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Instead of replying, he hrmphed. In Keaty-speak that was as close as Brigit was going to get to an admission she’d verbally whooped his butt. I was impressed, but at the same time felt the weight of her words. I was sure Keaty had killed many many people in his time, but so had I. And sometimes I had to wonder if they all deserved it.
While Keaty stood around looking grim, I slid the gurney with Carly’s body back into its storage cubby. I was getting uncomfortably cold in the room, but since I had yet to tell Keaty what had happened to me, I didn’t want to give anything away by complaining about the chill.
“If you’re right and the fairy doesn’t live in our world, it might be an idea to monitor the gate. And we can check the delivery schedules to see where Petey and Carly had been sent in the area of that Bath & Body Works. ” It was in everyone’s best interests I steer our attention back to the topic at hand. We should be focused on who or what had killed these teenagers rather than who was the biggest, baddest killer in the room.
“I can keep an eye on the gate,” Keaty offered. “Fae can move in the daytime, so we need to be able to watch it at all hours. ”
“Oh, that’s not a problem for—”
I shushed Brigit mid-sentence. “Sounds like a great idea. ” My phone started vibrating in my pocket, and I wished I’d thought to abandon it in a garbage can somewhere along the way. So far I’d been scolded by Lucas and Keaty. I was willing to bet whoever was calling me now wasn’t going to improve my mood for the evening.
I looked at my caller ID.
Sig.
“Can this day get any worse?” I said aloud before I could stop myself.
“I find if the question needs to be asked, the answer is almost always yes,” Desmond answered, speaking for the first time since we’d come into the room. I think seeing a naked, dead teenager made him uneasy. Now that I’d put Carly’s body away, he had relaxed slightly. As much as someone could relax in a morgue.
I smiled grimly. “Sorry, guys. Duty calls. ”
Chapter Forty-Five
“Do you know how much trouble you’re in?”
Sig was usually calm, taking his time with problems and presenting himself as the cool, collected Tribunal leader who never let anything get to him. The Sig yelling at me on the phone—yes, another yelling phone call—was not the man I thought I knew. He’d waited a whopping thirteen seconds from when I answered my cell to when he started laying into me. Just long enough for me to think I’d get through the conversation without being scolded.
No such luck. Today was International Scream at Secret Day and my cell company was loving how many minutes I was using to get browbeaten. Couldn’t people text me their dissatisfaction? It would be much easier to ignore.
Standing in the hall outside the body storage room, I leaned against the nearest wall and tried to fend off my now-constant headache by rubbing my temple. “Am I in trouble?” I asked, a cheeky coyness slipping into my tone. If I was going to be yelled at, I might as well have fun with it.
“Secret, this isn’t a joke. ”
“I know. ”
“Then stop making it one. ”
“Do you think I find it funny I’ve lost three weeks of my life and now that I’m home I’m walking around with a target on my back? Oh, yeah. Time of my fucking life. Bring on the party hats and confetti. ”
“Are you quite done?”
“I might be. ”
“Go home. Stay there. Holden and I will be over shortly. ”
“I can’t—”
“This is not a negotiation,” he shouted, making the small hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “You will go, or you will leave me no choice but to find you—wherever you are—and drag you back by your hair. Do you understand me?”
“Yes. ” I was liking this being-human thing less and less with each passing second. What use was my humanity if I was going to be treated like a feeble, useless child because of it? “But I…”
The dial tone told me there was no sense in arguing. Not that he’d have heard anything I said if he’d stayed on the line. I might as well have listened to a voicemail message for as much participation as I’d been granted in the conversation.
I opened the door and looked into the small room. I hadn’t realized how packed it had been with all of us in there, but now that I was on the outside I wondered how we’d managed to be comfortable.
“We have to go,” I told my entourage.
“You have to go…investigate a murder?” Keaty suggested.
