I was pretending to ignore him by looking at the giant hole underneath the pockets on my
former pants. “I’m sick of ruining my favorite pants. ”
“Secret. Focus. ”
I dropped the jeans into my lap and met his gaze. His thick black eyebrows were knit together, and he was showing me his most impressive stern-detective face. “Don’t look at me like that. ”
Tyler’s desk was set at the back of the room, giving us the illusion of privacy. Holden had been taken to an interrogation room by Mercedes, and since the other rooms were in use, I was being debriefed by Tyler at his desk.
“You really brought down the house this time, didn’t you?”
“Oh har-frigging-har, Detective Comedy. ”
“Mind telling me what happened?”
“Do you want the actual version or the on-the-record version?”
He frowned, his nose wrinkling more than Samantha on Bewitched, and finally he sighed and uncrossed his arms. With his elbows propped on the desk, he waved both hands at me and said, “Tell me the truth first. We’ll deal with what I put in the report later. ”
“I was helping Shane hunt a rogue. Rogue had his goons wired up more than the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. Goons went boom. ” I mimed an explosion with my hands.
“I take it that was the CliffsNotes version. ”
I nodded.
“Do we have to worry about this rogue?” He said rogue like the word was in a foreign language.
“I blew out both his kneecaps. I think the wardens have him under control. ”
“You think?”
“Best I can tell you without being able to check with the council. ” I folded my ruined jeans and dumped them into the wire trash bin next to his desk. Two hundred dollars into the crapper. No big deal.
“You know I can’t just let you walk out. ”
“You know I can post bail. ”
“You’re going to have to. You and the pretty-boy vampire are in some serious trouble this time, Secret, and not the kind he can voodoo-eye his way out of. ”
“That voodoo he do?” I said with a snicker. “Voodoo-eye? Seriously, Detective Tyler?”
“What do you call it?”
“The thrall. Enthralling. ”
“How poetic. ”
“You’ve been on the receiving end. It’s effective. ” I propped my feet against his desk and tipped my chair back, trying to see if I could get a glimpse into the interrogation rooms. The staff had gotten wise to the view, though, because the small windows were covered.
Tyler whacked my toes with a manila folder. “Could you at least pretend to respect me?”
I dropped my feet, the wooden chair clacking loudly on the tile floor, echoing through the mostly empty room like a gunshot. The few people seated nearby flinched, and one guy gave me a dirty look.
“I do respect you. ” I avoided the nasty gaze and held my hands over my heart in mock horror. “Do you want to hear the official version of the story? I thought of it in the cruiser on the way over. ”
“I’m sure I’ll be dazzled. ”
“Okay…fade in, damaged midtown apartment complex…”