Page 36 of Elven Shadow

“You had to at least know what he was gonna try in that joke of a meeting, though,” she added. “Right?”

Those silver eyes narrowed before Maxwell folded his arms again. He certainly didn’tlooklike he wanted to speak, especially when his gaze left her face to float along somewhere across the common room behind her.

Then he let out a long, heavy sigh and shook his head. “I had no idea. I was under the impression he wanted you there to discuss my mission report. Not to do…whatever the hell that was.”

Well, at least the guy had a functional sense of what boundariesshouldlook like.

Didn’t really count for much when that understanding was left behind like an abandoned shoe on the side of the road.

“So he blindsidedyouwith the whole thing too.” Rebecca nodded. “But you still just went right along with it.”

With his arms still folded, Maxwell’s shrug looked like he was trying to squirm away from something disgusting hovering just over his shoulder. “Part of the job.”

“Yeah, sure. Job description’s very clear, I get it. Head of Security’s there to carry out orders and protect the big boss from…whatever, right? But you’re missing the bigger picture here, Max.”

She could have broken into another grin when the scowl faded from the shifter’s face and he seemed to finally see her for the first time.

Or maybe he’d just never been called Max before today and still didn’t quite know how he felt about it yet.

“And what’s that?” he asked blandly.

Rebecca spread her arms. “In the end, when shit goes belly-up, and itwill, who’s gonna be there to protect the Head of Security from himself?”

For as sharp of mind as he was, not to mention his obvious level of mental clarity, Maxwell didn’t provide an answer to that one.

She didn’t expect him to; it was absolutely rhetorical.

His only response was to wrinkle his nose and offer a half-hearted scoff, which proved her point and her previous assumption.

She’d definitely struck a nerve.

The shifter was more than competent enough to realize that, unlike the changeling he served, Rebecca wasn’t just blowing hot air up his ass; she had a point. Maxwell didn’t have to like it, but at least he understood what she was trying to say.

As far as the Head of Security was concerned, Rebecca had now just planted a new seed of doubt inside him, the way Aldous had tried to plant something similar in her.

No, Rebecca wasn’t having doubts about her own abilities—just further acknowledgment of how much harder she’d have to work now to keep things running smoothly for herself.

Not to mention keeping her secrets where they belonged.

Sooner or later, though, after however long the shifter needed to further analyze what she’d just told him, Maxwell Hannigan would have his own doubts. Then, if he was smart, he’d come back to her about them.

So she left him with that fun little mystery floating around in his mind and hurried across the common room toward the hallway on the other side that would take her right to the compound’s member quarters.

Their great and fearless leader didn’t deign to mix with the likes of those under his command. No, Aldous’s personal suite was as far across the building as one could possibly get, which in and of itself only served to further divide their commander from the rest of his designated operatives.

She walked across the common room without pausing or offering an acknowledging glance to anyone else still awake at this hour just before dawn. Rebecca was positive their Head of Security would end up seeking her out eventually.

She’d given him too much to think about and far too much doubtnotto seek her out when he was ready.

And until he did, however long that happened to be, she had her own planning to get to and her own secrets to keep.

She felt pretty damn pleased with herself on her way back through the compound. Once she returned to her private room, though—small and sparsely decorated, with a dreamily soft, slightly used mattress as the only real luxury in a space that had probably been a supply closet before her arrival—Rebecca was a lot less sure of her upper hand in this situation.

She plopped down onto that infinitely soft mattress and its featherbed topper she refused to sleep without since the first time she’d discovered mattress toppers existed and puffed out a sigh.

So much for getting any kind of positive recognition around here. Sure, she’d saved her team’s ass out there against Edwardo, but she’d garnered herself so much more attention than she could afford as a result. Not the good kind of attention either.

For the next hour, she pored over everything she knew about power struggles and incompetent leaders and the best methods for worming her way out of circumstances that tended to make most other people give up.

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