Page 7 of The Tiger's Secret Baby (Savage Shifters Special Ops 4)

“We understand,” Gage said. “Would you excuse us for a minute while we discuss your case?”

“Certainly. I’ll head to the couch. If I’m snoring, wake me up. I haven’t been getting much sleep lately.” She laughed, but there was no joy in the sound.

As soon as she left, all eyes were on me. I expected this.

“Are you going to be able to be objective in this case?” Gage asked, fixing me with a steely stare.

I nodded. “Of course. We are there to protect the kids and see what we can do to get rid of the evil villain,” I answered.

“Do you still have feelings for her?” Gage asked me.

I was surprised by the question. To be honest, I hadn’t thought about it. She had always been a small memory in the back of my mind, but I hadn’t actively thought of her in a very long time.

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I was very shocked to see her. I was in love with her once. But we both have changed so much over the last decade that I don’t know what I feel. I do know that it won’t interfere with this case. There’s too much riding on it anyway. I’m tired of people trying to hurt or take advantage of children,” I said.

“Here, here, to that,” Lucian said. We had just got off a case where we rescued several children from human traffickers.

Lucian opened the conference door and asked Ember to rejoin us.

Gage looked at her and said, “Before I tell you our decision, I want to ask you a question. Why didn’t you take the large sum of money that he offered you, that was clearly worth more than your land and house, and go somewhere else?”

She looked at him, and I saw her face turn into that showed sheer contempt. Her voice reflected what she felt about his question.

“First, I will not be bought. No person will ever bully me or bribe me into doing something I don’t want to do. Second, the land is perfect for my needs. There is a pond and trees for the children to practice their shifting and various skills that keep them safely away from prying eyes. Third, a lot of the children have already had an unstable life. There is no way in the world that I would uproot them and cause chaos in their lives. Not for any amount of money.”

She had clenched her fists, and her knuckles were white. When she finishes speaking, her lips were pressed tightly together.

“Anything else?” she asked.

“No. I didn’t mean to upset you. I just needed to know before we took your case. I like you, Ember,” Gage said. “You and my wife, Luka, would get along great. Neither of them lets anyone or anything push you around.”

He chuckled and held out his hand. “Congratulations. You just hired the A-Team.”

Jared, Lucian, and I all said, “We get to be Face.”

Gage laugh. “More like you guys are a trio of Howling Mad Murdocks.”

We couldn’t argue with him on that.

“How do we do this?” Ember asked.

Gage pointed to himself, Jared, and Lucian. “We have to go let our better halves know what is going on and that we’ll be gone for a while. Even though we live close to town, we are going to be staying at your place. Do you have a couple of rooms you can spare?”

“Sure, we can move some people around. Will two rooms work?” she asked.

At the same time, all three of the traitors put their fingers on their noses and said they weren’t sleeping in the same room as me.

“Why?” she asked.

“He snores, loudly,” Lucian said.

“I always thought he was purring. You can’t blame a kitty cat for that,” she retorted.

Even I had to laugh at that.

“We’ll be out first thing in the morning. Meanwhile, I’ll have several of our security officers patrolling your area tonight, as well as two on your barn and four at the house. You might not see them, but they’ll be there,” Gage said.

“Sounds good. Thank you,” said, standing.

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