APEX

Ch. 10: Probable Innocence

Calla

My wolf nearly jumped out of my skin when I opened my office door first thing in the morning to find it already occupied.

"Good morning, boss." There he was, looking pleased with himself, his chest puffed out behind his tailored suit like he was a cock parading for his hen du jour.

"Holy shit, Rhys." I brought my hand up to cover my heart and calm it. "What are you doing here?"

"It's my office."

"You mean Our office. What are you doing in our office before me?"

"Obviously, it's because I'm such a hard worker."

I clucked my tongue. "Be for real."

"I am being for real. That press conference is weighing on me. Lots to think about there." He swiveled in a circle and when he stopped, brought his feet up and placed them on his desk. Hard worker indeed.

"Then there's this new development." He ran a hand through his thick, wavy black hair. "Not sure what to make of it."

"A new development?" I frowned. All we needed was something else to go wrong. "Did one of your brothers kick a kitten in front of a troop of Girl Scouts or something?"

"Nothing like that."

"What's going on then?"

"Have a seat." He motioned to my desk like he was offering it up to me out of the kindness of his heart. "I had an interesting phone call last night with Detective Rachelle Anderson. Do you know her? Nice woman. I hope her father-in-law's angina clears up soon."

"Rachelle Anderson...no, not really." Enough to say hi, not enough to know her father-in-law had angina, or that she had a father-in-law, for that matter. "Only that she works with Dev."

"Yes, with Dev. Who you do know. Very well."

"Don't say it like that."

"Say it like what?"

"With one eyebrow raised and a smirk on your lips."

"I would never! Smirking causes wrinkles."

"Well, you were inwardly smirking, but that's beside the point. I'm not going to get into an argument with you about Dev. What did she want to talk with you about?" I swallowed, knowing very much what the topic of their conversation had been.

"Right. What did she want to talk about with me, of all people?" He drummed his fingers against his desk. "Ah, yes, I remember now. It was a long conversation, but in a nutshell... A human woman went missing during the full moon. She'd met someone online, made plans to meet, and as it turns out, the man was allegedly an Apex shifter. Her phone was at one point located here and now there's been no trace of her."

"That's awful."

"Calla, Calla, Calla." He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. "You're not very convincing."

I wrapped my arms around my torso. "What are you talking about?"

"You're supposed to sound like you were hearing the information I just rattled off to you for the first time, but your response, well...it fell a little flat. Not to mention that you didn't immediately jump on what this would mean for our redemption in the public's eye."

"A woman is missing! That's more important than Apex's reputation."

"No doubt to you it is."

My heart thudded in my chest. "But not to you?"