At Blade's Edge

by Lauren Dane

  Sarah’s lips quivered just slightly before she wrestled her bland expression back into place. “Oh dear. Whatever happened?”

  Rowan gave her a rundown, satisfied by the outrage in Sarah’s eyes.

  “I’ll be sure his final pay is here within the hour. Should I be prepared to do that more than once today?”

  “Maybe. Perhaps we’ll need a doctor too. We can play that by ear. There’ll be a packed house shortly.”

  David touched Rowan’s arm. “I need to gather some things and check in with Ms. Espy.”

  “I’ll meet you in the conference room in half an hour,” she told him. “Watch your back.”

  A grim nod and he jogged away.

  “I had the feeling it was bad,” Sarah said quietly.

  “Be careful today. If it involves certain people, be wary.”

  “But you’re here to take care of it?”

  Rowan blew out a long breath. “Yeah. I guess I am. He tried to have David killed. More than that, he betrayed us all. I can’t go into all of it now, but he’s been turning over data on fieldwork to sorcerers. Two of those Hunters died. I can’t not take care of it. We’re all in danger until I do.”

  Sarah took both her hands. “No. You have to take care of it, because that’s who you are and what you do. It’s why those loyal to you will stand at your side. He’s not the majority, Rowan. Please know that. He’s got a big mouth and some big-mouthed friends, but the heart and soul of Hunter Corp. is at your back. We want this poison gone too.”

  People began to flow in, ascending the stairs from the street and back entrances. Her circle of responsibility continued to grow. It made no difference at all that Rowan hadn’t asked for it. It was a fact.

  “Getting near showtime,” she told Sarah. “Don’t turn your back on anyone. Call or text David if something happens that we need to know about.”

  Sarah headed off to make sure chinless got his paycheck and Rowan sauntered up to Rex’s office.

  Much to her delight, Hilary Sams was walking down the hall as Rowan got to the top of the stairs.

  Before the other woman could avoid it, Rowan called her name.

  “I didn’t expect to see you here,” Hilary told her, her gaze darting around to avoid looking Rowan in the eyes.

  “Of course you did. Roth called you last night after we ended up in the same pub.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

  “Keep on trying, Hills.” Rowan flicked the edge of the other woman’s nose, barely withholding a snicker. “You’re out of your league. I’ve known that for some time. I thought at times you knew it too. But apparently not as you’re trying me in such a doomed way. I’ll enjoy crushing you into a greasy spot.”

  “Your attitude has gone on long enough,” Hilary huffed.

  “If you think you can do anything about that, you should go on and try. As for your problems? I’ve got receipts, you dumb bitch.” Rowan flipped her off as she walked toward Rex’s office.

  No one would be going anywhere. The exits were being watched and everyone would be expected in the meeting. Moreover, they still kept thinking she’d use her company manners. That time was long past. Time to burn shit down.

  She tapped on Rex’s door and found him inside, along with Susan and to Rowan’s surprise, Celesse.

  “I didn’t expect to see you here. I thought you’d just video call in.”

  Celesse worked out of the Paris Motherhouse. She’d been Rowan’s first trainer. They’d never fit entirely well, but over the years, despite some rough spots, they’d come to a place where they could respect one another.

  “After all the evidence you’ve been forwarding me, I think it’s wise to be here in person. I’ve suspended all field reports until this mess has been cleaned up. I won’t risk my people that way.”

  “I think we should open the meeting with that. I don’t want to waste a second. I just saw Hilary out in the hall, she’s probably trying to listen at the door. I expect she’ll let Roth know I’m here. I hope he’s extra scared now.”

  “If he isn’t, he will be once he sees your face,” Rex told her with a smile.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Rowan strolled right into the conference room and deposited herself between Roth and the exit. Every move she made from the moment she walked into the building, was meant to frighten, intimidate and cow him.

  David put a cup of tea at her right hand, along with a pad, pen and then her laptop where Carey already waited.

  “What’s that all about?” Hilary demanded, pointing at the screen.

  “That’s Carey Randozzo. He runs my operation in Las Vegas. Carey, I’m not introducing you because she’ll be gone soon enough.”

  Carey snickered. “Sure thing.”

  “You’ll have to turn that off. We haven’t agreed to be filmed,” Roth said, his voice threaded with fear.

  Like candy, Genevieve had said. To Brigid that fear was spice. A delicate, delightful energy boost. For Rowan, it was more that he was prey. The more he acted afraid, the surer his demise.

  “Can someone please explain how a video conference works to Wesslyian? Maybe also how cameras work since he’s confused.”

  “You can’t come back here just to cause trouble in our meetings, Rowan,” Roth said.

  “You don’t get to tell me what I can or can’t do. You also don’t get to call me Rowan. Back up before I back you up.”

  “I won’t stand for this type of talk.” Roth rapped the table.

  No one said a thing as the whole room simply looked at him.

  “So anyway, I have an item I’d like to move to the first of the agenda.” Rowan didn’t address Roth at all, but instead to Philhemenia Fowler, the Presiding Hunter. Essentially the Speaker for the body. She had the most awesome name Rowan had ever heard but the woman was so dour, so grumpy Rowan had never felt comfortable enough to tell her that.

  Fowler rapped her knuckles against the table to call order. She shot a look to Roth telling him she didn’t fail to notice he’d just used that to attempt to silence someone.

  That was the Speaker’s domain.

  Though Rowan wanted to smirk at Roth or call him a dumbass, she knew Fowler would tolerate no such nonsense now that she’d called the meeting to order.

  “Before we get to any business the room needs to clear of everyone but full partners.” Hilary didn’t even try to hide her disdain for the people she worked with. It was clear she saw the Hunters who did the heavy lifting as lesser than her.

  “No it doesn’t. Unless we’re discussing personnel matters, all partner meetings are open to employees of Hunter Corp.” Rex wasn’t wasting any time jumping in.

  “What sort of ambush do you have planned?” Roth asked Rowan.

  “Look up the word ambush. If I told you, it wouldn’t be an ambush.” She then shifted her attention to Philhemenia. “Speaker, a matter affecting the immediate health and safety of Hunters, most notably those in the field has come up. I would like to address it immediately as it’s so urgent.”

  “Are you just going to let all these gawkers stay here? You know she invited them to cause trouble.” Roth nearly wrung his hands.

  Hilary barely refrained from curling her lip. Rowan would have felt bad for her but she’d hitched her wagon to Roth on purpose. So she got what she deserved.

  Fowler spoke. “Rex is correct when he points out these meetings are open to all employees. There are no confidential matters on the agenda. I do caution Ms. Summerwaite to remain professional as the Speaker gives her some leeway to present her agenda item first.”

  “Thank you,” Rowan told the Speaker. She liked the other woman. Respected her too. But she would do whateverthefuck she needed to do and nice wasn’t anywhere on her list. “On the screen, not recording,
but actually watching and hearing the meeting through the camera and mic, is my valet Carey. He and David are going to manage the technological aspects of this presentation.”

  David dimmed the lights just slightly and a screen dropped from the ceiling.

  Rowan grabbed the reins firmly and began to make her case. “Roth Wesslyian has been giving confidential information regarding the movements and security protocols of Hunters in the field. The dissemination of such highly confidential data has led to the injuries of at least six that we can directly tie to Roth. And two deaths. He has conspired with sorcerers and rogue Vampires, including the one I just had to execute in Venice, to undermine and endanger those within Hunter Corp. he felt posed a threat as well as the integrity of the organization itself.”

  Boom.

  Immediately the room filled with outraged demands for explanation as the screen showed another set of emails and data transfers.

  Roth shook, his face bright red and guilty as fuck. “I demand Rowan Summerwaite be fired! She’s operating on some sort of vendetta against me.”

  Rowan ignored him. “As you see on the screen, there is direct correlation between the exchange of information and some action taken against a Hunter or an operation. Addresses of safe houses, Corp. credit card numbers, passport numbers and other sorts of highly sensitive information.”

  Roth stood, panic all over his face. “This is an outrage. I won’t stay here and be accused like this.”

  Rowan got to her feet, blocking his way. “You’ll sit the fuck down, traitor. No one leaves this room or this building until we’ve gotten through this. Wesslyian didn’t work alone and I wasn’t the only Hunter betrayed. We’re going to take out the trash.”

  “Careful, Summerwaite. I make the rules in here,” Philhemenia cautioned.

  “Madam Speaker, I respect your authority. There’s a security leak within this organization that has led to the deaths of two Hunters and several others we work with. No one leaves. As a full partner I cannot allow that to continue. The rot has to be cut out for Hunter Corp. to be considered as doing its job under the Treaty. You didn’t do it so I did.”

  More yelling as Roth tried to muscle past her and a few Hunters shoved him back into his seat.

  Rowan remained standing, looking to the Speaker. “I request all the evidence I’ve provided be considered part of a trial.”

  Philhemenia Fowler’s pruny, grumpy face nearly cracked a smile before she nodded twice.

  “Agreed.”

  A trial was official. A trial meant this was serious business with serious outcomes. It also meant Roth couldn’t leave until an outcome was reached. Though she’d have stopped him one way or another.

  “The official charge?” the Speaker asked.

  “Conspiracy to commit murder. Violation of the Hunter Corp. charter by sharing confidential information that deliberately undermined and placed those employed and protected by Hunter Corp. in danger.”

  Susan stood then. “I’ll take it from here as it was one of my Hunters who ended up dead and another one nearly killed on multiple occasions.”

  “I’m super hard to kill, thank the Goddess.”

  Carey changed the documents on the screen, replacing them with others. Screen after screen showing a correlation between information passed from Roth to his handler and then a resulting problem in the field. Her own information was up there and she still bore the scars of barely surviving.

  “I’ve never seen this before in my life. You did this to frame me,” Roth said at the end.

  Susan sneered at him.

  “It was in your house. Carey, video of the interrogations, please.”

  On the screen, video that’d been taken of the witnesses they’d captured in Venice, all confessing to some sort of action that connected them to Wesslyian.

  It had been a bloody, unpleasant bit of business, those interrogations. Many of those in the room who shrank away had never set foot outside these swanky, gleaming halls onto the bloody path those in the field walked.

  Some though...some looked away from shame, or from anger. Guilt too.

  Things needed to change at Hunter Corp. or it would have to be destroyed. What it was just then couldn’t be allowed to exist anymore.

  “Don’t you dare look away,” Rowan told those in the room. If she had to face it, so did they. “You sent me out there knowing there was a problem. You voted to table this until I was done with my mission. And then you thought I’d just, what? Fade away to lick my wounds? I came to you over and over while on this last hunt. I needed help and instead, one of our number gave assistance to our enemies and you were too cowardly to hold him accountable. You felt my safety was of no consequence.”

  A new voice joined the discussion. “We didn’t have enough proof. You weren’t here. It was better to do what we’re doing now. If you’d been patient instead of a petulant brat, we could be having a discussion.”

  Rowan curled her lip at the attempted insult. Linus Wilkerson was a fucking fool who was saved from his natural shortcomings because his parents had power and money.

  As Rowan looked around the table, she saw that pattern repeated a few times. When she’d been younger she’d believed a seat at the big partners table came only to those who had the talent and power to earn it.

  Awareness was a pain in the ass sometimes.

  She ignored Linus’s jab. “You don’t get to opt out of your responsibility for the safety of the people who are committed to the same stated goals you are. We all took an oath when we joined Hunter Corp. You gave your word.”

  There was a very old magic created when a person gave an oath. Each around that table made a promise, bound themselves to it and to Hunter Corp. and the Treaty.

  Having traitors in their midst was slowly eating away at the heart and foundation of Hunter Corp. Eventually it’d fall to pieces. The Treaty would have no third party to keep the balance. Nothing to protect humanity from those creatures with far more power.

  A little bit of bloody persuasion to get a Vampire to talk was a tiny price to pay when it came to weighing it against the cost of war if the Treaty no longer stood.

  Brigid had been against Rowan staying at Hunter Corp. Slowly but surely Rowan had felt the same as they’d betrayed her time and again.

  But they were both in accord, as she stood there looking at those assembled not around the table, but at the edges of the room.

  Damn it. Susan and Rex had been right.

  Field Hunters looked at her with absolute surety. They trusted her and she couldn’t bring herself to walk away and leave them at the mercies of others.

  She just hoped they didn’t expect her to be nice or mentor anyone.

  “Anyone with some computer skill could fake this.” Roth pointed an accusing finger at Carey.

  “That’s true,” Carey said. “So it’s actually really helpful when the information comes to me directly from the source. The servers at Hunter Corp. duplicate every single bit of data on the flash drives. Dates, times, everything. It’s exactly the same. Your statistical chance that every single thing would line up if this was some sort of fake is astronomically small.”

  “He’s the best, right?” Rowan asked the room.

  David handed her a phone, interrupting her speech. When she was done and handed it back to him, she turned a feral smile on Roth.

  Rowan tossed the memo books to the middle of the table. “These are interesting.”

  Roth paled.

  “I told you back at the Keep that you wouldn’t even see me coming. Remember that?” she asked Roth before turning back to the rest of the group. “Those memo books were with the flash drives in the hidey hole I found at Roth’s house. They detail payments and dates that coincide with the dates information was passed on to the sorcerers.”

  “Does the Co
nclave know you’re accusing them?” Roth demanded.

  Rowan smiled brightly.

  “David, please have Ms. Aubert brought in.”

  “Who? What’s going on?” Hilary asked.

  In moments, Rowan heard the click of heels on the marble and then felt the rush of magic as Genevieve approached.

  “Genevieve Aubert is a member of the Conclave Senate.” Rowan indicated Genevieve sit at the head of the table in full view of nearly everyone in the room. Though she looked pretty and dreamy, the magic she carried around would have been tangible to even the most willfully blind to magic.

  Genevieve usually tamped down the wattage, especially in public. But she made no attempts to disguise just how powerful she was that morning.

  She let everyone in that room know not to mess with her and she did it in her own, mellow and yet terrifying way.

  Rowan usually cringed at the idea of a sidekick, but Genevieve made her soften her perspective on that a little.

  Time to get going on this dropping-the-hammer business. Rowan took off her blazer. She’d already slicked her hair back into a tight knot at the base of her skull so her blade and the sheath she wore were clearly visible.

  A few people gasped.

  “Ms. Summerwaite, it’s unnecessary for you to be armed while you attend this body,” the Speaker said.

  “With all due respect, Madam Speaker, several members of this body have attempted to kill me and my valet. Not only us, but those standing at the walls around this table. We can’t be totally safe in this body until it is purged of those who would destroy it.” Rowan attempted to keep her body language strong but not so aggressive it pushed any of the Speaker’s buttons.

  “You need to get to the point with your witness quickly.” There was warning in the Speaker’s eyes but Rowan was no longer so dazzled by Hunter Corp. that awe kept her from asking too many questions or making too many waves.

  “Outsiders are not allowed at trial,” Hilary said, her voice like butter.

  “Here’s a funny thing, Hills. Normally you’d be right. But Roth, the accused, asked if the Conclave knew. He opened the door because the best person to answer that question, the only one who can do it accurately is this one right here. Thanks for that.”