Post by MICHAEL SHEPARD on Apr 30, 2023 16:52:50 GMT
He hadn’t wanted to leave the agency, even temporarily, but he hadn’t really been given an option. They wanted to stop him from asking more questions and he’d already started to suspect that his superiors there knew more than they were letting on. Cut off from their resources, he’d tried to find some to dig up proof of what he’d believed using Orlov’s systems. If there’d been an ounce of proof they would’ve been out of the job, but he wouldn’t have been back in it. Michael hummed in agreement to Luke’s words, his gaze still on the road. He hadn’t been ready then, not to cut himself off of that slow drip feed of information about what had happened to Abi and Sara that Orlov was meting out. Now it had dried up entirely, but that was out of choice. He was done doing the vampire’s dirty work. If there was a truth to find out there, then he’d do it on his own, or with those connections he’d built here himself.
Huffing out something approaching a chuckle, Michael settled back in his seat, no longer as focused as he had been on the road. ”You’re a braver man than me to stick with her.” Not that Gwen might’ve given Luke a choice, she certainly hadn’t given him one when she’d turned up at his motel room. She seemed the sort that was happy with the bee in their bonnet. Given the choice between that constant buzz and sting and going it alone, albeit it with a maybe a little less success, he’d have chosen working solo. ”I was never gonna be a field agent. I was an analyst, a thinker. That was what got the agency interested in the first place. My thesis fit right into what they were investigating in Russia. If it wasn’t for … “ Losing Abi and Sara – it was the mildest way of saying it, but it always left him feeling like they just wandered around in a crowd, were waiting at a curb to be found, instead of them being dead. ”I would’ve still been there. I guess you could call it my happy place.” His settled place at least. The shadow had changed it all and now it was obvious that he’d never get back to it in the same way.
Maybe there was that other avenue though. The agency academy had been a step up on college, but it was still in his wheelhouse, a series of theoretical situations instead of learning how to rush in with a gun heavy in his hand. The police academy wouldn’t be that way, he’d have to employ what he’d learned with Orlov’s people and be prepared to use a weapon if it came down to it. ”I’m not expecting much of a crossover. You guys have gone through things I never wanted to. Forbes knows that. I guess if she thought I’d fail she wouldn’t have brought it up, right?” Maybe there was some part of him that needed the reassurance of hearing it. Smiling wryly, Michael lifted his hands, warding off the idea. ”I’m keeping my mouth shut with her. I’d take the scorch marks if it makes a difference though.” Then he’d have a whole team for back-up, something they could maybe do with now. Michael let out a long breath, shutting the car door as Luke tried to reassure him. ”We’ll see,” he muttered. ”I feel like I should’ve come armed.” With something more than claws at least. As Luke had instructed, he stayed close, his gaze flitting around them. ”Shit,” Michael cursed, sucking in a deep breath as something shifted in the dancing beam of the flashlight. ”What was that?” He stared into that shifting darkness, trying to get a read.
hope to see you in the discord! 
