Wel !

I just knew Dawn was a bitch.

I didn’t share my thoughts and gave him a smile.

“Thanks,” I said.

None of the other computers were taken so I asked him,

“Can I check my email on one of these computers?”

“Sure. Let me set you up,” Brody replied.

I checked a week’s worth of email, sending replies, deleting junk and doing a few changes and updates through the administration panels of some of my websites.

A little later, Dawn came in with a couple of pizzas and sodas and Monty and Luke took turns joining us, having a break from the monotony of surveil ance. Monty chatted about his wife and family. Luke didn’t say much but Brody and I made up for it. Dawn didn’t join us at al , likely for fear that the cheese on the pizza would give her instant cel ulite, but she came in, face set and hard, to clean up afterward.

Once the door closed behind her, Brody gave me a huge grin.

I was logging out of one of my sites when Brody walked behind me and saw what I was doing.

“You do websites?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m a designer.”

“Cool beans!” he yel ed. “Show me one of your sites.” He rol ed his chair next to me and we trol ed through a few of my sites. Then he showed me a game the computer team had loaded cal ed “Diablo”. It was a role-playing game where you got to be a character and went on quests through scary, devastated lands, caves, deserts and cities.

You picked up gold, armor, weapons and magical spel s and fought bad guys. It was kickass.

Brody networked the game then rol ed in his chair back to his cubby. I picked the assassin character because she had the best outfit and we started playing it.

What seemed like minutes later, but was actual y hours, we were in a battle to the death with a whole bunch of orcs and trol s and I shouted, “Yeah! Go Brody! Kick his ass!”

“Don’t stand there! Move away. He’s kil ing you!” Brody yel ed.

I chanced a quick glance at my stats. The bad guy was kil ing me.

I panicked.

“I’m out of health potions. Retreat! Retreat! Give me some of your health potions!” I screamed.

“I don’t have any potions. Run, bitch, run,” Brody squealed.

The red ran out on my health and my assassin was transported, stripped of everything we’d earned, back to the starting camp.

“I’m dead! Fuck, they kil ed me! They f**king kil ed me,” I wailed, jerking my hand from the mouse and rol ing my chair back in disgust.

Brody had gone quiet.

I looked at him and saw he was looking at the door.

I turned my gaze to the door and it was opened. Hank, Lee and Luke were al standing there in various amused-male poses, watching us.

Shit.

“What?” I asked, deciding to go with uppity.

“Enjoying yourself?” Hank asked, his mouth twitching.

“No,” I said angrily. “I’m dead. Now I have to run al the way back to my lifeless body and get my stuff. The orcs and trol s wil be hanging around and we’l have to fight them and I can’t do that without my good armor. I’l have to use the crappy stuff I have stashed in my trunk. I had a real y good sword and helmet and now they’re gone. That just plain sucks.”

Hank stared at me.

Then he said, “You do know I don’t know what the f**k you’re talkin’ about.”

“Diablo,” I replied, like that explained it al .

He stared at me.

“Nothing. Forget it.” I turned to Brody, “Wil this run on my laptop?” I asked.

“Sure, if you’ve got a good one,” Brody replied.

I looked back to Hank. “We need to go to the mal , I’ve got to buy this game.”

“Maybe we’l do that tomorrow, Sunshine.”

“Now!” I snapped.

“Uh-oh,” Brody said. “I’ve seen this before. It’s not pretty.

Soon she’l be playing al night on the Internet.” My head swung back to Brody. “You can play on the Internet?” I breathed.

“Now’s a good time to shut up Brody,” Lee warned.

Hank walked into the room and grabbed my hand.

“Let’s go, warrior princess. Time for dinner.”

“I wasn’t a warrior princess, I was an assassin,” I told him.

Hank smiled at me.

My heart fluttered.

I ral ied. “Anyway, we just had lunch,” I said as Hank pul ed me out of the chair.

“Five hours ago,” Luke put in.

I stopped and stared at Luke, openmouthed.

“No shit?” I asked.

He shook his head, the amused-male pose stil in ful force.

“Holy cow,” I said.

The game had sucked five hours out of me and it felt like five minutes.

I turned to Brody. “I don’t think Diablo is good for me.”

“Some can take it, some can’t. It’s the wil of Diablo,” Brody replied.

I nodded at the profound sageness of his reply.

Hank tugged me toward the door and I could swear he was laughing.

“Later,” Brody cal ed as we walked out.

Chapter Sixteen

Prayers

Hank went to get Shamus and I went to the safe room to pack my stuff.

I was standing at the reclining chair, shoving the last bits into the bag when Shamus ran to my side.

“Hey boy,” I said, bending at the waist to give him an ear scratch that turned into a hand wash from Shamus’s overexcited tongue. Apparently, the last five hours away from me had been doggie-traumatic for my furry chocolate boy.

“Ooo,” I cooed. “Did Auntie Roxie leave you with the scary, badass dudes in the boring room? Poor fel a.” I felt Hank’s heat at my back before his arm slid around my middle and I straightened. His chin came to my neck and shifted my hair, then his lips were there. Shamus sat on my feet.

“Have a good day?” Hank said against my neck.

I shivered, then turned in his arm, his head came up and I looked up at him. Shamus shifted to sit with his body leaning against both of us.

“Yeah,” I told Hank, surprising myself because I meant it.

“Good,” he said, and I could tel he meant it too.

I looked at him. He looked his usual handsome but tired.

He hadn’t had a ful night’s sleep, interrupted or not. He hadn’t had his food delivered, even by a snotty bitch. He hadn’t spent his afternoon being a make-believe, kickass assassin and kil ing make-believe orcs. He’d spent his day being a real life cop and going to ugly crime scenes.