Page 52 of Robb

I could just let it out now. All of it. The past twenty-five years.

And he found that he wanted to. It was on the tip of his tongue.

… Do it, the dingo said quietly, after a long pause.

Robb knew that the decision must have been agonizing for the dingo– it was just as bad as Robb was about letting others know how it truly felt, and the whole idea of opening up about this would be a massive loss of face. The fact that it was encouraging Robb in this was nothing short of extraordinary.

But… I can’t. I can’t do it.

The dingo’s head jerked up, its eyes narrowing.

Hear me out, Robb said holding his hands up to it placatingly. I can’t talk about this here, at work. There are colleagues and cameras everywhere. I won’t put our mate in danger.

The dingo bared its teeth, but its posture relaxed. It understood, as much as it didn’t like it.

And besides, he went on, we have work to do. This wouldn’t be a short conversation. The quicker we can work out what’s happening, the quicker we can make sure that Tahnee is safe. Hargreaves are after her as well, after all.

It was hard not to be worried about her safety, given that someone had lured her to that alley as well. He knew that she had good security at her sanctuary, and he was also keeping tabs on the airspace and roads in its vicinity – if anything out of the ordinary approached it, he would know.

But there was only so much he could track. If Hargreaves sent in a couple of agents who could shift into small native birds or animals, they wouldn’t get picked up via the Agency’s tech from such a distance. And even if he did manage to pick up a threat, how would he manage to get there in time to help?

If all else fails, maybe I can send a few members of my team there to keep an eye on things…

“Do you have the number for the sanctuary?” he asked Callan, aware that it was a complete non sequitur as far as he was concerned.

Callan’s calm indifference was briefly displaced by an expression of surprise, before he schooled his face back into its previous expression.

“The rare shifter sanctuary? Sure.” He paused. “You don’t have it?”

He could understand Callan’s surprise. Deserved or not, Robb had a reputation in the Agency as a kind of all-seeing oracle, and his not having access to such a commonly known piece of information must’ve been confusing to Callan.

“I don’t,” he said, keeping his tone studiously neutral. The tone that had earned him his reputation as someone who didn’t explain himself – and he wasn’t about to start now. “Would you mind sending it over?”

“Sure thing,” Callan said, and Robb’s phone pinged a moment later.

Callan looked at him, expression serious, any hints of his previous attempts at getting Robb to open up gone. “Is the sanctuary in danger?”

“I hope not,” Robb said grimly. “But it could be.”

He had only disclosed to Callan and the other agents here at the Melbourne office that the second person who had been lured to the laneway with him was a shifter civilian who had now been evacuated to a safe location, not wanting to put her in danger of being arrested by the Agency if anyone looked into her history and got a bit too gung-ho about bringing her to justice.

Which wasn’t too likely, but she’d never been officially pardoned – as far as Robb knew, her file had simply been quietly shelved, with an unofficial word that she wasn’t to be bothered. But still, without anything official, he was a little leery of pushing it.

But he could trust his team.

Steeling himself, Robb quickly filled Callan in on the basics of what had happened the other day, leaving out the admittedly important parts about them being mates who’d ended up on opposite sides of the law.

He mustn’t have done quite as good a job at keeping a professional tone as he’d hoped, because by the end of it Callan was giving him a look that pretty much pierced him straight through, and Robb knew that he’d worked at least some of it out.

But thankfully he didn’t push it, instead just nodding along in understanding.

“I think you should definitely call her,” he said. “Though I understand why you wouldn’t want to do it here.”

It was a relief to not only have at least some of the story out in the open, but to also have Callan’s agreement that calling Tahnee was the right option.

Not that it would have affected Robb’s decision either way, and Callan also wasn’t operating with all the relevant information at hand, but it was still good to know that this was no longer a one-man mission. His team could always be relied upon to help out, and really, he should’ve filled them in sooner.

“When did you last sleep, by the way?” Callan asked suddenly, and the question threw Robb for a loop.