David looked at her, the skin about his eyes tightening, then picked up his briefcase. “Very well,” he said shortly. “If I can’t speak with Mr. Saladan, my company has no recourse but to assume our understanding of terrorist activity is correct and we will deny payment on the claim. Good day, ma’am.” He barely glanced at me. “Come on, Grace. Let’s go.”

Breath catching, I felt my face pale. If we walked out of here, Kisten and Ivy would be headed into a trap. David’s steps were loud as he went for the door, and I reached out after him.

“Candice,” came Lee’s irate, buttery voice from the second-story railing above the grand staircase. “What are you doing?”

I spun, David taking my elbow in warning. Lee stood by the upper landing, a drink in one hand, a folder and pair of wire-rimmed glasses in the other. He was wearing what looked like a suit without the coat, his tie loose about his neck but still tidy.

“Stanley, honey,” Candice purred, falling into a provocative slump against the small table by the door. “You said no one. Besides, it’s just a little boat. How much could it be worth?”

Lee’s dark eyes pinched as he frowned. “Almost a quarter million—dear. They’re insurance agents, not I.S. operatives. Do a spell check on them and show them up. They’re required by law to keep everything confidential, including that they were even here.” He looked at David and tossed his surfer-boy bangs out of his way. “Am I right?”

David smiled up at him with that shared, good-old-boys’ look that I hated. “Yes, sir,” he said, his voice echoing against the flat white of the open vestibule. “We couldn’t do our work without that little constitutional amendment.”

Lee put his hand up in acknowledgment, turned, and vanished down the open hall. A door creaked shut, and I jerked as Candice grabbed my briefcase. Adrenaline pulled me straight, and I clutched it to me.

“Relax, Grace,” David said patronizingly as he took it from me and handed it to Candice. “This isn’t unusual.”

The two vamps in the background came forward, and I forced myself to not move. “You’ll have to forgive my assistant,” David said while he put our cases on the table by the door and opened first his and spun it around, then mine. “Breaking in a new assistant is hell.”

Candice’s expression went mocking. “Were you the one to give her the black eye?”

I flushed, my hand going to touch my cheekbone and my gaze falling to my ugly shoes. Apparently the darker makeup didn’t work as well as I thought.

“You have to keep your bitches in line,” David said lightly. “But if you hit them right, you only have to hit them once.”

My jaw clenched, and I warmed as Candice laughed. I watched from under my lowered brow while a vamp pawed through my briefcase. It was full of stuff only an insurance adjuster would have: a calculator with more tiny buttons than a leprechaun’s dress boots, notepads, coffee-stained folders, useless little calendars to stick on your fridge, and pens with smiley faces on them. There were receipts from places like sub shops and Office Depot. God, it was awful. She glanced at my fake business cards with an absent-minded interest.