The Reaper and the Cop (7 page)

Hammond leaned forward, the oily smile on his face doing nothing to help Baron like him more. “Indeed. We’ve been after this scum-bag for a while, so you boys will be looking for anything we can use against him.”

His words helped even less. Now Baron just wanted to punch him in the face. Repeatedly. He ignored the asshole and returned his attention to Iliona. “So, you’re taking the guy’s money and planning to screw him over? Isn’t that like…not ethical? Or against client-agency confidentiality or something?”

Iliona opened her mouth but before she had a chance to say anything Hammond spluttered in fury.

“That’s just typical. Me and my boys bust a gut trying to bring in scum like Croft, then fucking bleeding hearts like this pair start on about human rights and it all goes to shit.” He rounded on Iliona, spittle gathering at the corner of his lips in his ire. “Haven’t you got anyone other than this pair?”

Both dragons surged to their feet, the temperature in the room dropping several degrees. Iliona met the detective’s glare with a hard expression as Baron loomed over him. A whisper across the back of his neck told him that Duke had shed human form in favor of his shadow one. The room was well lit but the dragon found the shadows anyway, pulling them to wrap around himself, melting his human body and releasing the abilities that made them so dangerous.

“No, I don’t think you get me, human.” Baron sneered the word like the insult it was. “We don’t give a fuck about your rights. Taking a man’s money and stabbing him in the back...it’s wrong. It’s about honor, integrity. Not that I’d expect someone of your species to understand
that
.” He shot a glance to Iliona. “Ladies in the room excepted of course.”

Iliona waved her hand in dismissal, her gaze leveled on the suddenly pale police officer. “I suggest, Detective, that if you want my agency’s help, you refrain from insulting our operatives and lose the
humans are superior
attitude. If humans could get you what you needed, then you wouldn’t be knocking at our door, now would you?”

The silence in the room after the crack of her voice spoke volumes. In this case it warned the man discretion was the better part of valor and he perhaps better keep his mouth shut before the two pissed off dragons in the room shut it for him permanently. Hard to prove a murder without a body and for a dragon the average human, even a heavyweight model like Hammond, was a light snack.

“No, very true.”

The admission had to have cost the detective some pride. He sat back, altering his body language to non-threatening but Baron didn’t miss the sharp look of hate the guy shot at them and Iliona. He shared a glance with Duke. They could take care of themselves but the little human was all kinds of delicate. Looked like one of them would be passing the guy’s name to either Cal or Gran on a flyby later.

“Still, you didn’t answer my question,” Baron reminded Iliona. There was no way he was letting her off the hook, not when it was a question of honor. Otherwise they were no better than pixies, and everyone knew what sneaky fucks they were. “Isn’t it unethical to take the guy’s money and screw him over?”

She met his gaze, her expression serious and honest. “Ordinarily, yes. But the seers say there are indications that Croft is involved in the illegal trafficking of paras. Which means he’s numero uno on a lot of people’s list. We just happen to have the in.”

At her words, steel straightened Baron’s spine and his brother stepped free from the shadows, the same grim expression on his face Baron knew was on his own.

“We’re in. What do we have to do?”

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