Page 56 of Broken Wolf

That had distracted me a bit the whole day and then during work Wednesday. It was hard not to and to know what the hell to do about it all. I didn’t want to let anyone down, but knowing it could lead to my death and the deaths of people I loved if we messed up… It was a very sobering situation.

I had to slap my game face on after work to have dinner with the judge and the attorney clerking for him. I drove out with my security and the SAiC working the case with me.

“You seem distracted, Chief Thomas,” the judge said in greeting, his tone concerned and not biting.

The SAiC snorted but then apologized. “The chief handled so much on the way here that my head is spinning, Your Honor. Our whole building is being updated and—I have officially decided I never want to be division chief and run an office. Ever.”

“I didn’t want to either,” I snickered, shaking my head and glancing at the judge. “I’m fine. I didn’t get the day off yesterday and have been trying to figure out how to delegate some more. I’m about to be in over my head and…” I shrugged.

He studied me another moment and nodded. “If you would take a bit of unsolicited advice.” He didn’t wait for me to answer, not that I would have told him no when I wanted his assistance for this to run smoothly. “From what even I know, the Dorcuses have a very large family. You probably have a lot of wise aunts, uncles, and cousins who have years on you. Utilize that.”

I blinked at him for a full minute. “Thank you. Really, thank you. That might be the piece I’m missing.”

He nodded. “We all need the outside viewpoint, and I do judge situations for a living.” His lips twitched, clearly having used that line many times before and liking it.

But he was good at it. Maybe not his rush to judge me, but he was a clean judge and efficient.

He’d also changed his mind about me after getting the rest of the information he’d needed, so I could let his original behavior slide.

And the man was good at using what he had to work with—hiring for sure. He picked an amazing attorney to clerk for him. I couldn’t even hide how impressed I was at how much the man had for us in less than forty-eight hours.

The judge smirked as he looked over the menu.

“Can you be in charge of recruiting for the FBI if you find such gems?” I asked him, glad when he chuckled and took it as the intended compliment.

We’d picked the Japanese steakhouse because we were able to secure a private dining room. We informed the restaurant that we didn’t want the show though, so if they could just cook it like for normal tables not at the bar and bring it, that would be great.

Right as I thought the server would be coming in to take our order, one of my detail did instead.

“I apologize, Mistress, but Nikos’s team just got the call that they need to head out,” he told me, glancing at his phone. “There needs to be some juggling done with the teams, and they wanted to make sure you saw it before they flew out.”

I frowned and apologized as I looked at my phone. “That’s fine besides Orson. He just got back from a flight. No, that’s—tell Brian we need the exception for a non-FBI pilot to get them there. Ask one from Helmer’s team or the ancients on loan. Or we get an FBI pilot from the normal division. They don’t normally need ten for each assignment. I doubt this one.”

“I will communicate that with Chief Havers,” he accepted. “My understanding is the same and soon they will be four teams of five instead of two of ten.” He apologized again and ducked back out.

I went to set my phone down but flinched at what I was scenting. “You both should be better educated. ‘Mistress’ is like Master of the City or coven. I have a coven of vampires under my pack. The Chicago vampires are under me as well. I wear many hats.”

The judge opened his mouth but then closed it. “I apologize. I thought Master, like Master of the City, was a unisex term.” He cleared his throat, looking a bit embarrassed. “They might want to think about that given the context of the other term. I know it’s being weaponized against you by certain parties, the First Lady included.”

I sighed. Heavily. Great.

“That’s actually not a bad suggestion,” I admitted, texting Apollo that I wanted to bring something up with him later when he had a chance. The server came in before I could say anything else, and I nodded for them to all go ahead.

“I am old school, Chief Thomas, the lady orders first,” the judge corrected.

“Thank you, but they always assume I’m ordering for the table when I go first and then there’s confusion,” I explained, glancing at the server. “And I’m picking up the tab with the other tables—”

“And the five gentlemen at the counter. Yes, I’ve been informed and that your order won’t be a joke, you really will eat it all and the extra orders to go,” she said, her tone amused. “Whoever called into the reservation made it clear when they spoke to the manager and to be polite to you so there wasn’t a repeat of some issue.”

I snickered, not even sure who it was but knowing what they were referring to. “A server called me a disgusting pig for all I ordered for myself and said he would vomit if he had to watch me shovel all of it in my mouth before demanding he switch tables with someone.” I nodded when her mouth dropped open. “Yeah, it was fun.”

“How much could it have really been?” she whispered.

“A lot for what a human was used to but honestly not remotely as much as I have eaten,” I answered. “But I had just finished a two-hour intense weight session to push my limits, then a marathon-length run as my wolf shifting back and forth every mile which most shifters can’t do.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter what you were doing. It’s like those jerks who come in here and order for their dates and get them salads. This crap has to stop. It really does.” She smiled at me. “You order what you want and I know it’s for you, not the table, and I’ll be impressed you can eat it all, do all of that, and still look fabulous.”

“Thanks,” I chuckled before proceeding to order more than all three humans could eat in an entire day. I shrugged when the two sitting across from me couldn’t hide their shock. “Being a supe is expensive.”

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