Chapter 22 #2
I wished I could see the world as starkly as Eric did.
Sometimes he was a guiding light of clarity, but other times, he refused to recognize what was right in front of his nose.
“Because we don’t know what’s going on with Josh.
” I fought the urge to rub my chest. The ache had gotten indescribably worse over the last few weeks, as had my worry.
Not that I could say anything to Eric. He’d already admitted that he didn’t understand, explaining it again wasn’t likely to make a difference.
He glared at me as if he were contemplating wrapping his fingers around my neck, then threw his hands up, clearly at the end of his rope. “How is what’s going on with Josh in any way relevant to what is happening here?”
“Because if he dies, I die.” I speared Eric with a pointed look. “Where would the pack be then?”
He opened his mouth and promptly shut it again without uttering a syllable. His hands dropped back to his sides with a smack. “Okay, so that’s relevant.”
I could practically see the gears turning as he processed this latest facet and what it meant for the pack at large. At last, he held out his hands, and I waited expectantly for whatever questionable scheme he’d concocted in his ruminating silence.
“Right. New plan. We find Josh, spring him, come back here, and then we take the pack from Conrad.”
My jaw fell. I quickly snapped it shut and pushed past my disbelief.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” I surged off the couch, the tenuous hold on my temper growing thinner by the second.
“That’s literally been the plan this whole time.
You can see how much success we’re having on that front.
I’ve tracked literal fucking moles with more intel than we’ve got.
We don’t have so much as a hint of where he’s being held, and you just want to ‘spring him’ like it’s nothing? ”
As Eric opened his mouth invariably to argue some more, the front door flung open hard enough to hit the entry wall. A second later, Remus burst into the room, eyes bright with excitement, panting for breath.
“I have something.”
Eric and I looked at each other, equally surprised by his fortuitous timing. It was Eric who asked what I was too afraid to hope for. “You know where he is?”
“Nope,” Remus said, an idiotic grin plastered on his face.
I stepped forward, more than a little confused, my suppressed anger in danger of snapping free. “I don’t understand. Do you or don’t you know where to find Josh?”
Remus glanced over his shoulder back towards the entrance before stepping aside, his obnoxious smile still firmly in place. “I don’t, but she does.”
All eyes turned to the petite woman who emerged from behind him.
Pure-gold hair fell in a loose curtain to her shoulders around an oval-shaped face.
Her lavender tank top and light denim jeans lent her eyes a periwinkle hue that didn’t quite seem real.
She swept the room in one look and settled her gaze on me.
“Dr. Bennett. It is a pleasure to see you again, though I wish it were under better circumstances.”
It wasn’t until she spoke that I finally recognized her. “Director Starling.”
She nodded, and what might have been a smile flitted across her lips. It was gone too fast to be certain.
I accepted her hand, surprised to find it warm. This delicate doll was a far cry from the deadly ice queen I’d briefly encountered when I’d accompanied Josh on his last sanctioned hunt. “You look… different.”
“Hot. She looks hot,” Remus corrected from where he was still panting with exuberance in the middle of my living room.
Director Starling angled towards him and arched a perfect golden brow.
Instantly, his eyes widened and his face paled as all the blood left it in a rush.
“While I appreciate the value of the compliment, Sergeant Andana, it would behoove you to remember my station and the particular licenses I hold.”
Eric leaned over and not-so-quietly asked, “Is that detective-speak for she will cut a bitch?” I couldn’t help but snort a laugh. The thinly veiled threat was so perfectly crafted to be true and so perfectly Josh that it was hard not to.
The Director’s penetrating gaze swiveled back to me. “If we’re all done with the pleasantries, there is work to be done.”
I blinked away my astonishment at the day’s unexpected turn of events and gestured towards the dining table. “Please have a seat.”
Director Starling pulled up a chair and took out a modest data tab. She instantly began thumbing through files and asked without looking up, “Has Joshua equipped this place with a security system?” My words didn’t come quite fast enough, and she flicked her stern gaze up to look at me.
“He installed Atlas months ago,” I said in a rush.
She nodded her approval and went right back to her tablet. “Would you instruct the system to initiate security protocol Crickets?”
I did as she requested, and the system informed the room at large that the perimeter was secure, all comms jammed, and the house safe from prying ears.
“Damn,” Eric and Remus breathed in joint admiration.
“Would you like some tea?” I offered at last, remembering my manners. Not that I thought anyone could blame me for being slightly remiss. After all, who would have ever thought I’d be entertaining the head of the most elite group of government killers to walk the earth?
Director Starling gave me a slight nod. “Tea would be acceptable.”
Eric immediately raced toward the kitchen. “I’ll get it.”
“Sergeant Andana.” The director lazily looked up from her device to stare at the wary soldier.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Perhaps Mr. Trappinger could use some assistance.”
Remus snapped a salute, then wordlessly followed my best friend into the kitchen, who’d effectively abandoned me with Josh’s very tiny, very scary boss.
She glanced after him and shook her head. “Attractive and quite skilled, but brash and lacking initiative.”
I refrained from commenting on the unusual observation and took a seat across from her. The moment my ass touched the chair, she spoke again.
“Am I correct in assuming that you’ve been in contact with Joshua’s legal counsel?”
“Yes, Director.”
“Might I ask who it is?”
“Theodore Lombardi.”
Her eyes lit up with what I could only assume was surprise mixed with a touch of pride.
“Of course it is. That has either made our work substantially more difficult or infinitely easier. At any rate, call Mr. Lombardi and tell him his services are required immediately. Don’t be concerned about the security protocol, as the owner of the system, your bio-ware should be unaffected.
” Message delivered, she returned her attention to whatever was so riveting on her data tab while I did as she commanded.
Admittedly, I was not eager to tell Theodore Lombardi that he essentially needed to get his ass over here right away.
Something about that alarmingly nondescript man had me simultaneously wanting to raise my hackles and run away with my tail tucked between my legs as fast as my legs could carry me.
Of course, with the director of the Lycan Detective Agency sitting at my dining room table ready to help me finally reunite with Josh, calling Lombardi was the least I could do.
I dialed the number he’d programmed during his first visit and, sure enough, the call went through unhindered. I conveyed the request in a slightly more moderate tone and ended the call. “He should be here in thirty minutes, or so.”
Director Starling’s lips pursed in disapproval, and she tucked a renegade strand of platinum blonde hair behind her ear. “Suppose it’s possible to get started in his absence.”
I couldn’t take it anymore. “I’m sorry, Director, I can’t help but ask if you’re expecting something in return for your aid.” Anxiety tightened around my chest like a steel band as she glanced up with zero forgiveness in her cold, blue eyes.
“Yes.”
I nearly choked on my tongue at the blunt delivery. “What?”
“In return for my assistance, I fully expect an invitation.”
I momentarily forgot my anxiety as a cloud of confusion enveloped me. “To what?”
“To the wedding, of course.” As quickly as her gaze had turned to ice, it thawed, and then she winked.
The complete one-eighty threw me for a loop, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of Josh’s own wretched way of teasing.
I couldn’t tell if it was something that came from being a Lycan Detective or if he’d picked it up from the Director.
Either way, seeing it now was more than a little unnerving.
“Beg your pardon?”
She set down her data tab and focused her full attention on me.
The laughter was gone from her eyes, replaced with an intimidating level of severity.
“Dr. Bennett—Elijah—that man deserves all the love this world can offer him, and he deserves a grand ceremony to celebrate that love and all the things he’s been denied in this life.
It may come as a surprise, but I myself do not have children.
In lieu of that, I have Joshua Hart, whom I view very much as if he were my own progeny.
More so after I had the misfortune of meeting the woman who calls herself his mother face-to-face.
” She arched a golden brow and looked at me over steepled fingers.
“Are you telling me you have no intention of making an honest man out of my would-be son, after stealing his heart and cementing his fate?”
My mouth opened and closed uselessly in the face of her potential wrath. “I… it’s not something we’ve really talked about.”
Her eyebrow climbed higher.
“I mean, I’m not opposed. I just…” Eric and Remus’s timely arrival with the tea saved me from my babbling.
The director continued to stare at me while the others set out several cups and poured the steaming liquid.
Finally, she blinked, and I let out a sigh of relief.
Director Starling may be all of five-foot-two, but her presence was more than commanding enough to have earned her her prestigious position.
She blew gently on the hot liquid before taking a delicate sip.
“Mm, Earl Grey. With a touch of… lavender?”
I nodded, unable to find my voice again.
She set the cup aside and gestured for Eric and Remus to take a seat as well.
“Before we begin, it is imperative that everyone understand that my involvement must not leave this room.” She waited for nods of acquiescence.
When she had them, she continued. “Good. Now, to get to where Joshua is being held, we are going to need help.”
Eric straightened in his chair. “Wait, are we really going to spring him?”
Director Starling speared him with a withering glare, and he shrank back into his seat while Remus tried–and failed–to snicker under his breath.
“What precisely would that accomplish? No, we will not be ‘springing’ him.
For this endeavor to be successful, we must utilize legal channels.
Now, what in the nine planes is taking Lombardi so long?
You'd think a beholden dragon would have more of a sense of urgency.”