by Mina Carter
Iliona took a deep breath. “Okay, here’s the deal. She’s Honor Croft—”
Baron started in surprise. The name was a familiar one. “Croft as in Croft Enterprises?”
Iliona nodded. “One and the same. Honor is the only daughter of Laurence Croft, who has approached us to protect her. Apparently he’s had some fairly specific threats against her safety.”
She paused to shuffle through her file and passed a couple of stapled sheets to Baron. A quick glance confirmed that they were photocopies of letters. Newsprint font but printed out. Nice. Whoever it was had an appreciation for the old ways if with a high tech twist.
“Given what’s in there, he’s asked us to take care of the protection detail instead of leaving it to his own team, who—I believe—are all human.”
Baron nodded and handed the sheets to his brother to read. They were read and put into Duke’s pocket. He knew without asking there was no point trying to get them back. Like most dragons, Duke was a hoarder, an affliction Baron had escaped. Thank fuck. Their place was already filled to bursting with all Duke’s crap, so he dreaded to think what it would be like if both of them were the same.
“That’s understandable. I wouldn’t trust any serious security to humans either.”
Hammond started at his words but Baron ignored him. He spoke the truth. There were too many things out there that weren’t human for any of that species to successfully defend against them. He and Duke were just two of them.
“You mentioned a twist?”
For the second time that night, Duke surprised them by speaking up, his question directed at Iliona. So far he’d completely ignored the human in the room. Which was probably a good thing. For the human.
“Yes…well.” Iliona frowned. “Croft is insisting on just one guard—”
One guard. One of them. So not going to happen. Both brothers began to shake their heads but she held up her hand for them to hear her out.
“.…but the seer team is telling me he’s not giving us all the info and have put a high level alert out.”
He shivered at the mention of the seer team. Mostly female, they were way weird. Gave him the total creeps whenever he ran into them in the office. Their habit of holding a conversation with him from next week freaked him the hell out.
“So you guys are going solo on this one, but I need you to infiltrate under one ID. Remember the whole thing we did with the Perez holdings job? I need you to do that.” She looked from Duke and back at him, her face blank but he could easily read the worry seeping from her pores. She wasn’t sure they would agree, and from the smell of it, she needed them to. He knew the job she meant.
Last year they’d needed to get bodies inside a warehouse where some asshole was manufacturing pixie dust, a new drug aimed at paranormals with the added benefit of killing any human who took it stone dead. Whether or not that was after the best high of their lives was debatable. Considering the official photos of some of the bodies, contorted in pain even in death, he was going with not.
After discarding plans a through to f, they’d managed to get a load of operatives in with be-spelled sacks that were bigger on the inside, but since neither he nor Duke could be spelled in such a manner, they’d had to resort to different methods. Instead, Duke had shifted, his human body shifting to the shadow form before his full dragon form, and settled over Baron’s back like a large, living tattoo. It wasn’t the most comfortable method to use, and itched like fuck whenever Duke moved, but it worked.
He didn’t say anything, just grunted, and then changed tactics. “So what’s it got to do with the police?”
“Ah, yes.” She folded her hands over the file again, a posture she used often. Perhaps to make herself look older than her years and more authoritative. He wanted to tell her she needn’t bother with all that. If any operative in the agency didn’t take her seriously, there was a good chance they’d end up having a chat with either Cal or Gran, or, if they were really unlucky, both. “We have an understanding with the police department that should certain individuals come to us, we will pass any and all information that may help an on-going investigation over. Laurence Croft has been on the department’s radar for a long time—”
Hammond leaned forward, the oily smile on his face doing nothing to help Baron like him more. “Indeed. We’ve been after this scum-bag for a while, so you boys will be looking for anything we can use against him.”
His words helped even less. Now Baron just wanted to punch him in the face. Repeatedly. He ignored the asshole and returned his attention to Iliona. “So, you’re taking the guy’s money and planning to screw him over? Isn’t that like…not ethical? Or against client-agency confidentiality or something?”
Iliona opened her mouth but before she had a chance to say anything Hammond spluttered in fury.
“That’s just typical. Me and my boys bust a gut trying to bring in scum like Croft, then fucking bleeding hearts like this pair start on about human rights and it all goes to shit.” He rounded on Iliona, spittle gathering at the corner of his lips in his ire. “Haven’t you got anyone other than this pair?”
Both dragons surged to their feet, the temperature in the room dropping several degrees. Iliona met the detective’s glare with a hard expression as Baron loomed over him. A whisper across the back of his neck told him that Duke had shed human form in favor of his shadow one. The room was well lit but the dragon found the shadows anyway, pulling them to wrap around himself, melting his human body and releasing the abilities that made them so dangerous.
“No, I don’t think you get me, human.” Baron sneered the word like the insult it was. “We don’t give a fuck about your rights. Taking a man’s money and stabbing him in the back...it’s wrong. It’s about honor, integrity. Not that I’d expect someone of your species to understand that.” He shot a glance to Iliona. “Ladies in the room excepted of course.”
Iliona waved her hand in dismissal, her gaze leveled on the suddenly pale police officer. “I suggest, Detective, that if you want my agency’s help, you refrain from insulting our operatives and lose the humans are superior attitude. If humans could get you what you needed, then you wouldn’t be knocking at our door, now would you?”
The silence in the room after the crack of her voice spoke volumes. In this case it warned the man discretion was the better part of valor and he perhaps better keep his mouth shut before the two pissed off dragons in the room shut it for him permanently. Hard to prove a murder without a body and for a dragon the average human, even a heavyweight model like Hammond, was a light snack.
“No, very true.”
The admission had to have cost the detective some pride. He sat back, altering his body language to non-threatening but Baron didn’t miss the sharp look of hate the guy shot at them and Iliona. He shared a glance with Duke. They could take care of themselves but the little human was all kinds of delicate. Looked like one of them would be passing the guy’s name to either Cal or Gran on a flyby later.
“Still, you didn’t answer my question,” Baron reminded Iliona. There was no way he was letting her off the hook, not when it was a question of honor. Otherwise they were no better than pixies, and everyone knew what sneaky fucks they were. “Isn’t it unethical to take the guy’s money and screw him over?”
She met his gaze, her expression serious and honest. “Ordinarily, yes. But the seers say there are indications that Croft is involved in the illegal trafficking of paras. Which means he’s numero uno on a lot of people’s list. We just happen to have the in.”
At her words, steel straightened Baron’s spine and his brother stepped free from the shadows, the same grim expression on his face Baron knew was on his own.
“We’re in. What do we have to do?”
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