Hunting Her (The Keeping Her #6) (17 page)

"Maybe,"
Xena said with a shrug.  "But I think she is that dumb, but more than that
she thinks she's untouchable."

Xena was
not about to admit there was more to the plan than that, Logan might try to
stop her.  She didn't think he would, and she knew he wouldn't succeed if he
tried, but she quite frankly didn't want to waste the time it would take to
talk him down.  She had a bitch to cut into itty-bitty pieces, mentally and
physically, so she could stand over her mutilated remains and laugh. 

Not that
she was angry or anything.

Turns
out, there was a camera feed in the main office, so Logan could watch the
showdown as it happened, even as Eli rerouted the sound system and prepared to
make the audio reach every part of the building through the PA system.  They
did not need the council security or anyone else coming to contain them before
Xena got Margarete to the good stuff.  If she got her to the good stuff.  Nor
did they want to be detained after that fact.  Once they had what they needed
they would set the recording to play and get out the same way they came in. 

Eli was
confident he had the system so fucked it would take them awhile to get in and
stop the audio.  Long enough for the entire tape scene to play.  That is if
Xena could get the scheming Margarete to lose her shit long enough to go into a
fucking movie villain's rant.  Logan had faith in his mate, but that seemed
like a long fucking shot.

Margarete's
desk was a long u-shaped mahogany that had the computer situated so that she
could work while facing the main door.  It left her back to the rest of the
room, but since no one could get in without her seeing it, and she would hear
the office door open if Mr. Sterling joined her she was less judicious in
paying attention to the warning of her wolf senses than she ought to be.  That
was what Xena figured anyway.  Why else would it take the bitch so long to
notice she was no longer alone?

Sitting cross-legged
on the corner of the desk at Margarete’s back, Xena counted down the minutes
and finally cleared her throat.  Margarete stiffened and then turned, giving a
hiss of temper when she saw who it was.  Typical.

"Well,
hello there Margarete," Xena gave a jaunty wave.  "How have you
been?  Sorry to hear about your computer geek boy toy getting killed, but then
hey, what do you expect to happen when you divulge council secrets and try to
kill an agent?"

Margarete
stiffened.  "I don't know what you're talking about."

Xena
ignored that, and watched the flash of wolf gold in the woman's eyes that
showed her flux of emotions.  Not remorse, Xena saw, so much as irritation. 
What a
fucking
bitch.

"Really?
Huh.  Oh well, guess you can't make an omelet without breaking a few
eggs."  Xena tilted her head and smiled, going on while Margarete
growled.  "But what I want to know is what are you going to do without
your computer geek.  I mean, we all know you don't have the brains to get
anything done on your own. Certainly not without getting caught.  And since you
couldn't kill me, even with the extra help, what will you do now?"

Margarete
hissed again, her wolf coming close to the surface, teeth bared.  She lunged
out of her seat and took a step toward Xena.  She stopped though, clearly
thinking better of it at the last second.  Maybe remembering the last time she
tried laying hands on Xena.

Xena
sneered at her.  "I mean we both know you're too much of a coward to
challenge me, which from what I can see is all you really have left.  You
certainly aren't smart enough to keep throwing secrets at the council's known
enemies to get me.  Without your computer geek to take the fall, the council
will see it a mile away and red flag your ass."  Xena tilted her hands
out.  "No more problem for me."

Xena
watched in satisfaction as Margarete's jaw locked, her eyes narrowed and her
face went tight and ugly with rage and satisfaction.  "You think you know
everything you stupid cunt?" she hissed between grinding teeth.  "But
you have no idea who I am."

"I
know who you are Margarete Murat, a secretary and grandniece of Francois Dumas,
who incidentally turned on the council your great uncle heads, to...what
exactly?"  Xena tilted her head and raised a brow.  "That part I
haven't figured out.  Why risk your life to give out council secrets just to
take me down?  We've barely even conversed.  I mean one time you grabbed me and
I retaliated.  Big fucking deal.  A wolf less dominant than me should never
have even tried that shit, so you had to expect the outcome."

"You
are not more dominant than me!"  She screeched.  "You are nothing but
a mixed breed nothing who never should have been allowed in the building.  I am
a pure blood wolf who can trace my bloodline back to the aristocracy, if you
think anyone will care when I finally succeed in killing you, you are as stupid
as you are coarse."

"I'm
not the one foaming at the mouth," Xena interjected mildly enough and then
flipped backward off the desk when Margarete lunged at her.  Fanning the flames
of the woman's anger, Xena laughed.  "If you really wanted me dead, you
would challenge me, but you won't.  You can lie to yourself all you want, but
we both know pure blood or not, aristocrat or not, you are afraid of a little
mixed breed coyote.  And you're mentally unstable enough to betray your own
council, sell secrets to the enemy to bring me down because that truth just
stings like a bitch.  That makes you out of your fucking mind by the way,"
Xena added on an aside.  "Which we can add to your pure blood, that lovely
sense of entitlement and your stupidity to make up all that is you. 
Interesting," Xena said on a headshake.  "No redeeming
qualities."

"I
am not mentally unstable," she hissed.  "You made me look weak!"

"You
are weak."  Xena stated matter of factly.  "If you weren't, you would
have challenged me and been done with it."

"It's
forbidden to challenge within the council."

"Pretty
sure it's also forbidden to betray it's agents to the enemy," Xena
smirked.  "Try again."  She shrugged.  "Or just admit, just
between us girls, that you are a coward who knows this mixed breed will kick
her ass, pure blood or not."

"Shit." 
In the office with Eli and Sterling, Logan cursed.  He looked at Sterling. 
"If she challenges Xena..."

"Publicly,"
Sterling shrugged.  "Margarete will be the one to carry the blame for it. 
If she survives she will face penalties, but the challenge will still be
allowed to happen.  Privately..." He trailed off shaking his head.

"Fuck,"
Logan said.  He pointed at the screen.  "Get that ready to go live."

"Xena
won't thank you if you stop this," Sterling called, reminding him of
something he already knew.

He moved
fast to the door ignoring that, but he was still too late.

"I
challenge you!"

The
words that Xena wanted screeched out of Margarete just as the door to the
office opened and Logan came through looking like thunder.  But he was too
late.

"I
accept," she said with clear satisfaction ringing in her words.

And just
like that Margarete looked a little sick.  Then she rallied and sneered, her
eyes glittering with what sure looked like crazy to anyone who bothered to
look.  "You know if you hurt me they will hunt you down and kill
you."

"Who's
they?" Xena asked.  "The Council?  Or your pure blood family. Surely
both would have more honor than to punish me for accepting a challenge.  And
really," she added smiling wide.  "They can hardly blame me for
twisting your head off when you would clearly do the same to me.  If you had
the skills.  Which you don't."

With
another hiss Margarete lunged at her, reaching for Xena's hair as if Xena was
just going to stand there and let her get a good grip on her.  Which she
emphatically did not.

She
laughed from a spot feet away from the angry hissing wolf shifter.  "By
law I can also call the time and place, so let's keep it traditional.  It will
be tomorrow, daybreak at the council running grounds," Xena said.
"And don't think you can deny you made it."  She pointed to the
office door where Margarete looked to see Eli, Sterling and Logan watching
them, all with significantly different looks.  Eli was smiling full out, Logan
was grinding his jaw, and Sterling just looked his usual cool.  "It was
witnessed." 

Now the
bitch looked really sick.  Then her face returned to its usual
smooth-not-batshit-crazy face.  It was a good mask she wore, and the way she
could pull it on so quickly was telling.  "You don't have a pack, without
a pack you cannot officially challenge," she said, her voice stilted but
no longer crazed with rage. 
Neat trick that.

"Two
things," Xena said with a wide smile.  "You challenged me, so the
point is moot, and two."  She pointed a thumb at Logan.  "Meet my
mate, Logan McCord of the Lionsgate pack."

Margarete's
lips curled in disgust at the name of her new pack.  "It would have to be
that one, wouldn't it?" she asked snidely. Her eyes dismissed Logan and
his pack as below her notice. "No real pack would take you. But
Lionsgate," she made a face.  "They take any riffraff off the
street."

"I
think she just insulted our entire pack," Eli said with a smile on his
face, sounding more cheerful than the moment called for.  "It's like she
wants to die horribly."

Xena
smiled.  "I think I can arrange that."  Hearing the playback of her
conversation with Margarete begin over the intercom system, Xena watched the woman’s
face go sheet white.  Smiling wider she headed for the office door and her
angry mate. 

"Time
to go," she said, before she gave the sneering Margarete one final parting
smile.  "See you soon."

Then she
closed and locked the office door, so that whoever traced it and came looking
would have a time getting to them. 

Sterling
shook his head at her but spoke with a gleam in his eye that said he did not
exactly disapprove.  “I will be sure official channels are informed of the
challenge.  A council rep will be there to officiate, so there are no
misunderstandings.”

Nope,
that was definite satisfaction in his voice.  But then Margarete had cost him a
job he had done for forty years, and done well.  Xena doubted he would get too
worked up about the trouble she just brought to his door.

Logan
stopped her with a grip on the side of her neck that was unyielding.  His eyes
glittered sharply as he bent down until they were nose to nose.  "We will
be talking about this," he growled out.  Before she could answer, he
pushed her gently toward the window Eli had just escaped through, following her
out.  Xena mentally shrugged, gave Sterling a wink that had him shaking his
head, a spark of humor lighting his eyes and then they were gone.

***

Since
Logan had been a distant cold wind all the way from the Council headquarters to
the house they were staying at, Xena girded herself, thinking he wanted to get
somewhere more private for this confrontation.  Of course, privacy was not
exactly what awaited them at the house Miley had found for them outside of
Anchorage, not with Demon and Mac waiting there for Logan, Xena and Eli to
return.  The house they were renting was a big modern five bedroom, six
bathroom monstrosity with killer views of the snowcapped peaks and the distant lights
of the city.  But it wasn't that big, nor had it been built with shifters in
mind.  What went on in any room in the house, would be heard by every shifter
present anywhere in the house.

Lucas,
Ian, Ben, Shawn and Cleo had stayed in Napa to guard the rest of the pack in
lock down so they also had a conference call to make before Logan could let
loose the anger glittering behind his eyes.  Since Eli had sent them a feed of
the entire showdown between Xena and Margarete there wasn't much they had to say. 
Lucas and Miley did most of the talking. Their faces filling the camera so that
it was not hard to see the expression on Lucas' face while they watched the
scene unfold between her and Margarete.  He was not a happy Lion.

"Nice,"
they all heard Ian say with pleasure as soon as Xena hit the video feed in her
sexy cat suit.  She felt Logan get more and more pissed as the scene played
out, and she did not think he could get more tense, but apparently he had
relaxed at least marginally on the ride to the rental.  By the time the tape
had run he was pissed way the fuck off all over again, she could feel it
pulsing in the air around them.

"I'll
be in the air within the hour," Lucas said grimly.

"We'll
be in the air," Miley interjected, her voice brooking no argument.

Lucas'
snarl came through quite clearly over the computer and his eyes shot to his
mate beside him.  "No. Fucking. Way."

"I'm
a healer," she reminded him with an exasperated tone to her voice. 
"If Xena is going into a challenge then I will be there to heal her if she
gets hurt.

Xena
snorted.  "I'm not going to get hurt."

"You
are a coyote going up against a wolf," Logan growled low.  "While I
have no doubt you could easily kick her ass in human form, she will have fifty
pounds on you when you are both shifted.  Maybe more."

Xena
narrowed her eyes at him but before she could ask him for his point, Lucas was
snarling some more at Miley. 

"I
am leaving everyone else here to protect the pack, you are staying with them in
lock down until we return."

"I'm
going with you to Anchorage in case Xena gets hurt."  Her voice was soft,
but even over the computer Xena could hear the core of steel beneath the words.