Dungeon Games (Masters and Mercenaries #6.5)(15)

And Maia would know because she’d very likely slept with her. Maia didn’t discriminate when it came to her sexual partners. She was an omnivore. Derek was certain she’d probably sleep with a goat if she found one attractive and it could help her career.

“I’ll take a hard pass. Why are you here besides the fact that you outed me to brass?” It didn’t look like it was actually going to cost him his job, but then she hadn’t known that, had she?

It surprised him a little since Maia was a bitch from hell, but she’d never been truly malicious with him. Yes, she’d cheated on him on a regular basis, but she’d strangely always had his back when it came to work. They’d always been a successful team. He’d just wanted so much more than to be a team member.

Well, and he’d also kind of wanted to not be cheated on with every man he knew.

Maia’s face softened as much as the Botox in it allowed as she leaned against his desk. “Brass is all a bunch of perverts, Derek. Trust me, successful people all tend to be perverts. Unsuccessful people, too. And the ones who aren’t are fooling themselves. I have enough on the chief to ensure that you move up when you want to move up. All you have to do is say the word and I’ll make it happen.”

And that was Maia to a T. Always making a deal, always working an angle. She would likely be the Dallas District Attorney before she was forty. “I’ll handle my own career, thank you. You had no right to go to them. You should have come to me and asked me if I wanted to be involved.”

She shook her head with a long-suffering sigh. “And if I came to you with four dead girls, one of them a cop in this precinct, are you telling me you would have turned down the assignment so no one would know you like to spank subs? Should I have gone straight to Ian? I’m totally not going to do that because he’s an *.”

“No. I would have gone to them myself. I would have offered my services.” She was forever cutting his balls off. Even though he hadn’t touched her since long before the divorce, she was still making decisions for him, decisions that shouldn’t be hers.

“So I saved you a step. Chill out. You’re acting like I tried to kill you when all I did was give you the biggest opportunity of your career. Can’t you see how good this is going to be? For both of us?”

And just like that it all fell into place. “You’re handling the case.”

She shrugged a little. “I did put together the team. I do know the lifestyle. I outed myself, too, Derek. The DA thinks this case would best be handled by a female, and I was going to make damn sure I was the female. Besides the only other chick who can handle a case like this is Marian Greeley, and she’s sixty-five with a face like a horse. She is so not ready for TV. She would likely say the girls had it coming because she’s a dried up old prune who thinks sex is evil. It had to be me. It’s best for the victims. So, see, I didn’t shove you out alone into shark-infested waters. Consider me your life jacket.”

A life jacket that would likely strangle him in her deep need to get ahead. “You still had no right.”

“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that. Now what’s your plan? I want you to coordinate with me. This is the rarest of cases, Derek. This is a serial case the feds haven’t taken yet. Bastards. We need to solve this and fast because at some point they will figure out how hot this case is, move in, and we’ll lose all our control. The Rangers are willing to work with us because apparently their kinks aren’t the same as ours and they’re really high on Eve St. James.”

“McKay. She remarried.”

“Hmmm, well, that’s nice. I suppose that means McKay’s on the case, too.” She grimaced a little. “Did the Rangers bring in Ian? Because he hates me.”

“You’re in luck. Big Tag’s in Europe.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank god. The last time I applied for membership at Sanctum, he put me through a ton of paperwork and when he sent me the letter that would state the date I could start it simply said when hell freezes over. Jerk, though I suppose he’s loyal to you.”

He would have to send Big Tag a bottle of Scotch. The last thing he needed was to have his club invaded by Maia. “Back to the case, please?”

“Fine. So is Eve working on a profile? Tell her to come to my office when it’s done. I don’t want that profile leaking to anyone. If the feds get it they’ll swoop down and scoop up all my work and take all my glory. I hate them.”

Derek felt his eyes narrow. She only ever got truly angry over one thing. “Who turned you down?”

The slightest hint of pink hit her cheeks. “No one turns me down. Well, mostly. I might have been dating one of the SACs. He turned out to be an * and now he’s out for some kind of revenge.”

“What did you do?” Because there was no way she was innocent.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” A little huff came from her chest. “I might have given his son a blow job. You can’t blame me for that. You should have seen him. He’s a college quarterback with the tightest ass I’ve ever seen on a man. He’d just won a bowl game. If you really think about it, I was taking one for the state of Texas. We owe the kid.”

“You’re a sexual predator, you know.” A barracuda with a vagina that sucked up all the air around it. Actually that was a much better analogy. Her vagina was a black hole from which no man escaped. Or woman.