“I want a breakdown of Cheung’s latest statistics on my desk in two hours,” she said. “They’re misleading, and I need to know why.”
“Ma’am,” he said again, and moved to the door. He was almost certain her eyes were on him as he closed it quietly behind him.
Once he was past Maria’s all-seeing gaze and out into the corridor, he leaned back against the marble wall and swallowed. He had no idea what had just happened, because there was no way she could have known what he’d been going to say. Not unless she was the one responsible, which was patently ridiculous.
But nothing else he could think of explained her response. He also couldn’t understand how easily the words about Bryce had spilled from his mouth. He’d been desperate, sure, so had grabbed at something that might sound convincing. Even so, the words had felt oddly natural. Dangerous, too, as if his heart had spoken before his brain could stop it.
He had no idea how he’d explain why his so-called mate wouldn’t even look at him when the Council came calling, butit still felt better than blundering on to tell her about the massacres.
He stopped to pick up a coffee from the bustling cafeteria. He knew he should eat, but his stomach turned over at the smell of food, the way it had done since Bryce’s rejection. Which he wasnotgoing to think about.
Clutching his coffee, he made his way downstairs to his cubbyhole of an office in the old bookstacks. Not many people worked down there—the lack of natural light and the sheer spookiness of the maze of tunnels that used to house part of Congress’s extensive library made it highly unpopular. Most of the aides and administrators who’d originally been put there had struck deals to share offices elsewhere.
Tom was one of the few who liked it. The quiet, the solitude, even the strange creaks that came late at night. As a wolf-shifter, there was very little he needed to be afraid of.
That thought reminded him that he needed to look at Cheung’s analysis. Cheung was arguing that more needed to be done to bring all shifters together, which meant encouraging cat-shifters to participate in the forms of government that the wolf-shifters had so painstakingly set up.
Well, Cheung might have a point, but ifhewere one of the rare cat-shifters, Tom wouldn’t want to go near a bunch of wolves either. The cats seemed to do just fine out on their own, away from shifter bureaucracy.
Tom settled at his desk with his coffee, switched off his office phone so he wouldn’t be disturbed during the hour and fifty minutes that were all he had left in which to deconstruct Cheung’s analysis, and brought up the figures on his screen.
He’d have time later to figure out why something in that room had made his hackles rise, why his wolf had been on edge when all she’d done was smile. For now, if he wanted to keep his job, he needed to pull this data apart.
Chapter Twenty-six
BRYCE
“Did you ever think that maybe she’s going to realize the game’s up and run, rather than go after Tom?” Matt asked, his voice low as he leaned in to where Bryce was grasping the arms of his seat, his right leg jiggling wildly in an attempt to dispel the tension that was gripping him as he willed the pilot to fly faster. “Because if he knows, that meanswemust know, which means the whole thing’s been blown wide open. There’s no way she can cover it up now. She’s got to know that.”
“You’re willing to risk Tom’s life onmaybe?”Bryce snarled.
Matt’s lips twisted. “You know I’m not, which is why I’m sitting next to you on an airplane, and Jesse’s charming the attendant out of more pretzels somewhere in the back.”
Even with urgency thick in the air, Jesse’s eyes had brightened on learning that flying meant free food. “Not what I’dcall free,” Matt had muttered, because to get three seats at the last minute he’d had to buy first class.
“You know Riley’s going to be calling his office until he answers,” Matt continued, his tone firm and confident. “We’ll get the message to him.”
“If he’s evenatwork. And if we’re not too late.”
Terror flooded Bryce at the thought that, even now, Tom might be lying alone somewhere, bleeding out….
“Breathe, damn it.” Matt’s hand was on the nape of his neck, anchoring and chastising him at the same time. “You’ve always been the levelheaded one out of all of us. Don’t lose it now, not when Tom needs you.”
“He’s such a good guy, Matt, and I made him think he was nothing.” Tears welled in his eyes, but he didn’t care. “What if I don’t get to put that right? What if that’s the last thing he ever believes about himself?”
“What if you turn your brain to what we do when we get there?” Matt said. “Bennett is calling the emergency meeting of the Council I asked for—he didn’t like it much, but the prospect of Jesse at his side persuaded him. As soon as that starts, as soon as I tell the whole Council gathered together in one place what’s been going on, the entire thing’s going to bust wide open. Even if Steadman’s got allies in this, there’s no way the whole Council can be involved, and the others will hold her to account. They’ll send out a clean-up crew to pick up Jax and his men, and it will be over.”
“’Cept for the reality shows they’ll ask you to go on once you’re famous,” Jesse said to Matt as he slid into his seat behind them. “I can see it now—no one’s going to vote you off the island cause you’ll just glare them into submission.”
“Screw you, Turner,” Matt said, though his glinting grin belied his words.
“Tempting though you’re makin’ it sound, I got pretzels coming,” Jesse said. “Maybe later.”
Bryce tuned them out and turned his mind to what he’d say and do when he found Tom. Because he would find him, and he’d be safe, and they’d make up—exactly how was a little fuzzy, but somehow he’d find the right words and Tom would forgive him—and then they’d never be parted again.
He always had been an optimist.
TOM
