My Shifter Boss

She smirked. “Of course it’s you, Nathan. Come on in. Did you kill Bobby on your way past?”

“No. Come with us, Marissa. You won’t get past the two guards we have stationed outside this apartment, and this room has no other exit that won’t kill you.”

Marissa seemed to consider his advice. “Let me explain something to you. I would rather smash myself on the pavement eight stories below than go with you and sit in a cell.”

Nathan regarded her. “Honestly, I doubt you’d be in a cell for long.”

Marissa lifted her gun and pointed it at Nathan. “Your man might kill me after I shoot you in the head, but it would almost be worth it.”

“Wrong again. He won’t kill you. He’ll just wound you and take you in anyway,” Nathan assured her. He stepped closer. “Just drop it Marissa.”

Matt had risen from his kneeling position on the floor. “Nathan, I can shoot her leg or shoulder right now. She’ll drop the gun.”

Nathan shrugged and looked at Marissa. “One last chance, Marissa. Drop the gun, or Matt is going to shoot you. You’ll drop the gun either way.”

Without removing her eyes from Nathan’s, she turned the gun on Matt and fired a single shot, hitting him high in the chest. Nathan yelled, but rather than moving to Matt, as Marissa had expected, he slammed his body into hers and they fell to the floor with grunts. The gun went flying, and he wrestled handcuffs on her before she could shift.

Bobby walked into the room to survey the scene. He knelt beside Matt and tried to staunch the blood. Marissa saw him and screeched.

“Bobby! What the hell?” Realization struck when he didn’t look at her. “You traitor! I’ll have you killed.” She continued to rant until he stood, walked over to her, and slammed her head into the floor, knocking her unconscious.

He looked at Nathan. “She wouldn’t have gone quietly.”

Nathan nodded and returned his attention to Matt, who had already passed. He shook his head and asked, “Will anyone come running after hearing those gunshots?”

“I doubt it. We hear them off and on all the time in this neighborhood,” Bobby replied.

“Go get one of the guys at the door. I can carry Marissa while the two of you carry Matt’s body. We aren’t leaving him here.”

*****

After a difficult trip back to the Guard’s headquarters, Nathan was on his way to give a report to Maryann and the council members, but he called Lucy first. She’s rushed down to meet him, had been in tears when she saw Matt’s body. His body would be taken to the morgue housed in the lowest level of the headquarters.

Nathan instructed the guards to take Marissa to the holding cell she’d previously occupied and remove the cuffs. “I want two guards at her door twenty-four, seven. She is not allowed any guests. At all,” Nathan ordered. “Bobby, you’ll come with me to the conference room.”

Bobby, who was also in cuffs, nodded his head. After helping Nathan and the weres with Matt’s body, Nathan had put the cuffs on him, explaining that it was protocol. Nathan planned to vouch for Bobby as much as possible, but he knew the man would have to face some punishment for his part in the breakout. Bobby knew it too, but he didn’t care. He’d had to help stop Marissa’s insanity before she destroyed the city.

Maryann raised an eyebrow at Bobby’s entrance. She waited for Marissa to walk in as well. “Where is Marissa?”

“Marissa was knocked out during the altercation,” Nathan explained. “I’ve had her taken to a cell.”

“Guards?”

“Two at all times, and no visitors.”

“Good.” Maryann looked at Bobby, who didn’t look at all scathed by the events of the evening. “This is Bobby?”

“Yes. He came voluntarily,” Nathan told her. He sat down and gratefully took the water bottle Lucy offered him. She handed one to Bobby as well, who murmured his thanks and drank a hearty gulp.

“Tell us what happened, please,” Maryann asked Nathan.

“Everything went well until we got in the apartment. Marissa ran to a back room where she had a pistol. She threatened to kill me, had the gun pointed at me, but shot Matt because we weren’t prepared for her to do that. He died in the apartment.”

Maryann nodded, sadness etched on her face. A couple of the council members wiped tears away. Matt had been with the Guard for nearly twenty years, working his way up from security guard to head of security. He’d been well-liked by everyone.

Maryann looked around the room. “We have a decision to make. Weres do not take their traitors to the human courts. Those of us, here in this room, choose the punishment of those who disobey our higher laws.” She looked at Bobby. “Bobby, what do you have to say for yourself?”

Nathan interjected, “Before he speaks, may I just say that the capture of Marissa wouldn’t have happened without him.”

“Yes, but what I did beforehand I am willing to answer for.” Bobby looked at every were in the room, meeting their eyes. He confessed. “I helped Marissa escape, and in the process, I killed at least one were with my own hands.”

The elder werewolf, Emmett, said, “Because of his help tonight, I move that we do not execute this young man.”

“What do you propose?” Maryann asked.

“Imprisonment. For a reasonable amount of time as befitting the crimes he has confessed to,” Emmett answered.

“Banishment is also an option,” Edward pointed out.

Maryann thought over both options and decided, “I think banishment is worse than imprisonment. I move to banish this were from this city forever and always.”

Emmett seconded the motion, and with a chorus of ayes, Bobby’s fate was decided. “We’ll have him escorted out of town in two days. Until then, he will remain in a cell far away from Marissa,” Maryann announced.