Ember’s grin was wide and genuine and made her look like her old self again. “This is the best thing I’ve heard all day. But if you’re gonna tell me, hurry the hell up. I’m obviously really busy, with a lot to do right now.”
“I’ll see if I can cram it all together to fit into your schedule.” Laughing again, Cheyenne pulled her knees up to her chin in the armchair. She couldn’t wait to see the look on her friend’s face when Ember heard about Rez 38, Rhynehart, Sir, and how completely her mom had kicked the man’s ass on the veranda with only sophisticated etiquette and a meticulous working knowledge of criminal law.
Chapter Seventy-Three
“And then they just left?” Ember pulled her hand away from her mouth in shock, then pressed her fingers to her lips again.
“Nobody steps into Bianca Summerlin’s house to try manipulating her into anything.” Cheyenne grinned. “It’s one of my favorite memories now.”
“Your mom should run for President or something.”
“I think someone tried to make that happen once.” The halfling shook her head in amazement. “But she wouldn’t go for it. Honestly, I think she gets bored if she’s in the spotlight for longer than like an hour.”
“Crazy. So what happens next?”
“What do you mean?” Cheyenne sat back in the armchair, trying not to look like she wanted to skip that part.
“I mean, you still have that burner phone, right?” Ember pushed herself up a little straighter against the elevated hospital bed, her eyes shimmering with excitement. “And those idiots clearly still need you. So what’s next? Come on. They had to have asked you to do something else for them.”
“I mean, Sir told me he’d call that stupid phone again. That if I answered, he’d know I was willing to put up with them for a little longer. And he tried to dangle my dad over my head like some dark-elf carrot on a stick.”
“Oh, then he definitely knows your dad. Or at least where he is.”
“Maybe. I can’t really trust anything he says at this point.” Cheyenne shrugged.
“But you’re at least gonna give it a shot and see where it goes, right?”
“No, I’m done.”
“What?”
“Hey, I’m not all that excited about being the FRoE’s little halfling puppet who handles all the problems they probably made worse for themselves in the first place. If Sir knows where my dad is, great. I’m a hundred percent positive I can find the guy on my own without having to wear a Special Forces leash. It’ll take me a little longer, probably, but at least I won’t be dragged through anyone else’s shit first.”
With wide eyes, Ember blinked once and leaned so far over Cheyenne thought she might fall off the bed. “Cheyenne, the guy gave you a one-way ticket to finding out about the one person who knows what you’re going through. Okay, or at least your dad knows about the drow parts. You might even get to meet him, and all you have to do is get into a Jeep with some secret magical military guys and rough up a total scumbag here and there. Why the fuck wouldn’t you agree to that?”
“Em, they put a tracking device in my shoulder.” The halfling almost stabbed herself in said shoulder with how forcefully she pointed at it. “They used it to find me at my mom’s house and tried to…I don’t know what. Guilt-trip me? Scare the crap out of me? Piss me off? They only managed that last one, but I don’t have to keep taking their shit. We made a deal, they broke it. That’s it.”
Shaking her head, Ember looked like she was about to start screaming. Instead, she took a deep breath and spoke pretty calmly for how tightly she’d clenched her fists. “You’re right. You don’t have to keep taking their shit. You don’t have to do anything. If this was just like a really insane job or something, then yeah. Absolutely. Give ‘em the finger and walk away.”
“I’m doing that anyway.”
“Don’t.” The fae held her friend’s gaze and dipped her chin. “I’m serious, Cheyenne. You’re not gonna have another opportunity like this just laid out in front of you. It’s not like what those FRoE people want from you is all that hard. And you get answers out of it, and I promise, if you don’t take them up on it, you’ll end up regretting it.” Ember sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth and grimaced. “And that’ll taste a lot worse than another FRoE ride-along.”
Cheyenne raised an eyebrow and shot Ember a sidelong glance. “You’re really invested in my secret double life.”
“Come on. Look at me.” The other woman snorted. “Your secret double life is the most action I’m gonna be seeing for a while. Seriously, though, beyond that, you need to do this. Answer that stupid phone when it rings, go blast some magicals giving everyone else a hard time, and then get everything you want to know about your dad. And I’d be really surprised if you didn’t find someone along the way who can tell you a lot more about that weird box thing. Like, oh, I dunno, your dad?”
“Okay, okay.” The halfling lifted both hands in surrender with a chuckle. “You made your point.”
“Only if you actually do it.” Ember tried to keep back another laugh, but neither of them was very successful at it. “And then come find me and tell me all about it. This is better than Netflix.”
“Not a lot of bingeing, though.”
“Just do it, Cheyenne.”
“Yeah, sure. I’ll think about it.”
A short, firm knock came from the door to Room 317, and both grad students turned fading smiles toward Dr. Andrews, who stepped briskly in from the hallway. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“Nope.” Ember shot her friend a knowing glance. “You conveniently missed all the exciting stuff.”
The man readjusted his glasses, glanced at Cheyenne too, and smiled.
