Her sharp lupine eyes turned on me and I went back to contemplating the ceiling.
"Is Lex still alive?" she asked directly this time instead of beating around the bush.
Orion and Frost turned to each other, silently conferring, before offering a diplomatic answer. “He was alive when we saw him last and have no reason to believe he isn’t alive anymore.”
Stone thought that over, and just when I decided it was safe to return my gaze to eye level, her focus swung over to me. Oh shit! I hated when scary hot chicks paid attention to me. There was just no upside.
"Andhimbeing involved, that shouldn't concern me at all?"
"No," Orion said.
"I can’t tell you how to feel," I offered.
Frost’s shoulder twitched, which counted as a shrug for him. “I have no idea.”
"You’re vouching for him?"
"I am," Orion said immediately. Duh, like the guy could say anything else if he wanted to get laid anytime soon. But he reallymeantit. God, that was adorable.
Stone arched one sculpted brow and waited for a response from the angel.
"Yes," Frost said. “I vouch.”
Stone seemed just as unsure what to do with me as I was with her. Her default response was to treat me like the dirt bag I’d been for most of my life. If that didn’t apply anymore, she was at a loss.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" she asked me.
"Uh, my new boyfriend is super rich, so that removes, like, at least 75% of the reason I did crimes before. He’s also gonna keep me supplied in sex magic, which pretty much takes care of the rest too."
…
My answer probably did not satisfy her, but she wisely decided to leave all that alone.
"And what about the guy in the hall?" she asked next.
"Don’t worry about him." All of us said some version of this sentiment.
"Is anyone going to vouch for him?"
Well… the guy was Bad Mother. Literally a demon from Hell, so vouching for him sounded risky. And he did wash his hands of us once when Lex turned out to not be in his jurisdiction or whatever.
Hell’s residents fleeing without permission seemed to bother him more than those same residents tormenting people of Earth. At least Bad Mother did everything possible to give us that impression. I suspected the whole thing disturbed him, even if Lex preying on a kid was the only part that visibly upset him. I had the sense he followed his own code of conduct that might not match with ours, but that was better than following nothing at all.
Neither Frost nor Orion looked at the ceiling and pretended they were elsewhere, but they were pretty much doing the mature adult version of that. Which meant, unfortunately, the silence stretched on too long for me to handle.
I decided on ignorance. "Vouch for who?"
"The guy in the—"
"No, see, we’re gonna pretend he doesn’t exist,” I insisted. “So, what guy? That’s how it works, right?"
"No,” Stone said. “You ask if we can pretend he doesn’t exist and then say, ‘so about that guy in the hall’ and I’d say, ‘what guy?’ and feign ignorance.That’show it works."
"Okay.” I took my cue from her. “So, about that guy in the hall?"
"Yes.” She nodded immediately and clicked her pen to take notes. “Please fill me in."
"Hey, you cheated!"
