Page 41 of Robb

“Thank you,” she said, her eyes shining, her hair whipping about in the blustery wind.

Robb shook his head. “Well, I couldn’t just leave it stranded.”

“You know what I mean.” Tahnee poked him in the ribs. “You could have just picked it up and put it in the ocean, or called someone else to deal with it. But you humored me and made yourself look a bit silly into the bargain, and you didn’t complain or argue.”

“Thanks… I think.” As was often the case with Tahnee, Robb wasn’t sure if he was being compliment or insulted… but that was all part of the fun, wasn’t it?

Our mate keeps us on our toes, his dingo said approvingly.

“You’re welcome,” Tahnee said breezily. “I’ll always tell you when you look ridiculous, never fear.”

Robb was saved from having to salvage the conversation by the buzzing of his phone. Pulling it out, he looked at the screen – and a feeling of intense satisfaction surged through him.

“What is it?” Tahnee asked, once he’d finished reading through the message and put the phone back into his jacket pocket.

“The two suspects from last night have been apprehended,” he said. “They’re in Agency custody right now. And – whether or not you’ll be pleased to hear this, I don’t know – the agents found the scarf you turned to gold, and thought it might be best to apprehend that too.”

“Bummer,” said Tahnee, though she didn’t seem that upset. “I guess it turned out to be the Agency’s lucky day, then.”

Let’s go, snapped his dingo, all business once more. There’s not a moment to lose.

The dingo was right – and now that they had the suspects in custody, Robb was itching to find out what they knew, and how they knew it. What their plans were. Why they’d known to come after both him and Tahnee – almost as if they’d known about a connection that Robb had been very careful to keep obscured, even from the people closest to him.

And his dingo, now that it had the scent of its prey in its nostrils, wouldn’t be put off. It tugged at his mind, urging him to hurry – if Robb hadn’t gotten control over it years ago and forced it to submit to his human side, he knew the dingo would be forcing a shift on him right now, not caring who saw it or the fact that a dingo in the middle of suburban Melbourne would cause a serious stir.

Who cares about that? Our prey was captured by someone else, the dingo growled, snapping its teeth. We need to find out what’s happening instead of sitting here idle.

Robb wasn’t sure he’d characterize his time over the past few hours as idle, but he knew what the dingo meant – and to be honest, he was just as impatient to be on their way as it was.

“They’ve gotten them in some holding cells and they’re going to question them as soon as possible,” Robb told Tahnee. “Hopefully they can give us some answers.”

“Well, that’s good,” Tahnee said slowly. “I have to admit, I am a bit curious to know why they decided to lure the two of us into a death trap.”

“We can find out once we get there,” Robb said, as he started to walk back toward the main road, gesturing for Tahnee to follow him. “I want to be there once they start questioning them.”

It took a moment for him to realize that Tahnee wasn’t walking alongside him. Confused, he stopped and turned to see her standing right where he’d left her.

“Are you coming?” he asked, his tone perhaps a little too brusque. It was a bad habit born of decades of expecting obedience from his agents – or hoping for it, anyway – and he really did want to get moving.

He’d wasted too much time already. If one of his team had been dawdling like this, he would’ve told them in no uncertain terms to pull their finger out and move. He could expect no less from himself.

Even though the shifters who’d attacked them were currently being held safely in custody, there was clearly some kind of larger plot afoot, and the Agency needed to extract as much information as possible from them before their co-conspirators – whoever they might be – could strike again.

Most especially if they’re coming after our mate, the dingo growled. If they have any plans to harm her, then we won’t hold back. We must protect our mate, no matter what.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Tahnee said, holding her hands up. “You haven’t even explained where we’re going properly yet.”

Frustration flashed through Robb – and he knew it was probably showing on his face. “To the Agency’s Melbourne office,” he said, trying to force his voice to calm, even though he felt anything but. And he knew he probably wasn’t doing a very good job of it. “And then to another safehouse.”

He paused, trying to think of something that might please Tahnee. “A nicer one than the one we stayed in last night.”

“I mean… okay,” Tahnee said, eyeing him a little warily. “But for how long? I didn’t realize once you’d caught them you’d want me to go to your work and then another safehouse.”

Within him, the dingo bridled, growling again, and Robb himself had to suppress a small noise of impatience. He knew he was letting his shifter instincts get the better of him, but couldn’t Tahnee see that time was of the essence here?

“We can discuss that later,” he said, hearing the businesslike snappiness of his own tone, as if he was talking to one of his subordinates rather than his mate.

“I think now is a good time to discuss it, actually,” Tahnee said coolly, still eyeballing him. He might be talking to her as if he was her boss, but she clearly didn’t feel intimidated by him or feel in any particular rush to obey him. “For starters, I’d like to know how long you think I should be here in Melbourne.”