Chapter three: The Queen of Diamonds
Word Count: 541
Danny leaned back into his chair when the door was opened for a second time and a much calmer looking Alma Dray entered the room. Danny tilted his head to the side and gave her a one-sided smile.
"I consider myself to be quite intelligent Miss. Dray but I still haven't been able to figure out why you're keeping my friends out there as an audience." Danny shrugged. "That must be a complete waste of the governments money, don't you think?"
Alma shook her head as she sat down on the opposite side of the table. "Money is rarely a problem when it comes to catching bad guys."
Danny laughed. "We're not bad guys."
"You keep telling me." Alma replied monotonously as she watched the pens she was placing in front of her in perfect line against her notepad. "So, do you want to talk about Henley Reeves? I have a feeling that you like her a lot more than you do Merritt McKinney."
"What gave you that idea?"
Alma tilted her head to the side. "You didn't deny it."
"I wasn't aware that it was a question." Danny crossed his arms over his stomach and leaned back into this chair. "Henley Reeves is a powerful, no bullshit kind pf woman with talents and a lot of knowledge to help get her where she wants to be. Luckily, she wants to get to the same place as the rest of us."
Alma hummed. "She doesn't like germs."
"So? A lot of people have problems with germs." Danny shrugged and frowned.
"Yeah, you're right as per usual J. Daniel Atlas. But most people don't risk ending up in prison for robbing a French bank. I don't know what you think but I'm guessing that there's a lot of germs in those cells waiting for her and the rest of the gang." Alma was nowhere as angry as Dylan Rhodes was and maybe that was the reason that Danny's hair stood up in his neck.
The way she refused to look him in the eyes for more than just a few seconds had him wanting to scream at her and he wanted to kick the table so that those pens didn't lay so perfectly straight. But he gave her a smile in spite of the feelings threatening to claw out of his body and make him do something that he would probably regret.
"Yeah well, like I said, Henley is a capable woman. I'm sure she'd do fine."
The smile on Alma's face grew. "So, Henley has done something criminal." Danny raised his eyebrows in confusion. "When I asked about Merritt you said that he wouldn't end up in prison because he hadn't done anything criminal."
"Of course not," Danny said with a shake of the head. "She has done nothing wrong either. I just assumed we were talking hypothetically."
"Would you say that you care for Henley Reeves?" Alma leaned her arms on the table and moved closer to him.
Danny nodded. "Yeah."
"And you would want to protect her? One might say that you would go to great lengths to protect her." Again, Danny nodded and responded yes. The smile on Alma's face warped into a grin. "What about Jack Wilder?"