Chapter Two

She watched the dragon man walk away. Air filled her lungs for the first time. A hand reached out and patted her arm. Rhiannon looked down to an elderly woman wearing a name badge around her neck.

“Whatever you did,” the elderly woman said, “he will forgive you. I’ve known my fair share of hot headed men in my life. He loves you, no matter what his actions say. You just have to give them space to vent their fire.”

Rhiannon laughed, at once seeing the irony in the woman’s choice of words and appalled that anyone would ever think the two of them a couple. She didn’t try to correct her. The hearing was calling for her and she didn’t need insubordination charges on top of what she was already going through.

The hearing flew by, but Rhiannon heard little of it. There was a dull roar in her ears that made her head ache and her eyes heavy. The stress of the month’s events were getting to her, she thought. Her supervisor would insist that she see an in-house therapist, one equipped to deal with the trauma that GOE agents often go through. She declined several times already. All she needed was to go home and open a beer.

The silence of being home alone would reinvigorate her and allow her to clear her mind, even if she could not clear her conscience. If not, a good night’s sleep would do the trick. Yet, when she pulled into her drive-way she knew that wasn’t in the cards for her tonight. The hunter green truck parked outside her house might have been familiar, but it did not mean that it was welcome.

Her former partner was inside already, having known where she hid her extra key because they worked together for almost ten years already. He set up camp on her couch while he waited for her to return. Tomorrow, it would be his turn to sit on the hearing. He would tell his side of the story, one that they both practiced.

She ignored him and went straight for her fridge. The dull roar filled her ears again. She paused in the chill that seeped from her open fridge and closed her eyes. It eased her aching head only a little. With a sigh, she grabbed the last beer in the fridge and popped the metal cap.

“To what do I owe the visit? You and I both know that we aren’t supposed to be seen together while the hearing is going on. They’re going to think we are corroborating our story.”

She heard her old couch creak and groan as Everett stood to follow her into the kitchen. He paused in the doorway, blocking any exit, yet not quite filling the frame. Not like the dragon man from the Judiciary building would have.

Rhiannon shook her head. She couldn’t be thinking about him right now. He shouldn’t even be a blip on her radar. He was a dragon shifter. It was his kind that rendered her parentless before the age of three. It was because of his kind that she couldn’t even remember her parents.

She reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose, willing control to herself. Her life was sideways right now. That was why she was having such a difficult time. It was why her mind wandered in wayward directions. Anything to keep from thinking about what will happen to her boss.

“We did corroborate a story,” Everett reminded her.

Rhiannon shrugged. He wasn’t wrong. “Then you have no reason to be here. I wanted a night alone to drink myself into oblivion and fall asleep on the couch. You’re putting a serious wrench in those plans.”

“Don’t blame me,” Everett said. “I’m here because Wilson asked.”

Her world seemed to pause for a moment. “He went to you and not me?”

“After your showdown with the dragon in the lobby of the Judiciary building, he thought it would be more prudent to ask me. All eyes were on you after that.”

He was right. It didn’t keep her fist from tightening until her knuckles were white. Wilson should have trusted her to be discreet. The run in with the dragon man was an annoyance in her day. Nothing more.

“Fine. What does he want? Aren’t we supposed to be laying low until this blows over?”

“It’s not going to blow over, Rhiannon. Not with the woman’s testimony pitted against our own. We shot her. She might have healed quickly, but there’s still a scar.”

Rhiannon closed her eyes and tried to draw in a slow, steady breath.

“We have to turn the story against the dragons. It has to look like they’re lying to save their own skin. If our actions were truly self-defense and the woman turned on us, then Wilson has a chance to get through this without seeing the inside of a prison cell. Wilson has a plan that should help us be able to do just that.”

She had a bad feeling and it made her chest tighten. Her breathing exercises were going to get her nowhere. Instead, she threw back the beer in her hand. It might help her relax, she thought. If not, it would at least drop her into a feeling of nothingness.

Brushing past Everett, she sank onto the couch before looking up to meet his eyes. He didn’t move from where he stood in the kitchen doorway. Again, she was reminded of the dragon man from the Judiciary building. He would have towered over her partner. Whereas Everett has sandy blonde hair that he kept neatly cut, the dragon man had been more gruff and rough.

What was wrong with her? Why did he keep interrupting her thoughts? Anger rolled through her. He was invading her personal space without even being near her. It was unbearable.

“Tell me what Wilson wants,” she said to distract her mind from it’s dangerous path.

Everett crossed his arms over his chest and pushed his feet apart. It was a sure sign that she wasn’t going to like what he had to say. “We have to fake a terror attack from the dragons. Wilson wants us to destroy a GOE building and make it look like a dragon attack.”

She felt her stomach hit the floor. The feeling made her queasy. She set the beer on the table beside her and leaned forward with her elbows on her knees. Did she really hear him correctly? Wilson was asking her to destroy part of her own job? Hell, he was asking her to throw away her career if she was caught.

“No.” She shook her head. “We are not doing this. Do you realize how many lives that puts at stake? Sure, the woman was just one life in the face of many, but this could potentially hurt hundreds if not thousands.”

Everett shook his head. “We’re going in during the wee hours of the morning when no one will be there. We place several small explosives near appliances that will create fire and then we get out. The building will go down without harming the ones around it.”

“You’re talking like I’ve already agreed to this.”

“Are you saying that you’re not going to help your father? He’s facing time in prison because he wanted to help humanity. He was trying to be a noble knight of GOE and this is how they want to thank him. I won’t stand by and let them do that to him. Why would you?”

She dropped her head into her hands. She had no choice, really. She owed Wilson everything that she had. She would do anything for him.

“Alright,” she said. Her voice was small. She didn’t want to be a part of this, but if this plan was what it took to set things right again she would follow orders. She was a knight of GOE, too. There would always be choices that would weigh on her conscience. All that mattered was that they made the world safer for humanity. “I’ll do it. Drop the plans off tomorrow night, but don’t tell me when it’s happening until the night of. I don’t want to know much if anyone questions me.”

Everett nodded. “Good soldier.”

Was she, though? Was she a good soldier? The idea of following through with Wilson’s plans dropped a heavy weight on her shoulders that made her reluctant to step forward. Regret over what they did to the human woman made her nights sleepless. Everything they did was in the name of protecting humanity from a danger that could easily wipe out cities. Yet, here she was letting one invade her private thoughts at each turn.

She was no longer the soldier that Wilson had groomed for GOE, but that didn’t mean she would turn her back on them. She would live with the guilt and pain if it meant a safer world.

At least, that’s what she told herself as Everett saw himself out. There was a time when he would have stayed the night. Before Raph arrived on the scene, she and Everett slept together after most missions. The sex released the pent-up tension and adrenaline that built during the job. Now, she was afraid that he could see what she had become, that it disgusted him.