CHAPTER 9
LAURA HAD PLANNED the
detention of Fallon Moor for early in the morning in order to free
up time for the rest of the day. She was glad she did, since
between the initial interview of Moor and the subsequent paperwork,
she didn’t get upstairs to the public-relations department until
noon.
The chaos on her desk did its best to depress her,
but she retaliated by remaining focused. The reception for Draigen
macCullen produced layers of pressure that she hadn’t anticipated.
Working for Guildmaster Orrin ap Rhys as his public-relations
director and for Terryn macCullen as his top undercover agent
created conflicts that were becoming harder to ignore. At this
point, she recognized that Rhys was no fan of the Inverni—neither
past nor present—and enjoyed fanning the flames of their
disagreements. As a diplomatic extension of High Queen Maeve’s
court, the Washington Guildhouse was playing a major role in
discrediting the Inverni position—and Laura was finding her job as
public-relations director bumping up against her moral and personal
ethics as a friend and colleague of Terryn.
Regardless of her job title on the Guildhouse
letterhead, Laura’s public-relations position had expanded over the
years by a slow accretion of tasks and favors that had nothing to
do with her primary job. Her inherent drive to get things done had
clouded the fact that she had let things get out of control. Hiring
Saffin Corrill as her assistant helped manage the unwieldy numbers
of responsibilities, with the added benefit of finding someone she
could trust. Where Laura didn’t want to say no to people, Saffin
had no problem booting them to the curb.
To complicate things more, Rhys didn’t know she
worked for InterSec. Terryn, of course, knew about her Guild work
but made it a point never to ask her for inside information. Which
made things harder, since the decision to reveal or not reveal was
hers. Depending on the situation, she sometimes was forced to make
a choice between Terryn and Rhys, something that did not always sit
well depending on which job hat she wore.
Which all came down to why she had become more
involved in Draigen macCullen’s reception than she would have
otherwise. Rhys had assigned the lead responsibility to Resha
Dunne, but Laura wanted Draigen’s meeting with the president of the
United States to succeed. If Draigen succeeded, Laura wouldn’t have
to draw a line in the sand with Rhys regarding how far she would go
to discredit Terryn’s clan. If Draigen succeeded, Laura’s personal
feelings for Terryn wouldn’t make her feel obligated to disclose
Guild strategies against the Inverni to him. She didn’t want
Draigen to succeed. She needed her
to.
Saffin arrived with a stack of folders, which she
laid out along the front edge of Laura’s desk. “This folder
contains top-priority issues. This one has potential issues. This
one has issues I don’t think are issues. And this one has issues
that I know aren’t issues. Some people need to find better things
to do with their time.”
Her efficiency amused and gratified Laura. She and
Saffin had worked together for years, knew each other’s rhythms,
and helped each other get their jobs done. Without Saffin, Laura’s
double life would have been impossible. She had saved Laura’s
reputation several times—once literally saved her life.
Brownies by nature were skilled organizational
personalities with a knack for order and efficiency. Those talents
came at a price. Stressed by an obstacle in their path to
successful completion of a job, they transformed into boggarts—a
manic version of their normal selves. She had seen the effect
recently with Fallon Moor. The physical transformation was
exhausting for brownies—and dangerous to the people around them.
“Going boggie” had a range of behaviors from an annoying
relentlessness to outright violent acts.
Without comment, Laura observed the healing cuts on
Saffin’s face and arms. Saffin had been caught in the recent
terrorist attack at the Archives and gone full boggart. Her body
became a killing machine to save her life and the lives of others.
While Laura knew it was a matter of being in the wrong place at the
wrong time, she couldn’t help feeling responsible for what Saffin
had done, especially since Laura had had to encourage it to save
them. If Laura had prevented the attack in the first place, Saffin
wouldn’t have been hurt—or hurt others. Saffin hadn’t blamed Laura.
She didn’t dwell on what she had done but accepted it as the
inevitable outcome of her nature. Laura wished she could be so
comfortable in her own skin.
“How about I take the office complaint folder, and
you take the reception one?” she asked.
Saffin flipped her wispy blond hair over her
shoulders. “Sure. Of course, that means the reception hors
d’oeuvres will be vegetarian, people will have to get their own,
the music will be rockabilly, and I might consider some kind of
role-playing party game to loosen everyone up.”
Laura shook her head. “You do not like
rockabilly.”
Saffin smirked. “Neither do fairies. Everyone will
leave early, and I’ll have enough leftovers to not cook for a
week.”
“You convinced me. I’ll take the first folder,”
Laura said.
Saffin sighed. “Have it your way. A Stray Cats
reunion would have been awesome.”
Laura pulled the folder closer and flipped it open.
“I won’t be in tomorrow, but text me if you need anything.”
“No problem.” Laura picked up a slight pause before
the reply. Saffin was the only person outside InterSec who knew
about Laura’s double life. She had figured it out on her own years
ago. That she kept it to herself—not even discussing it with Laura
until recent events exposed her knowledge—assured Laura that she
could rely on Saffin to keep it a secret. From experience, she had
no doubt that Saffin would have no problem running the office
without her.
Saffin picked up the papers in the desk out-box.
“I’m going for a mani and a pedi. Be back in an hour.”
“Should you be telling me you’re running personal
errands on company time?” Laura said.
Saffin grinned as she walked out the door. “It’s
for the reception. That makes it work-related and a tax write-off. Is this a groovy country or
isn’t it?”
Laura chuckled. If there was one thing she could
count on, it was Saffin Corrill not missing a detail. She spent a
few minutes reviewing the folders and making notes. She checked her
watch. She wanted to be gone before Saffin returned because she
wasn’t, in reality, going to be gone. Despite Saffin’s knowing
about her InterSec life, she didn’t want to become nonchalant about
it.
She retrieved her handbag from under the desk and
opened the closet door behind her. Pushing aside the coat and spare
outfits, a warding spell keyed to Laura’s body signature made the
back of the closet appear to be solid. Laura stepped through the
wall and disappeared from her office.