Page 10 of Robb

The phone cut out.

The sound had been so distorted that Robb had barely been able to make it out… but the most important part had come through loud and clear.

Euan was in serious danger.

He broke into a sprint, pounding down the wet footpath. He could be there in under five minutes, provided that there weren’t too many pedestrians or vehicles in his way.

Not for the first time, he wished that he could shift into something that flew. Not because of some romantic notion of soaring through the heavens with absolute freedom, but simply because it would be invaluable in this kind of situation.

Pausing for a moment as a truck passed in front of him, Robb quickly dialed Euan’s number. The phone rang a few times before it picked up.

“Hey, Robb. What’s up?”

Euan did not sound like someone whose life was currently on the line. He sounded like someone who was currently plowing their way through an enormous pile of administrative work – and, while Robb knew that some of his team members would probably see that as an actual life-or-death situation, Euan wasn’t one of them.

Relief ran through Robb like wildfire.

“You didn’t just call me, then?”

Robb could almost hear Euan shaking his head.

“Not unless I buttdialed you.” There was a pause as Euan presumably checked his call history. “Nope. Didn’t call you.”

“Huh.” Robb slowed his pace to a brisk walk. “So there’s nothing going on that you need my assistance with?”

“Not unless you count the minor flooding in the kitchen. Or the fact that Hector and Rhys currently aren’t speaking to each other because they decided to have a competition to see who could make the best cheese toastie, and Hector won.”

That explained the mild weariness in Euan’s tone.

“I think you’re at a point in your career where you can handle these issues yourself, complex though they may be,” Robb said seriously, knowing, at least, that Euan could appreciate a little deadpan humor more than some of his other teammates.

“To be fair, Hector’s toasties were pretty good,” Euan said. “As acting manager, I refrained from voting, but unfortunately the vote was still unanimous in his favor.”

Robb shook his head slightly, the tiniest hint of a smile crossing his face. He didn’t want to admit that he missed this, but he did.

He missed the camaraderie, anyway. He didn’t miss having to deal with the fallout of dealing with two hypercompetitive, hot-tempered griffin shifter brothers who constantly had to one-up each other.

“Anyway,” Euan said. “Is everything okay on your end?”

I’m about to walk into a trap, but otherwise, I’m fine.

The location he’d been given was in an alley just around the corner, and somebody had definitely faked Euan’s voice to lure him there. He didn’t want to go waltzing into a potentially dangerous situation, but he also didn’t want to leave the matter uninvestigated, either. Clearly somebody had been poking around in Agency systems where they ought not to’ve been, if they were able to access his phone number, and they had some pretty convincing voice imitation technology to boot.

He opened his mouth, ready to ask Euan to call the Melbourne office for backup… but then, as he peered around the corner of the alley, he stopped cold.

“… Robb? Robb, are you okay?”

It sounded like Euan had been trying to get his attention for a while.

He forced his mouth to move.

“I’m fine,” he said mechanically.

Euan sounded dubious. “Are you sure? Do you need backup?”

“No. No need.” Robb cleared his throat. “Glad you’re okay on your end. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay. Later.”