“What was wrong with giving Gin a key?" he rumbled. "It's not like I could keep her out of the house, even if I wanted to. I thought a key would make things easier, make her feel like she was really welcome here. This is the first time that I've dated an assassin. I don't want to piss her off”

“This is the first time I've dated an assassin. I don't want to piss her off.”

“You could just run over him," I said. "He's already dead, and it's not like you haven't done it before.""Yeah, but I don't want bloody bits of dwarf stuck on my wheels for the next two weeks." Finn sniffed. "This is an Aston Martin, Gin. You don't run over dead bodies in an Aston Martin.""Tell that to James Bond."Finn shot me a dirty look as he pulled out onto the street.”

“Gin! Gin, are you here?”“Right behind you,” I said.Finn shrieked and whirled around. I winced at the high-pitched sound.“Dammit, woman.” He clutched the folder to his chest. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

“This is really good,” Donovan Caine said, attacking his third strawberry pancake. “You sound surprised,” I said. He shrugged. “I just didn’t think an assassin would be able to cook like this.” “Well, I do get lots of practice with knives. You could say I’m multitasking.” The detective froze, his fork halfway to his mouth. “I’m kidding. I enjoy cooking. It relaxes me.”

“Uh, what are you doing?”“Nothing much. Just erasing all of Calinda’s good grades and replacing them with incompletes. Eventually, the administrators will figure out what happened, but I’m making it look like a computer error. Still, I imagine she’ll get some nasty lectures from her profs and parents in the meantime.”

“Quite a crowd tonight, Gin. Usually, it's just you and Finn."I shrugged. "What can I say? I seem to attract minions wherever I go these days. Kind of like the Pied Piper."Behind me, Finn huffed out his displeasure. "Minion? I am most certainly not a mere minion. Head minion, perhaps. At the very least.”