by Riley Storm
Krawll had just tried to kill him.
He slashed out with the dagger to keep his opponent at bay. The combat had just gone from first blood to trying to stay alive. What the hell had gotten into the man?
Kincaid got up, darted forward, slashing twice with his knife, trying to score a cut and end the fight before things got out of hand. He missed, and Krawll struck back, aiming for his neck, then his gut, and with a spinning maneuver, the inside of his leg. All spots where a cut just a little too deep would open an artery, and even a shifter’s healing would be hard pressed to save them.
Especially if they struck as hard as Krawll was trying to. He would be dead in seconds before anyone could stop the bleeding and come to his aid.
“What the hell are you doing?” he hissed as they spun by each other, barely missing with cuts.
Krawll just bared his teeth and came back at him. Kincaid was getting tired of the games. When his apparently crazed opponent tried to slip his blade up between Kirell’s ribs and into his heart, he decided it was time to end it. He came at Krawll hard and fast. The flurry of strikes was expected, and they moved past one another, turning out of range.
For a split second, both had their backs to one another. Kirell took a breath, having paid closed attention to Krawll’s momentum as they went, and flicked his wrist backward, letting go of the dagger.
It swirled across the distance, bounced off Krawll, and clattered onto the ground.
The tip was covered in red blood.
For a second, he thought Krawll was going to come back at him and try to kill him, but the Queen snapped her fingers and her guards darted between the two of them. A quick glance showed she too had noticed Krawll’s attempts to land a mortal strike, instead of simply cutting the skin. Although it wasn’t against the rules—people had died in the challenge before—it was highly frowned upon.
The Queen lifted her chin to speak to the assembled crowd, but before she could, a guard opened the main doors leading to the Grand Hallway. Everyone went silent as a human woman entered the Throne Room, grabbing nervously at her pencil skirt’s hemline, the cuffs of her blouse and just about anything else she could fidget with.
Kincaid noticed those details but quickly ignored them. He was awestruck by the woman’s beauty. The rounded curve of her chin as it rose up into wide cheeks that looked like they should be infused with laughter but lacked the indicator lines. Eyes of solid hazel darted furiously around the room, indicative of her nerves.
Kincaid decided then and there—as he took in her tiny pointed nose and beautiful chestnut hair as it rustled against her shoulders—that he had never before seen anyone so beautiful, and never would again.
I must know her name. Why is she here?
He glanced at his Queen, reluctant to remove his gaze, but hoping she would take pity on him and provide him with the identity of the mysterious siren.
4
“Miss Menard, thank you for coming to see me so quickly.”
Her focus snapped back to the female sitting in the center of the raised dais at the back of the room.
“My Queen,” she stumbled, affecting an awkward curtsy and bow of her head all at the same time, painfully aware of the number of eyes on her.
How badly did I just flub that, I wonder?
She blamed it on her host. At no point had Haley been aware she was going to be standing in front of an audience of what sounded like hundreds. The only lights focused on the center of the room, but enough glow made it to the edges, combined with the soft sounds of breathing and shuffling feet to let her know the sides were packed with people.
“You have the information I requested?”
Was she really going to be asked to present it to everyone like this? In the middle of the…the…just call it what it is, it’s a bloody Throne Room.
It was the weirdest setup of a company boardroom that she’d ever experienced. Walking inside after pulling up at the front door—no, something as large as what she’d come through had to be called an entry, too grand to be anything else—had been intimidating enough. Though she’d known the complex was massive, seeing it in person hadn’t done a thing to soothe her nerves.
It’s a bloody palace, is what it is!
“I do. Though I think it would be best if perhaps we met in private.”
Haley’s eyes were drawn at last to the floor in front of the Queen, where a singular male stood. His broad chest rose and fell, stretching the thin cotton of his shirt to the breaking point with every breath. A few beads of sweat matted down the steely gray hair on the sides of his head.
For a moment, she forgot to think as his hardened blue eyes met her gaze and held it, refusing to let go, like the last few rays of light holding onto the sky as the sun set below the horizon. This was a man used to being in charge, to having his way. What was he doing there? Had she interrupted something?
“Very well. Everyone, if you would please excuse us. Miss Menard and I have business to conduct.” The Queen nodded in passing at the man standing in front of her. “That includes you too. We’ll finish this later.”
“I am sorry,” Haley said, speaking up, feeling odd doing so without being addressed. “I can come back. I was unaware I was going to be intruding when I insisted to the guard I be let in.”
Kaelyn chuckled as a flow of people exited the chamber behind Haley. All of them were huge, giants like the man on the floor in front of her. Even some of the women were big, many of them packed with muscle as well, though here and there she saw ones that more resembled a normal human.
Did you have to be a fitness fanatic to be hired by this company?
“Come, approach,” the Queen said as the others sitting in chairs on either side of her got up and left as well.
She swallowed nervously but did as she was told. It felt like a scene out of a movie, a historical drama of some sort. The commoner approaches the Queen and tells a tale of treason and plotting, and in the end, someone would shout “Off with their head!”
Haley snorted quietly, attempting to ground herself in reality.
This was precisely when the man bent down and snatched something up from the ground that she hadn’t noticed earlier. He moved quickly, shielding it from her view, but not before she caught a flash of metal stained with red. It was a dagger, she realized.
And it had blood on it.
What the hell have I just walked into?
She came to a halt several steps away from the throne, for lack of a better word, her attention torn away from the Queen as the giant of a man passed her by. His head turned as he walked, keeping his vision locked on her.
She could see the sharp lines of his chin, visible under the weathered but freshly-shaven skin of his cheeks and jaw. This was a man who often kept his beard longer. Haley had no idea how she knew, but something about the way being clean shaven didn’t suit him made it obvious. Her mind conjured up a short, neatly-trimmed beard, and immediately decided it worked better.
“Hi,” he said quietly, not slowing.
“Hey,” she said back, hating how breathless and scared she sounded.
His lip quirked in what might have been a tiny smile, and then he was gone, taking his leg-sized biceps and what she imagined was a taut posterior out the door.
The heavy steel panels came together with a boom. The room was sealed now, leaving only her, the Queen and four—no, six—guards, she corrected. She noted the four around the throne and two more in the shadows behind it.
And probably others I’m not aware of. She really does take this whole Queen business to the maximum.
The swords and armor had to be ceremonial, but the grim visages on each of the guards had her wondering about the truth of that thought. They certainly screamed bodyguard to her, and they wore the armor with ease.
Doesn’t matter. You’re here for one reason, then you can leave.
“You found my traitor,” the Queen asked softly.
“I…don’t know. We found something, but it w
ill be up to you to judge just what that is,” she said, taking a tablet out from the satchel worn over one shoulder and flicking on the screen.
“Show me.” Kaelyn got up and came to Haley’s side, peering at the screen.
“We were reviewing every account, every transaction, for the entire month leading up to the date the money was taken,” she said, pointing at the sheet. “This is one person’s account. It didn’t trigger anything in our initial month-end work, because the numbers added up. But upon further investigation, we noticed some discrepancies, and after some digging, we found a transaction that shouldn’t belong.”
“So, you found the traitor.” The Queen was looking at her now, not the sheet, her eyes the dark green of a deep jungle plant.
“I…don’t know,” Haley admitted, reluctant to term anyone a traitor.
“Explain.”
“The money didn’t come from your account. It came from an outside source.” Haley bit her lip but then continued. “It certainly would appear to be, but I can’t say for certain it’s the same money.”
Kaelyn, the Queen, chewed on that bit of information for a minute, then nodded. “The name. What is the name on the account?”
“Uhh.” Her brain went blank and she was forced to pull up the files momentarily. “A Kincaid Ursa,” she said, reading the name at the top.
The Queen went still. “You’re positive?” she asked, her voice no more than a whisper.
“Yes. I don’t understand.”
Fingers flashed and a guard stepped forward. “Bring Kincaid back here, will you?”
The guard slapped a mailed hand to his chest. “Yes, my Queen!”
The regal woman stepped back to her throne, looking troubled. “Quietly.”
Without another word, the guard dashed off, disappearing into a passageway that seemed to appear out of the wall. Haley watched him go, then shuffled slightly as she waited in the silence. The Queen wasn’t speaking, lost in her thoughts. It couldn’t feel good to be told that one of your own had conspired to take your spot on the board, attempting to oust her from the company. That had to weigh heavily on the woman.
A minute later, the guard reappeared with someone—she assumed it to be this Kincaid—in tow.
Haley had to muffle a gasp. It was the man who’d been standing on the floor. The one who’d passed her on his way out. That was Kincaid? He was the one who had robbed the company? She glared angrily at him. How dare this asshole treat someone like Kaelyn like that?
“You called for me, my Queen?”
Oh shit. Too late, Haley realized she was about to be dragged into the middle of it. The fear for her own safety overwhelmed her anger at the hulking brute of a man, forcing her to shift sideways, closer to one of the guards who was also big, tall and covered in bulging muscles. She wanted to be close to him, just in case things went…wrong.
“Kincaid. You stand accused of theft and treasonous behavior against your House. What do you have to say for yourself?” The Queen turned and sat as she spoke, spine straight against the back of the chair, her tone imperious.
Haley swallowed nervously, feeling the chill in the air as the temperature in the room dropped several degrees from the way Kaelyn spoke to this Kincaid character. She watched him for his reaction.
The words seemed to slam into the stoic man, crumpling his soul even as he glanced over at her, an odd look on his face.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” he said at last, sounding…haunted. She tried not to shiver at the obvious pain he was in. “What have I done wrong?”
“Ten million dollars was stolen from us the day of the…troubles.” The Queen was clearly choosing her words carefully, for Haley’s benefit. “Now it has been found.”
“That is good news. But what does it have to do with me?”
“It was found in your account,” the Queen accused.
“What?” Kincaid’s yelp of surprise filled the chamber. “There must be some mistake. I have never stolen from you, or from anyone.” His voice was starting to get angry. “I didn’t even know about the damn uprising until you called me, because I wasn’t here!” By the time he finished, he was shouting.
Uprising? That’s certainly different than calling it “troubles”. I wonder what truly happened here?
Even as her mind went one direction, Haley went another, backing up closer to the guard, well aware of the power someone as large as Kincaid could unleash if he let his anger get the best of him.
Kaelyn’s voice snapped out across the space between Queen and subject. “That will be enough.”
Kincaid fell silent, but not before he turned a glare on Haley, indicating that he knew now why she was there, and what she had told the Queen.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she snapped, surprising everyone. Even the guard behind her rustled in shock at her outburst. “I didn’t do anything but find the records and bring it to her attention. I’m not the bad guy here, okay?”
She stopped abruptly as Kincaid took a step toward her, but the clank of the guard as he stepped up to her side stopped the giant.
“Kincaid.”
He was still glaring at her, his lip pulled back in a silent growl.
“Kincaid!” The Queen’s voice was like a whip, cracking against the man, returning his attention. “Look at me. Get a handle on yourself.”
Visibly shaken, the big man drew himself up. “My Queen. I’m not sure what this woman found. What she thinks she found. I also know I may have had my troubles with the—” Kincaid hesitated and glanced over at Haley for a brief moment—“King, but I swear upon my life that I have never, and would never, betray this House. I beg you to give me a chance to prove my innocence. Someone is trying to set me up. Let me find out who it is and prove to you that I did not do this.”
Haley almost felt bad. Almost. If it weren’t for the damning evidence she possessed, she might even believe the conviction with which the man spoke. But the truth was there for all to see. The money had been transferred to his account, and it had been done in an attempt to cover up that it happened. That much alone indicated something foul was afoot.
Kincaid just wasn’t good enough to hide his tracks from her, she thought proudly, glad she was able to help her client out in a time of need. Now they could recover the money and dispose of someone who had committed criminal actions against them. All thanks to her.
That was worth a late night at the office.
That, and the fact she could bill them for overtime.
“Very well,” the Queen said softly. “I will give you a chance. One chance. It is all I can give, Kincaid. I apologize for testing you, but had to be sure.”
Haley gaped in astonishment. What the hell was the Queen doing? Letting a guilty man try to prove his own innocence? No!
“You must keep it quiet, though, which means you will have limited access to the resources of the House.” The Queen looked around, her eyes landing on Haley.
I’ve got a bad feeling about this…
“Miss Menard. You will assist Kincaid in any way necessary. This is your realm of specialty. If there is any possible truth to the fact that someone has tried to frame him, the two of you will track it down and bring it to me, where we will handle it…appropriately. Understood?”
Haley’s mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out.
“Are you all right? Miss Menard?”
She shook her head. “What? No. I’m just an accountant, Kaelyn. I’m not some kind of detective or computer hacker. This is not part of my job. I’m not… I can’t—”
The guard beside her cleared his throat quietly, while the others around the room shuffled uncomfortably at her use of the Queen’s first name. Well, screw them! Haley wasn’t about to be intimidated by her client. They were just people, they didn’t rule her, she wasn’t some sort of servant, and she was damn well going to speak her mind. This was against the rules. She dealt with numbers and spreadsheets and that was how she liked it.
“Miss M
enard,” the Queen said, her voice hard. “If this transaction was falsely made, this man will lose his position here, over evidence you produced. Are you one-hundred percent confident that he was the one who stole it from the House account, transferred it around and then deposited it into his own? Are you willing to bet your own job on it?”
She tried to meet Kaelyn’s stare, but after a few seconds, she looked away. “No.”
“Then you will help Kincaid out. If it turns out that the evidence is correct, he will be punished appropriately. However, I have my own suspicions as well, and I do not believe him to be behind it. That is not enough to absolve him, especially if any of the others learn about this. Which they will soon enough, I’m afraid.”
Haley just nodded, staying mute in protest. She didn’t want to do this, but the Queen had essentially told her that if she accused Kincaid and was wrong, she would lose House Ursa as a client. That would doom her. Not only her but those who worked for her. Haley couldn’t do that to them.
“You must work quickly, Kincaid,” the Queen continued, ignoring Haley for the moment. “The others will soon question why I haven’t confirmed you into your position. I will stall, but things are too precarious right now for me to hold out too long. If you can’t find anything in forty-eight hours, I’ll have to find someone else.”
Kincaid nodded. “I understand. By your leave?”
“Go,” the Queen said. “Work together. Figure out the truth.”
Great. This ought to be a lot of fun.
She returned Kincaid’s glare as he gestured for her to leave the room, while he followed behind. She could feel the weight of his blue eyes upon her as she went, the heat from his stare threatening to burn holes through her chest. He hated her.
Good. She hated him too.
5
Behind them, the engraved copper-colored doors swung shut.
“This way,” Kincaid said with barely restrained fury. He pointed down a hallway. It wasn’t the same one she’d come in through.