Hunting Her (The Keeping Her #6) (16 page)

"And
if a pack is red flagged?" Lucas asked and Xena turned to catch her mate’s
eyes on hers and close.

She
shrugged again.  "It wouldn't happen"

"If
it did?"  Ben asked, and even his eyes had lost their humor.  "Are we
talking war?"

Xena
looked at him and finally answered.  "The council does not make war."
She said and hoped they would leave it at that.  She was trying to defuse the
situation not make them crazed.

"So
what then?" Ian asked.  "If not war, what?"

Shit. 
She took a deep
breath and allowed nothing but calm to coat the words she did not want to say. 
"If the entire pack was red flagged, an enforcer would be sent, and he
would pick you off one by one until there was nothing left."

There
was silence for a long beat before Cassandra spoke into the leaden tension. 
"But we aren't red flagged, right?" she said looking around and
trying to be upbeat and cut through the mounting tension.  "So… yay!"

It
actually worked, at least a little.  Mac standing beside his mate stepped even
closer, pulling her into his arms and losing some of the tension in his body,
while Ben's lips quirked into a smile.  He shook his head at their mate in
Mac’s arms looking at her for all the world like he thought she was adorable. 
Which Xena had to agree she was.  Especially when she managed, with her quirky
straightforwardness, to defuse the alpha males at least a small bit.

Xena
pulled in a long breath when everyone turned to look at the woman.  She held up
her hands as if to say
what? 
A few more smiles, a little less killing
tension in the air.

"Right,
exactly," Xena said trying to move them along.  Freakin' alpha males were
intense when they weren't sure they had control.  "Yay.  Moving on.  What
exactly did Eli find out about the name and the e-mails we retrieved from
Santo?"

All the
eyes turned from Cassandra to her, but Logan spoke before anyone else could
jump in with more paranoid ramblings about the council.  "Eli," he
looked at their computer guy.  "Mac said you found something?"

"Oh,
right," Eli said in an aside.  "The name you gave me was bogus, the e-mail
routed through servers, and did originate in this particular councilman's e-mail,
but it was routed from another office.  Xena's handler, Jacob Sterling."

Logan
looked from him to Xena, who looked grim.

When Eli
spoke again they both looked up to find a glint of satisfaction in his eyes,
which were trained on Xena.  "Fancy another trip to Anchorage?"

She
raised a brow in question. 

"Think
you can get me into his office?" Eli asked pointedly.

Xena
smiled.  Logan growled.

"Hello
Sterling," Xena said.  Sterling flinched just a little and looked up from
the files he perused.

"Xena,
why am I not surprised?"  He sighed.  Looking resigned, he dropped his
fancy pen on top of the papers.  He looked around her in her black thief get up
to see Logan looking less thief, more commando in his black cargoes, combat
boots and skin tight black t-shirt, but he showed no surprise to see him there
again, loaded for bear.  He only blinked in surprise when he found they were
accompanied by the similarly decked out Eli.

"Sterling,"
Xena said when Logan and Eli came to stand beside her at the foot of the big desk. 
"Meet..."

"Eli
Ramsey," Sterling interrupted her.  "Yes I know who he is, and what
he is capable of.  I take it you are the anonymous hacker who infiltrated the
Council's computer network and gave our IT guys a merry, but ultimately
fruitless chase."

Xena
turned partially to lean her hip on the edge of Sterling’s desk.  They all
ignored Sterling’s question.  "Any luck with finding the leak?" Xena
asked.  Her voice was mild, her eyes sharp on him.

Sterling
sighed and sat back, running his hands through his hair in a sign of agitation
that Xena had never seen in the always cool handler.  "Apparently it's me,"
he finally said, his voice angry.  Then Xena realized it was not agitation, but
anger that was smoldering in his old wolf eyes.  "At least that's what the
IT guys tell me."

"Yeah,"
Xena said tilting her head and watching him, aware that both Eli and Logan had
hard predatory glares aimed at him.  "That's what we got too."

Sterling
growled just a little and Xena realized his wolf was close to the surface and
either reacting to the predators in his territory, or the situation.  She would
bet it was the latter.  Alpha males did not like to feel out of control.

Sterling
caught her eyes and said.  "I did not set you up," very distinctly.

"Oh,
we know that mate," Eli said his accent going straight Irish and making
Xena turn to look at him.  Unsurprising, he took yet another moment to admire
her ass in her thief outfit before shifting his attention to Sterling when
Logan growled another warning at him.  "I'm here to get on your system
from the inside and find out what the fuck is going on."  It was stupid to
get distracted in this situation, but she could not help but think his voice in
that accent was hot.  Almost as hot as when Logan drifted into his drawl.
 Jeez
these guys. 

"
You want me to let you hack my
computer, thereby exposing to you all the council secrets and committing
treason at the same time, an act that would mean my death and yours if it was
discovered?"

Eli
didn't hesitate.  "Yep, see you get the gist."

Sterling
turned to look at Xena.

"You
either trust me or you don't," Xena said in way of answer to that look.

Sterling
studied her a moment longer.  "You traced the e-mails to my
computer?"

"Yes,"
Xena answered him, knowing what he was really asking.  "But I know
something your IT guys don't," she smiled at him.  "You would not
blow up a hotel even if you didn't know for a fact I wouldn't be there.  And
you are not stupid enough to leave a trail if you did."

His eyes
warmed just a bit and he shook his head.  "I suppose in this business it
is foolish to hope you would just say you know I would not betray you," he
muttered, looking down at his desk again.

"And
I know you would not betray me," Xena finished softly, her eyes conveying
her faith in him.

Sterling’s
head snapped up and his eyes found hers.  He saw what she was telling him in
her eyes.  Some great tension went out of his shoulders and he sat back in his
chair with a creak.

He
smiled at her and Xena tilted her head and narrowed her eyes at him.  "You
going soft on me Sterling?"

He
barked out a laugh and stood up.  "God Forbid."  He motioned to his
desk looking at Eli.  "Mr. Ramsey, I hope you are as good as Xena thinks
you are."

"Better,"
Eli said with his usual wicked grin and absolutely no humility. He winked at
Xena suggestively before he made his way around the old wolf to the computer.
"And you can relax wolf.  I'm going to be in and out without anyone being
the wiser."

With a
happy look in his eyes that was not reassuring, Eli got to work bypassing
council security from the inside.  Xena watched him.  Logan watched Sterling
and stood close enough that he was pressed along her back while she sat on the
desk.

Sterling
met Logan's eyes and raised a brow.

"He's
not so sure," Xena said by way of explanation.  She elbowed Logan in the
gut.  "Behave," she muttered her eyes still on Eli.  Logan continued
to watch Sterling like a wolf watches a mouse, and Sterling found a seat in one
of the guest chairs and settled down, ignoring Logan's stare.

Ten
minutes in, Eli started cursing, loudly.  Xena glared at his bent head but it
was Logan who warned him in a low voice.  "Keep it the fuck down Eli,
unless you want your fun curtailed by someone coming to see what the fuck is
happening here."

"No
need," Sterling said smiling.  "The room is soundproofed, and my
secretary knows better than to come in without notice."

"We
locked the doors anyway," Logan said shrugging.

Sterling
lost his smile, looking equal parts shocked and annoyed.  "Three of you
bypassed the security, came in through the window and even stopped to lock the
door before I knew you were in the room?"

"Yup,"
Eli assured him happily, without looking up from the computer he was typing
away at, what looked to Xena like super speed.  "Your security sucks.  If
you had hired Lionsgate to set it up, you would have been a fuck of a lot
better off."

Sterling
snorted.  "We haven't had a breach succeed since the system was
upgraded," he assured them and then caught Xena's raised brow. 
"Besides Xena of course," he corrected.

"Fucking
twats," Eli muttered and Xena was unsure whether he was referring to the
people who tried to breach and failed, or the security company who set up the
system.  Then he hooted in pleasure, making her jump a little.  Lucas's hand
going to her arm to steady her.  "I'm fucking in there." Eli finished
and turned the monitor to face them.

Sterling
looked both annoyed that he had managed it so quickly, and eager.  He did not
like someone going after his agents; he especially did not like them using him
to do it.  He saw what was on the screen and growled.

Xena's
eyes flashed directly to enraged coyote gold.  "That fucking bitch." 

Eli was
looking at Sterling.  "Something else wolf," he said and his tone
drew Xena out of her rage and back into the here and now.  "There is no
fucking way your IT guys did not find this trail, not from the inside.  Not if
they were actually looking.  I would say she had help and not just with the
cover up."

Sterling's
eyes went cold and he pursed his lips.  "That would make sense since she
herself is not clever enough to pull this off, the planning maybe, but not the
computer work."

"Probably
shagging one of your IT guys," Eli said with a shrug.  "Men have been
known to do stupid shit for pussy."

Xena
turned her angry glare to Eli.  "Can you find out who?  Or do I need to
ask her before I twist her fucking head off?"

"I
have been ordered to stay clear of this matter," Sterling cut in mildly
enough.  "I am officially retiring at the request of the council.  Now I
understand why."  He looked mildly annoyed.  "And I would lay odds
that the IT guy you are looking for is Bradley Mills," Sterling finished. 
"He disappeared a few days ago."

Xena
blinked at him, her anger momentarily forgotten at this news.  "Come
again?"

Sterling
looked at her and then pointed at the computer screen.  "My secretary,
Margarete Murat, is great grandniece twice removed of Francois Dumas, head of
the Shifter Council.  She comes from an aristocratic shifter bloodline.  If
they did indeed follow the trail to her, it would explain a lot.  Though not
why they would allow her to keep her job here when she is clearly a security
risk. Mills does not have the same lineage."

"Are
you telling me," Logan drawled his voice hard and angry.  "The
council knows this bitch tried to kill one of your operatives, sent classified
information to known criminals, and they not only did not "red flag"
her ass, they did not even fire her because of her fucking name?"

"Mills
is red flagged and marked terminated in his classified file," Eli said
grimly.  The sudden silence of the ticking keys drew every eye to him.

"And
Margarete?" Xena asked, knowing from the pissed look in his eyes she was
not going to like it.

"There
is a note on the file that she be 'reassigned at Sterling’s retirement to a job
of equal pay and less contact with classified information.'”

Logan's eyes
went glacial and then sparked angry wolf gold. 

Eli
growled low.  "They didn't even give her a bloody pay cut."

Xena
paid no attention.  She was dealing with her own anger flare.  She started
pacing the room in angry stomps, because it was either that or throw something.

"The
bitch tried to kill me, put my mate and his people in the line of fire, shot up
Logan's ugly,
fucking
hundred year old farmhouse, got a stupid shit heal
IT Guy killed, and a good man fired, even if they do call it retirement,"
she growled, looking at Sterling at the last bit, before she kept moving and
now, full-fledged ranting.  "All because she is a vindictive, cowardly
bitch who wanted revenge for ..."  Xena narrowed her eyes and stopped her
pacing.  "What exactly?"  Then she smiled, her eyes going glittery
and hard, and every man in that room stilled.  "Let's ask her, shall
we?"  And she went for the door to the outer office.

Sterling's
voice called out, still mild enough that Xena knew he was truly pissed only
because of the cold wash of chill in his eyes.  "You kill her and they
won't care that you had cause," his voice was soft and it stopped Xena
with the knob in her hand.  "They will order your execution as easy as
they did Mills."

"Let
them
fucking
try," she growled out, pulling at the door to open it,
only Logan was standing above her, his hand holding it closed.

She felt
his heat at her back and his scent wrapping around her, and knew from the
tension in his chest pressing against her back, that he was at least as pissed
as she was.  Maybe more.

 "You
kill her, and they come after you for this shit, or anything else, I will
fucking bury them," Logan growled.  "Happily," he clipped, and
it was clear he was aching to have a go.  "But we need to be
smarter."

"They
want an excuse to take on Lionsgate."  Sterling cut in.  "My
understanding is they want your healer and beyond that they very much dislike the
mixing of animal clans and the precedence it sets.  Not to mention, Gibbs and the
rest of you don't fear the council as you should. They see it all as a threat. 
You attack someone working for the council and they will retaliate, and do it
in such a way that the entire pack will feel the repercussions."

Xena
hissed out a breath and then growled low through her teeth.  "Let
go."

"What
are you going to do?" Logan asked mildly enough.

"Not
what I want to do," she flashed back her answer, snapping it through her
clenched teeth.

Logan
stepped back and away from the door.  Xena looked over her shoulder at him.  He
tensed seeing the cold that had crept over her eyes.

"Shit,"
Eli muttered seeing it too.

"How
many of my enemies did she give my real name to?"  Xena asked, her voice
going cold and crisp.  "We need to know, and besides that, she came after
me, and that means you and your pack are now in the line of fire.  If the
council won't do a thing to stop her, then she will keep doing it.  I'm good at
my job," she said looking briefly at Sterling.  "I've made a whole
lot of very bad enemies.  How many more attacks before someone gets
lucky?"  Her eyes went back to Logan's and held.  "Lionsgate is in
this.  If the council is looking for an excuse they will find it when someone
noncombatant like Miley, or Clytie or Cassandra does get hurt and you and the
rest of the wild bunch lose your fucking minds and react to something this
bitch started."  Xena lowed her voice and willed him to understand why she
had to do what she was about to do. "Unless we change the game." 
Then she pressed her point.  "This shit ends today."

Logan
got her, she could see understanding penetrate the anger and turn to
calculation.  Finally he said, "You have a plan?"

"I
do," she said finally.  "But you aren't going to like it."  She
looked at Eli.  "Think you can hack into the sound system in this place,
set up a live feed to everywhere in the building?"

Eli
narrowed his eyes and then started to smile.  "Get her to confess live and
on tape?  You really think this bitch is that dumb?  It's not exactly an
original idea.  She might have watched a cop show at some point in her
life."