Page 8 of Fateful Reunion

“You’ve been with us for over twenty years, and we’ve all grown fond of you.” He smiled. “The girls all look up to you.”

“Vanessa wants to be like you,” Gabriel threw in, referring to his seventeen-year-old daughter. “What am I gonna tell her if she finds out you’re leaving us?”

Samson pointed over his shoulder to his second in command. “He’s got a hard enough time keeping his kids in check. We’ll have a riot on our hands, and they’ll blame us for your leaving.”

“You’re exaggerating.” It wasn’t that she wasn’t fond of the young hybrids, the half-vampire, half-human children of her bosses and colleagues, but there were more important issues at hand. She couldn’t be in the same city as Charles. “They’ll get over it.”

“Will you?”

She clenched her jaw, knowing very well what he was alluding to. “I’m tougher than you think I am.” She’d survived a devastating betrayal, she could survive this.

Gabriel rose from his chair and joined Samson. “And that’s exactly why we need you. In fact, you’re the only one who can help us with this case.”

She glared at Gabriel. “I already told you I won’t have anything to do with that devious witch. And neither should you! He’s only going to screw you over.”

“I’m afraid,” Samson said calmly, “we have no choice. This is an assignment we can’t afford to reject.”

Roxanne scowled. “Don’t you have enough money? How greedy—”

“It’s not about money,” Samson interrupted, his tone sharper now. “Far from it. We have reason to believe that Mr. Dubois is lying to us.”

“His name isn’t Dubois, it’s Whedon. And I already told Gabriel that he’s lying. What else is there to do but reject his request?” Didn’t her bosses get that? They weren’t normally this dense.

“The fact that he’s lying, or rather, not telling us why exactly he needs heavy protection, is the reason we have to take this assignment,” Samson explained, exchanging a look with Gabriel. “I spoke to Haven and Katie.”

Roxanne shrugged, confused now. “What do Haven and Katie have to do with this?”

“Aside from Wes, they have the most experience with witches and their games. They share our suspicions.”

Roxanne braced her hands on her hips, impatient. “Can you come to the point?”

“We believe there’s something brewing in the witch world, and we want to make sure it doesn’t boil over into ours. Call it caution. Call it a pre-emptive strike. But we need to find out what he’s in town for.”

Involuntarily Roxanne shook her head. “Oh no. No way. You’re not using me to get dirt on that jerk and his witchy bullshit.”

Samson took a step closer. “Please, Roxanne. I know you can do it.”

“But I won’t. I don’t even want to be in the same town as that bastard, let alone in the same room. Protecting his worthless ass.”

When Samson made a motion to speak again, Gabriel interjected, “Allow me.” Then he looked at her. “After you left, Dubois, uh, I mean Whedon, said he believes you still love him and—”

“That fucking useless piece of—“

“—but what I got from that is that he still loves you. If anyone can get close to him, it’s you.”

That shut her up. She simply stared at Gabriel, unable to form a coherent sentence. Seconds passed, then she shook her head. No, Charles didn’t love her. If he did, he wouldn’t have betrayed her.

“Here’s the plan: you’ll be the lead on the assignment. We’ll send you backup as soon as Quinn has changed the assignment roster and moved a few people around. In the meantime you’ll go and scope things out, assess whether they need to be relocated to a more secure location.”

“They?” she asked.

“Yes, he and his companion, a woman named Ilaria Dubois. She’s the one he wants protected twenty-four-seven.”

Roxanne’s heart stopped. Charles had brought a woman? “Let me get this straight: you want me to protect Charles and his wife, and—”

“We don’t know that she’s his wife,” Samson interrupted.

“Oh, please!” Roxanne hissed. “Why else would he want her protected? And on top of that you want me to get close to him so he’ll tell me why he’s really here?”