Page 42 of Elven Prince

Rebecca had come to the same conclusion, but now that they’d exhausted their options inside Shade Headquarters, a new idea had room to form in her mind, and she had the time to pursue it.

“We’re out of leadshere, yes,” she said. “But Archie didn’t spend the whole day at the compound.”

“Was there sign of someone else in the truck with him?”

“You mean while our guy was tossed unconscious into the back of it? No. But he didn’t do that to himself.”

Maxwell’s frown turned momentarily inward before he widened his eyes in what looked like realization. Even if he wasn’t ready yet to guess her intentions out loud. “What do you want to do?”

Rebecca spread her arms, feeling suddenly more hopeful than she had all day. “I think we need to take a look at the source. Follow this as far back as we can.”

“The warehouse.”

“It’s the only place we haven’t looked yet.”

He clenched his jaw, then nodded. “Agreed. I’ll assemble a team.”

“A small one.Investigation-size. Not for staging an attack.”

“Understood.”

“Everybody geared up and briefed in the garage in twenty minutes,” she said. “I’ll meet you down there.”

She turned to walk down the hall, figuring she’d grab a little space—a fifteen-minute breather on her own in her office before piling into a vehicle with a new team and Maxwell. Then she’d have her head screwed on straight again before returning her full focus to the bigger issue at hand.

Maxwell, however, clearly didn’t feel the same sense of resolution. “One more thing before you go.”

Rebecca had only gotten a few feet down the hall, but she turned back to give him her full attention.

The shifter’s jaw muscles clenched furiously beneath her gaze. He stared down the hallway, as if expecting something or someone else to pop up and interrupt them, like usual.

He didn’t look particularly nervous, but she sure couldfeelit.

“I want to make it clear, about my reaction earlier today—”

“You apologized once already, Hannigan,” she said. “That’s enough for me. If you disagree, I need it to wait until after we figure out what happened to Archie. That comes first.”

His mouth snapped shut as he regarded her curiously. Then even more tension seeped out of him before he dipped his head. “Of course.”

“Good. See you downstairs in twenty.”

Despite the agonizing tug at her core as she walked away from him to head up to her office, she couldn’t stop analyzing the strange look he’d given her at the end.

There had been surprise there, for sure. And acceptance. But also something else.

Something she wanted to label as either suspicion or his fairly recent new expression whenever she managed to impress him.

But that didn’t make sense.

Why would he be impressed by her response or her decisions? Rebecca was Shade’s Roth-Da’al. It was her job to put her operatives first, above everything else.

Or maybe he just hadn’t thought her capable of holding him off until they solved this new and dangerous little mystery.

Admittedly, though, she hadn’t cut him off with onlyShade’sinterests in mind. She’d also used it as an excuse to end the conversation and to keep him at arm’s length.

Because Rebecca still couldn’t decide what to think about her shifter Head of Security walking around with an ancient elven rune tattooed on his chest, no matter how many apologies he made or how genuine they were.

Withthatnew knowledge, being able to trust him again would take a little more time and a lot more getting used to.Ifshe ever felt she could trust him again on a personal level beyond their professional relationship and their duty to Shade and its members.

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