It wasn’t until Bridget had been captured and Ant was actually in physical contact with Mike – not willingly - that Ant found out it was Mike who’d been conducting a series of murders Ant had been investigating. For Ant that realization was a real gut punch. He had genuinely considered Mike a friend.
“Surely, you’ve learned over the years, going over these scenes, that you can never learn the ‘why’ of a person who commits these horrific crimes,” Bridget said softly. “No one knows the why of what any person might do, except the individual themselves. You’re not doing yourself any favors by trying to work it out. It’s not like Mike can tell you anything anymore.”
“No.” Ant blew out a long breath, his hand reaching for Able before he remembered his dog was out with Viktor.They’ve been gone a while.
“You and Viktor could always work on cases yourself,” Bridget suggested. “If you took out a private investigator’s license, you’d have people flocking to you in droves to solve their issues.”
“I’m not chasing down cheating spouses. There’re never any winners in that situation.” Ant shivered. “Besides, the Magical Council would probably have something to say about that. They’re likely to insist I only work on paranormal cases or limit me in other ways. Too many young mages tried being PIs in the past, from what I understand. Unfortunately, they tended to run roughshod over evidence, had very definite biases on who they thought might be a criminal instead of relying on actual skills, and in some cases, essentially ruined the chances of ever charging and sentencing someone through the courts because of their disregard for the evidence.”
Bridget shook her head. “You’re one of the most highly respected mages in the city, in the state even. I could make the case that you’re one of the most respected mages in the whole country. Your meticulous attention to detail has cleared so many cases off the court dock. Judges know you by your first name. You’re respected, period. Admittedly, Viktor doesn’t have the same reputation at the moment, but he has to start somewhere. Viktor…”
Bridget trailed off and looked at him - really intensely – in that way Ant had learned his sister did when she thought that her younger brother was hiding something. “Are you worried about Viktor controlling any violent tendencies he might have if you are working on cases?”
“Not worried, no. Not exactly.” Ant looked down at his hands. “Is that bad of me? It probably is, isn’t it? It’s not that I don’t trust Viktor, because I do. And it’s not that I don’t believe in his right to protect me, because I do. The same as I believe in my right to protect him if anybody attacks him.
“But I’m not sure...” Ant struggled to explain. “Viktor sees things in a very definitive way. If we went out on cases, what if someone else complains he’s gone too far? Bridget, what if they try to use that to separate us?”
Getting up from her desk, Bridget came over, twisting Ant around in his swivel seat and resting her hands on his shoulders. “What’s all this about? When have you ever doubted your inner feelings, your gut instincts about the issues in your life? Why are you putting yourself through this now?”
Realistically, Ant hadn’t considered that’s what he’d been doing. But as soon as Bridget had mentioned it, he understood his sister was right. “I’ve never had anybody to care about the way I feel about him. No one as much as I care about you,” he said.
“It’s easier in a way with you. You’re my sister. You don’t come out on my cases, you don’t come with me when I do readings. I’ve warded your home, and this office, and everything else as best I can. I try to keep you safe while respecting that you do a good job of that yourself,” he added quickly, when he noticed Bridget’s lips tightening.
“This caring about Viktor is so very different. It’s hard for me to put into words. But if somebody was to take him away from me, I would level the city trying to find him, and I’ve never felt like that before.”
“From what I understand, that’s what being a mate is all about. You need to trust what you’ve always known. Mating doesn’t change that,” Bridget says softly. “Trust your magic. Trust yourinstincts. Trust your years of experience in both magic and chasing criminals. I’ll keep working on the paperwork side of things and try to find out who’s pressuring the police captain.
“In the meantime, you and Viktor need to be working together on another project. You’re spending too much time with your thoughts, and that’s not always healthy for you.” Bridget tapped him lightly on his nose before pointing at her desk. “Go through that pile of papers on the left and let your instincts find you something to do.”
“They’re not police cases, are they?” Ant tried to peer at the top page of the pile.
“The police pile is on the right. The pile on the left that I want you to go through is requests from families of victims who are desperate for help.”
“Why do we still have a pile of police requests?” It wasn’t as though Ant had a working relationship with anyone else at the police department. Aside from the captain and the late Mike, most other officers were barely polite if they saw him, preferring to work cases their own way.
Bridget laughed as she went back over to her desk. “The police seem to have some misguided idea you’re still on call for them. I’ve made a formal email reply letting them know you no longer work for the police department as a consultant, but for some reason, the message doesn’t seem to get through.”
“That could be because the police captain and members of the prosecution team don’t want to believe my resignation was final, either,” Ant said, getting out of his chair and reaching for the pile Bridget mentioned. “There are messages piling up on my phone from the captain and Prosecutor Hammond that I haven’t responded to yet.” He picked up the pile, frowning as he checkedthe details on the top page. “There’s no one here asking me to find their long-lost diamonds or something ridiculous, is there?”
Bridget shook her head. “Nope. That’s yet another pile, and I’ve already filed them in the trash bin. I know you don’t use your magic for trivialities.”
“I don’t think I could anyway.” Ant pondered the idea. “That could make an interesting research paper. I’ll have to check the archives and see if anyone has done something similar. I work with and for victims, but is it possible that an inanimate object, such as a diamond necklace or even a pen, could be considered a victim if they’re lost? Everything in existence carries a certain energy, which could be argued makes them a living being.”
“Only you would find that interesting – well, you and your cronies at the Mage Academy. In the meantime, I’m sure I can hear Able running up those stairs. You and Viktor can take that pile of papers with you and go over them while you have lunch somewhere else. I have work I need to get done. You being bored and distracted is just as annoying to me as I’m sure Viktor’s boredom is to you. Go on, get out and leave me to tackle my to-do list.”
Stuffing the papers in his satchel and grabbing his coat, Ant reached the door just as Able got to the top of the stairs. His gorgeous German shepherd’s tail was wagging as it always did when he saw Ant, but he kept looking back down the stairs as if he wanted to go back down.
“What have you done with Viktor?” Slinging his satchel over his shoulder, Ant reached down and gave Able a pat. “What’s he done with your leash? I can’t believe you made it up the stairs before he did.”
The words had barely left his mouth when Ant felt a sudden flare of pain in his gut, as though someone had stabbed him.Viktor!Dropping his coat, he ran down the stairs, Able barking madly as he ran with him.
Chapter Two
“What the hell did you do that for?” Viktor scowled, dabbing at the blood welling up from a knife cut in his shirt. “I’m supposed to be having lunch with my mate in less than thirty minutes, and now I have to find a new fucking shirt.”
“It got your attention, didn’t it?” Giorgio, Tony Manzano’s former bodyguard, showed his teeth as he wiped his blade on a piece of tissue and stuffed both of them in his pocket. “I always heard you vamps tend to go into a blood rage over the sight of blood. I wondered if it worked when you saw your own. It doesn’t look like it, though, which is a bummer.”
“All you’ve done is ruin a perfectly good shirt.” Viktor stuck his finger through the hole. As expected, his skin had already healed, but he didn’t have any magic that would fix the hole in his shirt.Ant is going to be pissed at me.
