“All right, come on,” he muttered,more to gear himself up than anything else. He shuffled forward and managed tosomehow loop Agent Prime’s arm around his shoulders, even though it meant hehad to lean awkwardly forward—she was shorter than him, after all. Then hebegan to lead her out, attempting to avoid getting stuck behind any slow-movinggroups of students.
Prime’s head kept lolling aroundlike she was having trouble staying conscious, and her feet seemed to slip andstagger with every step. A couple of times they almost tripped into variousobstacles along the way—a sofa, a footstool, a discarded can lying on thefloor.
“Come on, Prime, help me out,”Flynn grimaced, adjusting his grip on her arm as she staggered once again,almost taking him down with her. “Just put one foot in front of the other.”
“Floor’s movin’,” Prime murmured,her voice slurred and drowsy, as they made it out into the shock of the coldnight air.
Flynn managed to pull her over tothe car and get the door open before pushing her into the passenger seat. Hegot her seatbelt buckled and slammed the door shut, stopping to rub hisforehead for a moment. Great first assignment to have. Either his new partnerwas a real lightweight, or she was some kind of severe alcoholic who had theability to get completely trashed within the space of five minutes.
Or, alternatively, it was acollege party, and she’d been given something that wasn’t just liquor.
The thought had Flynn’s backstraightening with alarm, but he shook his head at himself. Either way, she’dstill willingly drunk it, which meant he was more likely to believe she reallyhad managed to get that drunk in such a short space of time. He crossed aroundthe front of the car and got behind the wheel, glancing over to see that AgentPrime was already fast asleep with her head pressed against the window.
“Jesus Christ,” Flynn muttered tohimself, starting the engine with a hard flick of his wrist. He paused a momentto take a deep breath before setting off. Prime’s whack-a-mole theories werebad enough, but now he had to deal with a drinking problem, too?
As soon as they closed the caseand got back to Washington, he told himself, he’d request a transfer. Theneverything would be fine. He drove a little smoother with this promise rattlingaround in his head, taking the edge off the anger he felt toward Prime. Butthey were still going to have to have a conversation in the morning.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The first thing Zoe was aware ofwas a pounding in her head. That was long before she dared to open her eyes,and it was definitely too loud for her to notice, at first, anything else abouther physical situation.
When she did finally crack hereyes open, Zoe winced at the light coming in around the curtains. Damn motels—theywere always inadequate. Zoe had been waking with the light of the dawn for awhile now, but she hadn’t also been running all over the place trying to solvea crime—more like napping with her cats in the afternoon. And her head hadn’thurt quite so bad before.
With a groan, she began to move,lifting her head to first look down at herself. What had happened last night?She was still wearing her clothes, she realized—everything down to her shoes,still firmly tied on her feet. Come to think of it, she didn’t remember gettinginto bed. She didn’t even remember driving back to the motel room. They’d beencoming back from the engineer’s house, and then…?
Zoe looked up, far too quickly,the movement rattling her brain inside her skull. She winced, then froze: whatwas that, on the sofa? Squinting, she realized that she was looking at theprone body of a man, lying across the thin sofa in the room. Absurdly, his feetwere dangling off the edge of the cushions, far too long to fit on it properly.
The rookie. It was the rookie, sherealized, and he was looking right back at her.
What the hell had happened lastnight?
“Agent Prime,” Flynn said stiffly.He sat up, cracking his neck, the bone clicking loudly. “Got a headache thismorning?”
“Yes,” Zoe admitted, hoping he wasgoing to offer her some kind of painkiller, maybe a glass of water.
“Good,” Flynn snapped. Zoe wasgetting the feeling that he wasn’t happy with her. Not that that was anythingnew. Was it still about the interrogation with the engineer? He’d been out ofline. What had happened after that? “You deserve it. I’ve got a sore head of myown, after sitting here watching over you half the night.”
“Watching over me?” Zoe repeated.She felt like she was playing catch-up. Talking about a film she hadn’t seen.
“After your little party lastnight.”
Party… that rang a bell. With aninternal groan, it came back to her: the frat house. They’d gone inside, and ithad all been too much, and then she’d staggered into the kitchen…
The pills. She must have had somekind of reaction from mixing the alcohol with the pills.
“Oh,” she said, dimly, trying toprocess it all. Had she done something embarrassing? Wait, but Flynn probablythought she’d only been drunk—he didn’t know about the pills—didn’t realize itwas a mistake. Didn’t know about the numbers that had caused her to need all ofthis in the first place.
“Oh is right,” Flynn said,gathering himself up and stretching out his arms. “I didn’t want to leave youalone all night in case you choked on your own vomit or something. So I had tosleep here, on this sofa, which I can assure you is much less comfortable thanthe frankly low-standard beds this so-called motel has to offer.”
“I am sorry about that,” Zoe said,trying to get her thoughts in order. She felt the heat of a slow blushtraveling across her face, outside of her control. “I mean, thank you. Forwatching over me. Getting me back here.”
“I don’t want to hear it,” Flynnsaid, shaking his head. “I don’t know what your other partners
