I didn’t know if our truce would last or if he had ulterior motives and secretly plotted to steal Chase away from me or something crazy like that. For now, I accepted the win. Us getting along was a bright spot during a dark patch in my life. Not as bright as other things, like what happened last night, but still definitely something going right. I hoped more good things were going to follow.
19.Showdown
Chase
“What’s going on?” Stopping in the doorway, I blinked in ‘surprise’ at the sight in front of me. “I expected an army of lawyers.”
"No need.” Bolton gestured for me to sit as though I was his guest. “Matters like this are best settled man to man."
We were in a conference room, too much space for just the two of us. An interrogation room would have been my turf, however, and this allowed him to pretend he held court in his boardroom.
I dropped down in the chair across from him with a grin. "Well, Hubie, you surprised me. Can I call you Hubie?"
"No." There, the first wrinkle appeared in his brow.
"Hubert it is. How formal. That fits." I held in a laugh at his sour face over his name. “After all, you’re a very letter of the law guy, Hubert, what with your books and mating accords.”
A pile of books rested on the table between us, no doubt full of archaic precedent in his favor.
“As a man who enforces laws surely you understand their importance.” He poured himself a glass of water from a nearby pitcher… Did we have that here or did he bring it himself? Without asking, he poured me a glass too, pretending to be a polite host. “Did I give you enough time to read about the rules in mate disputes via the International Pack–"
"Yeah, yeah. Rules and bylaws. I’ve got the Cliff Notes version.”
“Now, now Agent Slate.” He tutted, looking disappointed in me. Ouch, that cut me real deep. Not. “You’ve already shown your hand once. I know you’re not as dumb as you look. Are we going to discuss this like reasonable men or not?”
“Alright, no bullshit? I’m sure you’ve got lots of authentic looking records stating your claim and how it’s all official.” At this, he happily handed over a stack of documents. “But what’s the point in reading them? These are all fake."
"Do you have proof to back up that allegation?"
I snorted. "Thought you left the lawyers behind."
“These will stand up in a court of law, what makes them more authentic than that?" he asked with faux innocence, even as his eyes glinted with cruel superiority.
"Lucas tells a different story."
"Which is why I hoped to meet him and sort everything out. Not everyone understands the process.”
“Gee, I wonder why?” I grabbed the nearest decrepit tome, cracking the spine to check the date written. “1645. Were any of these books written in the last two centuries?”
"The older the precedent, the deeper it goes." One way to look at it, for laws still applicable and put into practice everyday. Others became obsolete. He just confirmed he didn’t know the difference.
I’m on the right track.
"If you really cared about quoting from these books, you’d have sent your attorneys. This is about you and me, Hubert. There’s still only two ways to settle this."
"Are you proposing a fight? I expected better of you, agent.” He sniffed, eyes traveling away from me and over the room in a mental dismissal. “Fine, we’ll schedule a time and if you’d like to discuss weapons—"
"No, we do this right here, right now. No magic, no tools."
“Scared of my magic, are you?” Bolton scoffed. "I don’t accept your terms."
"Man to man, isn’t that what you said?"
"Man tobeast.Why agree to an unfair fight?"
"You know what, Hubert? I’ve been asking myself the exact same thing.” I grabbed his phony documents, holding them up as the hand clutching the papers sprouted fur and claws. “You’re a cheater, and who are you to be bound by little things like agreement and consent?"
I flashed my wolf eyes at him, letting the ‘beast’ emerge and watched how he swallowed and tensed in his seat. Standing, I slowly crossed around the table, coming closer and smelling the sweat forming on his brow. That wasn’t all I smelled. Same grating cologne and no hint of magic. Mages always had magic in them. He didn’t seem strong or knowledgeable enough to conceal his, which meant he only smelled of magic when he borrowed it from another source. He was bluffing about his powers and didn’t really have any magic of his own.
