The Professor's Defender

Chapter 12

A sharp knock on the door brought Chantale quickly awake. Declan was already up and fumbling for a robe. As soon as he was decent, he opened the door.

"Sorry to wake you," Seth said, "but you're going to want to hear this." With that, the cop was gone.

Chantale pushed her hair from her face. "What time is it?"

"Just after seven."

She rolled on her back and struggled to sit up. Declan was there in an instant to help her. "Help me get dressed," she asked. "A sweater and the jeans from yesterday will be fine."

"Maybe Seth only meant me," he said. "You're still tired."

"Don't make me cranky, Declan, and don't you dare argue because I haven't even had my first cup of coffee."

He backed away. "You use the washroom first."

She bit back a grin at his about-face. He was learning, she thought, not to mess with her before her first café. He was there to help her dress and to pull her hair into a ponytail although he'd been a little too gentle and the thing was pulling to one side. Nothing to be done about it, she thought, as she waited for him to get ready. She'd wanted to go out right away, but wasn't going to make Seth tell the story twice.

When Declan was ready, they went to the kitchen where her coffee was ready as was a pot of tea. Only Jocelyne was there and Chantale gave her a look. "They're all in the dining room."

They? How many was they?

As it turned out, there were five people waiting. Colton and Seth, she'd expected. She hadn't foreseen their boss Greg joining them. Nick was there along with the senior partner of their firm, Bennett MacDougal.

"What's happened?"

"Just sit, Chantale," Nick urged. "We'll all sit."

At his suggestion, everyone sat. Declan sat next to her and grasped her hand under the table.

Chantale could think of half a dozen reasons why she was facing this group of men and none of them was good.

It was Bennett who finally spoke. "The office was firebombed about one o'clock this morning."

Chantale sucked in air as best as she could, but she felt like she was going to be sick. The beautiful office, all set up so recently. It had been open barely three months, so everything was new.

"How bad-" She cleared her throat. "How bad?"

"A total loss," Bennett said. "The only good thing is that we use an outside data server, so client files haven't been lost. Anything that was paper only, though, is gone. For the next few days we're telling everyone to work from home. We'll get Miriam and Ewan to reconstruct the files as best as they can. When things have died down, we'll move back into Nick's old office on Third Avenue."

"No," Chantale said, "you can't run the risk. It's too much."

Bennett shrugged. "We're installing 24/7 security until the perpetrator is arrested, so there's nothing to worry about."

"We can't afford-"

"We'll afford whatever it takes for me to keep my people safe," Bennett said.

"The whole staff is in agreement on this Chantale," Nick added. "It's a done deal."

Declan turned to Chantale. "You're fired."