Page 39 of Mystic Justice
‘They haven’t got the memo,’ Ji-ho huffed.
‘Before we go, can you zoom in on the CCTV as Sandra leaves the coven tower?’ I asked. ‘I’d like to see what she put in her bag.’
‘Let’s see what we can do, but it depends on the original quality of the footage. If the coven scrimped on their security, no amount of zooming in will create pixels that aren’t there.’
He tapped away at his laptop, and the second monitor showed Sandra’s easy egress. He tapped again and the footage zoomed in, sharpening enough for us to see the black feathered mask in her hand.
‘A mask and she’s dressed all in black,’ Krieg commented. ‘And she was dropped off in the warehouse district.’
We were both thinking the same thing. ‘She went to a black tourney,’ I said grimly.
The question was, had she killed Moss Hollings afterwards? A woman who watched men and women fight to death for fun struck me as someone who might be equally capable of killing.
Maybe the black tourney was the appetiser and Moss Hollings was the main meal.
Chapter Nineteen
I left Ji-ho with instructions to scour the area on the night in question and to locate a warehouse building with a steady stream of people dressed in black going inside. The black tourneys were highly illegal deadly fight clubs. All the participants were Other and, according to many reports, few of them fought voluntarily. The Connection had raided many a black tourney, but someone high up somewhere was running interference and pocketing coin from the illegal betting that went on. Time and time again we raided, but we were always too late and the organisers got away scot-free. Every. Single. Time.
We knew that recently a griffin known as Ghost had been running the black tourneys but she’d been shut down and the griffins had dealt with her infraction within the framework of their own laws. Although she – whoever she was, because we only knew she was female – was no longer running the tourneys, it seemed that some other enterprising soul had taken up her mantle.
That was the way of the world: when someone or something created a void, something else was sucked in to fill it. At timesit made police work feel like bailing out a sinking ship with a teacup; take one shit off the street and another stepped into their shoes. It was easy to think it didn’t matter, but if you believed that you’d never do the job. And the jobdidmatter, even if some days it felt like screaming into the void. Every day I showed up, I chose to believe I was making a difference; most days I was pretty sure that I did.
‘Time to bring Sandra Jaxim in for questioning,’ I told Krieg when we were back in my office.
He brightened. ‘I look forward to it. Watching you crush Helga’s killers was one of the highlights of working with you last time.’
‘I hope this won’t disappoint you,’ I said drily.
He stepped closer, invading my space with the scent of leather, black pepper and sandalwood. It was a heady and delicious combination. He was more than a foot taller than me and I had to look up at him, something that was rare for me since I was five-feet eleven-inches tall. I enjoyed the sudden rush of feeling small and feminine; it wasn’t something I’d often experienced. I’d rarely felt feminine – and I’d never felt small.
‘I’m beginning to think that you could never disappoint me, Inspector,’ Krieg breathed against the shell of my ear, making me shudder deliciously. I couldn’t say whether it was his hot breath against the sensitive spot or the words he was speaking, but suddenly it was hard to think and the distance between us felt entirely too wide. My body swayed closer to his and his lips parted in response, his silver eyes darkening with desire. Yes.
Channing burst into my office. ‘I’ve— Oh! Sorry. Um. I’ll just…’ He started to back out of the room.
I reached up and touched Krieg’s chest. Just for a moment I laid my hand over his heart and felt the warmth of his skin through his shirt. I let my hand linger there for a beat. A promise. Then I gave him a light push that would have doneprecisely nothing if he hadn’t wanted to budge. He let himself drift away from me, and my brain fired again.
‘Channing,’ I barked. ‘Get your arse back in here.’ I sat behind my desk and willed the blush to leave my cheeks. ‘What have you got?’
‘Next time, I’ll knock,’ he promised.
‘Knocking is always a good idea,’ Krieg said wisely. ‘There are things in life you don’t need to see. Like your parents fucking.’
‘I wouldn’t know about that. My mum died in childbirth.’
‘Mine too.’ Krieg gave him a sympathetic glance. ‘Traumatised men for the win. But at least we had our dads.’
‘My dad disavowed magic for most of my childhood and we’ve had issues ever since. It’s hard to accept that it was a good idea not to teach a wizard his magic.’
Krieg grimaced. ‘He was trying to do right by you.’
‘Did your dad keep you from magic?’ Channing asked.
‘That would have been impossible. I’m a creature and magic is in the fabric of my being. I don’t need a portal to know what I am.’
It hurt my heart a little that he saidwhat, and not who.
‘I guess not,’ Channing replied.
