Page 25 of Tooth and Nail

She stopped. “The Agency can’t verify what John told us and if they can’t verify it, we have no choice but to hand him over.”

“To be killed?” Ari asked.

“Yes, probably.” Her tone was clipped and defensive, but Eoghan had known her long enough to recognize simmering anger lying just beneath the surface. “The decision’s not ourbusiness, Brown. We do as we’re told. If the Agency tells us that they can’t verify John’s story, then we have no choice but to turn him over.”

“Hang on a second,” Ari challenged.

“What?”

Eoghan cringed at the tone in her voice. Shewaspissed. He knew from having worked with the woman for the last six years that arguing with her wasn’t going to get him anywhere. The chief didn’t like being second guessed. Maybe it was because she was the first female deputy chief in the I.S.R. doing the work only men had done before she’d been appointed to the role. Or maybe it was because she didn’t like the implications of what she was being ordered to do any more than they did.

Ari pointed to his watch. “It’s been less than an hour since you told the Agency what John Townsend told you. How could they have even attempted to verify his story in that period of time? And if they did, how did they do it? Did they just call up the new king and say, ‘Hey, this vamp we’ve got here says you’re the big cheese in Flagstaff now and guess what? He thinks you’re starving your people…oh, you’re not?Whew, that’s a huge relief. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. We’ll just crawl back into our little Agency hole now. Later!’”

Eoghan bit his lip, looking at the ground so he wouldn’t smile.

“What’s the big rush to turn him over, Chief? Why can’t we take a day to verify if what he’s saying is even true?” asked Ari.

“His escorts are already on the way, Brown,” she replied.

“This is wrong,” his partner argued. “You have to delay them…give the Agency time to check out his story.”

“I don’t have the right to question orders, regardless of whether it’s wrong or not. I can’t. I don’t expect you tounderstand, Brown. You don’t know how we do things.” A muscle in her jaw ticked as she stood there with her hands on both hips.

“No, but I know when someone shows up starving, looking desperate, telling me that his mate and his entire family have been slaughtered, and he had no choice but to trust the people he was fleeing to…that just might make him one of the good guys. I also know there might be some truth in what he’s saying.”

“Brown,” Eoghan warned. “That’s enough.”

Ari turned to look at him. “He could have eaten you, right?”

“What?”

“He could have eaten you. You said yourself that he was slower than a normal, healthy vampire. If he was lying about not wanting to attack you because he wasn’t sure he’d be able to refrain from killing you, that tells me he was putting human life—your life—ahead of his own freedom for the sake of his people,” Ari said. He lowered his voice. “You know John Townsend is telling the truth, Eoghan.” He turned to face the chief. “And you know that there’s no way the Agency had time to try to verify his story.” He was quiet for a second as he stared at her. “And if that’s true, there’s something else going on here that you’re not looking at.” He held up both palms. “And, if I’m wrong and you go through with this, then call Kellen McGillis and have him come and scrub my brain clean right now.”

Eoghan bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling at him. That and the fact that he suddenly had a burning desire to find a dark room, pull Aristotle Brown into it, and kiss him until he couldn’t breathe. He looked at the chief under his lashes. Her jaw was moving as she seemed to be grinding herteeth behind tight lips. When she suddenly sighed, he felt his heartrate speeding up.

“You’re not wrong, Brown,” she said, dropping her hands from her hips, and visibly deflating. They were still standing in the garage with no one else in sight.

“What do we do, Chief?” Eoghan asked, looking at his watch. It was now past five and probably dark outside. His stomach had stopped growling hours ago but the emptiness in it made him a little queasy instead of hungry. The last thing he wanted to do was eat. He wanted the question of King John resolved in his favor. He watched as the chief shook her head before lifting her eyes to look at Ari.

“Your instincts are right, Brown. There’s no way the Agency had time to check the veracity of John’s story, and that makes me think something’s dirty here. The problem lies in figuring out whether it’s a single person who’s appointed him or herself the decision maker to turn John Townsend over to his escorts, or something else.”

“What could the something else be?” Eoghan asked.

“The worst thing…the entire organization has an ulterior motive for letting Tillis Bradshaw take over his clan,” she said grimly.

“Something we’re not privy to,” Eoghan concluded.

“Yes,” she said. She began walking back toward the elevator, punching the button when she got there as they followed. The doors immediately swished open. She stepped in and pivoted, tapping the pointed toe of her high heel on the ground. “Well, hurry up, dammit! We have work to do.”

Eoghan exchanged a quick glance with Ari only to find him grinning as he followed the chief into the elevator. When she pushed the button for the administration level, he leaned back and let it take them up. As soon as they got off, she headed straight for the tech department. Everyone bustlingaround seemed to slow to watch their progress. They pushed through the double doors and came to a halt just inside. She looked around before heading toward a desk all the way in the far corner. The large desk had a half-moon of three wide monitors perched atop it. Behind it, the smallish woman Eoghan knew very well, was typing away, not paying the least bit of attention to anyone. She startled, looking up, blinking bright blue eyes when the chief cleared her throat.

“Oh, sorry, Chief,” Night said, shooting to her feet as if coming to attention. She stood to her full height of barely five feet and blinked at them from behind cat’s eye glasses. Night was one of the most interesting shifters Eoghan had ever met. Most shifters took on some of their animal traits when in human form. Size, shape, hair color, anything which hinted at what they might be. The only trait Night possessed in common with some of her species of snow leopard, was the startling neon blue of her eyes. Then again, she was a half-breed.

“Night, meet Aristotle Brown, Sapphire’s new partner,” the chief said.

Ari smiled and held out his hand. “Night?”

She took his hand and nodded. “Yes. Just Night. Nice to meet you, Brown.” She turned intelligent eyes toward the chief. “What can I do for you, Chief?”

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