Do something about this, snapped Magnus.
“Mae’s great at parties,” said Justin. He gave Lucian a pointed look. “She’s a Nordic patrician, though I’m sure you already noticed that.”
Lucian’s eyes said he understood what Justin wasn’t explicitly saying. No matter how high Lucian’s star was right now, no matter how much class tension had eased in recent years…any hint of romance with a patrician would be political suicide. Lucian’s fellow senators were the ones who cast the votes, and their patrician constituents would raise holy hell at the thought of a plebeian defiling some pure patrician woman—especially if her score came out.
Lucian was too noble to fully backpedal, though his pitch lightened. “Well, just let me know.”
Mae didn’t speak to Justin again until they were en route to the airport, free of flirting senators and distracting pr?torians. “What,” she said, “was that all about?”
“It was me tapping inexplicable political connections to get answers that my department won’t give me.”
She shot him a sidelong glare. “You know what I mean. The presumption back there was off the charts.”
“I know,” he said, nodding solemnly. “Lucian doesn’t know his limits sometimes.”
“Not him! You, with all your ‘she goes with me everywhere’ insinuations.”
“It’s the truth, isn’t it? And how was that worse than his trying to trade my favor for a date with you? I defended your honor, you know. He was objectifying you.”
“He was just asking me out.” Mae’s face turned speculative. “He seems like a nice guy.”
“You aren’t…you aren’t seriously thinking about that, are you? And what happened to you not lowering yourself to associate with plebeians? Or do you make an exception for glamorous and powerful men?” The thought of her in Lucian’s arms, her face flushed with the afterglow, made Justin feel ill. Over and over, he told himself he couldn’t have her, but he didn’t want anyone else to either.
She stared out the car’s window as it pulled up to the airport’s front entrance. “It’s my business if I do.”
“You don’t want anything to do with a guy like that. It’s his job to say things to lure people in.”
Mae returned her gaze to him. “Tell me exactly how he’s any different from you. Aside from the fact that when he says he holds a post in the government, he’s actually telling the truth.”
Yes, said Horatio. Please, go ahead and tell us.
A lot of answers came to Justin’s mind, but “I’m more fun at parties” might not have helped his case after the overdose in Windsor. Instead, he simply said, “I had that smile first.”
That was apparently the wrong answer, because all Mae said before getting out of the car was, “Point proven.”
CHAPTER 16
THE PRINCIPLE AND STUFF
Leo was waiting at their gate. He’d caught an earlier flight up from Portland so that they could all travel together, though he still treated Mae in a standoffish way. Once they were en route in the air, Justin asked him about the video.
“Anything?”
Leo leaned back in his seat and frowned. “No. I’ve run all the standard tests and a few I made up.” His cold attitude vanished as the thrill of his task seized him. “I know some film people I’m going to check with. Don’t worry—I’m not going to actually let them see it. Just get some info based on the camera type. This thing’ll be cracked. It’s just a question of when.”
“Maybe you’ll have better luck at the house,” said Justin. “Figure out how someone got into a room locked from the inside.” He grinned. “Aside from turning into smoke and shadows, of course.”
Leo nodded. “That shouldn’t be a mystery—as long as the place hasn’t been altered. The last grant you were at muddled all their data.”
“That wasn’t my fault,” Justin said. “That was their own sloppy police work long before we got there.”
Silence fell after that. Justin turned his attention to a reader that held background information on the Nipponese victim. Mae shouldn’t have cared, but she felt a need to lighten things between Leo and her. If they were going to be working together, she didn’t want him afraid of her.
“I never caught how long you’ve been married,” she told Leo. She didn’t mention Justin’s excessive commentary on Leo’s rustic living conditions or choice in spouse.
Leo gave her a wary look. “Two years.”
She smiled back. Maybe hers wasn’t as captivating as Justin’s, but she’d been grilled in how to be pleasant and likeable. Good castal girls learned how to excel as hostesses. “Wine making must be an interesting job.”
“It’s a time-consuming job,” said Leo curtly.