“That’s nasty.” She covered her mouth and stepped back.
She backed up against the wall and had a sinking feeling that things had just gotten very bad. They had been going so splendidly so far. She sighed, and she told the guards, “I will be in my office when they come to interview me.”
“Yes, Researcher Zera.”
She walked back to her office and sat at her desk, her head in her hands. He was a mind jumper. That explained so much. Damn it. Now she was going to have to rework her strategy. It also made her slightly confused as he should not have been jealous of Delvis. He should have just been able to take over Delvis’s body and been the object of Susara’s affections, but that wasn’t what happened. She ended up dead. What had happened?
She lay with her head down on her desk. It was a fucking mess of a day.
The knock at her door brought her hand up. Her head stayed down. “Hey. How’s it going?”
“Researcher Zera? We need to ask you a few questions.”
She raised her head and looked at her guests.
Hron, Astel, and Naima were in the company of a mentalist. This was not going to be fun.
She looked at them and slowly straightened in her chair. “Come in. Have a seat. Sorry, I don’t have more chairs, but I don’t often get folks in here.”
The mentalist looked at her and nodded. “I am the only one who will need a seat. The others are here to assure my safety.”
“Excellent. You look a little on the frail side.” He was burly and six foot six easily.
He pulled the chair around her desk and held out his hands. She stared at them.
“Haven’t you been scanned before?”
“Um, no.”
“Extend your hands and look into my eyes. I will ask you questions, and my mind will touch yours. Are you prepared?”
“No.”
“Good. I get better answers that way.”
She extended her hands, and he gripped them.
She looked into his eyes, and he blinked slightly.
“You are not thinking about the events this morning.”
“I am trying to think of nothing.”
He nodded. “Right. State your name.”
“Researcher Zera.”
“What is your occupation?”
“Electronic weapons design.”
“What is your hobby?”
“Escort.”
He paused. “What?”
“I own and operate the Blind Date Corporation.”
“Oh. Right. That’s you. You look different than in your interview.”
“I am lacking sleep, running on insufficient food, and my house burned down, so I am waiting on clothing delivery. And, I watched a man die. So, great day so far.”
“Now, replay everything from just before he arrived until the end.”
She looked at him and played him the memory, starting at shutting down the vid until the man died, and she hugged the wall as dread set in.
His thumbs caressed the back of her hands. He wasn’t one of her clients. Mentalists tended to avoid contact. They saw too much.
“So, you know who is after you, and he admitted to murdering student Susara.”
“Yes. I had no idea that the man involved in her death was a body jumper; I just thought he was a pusher.”
“In your other capacity, you believe that you have had sex with this man and that he confused you and Susa. Why would that be?”
“I don’t know what criteria he was using, but Susa was Suit Bait, so I think he might have considered her more suited to whatever he had in mind. She was petite, delicate, and looked like she was made of spun sugar.”
“And you are decidedly more robust for rough handling.” There was definite heat in his eyes.
“Inappropriate, mentalist. Accurate but inappropriate.” She blinked. “Is the interview concluded?”
“Not quite. Have you had sex with the teams around here?”
“Most of them, but until recently, it was only with the use of the masks that numbed the points of memory in the brain for both escort and patron.”
“You had used this on every occasion before you were outed. Correct?”
“Um, there may have been the night before Torun spoke at the gathering.” Her mind flicked through the touches, the hands, the heat, and the sounds as she remembered that night.
The mentalist exhaled slowly, his hands tight on hers. “That is certainly a bright memory. Anyone else since?”
She gave the memory of Hron to him.
“As the team is only here as security for me, there is no conflict of interest.”
Astel exhaled slowly in relief, and Naima elbowed him.
The mentalist snorted. “Well, you are the possessor of a streak of bad luck and the target of a homicidal activated. I am recommending an around-the-clock guard with known guards. Ones that have mental resistance to tampering.”
Hron nodded. “There are a few locally.”
“If you give me a list, I can cross-reference it with my list.”
Hron grinned. “You have a list?”
She shrugged.
The mentalist laughed, and she tried to extract her hands from his. He held her gently but firmly. “Do you have room on your roster for one more?”
She blinked. “You have to apply like everyone else. There will be months of waiting.”
He smiled. “Of course.”
“If you let go of my hand, I can give you a card.” She blinked, and he continued to hold her. “Have you gotten what you need from me today?”
He slowly nodded. “You are cleared, and the investigation may continue.”
“Then, come closer. I think you need something.”
He leaned in, and she stood up slightly. He could see down her scrub top, and his eyes heated for a moment before she made contact with his lips. The kiss was sweet at first. His shock reverberated through him, and he adjusted to the contact. She heard a chuckle from Hron, a snicker from Astel, and a sigh from Naima. The mentalist continued to hold her hands, so she took the measure of his skills from the contact and flicked her tongue along the seam of his.
Mint tea was the first thing she tasted.
“I drink it because I spend a lot of time face to face with suspects.”
She chuckled. “If you can communicate this way, I am obviously not doing a good job.”
“The kiss
