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Has my head been too far up Meredith’s ass to notice the things I should have?
Meredith, yet another larger issue I need to discuss today. Wonderful. Perhaps I’ll just put my neck on the desk.
“I’m happy we decided against that. Especially now,” I say with a smirk.
“Yes, me too. Now, where are we at with this whole mess?” he asks with a frown.
“I’m going through every aspect of Cherry’s digital life. Her social media and such. Emails, texts, phone call dates and times. Peter is over at Cherry’s house with a few of our security staff. They’ll have it packed and trucked to one of the offices. We’ll go through it all with a fine-tooth comb.”
“Excellent.”
“Hopefully it turns up leads we can chase down. Maybe the priest’s call has something to do with this. I doubt it, but we could be lucky.”
“Simon, are you believing in luck?”
“No, I’d rather not. But right now it wouldn’t hurt to have some turn our way. Something is going on lately. Things are too quiet,” I say, and they are.
Quiet can be good, I suppose, but when it gets too quiet I start to wonder what monster is out there scaring everything silent.
“We’ll know soon enough,” Lucifer says. “The priest has his ear to the masses. Let’s see what he can come up with.”
“Soon enough, I suppose.” I don’t like waiting for answers, not when it’s something like this.
“Now on to a more familiar matter. What’s going on in the life of my dear sister?” he asks me, and I can see a small smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Why do I feel like the fly in the spider’s web? Shouldn’t it always be me who’s laying the trap?
The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as I say, “She put us in quite the situation with whatever her part was in the sudden death of Prince Ahmed.”
“Has she given us any information we don’t already know?” he asks, leaning back into his chair, his fingertips steepling in front of him.
“None. I wasn’t able to question her last night after we got home, nor this morning. She was quite piqued. I should be able to get more information out of her this evening, or tomorrow at the latest,” I say.
“Why weren’t you able to question her, Simon? Was she that unruly?”
Just the memories of last night bring frustration to my crotch and an annoying twinge of pain to my shoulder. “She bit me quite thoroughly last night. After that, I was more inclined to be a bit warier of her.”
“Surely she didn’t bite you that badly, Simon? I thought you were joking with me,” he says with a small laugh.
“Lucifer, how many fingers on your right hand does it take to count the times I have made a joke?” I ask in annoyance.
“So, she caused you so much damage you really did need stitches?”
“Of course, your sister is…”
“Simon, Simon, Simon… If we need to rid ourselves of an issue…” he says, but stops as I shake my head at him.
“She’s not an issue we need to take care of like that. She can be brought under control. She’ll reach enlightenment soon enough,” I say carefully.
Lucifer looks at me for a long time. I can see the gears moving behind his eyes as he studies me. He’s figuring out what my words exactly mean. He’s trying to get a read of the way I react to him.
“Simon, how much of an influence are you under with her?”
“Some,” I admit.
“Will this further complicate our business arrangements? I would truly hate for a second business to be blown to the ground because of something we missed.”
“Hindsight is a bitch, Lucifer. You know that as well as I do. But to answer your question, no. Now that I have her here, under my thumb, things should be much easier to manage.”
“Shouldn’t you have said now that we?” he asks and there comes that slight smirk of his lips at the corners of his mouth.
He’s playing me like a damn violin. He’s gotten me to admit things I shouldn’t have, and I feel too damn simple to have caught it.
“Stop it. I’m not some damn enemy, Matthew,” I say as I lean forward with a growl.
Suddenly he leans far back into his chair, mouth opening up in a raucous laugh. “Simon! You of all people!”
“Yes, me, dammit,” I say with a sigh.
He keeps attempting to look at me with a straight face, but each time his lips pull back to bear his teeth in laughter.
Shaking my head at his humor, I stand from my chair and button my suit jacket back up.
“I need to get going, the priest was quite adamant—” I say before I’m cut off by my phone ringing and buzzing against my side.
