Page 79 of Broken Wolf

She took in a deep breath and let it out. “I trust you, Chief. Thanks for giving me this chance.”

I gave her a serious look and moved us off to the side as I lowered my voice. “You got it because circumstances changed and that’s life. Your SAiC is right that you should do the best you can with it and make your mark that you’re here for the job and can do this better than others.” I waited for her to nod. “But don’t be stupid.

“Don’t have the boys club egos and push. You’re smarter than that. I’ve bailed a lot and assholes chewed me later, but they weren’t there, and I lived. That is always the most important part of any undercover op. You live. You make sure your people live, and we can always get them another way. So take this chance you were given and show you can handle it and be smart.”

I was impressed she digested the “pep talk” well and then was off with the human team.

They did great. They remembered how well vampires could hear and talked to the hotel manager as they should have, their shoulder cams showing us everything.

She did even better. Agent Cindy Fisher had a promising career in undercover. She did better than I could have my first op. Yeah, mine was a deep cover and way more complicated, but she was smooth. She snapped into character and played those guys like several fucking instruments.

And I beamed like a proud older sister the whole damn time.

“She’s good,” Sander muttered. “You’re pulling her and getting her trained for undercover, right?”

“If she wants it, yeah,” I confirmed, ignoring the reactions around me. “And getting her into acting classes. She’s better than I was my first jump in. I wasn’t remotely that smooth, but luckily being cold and awkward worked for my assignment. She’s damn good.”

Honestly, good was an understatement for her first time. She totally rocked it.

We got everyone in who was attending and the presentation started by the attorney who was helping with all of this fraud… While other teams were raiding his law firm. They were all dirty as shit and it was a huge bust. We already took the doctor’s office, and after this I had plans with a bunch of cops in DeKalb.

Brian was backing us up there as a training exercise for the supe trainees even if it was a human thing. He wanted the extra attention and shame brought to the dirty cops.

Plus, we were going to have a huge fucking mess at the trailer park from what we knew of the situation there. We couldn’t get all of the names of the people living there because deeds and titles took a bit to record. And we expected some to be empty as they were flipped for the next victim.

I hurried to text Brian that the head guy was a vampire, so this was going to be a cleaner case from the top. I texted my councilwoman friend saying I had a turn in a case and the suspect was a vamp that we needed a ton of information from. If she could make my month and send out an interrogator to work with my kiddies at training, I would send her presents.

Lots of them.

She was a bit confused why I would want it for one case and training, but when I replied it was massive and corruption and more, she understood. She promised she’d find someone available and have them out by the morning… And she would love some seafood for her cat and the iced apple wine from Hestia’s pack because it was yummy.

Done and done.

When it was time, our teams went in and Cindy had played her part well. The moment we saw she’d convinced Greg to hurry to follow her—the attorney and a few of his guys joining her—we took off.

So we were right there at the employees entrance of the hotel when they exited.

“Yeah, I have a bunch of questions for you, and it’s not going to be fun,” I taunted the vamp. “You fucking came into my territory and committed crimes. I’m going to make it hurt.”

He went to lash out and tried to hurt Agent Fisher to get away. I could have made it in time. I knew Sander and the other ancients would have as well.

But we let her have her chance.

She easily grabbed his wrist and twisted it behind his back. “Bitch, please, I’m FBI, and you’re not some centuries-old badass. You’re a guppy swimming with us sharks.”

“She’s you five years ago,” Sander chuckled as he walked over with cuffs in his hand.

Yeah, she was. Seven years I was pretty sure since she went to Quantico right out of college but yeah, she was a brunette me in a way.

“You did excellent,” I told her under my breath before giving out the orders when more vehicles arrived. Then I went back to her. “Which means you need to decide fast if you’re interested in undercover work.”

“Really?” she whispered, her eyes wide.

“Really,” I said, several echoing me. “I don’t want you in the press for any of this and even duck away so fewer put your face to this.” I nodded when she frowned. “It sucks. It totally sucks, and I lived it for years. It’s one of the hardest parts of being undercover. Everyone else is celebrating the win and getting the praise and you fade into the background.

“But that’s the job. So for this one, do it and think about if it’s what you want. If it’s not, you have my word I will tell Director Galvin myself how you brought this home so well and make sure you get the pat on the back you deserve. Also, know you’ll have a big boss who did undercover for years. That will make all the difference for you. I would have killed for that.”

Her eyes went wide and she nodded, knowing I wasn’t picking on Havers, but… Sort of. And he wasn’t my division chief the whole time.

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