She parked in the lot, got out, and felt like a total loon as she headed toward the front doors.
The bell on the door jingled when she opened it and stepped inside, although it couldn’t possibly be heard by anyone in the back over the sound of all the mechanical racks moving around and the steam-cleaner or whatever they used hissing away behind all those clothes. Cheyenne stepped up to the front counter and pressed the red rubber button on a little stand with a strip of paper taped to the front that read, Please ring once. We can hear you.
It took another minute for someone to come out of the back, and that was fine. The halfling wasn’t one of those people who thought her time was more important than everyone else’s, especially when she had no idea if this supposed package was going to be worth her time at all.
A short, thin woman in her mid- to late forties with dark hair cut in a straight, shiny bob bustled up to the counter and smiled at Cheyenne. She folded her hands and settled them on the top. “How can I help you?”
“Yeah, um, I’m looking for Dianna.”
The woman spread her arms. “Well, good job. You found her.”
“Awesome. So, I was sent in here to pick up a package, I think. N-1075.”
Dianna blinked, her smile flickering on her lips like she couldn’t decide whether to be pissed or laugh. “N-1075?”
“Yep. That’s what I was told.” The halfling attempted a smile but didn’t manage much more than a grimace.
“Huh.” Dianna’s smile finally settled on something like disbelief and amusement wrapped into one as she eyed the half-drow. Then she tapped a finger on the counter and stuck it in the air. “I’ll be right back, okay? You just wait right there.”
“Sure.” Sticking her hands in her pockets, Cheyenne had to make the conscious decision to breathe through her mouth right now instead of her nose. There were way too many smells in here from way too many people, all of them pumped up to maximum strength by whatever cleaning solution the woman used back there on so many different “dry-clean only” items. She chuckled.
No wonder I always hated it when Eleanor brought home Mom’s dry-cleaning. I was smelling a whole bunch of strangers’ things all mashed into everybody else’s clothes.
A little over a minute later, Dianna came walking briskly back up to the front with what was apparently N-1075. And it didn’t look anything like dry-cleaning. “Here you go.”
The woman handed the long brown paper bag across the counter with both hands. Cheyenne got a glimpse of white paper rolled up inside it.
“Okay. Thanks.” When the halfling took the unexpected package, she almost dropped it right there on the counter. Not that it was all that heavy, but she definitely hadn’t expected the weight.
With another secretive smile, Dianna studied her unexpected customer and nodded. “Anything else?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t owe you anything for this, do I?”
The woman chuckled and shook her head. “Already paid for. You’re just the messenger, right?”
With an unsure smile, Cheyenne dipped her head toward the woman and muttered, “Something like that. Thanks.”
“No problem. Maybe I’ll see you next time, then.”
“Yeah, maybe,” the halfling called over her shoulder as she headed right back out of the steamy, noisy, smelly dry-cleaner’s. She didn’t even try to look into the weird package until she got back behind the wheel of her Focus, started the engine, and rolled down the window to let in more fresh air.
Cheyenne peered into the top of the paper bag and frowned at the thin white butcher paper wrapped around whatever was inside. When she started to slide the thing out of the bag to take a closer look, a buzz rose from the passenger seat, accompanied by the flashing light on the FRoE burner phone. “Oh, come on. Can’t I finish something without getting interrupted?”
As much as she wanted to chuck that burner phone right out the open window of her car and cut all ties with Sir and his demands on her abilities in action, she didn’t. She grabbed it, flipped it open, and put it to her ear. “Yeah.”
“Hey, rookie,” Rhynehart chirped. “Time for that one last favor before you start moving up the ranks and getting your answers. You ready?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Not if you want an escort to Chateau D’rahl.”
She sighed into the phone and wedged the brown bag onto the passenger seat. “Fine.”
“Sweet. I’m gonna text you an address. It’s about a thirty-minute drive from the mall, and I’m guessing you’re not all that far away from there, yeah?”
“Sure.”
“As soon as you get it, start driving. We’ll get this last little piece of work wrapped up, and you’re good to pencil a trip with Sir into your schedule.”
Cheyenne blinked dully. “Can’t wait.”
Then she closed the phone because she had nothing else to say to the FRoE operative who’d called at the perfectly wrong time. She glanced at the brown paper bag on the seat and frowned. I’ll deal with you later.
The burner phone buzzed in her hand, and she opened it again to find that text from Rhynehart, as promised. She plugged it into the GPS on her personal phone and frowned. Yeah, it was about a half-hour drive from the dry-cleaner’s, on the northwest end of Richmond. It looked like a well-populated residential area. Didn’t know the FRoE made house calls.
Strapping on her seatbelt, the halfling pulled away from the dry-cleaner’s and followed her GPS directions toward this last mission with Rhynehart before Sir finally made good on his end of their deal. “He’d better.”
Chapter Eighty-Nine
Cheyenne pulled up in the expected residential neighborhood and found the house with the texted address easily enough. Rhynehart’s black Jeep was parked three houses down by the corner, but the halfling didn’t want her car associated with a FRoE vehicle in what looked like a relatively nice neighborhood just in case things went south. She
