew he would try to hijack the proceedings to bolster his importance. Liam sent a message to Mariel Tate that her car would be waiting when she left the station house.

Foyle leaned into the room. “Agent Tate, I have to apologize, but Agent Crawford has not shown up and is unreachable.”

Feigning annoyance, Laura gathered her files. “I will deal with her through InterSec then. When she arrives, tell her to call my office for an appointment.”

Foyle accompanied her to the elevator. “Did everything go well?”

She watched the floor numbers counting down toward her. “They were acceptable initial meetings. I’ll review the other investigative reports and get back to you if need be.”

The elevator opened, and Laura stepped forward. Foyle touched her arm. She looked down at his hand, mildly surprised. “Agent Tate, I would appreciate it if you got back to me either way. I need answers.”

His tone was sincere and matched what Laura was sensing. “I will, Captain. We all want answers.”

A black car waited outside as planned. She didn’t know the driver, so she chanted a sound barrier around her. Guildhouse drivers were used to the behavior and didn’t consider it rude.

“Gianni shot me,” said Laura when Terryn answered her call.

“Your memory has returned?” Terryn didn’t sound surprised. He absorbed everything with a calm professionalism that sometimes irritated Laura. She wished he would scream in frustration just once in her presence. He and his clan had seen kingdoms rise and fall. A cop shooting another cop apparently didn’t faze him.

She noticed a brown shopping bag in the corner of the seat and pulled it toward her. Lunch from Liam. “No. I noticed that the mission reports were vague about when Foyle, Gianni, and Sinclair arrived at the room Sanchez and I were in. All three claim they arrived after the other two. Gianni was the only one who clearly registered as lying.”

“If he shot Sanchez, why didn’t he shoot you at the same time?”

Laura considered the scenario. “I don’t think he had a clear line of sight on me until I joined Sanchez. There was a firefight going on. Sanchez was shooting at the door right up to the end. Gianni would have had to take cover from both Sanchez and the drug dealers.”

“Should we pull him in?”

She withdrew a bottle of springwater from the bag. “Not yet. If we pull him in because I sensed he was lying, he’ll think I’m bluffing. I don’t want to tip my empathic ability.”

“He shot you, Laura. Are you comfortable with him getting away with that?”

Even if Terryn couldn’t see her, he had to notice the sly challenge in her voice. “Oh, he’s not going to get away with anything. I want to know why he shot me. I’m going to tail him personally.”

“Another job is the last thing you need. Let’s get a junior operative to tail him,” he said.

She took a swig of the water. “It’s all the same job, Terryn. Just the faces change.”

“Keep me updated,” he said.

“Will do.” She disconnected and removed a boxed lunch from the bag. Starving, she flipped it open. Two small rolled sandwiches of prosciutto with basil and thinly sliced provolone. A small cluster of french fries smelled of truffle oil. She was going to kill Liam for all the salt and starch. But she had asked for “wonderful.”

THE BLACK CAR dropped Laura off a block from the Russell Senate Office Building. The building contained administrative offices and hearing rooms for the Senate as well as senator’s offices and committee rooms. The Senate was known as the world’s most exclusive men’s club, and a stroll through the corridors confirmed it. Laura had been around long enough to remember when senators were all male and women were their secretaries. High-profile secretaries but still secretaries. More women worked in the building than ever before, but men still held the power. Interns in the building joked that they always knew a women was a senator because she didn’t carry files.

Laura had been a sensation in those days. A woman with the power of the Guildhouse behind her demanded-and received-respect. When she was recruited by the forerunner of InterSec, she’d let go of a rising career as a diplomat and was happy to move into public relations for the Guild. She received the exposure to the politics she enjoyed, without the frustrations of all the political backstabbing. She still dealt with those, but it was not her primary job responsibility.

She ducked into an empty restroom. As she washed and dried her hands, she reabsorbed the essence out of the Mariel glamour. Mariel’s face shifted and faded as Laura Blackstone reappeared. She adjusted her outfit, fixed her hair, and made her way to the elevator.

Despite the surprise, Laura didn’t react when the elevator opened and she saw Sinclair standing inside. In the full car, Sinclair rose head and shoulders above the others. The crowd of people edged back to make room for her. Of course, she ended up standing next to him. They bumped and smiled courteously. His essence spiked surprise, too, though he had never met her as Laura Blackstone. He projected an undercurrent of pleasure. She stared down at her shoes trying not to think about it. His emotion shifted, an edge of concern coloring his interest. She wondered what he was thinking but avoided making eye contact.

The doors opened, and they bumped again as they moved to exit.

“Excuse me.” He stepped back to let her go first.

She smiled. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” he said. It was. Even without the subtle emphasis he placed on the words, his attraction was evident. He paced a few feet behind her as she walked down the corridor. She resisted the urge to look back but became keenly aware of how she held herself.