Gunmetal Magic: A Novel in the World of Kate Daniels

sixties. He pushed a bright yellow industrial mop bucket and he walked slowly, his eyes tired, his shoulders sloping forward. Probablypart of the night cleaning crew, wrapping up his shift. As he passed the counter, the receptionist cleared her throat.
    He glanced at her.
    “There is a mess in the second-floor kitchenette,” she said. “Someone spilled coffee.”
    “My shift was over half an hour ago,” the man said.
    She stared at him. My opinion of Anapa’s reception staff plummeted. How difficult was it to clean up your own coffee spill? Get a rag and mop it up. If the man’s shift was over, let him go home.
    He heaved his shoulders. “Fine. I’ll get it.”
    I watched him roll away. The building lay quiet again.
    I studied the stone tile: golden brown with slight charcoal and russet undertones. Beautiful. Raphael had a similar type of tile installed in his place. I could never understand the man’s aversion to carpet. His house looked like a castle: stone tile on the floor, beige and gray wall paint, Azul Aran gray granite countertops. He’d actually hired an artist to come in and paint stone blocks on the foyer’s walls. Cost him an arm and a leg, but it looked awesome, especially once I bought him a pothos vine and installed some tiny hooks to keep it growing in the right direction. He also hung bladed weapons on the walls.
    I could picture him as a hidalgo, ruling some grand castle like Alcazar, dressed all in black. My imagination conjured up Raphael, his muscular body hugged by a black doublet, leaning against a stone balcony, a long rapier on his waist…with a seven-foot-tall blond bimbo by his side.
    I had to stop obsessing. It was like my mind was stuck on him—every moment I wasn’t actively thinking about the case, my thoughts went right back to Raphael. Sometimes I plotted revenge, sometimes I felt like hitting my head against the wall. These bouts of feeling sorry for myself and daydreaming ways of making him regret he was ever born had to stop.
    My ears caught the sound of distant footsteps. I rose. Three people strode out of the hallway, a trim woman in a beige business suit in the lead. She wore glasses and her light brown hair had been braided away from her face. Her clothes and hair said “business.” Her posture and eyes said “combat operative.” A man and a woman in tactical gear and dark clothes broughtup the rear, holding cop batons. Each sported a sidearm on the hip.
    “Good morning, Ms. Nash,” the woman said, her voice crisp. “Mr. Anapa sends his regrets. His schedule is full and he’s unable to see you.”
    “I’m investigating murders on behalf of the Pack,” I said. “I only have a few questions.”
    “Mr. Anapa will be very busy this entire week,” the woman said.
    “He isn’t a suspect.”
    “Whether you suspect him or not is irrelevant. You’re no longer a member of law enforcement. You’re here as a private citizen. Please leave our premises.” She turned, squaring off with me.
    If I’d still had my Order ID, I’d have made her swallow those words. I considered my options. I could go through the two guards, but the faux secretary would provide a problem. The way she kept measuring the distance between the two of us telegraphed some sort of martial arts training, and her stance, square and straight on, said law enforcement experience. She was trained to wear body armor. Most shooters would
blade
their body sideways, minimizing the target area. People in bulletproof vests tended to face the danger.
    Law enforcement meant she knew the rules and understood exactly what I could and couldn’t get away with. If I made a scene and got in to see Anapa, she’d sound the alarms and the cops would be on me like wolves on a lame deer. I could see the headline now: “Shapeshifter terrorizes local businessman.”
    A part of me, the bouda part, wanted to do it.
    I had to back off. She knew it and I knew it. “I’ll be back,” I told her.
    “Bring a cop with a warrant,” she said.
    I reached the door.
    “Ms. Nash!” she called.
    I turned. The “secretary” smiled. “This lobby isn’t big enough for the two of us, Ms. Nash.”
    I shot her with my index finger. “I’ll remember you said that.”
    Outside, the cloud cover had broken. I squinted at the sunlight and turned to examine the building. Anapa didn’t wantto be questioned, but that didn’t make him guilty. It might just make him an ass. Except that I’d questioned hundreds of suspects