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Mark
Mark watched Darby hustle toward the third floor break room, then turned and headed in with Genova and that Rick Pierce guy.
Genova glanced up as Mark walked to the opposite side of the table. She had a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights look about her.
Mark wasn’t sure what to say or do. He’d never been what he’d consider a one-night stand kind of guy, so this situation with Genova was not his forté.
Maybe if they’d had a chance to see each other since then, it wouldn’t feel so...awkward.
She ended up speaking first. Which was good, because he was still trying to gather his thoughts.
“Where’s Darby?”
Was that a loaded question? Surely, in their earlier meeting, Darby had told Genova what had happened that morning. Had Genova spilled the beans about what had occurred a couple weeks ago?
Replying to the surface level question seemed prudent.
He cleared his throat. “Getting drinks. If you don’t mind, we’ve requested our captain sit in. He’ll learn what we do regardless, so it makes more sense for him to be here.”
“I have no problem with it. How about you, Rick?”
He shook his head and pushed his glasses up his nose. “No, not at all.”
Mark returned his attention to Genova. “You his lawyer?”
“Only if he needs it,” she said evenly.
Mark lifted a brow. He’d never seen this side of Genova before, the brusque, all-business attitude. Normally, he could get her to flirt.
They were quiet as they waited. Rick folded his hands nervously, first putting them on the table, then in his lap, finally resting them on the arms of his chair. Genova avoided making eye contact with Mark. And Mark tried to think of anything but his night in her bed.
Baseball’s on tonight. I need to mow the lawn. Gotta finish up Claire’s house. Do I have everything I need? Can’t forget to call Ma either.
Then his brain insisted he had to think about Genova and her lovely violet eyes.
Damn it.
Five minutes later, the captain held the door for Darby, then securely shut it.
She passed out bottles of sweet iced tea and water. An introduction was made between Pierce and the captain, then Mark took the lead.
“Okay, Mr. Pierce, Ms. Murphie, what is this about? We’re losing valuable time.”
Rick nodded. “I’m a deputy of the SHS from Kansas. I work mostly out of the Topeka and Wichita offices. Where Ms. Murphie works with the feds, I work with the states to help ensure superhumans don’t lose their rights via the state governments.”
“What’s that have to do with the Rasmussen case?” Darby asked.
“Possibly everything. Possibly nothing. But I can’t ignore what happened to Prairie. She was too important to the cause.”
“She’s a non-super, a normal.” Darby folded her arms. “How is she involved? She was an agent for the other side.”
“Not all normals hate supers.” Genova pointedly shifted her eyes between Mark and the captain. “The two gentlemen here are evidence of that.”
Mark shifted in his seat.
Darby slumped. “I know. No disrespect to either of you.”
“None taken,” Moustakas said.
The air cleared for a moment, then Pierce leaned forward. “Prairie Rasmussen was a DSHA agent...and she’d also been working with the SHS for a couple of years.”
Mark blinked. “Excuse me?”
Pierce smiled the smile of someone who held all the cards. “Prairie began working with us shortly after your kidnapping, Detective Shaw. We were trying to find out exactly who was behind it.”
“We know who was behind it, and last we knew, they were holed up in a non-extradition country in South America,” Moustakas said.
“We’ve found more layers. It wasn’t just the middle management that the BPD has identified in the DSHA, CIA, and NHI. It went higher than that.”
Darby shuddered. “You’re saying it was some sort of government conspiracy?”
The captain nodded at Rick. “But why not bring what you know to the BPD before this? We’ve gone out of our way to stand with Detective Shaw, to protect her, and to provide a home for her. That’s been a decision at the corporate level.”
“We’ve been watching. The BPD—and Bendex in general—is a good place for supers. But there are still those in management who don’t like the way your company bends over backwards for its supers. They’re not in Kansas City, but scattered around the country.”
Mark huffed. “Bigots are everywhere. What’s that got to do with either Darby’s kidnapping or Prairie Rasmussen’s murder?”
Rick glanced at Darby first, then at Genova.
She nodded.
He shifted and stared down at his hands before raising his gaze. “When Prairie started digging into who was behind your kidnapping, Darby, what she stumbled upon was even more troubling. Since you discovered your powers, the DSHA and a few other parts of the Alphabet Soup have come together and have drawn up plans to reinstitute the prison camps for supers.”
Darby gasped.
Rick leaned towards Darby a little, even if she was across the table from him. “Who do you think was at the top of their list to put in their camps, Detective?”
“Me,” she whispered.