Tempting Evil (Riley Jenson Guardian 3)

"And what have you done with this knowledge?"

"Not gone to my would-be master, you can be sure of that." Her voice was dry, but there was something in the way her blind eyes flashed that had me believing her.

Which might just mean I was nothing more than a fool, and easily taken in by a bit of sincerity combined with contempt and anger.

"And why wouldn't you do that? He killed Misha for attempting to double-cross him. He'd do the same to you without a second thought."

"I know. But things cannot remain the way they are."

"What things?"

She gave me a cool smile. "Before we go into details, I need to know if the Directorate would be willing to deal."

"Yes," Jack and I said together. He added in my ear, "Depending, of course, on what she wants."

She raised a pale eyebrow. "You don't need to speak to your buss first?"

"I don't have to. I can hear him in my head." I was tempted to add, "and no, I'm not mad," but restrained the impulse. A, because she'd "seen" me in action last night, and B, because I actually think insanity had a lot to do with my current situation. After all, no one sane would willingly step into hell's den with the intent of fucking his lieutenants for information, no matter how pissed off and in need of revenge they were.

"Telepathy." She nodded. "A handy tool for those in your line of work, though I'm surprised they haven't taught you more control."

"We would have if we'd known it was needed." Jack's voice was sarcastic. "But someone forgot to mention an apparent increase in power since our last lesson."

I ignored him. Anything I said was only going to count against me, anyway. "What sort of deal would you like to broker?"

She smiled and waved a hand to the sofa. "Please, come and sit down."

"I'm fine, thanks." Flight or fight mode was far easier standing up.

She raised her eyebrows again. "I sense distrust."

"That's because there is."

"Honest. I like that."

"And I'd like for you to quit fucking around and just get to the point."

She crossed one elegant leg over the other, and clasped her hands around her knees. "Okay. I want immunity from everything I have done on behalf of Starr."

"That depends greatly on what she wants to give us in return," Jack said.

"And?" I asked, sensing there was more to Dia's list of demands.

"He cannot know that I am helping you. Which means I will never testify against him."

She was more than a little naive if she thought Starr was ever going to reach the courts. The Directorate had the power to be judge, jury, and executioner, and it was a power they regularly abused. In my time with them, I'd seen a total of five cases make it to the human justice system - and only because those behind the deeds were partially human. Those with an ounce of human blood could claim the full protection of the courts and the law.

Nonhumans had no such rights. Which pretty much smacked of a legal form of racism, I'd always thought.

"Those terms I can live with," Jack said.

"Anything else?" I asked.

She paused. "I wish to continue living here. I want this house exempt when the Government sells off Starr's assets."

"No guarantee on that one," Jack said.

I repeated his statement, and she nodded. "I guess I can deal with that if it happens."