Kyle Wooten, Attorney-at-Law, needed to hire a better cleaning lady.

Dania hadn't expected much from a law firm sandwiched between a laundromat and a nail salon in a Noimoire strip mall, but the musty smell of the carpet and the thick layer of dust on the waiting room bookshelf made her wonder what the hell Berto had been thinking.

"Ms. Ellis? Did we have an appointment for today?" Wooten stepped around the partition that separated the waiting area from his office.

"No. But I was in the neighborhood, and I figured I'd ask your assistant if you were available. You said the paperwork doesn't take long, right?" Dania came to her feet and turned on one of her more persuasive smiles.

"Right… that's right. Uh, sorry. My assistant? Oh, she…ah…has the day off today. It would have been better for you to call and make an appointment."

"Sorry about that," Dania said. "But I'm probably not coming back into the city anytime soon, so is there any way you can squeeze me in?" Because you sure as shit don't look like you and your definitely nonexistent assistant are particularly busy, Kyle.

Wooten glanced out the plate windows at the rain-streaked parking lot and then shrugged.

"Sure," he said. "Just let me get your paperwork together. Come on back."

Jake and Machairi stood and the three of them followed Wooten through the partition into a cramped, messy office. Wooten gestured vaguely at a partially clear round table close to the window, and Dania led the boys over to sit down.

A few minutes later, Wooten joined them, a dog-eared manila folder in his hand.

"All right," he said as he put the folder down on the table. "First, I need you to initial this form for the state—"

***

"Holy shit," Jake whispered as he pushed open the door to the law office and held it for Dania and Machairi to walk through. "Berto was loaded."

"Let's talk about it later," Dania said tightly. She glanced around at the parking lot, noting with dismay that the sun had already started slanting toward the winter-bare trees and grim buildings to the west. "I want to get going—"

"Dania Ellis?"

Dania spun, instinctively putting her body between Jake and the stranger who approached from the benches outside the nail salon.

"Who are you?"

The stranger—chiseled jaw, blue-eyed, unfairly handsome stranger—reached inside his leather jacket and pulled out a bifold wallet, which he flipped open to show the shield of a Noimoire PD detective.

"Detective Sergeant Rhett Walker, Noimoire PD. Do you have a few minutes to talk?"

"Do I have a choice?" she shot back, her tone a little more aggressive than she'd intended.

He held his hands out to the side. "Hey, I'm not trying to arrest you or anything. I just want to talk. There's a coffee shop at the end of the strip mall. Let me buy you a coffee or something. It's a cold day."

Dania looked at Jake, who met her eyes with a steady gaze and nodded once.

"Okay," she said with a sigh. "One coffee. I was going to call you anyway."

She half expected him to ask her why, but instead, the detective just nodded and stepped to the side, gesturing for her to precede him past the nail salon to the coffee shop at the corner of the strip mall.

They walked in to the tinkling of bells and the sounds of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" piped through tinny speakers. Instantly, the warm, dark scent of roasting coffee wrapped itself around Dania and thawed away some of the cold she hadn't noticed in her fingers and on the tip of her nose.

"Nice place," she said as she slid into the high-backed booth that Rhett indicated.

"Yeah, thanks. A buddy of mine owns it."

"Another cop?"

"Retired." Rhett met her eyes and lifted the corner of his mouth in a half-smile that twisted something low and dark inside Dani's body. "Be right back." He waited until Jake and Machairi slid into the booth beside Dani, and then walked over to the counter to order.

"Dani! Are you checking out his butt?" Jake hissed.

"No," Dania lied. The man's well-worn and faded jeans fit him like a second skin. It had been awhile since Dania'd had any interest in a relationship… or even a friendship with benefits. There was always just too much going on, but she liked sex as much as the next woman. Plus, she'd always had a soft spot for men who could handle their shit, and for better or for worse, Detective Sergeant Rhett Walker gave off a vibe of competence that made her hormones sit up and take notice.

"You totally are! Gross!" Jake said, giggling again. Dania cracked a smile and met his eyes.

"Hey, sue me, I'm human." And fuck it, if checking out the cop pulls Jake out of his silent sulk, I'll take it!

"Jake is also human," Machairi observed. "Did he also check out the detective's butt?"

"Eww! No!" Jake scrunched up his face and slugged his companion in the shoulder. "Dude, I'm not gay."

"I mean, it's totally fine if you are, you know that, right?" Dania said, her tone teasing.

"I know!" Jake said. "Obviously, I know that. But I like girls, Machairi."

"Or you could be bi—"

"Just girls," Jake said, his tone saying clearly that he was ready to drop this topic.

"Like the girls in the video you showed me?"

Dania's eyebrows went up. "Video? You better not be watching porn on my tablet, kid."

"I'm not watching porn!" Jake threw his hands up, and then looked around as he realized that he'd spoken a bit loud for discretion. He leaned forward and lowered his voice.

"It was just a gymnastics video," he said. "I—I was showing Machairi their athleticism."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Uh-huh," Dania said. "Whatever."

"I promise!"

"You promise what?" Rhett asked as he approached the table. He held a tray with four mismatched mugs and a plate of cookies.

"Nothing," Dania said quickly. It was one thing to tease Jake; it was something totally different to embarrass him in front of a stranger. "What have you got there?"

"Black coffee for you and me, hot chocolate for the kids. Hope that's okay. I know some kids like coffee, but…"

"It's great, thank you," Jake said quickly, reaching for one of the mugs. His face and ears still flamed red, and Dania felt a twinge of pity for the kid.

"You gotta try the cookies, too. They were made fresh this morning. Oatmeal with chocolate and peanut-butter chips. House specialty."

"Nice," Jake said, and he grabbed two cookies and a napkin.

Rhett slid into the booth across from Dania, his eyes assessing Jake and Machairi.

"Ah," the detective said softly. "Like I thought. This is your companion, then?" He gestured to Machairi, who hadn't moved to take the mug nor a cookie. The card didn't answer, and Dania leaned forward on her elbows.

"What was it you wanted to talk about?" she asked, blowing across the top of her own coffee. She decided against adding the artificial creamer and took a sip of the rich, black bitterness.

"Roberto Almonte," Rhett said promptly. "Know him?"

"I did," Dania said softly. "We were in the Army together and stayed friends after we got home."

"Is that why he named you in his will? You were friends?"

Dania blinked slowly and raised her eyes to meet Rhett's dark, assessing gaze. "I suppose so," she said slowly.

"Did you have a romantic relationship?"

"What business is that of yours?"

"I'm just…trying to figure out why he'd leave his estate to you when he never mentioned you to me."

"Maybe Berto also figured it was none of your business."

Rhett sighed, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose for a second before straightening and looking at her solemnly. "Look, Ms. Ellis. I understand that you've been through a loss recently—and my condolences—but Mr. Almonte may not have been the man you thought you knew. He was working with me on something big until his death. Without him, though, I'm at a dead end, and you could really help me out if you would just answer a few questions for me."

Dania stared at Rhett for a long moment while anger and grief warred within her. Next to her, Jake shifted and nudged her with his elbow under the table. She ran her tongue along the inside of her teeth without breaking eye-contact, and then finally nodded.

"Okay," she said.

"Okay?"

"Okay, I'll tell you what I know."

"Great. Thank you, Ms. Ellis—"

"Dania. Or Dani. And shut up and take notes, because I'm only doing this once. We have somewhere to be." Like out of this fucking city.

Rhett nodded and reached inside his jacket for a small notepad. He clicked a pen and glanced up at Dania, indicating he was ready to copy.

"Berto and I were battle buddies in the 'Stan. We spent most of the deployment keeping each other alive. When we got back, we lost touch for a little over a year. In that time, my sister died and I got custody of Jake, and Berto apparently crawled into a bottle and gambled away a fair amount of his family's money."

"Wait—if you lost touch, how do you know that?"

"He told me," Dania said. "In a letter I received after he died."

"Do you have this letter?"

Dania stiffened. "It's personal," she said.

"Please, Ms—Dani." His dark, handsome eyes pleaded with hers. "It could really help me figure out who killed Berto."

Dania swallowed, and then slowly reached into the small backpack she'd carried and removed the folded letter. "Take a picture of it," she said. "I'm not giving it to you."

A muscle in Rhett's cheek jumped, but he nodded and accepted the letter. He unfolded it, scanned the words quickly, and then took a photograph of the pages with his phone. Then he refolded it and handed it back.

"Thank you," he said softly. "And, again, I'm sorry for your loss."

He knew you couldn't protect him, Dania thought, but didn't say aloud. She just tucked the folded letter away.

"So, you were gifted a deck on Drop Night—" Rhett started to say, but stopped when Jake shook his head.

"Not her," Jake said. "Me."

Rhett's eyes widened and his mouth fell open a little bit.

"You?" he asked. "How—How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

Rhett raised his eyes to Dania's, and she smiled grimly and nodded. "His birthday was Drop Night. Hell of a birthday present."

"Wow. Okay. I see what Berto meant by vulnerable. But how did this 'Sniffer' know you were so young?"

"I don't think he did. One of the cards in his deck is a creature that tracks deckbearers. I think he just thought he got lucky when Jake turned out to be a kid." Dani shifted in her seat.

"And then?"

"And then what?"

"He attacked you and what happened?"

Dania looked at him for a long moment. "I'm not going to answer that," she said lowly.

Rhett exhaled gustily. "You killed him—in self-defense, which isn't illegal—and took his cards? Or Berto did…no, Berto didn't have cards when he came to me. He just said he was working with a card trafficking ring and had reasons to want to take them down. I guess you're the reasons."

Dania said nothing.

"Okay. Here's the deal. These criminals killed one of my CIs. That's not something I'm prepared to let go, Dani. But I need your help to take them down. Is there anything else you can tell me?"

She turned and looked at Jake for another moment, and then drew in a deep breath. "Yeah," she said. "The night before last, two deckbearers showed up at the cabin where we were staying—"

"Berto's cabin?" Rhett looked up, his pen poised over his notepad.

"The one he just left us, yeah."

"Okay." He went back to writing.

"Anyway, they showed up and set fire to the cabin with us in it. We got out in time to save ourselves, but not the house. I got a look at one of the deckbearers before he left, but not a close one. The other one stayed."

"And—"

Dania closed her mouth again, her eyes locked on Rhett's. He pursed his lips and exhaled one more time.

"Do you know who he was?" Rhett asked after a minute. Dania reached in her backpack and grabbed the wallet that Jake had thrown in there when they'd climbed out of 8-Ball to go to the lawyer's office. She slid the wallet across the table.

"Leo Miraval. Yeah, I know this guy. Infernal and Beast deck. He's another known tracker, like the Sniffer."

"You know who these guys are and you don't stop them?" Jake said, heat threading through his words.

"It doesn't work like that, kid," Rhett said. "I wish it did, but these guys are small-time. If I arrest them, the ones calling the shots will just find other criminals who are willing to become deckbearers to replace them. Getting a deck is a pretty big enticement, you know, even if it's a low-level one. In order to really shut this trafficking ring down, I have to find out who's behind the trackers."

"What about the guy Berto mentioned in his letter," Dania asked. "Landaine?"

"Not ringing a bell right away, but I'm gonna check on it. Could be an alias of someone we know. What happened to Miraval's cards?"

"We kept them," Jake said. "They're ours by right."

Rhett smiled a half-smile and raised his hands. "No argument here, kid. Gonna sell them?"

"Maybe," Dania replied for Jake.

Rhett's smile faded. "Hey," he said softly. "I'm on your side, Dani. You can trust me."

"Like Berto trusted you to protect him?" She said the words softly, but Rhett recoiled like he'd been hit with a hammer. Any trace of a smile vanished, and his eyes narrowed. Dania thought she caught a flash of hurt in their depths, but she couldn't be sure.

"Berto knew what he was doing," Rhett said. "His loss is tragic, and I'm trying to see justice done. Justice for him, among others."

"Uh huh."

"Okay, well. Looks like we're about done here, then. Was there anything else you wanted to tell me?" Rhett's open, earnest eyes narrowed, and a muscle in his cheek jumped. His clipped tone, empty of the warmth he'd extended for the entire meeting, underscored his simmering anger.

Direct hit, Dania, she told herself. Cop knows he fucked up and he's sensitive about it. Interesting.

"Just one thing," Jake was saying. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the scrap of paper they'd discussed in the truck. "We found this in Miraval's billfold. That top address was our cabin."

He slid the paper across the table. Rhett took it and tucked it into his jacket without a glance. Then he stood up and pulled out a business card, which he dropped in front of Dania.

"Ms. Ellis, if you think of anything else, or if anyone else approaches you on these matters, please give me a call."

Dania curved her lips in a sardonic smile. "Sure," she said, her tone dry. She took the card and flicked it with her fingers. "Thanks for the coffee and cookies."

Rhett loomed over the table for a moment longer, like he had more to say. Then he shook his head. "That's my personal number on the back," he said then. "If…if you need help—"

"We'll be fine." She let her eyes go hard and her smile grow colder with every dismissive word. "We've handled them so far."

"I—all right." Rhett said.

"Catch you later, Detective," Jake said, his tone also carrying a note of dismissal. Rhett inhaled deeply, and then nodded once at Jake before he turned and walked out the door to the opening riff to Carlos Santana's "Black Magic Woman".

"Dani—" Jake said, his tone low and urgent.

"I know, kid," she said. "He didn't even look at the addresses. Let me finish this and we'll go check them out like we planned."

"We're not just going to drive by?"

"No. We'll make contact. Just to be sure."