Page 29 of Veiled Justice
‘No.’
There was a beat of silence, ‘I’m sorry.’ Her tone was far softer than I’d ever heard it before.
‘Then help me find her killer, Miss DeLea.’
She sighed. ‘You’re making my life difficult, Krieg.’
‘Yet youareliving it.’ His tone held some significance, as if he had affected her fate in some way.
There was a beat of silence. ‘You may have called off the contract that was on my head but you still let me stroll into a gathering of evil witches!’ she said accusingly.
‘But you knew full well it was a gathering of evil witches, did you not?’
She hissed, ‘So?’
‘You are mistress of your own fate, Crone. You knew there was a gathering of evil witches but you still went in. It was not for me to tell you it was a bad idea.’ Krieg sounded amused. ‘You have Bastion for that.’
‘Your ogres were providing the witches with security!’ she shot back, anger ripping through her voice.
‘Indeed.’ He paused for a moment. ‘And yet … you got in and out without a problem, did you not?’
‘Huh,’ Amber said, as she realised that he had facilitated her ingress into whatever the heck they were talking about.
‘Indeed.’ Krieg was back to being amused.
Amber sighed. ‘I’ll look into the Imbarum. I’ll let you know what I find.’ She hung up.
I looked at Krieg. ‘I don’t think she likes you.’
He gave a small smile. ‘I think she’s rather fond of me, actually.’
I snorted. ‘Do you have any proper friends? Besides Hanlon?’
‘Hanlon isn’t my friend. Do you have any proper friends, Inspector Wise?’ It didn’t escape my notice that he hadn’t answered my question.
Friends: what friends did I have? ‘Kate,’ I blurted, thinking of the ME we’d just left.
‘She’s a work colleague.’
I folded my arms. ‘She’s invited me to drink champagne with her and her sister.’
‘Have you taken her up on it?’
‘Well … no.’
‘Well, then.’
‘I’m friends with Kass and Stevie,’ I insisted, naming the two witches I’d gone to school with but hadn’t seen socially in entirely too long.
‘I look forward to meeting them.’ His expression suggested he thought they were imaginary friends rather than real ones.
I grimaced. I looked forward to seeing the girls too but Stevie was going to yell at me for neglecting them. Luckily, dead bodies were a great excuse for letting things slide. The girls would forgive me, they always did. They understood; we all had busy lives and other priorities. Theirs was their coven and mine was the dead.
And right now my priority was serving Helga in the best way I could by finding her killer.
Chapter 16
To my surprise, when we parked in GV Law’s car park Krieg donned some sort of leather tunic then removed a lethal-looking mace from the boot of the car. When he caught sight of my expression he explained, ‘They expect it,’ as he looped a heavy truncheon through a belt at his waist.
