Chapter Twenty
It was two week’s worthof lawyer meetings and renovations before I managed to get back to The Office to inspect our caseload.
Hawk walked in a few minutes after me. I settled on the edge of his desk, knocking over paperwork. “You do realize that this will be a disaster, right? You should be running The Office, I can be a bounty hunter like always.”
Not taking the bait, he said. “Where’s your tall fae shadow? I thought he was going to start coming to work with you now?”
“I could help with the paperwork, if that’s why you don’t want to take over things.”
He gave me a glare and shifted some of said paperwork out from under my ass to the other side of his desk. “It’s not about the papers. It’s about The Chief’s wishes and what he wanted when he took you as his daughter.”
I snorted. “I’m sure I’m the opposite of what he probably wanted in a daughter. To be fair, he did take in a teenager who’d just suffered a traumatic event, things weren’t going to be great to begin with. But that brings me back to my point. You were working with The Chief before I even came here to train. You deserve to be the heir to this empire, not me.”
The look he gave me made lesser people run in fear. “I said I’m fine and I won’t be going against The Chief’s wishes. If you would like, I’ll give you a run-down of how he divides out cases and how he gets new ones.”
I waved at the dark empty layout of desks. “Yeah, who am I going to give cases to exactly? We need to start interviewing if we want to get things up and running again soon.”
Now his look shifted to something more feral. “I’ve already started that process. We have our first new hire coming in today.”
“We do?”
“She’ll be here soon and I know for a fact you’re going to love her.”
It was my turn to give him a glare. “So you’re not taking over, but you took it upon yourself to do some hiring?”
He flipped open his laptop ignoring me now. “It was part of my job before the managerial switch, and it will continue to be my job unless you want to take over the fun task of vetting crazy people.”
I hopped off his desk and came around to look over his shoulder. Only then did I notice he didn’t wear his usual outfit. Today, he’d put on a white dress shirt buttoned at the cuffs and a pair of black slacks. At his size they had to be tailored and he looked pretty damn good all dressed up.
“Since when does the interviewee have to dress up?” I gave his outfit pointed look. “or did I miss something?”
As usual, when I goaded him, he ignored me. But the door to The Office flew open a few seconds later, and Helix stormed in. As usual, he looked pissed as hell and headed straight for me.
“You need to stop this.”
“What?” I asked. “Stop what, I literally just got here.”
He jammed a finger toward Hawk. “Ask him what he and Melinda have been up to.”
Knowing Hawk as I did, I knew it couldn’t have been dirty, which is where my mind first lopped off to. But studying them both. Helix seething, and Hawk studiously ignoring both of us, I wondered if I should reassess that assumption.
“Hawk?” I ventured. “I assume whatever he's mad about has something to do with Melinda.”
Her tiny figure slammed through the door a second later like I’d summoned her. Oh this was getting good now.
The tension in the room was thick as sludge and it felt good to not have caused it for once. “Melinda, welcome. How can I help you?”
Her shoulders were set back and strong in the black blazer she wore. Even her hair, pulled back, looked restrained and severe in the caustic lighting of The Office. “You’re in charge now, right?”
I chose my words carefully. “The Chief has asked me to take over operations here, for now.”
“For good,” Hawk muttered.
I glared but didn’t try to correct him. “What can do I do for you?”
“I came by to pick up my first cast.”
I blinked, my mind catching up to everything all at once. “I assume you’re the new hire Hawk made, and I guess Helix is having issues with it.”
Helix sputtered. “Issues? How can I keep her safe if—”
Melinda groaned and faced him. “I don’t need you to keep me safe anymore. Not only do I not have magic metal smithing abilities, but I also don’t have a mage hunting for my every scent. You don’t need to protect me anymore. Go find someone else to loom over.”
Helix glowered at her but crossed his arms over his chest and remained fixed a few feet from her. I guessed all the changes hadn’t reverted their relationship to the one I’d witnessed when I first met them. Maybe Melinda was tired of being ordered around for her own good.
I turned my attention to Helix. “And what is your problem with her becoming a bounty hunter? Don’t you think she deserves a chance at a life of her own, especially after Estaban took so much from her?”
“And he hasn’t taken anything from me? You don’t know a thing about me so don’t pretend like you do.”
I held my hands up in surrender. “I never said I did. But that’s on you, because you’ve never shared anything with any of us unless it was to criticize. You could have friends in all of us if you wanted. We can all work to keep Melinda safe as she tries out this new life.”
“So I can stay?” she asked, hopeful.
“Did you think I’d kick you out? Besides, someone reminded me it’s his job to handle the hiring. My job to handle the cases.”
Hawk shoved a stack of files in my lap. “Here are the ones I think she could handle straight off.”
I shifted off the desk, cradling the paper, and nudged Hawk’s shoulder. “Let’s go chat for a minute, shall we?”
Thankfully, he didn’t make me drag him to the storage room by the ear. Once inside, light flicked on, I glared up at him. “Tell me what you’re thinking. Why hire her when she’s got no experience and very little self-preservation skills.”
He gave as good as he got in the glare department. “She is stronger than anyone gives her credit for. Besides, we have all the time in the world to train her. The cases you’re holding are all training wheel cases. Nothing more than body grabs and money collecting.”
“Well then I guess you just earned the job as her trainer.”
He shuffled back so fast he hit the storage shelf and sent it rocking. “Wait, what?”
“You’re the one who hired her. You’re the one who is hyping her up. Now you can be the one to watch her crumble if she fails, when she fails, until she gets her feet underneath her.”
He shook his head hard. “I don’t have tim—.”
I raised my voice and opened the door to the closet. “Oh, you know, I gotta go. I’ll leave all this to you to handle. I’m so busy meeting with lawyers right now it’s like I can never get away.”
Helix and Melinda stood there glaring at each other, right where we’d left them. I shifted the files to start reading, hoping one might be preschool level, and wouldn pop out at me. In the end, the one I gave her was a standard surveillance operation for an hourly wage. The client preferred hunters, instead of private investigators, in case things escalated quickly.
Hawk came around his desk and resumed his chair, looking for all the world like he couldn’t be bothered to deal with anyone else anymore. I handed Melinda the file. “This one is all you. If you need anything, call Hawk, he’s the support for Hunters in the field.”
She blushed a pretty shade of pink, and then a bright light exploded through the room. It knocked me flat on my ass on the cold concrete and I allowed myself a minute to acclimate before I heaved myself upward. “What the fu...” I stared at Hawk who glowed faintly with a shimmering white light. I didn’t doubt whatever just happened came from him.
“What the hell was that?” I stood and dusted off my ass with my skinned palm.
Hawk’s jaw was set tight, his eyes squeezed closed. “I can’t control it. I don’t know when it’s going to happen, or what will.”
I realized he meant the magic he’d gotten from our fight with Esteban. While I hadn't forgotten we were playing magical Yahtzee right now, I didn’t think about how it affected Hawk. He seemed perfectly fine and hadn’t said anything about it after the incident.
I edged closer to him and put my hand on his shoulder. His skin felt burning hot. “How long has this been going on? Since the whole thing happened? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I’m not weak, Zoey, I can handle this.”
I turned his chin so he could meet my eyes. Finally, he slowly opened his and looked at me. “I don’t know why it keeps happening. I’ve been meditating, working out, all the things I know that strengthen my discipline, but I can’t force it under my control.”
Melinda groaned from the floor. “It’s not about control, it’s about coexisting.”
“And mental strength,” Helix added from beside her.
I gave them both a quick scan to make sure they were alright before I focused on Hawk again.
“We’ll figure this out, okay. Don’t worry.” Impulsively I hugged him to my middle even though his skin was a little too uncomfortable to touch. “Is it just thing that keeps happening, or something else?”
“Other things too,” he whispered. When he didn’t expound on that I let it be. Maybe if I brought Fin in here, he would discuss things with another man. Even if it hurt that he might prefer to talk to someone he hardly knew over me because of my gender.
Melinda and Helix got to their feet and threw themselves into chairs at the other empty desks. I looked between them all and let Hawk go back to his fake I’m really working typing while he pulled himself together.
“If this is a thing that’s going to happen then I don’t want to bring any new people into The Office until we figure it out.”
Melinda started to protest but I shook my head. “You’re already in, and technically, family, so don’t worry about it. I just mean new people. Especially non-magical people who might get freaked out if something like that happened again.”
I scooped the file she’d dropped and handed it to her. “This one should be pretty easy and I think you’ll rock at it.”
She gave me a tentative smile. I turned my scowl to Helix. “And guess what, if you want to keep her safe, I guess you just got hired as well. Welcome to The Office.”
All three of them protested at once but I waited until they finished. “Don’t worry. It’ll be fun. We have a mandatory training session you’ll all need to attend, led by my trusty second here,” I clapped him on the shoulder hard.
Fin saved me from having to start knocking heads together when he walked in, without slamming the door, I noted. The seconds it took to cross the room and throw myself into his arms were entirely too long. I hugged him into me, tight, and breathed in the scent of him.
“Hi,” he said, a smile in his voice even though I couldn't see his face with mine pressed against his chest.
“Hi,’ I whispered. Suddenly everything felt so much calmer.
“What’s going on here? What did I miss?”
Wow. Where to start? Instead of giving him the recap, I hugged him again. “Let’s go home. I’m the boss now so I think I can take the day off whenever I want to.”
He snorted and delved his fingers into my hair.
“I have to grab some files and then we can go.” I gently eased out of his grip and headed back to Hawk.
“I’m leaving, good luck with your new trainees.”
He glowered at me, a stone cold look that used to scare me to my bones. “Aw. Don’t look at me like that. Let me know if you want to change up the dynamic and take over The Office after all. Until then, I guess, we do things my way.”
That statement earned me another glare, but I dragged him into a hug, and then headed toward the door where Fin waited. I wasn’t sure what sort of magical future Hawk had, but he needed help, and I’d be the one to give it to him. We all would, until he felt more like himself again.
“This doesn’t mean we’re friends,” he called after me. Helix and Melinda kept quiet as they monitored our exchange. They’d get to know the rules around here pretty quick.
I laughed and let Fin lead the way out. “Of course not, I’m your boss.”