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Bradley had ordered enoughfor five people, and we managed to shovel every bite into our stomachs, resulting in the predicted nap. Unfortunately for us, he wasn’t the only person with a copy of my apartment key, and I disapproved of the invasion of people taking up every inch of available space. Ajani ruled with an iron paw, and she’d suckered Bradley’s parents, my parents, and the cell into two cans of her food. She also worked her furry charms on Meridian, who worked the brush through her fur.

Somehow, I’d slept through their chatter, as had Bradley.

The evidence of our barbecue bender had vanished, something I would appreciate once I regained full coherency. “Did you miss me?”

“No,” everyone replied.

I snorted, as their immediate response informed me they’d planned on me asking some variant of that question. “I was not defeated, beaten, or even accosted by politicians. One did annoy me, but I was spared having to deal with him due to the intervention of a kindred spirit with a strong dislike of the creep. Despite your status as insufferable busybodies, I took pictures and general footage of the event.”

Bradley cracked open an eye and said, “She got to meet with the President of the United States, and the creep was Representative Kennedys. We need to look into Senator Hanson, who seems to be at odds with our favorite representative.”

Most of our friends and family snorted, and the chorused sound reminded me of a bunch of angry cows letting the world know they meant business. “I got a bunch of cards, but I haven’t looked through them yet.”

Bradley’s mother glared at the pile. “We’d noticed them, but none of us are rude enough to shuffle through your mail without your consent, so we’re being eaten alive from curiosity. Once we saw what you two had for lunch, we were also eaten alive from general jealousy. I’m thinking you two planned this so you could gorge on barbecue without us.”

If Bradley’s mother wanted to dodge the core of our problems through humor, I’d play along. “Yes, I absolutely suffered through meeting politicians so I could eat a lot of barbecue.”

“I can’t help but notice my son doesn’t seem to be dying from dairy intake.”

“He did the mature and responsible thing, using that crap alternative he pretends he doesn’t hate,” I reported. “Apparently, he does comprehend dairy is really bad for him. Honestly, I’m surprised the cornbread didn’t include any dairy. Does cornbread usually contain dairy?”

“When it doesn’t contain cheese, it can be made without dairy,” Bradley’s mother replied, shaking her head. “I should be grateful he showed some restraint, except we found you both passed out after having eaten how much food?”

“She packed away an entire rack of ribs.” Bradley grinned at me. “And she beat me on the cornbread, but only because she’s faster than I am and stole the last two pieces.”

To dodge the insanity, I grabbed the envelope filled with cards from the politicians, going to work to open each one and read. As warned, the first ten contained bribes in the form of gift cards, ranging from clothing boutiques, jewelers, and restaurants. Of those ten, two included phone numbers with an invitation to call. The eleventh invited me to dinner, and to my shock, I recognized the name on the card.

Senator Westonhaus wanted to talk, and I couldn’t imagine why. Like the others, he’d included a gift card, although he’d done a better job of anticipating the special reading needs of a librarian, picking a bookstore within reasonable distance of my apartment. He also made a point of congratulating me on my engagement with Bradley.

I treated his card like all of the others, and on second thought, I dug my new phone out of my bag and input all the numbers I’d been given to hide that I’d received an invitation from one of the men we expected to be assassinated.

The memorial service had stressed everyone out enough.

A dinner meeting with a potential target would drive them up a wall and make certain they’d do everything in their power to prevent me from going. After everyone left, I would give the senator a call, and I’d selfishly use the library renovations as a good reason to meet with him.

Nobody would think twice about me talking with a potential donor, and it would make certain nobody tagged along.

I added the gift card to the pile, put the card back in its envelope, and resumed checking through the envelopes. Everyone offered some bribe or another, with the sensible people giving me excuses to go to the bookstore. One would forever earn the love and appreciation of Ajani, offering my fluffy goddess a shopping spree.

“You were right, Bradley. I’m being bribed. My cat is also being bribed.” I showed him the card for the pet store. “A better person would refuse all of these gift cards, but I am not a better person, and I fully intend to enjoy every moment spent indulging on their dime. That said, the gift card for the jeweler terrifies me. There isn’t an amount listed.”

Most of the cards didn’t have an amount listed.

Bradley’s mother swooped in, snagged the card in question, and whipped out her phone. Then, after a moment of reflection, she snatched all my gift cards, stole a pad of paper and a pen, and ran away to my bedroom.

I should have known better.

Bradley’s mother enjoyed fixing problems as much as she enjoyed creating them.

“Good going, Janette,” my fiancé stated, and he grinned at me. “In your shoes, I wouldn’t be turning down those gift cards, either. How many phone numbers did you get?”

“About half of them felt I might want to discuss my status as a true American hero, apparently.” I rolled my eyes. “One wants to talk about a donation to the library, so I’m going to call that one.” Senator Westonhaus would learn about his new interest in donating to the library soon enough, so I didn’t feel I lied. “I’ll probably return all calls just to be polite, but the only ones getting the time of day beyond that will be those wise enough to donate to the library.”

My boss laughed. “You have my blessing to take these politicians for all they’re worth for the library’s sake. Feel free to solicit for donations while you’re at it. They might as well use their money on something good for a change.”

Mr. Tawnlen made no effort to hide his opinion on how some public servants existed to earn money while others, librarians included, struggled to get by.

“I’ll sing about the renovations to our building, and I’ll try to guilt them into doing the right thing,” I promised.

“Good. Did you see anything unusual while at the service?”

“The President and a bunch of politicians,” I reported. “It was terrifying. Absolutely life-threatening. I was concerned they might talk me to death.”

Bradley snickered, yawned, and stretched out. “If we’d been thinking, we would have realized the President would attend, which would make it a pretty safe place.”

“They didn’t give me a whole lot of scrutiny,” I complained. “For an event hosting the President, they should have at least looked in my bag. I could have been armed!”

Everyone stared at me, and Bradley engaged me in a staring contest, which he won after several minutes. Huffing, I reached for a spare brush and tried to lure my fluffy goddess away from Meridian.

My fluffy goddess ignored my overtures.

Damned cat.

“Janette, why would they care if you were armed?” my mother asked, and I could feel her gaze boring into me.

“I’m just as good of a shot as I am an exsanguinator. I could have done a very good job of shooting people, thank you very much.”

Everyone snorted at me, with Bradley snorting the hardest and loudest. Then, he said, “Anyone who knows you also knows you wouldn’t shoot or exsanguinate anyone without a damned good reason, and the security people probably viewed you as extra protection for the service.”

“You’re biased.”

“I’m supposed to be biased in your favor.”

At some point, roughly five minutes after we’d signed the five-year marriage license to start the process of our engagement, he’d opted to ignore why we’d signed the papers, embracing the sentimental reasons for a marriage rather than the practical, legal reasons. I’d betrayed myself to his magic more times than I cared to think about, which gave him all the foundation he needed to work on the sentiments rather than the legalities.

I could handle the legalities.

The sentiments would test me in every way possible.

“I came away with a better idea of some of the political rivalries, which might be useful. People from both sides of the aisle attended, although I suspect there were absences, at least judging from the fact that they sent one senator to give me all of those cards. Wouldn’t a bunch of politicians want to claim the glory for themselves?”

“The service was invitation only,” Bradley replied. “Not everyone was invited. Now, what interests me is that the campaign invited those who weren’t Senator Maybelle’s staunch allies. We’ll have to go through your pictures to see who attended, though. The campaign didn’t make the guest list public, although your name was dropped as someone paying respects. That was probably a media stunt.”

According to Bradley’s expression, there was nothing he loathed more than media stunts.

“At least someone is making exsanguinators look good for a change. While I don’t like the someone being me, I’ll take a few hits for the team. We usually get treated like we’re plagued.” I shot a glare at Bradley. “And not a word from you.”

My mother snickered. “I see you have learned he does not have pure intentions.”

I kept glaring at Bradley, well aware he could snitch about my less-than-pure intentions.

He smirked, but he otherwise settled with a shrug.

“Our first mistake was not taking advantage of the opportunity we were given,” my boss announced. “While I understand why we were all against taking advantage of the opportunity, we need to remember she’s not someone with a middling talent who can’t take care of herself or others. We could have lost good information, including a better understanding of the existing political rivalries.”

My co-workers either sighed, grimaced, or scowled. I understood why Beatrice scowled. When we weren’t bickering, she took defending me to extremes. Mickey grimaced since Mickey disliked conflict almost as much as he couldn’t tolerate the sight of blood. Most of the others went the sighing route, as they understood Mr. Tawnlen wouldn’t rest until certain the issue wouldn’t come up again soon.

I expected somebody to make a fuss the instant trouble came calling again. As accepting a dinner meeting with one of the potential targets counted, I would hold the truth close to my chest until after the dinner, armed with the intel required to make progress on finding the murderers.

Until then, we’d have to continue flying blind until one of us discovered the important little detail that would help us piece the rest of the mystery together.

As usual, we needed to start at the very beginning. “We know Representative Kennedys began this with the introduction of the original bill. We all agree it’s a human rights nightmare. The refined version, introduced by a collection of senators, some of whom have already been murdered, is no better. The writers of the second bill all have abilities, wealth, or other criteria exempting them from being drafted—and their children are safeguarded from their bill. Correct?”

“Correct,” my boss replied. “What we don’t know is who unofficially supported the bill, working on it without having their names on the documentation. A lot of bills that make their way through legislation end up having additional support in the background from those who want to see it pass but don’t have the time or willingness to be a public sponsor. I think that’s where we really need to start. Who supports this bill? Who is against the bill? Motive matters, and we have reasons for both sides to want these senators to disappear. Also, from my time watching politicians at our branch, it’s also possible someone is taking advantage of the situation to draw attention away from something else. The killings have drawn a great deal of attention.”

No kidding, and to my dismay, an unfortunate amount of the attention was landing on me. “There’s also speculation they were attempting to pin the murder on me, but they hadn’t followed my movements or methods closely enough, operating outside of my general abilities. The first murder happened shortly after the crash.”

Somehow, I’d gotten to the point I could talk about the accident that had almost claimed my life—and the one that had left Bradley incapable of handling beeping machinery when attached to me.

“And you were still in the hospital for the second,” Bradley added. “Even after you were recovering out of the hospital, there’s a mountain of evidence confirming you were incapable of committing any of the murders. There’s a mountain of evidence showing you only had been able to do as you’d done for the other victims because you’d been contaminated with Senator Maybelle’s blood.”

The drug in the senator’s system bothered me. “Mr. Tawnlen, do we have any chance of being able to find out if the other senators were also on that drug? That drug bothers me,” I confessed. “If they have to be of a certain talent rating to dodge the draft, is it possible the use of this drug is connected to their murder? As in they weren’t killed because of the bill but rather due to their involvement with that sort of narcotic?”

“Now that we’ve gotten authorization to work as a cell, I might be able to get a copy of the autopsy reports. I don’t know if they did any toxicology reports, although a good coroner would under the circumstances. I’ll do what I can, but expect that to take a few weeks. It’ll take a lot of digging around and paperwork to get the authorization, and it depends on if the family has taken steps to bar the public from having access to those records.”

Organizing data was something I could do, and I relaxed at having a job that made sense to me and fit nicely into my skill set. “So, I guess that’s our next real step. We try to get as much information about the killings as we can, gathered and organized in a sensible fashion. We should go back through all of the recordings from the killings and draw up a report going through everything step by step. Then we want to go back at least six months before the first killing, tracking down as much information as we can on who might want to kill these people and why.”

“Murky waters,” Beatrice muttered. “Murky political waters.”

No kidding. “Trust me, it’s better to read about politicians than it is to have to get up close and personal with them.” I hesitated at admitting I’d met one of the targets at the service, but I decided as he hadn’t been one of the people to send a card, it would be safe enough. “I had an unfortunate brush with Senator Smithhall, and he hates exsanguinators almost as much as I loathe and abhor having to use a wheelchair.”

Bradley raised a brow. “You had neglected to mention Smithhall.”

“The President rescued me from having to actually talk to him, and honestly, at that point, I was pretty freaked out I had to talk to the President.”

My parents exchanged glances, as did my co-workers. After everyone got their fill of sending silent messages, they focused on Bradley.

I wanted to know what the hell had them all joining forces against Bradley without having to say a single word.

Bradley sighed. “I didn’t do anything nefarious.”

“You could have called and told us she’d made it home rather than falling asleep on her couch after going on a bender,” Beatrice complained.

I gave up trying to understand my friends and family. “Mom, please hand me my cane. I’m going to go to the bathroom, and by the time I’m back, I want you all to be sane again.”

While my mother fetched my cane and handed it to me, she shook her head at my request. “My sweet summer child, you can’t restore what they never had.”

Wow. My mother had taken aim at the entire cell, and I’d missed what had spurred her into joining in the snarky commentary and attempting to take over the world. “Dad? What did you do to my mom?”

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “I wish I knew. She didn’t even hesitate. I mean, she was pretty upset with you this morning. She had picked a switch.”

I gasped. “She hadn’t! Don’t you lie to me, Dad.”

“It was a willow switch,” he informed me, holding his hands apart. “This long, pretty thin.”

I turned my attention to my mother, and I gasped again, as dramatically as I could. “You were going to switch me for going to a funeral?”

“I was going to switch you for doing something dangerous. It just happened that the funeral could have been very dangerous,” she informed me. “I have decided on a better punishment.”

When my mother doled out punishments, she meant them, and as I’d pulled a rather effective disappearing act for years, I would go along with her demands as a repentant child should. “What punishment? It wasn’t actually dangerous, unless you view talking to strangers to be dangerous.”

“Talking to strange politicians is one of the most dangerous things you have ever done, young lady.”

Someone had gotten to my mother and convinced her she could show her true colors to our family friends and my co-workers. I recognized when I would lose, and I eyed the only escape I had, which was my bathroom. I took care with creeping across my own damned living room, dodging the people who’d taken over the floor. Fortunately, they had mercy, and when I couldn’t get by without potentially tripping, they moved. Once a safe distance, I said, “Not even my pride was damaged at the memorial service. I promise. But if I can have a significantly reduced sentencing, I would be appreciative.”

“You will share sleeping accommodations with Bradley. Your personal room rights have been revoked.”

Bradley’s brows shot up, and he relaxed into my couch while I debated beating myself over the head with my own cane to escape. He smiled and said, “I accept your punishment. That will make it a little easier to keep track of her.”

Traitor fiancé. Rather than beat myself into unconsciousness with my cane, I used it to limp into the bathroom to hide.

The respite lastedall of ten minutes before I accepted I needed to leave my bathroom and face my mother, who would pile on the hints about what I should be doing while Bradley enjoyed her antics. They’d left my favorite spot on the couch free, and I limped over, careful to minimize how much weight I put on my foot. My work had done wonders for my pain levels, but until the inflammation came down on its own, any weight on it hurt.

With the damned bracelets unlocked so I could control them, my new daily routine would involve cleaning the infection out and changing the bandage, and I’d play stupid when my doctor questioned my swift recovery.

I longed to walk without having to grit my teeth due to the pain.

“Have you accepted your fate?” my mother asked in her sweetest voice.

“When did you go from mortified you had switched me once to gleeful in your desire to teach me my manners?” I asked, and I crossed my arms and sulked on my couch. “You’re supposed to be mortified at the thought of a switch. Weren’t you the one to claim I’m too sweet and adorable to switch?”

“I put some thought into the situation, and I have decided I was generally incorrect on my beliefs. You aren’t too old or too cute to switch if you insist on doing dangerous things. But I think my other plan is better. Maybe Bradley will have better luck keeping you out of trouble.” She sniffed and went to Meridian, who continued to charm my cat. Ajani accepted my mother’s attention with a purr, especially as the woman armed herself with the brush to bribe her way into my fluffy goddess’s affections.

Bradley’s mother emerged from my bedroom, strolled over, and handed me my cards and the pad of paper. “Personally, I don’t care where you sleep, but sharing a room with Bradley seems much better than a round with the switch. I don’t think your father is responsible for her change of heart, but I do think you need to be more careful. You might become rich if you keep these antics up. Also, we might want to investigate everyone who sent you a card. There seems to be an abundance of guilty consciences. Every gift card for the bookstore is three hundred and fifty dollars. You should be able to buy a nice piece of jewelry, too. I have it on good authority my son has been jewelry shopping, so you should splurge on something you like and will be useful to you. Perhaps a nice watch? You don’t seem like the diamond and pearl necklace type, really.”

I tore the piece of paper with the values of the gift cards off the pad and stuffed it, along with the cards, back into the main envelope. “I will cope with their generosity later.”

“I see you have refined your avoidance tactics.” Bradley’s mother sighed. “She wouldn’t actually switch you, but she thought it’d be funny to threaten it in an effort to forward her other nefarious plans. Honestly, I’m impressed she followed through.”

“I practiced last night,” my mother announced with pride in her voice. “It took almost an hour of pretending to call before I could do it without wanting to cry.” My mother turned to my father and scowled. “And no commentary from you.”

My father shrugged, refusing to look my mother in her eyes.

I could guess how my father had reacted to my mother’s antics without needing to think on it. “You laughed at her, didn’t you?”

“Until I cried,” he confirmed. “The first three or four times, she cried from guilt, and she hadn’t even actually called you.”

My mother sighed. “It’s true, I really did. He’s going to make me go to therapy over this.”

“It was a single spanking because I did something life-threatening. My childhood was not ruined, I learned to look before crossing the street, and I have a healthy respect for parental discipline now. You did just fine. Dad’s right. You need therapy. We all need therapy.” I needed more therapy than most of the others in the room combined, with the exception of Bradley, who likely needed an equal amount of therapy to get over the consequences of the crash I hadn’t been able to avoid. “But I get the award for requiring the most therapy, with Bradley claiming the second-place prize.”

“What is the second-place prize?” he asked, regarding me with a raised brow. “If it’s you abiding by your mother’s punishment, I don’t mind.”

“Therapy.”

“I would prefer to abide by your mother’s punishment, honestly.”

I snorted at that, placed my poor, abused foot on the coffee table, and opted to ignore my fiancé. “I’ll make a list of everyone who sent me a card, and I’ll compile a collection of pictures I took from the service. I’ll also return calls to be polite and see what comes out of that. Since all of you came over, there surely must be a reason you’re here?”

“Intel,” my mother announced. “We have come to the conclusion we reacted before we really considered the situation.”

That matched with what Bradley had said, although he’d painted the situation to be less amicable in terms of their willingness to admit they were wrong or cooperate. “Okay. Can we agree to disagree on how things were handled and try to make use of the information I was able to get? In the meantime, I think we need to do a full evaluation of all politicians in the senate and the house. I think we need to understand the political environment that led up to Representative Kennedys proving he’s an insufferable asshole.”

Everyone exchanged glances, and once again, my co-workers focused on Bradley. My parents opted against participating in the silent discussion, and Bradley’s mother chuckled.

“Mrs. Hampton?” I asked.

“My son is developing overprotective tendencies, so nobody wants to trip his trigger again. He was fairly upset you ended up going to the service alone.”

“He would have been eaten alive by politicians, who are somehow aware we’re engaged. It was best only one of us dealt with that nonsense. I just told them we hadn’t made an official announcement yet because we’re planning some party. Hey, bitch. Plan my engagement party so I don’t have to.”

Beatrice snorted. “No. There isn’t enough money in the world to deal with that adept nonsense. You can dress me up as your bridesmaid of honor, though.”

“Wouldn’t you be a matron by then?” I asked. “Mickey, you’re not supposed to be slow marrying her.”

“I’m as slow as she wants me to be,” he replied in a dignified tone.

I chuckled. “That was actually a really good answer to that question, and I can’t argue with it at all.”

“I’ve learned it’s the only answer I can give without annoying someone.”

“But she’s so easily annoyed. How do you breathe without annoying her?”

“If I pose while breathing, she sometimes opts to ignore that I’m breathing,” he replied with a rather crooked grin.

“I see how it is. Gang up on me.” Beatrice managed to scowl for almost a minute before she cracked and laughed. “It was still dangerous.”

“Yes, politicians are dangerous. A scourge on this world, even. But I am capable of handling a few politicians on my own. And anyway, I bet everyone went through tough security. The President was there. I guess they just presumed some chick in a wheelchair couldn’t possibly be dangerous.”

That got everyone laughing, to my relief.

With a smirk, Bradley said, “I don’t care if people think you’re dangerous or not. When do I get to send you to your room?”

I grabbed the nearest safe object to throw at him, which was a box of tissues. He caught my attempted assault, kept on chuckling, and set the box back on the coffee table.

“How are you going to send me to my room? According to my mother, I don’t have a room anymore.”

“Oh, right. I have to send you to my room instead. Everyone, out. I must send this woman to my room, and I don’t need or want an audience.”

To my astonishment, everyone obeyed, and I spluttered and waved my fist at their departing backs. When they were gone and had closed the door behind them, I heaved a relieved sigh. “That was wholly unproductive, and while I love them, I’m glad they’re gone.”

“It wasn’t meant to be a productive session. It was meant to make sure you had survived the service unscathed. They just didn’t think to come over and stalk your apartment until you showed up. I can’t tell if I win or lose points for hanging out here until you showed up,” he admitted.

“You win points, especially since you fed us lunch. Were you aware of my mother’s ploy to send me to your room?”

“No, but I would have been an enthusiastic supporter of the plan. I have a list of ways to make it backfire on them, and they’re ways that’ll make you happier, I think.”

“Does it involve sharing this rather small apartment, especially when I have to return to work?”

Senator Godrin’s murder had kept the library doors closed, and the renovations, which were about to begin, would keep them closed for at least a month, after which the library would reopen better than ever, with two whole new floors for patrons to use.

I looked forward to returning to my regular life, although I would have adjusted records to match my real ability rating and skills.

“I’m looking for somewhere near here that’s a bit bigger for us, but yes. That’s the idea. I’m not going to ask you to give up the work you want to be doing. If you want to go to nursing school, I’ll make it happen.”

“I’d like some more formal training, but as long as I can volunteer, that’s good enough for me. I do just as much good as a volunteer, and I can read between emergencies that way.”

“That’s really clever. So, what are our requirements for a new home?”

“Three bedrooms, so one can be turned into an office, and the other can be a guest bedroom or a bedroom for other purposes.”

“Does other purposes include kids? Because I’ve heard enough stories from your mother to imply I’m going to be cruelly used so you can have many children.”

I laughed. “I can’t help it. I see children and want an entire flock of them. I love kids, even when they’re being obnoxious little pests. So one day, at least one kid would be nice. But first, we need to deal with this problem of that bill and the assassins. Should any children come around, I want them born in a world—and a country—we can actually be proud of.”

“On that, we’re agreed. Want to bet they think we’re practicing to have kids right now?”

I loved insane people. “That would not surprise me in the slightest.”

“Rather than practice, why don’t we work while they waste time? I think we’ve wasted enough time as it is.”

“That’s the best thing anyone has said to me all day.”