I grabbed the cup from her. “Apologize.”
“That’s really not nece—” Timothy protested, but I cut him off.
“Now,” I said, putting steel into the word as I addressed the sekhor.
Vivien opened her mouth as if to say something further antagonizing, but she then seemed to think better of it. Turning back to my aide, she said in a chastened tone, “Sorry, Timmy. Thank you for this.” She nodded toward the travel mug I held.
“Was that so hard?” I asked, handing the drink back. She swallowed down the contents while managing to glare at me through the sunglasses she wore.
The child let out a giggle, then snorted.
“Hang out over there with your iPad,” Miranda directed Jamal. When the kid didn’t move, she barked with an authority scarier than any military tone; she used her mom-voice. “Move it, young man.”
Jamal started, then settled back into his spot on the bean bag.
“I’m not leaving my son home alone with everything that’s going on right now,” Miranda explained. “Here, he can entertain himself with either me or Javier around.”
“Single mom?” Vivien asked in between sips.
“His father died in action three years ago.” Miranda delivered the line with practiced efficiency and no small amount of pride. Still, I saw the flash of pain in her eyes.
I wondered if I had judged her husband’s soul, or perhaps one of my reapers had sorted him. Jamal was staring at me again, as if sensing my thoughts.
“Don’t worry, kid,” Vivien said, catching his look too and nudging me in the ribs with her elbow. “He doesn’t bite. And neither will I.” She pulled down her sunglasses to wink at him. A smile tugged at the corners of the kid’s lips in response.
Miranda sat down at the computer and typed. Vivien wasted no time plopping down in the empty seat next to her, setting the sunglasses on the counter. Her eyes had returned to their normal sea-green hue.
“I think I found your guy,” Miranda said. “It will just take me a second to pull up the footage.”
While we waited, Vivien spun around in the chair. With every rotation, it let loose a pitchy squeak, but that didn’t keep her from doing it. The rusty scrape wore on my nerves.
“Will you stop that?” I said on the fourth spin.
“What are you gonna do if I don’t?” she said, looking me dead in the eye, breaking eye contact only long enough to complete another full rotation.
Several ideas came to mind. Not all of them were family-friendly.
“Here we go,” Miranda said, pulling up the video of me dragging Vivien back to Sinopolis. Again, the man halted in his tracks with obvious recognition before sprinting off.
Vivien set the travel mug down, having finished it. Color had returned to her cheeks, and her eyes brightened with interest as she leaned forward, mouth slightly parted.
Miranda zoomed in on the guy’s face a little more. Any closer and his features would be too pixelated, but it was enough. Blunt nose, small eyes, and light brown hair. He wore board shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.
Vivien whispered something.
Miranda saved me the trouble of asking. “What was that?”
“Skip,” Vivien said, louder this time. “His name is Skip.”
“How do you know him?” I asked, tucking my hands in my pockets. “A former lover, perhaps? That would explain why he ran for the hills.”
Vivien shot me a glare, while Miranda’s eyebrows rose, a smile playing at the corner of her mouth.
“No,” Vivien protested. “Or, I don’t know. I don’t think so, but I don’t know where I know him from. I just know his name is Skip.”
I came up behind Vivien, set my hands on the back of her chair and leaned in to get a better look. While the personnel were excellent here, they could use larger monitors.
Focusing on the man on the screen, I considered his connection to Vivien. I hadn’t been kidding when I suggested he was a former lover, but I had also learned to assume nothing about anyone. There were a million and one reasons he could have recognized her and ran. He hadn’t been a vampire, of that I was sure. He lacked the ethereal glow sekhors emitted.
