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The kitten looked at Mulan and mewed pitifully. It was a clever little thing to know who in our group to seek pity from. Ya had to admire its will to survive.

I shrugged. “Do ya what can for it, Rasmus.”

He did something that surrounded the kitten in a golden orb of energy. The orb rose in the air without the guardian touching it. With a way of his finger, Rasmus rotated it until wisps of black rose from the kitten’s body and floated to the top of the orb.

The kitten mewed ferociously before finally floating back down.

Looking tired now, Rasmus returned the kitten to Mulan. “It will need to be watched. Like every action inflicted on this young creature, there is no knowing what will result from my interference in its life.”

Chapter Five

Conn and I installed a miniature camera system that would send a warning to Conn’s phone when the troll animal breeder returned to his lair. In the meantime, we went after Romeo.

Romeo was the nickname we’d given to the naked streaker troll with the frightening large appendage. Finding him took little effort once Conn in demon form found his scent.

Like any brooding and lonely male, his lair stank of half-eaten, decomposing carcasses of unidentified animals. He grunted at us in greeting, eyed my energy sword, and stomped out of his lair without giving us any fight at all.

I dialed Ben. “We have Romeo and need a pickup for him. He built a makeshift lair in an abandoned warehouse on Loveless Avenue. Send the troll whisperer out too. I’ve got some questions for this guy before he gets collected. He’s docile at the moment—too docile. It’s freaking me out.”

Ben laughed in my ear.“Great work, Aran. Ezra helped me hire two new pickup guys. I’ve already dispatched them to your location. I’m coming up to speed fast on how the branch you used to work for functioned so smoothly.”

My face wrinkled in confusion. “Who’s running my old Shadow Breakers branch while the fairy’s hanging out here helping ya? My daughter’s over there training with someone in his absence. Is there something going on there that I need to know?”

Ben’s hesitation in answering caused my inner alarms to go off.

“What are ya not telling me, Benjamin? Don’t make me pry it out of ya. Ya know I hate doing that.”

Ben released a breath.“Your old branch is doing fine. Ezra’s fine. There’s no need to worry.”

“Ya promised not to withhold anything from me, Ben. That was a condition of my employment. Ya know I don’t enjoy being surprised.”

“Ezra is thinking about staying a while longer. His family is pressuring him to return home to wherever it is his people live. From what I gather, he’s not ready to go and is happy to help me get things here up and running. We’re giving him a good excuse to stay. He’s teaching me a lot too. This is what we Americans call a win-win scenario.”

Fair was fair, so I said the words. “As long as Ezra staying here has nothing to do with me, I’m fine with him.”

“I explained about Rasmus and you being a couple. He didn’t seem upset by the news. But if there was ever a problem among the three of you, I’d expect you all to conduct yourselves in a professional manner. The man—I mean, fairy—is helping me and I need him.”

I could have told Ben that a fairy male as old as Ezra wouldn’t see someone like Rasmus as competition for a woman’s attention. Unless Ezra knew what Rasmus was, the guardian for sure wouldn’t impress Ezra enough to stay away from me. And even if he knew, that might not matter to the fairy. I hadn’t taken Ezra’s poetic speeches about second chances and how much better he’d become as a lover seriously, but if he was indeed staying, he could become a problem.

There was another long pause as I pulled my thoughts away from Ezra and back to my conversation with Ben. “Let’s put it all out on the table. I feel the same way about Ezra that I feel about Jack. I don’t want to work with either of them. If ya value their lives, please don’t make me.”

On the other end of the phone, Ben loudly cleared his throat.“Yes, well, I didn’t hire your ex-husband—not exactly.”

“Ben...”

“I contracted him and his father to do the out-of-town work you turned down. There was a multi-location Shadow Breakers meeting of Division Managers last week. I asked why the States had all these issues popping up suddenly. They informed me that this wasn’t a new situation but a shortage of trained paranormal agents overseas who would travel over here. They implied that was the reason they wanted us to have our own branch. To be honest, I’ve got everyone busy and still have open cases. I need to hire more agents.”

“Fine. Use him but I’m never working with him.”

“Which him?”Ben asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t play stupid. Ya know I’m talking about both of them. And ya know Jack’s name is still on my killing list. Ezra is tolerable but I’d rather not involve myself with him again even if I do respect the fairy with things involving work. His talents are many and he’s reliable. Jack, though, is a liaranda backstabbing bastard. Ezra is merely a womanizer. I don’t trust either of them, just for different reasons.”

“You shouldn’t confess your desire to murder your ex-husband to your boss. If Jack shows up dead one day, you’ll automatically be at the top of the suspect list.”

“If I ever kill the bastard, I’ll absolutely claim credit for doing it. I didn’t want this freaking job with ya, Ben. I only took it so I could stay in the States with Fiona. Now my daughter’s back in Ireland where I want to be and I’m stuck here buying a house big enough for a family of thirty. And don’t be throwing Rasmus in my face. Being involved with a guardian who treats me like a science experiment does not make me any happier.”

“Your partnering preferences have been noted. Let’s change the subject. What’s happening with the troll animal breeder?”