Page 57 of The Dragon's Captured Heart
No. There was no way. It was a coincidence. I was projecting. This one was new, I noted, looking at it again. There was still a tag on it.
But I couldn’t get the picture out of my head.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Callum
“That’s not good enough,” I growled, standing my ground.
The receptionist frowned. “Sir, I’m sorry, but they aren’t here yet.”
“Then. Get. Them.” I bit the words out one by one, letting my displeasure be known. “This has been going on for over a week at this point. There’s no good reason for it to take this long.”
I was out of patience. The administrative section had dragged their feet for too long, and I was done letting them give me excuses. Kindness just wasn’t working with these bozos, so it was time for a different tactic.
“There’s a waiting list,” the receptionist said. “We process it in order of arrival. When we get to you, we’ll get to you.”
I pointed behind his desk to the door that led to the archives. “They’re right in there. It will take a few minutes of searching. No more. You know it as well as I do.”
“Your request is in the queue. When it's your turn, we will find the files you’re looking for.”
“No.”
“No?”
“Exactly.”
I walked around his desk and started toward the doorway.
“You can’t do that!”
“Actually, I can,” I called over my shoulder as he pushed back his chair and raced after me. “I’m a palace guard. I have authorization to be anywhere. Including your precious archives. Even if I didn’t, I still would. But you can’t really stop me.”
I pushed open the door.
It didn’t budge.
“You need a key to go in there,” the receptionist said haughtily as he arrived at my side, looking very pompous and full of himself.
“A key?” I asked, trying to sound ignorant and confused.
“Yes, a key, like this one,” he said, jingling the hanging from a lanyard around his neck. “It opens doors. It means you have permission to be in there.”
“Great, thanks,” I said, grabbing and pulling it free. “Guess I have permission now.”
Before he could protest, I slid the key home, flung the door open, and stepped into a room full of filing cabinets. I had no idea where the reports might be. But they were in here. I just had to find them.
“Listen, asshole,” the receptionist snarled, following me in and dropping all pretense of nicety. “You may be a guard, but that still doesn’t give you permission to barge in here and do this. There will be consequences.”
I smiled broadly, showing all my teeth. “Go ahead and try. Whatever you do, when it’s discovered you’ve been actively interfering with this investigation, you’ll be in a lot more trouble. I guarantee you that much.”
The man’s eyes narrowed until the blue was barely visible.
“Where are the guard reports?” I asked, scanning the titles of various cabinets to see what was held within.
“Why would I tell you?” he spat.
My hand shot out, grabbing his neck and hauling him close until I could see the whites of his eyes. “Because if you don’t,” I snarled, “I’m going to make your life very uncomfortable. Got it?”
