Page 6 of Don't Bait Me (Nora Jacobs 3)

“Nick.”

Nick glares at the director. “He’s a friend, Madison.”

She sighs away some of her stern demeanor. “I know that. But you know we can’t get involved.”

My eyes bulge. Did she really just refuse to help Terrance? “What do you mean you can’t help?” I nearly shout. “You’re the cops! Theunderworldcops. It’s your job to help.”

Nick grimaces, and it’s Director West who explains. “We can’t help, because the fey refuse to recognize the FUA’s authority.”

“Demons don’t, either,” Ren butts in.

I frown at him, then look to Nick for clarification as to why this matters. “Remember when I explained that the FUA was a fairly new organization?” He waits for me to nod. “When it was set up, most underworld species signed a treaty saying that they recognize the FUA as their governing power and agree to submit to their laws. Neither the demons nor the fey signed that treaty.”

I shake my head. “I still don’t understand why this matters. If someone tries to commit murder, you should be able to stop them. Right? For the good of the community?”

“If it’s one of the species who’s signed the treaty, or the situation gets out of control and threatens to out our existence to humans, then yes, we can step in,” Director West says. “But otherwise…” She shrugs. “The fey are on their own.”

“That’s such crap.”

Director West sighs. “We allow every species to take care of their own business, unless it gets out of hand. Like with your werewolf friends. We let Toth solve his own problems within his pack.”

I frown, but some of my anger dissipates. They had let Alpha Toth take care of his own issues, and it had seemed like a good thing then.

“It’s the same with all the species,” Director West continues. “In order to keep the peace in the underworld, we don’t step in to help unless we’re asked. But with the fey…well…they can’t ask us for help unless they sign the treaty.”

I huff out a breath. I suppose that makes sense. “Fine. I guess I can understand that, but still. You don’t know who attacked Terrance. What if it was a werewolf, or a vampire? You could step in if one of them was killing people, right? Even if the victim was fey?”

Nick perks up, excited by the loophole I just found. “That’s true. We can.” He looks to Director West with a hopeful expression.

She narrows her eyes and purses her lips, contemplating the situation. Eventually, she shakes her head. “Not without some proof of what’s doing the killing.”

“But—” Nick begins to argue.

Director West holds up a hand and cuts him off. “You know the fey would have a riot if we got mixed up in their business. They’d look at it as us trying to step in and control them. There’s no way they’d tolerate that. It could start a war between the FUA and the fey. The only reason we’ve managed to keep the peace is because we stay out of their business, and they don’t cause us trouble. I can’t risk war between the species. Not even for Terrance.” She cuts Nick a hard look. “You have to stay out of this.Wayout of this.”

Nick clenches his jaw as if the human/underworlder bureaucracy really pisses him off. I can’t blame him. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Terrance was nearly killed. It shouldn’t matter if he’s fey or not.

“Terrance wouldn’t want our help anyway,” Darla says with a slight frown. “The fey are a very prideful race. They don’t want other people all up in their business. They don’t even accept help from other fey if they can avoid it. Most fey are solitary, and those who have clans stick to them.”

I let out a groan and rub my temples. This conversation is giving me a headache. “But there’s got to besomethingwe can do. Someone tried to kill Terrance! We can’t just sit around and—”

Terrance’s low, grumbly voice startles me. “I’ll take care of it, Nora.” I rush to the couch, where Terrance is awake and trying to sit up. He frowns. “I don’t need the FUA to solve my problems.”

I help him lift his huge body and sit down beside him. I want to hug the shit out of him, but I’m afraid it will hurt him, so I settle for linking my arm with his and leaning against him. “Don’t youeverscare me like that again.”

Terrance pats my arm. “Don’t worry, Trouble.”

“Don’t worry?Terrance, someone just tried tokillyou.”

He rolls his eyes. “Trolls are really hard to kill.”

His blasé attitude really pisses me off. “Take your prideful head out of your ass. You might be hard to kill, but you’re not invincible. If I hadn’t found you when I did, you’d have bled out in that parking lot.” The truth almost comes out as a sob. “I almost lost you.”

Tears well up in my eyes. I sniffle. Terrance groans and wraps his big arm around me, pressing me lightly to his chest. “Aw, Trouble, don’t cry. Everything’s going to be okay. I have lots of connections in this town. Probably more than the FUA. I’ll put out my feelers, and we’ll figure out who did this. Okay?”

I nod against his chest. We’ll figure it out, all right. And then we’ll make them pay.

Terrance rises to his feet, slowly and stiffly. “Come on. Let’s go home and get cleaned up before we worry about anything else.”

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