Chapter 8

Ian was relieved the station wasn’t busy; he didn’t need any hostile thoughts tossed at him right now. Other than a few cops upstairs they saw no one until they reached the basement. Reid’s voice could be heard before they opened the door. Alec gave him a curious look before she walked in.

Standing, leaning against the desk beside Brent was Felicity, Ian liked her. She wasn’t hard to look at either, petite with waist-length blonde hair and pale eyes, Brent was a lucky man. He’d tried a few times to tap into her thoughts, but there was something different about her brain pattern that always left him feeling strange, so he didn’t go there anymore.

Felicity and Brent were grinning at Reid and the tiny woman standing almost on Reid’s boots. She was the exact opposite of Felicity’s light coloring with equally long black hair and dark eyes that any man would be happy to fall into. With the perturbed expression on Reid’s face, Ian didn’t have to guess more than once. This had to be Jac.

Alec stopped right in front of Ian, he had to grasp her waist to not walk right into her. Crossing her arms, she stood there for a moment.

“Should I get popcorn and sit down?” Alec chuckled.

Reid straightened and sent her a dark glare. “No.”

The dark-haired woman turned and sent Alec an amused look. “I’m just trying to explain to someone that I am a big girl and can go out in public without any...” —she glanced at Ian briefly— “...problems.”

Ian felt Alec tense under his hand.

“Public where?” Alec asked.

“The movies,” Felicity supplied with a quiet voice.

Clearly, there was something he didn’t know going on.

Felicity smiled at him. “Ian, how have you been?”

All eyes were on him. “Good.” He inclined his head toward the other woman. “I’m Ian, by the way.”

She looked him up and down, pausing momentarily on the hand that still rested on Alec’s hip. “Hi, I’m Jac.” She motioned to the man hovering behind her. “Reid told me you guys were working together.”

Shrugging, he stepped out from behind Alec. “I suppose we are, in a way.” He didn’t plan to skim her thoughts, but the fact that she was standing there wearing gloves when it was nowhere near glove weather, had him a little curious.

“Speaking of,” Alec interrupted, “did you guys run that search?”

Brent reached around and picked up a handful of pages off the desk. “These are just the prelims; it’s going to take a while to dig out the rest.”

Alec went over and took the pages from him. Ian watched her flip through them, at the same time he tuned into the thoughts in the room. It wouldn’t be hard to find Jac, he couldn’t tap into the men or Alec and he’d know Felicity’s as soon as he touched on them.

What he found where he thought her thoughts would be was static. He’d encountered it before, so he wasn’t completely surprised. Giving a little push he tried to go past the static and found a wall.

Glancing over at Jac, he was met with her stare and an expression that made his heart speed up. She knew he was trying to pry into her head. In all the years Ian had been able to do this, no one had ever sensed him. How?

Before he could decide how to deal with that, the door swung open and a preppy-looking blond man walked in. Alec barely spared him a quick glance over her shoulder, but Brent and Reid paused and looked at him. Ian tried to gauge what the hard expression on their face meant and who this guy was.

“So, you are working on something at night. I thought maybe you just got lucky for a change.”

Ian wanted to deck the guy; whomever he was he needed someone to smack some sense into him. He watched Alec lower the pages and exhale slowly before she turned to face him.

“Since when is my sex life any of your business?” She tossed the pages onto Brent’s desk and stepped over right into the guy’s face.

Ian tried to ignore the lustful way the man’s eyes roamed down over Alec’s body.

“And I’m your partner from nine to five, Bill, what I do after that time is none of your concern.”

Ah, so this was the partner that Alec didn’t want. Ian couldn’t help but look down at the man’s shoes. Yep, there they were cheap imitation loafers. At least the pair in his closet were authentic Italian shoes. Crossing his arms, he stood and observed, telling himself he didn’t need to barge into Alec’s partner’s just because he could.

“You took off out of here and left me to deal with the guy you tagged today,” Bill growled at her. And seriously do you always dress like a tramp when you’re not at work?

Ian clenched his hands that were tucked in his arms when he caught the man’s thoughts. How she was dressed was none of his damn business. Not knowing what he could do or couldn’t do without pissing her off, he looked around at the others. Brent and Reid didn’t look happy at all, with Bill being there.

“Well, in case you didn’t notice, partner, I got a little dirty chasing that tag down.” Alec looked down at Bill’s shoes. “I needed to go home and clean up. Yet I don’t see a spec of crud on you.”

Just knowing the man had stood back and let Alec chase some guy into the sewers didn’t improve Ian’s opinion of him. He looked over at Felicity and Jac and their expression told him they didn’t like Alec’s partner either.

Felicity cleared her throat. “Alec, if you and Ian are done for the night, you could come to the movies with us, Sandy is meeting us here shortly.”

Alec backed away from Bill and went back over and picked up the papers she’d tossed aside. “No, I’m good. We need to go through these and see if we can pick up a lead.”

“A lead on what? What are you working on?” Bill came over and reached for the pages.

Pulling them back from his reach, Alec glared at him. “Just something we’re helping Reid with—on my own time, partner.”

As if cued by the mention of his name, Reid straightened to his full height and looked down at Bill with a shrug. “Brent and I didn’t fit into the heels.”

Ian was surprised that Reid actually said that, judging by the look Bill gave him, so was he.

Bill tucked his hand into his pocket and rolled his eyes in Alec’s direction. “Fine, whatever. Just be on time in the morning.”

No one spoke as he walked out of the room, closing the door a little harder than necessary.

“I have never been late, you over preened, squeaky shoed...”

Ian pulled the pages from Alec’s hands to distract her. “Any families of three or more in this lot?”

Alec sighed loudly and then glanced at them. “Not with more than one brother convicted.” She rolled her shoulders like she was trying to shake off the tension.

An emotion Ian wasn’t quite certain of came over him. He suddenly felt protective and wanted to go find Bill and give him a backhand or two. He offered her the pages. “I’m going to grab a coffee, anyone else want one?” He paused long enough to see if there were any takers then walked quickly to the door.

Taking the stairs two at a time, Ian didn’t pause to think about what he was going to say or do when he found Bill. Once he was at the top, he glanced around briefly to see where he was. Spotting him standing and talking to a woman, he headed in that direction.

Halfway there the woman turned, and Ian stopped. It was the same very well-dressed woman from Lucky’s. Why was she here? And why was she talking to Bill-squeaky-shoes so quietly?

Going over to the coffee maker, he poured out the contents without even looking to see if it was fresh or not. He hurried and set it up again and then stood back with his arms crossed as it started to brew. To anyone looking his way, it would appear he was waiting for a fresh cup. What he planned on doing for the five or so minutes it was going to take was poke around inside the preppy cop and well-to-do lady’s heads.

Breathing deeply, he reached out to find that invisible path inside one of their craniums. It only took a second before he was inside Bills’ thoughts.

Just agree with everything she says. She’s just the gopher girl. Why they would pick someone like her, I have no idea. But whoever is responsible for sending her here to the station needs a swift kick... Could be worse, they could have sent one of the grunts, at least this way I’m seen talking to a nicely groomed chick instead of a thug. Just smile and agree... Alec’s going to go postal when her perp is set loose again. How the hell I’m going to swing it I’ll have to give some thought to though...

Ian pulled out and took a quick look at the coffee pot, he still had a few minutes. Another breath and he did it again, knowing what the signature to Bill’s mind felt like now he avoided those and reached for the other.

Just what the hell is wrong with Pierre? First, he sends me to that filthy bar, surprising I didn’t catch some sort of virus in there and now I’m standing here talking to this arrogant bastard like I’m some sort of girl Friday! Unbelievable, I don’t even think this idiot is listening to me. How can I get him to understand how important it is that he get Pierre’s slimy little messenger out of jail?

Having heard more than he needed Ian grabbed a cup, not even caring if it was finished brewing, and filled it. Shit. This was going to get messy. Dumping some sugar in, he stirred the hot liquid. Bill was connected to the job he had been offered, which inadvertently made Alec involved just by association. The sewer arrest was also involved? Shit. Picking up the cup, he turned to head back downstairs.

“Dante?”

Ian froze, hearing the name he used for his fake ID. God, could things get any more fucked up than they are? Looking over his shoulder, he watched the woman walk toward him, her short blonde curls bouncing with each step. Where did he know her from? A doctor from one of the charities he had to make appearances at for on a job a few months back? Not sure, but she was definitely a doctor and he was in deep shit.

She stopped in front of him and gave him a beaming smile. “Dante, it is you.”

He nodded slowly, looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was nearby. “Yes, Doctor...”

She laughed. “Oh, please, it’s Sandy.”

“Sandy.” He looked around. “Are you in some sort of trouble?”

“What? Oh, no. I’m here to meet some friends; we’re going to a movie.”

Movies...deep, deep shit. “How nice.” He debated on heading for the exit and never looking back until images of Alec flashed inside his head.

“Are you in trouble?” Sandy asked with a quirky little smile.

He shook his head. “No, quite the opposite really.” How to explain this... “I’m actually helping out some detectives, with research.”

“Oh really?” Her eyes lit up. “Who? I know quite a few of them.”

He cleared his throat. “Alec McGowan, Brent...”

“Oh, those are my friends, well, through association that is.” She turned toward the stairs.

Shit. Shit. Fuck. “Uh, Sandy...” He stepped closer to her, keeping his voice down. “When we met, before, I was...” What? “Undercover. My real name is Ian MacTavish.”

“Oh, so you’re a detective too?” She looked pleased with that idea.

He shook his head briefly. “No. I normally work in the research field.”

Sandy gave him a puzzled look for a moment and then a serious look crossed her face. “I take it Alec and the guys don’t know.”

He nodded briefly.

“I see.” She looked down at the floor for a moment and then back up at him. “All right, I won’t say anything, Da...Ian, but let me just say this is the wrong group of people to try to keep secrets from.” With that, she turned and went down the stairs.

Letting out the breath he’d been holding, Ian looked down into his cup of coffee, as if it would reveal some answers and then shook his head and followed her downstairs. The next time he wanted to chill and have a drink, he was doing it at home. Walking into Lucky’s that night instead of staying home had created a whole load of bad for him to try to get through.