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He couldn’t, though.

There was still Wynter.

There were still the two kids, his human friends, Jordan.

He could only kneel there, every part of his body cold as ice.

CHAPTER4

THE METAL ROOM

Nick was in a metal,boxlike interrogation room.

Again.

He was being asked invasive, aggressive, accusatory questions by human agents.

Again.

It seemed like only a day ago that he’d been in a room exactly like this one.

Really, it might even be thesameroom where they’d held him when the N.Y.P.D. accused him of the Tanaka murders in Manhattan’s Upper Eastside. Now, unlike then, he’d actuallydonethe things they were accusing him of.

Strangely, though, it felt like less was at stake.

Before, he’d been terrified they’d separate him from his mate.

He’d been terrified he’d say the wrong thing, or they’d put him away if he didn’t find some way to clear his name.

Now, it felt like it didn’t matter at all what Nick did or didn’t do.

Whatever they decided, he would have no control or bearing over that decision.

Whatever he said or didn’t say likely wouldn’t matter at all.

Nick distinctly got the impression that the people questioning him cared nothing about the crimes they were questioning him about, either. At the very least, they cared nothing about his, Nick’s, potential involvement in those crimes, or anything he might have to say about it.

Everything about this felt like performance.

Everything about it felt predetermined.

It felt more like them ticking a box than an attempt to learn anything from him.

Nick could already feel that everyone who’d come in to question him, the N.Y.P.D. anti-treason units, the agents sent by the H.R.A. and The Leash, the I.S. Fucked crew, all of them were going through the motions of an inquiry, rather than conducting an actual inquiry.

Nick could do nothing but play the charade with them, and wait for whatever outcome had been decided.

A few hours into the process, he started to wonder if maybe Lara St. Maarten was behind this song and dance more than he knew. It was the questions, really, and how they tilted more towards what his intentions had been with the Archangel employees, and with the portal itself. It was them asking him about whether he’d intended to return the Archangel agents to their rightful human employer, or if he’d intended to kidnap them himself.

If St. Maarten really was behind this, she clearly wielded more power over the H.R.A. than Nick would have thought. The I.S.F. and the N.Y.P.D. surprised him less… but yeah, that she might really have The Leash and the H.R.A. agents wrapped around her manicured finger definitely would come as a surprise.

“And did you know that your wife’s ex-husband, the lawyer, Forrest Walker, was operating as the infamous agitator, ‘Keori,’ on the side?” The particular agent, who happened to be wearing an I.S.F. uniform, stared at Nick’s face with electronically-enhanced eyes. “Were you aware he was illegally fomenting revolutionary violence and spreading dangerous ideas on pirate media feeds? Or that he’d made threats to Archangel properties in Europe?”

The agent blinked, his enhanced eyes emotionless.

“No,” Nick said simply.

He’d already been coached by his lawyer.