High-Heeler Wonder (Killer Style 1)

“How long will it take?” Ivy asked over his shoulder.

’Los shrugged. “Depends.”

A flood of coded information rolled down the laptop screen as Tony listened to the phone ringing at Ryder’s. To him, the avalanche of numbers made about as much sense as hieroglyphics, but to Carlos the gobbledygook was the solution to a riddle.

Ryder wasn’t answering. Tony left a message and hung up.

“There you are,” Carlos mumbled, halting the stream of code. He copied a set of numbers, plugged them into a different program, and minimized it, revealing Ivy’s screensaver.

A Magic Battledome avatar of a giant warrior appeared on the screen holding a monstrous scythe with a long, curved blade. A woman with bright red hair stood next to the warrior, drawing back the string of her bow and aiming a fire arrow at an unseen enemy.

The tech guy’s jaw practically hit the desk and his spine snapped straight. “Dios mío.”

“You’re not going to give me crap for playing Magic Battledome, are you?” Ivy’s tough tone didn’t quite cover the quiver underneath. “I started playing in rehab. So much better than taking up smoking or reading yet another self-help book. Anyway, I like that it requires you to think strategically and always be one step ahead of your enemy. It’s good practice for life.”

Carlos shot out of his chair and whirled to face her. “Scarlett?”

She froze for an electric moment and then leveled the full weight of her wide blue eyes on him. “How— Who—”

He swallowed. “It’s me…Zephyr.”

Pink tinged her face, drowning the freckles dusting her high cheekbones. “Oh my God. Zephyr?” She jumped up from her chair and flung her arms around him, his head fitting into the crook of her neck, squeezing so tightly it had to be limiting ’Los’s lung capacity. “Zephyr!”

“But you’re a supermodel. You can’t be Scarlett.”

Tony looked at them incredulously. “What the hell, people?”

Carlos glanced at him. “So you know I play Magic Battledome, right? Well, Scarlett—Ivy—is my partner, has been for more than a year.”

“Partner?” Tony had a sinking suspicion he wasn’t going to like the answer.

“We fight battles together.” ’Los’s ears turned red. “And stuff.”

“I can’t believe it.” Excitement punched Ivy’s pitch higher, and she ended her iron-armed hug. Her hands slid up Carlos arms, over his shoulders, and to his face. “It’s really you.”

Tony cringed. Time to end this before it turned really weird. As if it wasn’t already. “Hey ’Los, can I talk to you for a second? In private?”

Ivy released her hold on Maltese Security’s technical brain trust. “I’m getting a Red Bull.” She sauntered toward the kitchen and paused, looking back over her shoulder. “Zephyr in the flesh. Wow.”

Tony waited until she moved to the other side of the apartment and then counted to twenty while Carlos prowled the perimeter of Ivy’s living room. It was one thing

if Carlos wanted to go all drooling puppy dog over Ivy on his own time, but they couldn’t afford to lose sight of the case. That’s how investigations went south. He wouldn’t risk Sylvie getting hurt.

“Look,” Tony said. “You think you know her because of that game, and I get that. But she’s still at the front of the suspect line.”

Carlos’s step hitched. “I don’t think so.”

“Why?”

“Gut feeling.”

“I need more than that.”

“Normally so would I, but we can’t ignore the intangible this time.” Carlos stopped in front of Ivy’s laptop. “This picture of Zephyr and Scarlett was a screenshot taken during a battle where we destroyed a band of enchanted canids guarding Poseidon’s trident. She’d refused to move away from my six even when the pack had turned on me, giving her an open route to the trident and solo success. If she is even half as loyal in the real world, she’d never terrorize Sylvie.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Tony pinched the bridge of his nose and shoved a hand through his hair. “You’re justifying your position because of a computer game?”

“Someone has been remotely controlling her computer using a proxy server.” The words raced off of Carlos’s tongue. “They had total access to everything on her hard drive and could easily have left a cyber-trail to make it look like Ivy was the troll.”