“Really?” Ash murmured. Though it wasn’t actually her soul he was interested in.
She ignored him. Maybe it was time to test how indifferent she was. He strolled across the room, shrugged out of his coat, and tossed it on to the back of a chair. Her gaze swung around to stare at him, her attention fixed on the shoulder holster he wore and the Desert Storm pistol slotted in the holster.
She turned to where Ryan still stood in the doorway. “Are you carrying?”
Lifting his jacket, he revealed the shoulder holster. “We are licensed,” he said when she frowned in disapproval.
“Don’t you like guns, Detective?” Ash asked.
“Faith doesn’t think anyone but the police should be allowed to carry weapons,” Ryan answered before she had a chance to speak.
“Really?” he murmured. “Why is that?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know why a law-abiding citizen would need a gun.”
He curled his lips into a smile. “Would it make you feel better if I took it off?” He held her gaze as he unbuckled the holster, slowly stripped it off, and dropped it on the chair. “There. Unarmed and at your mercy. Or would you like to…pat me down. Check to see if I have anything…concealed.”
Her gaze dropped. He was quite aware that in his leather pants and T-shirt there was nowhere to conceal anything. “I can promise you there’s nothing but me in here, but I’ll understand if you want to check for yourself.”
As he’d guessed it would, her gaze dropped to his groin. Oh yes, she was interested. Even if she didn’t want to be.
Ryan cleared his throat, loudly. Blinking, she glanced away, but a faint flush tinged the skin of her cheekbones.
Ash couldn’t help but wonder if the two had been more than partners at work. If they’d had a relationship that Ryan had finished when he he’d come to work for the Order. But he didn’t think so. He wasn’t getting any of those vibes from them. At a guess, they’d been nothing more than friends.
He was glad.
After strolling across the floor, he took the chair opposite her, stretching his long legs out in front of him. Ryan gave him a narrow-eyed look but took the place on the sofa next to Faith.
“So,” he said. “Tell me what happened this morning.”
She put her empty cup down next to his feet. “I was leaving the hospital—”
“The hospital?” Ryan asked. “Are you still having problems?”
Annoyance flashed across her face. “No. I told you—it was just a follow-up. I’m fine.”
So had she been ill? He added it to the list of questions to ask Ryan.
“Anyway, as I said, I was leaving the hospital, when I was approached by a priest.”
“A priest?”
She frowned at Ryan. “Will you stop interrupting, and I might get through this. A priest and he asked if they could talk to me. There was a second man and they had what looked like it might have been a government-issue vehicle—you know those black SUVs.”
“Yeah, the sort that screams spooks.”
Ash guessed he wasn’t meaning the ghostly sort of spooks. This was getting interesting. “Was the second man a priest?”
“No, he was ex-military and he introduced himself as Colonel Grant. They wanted to talk to me and mentioned the Julie Foster murder case. Hinted that they might have information. I went along with them, but it became clear that the reason they were interested in me was because I’d worked with Ryan. It turns out they’re part of a government department that’s investigating Christian Roth—”
“What?” Ash wished he could bite back the word as Faith turned her attention on him.
“That was Ryan’s reaction as well,” she said. “Why are you two so shocked that someone might be investigating Roth?”
“Because we know him,” Ash said smoothly.
“Really? He’s a billionaire recluse whose employees look like gang leaders and carry weapons.”
Ash smirked. “I don’t think Ryan looks like a gang leader.”
“Ha-ha. I wasn’t referring to Ryan. But that wasn’t all.” She fidgeted as though uncomfortable with what was coming next.
“Come on, Faith. Spit it out.”
She shrugged still uncomfortable. “You know we had all that weird shit tie-in with Julie’s murder. Well, they were hinting that it wasn’t shit and that Roth is right in the middle of it all. They admitted at the end that they were investigating paranormal incidences and that Julie had been murdered by a real vampire.”
“And I’m betting that was the point where you got up and walked out,” Ryan said.
Faith grinned. “Well, they were the ones who walked out, but I did suggest it was a good idea.”
Ash glanced at Ryan and raised a brow.
“Faith doesn’t believe in all that supernatural stuff. She thinks vampires and demons are a load of old bollocks.”
“Come on, Ryan. Are you telling me that you believe in all that crap?”