“Trish!” Wade blinked several times. “I thought…” he trailed off.

I lunged at him without thinking, taking a swing at his face. He dodged and grabbed my wrists, tight but not enough to hurt. I struggled for a second, every possible way I could kill him going through my mind. But first I needed to get free.

“Thought I was dead? Do a better job next time,” I snapped. I stopped struggling, trying to get him to relax his hold. I assessed for a moment, and noticed a couple of weird things. Wade was wearing some funky clothes. Like really funky. And he looked like a couple of the blows I tried to land had hit, an almost sick expression on his face.

I took a step toward him holding back a growl. This was going to hurt, but it was worth it. I jumped up and planted both feet in his chest, pushing as I pulled back against his grip. We fell and I scratched at him, clawing and kicking. He wasn’t going to get a second chance at killing me.

“Trish, stop!” Wade yelled. “I don’t want to hurt you!”

I wiggled my elbow free and slammed him in the gut, getting a satisfying oopmph’ as all the air left his lungs “Coulda fooled me!”

“No need to get violent, Miss Penchant,” Cumat called. “I’ll have to call security.” He looked at Wade, then back to me, tangled on the floor and glaring. “You two know each other?”

“Yes,” we said in unison. I sneered at Wade, just to let him know that I didn’t appreciate us being on the same page.

“And you don’t get along?”

“No!” we chorused again.

“He tried to kill me,” I spat out. Security or no security, I was not letting him get the drop on me again. Not now that I knew what he wanted, even if I didn’t know why.

“I didn’t try, I did!” Wade yelled back. “How are you here?”

His admission was like a punch in the gut, making me pause. I’d never told him how I felt about him, but still, we’d been dating for almost a year. Didn’t he care at all? He could just throw that out there and have the gall to seem freaked out that I was still breathing?

He let go of me and we both scrambled to our feet, staring each other down. Wade had some very gratifying scratches down his face. Served him right.

“What do I know, I’m just a retrieval specialist. They never tell me anything,” Cumat’s voice hardly registered over the roaring in my ears. Did he not care that Wade had just admitted to murdering me? “Of course, if they know each other they wouldn’t get along, the girl is terribly rude.”

“I’m here to make sure you don’t do it to anyone else,” I spat out and launched myself in his direction. I got a good swing in before he grabbed my wrists and jerked me around, gripping me in a bear hug.

I kicked back and caught him in the knee. “Security!” the dwarf yelled in the background.

“I got this, Cumat,” Wade panted out.

I slammed my head back and got him in the throat. I’d been aiming for his nose, but the throat worked fine. He gasped and then shook me until I was dizzy.

“Trish, stop. We need to talk.”

Really? Seriously? “You should have tried that before you shot me!” I bit down on his forearm and he yelled. Then he crushed me to his body so hard my chest couldn’t expand enough to get a breath. I batted at his arm, trying to pull it away enough to get some air, but he was just too strong. I couldn’t do anything.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He must have felt the fight go out of me. His grip loosened a little “Truce? You won’t attack me?”

If I agreed to that my stupid fae ancestry would never let me go back on my word. But I liked being able to breathe. “Not for… an… hour,” I gasped out.

His arms went to his sides and I stumbled away from him, moving to the wall and propping myself up. He bent over and put his hands on his knees, watching me. That look meant he knew I would be keeping track of that hour.

“All done, Miss Penchant?” Cumat asked primly.

“Not by a long shot.” That came out much stronger than my last attempt at a sentence.

“Well, that is unfortunate considering you’ve been assigned as partners. You are going to have to learn to work together,” Cumat broke in, putting himself in danger from both sides.

“I had no idea this job opportunity you mentioned included people like him, people who off other people in their spare time,” I shot out, getting angrier as the words poured free. “I won’t work for a place like that. Plus you haven’t even gotten to why this is so important for me, anyway.”

“Is that what you think?” Wade yelled back, straightening up and moving close to tower over me. I squared my shoulders and pulled myself to my full height. Which was nothing compared to his. He was probably trying to figure out how to finish me off. “After a year together, all the things we said to each other, that I wanted to kill you?”

“What else am I supposed to think?” Heads popped out of doorways down the hall. Our screaming was starting to draw attention. I didn’t care. Let everyone know what kind of guy they worked with.

“Now, now, let’s try to keep this from escalating into-” Both our glares turned to Mr. Cumat.

Wade’s shoulders slumped. “I didn’t want to hurt you,” his confession came out almost as a whisper.

“Well I’m pretty sure that shooting someone in the chest will do that.” He actually looked sad. More sad than I’d ever seen him. But he was either a murderer or crazy, and I wasn’t sure which was worse.

“Miss Penchant, I’m sure you would understand the position Wade was in if it was explained to you. It was all part of the job.”

“All part of the job?” Did that make it better or worse? Had the whole relationship been part of the job? “Oh, well then, I guess it’s fine if the job told you to do it. No way you could stick up for your girlfriend or anything, that would just be too archaic.” Part of the job? What kind of work was this, that expected you to kill people you were supposed to care about? I seriously was not getting involved with these people. Before I knew it, they’d be asking me to kill Dan. Or worse, Nina.

“I wouldn’t have done it if you hadn’t been fae.” He was back to yelling. This was a whole new side of him. I’d never seen him angry. Everything I knew about him was probably wrong. “You were supposed to go to Faerie if something like that happened, just like everyone else.”

Okay, now I was really confused. So confused I couldn’t even be angry for a minute. He didn’t just say fae, did he? Because he really wasn’t supposed to know about that. “What? What’s a fae?”

He gave me a look that said he totally knew I was bluffing.

“When one of the fae dies on Earth, they are sent back to Faerie. In extreme cases we use it to get criminals back, or in your case sent home for evaluation. We weren’t sure how you would react to a summons, or even if you knew that you are fae, so it was decided this was the best method to return you to Faerie,” Mr. Cumat interrupted. “And that is all you can know for now. Shall we continue and meet your new team leader?”

“You were going to force me to go to Faerie? No way. I’m not working for you loons.” I planted my feet and made sure my expression was sending out my feelings about this place loud and clear. I should be plotting my revenge against Wade, not trying to help him. Even if he was just trying to send me to Faerie, which I was having a hard time believing, he had risked my life without even thinking about it.

“Miss Penchant, I do believe that working here will bring you great satisfaction. Those who work hard are always well rewarded.”

“You expect me to go around killing people and just trusting you that they pop up in Faerie, totally fine? Seriously?” Wade at least should have known I wouldn’t go for this. But then, he had looked surprised to see me. Maybe he didn’t know the dwarf was bringing me in. I gave him another glare. “There is nothing you could possibly give me that would make me want to work for you.”

“Really?” Oh, now the little dwarf was looking so smug. If only I could wipe that expression off his face. He was making me mad enough that his next words took a moment to register. When they did, it was like waking up in the woods all over again. “Nothing can compel you to work with us? Not even your freedom?”