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She flushed bright red.
Just then Storm came back into the office. Before he could speak, I said, “Don’t even tell me to back off this case because I won’t. If Rodrigge Ronin didn’t have something to worry about, why would he have sent the heavies in? I’m getting close. I know I am, and he’s getting scared. I can feel it.”
“Are you entirely insane?” Storm exploded, taking all of us by surprise. “Do you know what could have happened to you, going into a vampire nest on your own? I knew you couldn’t be trusted, but I had thought you’d have better sense than that at least! Can’t you use your good judgment for once!”
I could feel blood pounding in my ears. Storm had never spoken to me like this. And how dare he speak to me like that in front of everyone! “Who do you think you are?” I shouted at him. “Trust? How dare you say that I can’t be trusted! What have I ever done to deserve that? I have always had your back! And this is the one thing that is important to me, but it’s clear to me that you don’t have my back!”
“This is not personal,” he snapped, trying to put a leash on his anger. “This is a job! Do you even know how to behave professionally? Can’t you keep control of yourself for once? Are you a child? Is it my job to babysit you all night and day?”
“How dare you belittle me like that? I am fully capable of taking responsibility for my actions! I was fully aware of the dangers of walking into a vampire’s nest, and I took care of myself. And if I had been hurt that would have been my responsibility, and nothing to do with you! It’s not like you give a crap about me!”
I hadn’t meant to say that last bit, and felt immediately embarrassed.
“I do give a crap about to you,” Storm bit off between clenched teeth. And for the briefest of moments my heart softened. He cared. He was saying it in front of everyone.
“You are part of this team,” he said, ruining it. “And the choices you make impact this whole team. All I want is for you to give some consideration to that.” He said this last bit in a quiet tone, clearly making a great effort to pull back his anger. He seemed to be regretting his earlier outburst. The team was watching the two of us silently.
I made an effort to match his calmer tone. “I’m sorry if my actions affect this team. But I’ve already explained to you all why this is too important for me to give up on. Devil Claw killed my mother, and you a
ll know exactly how impossible it has been to catch him. This might be my only chance. I can’t let it go.”
“Even if it gets us all fired?” Remi interjected.
“I don’t see why it should get you fired. I went to the Ronin household in my spare time. Not during working hours. It had nothing to do with any of you.”
“It doesn’t work that way,” said Storm. “Your actions reflect on the Agency and on this team. The chief will fire you, Diana. He has made that clear. If you did not work here, you would never have come across this case. And we have already discussed that it was impossible for anyone but Steffane Ronin to have killed Leonie Ashbeck. Did any of the Ronins give you any cause to believe otherwise?”
I stayed mutinously silent, because damn it, none of them had. But admitting that would not help my cause.
“I didn’t think so,” said Storm. “Now will you come to your senses and back off this case?”
For a long moment I thought about it. For anything else I would have said yes to Storm. He’d never given me any reason to not trust him completely, to not believe him. And yet, in this case, what I needed more than anything else was for him to believe me. And he didn’t. Nor did the rest of the team.
Because I had put their jobs at risk.
I unclipped my Agency ID card from my belt, and placed it on to Storm’s desk. He looked shocked as he realized what I was doing. “You guys really are the best team,” I said. “I guess you’ll keep catching those bad guys without me.”
Storm and Leo were stony faced, but Monroe and Remi looked upset. I was sure that they’d get over this quicker than I would. I put a cheery smile on my face and saluted them all, and then I walked out.
Chapter 15
REMI
Remi could not believe that Diana had handed in her badge and walked out. She had not seen that coming at all. Diana had worked so hard to get her job as a consultant here, and in these past three weeks she had worked non-stop and closed on average one case every week. One cold case that other teams had worked sometimes for years on, and gotten nowhere. Diana was brilliant at her job. But that was not why Remi would miss her.
Diana was fun, she was unpredictable, she was downright weird at times. And she was the only other woman on this team. Remi liked having her around. Remi liked going up to Diana’s cavernous office in the loft on coffee breaks and swinging around on Diana’s flying hammock that Diana’s wizard friend had given her. She liked talking over old cases with Diana, and she liked trying to figure out how Diana’s psychic skills worked.
So now Remi was hunched over her desk, and having failed to locate an electronic copy of the Leonie Ashbeck murder case file, she had resorted to googling the internet to find out the details instead. The case had happened years before Remi had joined the Agency, and it made for sordid reading. But like Storm, Remi couldn’t see why Diana had got it into her head that Steffane Ronin was innocent. If Diana had real proof, surely she would have told them. Remi was sure that if there had been proof, Storm would have been the first to back Diana up every step of the way.
This team was Remi’s work family, and Diana’s arrival had made the family feel complete. Leo was often too quiet and inside his head all the time, and Storm was emotionally reserved at the best of times. Monroe was hotness made flesh, and he was always under her skin without even trying, and Remi actually liked the way Diana would tease them about it. It was the closest Remi got to speaking to anyone about how she felt about Monroe. And now Diana was gone.
Remi could not believe that Diana had walked out. She had just walked out. Remi wasn’t mad. She felt guilty. She had been thinking about what had happened, and in hindsight she was worried that from Diana’s perspective it was like the whole team had ganged up on her. No wonder Diana had walked out.
And now Remi and Monroe and Leo were back at their desks, and Storm was in his office, and no one was talking about what had just happened. They were in the middle of investigating a case of young woman who had drowned in the River Thames after falling overboard from a party boat. Bruises on her body had indicated a struggle rather than an accidental drowning, and since the girl’s boyfriend and her brother-in-law, both of whom she had been seen arguing with on the night she had died, were incubae, the case had been handed to the Agency for investigation.
It was nearly lunchtime. Remi and Leo should have headed out into the field already to interview witnesses and suspects, but Leo was hunched over his computer typing away, seeming like he had no intention of leaving the office any time soon. Monroe also determinedly had his head bent over his computer, no doubt burying himself in his research so he didn’t have to think about Diana leaving. Men! Why did they have to be so emotionally repressed?
“Are we going to do something about this or not?” Remi snapped
