She lifted her hand to summon her sword, and Pat grabbed it out of the air with a curt shake of his head. She jerked her fingers away from his, but before he could warn her to blink out, there was a man crouched in the doorway pointing a gun at them.
“FBI. Hands where I can see them,” he barked. “NOW!”
Pat lifted his palms in supplication and motioned for Scarlett to do the same. He could see that she was having trouble with the idea, and silently prayed that she didn’t do something stupid. Like summon a sword out of thin air in front of an armed human.
“Identify yourselves,” the agent demanded.
“Pat Sparrow, Palm Beach PD,” he replied calmly.
He hated impersonating the human police, especially to other police officers. But talking to their FBI might reveal useful information. Not to mention Pat recognized him from his online mug shot.
Dark skin, a fighter’s physique, and intelligent, piercing eyes beneath a neat skull trim. This was Scarlett’s Agent Derrington. And the temptation to bring them together was too much for him to resist. He hadn’t seen her show interest in a male in almost two hundred years.
“This is Scarlett Thresher.” He jerked his head toward Scarlett. “She’s a friend of mine with the Key Largo PD.”
It was obvious from the confusion on Derrington’s face that he recognized her from their front yard brawl.
“Listen man,” Pat continued, trying to create a plausible scenario before Scarlett said something to add to the agent’s suspicion. “I know we’re not supposed to be here, but I heard about it on my scanner and it’s less than a mile from my girlfriend’s place.
“Scarlett’s in town visiting and we decided to go for a walk and check it out. She said there was a murder a lot like this one down in Largo recently.”
Pat could practically see the wheels turning in Derrington’s mind as he weighed the probability of the story.
“How did you two get in here?”
Pat gave a chagrinned smile. “I don’t want to get anybody in trouble, but the back slider was unlocked. We figured the lab techs had already been through the place, but we were careful not to touch anything.” He waggled his gloved fingers at the FBI agent.
Derrington’s gun remained pointing steadily at them. He was obviously having a hard time swallowing the coincidence of Scarlett showing up at both crime scenes. Pat couldn’t say he blamed the man.
“You two have your badges on you?” the agent challenged.
Pat nodded and glanced down at his jacket. Luckily he never entered this realm without a spell designed to fool human eyes into believing they had seen whatever identification he needed them to see. He might hate situations like this, but he was prepared for them.
“Let’s see them. Slowly. One at a time. You first,” Derrington told Pat.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Grey could scarcely believe his eyes. The badass woman of his dreams was here at another one of his crime scenes. It occurred to him that it might not be real. He might still be snoozing on the plane right now. He was certainly sleep deprived enough.
She had looked delectable in that thigh length couture she’d worn while kicking his ass. But she looked even more amazing in skin tight jeans, a black leather vest and boots.
Her presence was making it difficult for him to concentrate. And that was dangerous in his line of work. He narrowed his eyes on her companion and tried to focus.
The man kept one hand up as he slowly reached inside his jacket and pulled out a leather wallet, flipping it over so Grey could see. The badge blurred before his eyes for a moment, and he blinked.
He really needed to get to a hotel and get some sleep.
His vision cleared and the badge resolved into what he recognized as a PBPD shield beneath a card identifying the man as Patrick Sparrow.
He nodded, relaxing his guard. “Sorry about the weapon, Officer Sparrow. You can’t be too careful. Especially when you’re dealing with an unsub like this one.”
“No need to apologize, Agent. As I said, I know we’re not really supposed to be here.”
Grey holstered his gun and raised a brow at Scarlett. “Officer Thresher? I believe we’ve met,” he said with a lopsided grin.
Pat’s eyes widened in an admirable semblance of surprise. “Holy shite. You’re the FBI guy she attacked down in Largo?”
“Oh she told you about that, did she?” His curious gaze travelled back to Scarlett. “Why didn’t you identify yourself as a police officer the last time we met?”
Scarlett cleared her throat, trying not to appear as nervous as she felt. She was still reeling over seeing him again. Not to mention she had no idea what to do if he asked to see her badge. She didn’t know what kind of Seelie magic Pat had up his sleeve, but she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to be able to pull one out of her ass.
Pat nudged her and she realized Derrington was still waiting for her to respond. “Uh. I was at my brother’s wedding,” she said huskily. “I wasn’t on duty and I’d been drinking. And to be honest, I was mortified that I’d attacked an FBI agent. I just wanted to get out of there before there was any more trouble.”
The words flowed easily from her lips because they were mostly the truth. She silently thanked Pat for his quick thinking in setting up such an easy story for her to play along with.
“Do you do that a lot?” Grey asked with a dimpled grin.
“What? Drink?” Scarlett asked defensively.
Grey’s laughter was a rich, smooth sound that resonated in her core. “No. Get into trouble,” he clarified.
Scarlett realized he was teasing her and a slow warmth infused her as she drank in his smile and returned it with one of her own.
“I am trouble,” she returned softly.
“I don’t doubt that for a second.” Something flashed in his dark eyes that made her heart skip a beat. “And I definitely want you on my side the next time I’m in a fight.”
“You just name the time and place, Agent Derrington,” she replied.
“Please, call me Grey,” he requested.
“Grey,” she intoned, “I’m Scarlett.”
Jesus, it made him a little hard just to hear her musical brogue caress his name. Grey swore to himself. If she ever physically caressed him like that, he’d probably explode.
Pat watched as Scarlett flushed prettily beneath Derrington’s gaze. Well he’d be damned. She was actually flirting with a male—a human one. He’d have never believed it if he hadn’t seen it for himself.
And from what he’d seen of Derrington’s bio, the guy might just be perfect for Scarlett. Now how to keep the two of them together for a while?
Pat cleared his throat. “I don’t want to step on any toes,” he hedged, “but it’s obvious this case and the Largo one are serials. Otherwise the FBI wouldn’t be involved.”
Grey sighed and ran his hand over his skull trim. “I usually work with the county sheriffs instead of the local PD’s. But it’s no secret what kind of monster we’re dealing with here. And frankly, the more local cooperation we have, the easier it’s going to be to catch this guy.”
Pat smiled. “I’m real happy to hear you say that, man. Like I said, my girlfriend lives right up the street from here, and Scarlett’s brother and sister-in-law live less than a mile from the victim in Key Largo. We’ll do anything we can to help. This psycho is hitting a little too close to home for all of