But Maisie knew he’d noticed. Noticed that she was, in fact, awake and aware, and putting on an act. While she still didn’t quite fully understand this bond that they shared, she knew that they had shared a moment of understanding.
I’m ready when you are,she thought, her spirits soaring. If they worked together, maybe they could get out of this situation in one piece.
“’Raking me over the coals,’ as you put it,wasthe right thing,” Rhys said smoothly. “The incident needed to be investigated. I’m not exactly thrilled about it, but it had to be done.”
“They let you down,” James said, his voice unctuous, and Maisie barely kept from sighing in exasperation.
“No,” Rhys said firmly. “Youdid.”
Maisie could feel James’s startlement, his arm around her waist loosening slightly, the hand with the syringe moving away from her throat.
Yes,she thought gleefully in Rhys’s direction.Keep it up.
She didn’t knowwhyJames was so surprised by the fact that Rhys was disappointed in him for, oh,taking his mate hostage with a deadly weapon, but she was willing to take it. The ego on the guy had to be huge, if he thought his argument was so compelling that Rhys would go against everything he believed in once he heard it.
“All I have done is look out for you,” James hissed. “Do you really think all of your bad behavior over the years just magically went unnoticed? Sure, you got disciplined a few times, but there were plenty of instances where I stepped in and made sure no one realized what had happened, or got your punishment reduced.”
Rhys seemed genuinely surprised by this, looking taken aback. “Well, even if that’s true – and I’m not saying I believe you, by the way – why did you do it?”
“Why?” James asked. “I believed in you, Rhys. I knew that you had what it took to be something special. At first I was taken in by the idea of having you move up in the Agency, but once I realized that both of our talents would be wasted there, I started making moves to bring you over to Hargreaves instead.”
“Hargreaves?” Maisie could hear the horror in Rhys’s voice. “You work for Hargreaves? You wantedmeto work for Hargreaves?”
“I do, yes,” James replied. “I didn’t at first. But I came to appreciate their…efficiency. No long, drawn-out, airy-fairy disciplinary procedures. Just good old-fashioned success or failure. And if you fail, you’re out. So everyone is motivated.”
Maisie could only imagine what Rhys was feeling right now. To know that his mentor worked for a bunch of murderous psychopaths – and thought that Rhys would be a perfect fit with said murderous psychopaths – had to be a lot to take in.
To be honest, she was feeling mostly recovered, and ready to make a break for it – but she wanted to get as much information from this slimy bastard as possible. She hung there limply, her eyelids only open far enough to allow her to keep an eye on the situation, trying her best to appear like a semi-conscious victim of medical malpractice instead of somebody who was justitchingto punch James in the balls.
“So, it was you who sent those Hargreaves goons after me right after the hearing,” Rhys said. “The guys who shot me with the wyvern venom.”
Brent, Maisie thought suddenly.Brent was with them.
Brent is with Hargreaves? No. Surely not. He’d do a lot of bad things, but not that.
… I hope.
“Oh, those idiots?” James said breezily. “No, they weren’t Hargreaves at all. I was just told to deal with the situation and bring you over to Hargreaves one way or another, so I hired a bunch of idiots. Not that I went in deliberatelytryingto hire idiots, of course – I only found that out later. They were just shifters for hire – give them a job, and they’d do it, or so they said. Gave them some wyvern venom to threaten you with if you didn’t come nicely, and they ended up damn near killing you instead.” His tone softened a little, turning strangely proud. “Though, of course, you managed to defeat all of them and escape. I trained you well.”
Rhys looked confused for a moment, but then his expression hardened. “You trained me shit,” he spat. “I got myself out of there by drawing on my Agency training, and Maisie saved my life – and then the Agency saved it again.” He paused, eyes narrowing. “So I suppose it wasalsoyour goon squad and not Hargreaves who attacked Michael’s place. Since you seem to know all about him.”
Behind her, Maisie felt James shrug. “Guilty. But wedidtry to make him an offer first. He’s a very talented hacker. But apparently less corruptible than he seemed.”
Unless they offered him a swimming pool full of Cheezels, perhaps,Maisie thought.
But right now, Maisie had to admit that she was relieved to find out that Brent wasn’t part of Hargreaves after all – he was just an idiot for hire. Not that she cared, but the thoughtof having dated someone that dangerous sent a shiver of dread down her spine. Brent was a different kind of dangerous – and now, thankfully, he was also out of her life, and hopefully on the straight and narrow with Daniel.
In any case, there was a far more clear and present danger right here, holding a syringe to her throat… though it wasn’t really all that close to her throat anymore. Maisie tensed ever so slightly, readying herself for action.
“TheAgency,” James said disdainfully. “So you really won’t be swayed away from your little organization, then? The whole world could be your oyster, if you’d just say the word.”
“You’re dreaming,” Rhys snapped. “Are those words enough for you, mate?”
“So you won’t make the sensible decision?” James said, sounding genuinely disappointed.Like Rhys would have ever said yes!“I guess your misplaced loyalty always was your biggest flaw.”
“And your biggest flaw,” said Rhys, “is that you like to hear yourself talkwaytoo much.”
James sputtered in rage, his hand loosening from her waist entirely, and Maisie knew a cue when she saw one. She spun around, knocking away the hand holding the syringe and delivering James a swift knee to the crotch, smiling with satisfaction as he gasped and doubled over, his eyes bulging out in a way she would have called comical, if this was a TV show and not her real actual life.
