Thunder Moon (Nightcreature 8)

“Yeah. But I’m a night owl. I don’t sleep much.”

I recalled Cal saying she’d been a difficult child, only sleeping a few hours each night and then being up the rest of the twenty-four. She’d driven her mom nuts, and more often than not, Cal had been off in a war zone unable to help. Which kind of explained how Jordan had wound up an only child.

I handed her my credit card; she handed me a key, then offered her hand to Ian. “Jordan Striker.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I should have done that.”

The two ignored me, shaking hands and making nice. When Ian snatched the key from me and started up the stairs, Jordan wiggled her eyebrows and made kissy noises in my direction.

What had I said about her being mature beyond her years? I took it back.

“He’s just going to take up my bags.”

“I don’t care, Grace. This isn’t an all-girl dorm in the 1950s.”

She returned her attention to the notebook she’d been scribbling in when we arrived. I glanced at it and stilled.

Because my brothers had always tried to hide things from me, I’d become very good at ferreting out secrets. I’d learned how to read upside down at almost the same time I’d learned to read. What I read this time was: Hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs. Chuck Norris can kill 100 percent of whatever the fuck he wants.

“You’re the Chuck Norris bandit?”

Her eyes widened and she slapped the cover shut, but it was too late. I’d already read another: Chuck Norris’s calendar goes from March 31 directly to April 2. No one fools Chuck Norris.

I bit my lip to keep from snickering. “Why do you want to make your dad crazy?”

“I don’t. I write these jokes for a Web site. They pay me. Not a lot, but—” She shrugged. “The best jokes are always the ones that make him turn purple.”

“You’re a bad girl,” I said, but I smiled.

“You aren’t going to tell him, are you?”

“No, but he’ll catch you sooner or later, and then you’re on your own. How did you bypass the security cameras?”

“It wasn’t hard. Your security is lame. Have you even updated it since your dad was king?”

“No.”

“Of course, who’d want to break in to a cop shop?”

“Besides you?”

“I didn’t break in.”

“What did you do?”

I knew Jordan was smart. She’d have to be to have any prayer of going to Duke. But bypassing a security system—even a lame one? I wasn’t going to tell her so, but I was impressed.

“A little computer mumbo-jumbo,” she said. “A screwdriver here, a wrench there, and—” Jordan flipped her hands in a voilà gesture. “Just call me the Invisible Woman.”

Chapter 30

I half-expected to meet Ian coming downstairs as I went up. How hard was it to drop shopping bags on the bed?

Apparently pretty hard. The door to my room was open and Ian stood at the window, staring at the night, the bags still in his hands.

“You okay?” I asked.

“There’s something I have to tell you.”