Chapter 18

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When Michael Bartley got to work the following day there was a file waiting for him. It just had one word "Research" stenciled on it. So what it meant was that their machine identified potential suspects.

He opened the file and scanned through the contents, there were six profiles in order of percentage of likelihood. The first one was 88% likely but none of the six profiles had the name Charles to it. The first name was "Tom Minerd" he closed the file and picked up the receiver and dialed and internal extension. It was time to get operations involved.

Operations did a lot of stuff, from surveillance to threat neutralization. Right now he needed eyes on the ground to confirm that if these six identities pose any threat. Once deployed, he should get that information in a day or two and he would take appropriate action.

He would call back Sebastian only when he had something solid, no need to bother him with details.

The phone was picked up and in a crisp clear voice someone answered "Good morning. Operations, how may I direct your call?"

***

"Mmmm..." moaned loudly Alex, taking a bite in to the juicy burger.

"Alex" Evelyn hissed in embarrassment as people around their table gave them a weird look.

"Th...s is sup..r t..t.y" Alex said with his mouth full and busily chewing his chunk of burger.

"What?" Evelyn asked clearly not following what he was telling

Alex, chewed and swallowed and said "This is super! This is one of the best burgers I had" He praised taking one more bite.

Alex had called her in the morning if she was interested to meet for lunch and remained her that she owed him a burger. It was true, she did promise him to take him out to one of the best burger joint in town when they had gone on that date. She was glad she when out on that date, even though by evening she know they would never be a couple, what they had become over the days was good friend. Alex was a great guy and she was lucky to call him as her friend.

"Mmmm..." Alex moaned loudly again

"Alex" she hissed at him "Stop that"

"What woman?!" Alex asked annoyed "Can't you let a man eat his burger in peace?"

"Your process of mastication is anything but peaceful" she retorted "In fact I am not able to stand the violence of that process...so are others around you"

He looked around glared at anyone who was looking at him and again took a bite of his burger "Mmmm..." he moaned out extra loud.

Evelyn groaned and hit her head on the table in frustration.

"By the way" Alex said making her sit up again.

"I hope you know that all that law of the old thing was a pack of horse shit" he said a little uncomfortably.

He was referring to the way he had forced her to initially spend time with him by baiting that law of the old which Roma followed was different and it might threaten her plans of getting out of pack.

She just glared at him and he squirmed.

She sighed "I gathered as much. But thanks for letting me know. I appreciate it."

"Yeah...sorry about that...but how else was I to get you to spend some time with me and you were immune to my charms" he winked.

"Charms? I was not aware you had any" She retorted.

"Ouch!" That hurt girl, he said with a mock hurt face and rubbing his heart "My heart breaks!"

She smiled at his antics "Shut up! Moron" she threw a fry at him.

"And now she hurls objects at me!" He exclaimed, catching the fry and eating it.

"So anyways...sorry about all that" He said again, pretty embarrassed.

"No worries, all forgiven...besides it got me a good friend now didn't it?"

"Every man's dream...to be friend zoned!" he sighed in mock despair, but she could see that he was just joking.

"Anyways" he asked "Are you still stuck to your plan."

"Yep" she responded firmly.

"So, spoke to Nick?" he asked referring to her Alpha.

"Not yet, but I have my mom's blessings! Can you believe that?! That was one bone of contention between us. But now she is ok with it" She said with happiness.

He couldn't help smile at her happiness, it was contagious.

"What changed her mind?" he asked curious.

"The whole Rogue thing. She realized life is too short and if that is what I wanted to do with it, she was fine by it."

"That's good" He nodded his head in agreement.

"So, what's next then?"

"I still need to finish high school. I did visit them other day, they are happy to have me back, I need to catch up on lot of stuff but essentially I can take my exams and graduate with everyone else."

"Wow! Looks like you have it all planned out, miss planner."

"Yep, I am a planner" She said. She liked to think and plan her future out, she definitely was not a leap before you look kind of person.

"Good for you, I am happy for you Evy" Alex said genuinely.

"Thanks Alex" She saw he was truly happy for her.

"And" he said "If you need any help let me know. Like, if Nick gives you a hard time, maybe I can put in a word for you" he added.

"You would do that for me?" she asked touched.

"Sure, why not? That's what friends are for right?" He shrugged as if didn't mean a big deal.

But it did mean a big deal for her, she had to fight for what she wanted alone and to have him back her up meant greatly for her.

She reached out to his hand across the table and held it "Thanks, Alex!" she said her eyes communicating the emotion of gratefulness she felt.

Alex like a typical guy felt extremely uncomfortable by display of emotion and deflected "Anytime Evy" and added "And if you treat me this delicious burger couple of more times, I might spring you out from your pack myself if Nick does not let you go" he winked at her with a smile.

She laughed out loud "Sure Alex, will keep that in mind"

Post this they fell in to a comfortable conversation with her explaining her future plans and all and they dispersed after that. Alex headed back to hotel and Evelyn back home. She would return in the evening for her shift to the hotel.

***

As Alex walked in to the hotel he encountered Adrian looking for him.

"Where were you?" Adrian asked.

"Out for lunch" Alex responded.

"Who with?" Adrian had been waiting to have lunch with him as they usually did.

"Why do you want to know?" Alex asked again.

"Now I definitely want to know" Adrian said looking at Alex getting defensive.

"None of your business" Alex retorted.

"Was it her?" Adrian asked and the expression on Alex's face confirmed it.

"What's it to you?" Alex snapped, now his brother was getting on his nerves, what was with the inquisition.

"Nothing" Adrian said. Just today morning Roma crossed her off the list, thank god for that otherwise he did not know what he would have done.

"I hope she knows the deal" Adrian said, hoping he was not stringing the girl along. Alex was not like that but he might invest himself in something that was set for failure. With them returning back to Roma he could not see how this would go anywhere.

Alex sighed and looked at his brother "Look, I know how to take care of myself" Alex knew where Adrian was coming from. "And besides, she is just a friend" he added

Adrian looked at Alex for a moment, satisfied with whatever he saw "Cool" he said with a smile. "Let go up, we need to prepare for Nicks visit and how to deal with that little shit David."

Yes, David the head of enforcers was not their favorite person.

***

"Hi there beautiful!" Alex grinned at her, leaning on the hallway wall.

"Hello handsome!" Evelyn batted her eyelashes at him with a smile.

She had begun her shift a few hours ago and now she was delivering dinner to the top floor. As she emerged from the elevator, the guards had started their routine check of checking the food and scanning her with their detector when Alex interrupted her thoughts. She did not notice him there.

"So, miss me?" he asked, he was clearly flirting but amusement was clearly written all over his features.

"Who are you, again?" she asked.

"Ouch! You are evil" Alex grinned.

The guard nodded to her, indicating her to proceed and as she started pushing the cart Alex fell in next to her.

"So food duty, huh? If I knew room service was so attractive, I would have felt hungry more often" She just stuck out her tongue at him in response. He snorted at her childish response.

They reached the door and he opened it for her and they walked over to the table and he helped her transfer her the food on to the table. The room was empty. Maxwell had gone for a run earlier, his wolf was still troubling him so he wanted to let some steam off. But he would be running in his human form so it would not help a lot but still he was hoping that would help placate his wolf.

"So when do you get off?" he asked.

"Midnight" she responded.

"That's a lot of food" She commented once they were done transferring the food.

"Yep, we have a busy night, your alpha is coming in as well." He added.

"Is it?" she said, she knew better than to ask for more details.

"I better go back, before the chef starts hunting for me, you know, hungry wolves to feed" she said rolling her cart back to the door, he accompanied her in to the hallway and to the elevator.

"Bye, Evy! See you around" he said as the elevator doors started to closed.

She just waved him off with a smile.

***

Maxwell returned after his run and Roma was sitting in the sofa going through her iPad, she looked up as he entered "Feeling better?"

"A little bit" he said and stilled, he took a deep breath and his hands balled in to his fist, there was that damn smell again hitting him like a ton of bricks.

"What's wrong?" Roma asked looking at his expressions change.

He shook his head "Nothing" but he was going to get to the bottom of this, something was nagging him about that smell at the back of his mind. But there was no point in worrying his mother for now.

"Go and freshen up, Maxwell. Nick is on his way" She added.

He nodded and headed to his room. Leaving Roma behind deep in his thought.

***

Nick arrived with his beta Jeff shortly and the meeting started.

"David is no fool" Adrian was saying "And it would be foolish of us to think he is. He is extremely smart and has ways to get information he needs, and will look for excuses to poke his nose in places where it does not belong."

"So, what are we going with?" Nick asked.

"We stick to the truth. You reached out to us in desperation, we helped" Adrian said.

"Then you reached out to most of the packs impacted by this rogues attack and saw they were in disarray, you offered help, most of them wanted to join your pack. You accepted"

Nick and Jeff were nodding.

"Then you joined your pack with us as that was our agreement"

"What about the rogues?"

"What about them?" Maxwell asked.

"What do we tell what happened to them? What if he asks about the rogue Alpha?" Jeff asked uncomfortably. If this David was no fool, they should be ready for all possible questions.

"You disbanded rogues, shipped them out to different packs" Roma added "As per the rogue Alpha, stick to the truth. You don't know the outcome as we took him off your hands and you were more than happy and really don't care what happened to him."

But the question of what happened to him hung in the air and looked like they were not getting any answers. So they moved on to iron out the final details.

The meeting broke up post dinner and Maxwell immediately went in to his room. Alex and Roma were seated on the sofa while Adrian had gone out to escort Nick and his beta to the elevator.

Adrian returned "Well that went well" he said

"It's good to have them prepared. As you said we would be fools to underestimate David" Roma answered

"Very well" Alex said getting up "Good night Roma! Adrian you joining?"

"Sure" Adrian said getting up "Good night Roma!" and he walked towards the door while Alex opened it.

"Adrian" Roma stopped him by calling out to him.

Both Adrian and Alex stopped.

"Yes Roma?" he asked.

"I want to meet that girl Ria" She said.

Adrian paused looking in to her eyes, seeing what he wanted to see. He took a deep breath "Sure Roma" he confirmed.

"When?" he asked.

"Tomorrow morning?" She asked.

"Sure, will have it arranged"

"Who is Ria?" Alex asked.

"The girl who served us dinner tonight" Adrian responded.

"Ria?" Alex questioned "Ria did not serve dinner tonight, Evelyn did" He added.

"What?" Adrian asked looking at him with confusion, even Roma was looking lost.

"Evy, served dinner tonight" Alex added. Roma raised her eyebrow at his familiar use of her name.

"Are you sure?" Adrian added.

"Yes. One hundred percent. I was here. I helped her get the food on to the table from her cart" Alex said with certainty.

Adrian looked at Roma, Roma was looking at Alex and Alex was looking at both of them.

"What?" he asked breaking the staring match.

Adrian finally looked at him "Is Evelyn still on shift?"

Alex looked at his watch "Sure, should be. She told me she would be here till midnight."

"Ok, let's go" Adrian said ushering Alex out of the room and closing the door behind him.

"What was that all about?" Alex asked

"Nothing" Adrian said

"Sure didn't look like nothing" Alex prodded

Adrian sighed

"Listen, is Evelyn in some sort of trouble? She is my friend, I need to know..."

Adrian cut him off "She is not in any trouble. I assure you Alex. Can you drop this for now?"

Alex looked at his brother and nodded "All right. But Adrian" he said seriously "If there is anything that concerns her, you would tell me...right"

"You will be the first to know" Adrian looked him in the eye and said. Alex nodded satisfied and they broke up.

***

Adrian had waited for a while before he disappeared, to not invoke Alex's suspicions. Finally he found himself in the kitchen. Evelyn was busy scrubbing dishes. Her back to him.

He walked up to her and cleared his throat. She stopped what she was doing and turned around.

"Hi" he said.

"Hi?" she responded back unsure.

The kitchen staff was also looking at them with curiosity. Adrian was a pretty high-ranking wolf to be socializing with kitchen staff. Not many of them knew about her friendship with Alex.

"I need to ask you a question?" he said.

"Sure" she said wiping her hands on her apron.

"Today morning, you had a shift right?" She nodded.

"Who came in for your shift in the morning?" he asked.

How did he know? She was worried now. Was there a problem, did Ria cause a problem? Was Ria in trouble? Thoughts raced through her head. She for a second was tempted to lie but thought better about it.

Instead she asked "Why? Is there a problem?"

"Answer my question Evelyn" Adrian asked without raising his voice but the command in his voice could not be missed.

"Ra..Ria" she stuttered.

"Ria? Why?" he asked.

"She had some work, so we swapped shifts. We didn't think it would matter, is she in trouble?" She blurted.

He ignored her questions "So? Ria took your morning shift and you are doing her shift right?"

Evelyn nodded.

He paused in thought "Tomorrow morning, who is on duty?" he asked.

"Me, why?" She asked again.

"Please ensure there is no more change in shifts. I expect your to stick to your shift tomorrow" he said again ignoring her question.

"Ok" she agreed hesitantly, not understanding what this fuss was about.

"And Evelyn" he paused to ensure he had her undivided attention "No swapping shifts in future please, we have our reasons in assigning shifts the way we do"

"Sure" she agreed readily "I hope there is no trouble for us" she asked.

"Nope, you are fine. Just that no more changes in future"

"Definitely!" she confirmed with relief.

"Thanks Evelyn!" he finally smiled "see you tomorrow morning" and walked out.

Once he was out of her hearing range he picked up his cell and called.

"Yes?" Roma responded.

"It was Evelyn, not Ria" Adrian confirmed and added "She is on breakfast shift tomorrow, she will be there."

"Good" Roma said and hung up.