“Damn, it’s good to see you doing well, buddy,” Simon said as he settled into the chair across the desk from me. “You living up here now or what?”

“Yep. Right inside Enchanted Rock. Doing the business, working the cases. No two are the same. It’s a nice change of pace.”

“At least it ain’t as damned hot as your last gig, right? Sao Paolo, man, that place never cooled down.”

I laughed. “Guess not, man. Here, though, we got frozen in all this last winter.”

Simon shifted in his seat, reached into his pocket, and produced a silver flask. “Everywhere’s got its downside, right? Remember that from growing up in Chicago.” He paused and took a nip of liquor. “Awful fucking wind coming off the lake. Probably half the reason I went down there, you know. Just to make sure I didn’t have to go back to that shit.”

I eyed the flask in his hand. Some things never changed. Simon had always been a little looser with his rules while he was on the job. Truthfully, guess I had been too.

He offered me the flask, and I waved it away. “I’m good.”

“Suit yourself, buddy. This job always made me drink. So much damn waiting, just like the corps. Always had to keep my distractions around, you know, just to keep myself sane.”

“Believe me, I ain’t judging.”

He laughed. “Course you ain’t. I remember you and that little chippy, the one right before you left the job. What was her name, again?”

That little chippy was the daughter of the family I was protecting. Twenty years old, and wilder than a mustang. One look from those dark eyes, and this poor boy, fresh faced out of the military, fell in absolute, undeniable lust. Hadn’t seen eyes like that since I don’t know when.

“Meredith,” I croaked. “Her name was Meredith.”

At first, we were just sneaking around the house. Nothing like a young, firm woman who knows what she wants pulling you into the laundry room, the pool house, or the guest bathroom. Our hands flying across each other’s clothes, my arms around her. Maybe they weren’t the best times of my life, or anything, but they were fun. Damn fun.

Simon nodded. “Yeah. Raw deal on that one. Real raw. Always a sad day when the world loses a girl as pretty as that one.”

I smiled tightly, nodded. That flask he’d just offered was starting to look pretty damn good.

Meredith and I had been out on a date, sneaking one under her old man’s nose. We’d been together a little over a year, then, and I’d been on the job for maybe two. Her father, though, considered me part of the help, and never would’ve let it happen in the light of day, not in a million years. Besides, for Meredith, half the fun was doing exactly the opposite of what she knew was acceptable, especially when it came to her father’s rules. Even worse, he would’ve sent my ass packing if he found out. Losing a job for breaking the rules and fooling around with the client’s daughter? My career would’ve been over. And I would have lost Meredith, too.

We’d slipped out to a nightclub one night. It was the last night I saw her alive. I went to get us some drinks from the bar, but when I came back, she was gone. I never should have taken my eyes off her. Never should have left with her in the first place, or been involved in that kind of a relationship with a client. Even if she was beautiful and wild—especially because she was beautiful and wild.

Simon shook his head. “Crazy shit, man. Whatever happened with that? You took off right after they found her. Crazy about that wolf. Who would’ve thought a wolf would attack a man in a city in South America, of all places!”

As he spoke, my eyes drifted down to the flask on the table and settled on its metal form as it shone in the neon office lights. I didn’t need it to wash the phantom taste of blood from my mouth, but it would help. Enraged, I’d slipped out of the nightclub, disappeared into an alley, and shifted into my wolf form. I’d tracked Meredith and her abductors through the streets of Sao Paulo and out to a favela, a slum. Their scent was red to me, redder than even my anger, as I hunted them and picked them from the millions that lived in abject poverty there.

I fell on them, letting the beast inside me take over. Throats torn, bodies shredded. Gurgling screams filled my ears, screams of terror echoing off the walls of the alley. When the mist cleared from my eyes and the corpses surrounded me, I found Meredith. She was lying there, no longer among the living. I lapped at her cool cheek, whimpering, leaving a trail of bloody paw prints on her side.

“And then you were gone, man, even without a goodbye. Figured you left the business.”

I swallowed hard. “Yeah, came back after that. Hit me pretty hard losing a client like that.”

“First one’s the hardest,” Simon said with a solemn nod. “Especially if you’re close.” He picked up the flask and offered it to me again.

“Nah. I’m good.”

He raised the flask. “To Meredith.” He tipped it back and took a hearty swig, his eyes staring into my soul as he swallowed it in one gulp. We sat there a moment longer without saying a word. He wasn’t just dredging up my past. He had something else to talk about.

Finally, I broke the silence. “We just catching up in here, Simon?”

He shook his head, but then shrugged. “Sorta. You ever think we got a raw deal with this gig, Frank? Like we’re protecting a bunch of bozos for no reason?”

I laughed. “Trying to get me to sign up for your newsletter or something? Your commie chapter?”

He laughed, shaking his head. “Not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is, if you had an opportunity to get it, to grab it with both hands…would you take it?”

Uneasily, I settled in my chair. Just what in blazes was he getting at here?

“I mean,” he started over, “if I had an opportunity for you, a way to get your hands on a big score, would you take it? Money that no one knew about? No one could track? Would you take your shot at the big time? Go for broke?”

I turned my head slowly, not exactly sure what he was talking about. But whatever it was, it didn’t sound exactly legal or ethical. And it might put Ashley in danger. “Maybe? I mean, I like the work, but not that much, I guess.”

“Who does, you know? I mean, you really wanna take a bullet for any of these assholes? They ain’t exactly President of the United States and we ain’t exactly the Secret Service, you know?”

I nodded, even though Ashley’s face flashed into my mind like a lit up billboard on the Las Vegas strip. “I see your point.”

He stuffed the flask away in his pocket and leaned forward, his eyes straight on mine. “I’m just saying, I think, given the opportunity, you’d come down on the right side of things.”

“The right side?” I asked, smirking a little as I leaned forward. “What side is that?”

“Ours. Yours and mine. Definitely not them rich bitches.”