She didn’t expect Sir to be finished when he was; he still had a quarter of a sandwich left. But he picked up his napkin, thoroughly wiped around his mouth and over his mustache, tossed the napkin on his plate, and slid it toward the edge of the table. He drained the last of his coffee while Rhynehart licked the dressing off his fingers.
Cheyenne blinked slowly and focused on her breathing.
“Boy, that was good. Never fails to put me in the right mood.”
“Please tell me I didn’t sit through that carnival show just so you could upsell a BLT.” The halfling tilted her head and dared him with her eyes to keep beating around the bush.
“I’m certain you’ll appreciate what I can tell you right now.” Sir swallowed and brushed a hand over his mustache again. “It isn’t everything, but it’s what I have the liberty to disclose to you today. And we’ll need more assurances from you before I hand over the rest of the jackpot. You get it.”
“Sure. Let’s hear it, then.”
“Do you hear that, Rhynehart?” Sir looked at his operative and gestured with an open hand toward the drow halfling across the table. Rhynehart just raised his eyebrows and stared at his empty plate as he wiped his mouth with his own napkin. “I guess we’ll just have to prove we have viable information. You can take from this what you will, halfling.”
She stared at him. Like I need his permission.
“You already know enough about your father to put things together. Inmate 4872, as he’s otherwise called in certain official documents. We prefer not to deal with the names of certain magicals of interest, given or otherwise. They change more often than they stay the same, except for this one. Inmate 4872 goes by the same name on this side of the Border as he did back there. L’zar Verdys.”
Despite herself, Cheyenne felt a flutter in her chest, just hearing the name out loud. L’zar Verdys. That sounds like the truth. Whatever that meant; she’d just have to go with it. Very few things in her life had felt as certain as the name of the man who’d given her the drow magic running through her veins.
“That’s a powerful piece of information, halfling. A powerful name. I’d be careful not to overuse it if I were you.”
“Great advice,” she muttered, speaking in an emotionless tone because she couldn’t afford to let either of these men see how important that name was to her. “Anything else?”
“Quite a bit, actually. But for now, I can tell you the drow you’ve been looking for is most definitely still alive. And on this side of the Border.” Sir glanced quickly at the agent sitting beside him. “According to Rhynehart, you’ve already heard of Chateau D’rahl, right?”
Cheyenne swallowed. “A little.”
“It’s a maximum-security prison just for those magicals on this side who’ve been deemed too dangerous on both sides of the Border to be re-released into society. It’s a FRoE-controlled prison, which not all of them are, by the way. I’ll tell you right now you won’t find it in any top-secret server or whatever files you might be able to hack your way into given enough time. Yeah, I know what you can do.”
The halfling clenched her fists in her lap and leaned forward. “I want to see him.”
“Sure. We can arrange that. But not yet.”
“What?” Cheyenne glanced quickly from Sir to Rhynehart. The operative met her gaze and scratched his chin but didn’t offer anything else. “Why the hell not? I did what you wanted. I answered the phone and went on a fun little trip with your guys to that church in Manchester. You said you’d—”
“I said I’d tell you more about your dear ol’ dad after you helped us out again. And I’ve done that. Now you know more.”
Grimacing to keep her anger under control, Cheyenne hissed a sigh through her teeth. She wanted to launch herself across the table at the FRoE asshole who still called himself Sir. “That’s not enough. You gave me a name and told me I won’t be able to find him. How is that worth my time?”
“Somebody needs to work on their anger management, I think.” Sir tapped his fingers on the table and looked up with a smile when the server Grace reappeared with the check. “Thank you, Grace. Here.” He whipped a credit card from the front pocket of his pants and handed it to her. Then she disappeared again. When he looked back at Cheyenne, his smile was tight and strained, like he enjoyed sitting here with her just as much as she did. “We need you and your special something extra for one more operation tomorrow. If you cooperate on that one like you did today, I’ll take you to Chateau D’rahl myself. Then you can have that father-daughter reunion you think you want so badly.”
“Don’t pretend to know what I want, Sir.”
“I’m sure I couldn’t even imagine what goes on in that halfling head of yours. Might find things in there that’d make me lose that excellent BLT I enjoyed so much. But that’s my offer. One more operation, and you go with Rhynehart tomorrow. When it’s done, you get to go on your first ride-along with me.”
“Oh, joy.” It clearly wasn’t. Cheyenne held the man’s gaze and cocked her head. “How do I know you’re not gonna turn this deal around on me too?”
“You don’t.” Sir shrugged. “But we both want something, halfling, and we’re in this goddamn annoying situation where we’re the only two people who can give the other person what
