“Sort of like sonar,” Priestly said.
“Wow, Hart,” Arty looked more closely as well, brushing Priestly’s shoulder with his own. “That is amazing.”
It wasn’t hard to catch how Priestly fought a genuine smile. “Looks like it’s in a desk drawer. Which is not protocol at all. Unless the detective thinks he’s dealing with a volatile substance. This is the old Elemental Task Force office used by Danny Grant. Maybe the comms got contaminated by something?”
Nothing like that had happened and evidence didn’t go slipping into someone’s desk drawer by chance. Danny had put them there on purpose rather than work them into circulation. He was protecting Mal.
“We’re fine,” Mal said, fighting a smile just as Priestly had. “I think that item is about to be misplaced. Goggles too.”
“What? Why?” Lucy narrowed her eyes at him.
“You have an in with Grant? Wait…” Priestly swiveled his chair to stare up at Mal with newfound awe. “Cho. You really do got a pair on you, don’t you?”
Lucy and Arty exchanged equally perplexed glances, but Lucy was smart enough to understand that if Mal had an ‘in’ at the OCPD, it likely had something to do with who he was sleeping with. Priestly assumed the same, but since Lucy knew he was sleeping with Zeus…
“Oh my god,” she balked as the pieces fell into place. “His real identity is adetective?”
“Realidentity? What are you…?” Priestly trailed as a slow grin spread across his face.
Mal wished he could blame this mishap on the concussion, but it was just plain carelessness on his part that in one fell swoop two more people knew the full extent of his secret—and Danny’s.
“Hang on…” Lucy grinned, leaning on Priestly’s shoulder. “Can you pull up a picture?”
“No,” Mal said in warning.
“Aww, come on, Mickey, be a good sport.”
With his most threatening glare, Mal pinned the pair in place until Priestly lost his smile and Lucy rolled her eyes. “This information never leaves this room. Understood?” They both nodded, Priestly more immediately than Lucy. Then Mal shifted his glare onto Arty, who held up his hands.
“I am thoroughly confused about what we’re even talking about.”
“Good.”
“At least I got my name,” Lucy said, causing Mal to feel utterly defeated. He didn’t know how he was going to explain this to Danny. If he did. Maybe he wouldn’t. Priestly and Lucy wouldn’t use this information against either of them—other than to torture Mal at every opportune moment.
Thankfully, Lucy was diverted from her mission to pry into every aspect of Mal’s love life by prying a little into Priestly’s—which at the moment was more immediately accessible. She draped an arm over Arty’s shoulder with her most flirtatious lilt and bat of her eyes to inquire how these two kids had gotten together.
Once it was obvious Lucy wasn’t about to let Arty go, Priestly pulled Mal aside.
“How serious is this thing with you and your electric nemesis?” He sipped on the coffee he’d finally accepted and took a bite of his donut.
“Just give me an extra set of comms in the meantime,” Mal said. “I’m sure both items will be returned in due course.”
“No trouble for the good detective toslipyou something on the side?”
“Hart… Don’t be cute.”
“Please. Like I have to try.”
And damn if Mal couldn’t help smiling again. The day was a mess. His whole life was a mess. But some things weren’t as disastrous as he’d expected. He knew what he wanted. Maybe Danny did too, if the hidden comms were any indication. For now, Mal just had to give him time.
Chapter2
There were several CSI who worked with Andre as part of the Crime Scene Unit. The Deputy Inspector who ran the team tended to use a lighter touch, which was how Andre got away with spending so many hours in the morgue instead of in the CSU lab. He got his work done, which was all anyone cared about. He was also everyone’s favorite CSI, among his coworkers and the other officers and detectives, because of his jovial personality.
“Hey, Ryan, go long!” Andre’s voice filtered out of the lab the moment Danny opened the door to enter. He caught his friend making a football throwing motion with a plastic bag containing a larger piece of glass from the museum heist.
The other CSI didn’t even look up from his microscope. “If you cut yourself, Vaughn,” he deadpanned, “I’m saving all the decontamination work for when you get back from the ER.”
