“I don’t know if he did. He has no criminal record. He has no parking tickets. His company is squeaky clean, although I didn’t have time to dig too deep. In addition, I spent an hour on him in the library today and I found zip. He wouldn’t see me, but he knows he’s under scrutiny. His people know who I am, too.”

Raphael glanced at me.

“His mouthpiece made sure to remind me that I no longer had the Order on my side.”

“Ah.”

Ah what? Ah—too bad? Ah—I understand? Ah—serves you right? “They know who I am; they know I’m tenacious. Why not spend ten minutes answering my questions? Then I go away, and everyone’s happy.”

“You think he’s hiding something?”

I sighed. “I don’t know. I’m collecting information and I’ve run into a roadblock. Short of staging a break-in, this party is my best bet.”

Raphael snorted. “A break-in. You?”

“I thought about it,” I said. “I think he has the roof heavily warded and there are a lot of surveillance cameras. He did leave a very nice route open for me, with cameras not covering it even, so I’m pretty sure it’s trapped six ways to Sunday. I’d probably go through the basement instead. But again, since he isn’t in the office much, there’s not much point.”

Raphael stared at me. I wished he would stop doing that. Every time he turned to me, my heart kept trying to pirouette out of my chest in a futile attempt to flop itself at his feet. Meanwhile my hands wanted to wrap around his throat and strangle him. It was good that my brain was in charge.

“Who are you and what have you done with Andrea?”

“I’m the new and more-screwed-up version. Or much improved, depending on the way one looks at it.”

He stared straight ahead. “I thought being screwed up was something we had in common.”

“No, I was always the fucked-up one. You were the spoiled one.”

The line of Raphael’s jaw hardened. “I’ve worked since I was sixteen, six days a week. I’ve built my company from nothing with ten thousand dollars of seed money I borrowed from the Pack, just like everyone else, and I’ve paid back five times that. I am supporting the entire Clan Bouda now. Nobody gave me any special treatment. How exactly am I spoiled?”

I blinked at him. “Seriously?”

“Yes. Please, enlighten me.”

“You remember last year you wanted to take that vacation in the Keys for a week?”

He glanced at me. “You’re going to hold our vacation against me? You loved it.”

I did. It was just me and him and the ocean. “Do you remember that bouda family wanted to join the clan about the same time? The De La Torre family?”