Betrayed: Days of the Rogue by Nicky Charles

Rafe McRae.”
    “Rafe?” Brad spoke barely moving
his lips, his eyes still focussed on his book. “I haven’t seen him
since we were at the Academy together.”
    “Dr. McRae?” Brandi knit her brows
together. “Wasn’t he the founder of the Rogue Rehabilitation
Clinic? As I recall he made quite a splash with his theory that
rogues aren’t inherently evil.” She hugged Reno’s arm. “Of course,
I knew that all along.”
    Reno pressed a kiss to her temple
before continuing. “Yep, that’s him. He called me about a rogue.
There’s one in his territory and he thinks it’s Damien.
    “Damien?” Brandi stiffened upon
hearing the announcement and Brad actually looked up from his book
before remembering his cover and sinking down behind the novel
again. “Oh my gosh, what are you going to do?”
    “I convinced him to try and keep
Damien there until I could fly out.”
    Brandi clutched the edge of the
table. “You’re sure he’s not going to call Somerset? If he does,
it’s like signing Damien’s death certificate. Maybe I should go,
just to be sure.”
    “Rafe is a good guy,” Brad assured
her. “He wouldn’t sell anyone out to a creep like Somerset.”
    Reno slid a sideways glance at the
man. “I’m going with my gut and assuming we can trust him that
far.”
    “Why wouldn’t you trust Dr. McRae?”
Brandi glanced over her shoulder and waved at a co-worker,
plastering a smile to her face as if she hadn’t a care in the
world.
    “I don’t know. But no one is above
suspicion. And a rogue died at his clinic recently. It could mean
something…or not.” Reno took another bite of food. “Just before
that, rumour had it he was making noises, wanting increased funding
for more research or some such thing. If he needs money, who knows
what he might do?”
    Brandi frowned. “Then why ask him
to help you out with Damien?”
    “He called me. Told me he suspected
Damien was in the area.” Reno shrugged. “What was I going to say?
‘Stay away, I’m not sure I can trust you.’ That would have gone
over real well.”
    “I hate this.” Brandi stared at the
fry she was dipping in ketchup, stirring it around in the red
sauce. “I hate not being able to trust anyone. I thought when you
caught Al Zimmerman that we’d be done with this.”
    “Al was only the tip of the
iceberg.” Brad closed his book and began to pack up the remnants of
his lunch.
    Reno nodded. “Investigating
Zimmerman is what brought this latest problem to light. Good thing
you decided to do a deep security scan of the system. If you hadn’t
noticed the correlation between the rogues and the Fae, who knows
if we would ever have noticed it.”
    “I’m still amazed that you even
made the connection.” Brandi darted a glance at Brad. “It wasn’t
until I actually saw the printouts side by side that I believed
it.”
    “I always said that damned
photographic memory could be put to better use than playing poker
and remembering the stats of females you meet at the bar.” Reno
laughed softly.
    “Hey, I’m more than a pretty face
and a great body.” Brad grinned before sobering again. He flipped a
page in his book. “I’m still analyzing the pattern of who is
accessing the Lycan Link data bank. Each person who signs in to a
file leaves an electronic signature. The trick is trying to compare
all the registered accesses and see if any were made by someone who
shouldn’t be there. So far, every Lycan who’s looked at the data
would have had a legitimate reason to do so in association with
their job. As far as I can tell, no one has breached the
system.”
    Brandi scowled. “Which confirms our
suspicions that it’s corruption right inside Lycan Link, not some
random hacker.”
    “No single department would have a
reason to access the list of rogues and the list of Fae.”
Brad pointed out. “There’s no overlap of responsibilities between
those two areas. And there’s no one person who’s tried to access
both