Page 91 of Ruled By Fate

Mike looked over and scowled. “I’m not that pale.”

She put on sunglasses and indicated that Brie and Rashida should do the same. “Gondor calls for aid!”

“I could have you arrested, you know.”

“What was that, dear?”

“Nothing.”

Meanwhile, Cameron crossed his arms at the base of his shirt and pulled it over his head. All three women pulled their sunglasses halfway down their noses to better appreciate the view.

“Damn, Brie.” Rashida let out a low whistle. “You go home to that every night? How do you manage to leave in the mornings?”

Brie pushed her sunglasses back up and settled back in her chair with a sigh. “It isn’t really like that,” she admitted quietly.

They looked at her in surprise.

“What do you mean?” asked Rashida.

“We don’t… we haven’t really…”

Sherry’s face cleared in a look of understanding, but Rashida was clearly shocked.

“Are you kidding me? Child, if I had something that delicious anywhere near the vicinity of my bedroom, I would take a sabbatical so we could spend more time exploring ways to corrupt each other. What’s the problem? Is there something wrong with him?”

Brie shook her head quickly, wishing she hadn’t brought it up.

“Of course not. He’s…” She watched him catch the ball and yell, “Hike!” as the rest of the team groaned in exasperation. Mike jogged over and whispered in his ear. He dropped the ball and apologized profusely for what had to be the tenth time. “He’s perfect.”

It’s me. There’s something wrong with me.

If I were normal, I wouldn’t even be able to see him. And none of this would have happened.

Neither of us would be feeling this pain.

“They’re taking things slow,” Sherry interrupted quickly, seeing her expression. “You can’t let someone that good-looking get their way all the time, Ida. It would set the stage for a dreadful amount of entitlement moving forward. He needs to learn to sing for his supper. Besides, Brie is a woman of incomparable virtue, not a wanton harlot such as yourself.”

The topic settled in laughter, and Brie flashed Sherry a grateful look.

“How’s it going with that case from the other night?” she asked Rashida.

“Terrible. Worse than terrible. I’ve run every test and gotten everyone involved I can think of, but no matter what I do, I’m still no closer to an explanation about the cause of death. And if that wasn’t bad enough, we caught another one yesterday. The bodies keep piling up, and I have nothing to tell their families.” She slumped back in her chair. “At least the hospital got me a new mass spectrometer to try to help. I only wish it would turn up an answer already.”

Sherry and Brie looked at each other.

“Was the one from yesterday an unexplained cardiac trauma from the ER?”

“Yes.” She looked at them, confused. “How did you know?”

Brie stared out at the field, unseeing. “We brought that in.”

“I thought it was your day off!”

“It was. We were out on a run. The guy just dropped right in his own driveway. We rode with the team back to the ER to try to help.”

Rashida gave her a strange look. “You always seem to be right in the thick of it, don’t you?”

You have no idea.

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