The Blood Eagle in the Big Easy by K. A. Lange

weren’t careful.
    No sooner had my foot hit the landing I heard the click, click, click of Kira’s high heeled shoes storming towards me. She emerged out of the office with a head full of steam. Kira who had recently turned twenty eight, towered over most people at six foot four with a whole lot of lean muscle mass. Her dark brown eyes flashed with annoyance as she made a little hmmp noise at me.
    Knowing that nothing I said would appease her, I gave her my best smile as I nodded. She wore a smart navy blue business suit, the cut of it accentuating her height. She was never one to be self conscious about it, and had commented on several occasions that it made meeting girls much easier, especially out in the clubs. She was the epitome of the perfect lipstick lesbian.
    She looked down at me giving me a half sarcastic smile as she held in her perfectly manicured hands a fist full of paperwork which she shook at me. “So was that really necessary?”
    Her tone caught me by surprise as it was raw and gravelly. “I take it you were snooping again and watching things you shouldn’t.” I strode past her into my office and she quickly followed me in.
    She rolled her eyes as she gave me one of those big ‘eat shit and die’ smiles. “If by snooping and watching things I shouldn’t you actually mean doing my fucking job by watching your back and trying to minimize the damage you do? Then, yes I was snooping and watching stuff I shouldn’t!”
    “I didn’t give you access to the courts video surveillance system so you could spy on private meetings.” I retorted, stepping around my desk and pulling the chair out to sit.
    She stopped suddenly and stomped her heel of one of her overly priced stilettos in frustration into my nice hardwood floor as she spoke. Damn that was sure to leave a divot.
    “Since I installed that system you hardly ‘gave me’ access!” She placed one hand on her hip while pointing the other accusingly. “I was simply trying to save time by having the Delta team receive the briefing along with the courts.”
    God bless it! How the hell can she be so damn practical when it comes to business and need so much help in the rest of her life? “How did that work out for them?” Its really hard to sound indignant when the other person is making so much damn sense.
    “They got what they needed.” Turning she closed the door before giving me her full attention once more. “They were wise enough to vacate the room when things got personal.” No matter how hard she tried she wasn’t able to keep the mirth out of her voice. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
    “You act like it was my fault.” Throwing my hands up in disgust. She knew that there was bad blood between me and Leonard for as long as we had known each other. “Don’t you have something better to do than sit here and lecture me about things you don’t understand?” She hated the guy too, so I was at a loss as to why we were still discussing the matter.
    “Oh, like I don’t understand that you feel the need to randomly piss off the Gatekeeper as often as possible.” Turning loose of the paperwork she sat down and slid it across the desk too me pointing at it. “For the life of me, I don’t know how you think you can fix this!” Taking the opportunity to distract myself as she ranted I grabbed the file and opened it. “You may have pushed things too far and Comus will have little choice but to throw you out on your ass!” All the mirth and joy left her as she spoke. “As you can see Leonard is doing his best to tie up the court’s resources with useless and time consuming jobs outside the city limits.”
    To be honest not a bad plan on his behalf I thought as I shrugged and said “It wasn’t as if I actually expected them to fall in line and help in the matter.” Waving off the situation dismissively as I slid the file across the desk. “I was reporting to them out of duty, not out of respect or need.”
    “There is that,