They stared at him in silence. There was little else they could do.
He smiled again. "I'll take your silence as acceptance. Now, get the hell out of my office, and go do some work."
Gabriel glanced down at her, his hazel eyes as cold as the antarctic, then turned and walked from the room. She had no choice but to follow. She'd lost one job and gained another — and a new partner in the process. Some days, you just couldn't win.
"This is great," Gabriel muttered as he strode along the hall. He ran a hand through his hair and glanced back at her. "Nothing personal, of course. I just prefer working alone."
"Which is not a current option."
"There's always another option," he shot back, "and always a way around orders."
"He won't send me back upstairs. You heard him say that."
"And I won't work with a partner." His gaze was almost challenging, like she was somehow a threat to him.
She raised an eyebrow and wondered what the hell she was missing. "It's not like either of us has much of a choice. Why not accept it gracefully and just get on with whatever it is we're supposed to do?"
"What I'm supposed to do now is take you downstairs and register you for training, which I will do. But nothing more. You and I will never work together."
"Why not? I mean, we did work well together, didn't we?"
He didn't even bother glancing at her. "Yes, but that doesn't alter my decision."
He strode off. She had no choice but to follow "What the hell have you got against having a partner?"
He didn't answer. But it really didn't matter, because they were both stuck with the situation, and there was nothing they could do but put up with it the best they could. He would see sense, sooner or later.
Besides, unwanted or not, there was one good thing about her being drafted into the ranks of the SIU. Their computers had a far greater access to secure records than the state police computers did. Maybe here she could uncover the truth about her being dumped at the orphanage. Maybe here she could finally uncover the truth about the past she couldn't remember.
And she wouldn't let one stubborn assistant director, intent on not having her as a partner, stop her journey of self-discovery.