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I’d found enough leftover in the refrigerator to piece together dinner and had just finished heating it when my cell rang with a call from Mayhem.
At the same time, Nem and Wren returned.
“How goes it, my friend?” I asked, raising my brow in her direction when she came in, took one look at the table, and put her hands on her hips.
“I don’t know whether you heard, but Francis Arnst was murdered by another inmate,” Mayhem began.
“Merrigan informed me. She also said it meant your current project would end prematurely.”
“At least his part of it. However, I do believe Grace and I will continue interviewing other convicted serial killers once the FBI is able to obtain approval from the justice department.”
“I’ve got Agent Jordan from MI5 here with me. Would you mind if I put the call on speaker?” I figured I might as well, considering she hadn’t moved nor had her expression of irritation changed.
“Go ahead, and I’ll do the same here with Grace.”
I set the phone on the table.
“Hey, Ares,” I heard Grace say in the background.
“How are you, Hanadarko?”
“Excited to be heading across the pond. Do people still say that? Across the pond?”
I glanced up in time to catch Nem roll her eyes.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear you’ll be making the trip. I need all the help I can get over here.” I made a point of looking at mynemesiswhen I said it.
“Profiling traffickers is tough, Ares,” said Grace. “Have you made any progress?”
I sighed. “None. Which is why I requested your help. Given a universal human trafficker profile doesn’t currently exist, I figured there’s no better team to compile it.”
I glanced over at Nem’s scrunched eyes and winked. This time, her nostrils flared, and I smiled. I still found it sexy as fuck.
“I can’t wait to see the two of you. When do you think you’ll be able to make the trip?”
“As soon as we’ve made arrangements for Millie. It seems far harder to obtain permission to bring a dog into the UK than I ever dreamed,” Grace responded.
“Please keep me posted on your progress and let me know if there’s anything I can do to help on this end.”
“Will do, and thanks, Ares.”
“See you soon, Hanadarko. You too, Mayhem.” I ended the call.
“Mayhem?” Nem, who’d turned almost as white as her blouse, asked. “As in Emmett Gable?”
“That’s right. Why do you ask?”
“No reason,” she said, tossing her purse’s contents into the bag they’d come out of and gathering her piles of notes before stalking out of the room.
Hers was an odd reaction, yet Mayhem hadn’t seemed to have one when I mentioned her name.
“Is there a problem I should be aware of?” I asked, following her.
“Not at all,” she responded without turning to look at me. “Good night, Ares.” She went into the bedroom and kicked the door closed behind her.
“What the hell?” I muttered, returning to the kitchen. It occurred to me I should find time when Mayhem was alone to ask him about her. The last thing I wanted was for this job to cause problems between Grace and him.
I returned to the kitchen, poured the soup I’d heated earlier back into the saucepan, and lit the burner beneath it. As I waited for it to get hot, I toyed with rapping on Nem’s door and confronting her about storming away without as much as a hello.
