High Card Bluff (House of Cards Series 5)

(5) A Killer Outfit

The brat was back in the bathroom, and he was once again going through her purse. This time because he knew what he'd find, and he was right. In Adrianna's all but useless clutch was a thing of lipstick, some gum, and a joint in a tube. A fat joint, of better quality, warning that she'd figured he'd go looking. He grinned, amused that the oh-so proper model Adrianna everyone else saw used a joint to unwind after stressful events. No lecture would come from him; this certainly beat many vices out there.

But seeing the joint from her purse while his body was still ringing from that kiss left Tom having to acknowledge that maybe Dri wasn't as safely ladylike as he kept expecting her to be. He had thought the risk had been in trying to keep her quiet, but he hadn't been certain if any of the others spoke Spanish and it was the best thing he thought to do. And if maybe it hadn't been the first time tonight he'd thought about kissing her, he'd have to deal with later because he definitely just heard her puke.

"Why are you sick?'' he was knocking at the bathroom door, concern evaporating everything else.

He heard the toilet flush, the sink run, and even a towel get used, but still no answer. When Adrianna opened the door, he had to have been looming in the frame but Tom couldn't help it. A quick check showed that she'd washed off the makeup and switched into her regular clothes, but still looked like she was putting on a performance. "I'm fine, it was latent nerves." she seemed frustrated and for once it wasn't with him.

So he hugged her again, this time without the strange sexual tension from the party. It felt surreal to offer comfort instead of counter argument, but Tom knew her well enough to know that verbal gentleness would he chased any. He felt her sigh, the movement in her shoulders giving it away, and she hugged him back. Then she stepped away, going to her bag in the kitchen to pull out a notebook. When she'd come over with the full bag he had cracked wise about her moving in, but then he'd seen all the things needed for her to get ready for a house party. Adriana the model was a process that the Dri he knew put on, and if he hadn't heard her getting sick from the nerves of it just minutes ago he could almost believe that she'd been untouched by it all. It was like when he'd spied the minute traces of her fear after the rally party; Dri wasn't naïve to the dangers around her, she was just existing in a world where they come after her regardless of her caution.

But before he could awkwardly try to express any of that, he saw what she'd grabbed the notebook for; she was writing a goddam profile of Jerred himself. "I see the studying continues."

Dri paused and looked over her shoulder to see him looming again, it wasn't hard to do when she was half a foot shorter than he was barefoot; and every inch of her was just daintier.

"It helps and it helps," he wasn't certain if she was joking but he nodded like it made sense.

She'd already listed the two locations where Jerred had held his parties, with bullet points under each describing the size and layouts. Tom couldn't help but feel a little impressed; she'd been untrained, barely prepared, distracting as all get out, and yet had a damn near encyclopedic catalogue of who, what, where, and when, with descriptions of each. So he did the only thing he could do; he filled her in on the other locators he'd been to where Jerred was hosting, and the people he encountered there.

They discussed the likely location of Jerred's next rally party, he liked to move them around to keep the cops at bay, and it wasn't until Dri yawned mid sentence that Tom thought to look at the time. It was late enough if he dropped her off at home she'd have to sneak in her own window again.

"Bed, go." he directed, resigned to once again burrito himself on the shitty couch for the night.

"It's your turn to get a good night's sleep," of course she argued with him, "besides, I'm small enough I stand a chance of fitting on that thing to sleep."