“Good.” I shoved open the door and started to climb out, but Jamie stopped me with a hand on my wrist.
“You have the recorder?”
I patted my bra.
He nodded and squeezed my wrist. “If anyone tries to hurt you, screw the investigation and leave. I’m serious. Whatever it takes. You don’t have to do anything you don’t”—his voice caught—“want.” He cleared his throat. “Just be careful.”
***
I knocked on the door, three sharp raps. To my surprise, it opened immediately to a handsome man in his thirties, blond, clean-cut, and scowling. He wasn’t wearing a mask, and my heart jumped with the sudden fear I’d been sent to the wrong place.
“Yes?” He scanned me. “What do you want?”
I pulled my coat tighter. “I’m here for the party.”
“Wrong address.” He started to close the door, but I stuck out a hand.
“Nicole invited me.” I spoke fast. “I’m being initiated.”
He froze. “Who are you?”
My heart thundered, as if he could see through my shirt to the tiny recording device, no bigger than a button, wedged into my bra. Then it hit me: Nicole had given me instructions, hadn’t she? Back at the Sparrow. I searched my mind for the words, but all I could remember was her surprised face when I said Happy hunting, right before she’d disappeared. “I’m here to be initiated,” I repeated, hoping the fact that I knew that much would work in my favor.
His eyes darted behind me, then he swung open the door. “Get inside.”
I barely had a chance to step inside the foyer—filled with large, dramatic Renaissance-style paintings of angels—before he seized my arm.
“What are you doing?” I resisted the urge to fight.
“There’s protocol,” he said, pulling me down the hall. “Nicole would’ve told you if she’d really invited you. You’re lying.”
Shit. “I know it. I just forgot.” I looked around, trying to keep calm and get my bearings. Then a voice cut through.
“She’s with me, Pater.”
The man stopped; we both turned to find Nicole at the far end of the hall.
“She didn’t say the words.”
“It’s my mistake.” Nicole’s voice was smooth and soothing. “I’ll confess to the Lieutenant. I’ll bring her to him right away.”
The man’s face was cold. “Tread carefully.”
“Yes, Pater,” Nicole said. To my relief, the man let go of me. Nicole wasted no time, hurrying me down the hallway.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” she hissed. She wore all black, her makeup lighter than before. She looked younger than I’d first pegged her. “You didn’t say you were a gift from a humble daughter. Remember? There are rules here. They keep us safe.”
I swallowed back my guilt at getting her in trouble and struggled to keep up. “You’re taking me to the Lieutenant?”
She turned a corner, and we stopped in front of a closed door. “Last chance to change your mind.”
I shook my head.
She knocked, and someone called, “Come in.”
Inside was a sitting room, filled with what looked like leftovers from a church yard sale: crucifixes in gold and marble and garish painted plastic, pillows with embroidered Bible verses and cheery little flowers. There was a fireplace in the center with a crackling fire. A man sat before it, examining us. “What have you brought?”