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“Says the scorpion to the frog,” she said as she pushed her way past him.
“Scorpion?”
“You sting because it’s in your nature. You can’t help hurting those who’ve done nothing to you. Like me.”
“I’m protecting you!” he shouted in the middle of the stairwell in the Department of Alien Affairs building as she disappeared down the stairwell. The door one floor down clicked shut.
She hadn’t heard him. Worse, she believed he hated her.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
CHAPTERSIX
MAGGIE
Maggie rifled through the papers on her desk. Reports she hadn’t finished and ones that Assistant Director Sutherland had returned with questions. She couldn’t focus on work, not with how she’d left Zirkov in the stairwell yesterday.
He truly believed she’d leaked information to the enemy. Before she ran into him again, she wanted to gather proof of her innocence.
Why did she care what he thought of her?
He can arrest you. Damage your reputation.
No, he wouldn’t do that. That was her fear talking. There was a sense of sadness and loss that came with knowing he suspected her. Zirkov always came across as reserved and distant, but he had a good heart. She’d seen him fight for his marshals, even when they screwed up and deserved to be fired. He believed in his people and would sacrifice himself for them without question.
But her? He thought she was a mole. A traitor.
The fact he could even think that proved she wasn’t part of his team, and that she meant as little to him as she did her own mother.
“Marshal?” came a deep voice in front of her desk.
There he stood, a tower of blue muscle with horns that intimidated her co-workers. She glanced around. Even now, most of them had stopped working as they watched him with suspicion.
He didn’t belong up here. In fact, he hated coming up to her floor.
Silver eyes that reminded her of a moonlit lake stared at her. No remorse, no apology, only a cold-hearted look from a man who didn’t believe in her.
“We need to talk, Marshal Walsh. In private,” Zirkov’s voice held no emotion, but his eyes betrayed his anger.
“Talk here. I have nothing to hide.”
“Don’t you?” he whispered.
“Leave, Commander.”
The din of talking and papers shuffling around them died down, nearby agents now watching their exchange.
Privacy or not, she wasn’t ready to talk. Not without evidence to prove her innocence. Maggie grabbed her blazer and, without a word, shoved her way past Zirkov and headed for the elevator. The number nine lit up. The damn elevator would take forever to come back down to six. Slamming her body into the release bar, she barreled into the stairwell.
“Maggie, wait!” Zirkov’s voice echoed through the stairwell.
“I have nothing to say to you,” she called out as she raced down the stairs.
“We need to talk.”
The male moved like a ninja, quiet and surefooted, while her boot heals thumped on every step. As she burst into the lobby of the DAA, cool fresh air struck her, allowing her to breathe again. Or perhaps that was because she’d lost him.
The door slammed shut behind her, then clicked open seconds later. Scores of people, all humans, moved through the lobby. This wasn’t the place for a confrontation, not if she wanted to keep her career. If Earth Intelligence fired her, she had nowhere to go. She certainly couldn’t go back to her mother’s home. Not with all the memories there waiting to crush her.
