Page 2 of Elven Crown

She was more focused on Maxwell’s growing hostility as he surged forward toward their newest prisoner.

No way in all five Blue Hells would she let him interrogate this particular elf.

“Hold on, Hannigan,” she muttered, reaching out to set a hand on his shoulder.

He stopped beneath her touch, then she stepped forward again to place herself between her Head of Security and the devious elf man grinning at her from the center of the room.

“Oh, yes,” Rowan taunted, wiggling his eyebrows. “I imagine the lady would like to speak for herself, given the circumstances. Personally, I think—”

“What you think has no bearing on my decision at the moment,” Rebecca snapped, staring him down as she took another step forward and released Maxwell’s shoulder. She couldn’t help but notice how rigid he’d suddenly become beneath her touch, but she didn’t dare look away from Rowan to check on the shifter. “AndIwill decide whether your thoughts belong here at all.”

Specifically, whether Rowan felt like blowing her cover and revealing the truth to all the wrong people at the wrong time.

“Oh, come on.” Rowan’s grin sharpened as he turned it onto her again and tilted his head even further this time. “Don’t act like you have no idea what this is about. You had to have known this was coming sooner or later. I’ve been—”

“That’s irrelevant,” she snapped. “And you have a lot to answer for, including why you broke into our headquarters and why you seem to think this is all so hilarious.”

“You must be joking.” He glanced quickly back and forth between her and Maxwell. “Tell me you’re joking.”

Rebecca pointed at him and summoned her sternest, most commanding expression because that was all the silent message she could afford to give him. “Don’t move.”

While the elf man snickered at her warning, Rebecca turned around, marched back toward the open door of the holding room, and gestured for Maxwell to join her.

He growled again at their elven intruder and took his sweet time joining her at the door. Fortunately, Maxwell’s frustration didn’t affect his willingness to follow orders, even if he didn’t agree with them.

Once it felt like they had a sufficient level of privacy—though she was sure Rowan could hear everything anyway—Rebecca made her move in the only way she could think to make it.

“I’ll take it from here,” she told Maxwell with a nod.

Rick gaped at her.

Maxwell’s scowl darkened. “That’s not a good idea.”

“I think that’s for me to decide.”

“It’s not your job to interrogate every low-level criminal trying to make a name for himself—”

“Trust me, Hannigan.” Rebecca nodded. “There are plenty of things I do on a daily basis that go above and beyond the call of duty, all right? I’m gonna take this one.”

“You don’t have to deal with this. Especially when he just wiped out every operative assigned to guard him in this room.”

Rick grimaced, as if he expected immediate blowback and disciplinary action for something he hadn’t been here to prevent in the first place.

Rebecca held her frustration in check. Barely.

Why couldn’t the shifter just relent? For whatever reason, hestillhad to fight her every step of the way, and that only made everything that much harder.

She should have expected this.

“Clearly, setting anyone else on this guy, whoever he is, hasn’t been very effective so far,” she said firmly, keeping her voice low. “I’d like to try a different route.”

Maxwell’s frown deepened, and he shifted his weight in a halting lurch, as if he wanted to step toward her but thought better of it. “It’s not safe for you.”

She would have laughed at that if she wasn’t so surprised to hear him arguing for her safety, given the circumstances.

“I’ll be fine,” she said. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but the prisoner’s an elf. I’m the only other elf here. Which means I’m the only one he won’t hurt.”

“How can you be sure of that?” he growled.

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