“I should tell you Grandfather contacted me as well,” Rule sighed. “He wasn’t happy with me for offering you the position.”
Sometimes, it was damned hard to remember that this forceful Breed and his brother were actually her first cousins. When her aunt, Morningstar, had been kidnapped by the Council, she’d been impregnated with Breeds. Rule and Lawe were just two of them. And through them they’d learned that Morningstar’s brother, Raymond, had actually been working with the Council at the time. He’d betrayed his sister to them.
“Did Cullen call him?” she asked him warily then.
If he’d been carrying tales to her grandfather, she might end up taking her grandmother’s black cast-iron skillet to his head.
Rule’s lips twisted with wry amusement. “Grandfather claims less conventional means in acquiring his information.”
“He told Rule he wasn’t pleased that the winds were forced to come to him rather than his own grandsons to inform him of the dangers said grandsons had drawn his granddaughter into,” Lawe smirked. “He was a little put out.”
Chelsea let her fingers tighten on the arm of the chair for a second before giving a heavy sigh. Her grandfather could be temperamental at times. And if the “winds”—the breezes that whispered over the Nation—tattled on his grandchildren, then he could become extremely irate. He claimed his family should keep him in the loop no matter the trouble they were about to get into.
She should have known she couldn’t keep what she was doing away from him. She was thankful the winds had remained quiet as long as they had.
“I’m glad he called you rather than me,” she finally said with a little grin as her gaze met Rule’s. “He must be waiting for you to take care of the problem.”
Lawe grunted at that. “He demanded we fire you immediately.”
Her eyes widened in surprise and wariness. “Fire me?”
Rule leaned back in his chair, his gaze never leaving hers. “He claimed this position would endanger you because you were too stubborn to accept help.”
Her brows lifted at the accusation.
“Hmm,” she muttered, restraining a smile. “And here I thought the winds knew me better than that.”
Lawe chuckled from her side as Cassie’s silent laughter sparkled in her blue eyes.
“Cute.” Rule nodded, his lips quirking with amusement at her response. “But I’m curious to know why he’d think you’d refuse help?”
She didn’t have a clue.
Unless . . .
Lips pursing thoughtfully, she breathed a short sigh before shaking her head in resignation.
“Cullen,” she stated, pushing her fingers across the fringe of bangs that fell over her brow. “When I refused to tell him what I was doing or who I was working for, he offered me a place on Command at the Agency if I’d let him finish whatever job I’d taken. Without my help, of course.”
Rule’s brow lifted with a hint of surprise as he reached up to scratch at his cheek lightly. “Interesting,” he finally commented. “Cullen was rather determined to keep you in the office, wasn’t he?”
“A bit,” she agreed. He’d been fanatical about it; she’d often accused him of that.
“Hell of a concession to make just for some information,” Lawe pointed out.
“Oh, he didn’t just want the particulars.” Shifting in her chair, she could feel the remembered anger returning. “He wanted me to allow him to finish the job himself while I returned to the office and waited for him. It didn’t se
em like a fair trade to me.”
“Yeah, I bet his filing has piled up a bit,” Cassie commented with a hint of laughter.
She had no doubt in her mind that his filing had piled up. When she’d first gone to work for him, it had taken her two months to clear up his filing system.
“In an age of complete digital filing and retrieving, for some reason, law enforcement still loves its paper,” she sighed, glancing at the folders and files stacked on one side of Rule’s desk.
“Can’t hack hard copy,” Lawe drawled.
“You can’t forward it either,” Rule grunted.