Bounty Hunter (The Rover series Book 1)

by Amelia Shaw

  I clenched my teeth, hoping he didn’t hear them grind together. “What do you want me to do about this then? I’m sure you already have a solution in mind.”

  “I don’t have a fucking solution because I haven’t found one of my hunters in a holding cell with a dead mage before. What do you suggest?”

  I shrugged a little, annoyed with myself at not having an answer.

  He leaned forward and let out a long sigh. “You want to know what happened to your parents. And you want to make that bastard pay for his crimes. I get it. But it’s going to take more than just a little hunter looking for answers to bring him down. He’s had a long time to perfect his crimes. But you’ve gotta stop running around halfcocked looking for someone to pin down. You won’t get anywhere like that.”

  Holy hell, I hoped this scolding would be over soon. I hadn’t been chewed out by him so much since I was a teenager and stole his favorite butterfly knife. The same one tucked into my right boot at the moment.

  As if he sensed my desire to run away, he paused. “Get out, we can talk about this again later, but for now, you’re on desk duty.”

  Desk duty echoed in my head over and over. “What the hell?”

  “Are you really going to argue with me about this right now? After what I just walked in on and what I have to ask Simon to clean up?”

  I couldn’t remember a time, since I’d joined the Office, that I’d ever had desk duty. Not even on my first day.

  I stood up and shook out my jacket. “Anything else, sir?”

  He waved at me with an epic frown on his face and I stormed out of his office toward my desk. Hawk loomed by his own desk, hovering and watching me throw things into drawers. I needed to leave before I took a stapler to his face.

  The man in question stepped forward and I mentally played pin the staple to Hawk’s nose.

  “What’s your problem?” I demanded.

  He pressed his lips together and shrugged. “I don’t have a problem, but I think you will if you keep talking to the chief that way.”

  I lost it. I slammed the drawer shut so hard the metal frame scraped across concrete to a new position.

  “How about you stay the hell out of my business and take care of your own problems?” I faced the room where everyone witnessed my historic meltdown. “And all of you too. Fuck the fuck right off and leave me alone.”

  Hawk didn’t even blink at my tirade and I scowled at him while I caught my breath. Screaming in vehemence took a lot out of a girl. I finished clearing everything off the top of my desk and part of me had already decided to say ‘fuck this place’ and go home for good.

  The other half wondered what the hell I was doing since I didn’t have a home. No home. No Family. Nothing to look forward to at the end of the day. Nothing and no one to fight for.

  Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. No way these bastards would see me break down for real. Especially Hawk who hadn’t even twitched from his vigil near my desk, as if I was about to take my ire out on the chief and he planned to stop me.

  Desk duty. Psh. I grabbed a handful of candy from the jar on Ralph’s desk and started to walk out.

  “Not so fast,” the chief called as I clutched the door handle.

  I held tight and faced him. The anger lining his mouth and chin should have been enough to chase me out into the night. But I stood my ground. It wasn’t the first time he’d looked at me like that.

  “You can keep your desk duty and do it from home. I don’t want to see your face, or hear anyone breathe your name, for a while. Not after that little hissy fit.”

  I blinked once. Twice. Hissy fit? My head pounded and the tears burning the corners of my eyes came back in full force along with the heavy pulse of rage through my blood.

  I could cut off a finger and probably not cry, but when I was pissed, I couldn’t control the angry tears.

  “Sir...” I tried.

  He held up his hand and shook his head. Hawk loomed at his right side, silently backing him up, which I found rich considering he’d helped me. Where was his desk duty? Traitor.

  I stared them both down and walked out of the building, my pockets stuffed with pilfered candy and an ID for one dead mage. Since I didn’t have any jobs lined up, the Black Mage just became my sole focus.

  Chapter Four

  ‘Rage quitting’ was something only rich people could get away with. Wealthy people could stand on their principals. Lowly bounty hunters had to work so they could eat.

  So I’d pretend to work, so I could hunt down the Black mage. My problem was I had no reliable internet at home, and had to flirt the neighbor’s password out of him whenever I needed a connection.

  Therefore, after a lot of thinking, I found myself sneaking back into the office the next day, before sunrise. To hunt the Black Mage I needed my notes, my laptop, a coffee pot, and an internet connection that couldn’t be hacked no matter who tried.

  Arriving at five in the morning sucked, but I could deal if it kept me out of the chief’s crosshairs. I sat at my desk and sipped my coffee, thick and black, and stared at the files spread across my desk. A halo of light from my lamp illuminated the surface, and with the rest of the office dark it was like I sat inside a bubble of my own creation.

  I rolled my shoulders forward, then arched them back to stretch some more. Last night, as I stewed in my anger, I’d realized I needed to change my entire outlook to this case. I’d hit a brick wall for a reason, so I had to start at the beginning.

  So I was determined this morning to look at all the information with a fresh mind and completely read the files from the beginning.

  I also made sure to set my phone alarm so I could split before Hawk or the chief caught me here. That was not worth the hassle.

  I had stacks and stacks of notes and pictures, all collected over years of searching for the Black Mage. Most of it compiled in the last six months as I started to narrow in on his operations. The debacle yesterday should have served as a warning to get my head back in the game. Shame burnt low in my gut and I gathered my long hair into a messy bun and shook my head.

  Focus.

  I didn’t know what I expected today. I’d read these pages hundreds of times. I could recite some of the passages from memory. My desperation for answers started to feel like a weight in my mind, on my heart. I couldn’t shake it. Like every day I let my parents’ deaths go unpunished I’d failed them. Every day I lived while they lay in the ground.

  I slammed the files shut with way more force than necessary and sank back into my chair. It creaked and protested as I moved, its age written into every squeak. I refused one of the fancy new rolling chairs everyone else in the office had. My old orange seventies chair served me well. I refused to abandon it.

  My coffee was now cold and I took a bitter swallow, staring at the brown folders littered across my desk.

  Maybe it was time to get another eye on my notes? Someone might see something I missed. Who could I trust with the responsibility? Who wouldn’t fail me or mock me? No one I worked with, that was for sure. And trusting a stranger didn’t feel right either. Probably because I didn’t trust anyone but myself.

  A tiny nagging voice in my mind suggested it might be time to change that fact. I couldn’t see another way. But trusting someone with my family, my heart, my emotions even, felt far too intimate.

  I stacked up the files and slipped them all back into my black leather messenger bag propped against the desk drawers at my feet. I dragged my laptop across my desk, opened it, and began culling through my emails, deleting spam and responding to a couple low level hunt requests.

  Then I updated my paperwork, closed out some cases, and sent a couple invoices to people who hadn’t paid for the second half of a hired hunt yet. Most of my colleagues took payment up front. I preferred to break mine in two. I could help those who needed a payment plan or a little more help when it came to money.

  I still hadn’t told the chief about the time s
omeone paid me in tamales. Best trade ever, except I had to pay the Office fee out of pocket. The Chief was a boiled chicken and rice kind of man. He wouldn’t understand.

  The sky in the upper warehouse windows had steadily brightened while I worked, and I had just finished packing up to leave when keys jingled in the lock of the main entrance. Crap. I’d underestimated my colleagues' work ethic it seemed.

  I jammed the rest of the materials I needed for the next couple of weeks into my bag just as the chief entered. I froze, caught, and waited for the censure I knew was to follow.

  He looked me up and down, and said, “Well, I lost the office pool. I thought it would be at least a week before you came back here.”

  My mouth flopped open like a fish and then I snapped it shut. “Did anyone place a bet on me returning today?”

  The corner of his mouth curled up in a grin. “Yes. Hawk did.”

  That bastard. I didn’t know whether to love him or hate him. He always seemed to know us better than we knew ourselves. Or at the very least, he was able to predict our actions to minimize the damage. Which was probably why the chief trusted him as a second in command.

  I heaved my bag up on my shoulder and raised my chin. “You don’t have to worry about me. I was just leaving. I only needed to get some paperwork done.”

  He gave me a nod and headed back to his office. I let out a long sigh of relief.

  I walked out into the early morning sunlight. A slight chill still hung in the air and I tugged my leather jacket tighter around me. Now that I’d left, I wasn’t sure what to do with myself.

  No new leads with yesterday’s debacle. No help from the office. I started the walk toward my apartment building. Considering the early hour in which I showed up at work I should have driven, but cold morning walks always cleared my head the same way a hot shower did for others.

  My bag bounced against my hip and I adjusted it over to my other shoulder to balance the weight. I continued on down the dirty sidewalks toward home, but something didn’t feel right. A tingle settled against my spine. Years of bounty hunting told me not to make any sudden changes in movement. I stretched my neck a little to get a glance behind me and caught the edge of a shadow in an alley.

  Whatever idiot thought it was a good idea to follow me from the office to my house was about to learn how cranky I got before breakfast. I continued walking, slowing my pace a little so I wouldn’t be out of breath when it came time for a confrontation. About two blocks from home, I made a sudden right down a side street and kept walking. Sure enough, someone followed me around the corner at a distance.

  I couldn’t get a good angle to see them but given the height it had to be a man. And something else tingled along my spine. Not just a man but a paranormal. I took another sharp turn down a dingy alleyway and stopped in the middle, hands on my hips, facing the entrance. He took the turn and stopped dead.

  Instead of backing up and continuing on his path, he lowered his hood. A strong chin, sharp cheekbones, and full lips were what I noticed first, and the full golden honey of his hair laying in waves around his face and ears.

  The bright glowing blue of his eyes hit me last, and I sucked in a breath. Definitely not just a man.

  I cleared my throat. “Can I help you with something? I don’t like being followed, especially when my office hours and phone number can be found on my website.”

  He took a step forward and I held out my hand.

  “Don’t come closer until you tell me who you are.”

  Instead of listening, he took another step.

  I would not retreat. “If you don’t stop, you’re going to get a taste of Bea Arthur, my taser.”

  I gripped the device in my pocket and watched him carefully. He was tall, well over six feet, and lean like a dancer. He moved with the grace of one too. I would really hate to hurt such a beautiful man, but I’d learned long ago that beautiful men could hurt you. Especially beautiful men.

  I let out a sigh, pushing away the memories threatening to drag me down. “If you have no sense of self-preservation, just tell me what you want.”

  He stopped about five feet away. There were crystal shards around his irises, cutting through the bright blue. Damn. I racked my brain trying to think of what this guy could be. A vampire? A shifter? A Fae? He could be any of them since his physical characteristics matched all of them.

  No fangs though.

  “Do you speak, or just loom menacingly?”

  He cocked his head and stared me down. I got the distinct sense of being measured up and found wanting. The thought made me tug at my jacket and hug it tighter around me. My hair still sat in a messy bun on my head and I’d left the house with minimal makeup, positive I would be home before polite society rose for the day.

  I forced myself to focus. Why was I thinking about what I might look like to him?

  Oh, shit. He had some kind of glamour. It was the only explanation for why I hadn’t whipped Bea Arthur from my pocket and brought this guy down a few pegs. I forced out a long exhale, counting in my head before focusing on his gaze.

  “Cut out whatever shit you’re doing. I asked you to stop; you didn’t. I asked you what you wanted; you didn’t answer me. By my count, I’m within my rights to stun your ass and run. I’m going to give you one last shot to act like a normal person and open your mouth.”

  He let out a snort. “After everything I’ve read about you, you should have done it when you noticed I was following you ages ago.”

  His deep voice and the slight crisp accent on his words pushed against me. Oh, yeah, that glamour got worse when he spoke. My head was spinning like I’d drunk a pitcher of beer.

  I cleared my throat. “See, great, now we are getting somewhere. You’re right, I should have done it blocks ago but I’m already in trouble at work and I’m trying to be a good girl for the time being.”

  “A good girl?” he echoed.

  I shrugged and tried to relax my tense shoulders. “What do you want?”

  “Would you believe me if I said I simply wish to speak with you?”

  I waved at the alley. “Step into my office.”

  He didn’t even pop a smile. Maybe I was losing my edge.

  “I prefer to speak to you somewhere more private,” he said.

  Oh, hell no. I knew how that story ended.

  “Not going to happen. Tell me what you want or I’m walking away. Coffee and glazed donuts are calling my name.”

  “Then let’s go back to your office. We can speak there.”

  Something told me he was bluffing. He’d followed me from the Office. I had little doubt he could have walked in the door and spoke to me then. This man wanted to get me alone and he wanted to do it while cornering me. Maybe to see how I would react?

  “You don’t want to go back to my office. Or else you would’ve walked your beautiful ass in the door and spoke to me when I was there ten minutes ago.”

  Finally., I earned a smile. “You’re right. I do want to speak to you alone, but not at your office.”

  “Stop messing with me. I’m not taking you to my apartment. If you want to talk to me, you can make an appointment like a normal person. As I said, my office hours are on my website. Although I should warn you, I probably won’t be back in the office for a while.”

  “Is that why you’re trying to be on good behavior?”

  I tapped the side of my nose and pointed it at him. Beauty and smarts. He might be a keeper for some lucky person.

  “Well, if we’re done here, I think I’ll be going. Call the number on my website and I’ll get back to you. Maybe. I’m still not sure how I feel about this whole ambush in an alley situation.”

  “I don’t have time to wait for an appointment. What I need is more urgent, and I’ve been told you might be the woman to help me out.”

  Now I was intrigued. I got word of mouth work often, but a runway model had never shown up before.

  “If you’re not willing to tell me what the job is, tell me who
referred you.”

  He shook his head. “No, I can’t do that either.”

  “Then I’m sorry to say this is the end of the conversation.” I closed the distance between us and clapped a hand on his shoulder. Mostly to see if he was as ripped as I thought under his baggy clothes. A costume for him. He likely swanned around in fitted suits and fancy shirts that required cufflinks.

  He didn’t move out of my way, but held his ground. I didn’t want to shove between him and the wall to get out of the alley, but I was starting to feel claustrophobic.

  I shifted around him and started walking out of the alley. All my energy focused on not running away while my back was to him.

  He caught my elbow in one arm. I raised the other to clap it down on his forearm so he would release me.

  My whole body froze. Just stopped moving as he met my eyes. Fucking glamour. I hated it so much.

  “Get out of my fucking head,” I hissed through my teeth. “If you want me to work for you, this is not the way to make me like you.”

  He smiled, all full lips and gleaming teeth. “Oh, darling. I don’t give a shit how you feel about me. But don’t worry, you’ll change your mind when we have coffee together.”

  He curled my arm through his like we were taking a walk down to catch the waiting carriage and led me down the sidewalk. I went because at this moment I didn’t want to do anything but to go with him.

  I just hoped they would find the pieces of my body when he’d finished with me. I’d always wanted to be buried next to my parents.

  Chapter Five

  We headed around the corner to my favorite coffee shop and took a back booth. Coffee and cinnamon surrounded me, a scent I usually found comforting, but now I could feel my heartbeat in my ears as I glared across the booth at my captor.

  I should be terrified, my heart in my throat. But the glamour stopped me from panicking as well.

  It was still early, and few patrons sat around the spacious café.