Reaching Answers (Artemis University #8) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,122
interview were burned once I read them, and the female officer will never speak of what she learned. We both assumed what you did was in self-defense.”
“You’re not wrong, but I promise, I’m covered. You’ll find out one day, and I promise you that you’ll be on the right side of it. I also will tell you that it’s worse than what you learned.”
“I did some digging into those men and I absolutely believe you. I lose no sleep over scum like them being gone, even if it’s against my oath.”
“We cannot protect you if you don’t fucking let us,” Zack snarled from behind me, interrupting our mental conversation.
Which had probably been the point since he didn’t like my tendency to overshare.
“Good to see you, James,” Captain Reddy greeted Zack.
“Yeah, you as well, Reddy,” Zack grumbled, sounded anything but. “You going to try and take her in again?”
“Nope,” I chirped, popping the P. “He came by to say hi and enjoy the show.” I winked at Reddy before looking at Zack. “Can we stop for food on the way back to campus? I’m hungry and I should treat you guys for giving you such a hassle.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “What else did you do that you’re being so sweet?”
I snorted. “I’m sweet a lot, but it gets overlooked by people focusing on how much of a loudmouth know it all I am. Even other women think that of me too often because they judge women like that whereas if I was a man, I’d be smooth and assertive. I’d be confident and kickass.”
“You’re not wrong, but sometimes you are a bull in a china shop and miss some things,” Zack replied, being fair like always.
“You’re not wrong,” I agreed, shrugging. “Which is why I’m offering to treat you guys and all the guards. I’m not perfect and I blew my temper, which makes a mess. Food soothes wolf shifters after a mess. Burgers? Steak? Ohh, Mexican?”
“All three,” Zack snickered. “The guys were freaking out we couldn’t hurry to follow and had to call for help. You gotta at least let us come with when you do that, Tams.”
“Then you’re accessories to what I do,” I sighed dramatically.
Captain Reddy shocked us both by throwing back his head and bursting out laughing. It took him a few two minutes to calm down enough to talk. “Oh man, you’ve got your hands full, James. You might have jumped ship from the corruption and red tape bullshit, but you have your hands full, my friend.”
“Yeah, but she pays better and does treat us amazingly well,” Zack praised. “And she really is easy most of the time. She’s a pain in the ass because she’s always protecting us instead of letting us protect her.”
“I woves you guys too much to let you get hurt,” I purred, opening a portal for us to get back to campus and figure out food. “See you soon, Captain.”
Reddy glanced at me and sighed. “Probably. I doubt things could be calm around you very long.”
Zack and I both snorted before stepping through the portal.
He wasn’t wrong, but it normally wasn’t my fault; that was the truth.
“I’m getting tired of this shit with the councils,” I grumbled. “It’s dragging on too long and like, enough already.”
“We all feel that way, Tams. If it was easy, anyone would have done it. This isn’t fiction where someone comes in and snaps their fingers to just handle all the bad guys and wrap it all up neatly in four or five books. Real life is dirty and messy and takes a lot of fucking time to handle things. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be any corruption in the human governments.”
We shared a look and snorted. Yeah, like that was ever going to happen.
The best part of all of that was by the time we went to pick up the gobs of my apology food, women were all over supe media were standing up and echoing what I was saying. They were standing up to their mates even and giving interviews saying they were tired of hearing they were weak and useless and if the men wanted to stay mated, they needed to stop it.
I thought about what Zack said as I took gobs of the food and brought it back to my room, wanting to talk to one person in particular. Izzy was sitting on her bed and watching it all on her laptop.