Page 17 of Brother's Keeper

Before I could argue, Holland entered the dialogue.

“Yes, we should.”

She stood outside the doorway with her hands on her hips.

“I already told your men we aren’t pressing charges,” Isha said as she wrapped an arm around shivering Liv.

“This is not an arrest, Miss Kapoor,” Holland replied. “It’s a simple interrogation. Assuming Mister…” She looked to Jax to fill the gap.

“Rhodes,” he replied with another flash of his stained teeth. “But just Jax for you, pretty lady.”

“Mister Rhodes.” Holland flapped her hand at Felix, prompting him to put the handcuffs away. “Do you mind accompanying us to the Capitol? We have a few questions, then you’ll be on your way.”

Jax’s smile spread wide. “I’m happy to join you, but only if I get to talk to your pet criminal there.” Henodded at me. “We were buddies in prison, yanno, and I’ve been dying to catch up.”

I aimed an emphatic look at Holland, wishing I was telepathic and could put her off of agreeing to Jax’s terms. It didn’t work.

“Of course, you can talk to him,” she agreed, “so long as you don’t mind me sitting in.”

“Baby, you can sit anywhere you want,” Jax crooned, and Holland nodded.

“There you go, Fitch,” she said. “You can start earning your keep.”

I stood like my feet were mired in cement, watching Holland lead the parade out of BDSM Liv’s room.

First her, then Felix, and finally Jax walking on the heels of his shoes as he passed me with a smirk. Our blood feud aside, his willingness created questions I couldn’t answer. Being a member of the Bloody Hex wasn’t a crime in and of itself, but Jax was also an escaped convict and, last I knew, the city had been doing their best to round up the jailbirds who had flown the coop. Unless Holland and her crew fumbled this situation badly, Jax’s visit to the Capitol was about to turn into an extended stay. He must have known that. Why did he look so happy about it?

Jax spread the stenchof rot and carrion through the Investigative Department and into the cramped interrogation room. The bland, white space was a copy-paste of the rooms where I’d met with Holland at Thorngate, minus the handcuff rail on the table. It also had a one-way mirror on the wall behind which Tobin, Vesper, and Felix sat, observing.

I shimmied out of my constricting suit jacket—mourning the chunk of my next paycheck that would go toward replacing it—and dropped into the metal folding chair beside Holland. She held her notepad and pen like a boy scout, always prepared.

The shapeshifter maintained his swagger as though he had neither a care in the world nor a thought in his brain. Arrogance and ignorance were closely related, but I couldn’t help but compare his visit to the Capitol with my own a few months back. Granted, I’d been dragged in after being caught at the scene of acrime and this was, by all accounts, a friendly chat. But did he not fear a return to prison? Or execution?

After a moment of shifting and silence—everyone settling in for what was bound to be an uncomfortable conversation—Holland spoke.

“Mister Rhodes, you were very open about your involvement with the Bloody Hex. Is that a recent development?”

Jax shook his head. He wore a black leather eyepatch now, which should have given sexy pirate vibes, but all I was getting was backwoods hunter with a big fish story about how he lost his eye. One that definitely didn’t involve a prison cafeteria and a plastic spork.

“Sorry, pretty lady, but I only wanna talk to your boy here.” He nodded at me. “That was the deal.”

Holland shook herself like a bird ruffling its feathers. “Of course. Fitch…” She slid the steno pad across the table to me, then slapped the pen down beside it. “Start at the top.”

I glanced at the lined paper where a list of questions was scrawled in blue ink.

Across the table, Jax turned up his nose. “You gonna read off that script, Fitch Farrow?” The way he savored my name made my skin itch. “Or can we discuss things like men?”

“This is not a discussion, Mister Rhodes.” Holland held up her hand. “It’s an interrogation, and there are protocols—”

“Since when are you running the Bloody Hex?” I cut in, glowering at the shapeshifter. “And why? Last I knew, you got your ass beat and were crawling away with yourtail between your legs. Not exactly leader material.”

I needed to keep things vague but wanted to ensure he remembered we were members of the same organization, and that I outranked him. I’d beaten him at the recruiting rally and could make an example of him here, though I’d have to do so more subtly.

“I was ahead of my time, was all,” Jax replied. “Now, I’m right where I wanna be. Working my way up. Waiting for people to turn their backs, so I can put a knife in them.”

His sneer felt targeted, and not at the investigator beside me.

Holland jumped back in. “What do you mean ‘running the Bloody Hex?’ What about Grimm?”

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