“I don’t know. I thought this one had been destroyed. He promised me…” Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why had I believed that promise?
“Oh, baby.” I couldn’t see through the tears, but I felt the arms that came around me and pulled me into a tight embrace. “I let him die too easy.” There was cold steel in Wills’s voice.
“Yeah,” Vincent agreed. “You should have left it to me.”
“What?” I brushed the tears away with the heels of my hands and sniffed.
“Where do we go from here?” But Wills wasn’t talking to me. He did take out a handkerchief, and he gently wiped my cheeks and eyes. “Blow, baby.”
“Nowhere now, but on Monday…. He was so anxious to see I got this.” Vincent’s voice was colder than Wills’s, and deadly. “This is the second time he’s interfered with my department. It’s going to be the last.”
“He’s senior…”
“Are you doubting my abilities, Matheson?”
“No, sir.”
“Good.” He went to his desk and opened the bottle of Dewars. “You look like you could use a drink, Theo. Matheson?” He poured about four fingers of the whisky into the glass, glanced at me and added a couple more, and handed it to me.
“No, thank you, sir,” Wills said. “I’ll be driving us home.”
He was coming home with me? But was it to stay or just to pack his things and go? I had to ask, “You’re not mad at me, Wills?”
“What for?” He took back his handkerchief and tucked it into his pocket.
“That video…” My hand shook so badly I nearly dropped the glass, and he closed his hand around mine and helped bring it to my lips.
“Not your fault, babe.”
The alcohol burned going down, and I coughed a little, but once it hit my stomach, warmth began to spread through my body. Another three or four gulps, and I finished it. I started to feel a little weird, and carefully I put the glass down on the desk.
“What did you mean, ‘you let him die too easy?'”
Wills sighed, but before he could answer, Vincent asked, “Why’d you come here, Theo?”
“I was going to fight for him.”
“Excuse me?”
“I thought you were going to tell Wills he had to break up with me.” I swayed back and forth, and Wills pushed me back down onto the chair.
“Why would I do that?”
“Said you din’t…didn’t need your boy in a state like he was in ’cause he was worried about me.”
“Ah. When I talked to you yesterday.” Vince blew out a breath and shook his head. “Civilians. That wasn’t what I meant.”
“Well, how was I s’posed to know that?” He gave me a look, and I blinked a couple of times and shook my head. Since when had he grown another pair of eyes? “Wha’ did ya mean, Vince?”
“Are you drunk, Theo?”
“No.” I blinked again. “I don’t think so.”
“I think he is, sir. He hasn’t had anything to eat since last evening.”
“Yes, I did. I went down on you, don’t you remember?” A little voice in the back of my mind told me I was talking too much, but in the warm haze of alcohol it was very faint and easy to ignore. “And when you come, I always swallow,” I concluded triumphantly.
Wills turned red. “Uh…”
“No explanations, Matheson. Take him home, sober him up, and then tell him what it is you do for a living and why, when you’re working, you can’t afford to have anything on your mind but the job.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Not leavin’ me, Wills?” My lips suddenly felt like blocks of wood, and it wasn’t easy to enunciate.
“No, babe. I’ll never leave you.”
“Glad. Kill me if y’ did. Gettin’ married.” I planted a wet kiss on his cheek, then squinted at Vince. “You come.”
“I’m not about to tell you it wouldn’t be legal.”
“Don’t care. Gonna get married.”
“Yeah, yeah. Matheson, get him out of here.”
“Yes, sir. Come on, Theo.”
“Carry me?” I looped my arms around his neck, hopped up, and he caught me. I rested my head against his shoulder and batted my lashes at him. “My hero.”
“I think you’d better walk, babe.”
“Have to? Like it where I am.”
“Yeah, you have to. I can’t carry you down seven flights of stairs.”
“Okay.” I wobbled a bit after he set me on my feet.
“Take the elevator.” Vince had rolled down his sleeves and was putting on his suit jacket.
“Yes, sir.”
“Have ‘nother drink, Vince? One f’ the road?”
“I don’t think so. Go on home. Matheson?”
“Yes, sir?”
“See to it that I get an invitation.”
“Yes, sir.” He sounded happy, and he slid an arm around my waist and urged me toward the door.
“Vince’s my frien’,” I mumbled. “He should come.”
“Sure. Let’s go, babe.”
Two security guards sat at the desk across from the elevators. “Need some help, Mr. Matheson?”