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Robb studied her thoughtfully. There was definitely a personal element to this that he hadn’t expected, no matter what she’d said about only wanting Tahnee. Given the number of times Robb’s team had thwarted the Agency in general, and the fact that they’d been the ones to remove Hargreaves’s mole from the picture in particular, he had a feeling that he wasn’t very popular around these parts.

Potentially he could use that. If Anne could be induced to abandon her cool, calm persona and slip into the more chaotic mindset that seemed to be lurking far underneath the surface, maybe she would slip up somehow.

Or maybe if I provoke her, she’ll just destroy everyone.

He had to be careful. Even with his team’s safety now confirmed, Tahnee was still in danger.

Maybe… said the dingo suddenly. Maybe there is a way that she could not be in danger.

It sounded much calmer than it had done over the past few minutes. While Robb was glad to hear it sounding more like its old self, he had to admit that he was a bit suspicious of its sudden change in demeanor.

And what would that be?

The dingo looked him square in the eye.

If our safety was no longer an issue.

Robb spent a moment taking it in.

He knew what the dingo wasn’t saying – that if he was dead, then he couldn’t be used as a hostage to force Tahnee to make gold.

Robb couldn’t say that he liked the idea, but he had to admit that it had some merit – though he wasn’t about to rush into it.

Besides the fact that he liked being alive – especially now that he and Tahnee had reconnected, as tenuous as their relationship currently was – there was the possibility that Hargreaves would find some other way of forcing Tahnee to do their bidding, and if he was dead then he wouldn’t be there to stop them.

Or perhaps they’d just kill her if she wouldn’t bend to their will. He knew that they had no compunction about disposing of anything they saw as no longer being useful.

The thought of them doing something to her caused a physical pain in his heart, and set his dingo snapping and snarling again.

But Robb knew it was his responsibility to weigh every option that was available to him, and if he felt it came to that, then he knew he was prepared to do it.

I think it’s an option, he said to the dingo. But at this point, let’s keep it as a last resort. Even if we took ourselves out of the equation, I wouldn’t put it past Tahnee to come in here with all guns blazing anyway.

That was presuming she hadn’t given up on him entirely. Between how he’d acted at the beach and the way the lyrebird had spoken to her on the phone, he wouldn’t have blamed her if she had.

But he was all but certain that she was coming. He didn’t think he was imagining the feelings coming through the mate bond. And if nothing else, he knew that Tahnee was fiercely loyal – and that she had a dogged determination. Once she set her mind to something, she did it.

And he owed it to her to show the same determination. To keep himself alive, if at all possible.

Perhaps Robb’s inability to answer Anne’s pointless questions had finally gotten on her nerves, because she strode over to him and, without warning, ripped the tape from his face. It hurt, but compared to everything else that had happened, it was barely enough for him to even register.

“Did you hear me?” she demanded in a cold voice that contained a thin thread of fury. “We can destroy your life in any way we choose.”

Robb found himself smiling. It wasn’t something he did very often, and this particular smile was one he wasn’t sure he’d ever made before. There wasn’t any warmth in it.

“You won’t win,” he said, his voice rough. “This soulless corporate crap will come collapsing down in the end. Fear doesn’t create true loyalty.”

It wasn’t the kind of speech he would normally make in this sort of situation – but he wasn’t the same person he’d been in the past.

And, quite frankly, he’d reached his limit as far as Hargreaves’ bullshit was concerned.

“Oh?” said Anne. “And here I thought you were the silent, stoic type. Maybe my intel on you was wrong.”

She shook her head. “Well, then. If ‘soulless corporate crap’ doesn’t do it for you, then maybe a bit of good old-fashioned violence will. Perhaps you just can’t see how completely pointless this resistance is. Or what I could do to you – and your mate, and your team – in an instant, if I so chose.”

What is she talking about? Robb wondered – he knew Hargreaves had access to some pretty sophisticated tech, but Anne seemed to suggesting this was something she’d do personally.

And then, with a sudden, cold clutch in his stomach, Robb realized that he didn’t know what Anne shifted into.