Green-Eyed Envy (10 page)

“And I
want
to be a Fury!”

I stroked her hair and sighed. “I know, sweetheart. I wanted the same thing. Let me tell you this much, though—worrying about it won’t change a thing. It’ll just make you into a quivering, neurotic mess. And
that
I know from experience.”

She gave a disbelieving chuckle. “I have a hard time picturing
you
as a neurotic mess, Aunt Riss.”

“Oh, baby girl, picture it. It’s happened way more than once. Though if you tell anyone else that, I will categorically deny it.”

Her laughter when I stuck out my tongue sounded much more relaxed and like her usual cheerful self. I vowed to make sure I didn’t put any pressure on Cori that might make her think I’d love her any less if she
did
take after her parents rather than her aunts. Gods knew we had plenty enough to worry about in our family without taking on that stress as well.

 

 

THE SHITSTORM SWIRLING INSIDE MY FAMILY and the Sisterhood shoved every bit of remaining resistance to playing Harper’s wedding planner out of my head. After reassuring myself that both my nieces were safe in their bedrooms and chatting briefly with David and Jessica, I became a woman on a mission. I would learn how to fake it enough to make it as a hoity-toity girly-girl until we could bring down a killer. And
then
I was taking my built-up vacation to clean house—I mean Palladium—with my mother. Trinity could handle things in my absence, especially with Scott’s arcane muscles to back her up.

Sleeping in my bed curled up with Scott that evening, I made a mental note to contact my old pal—ha!—Dre Carrington to have my defenses upgraded yet again. Granted, there may not
be
a security measure capable of keeping out Elder Furies, what with their nifty travel power the rest of us could only lust after. Still, if anyone could, it would be the very finest in arcane security—the ones employed by Dre’s narcissistically paranoid (and filthy rich) ass to keep him safe. I had firsthand knowledge of that fact, seeing as how it had been
his
sorceress who ambushed me in that elevator.

Nothing against my mother personally, but if something was rotten in the state of Furydom, I didn’t want
anyone
able to break into my home and take me by surprise. Not even Elder Furies.

My helicopter brain kept whirring all night, and I got very little sleep, which meant I was up even earlier the next morning. Scott tracked me down in the breakfast nook, where I was hunkered down with coffee, low-fat bagels, and
Wedding Planning Made Easy
.

“Okay, you
look
like my delectable lover; you even
smell
like my delectable lover. But no
way
would she be reading that book and eating
low-fat bagels
. Who are you and what have you done with my Sugar Princess?”

I barely glanced at him as I turned to the next page. “Good morning to you, too.”

He clutched his chest dramatically before sitting across the table. “Okay, now I
know
you’re not the real Riss because you didn’t throw food at—”
Splat!
A piece of cream cheese–slathered bagel hit him square in the face.

My smile would have done an angel proud. “What was that, baby?”

He wiped the food off with a growl, but the curve to his lips belied the threat in his voice. “Seriously, when did you start keeping low-fat food in the house?”

I curled my own lips, though not in amusement. “Since Trin hit the big 3-0 and decided to drag me along on her health kick.”

“And you’re actually going along without a fight?”

Tapping the mug holding my gourmet, full-fat, overcaffeinated beverage, I smirked. “Nah. I ran out of Pop-Tarts and haven’t had time to shop. I didn’t feel like hitting Dunkin’ Donuts at the crack of dawn, and the bagels were stuck in the back of the freezer.”

He let out a guffaw. “Okay,
there’s
the woman I know and love.” I couldn’t help the goofy smile that settled over my face. “So really, you’re actually reading that thing? Last I saw, you’d dumped it in your recycle bin.”

“Yeah,” I said morosely. “I’m
really
reading this thing. I have to close this case before I can help Mom figure out what’s up with Nan. If learning which fork goes where and how to organize dress fittings for ten gets me access to potential suspects, then gods help me but that’s what I’ll do. Besides, I only have to learn enough to fake it around wedding guests while I investigate potential suspects. It’s not like I’m going to be
really
planning this stuff. Harper and her sisters have that part covered.”

I had another reason for giving in to the undercover wedding-planner operation, and he was sitting right in front of me. My overactive imagination the night before had delighted in reminding me over and over again that Scott had been involved with Harper, however briefly, which meant that he very well
could
be in danger from this lunatic. The chance was slim—very slim—but not nil. I loved him too much not to do everything in my power to protect him. Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time I’d gone undercover in a role I didn’t enjoy, and I doubted it would be the last.

He noticed me rubbing my throbbing knee and frowned. “Kiara’s new potion not helping?”

Shit.
Time for yet another deliberate misstatement. Okay, lie. “It’s helping. My knee just aches when I sleep on it wrong.”

He actually accepted that explanation without argument. Wow. I must be getting better at hiding my true feelings from him. Not sure if that made me relieved or very, very sad. With everything going to hell in my life except for him, I decided to settle on relieved. I
would
tell him about my knee getting worse again and my failed attempts to self-medicate with good ole alcohol. Later.

“What’s the plan for today?”

I pushed my empty coffee mug away. “First, I want to touch base with Trinity at HQ. Get her impressions from the family members she spoke to, and see if Sahana has any more findings or test results for us yet. After that, she and I need to convince Cappy that sending the two of us in undercover is, in fact, as brilliant a scheme as you seem to think.” Good ole Cappy. Fortunately he’d come out of the magical trance a Sidhe clone had put him under relatively unscathed. The Sidhe clone, on the other hand, hadn’t been
nearly
so lucky.

Scott gave a sudden grin. “So, how’s Zalawski doing these days?”

I rolled my eyes at the mention of my archenemy on the force. Before I’d been promoted to chief of the newly formed MCU in addition to my post as Chief Magical Investigator, Trinity and Zalawski had been the mortal detectives assigned to assist my magical crime investigations. Only problem was Tony “the Asshole” Zalawski and I hated each other more than—well, more than Cats and Hounds. He’d taken great pleasure in my unwarranted suspension during Vanessa’s investigation, and I’d taken even greater pleasure in transferring his ass
out
of the MCU the minute it was formed. Unfortunately for my inner sense of vengeance, though, the little weasel hit the ground running.

“He’s been promoted twice in his new unit. And what a surprise he’s such a frigging genius working as an undercover drug dealer.”

Scott’s lips twitched, but he held back his smile. “Yeah, I’m sure acting like a sleazy hard-ass is a real stretch for him.”

That brought the sunny back to my face. I grinned, marked my spot in the
Wedding Planning Book from Hell
, and focused on finishing off Trinity’s bagels so we could get down to business.

Once we were both dressed (this time I went all out in my red-hot Fury leather), we headed downtown. My early bird ways meant we got there before Trinity, though not by much. She sauntered into my office soon after loaded down with a tub of low-fat yogurt and a box of granola. Granola, for gods’ sake.

I wrinkled my nose. “You have
got
to be kidding me! I already ate your taste-deficient bagels this morning.” Scott looked over his shoulder, saw that Trin had brought enough health food to choke a horse, and burst out laughing.

Trinity stuck her nose in the air and leaned against the doorway. “Back off, beasts. This is
my
breakfast for the week.” Yeah, ’cause we were
so
in danger of attacking her over bird food. Her expression sobered. “Did your mother ever track you down?”

I nodded, expression souring. “Yeah. I know all about Nan.”

Trinity jiggled the granola box. “Allegra didn’t give many details, but she didn’t seem overly thrilled by your grandmother’s miraculous recovery.”

Hel
lo
, understatement. “Long story short, Nan woke up a week ago; Oracles only ’fessed up yesterday—after Nan bitchslapped Fox Face in open Session.”

“ ’ Kay, so I don’t know that much about Fury politics, but that can’t have been a good thing for a former coma patient’s health.”

I gave a bark of laughter. “She basically challenged Ekaterina to a duel for her Lesser Consensus seat. Potentially to the death. And she refused to speak to my mother yesterday.”

“I thought they were really close.”

“They were. Which is part of the problem. Anyway, Mom’s checking into what the hell’s wrong with Nan while I work on closing this case so I can give her backup. Assuming you won’t mind holding down the fort here?”

Trinity patted her shiny deputy chief badge she’d earned along with her assignment to the MCU. “I think I can manage,” she remarked drily. “So, we better get our wheels on if you want to actually use up some of your PTO. Though Cappy may have a coronary from the shock when you put in
that
request.”

My mouth took on a sardonic twist. “Funny you mention Cappy and shocking requests, Trin.” I picked up the
Wedding Planning Book from Hell
and tossed it at her. “How do you feel about the high-society event-planning biz?”

She scrambled to catch the book without spilling her bird food. “
Wedding Planning Made Easy
. ” Her eyes widened and she raised a brow. “There something you two need to tell me?” She moved the book and food to the front of her stomach and mimed a baby bump.

“Gods, no!” I burst out at the same time Scott said, “I wish!” I threw a pen at him. “No, Trin, I would have mentioned something like that
before
we reached the wedding-planning stage. Assuming I chose to make an honest man out of my baby daddy. Have you already forgotten the Addams Family proposal scene in the morgue?”

“Well, hell. Why would
you
need a wedding-planning book for
their
engagement?” She paused. “Wait. Shocking requests to Cappy. You with a wedding-planning book. I smell a sting operation in the air.”

That’s my girl!
And where I had been horrified by the thought, she looked positively gleeful. “Think you’re up to playing assistant to my J-Lo routine?”

She gave me a
Girlfriend, please!
look. “The day I can’t keep up with
you
in the acting department is the day I turn in my badge.”

Which, knowing her the way I did, would happen the day after I ’fessed up about my knee problems. Trinity could give a Fury lessons in the stubbornness department. Probably the reason we worked so well together.

I gestured to her breakfast-turned-fake-baby-bump. “Better eat if you’re gonna. We’ve got a full day of autopsy reports, undercover authorization requests, and sucking up to supervisors to get going with.”

“Sounds like my kind of day,” she drawled before heading toward her own office.

Sadly, I didn’t think she was kidding.

TURNED OUT I WAS SURROUNDED BY CRAZY people. Captain Robert “Cappy” Peterson thought “Special Agent Cruz’s” undercover operation was an “absolutely
brilliant
idea.” There went my last shred of hope we’d have to come up with some other harebrained scheme. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it), I was slowly warming up to the idea myself.

They
totally
slipped me the Kool-Aid when I wasn’t looking.
Though, really, the more I’d thought about it, the better an idea it seemed. Acting as the wedding planner meant I could mix and mingle with the wedding guests—all potential suspects—and nobody would really think twice about me getting a little nosy in the process. And whether the killer proved to be a jealous ex, a would-be lover, or a racist psycho willing to do anything to keep the couple from marrying, the wedding events should serve to rile that person’s temper something fierce.

After getting the okay from Cappy, we turned our attention back to Sahana, who’d had her hands full with an autopsy when we went by her office that morning. She’d cleared her lunchtime so we could discuss her opinions on the Cat corpses now that she’d had a chance to go back and examine everything from the perspective that all three cases were linked. We caught up with her in an empty interrogation room, Trinity munching on what looked like rabbit food while we arcanes shared an extra-large pizza. I considered offering her a piece but selflessly concluded that would be insensitive toward her newfound healthy lifestyle.