Page 35 of Soul Sucker

“Nope, I can’t do it.” She shook her head. “It just makes everything complicated at work. I need to keep my mind on Otherworld.”

“Not a problem.” He picked up his empty cup. “Can I get you anything?”

“No thanks, I’ve got soda.”

He rose to his feet and looked down at her, all delicious silver hair and eyes. “If you change your mind, let me know, won’t you?”

“Sure.”

He nodded, and she watched him walk to the door with his usual grace and then hesitate. “Mr. Feehan’s back.”

Ella stood too. “Good to know. I’m going to my office. Come and get me if anything exciting happens.”

* * *

Ella left Feehan’s office.She’d done her job and established that George Ralston didn’t have any obvious connection to the victim, her apartment or the killer. It would be up to Liz and Alexei to decide if he was of any further interest to the Fae-Web. She found Liz chatting to Alexei, their heads close together, their Fae-Webs enmeshed.

She coughed loudly and they both jumped. Damn, she should have remembered from lunch that interrupting someone when they were deeply in the Fae-Web gave them a shock.

“Sorry, guys. Feehan wants to see you, Liz.”

Liz stretched, and the silver lines of her Fae-Web trembled and disappeared. She walked out to Ella in the hallway. “Did you meet Ralston?”

“Yeah, I did. As far as I’m concerned, he’s in the clear. Feehan wants you to meet him too, though.”

“I’d be happy to.” Liz smoothed down her pink skirt and patted the shining curve of her blond bob. “By the way, is it okay if I bring some guests to the barbecue on Sunday?”

“The more the merrier. I can hide from my parents in the crowd.” She’d finally succumbed to Mom Guilt and agreed to visit her family in the East Bay for the weekend. Apparently, they were celebrating something she should have known about weeks ago. Something she’d already forgotten the details of—again.

“Do you still need a ride, Liz?”

“No, we’ll bring the others. You can take Laney.”

“If she wants to come.”

“Is she okay?”

“She’s fine. She’s just all excited about hooking up with her OCOS date.”

“Laneyis?” Liz stopped walking.

Ella forced a smile. “Yeah, she decided to go for it after all.”

“Well, good for her.” She patted Ella’s shoulder. “You should consider it.”

“Hmm…”

Liz knocked on Feehan’s door and Ella continued on down to her corner office. She passed the open door of the small conference room and saw Vadim writing on the whiteboard. His precious jacket was placed carefully on the back of a chair and his sleeves were rolled up to the elbow.

She paused in the doorway, ostensibly to check out what he was writing, but also to check him out. Just because he thought he was too good for her didn’t mean she couldn’t admire him from afar. His hair was almost black and his cheekbones rivaled a supermodel. Luckily, that tough mouth of his saved him from being too pretty…

“Did you want something, Ms. Walsh?”

She leaned against the doorframe. “Mr. Ralston’s here if you want to see him.”

“What did you think of him?”

She came farther into the room and dropped her backpack on the table. “I can’t sense any connections between him and the victim. He seems genuinely upset about her loss.”

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