Chapter 5

Callie dragged herself into work that evening, her eyes burning from lack of sleep. Her hand tingled from the weight of the ring she now wore on her left hand ring finger. It was an amazing yellow diamond, huge and square cut, simplistic on a gold band.

An heirloom, Aidan had told her as he'd presented the ring to her for her to wear. It had belonged to his grandmother and then to his mother, now he wanted her to wear it.

"B-but..." she'd looked up at her father helplessly, not knowing what to say. She had been able to see what he wished shining in his eyes, and Aidan, well, looking into his brown eyes, she'd been unable to say no. But she hadn't said yes either. Instead, he'd told her to wear the ring, get used to it and him, and in a few weeks, Aidan would ask her again.

He was so sweet, kind, and funny, making her laugh even as uncertainty weighed her down. Being tall, dark, and furry didn't hurt much either she had to admit to herself.

"God I'm an idiot." She growled low in her throat and smacked the lock on her locker, almost tearing it off in the process. "What am I going to do?"

"You're an idiot?" Angel asked, making Callie jump as she slumped down on the bench next to her. "I slept with Marcus."

"No," Callie said, turning to look in surprise at the beautiful blonde. "You're lying. You told me you'd never sleep with anyone you worked with and especially not with Marcus."

"I don't' know what happened," Angel grimaced, dropping her gym bag onto the floor at her feet. "One minute you were kicking my ass on the mats, the next I was in the crypt with the big guy doing the wild thing."

"In the crypt?" Callie asked, her brows rising in surprise. "You fucked Marcus in a crypt? I thought he'd never get into another enclosed space since he'd been buried alive for those centuries, which is he claiming now, five or six centuries?"

Angel sat forward and smacked her head on the locker in front of her, hitting it again and again. "All I know," she hissed, "was he was taking care of me. He was going to take me down to the crypts and go and get me some blood and then ... Oh hell, then I was feasting off of him."

"You fed from Marcus? Holy hell, Angel, what was it like?"

"It was like the difference between Boones Farm and the bottle of Dom Perignon that my father has hidden in his wine cellar." Angel sighed. "It was a rush better than any I have ever had. I felt as if every cell in my body was filling with him and then I had his dick in my mouth. Ahhh!" One more slam against the locker and Callie slipped her hand between Angel's head and the dented metal.

"Stop it," she said, suddenly hearing a clink of metal against metal. Angel lifted her head, rubbing the spot on her forehead where Aidan's diamond had left an impression.

"What the hell are you wearing?" Angel grabbed her hand before she could hide it, staring at the huge yellow diamond. "Shit girl, that ain't real, is it?"

"Yeah, I'm afraid it is," Callie said softly, trying to pull her hand away.

"Left hand, ring finger, big diamond solitaire—did Shadow... ?"

"No, Shadow doesn't want me. He proved that to me last night. I'm an inconvenience. Having the boss's daughter as part of your team can be too much of a liability. You heard Daniels."

"Bull shit," Angel said crudely. You are no liability. I don't even want to hear that you think that way." She held Callie's hand up so the light played in the diamond, making it burst into a sparkling mass of glinting fire. "So if not Shadow, then who?"

"His name is Aidan Kent. My father sent for him."

"Wait, your father mail ordered you a groom? I thought that went out in the dark ages?"

"Aidan wasn't mail ordered. God I knew this was going to be hard to explain. I should have left the damn thing at home."

"Then why didn't you?" Angel asked, dropping Callie's hand.

"I was afraid I'd lose it. It's an heirloom in the Kent Clan."

"Ah ... the picture is starting to come to me. Clan as in Werewolf, your father is hunting a respectably groom for you."

"Yes, and he had to go all the way to England to get one."

"England?" Angel snorted. "I spent some time in England. There were too many staid and uptight people there. I went mad in the fifty years I stayed there. And what's with the teeth?"

"Aidan doesn't seem staid, I don't know for sure though. I just met him this morning?"

"Oh girl," Angel sighed, shaking her head slowly. "You're between a rock and an even bigger rock, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but my problem seems to have helped you with yours."

"Hell, dealing with a horny warrior god who has OCD is nothing compared with what Shadow is going to do when he sees that ring." Angel glanced at the clock that hung up in the corner of the locker. "And if we don't get our tails in gear, he'll probably be coming in here to see it." She got up and went down the row of lockers, stopping at her own.

Callie unlocked her locker and threw in her own bag, pulling out her uniform and the boots and sliding off her street wear. She was zipping her uniform up and tucking her taser into place when Angel grabbed her arm.

"Come on, we're late again."

Callie slammed the locker and shoved her badge on her uniform, gathering her long hair into one long tail to fall down her back and securing it with a rubber band as they walked. As she brought her hand back down, her eyes fell on the ring and she turned around.

"Where the hell are you going?"

"I forgot to take this off," she said, holding up the ring.

"It's too late now. We're already fifteen minutes late. I can't afford to get docked again."

"Then go ahead," Callie said stubbornly.

"Just wear it, Callie. He's going to find out sometime. Wouldn't you rather he heard it from you rather than read it in the newspaper's society section?"

Angel grabbed her and pulled, ignoring her half hearted struggles.

"There you are," Marcus snapped, grabbing Angel and yanking her into the small briefing room. "Do you two know how to get to work on time?"

"Somebody didn't let me get too much sleep today," Angel growled at Marcus, who had the bad timing to smile just at that moment. "Shut up, Wings. Stay the fuck away from me tonight."

She walked to another table and sat down, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at the front of the room.

"What's with her?" Marcus asked, clearly at a loss.

"You, that's what's wrong with her. She's not very happy with you right now, Marcus. You might want to give her some room today." Callie went and sat down next to Angel, leaving the other table for Marcus. "Where's Shadow?"

"He said he'd be right back. He's looking a bit pale today. Don't give him any problems," Marcus warned.

"What? Are you like his babysitter or something?" Angel snapped then turned her back on the huge winged warrior.

Callie almost burst out laughing as Marcus glared at Angel's back, finally sticking his tongue out at her. But the smile left her face when the door to the briefing room opened again and Shadow walked in. Her mouth opened in shock as first Aidan followed him in and then her father. She elbowed Angel, getting her attention and nodding toward the two men talking to Shadow.

"That's him?" Angel ran her blue eyes over the tall well-made wolf and licked her lips, ignoring Marcus's scowl. "He's hunky, girl. If you don't want him..."

"I know," Callie said. "Now shut up before he hears you."

Shadow turned at that moment, his eyes shuttered and hard, looking at Callie. "Raven, could I have a moment of your time?"

Callie flinched, hearing her code name and the cold, unflappable tone it was said in. She pushed back from the table, moving slowly across the room and stopping in front of Shadow. "Yes sir?"

"Your father brought your fiancé here to see where you worked. He requested that you show them around. Afterward, meet us back here and Angel can bring you up to speed on our case." He nodded at her, and shook her father's hand as well as Aidan's. "Congratulations again. We'll miss Raven when she leaves."

"Leaves?" Callie asked, looking after Shadow as he turned away and went up to the front of the room. "What does he mean, leave?" she demanded of her father as he pulled her out of the room.

"You didn't think you'd be staying here after you're married, did you?" Callan smiled down at his daughter, beaming. "You'll be moving to England to be with your husband."

"Leave ASP? But..."

"Honestly Callie," Callan said. "You're making a big to do out of nothing. You really didn't think you were making this a career?" He chuckled and bent to kiss her cheek. "It will take a while for you and your mother to get the wedding plans made, especially since we'll be calling Aidan's mother for her help as well. You can stay until it gets closer to the date of the wedding."

Callie couldn't deny her father nor stand to see the light of happiness leave his eyes. She pasted a smile on her face, swallowing the words of denial that wanted to spring to her lips. Her eyes were shadowed, the spark of life gone out of them.

"I have to get back to work, daddy," she said slowly, forcing herself to go up on her toes to give her father the usual kiss. "I'll stop by in the morning when I get done."

"That's fine, sweetheart. We'll have breakfast." He said his good-byes and Aidan gave her an understanding smile, stopping to take her hands in his. "Doing your duty can be a bitch, can't it?" he murmured for her ears alone.

Callie couldn't help the small smile that touched her lips, nodding.

"We'll get out of your way. Be careful," he said quietly, dropping a quick kiss on her cheek before he let her go.

Callie opened the door to the briefing room, unable to look at Shadow as she quietly went back to her chair. She looked up when he spoke to her, her eyes bleak.

"Angel can catch you up in the truck, Callie." He waited until she nodded then pulled some pictures out of a file folder.

Shadow felt as if someone had slammed a fist in his stomach. "Engaged? That's--That's fantastic." He held his hand out to Aidan, waiting for the male wolf to take it. "Congratulations." He managed to summon up a smile and could only hope it was convincing.

He'd thought all day about her, about the way he'd seen her last and about how she'd felt in his arms, against his body. Maybe it was the terminal case of blue balls he'd developed talking or maybe he was letting one head make the decisions for the other, but he'd finally decided that maybe things could work between them. His heart had felt lighter, his mood better despite the gory details of the information he was compiling.

Now this. He felt betrayed. She'd been with him like she had this morning and she was engaged? How could she? How could she not tell him? They were a team, they had to depend upon each other, trust each other.

He kept control in front of her father and her fiancé, managing to smile and make reasonable conversation until they walked into the briefing room and Callie was sitting there. She'd refused to look at him, refused to meet his gaze, even when he'd called her over. Seeing her made it worse. It bit a hole in his gut that had him feeling hollow and even worse, used.

Shadow managed to make it to the front of the briefing room. "Callie will be back in a few minutes. We're going to start with out her." He shuffled the papers in front of him. "In the last year, we've had more than thirteen bodies that Clean Up has had to dispose of without the human police knowing exactly what happened to them. Our liaison with the police says that they know something. It was only a matter of time before they caught on."

He paused as Callie came back in, watching her sit down. "Angel can catch you up in the truck, Callie," he said, waiting for her to nod. Then he pulled out the pictures he'd gathered, the facts about each victim firmly entrenched in his mind.

Turning, he put them on the huge white boards behind him, using magnets to put up each picture. "David Bramer, Jessica Albert, Patricia Bane, Alisha Williams, Jackson Jones, Carolina Staller," he said as he put up each picture. Even an ancient warrior of Marcus's years with the countless battles he had seen flinched at some of the horrors done to these victims.