“She had a clean record, even with us—”
“If an octopus made a habit of robbing Wal-Marts, we probably would have heard about it by now,” he agreed.
“She’s just hard up. Her car broke down, and she needs it to get to her job. If she loses that, she’ll never climb back out of the hole she’s in. She wanted to pawn the iPads and use the money for repairs.”
Simon raised his eyebrows. “You’re dancing around the question.”
Iz sighed. “I gave her some money.”
“I knew it.” He clapped his hands together, delighted, but he did it lightly. Simon did everything lightly to try to keep his own ears from ringing for hours afterwards. “You’re a soft touch, Isabelle Benoit.”
“I’m independently wealthy because my mother comes from money and my father was disreputable,” Iz said bluntly. “I have more money than I know what to do with. I might as well use it to help people.”
Simon’s amusement faded into a warmer smile. “I like that about you, you know. We all do. When you have to make these kinds of decisions on your own, you need to know when to be soft just like you need to know when to be tough.”
“Well, I want to prove that I can betough,” she said, exasperated. She tossed the slimy towel in the bathroom sink. “I know I can be. I like helping people, but if I wanted to do it all through philanthropy, I could have stayed at home and hosted fundraisers with my mother.”
“No, you couldn’t have.”
Cooper’s voice startled her, and even though he sounded relaxed, Iz reflexively straightened up, like she was coming to attention. Hewasher chief, after all, and dragons had an intense respect for authority.
“This is thewomen’srestroom,” she pointed out.
“The door’s propped open,” Cooper said, reasonably enough. “I could see that no one was, ah, indisposed. And Simon’s already here.”
“Yes, but I’m aggravating her,” Simon said solemnly.
Iz made a face, ignoring how juvenile it made her feel.
The truth was, she liked Simon’s teasing, at least a little. It reminded her of the relationship she had with her favorite cousins, like Theo.
She liked everything about her new job except thework, which left her feeling frustrated and at loose ends.
It would have been better if she could’ve been sure they weren’t coddling her. It wasn’t like dealing with a shoplifting octopus wasn’t a tiny bit of fun in its own right—and she really had given it her all, trying to make sure the situation was resolved as fairly as possible.
But when everyone around her was taking on things like leopard shifter serial killers, she felt ... superfluous. And like they were handling her with kid gloves just because she was young even for a rookie.
“You wouldn’t have stayed back home even if you’d only wanted to be a philanthropist,” Cooper said. “You’re too curious.” Then it was like he remembered why he’d come in, and the humor bled out of his face. “Simon, can you give us a moment?”
“Sure,” Simon said. “I’ll make myself scarce.” He gave Iz a reassuring pat on the arm as he left, as if to tell her that whatever was about to happen, he was sure she wasn’t in any trouble.
That was more thanshewas sure of. A squirmy feeling of guilt wriggled around in her stomach. Cooper had honored her by pulling her out of training early and offering her a job a lot of even more qualified marshals would have killed for; it wasn’t really her place to question what assignments she pulled. And shehadworked a handful of bigger cases, to be fair, even if she had always worked them as a junior partner.
But he was right: she was adventurous. She wanted something big, and she wanted something of her own.
That was on her, though. The good stuff would come if she just waited for it. She had to be patient.
“I’m sorry,” Iz said. “I know the training wheels are important.”
“They are.” Cooper looked as tense as she’d ever seen him, and she had seen him in some pretty desperate circumstances. “But I don’t blame you for wanting them off. Everybody goes through the same thing, and everybody champs at the bit during it. You’re doing great, and I get why you want a big case of your own.”
That didn’t sound like the end of the speech.
“But?” she prompted him.
“But the one I’m about to give you isn’t the one I’d like you—or anyone—to start off with. It’s dangerous. But for the life of me, I can’t think of a better way to do the job than by putting you out in front. Theo’s busy, and I need a dragon.”
Yes!her dragon enthused.We’re needed! For a quest! Something terrible and bloody and honorable!