***

  “Skylar we need to talk,” Ethan said the moment she entered the building.

  “Ok,” she said as she followed him to his office. Skylar was surprised to see a middle aged woman sitting where Skylar would normally sit, knowing her Uncle he hasn’t dated since his last divorce (which wasn’t at all an easy split between the two) she was also surprised to see that it was Sidney’s mother that sat in her chair. Skylar knew her face clearly showed her confusion. “What’s going on Ethan?” she asked forgetting all about her formalities.

  “You obviously know the woman sitting here I presume.”

  “We’ve met briefly,” the woman responded.

  “Yea,” Skylar said slowly. “I also know that her daughter is going crazy looking for her, she thinks Hank kidnapped her,” she said to her Uncle/boss though her eyes never once left the woman.

  “Ciana can you excuse us for a minute?”

  “Of course,” she said leaving the office.

  “Ms. Royce sit,” he demanded as he took his own chair. Skylar sat slowly not sure if she wanted to hear what she knew would come out of his mouth. “Hank has brought it to my attention that he believes his future wife and daughter in law are in danger.” Skylar nearly chocked for two reasons one of the reasons being that HE WAS THE DNAGER! And the other being she was pretty sure that Sidney knew nothing about Hank becoming her future daddy.

  “This may be a stupid question for obvious reasons but who did he say was endangering them?”

  “Aaron’s daughter,” he answered simply. “I’m sure you know who Aaron and his daughter are.

  “Yes I know who Aaron is and his supposed daughter is Sidney.” Ethan shook his head slightly.

  “No Sidney is not his daughter; I thought you knew all of this.”

  “I do which is why I said supposed daughter, but I wasn’t aware that he had a real one until today.”

  “Well yes, and it has also been brought to my attention that you are close friends with Aaron’s daughter.”

  “I don’t know Aaron’s daughter and even if I did I’m sure she’s not the threat,” she said mumbling that last part.

  “Well anyways we looked into all of this of course and found an interesting document about Aaron and the day he had died.”

  “Ok, “she said nodding her head and indicating that she was following along.

  “In this document it states that Aaron had died in a battle for his tittle and that the tittle would have been bestowed upon a Richard Masterson if he hadn’t disappeared after the fight.”

  “Why did he disappear?” Skylar asked finding interest in what Ethan was telling her.

  “Well Aaron was well known and well respected the fact the he was killed by the hands of their future leader, well let’s just say that wouldn’t have blown over so well so naturally he disappeared.”

  “And no one knew this Richard Masterson guy?”

  “A few did but there information wasn’t much to go on.”

  “Who are the few?” she asked curiously.

  “No you know I can’t possibly tell you that.”

  “We’re in this together, why the hell not?” Ethan looked at her shocked for a moment before quickly recovering. He reached into a stack of papers that sat stacked high on the top of his desk and withdrew a documentation sheet before passing it to her. Skylar’s jaw just about fell off of her face as she read the witnesses names and their statements. Skylar handed Ethan back the sheet of paper as she silently brewed in her anger.

  “Ok and so why is Sidney’s mother here?”

  “Sidney’s mother was able to provide us enough information on Aaron and his daughter in order to track them both.”

  “Them both?” she questioned. “But why would you need to track Aaron I thought he was dead?”

  “He’s not,” he said simply.

  “And how do you know this?”

  “Well Ciana was able to provide for us many many reasons why she believes that he is still alive.”

  “And you don’t plan on sharing any of that with me?”

  “Nope, I can’t you’re associated with many of our suspects.”

  “Suspects? When the hell did we get those?”

  “Because you are associated with many of our suspects I can’t allow you to work on this case anymore,” he said ignoring her outburst.

  “What the fuck Ethan?! I was the reason we started working on this case in the first place, you can’t just cut me from it!”

  “Sorry Skylar,” he said as if he genuinely meant it, he didn’t even call her Ms. Royce. This must be bad, she thought to herself as she allowed herself to calm down just a bit.

  “So what do you expect me to do?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Of course,” she said as she got up out of her chair.

  “Don’t be that way we told Hank the same thing.”

  “Oh I’m sure he’s devastated somewhere, getting his anger out by killing puppies,” she said sarcastically.

  “Hey,” he said stopping her form completely leaving the room.

  “What’s up between you and Hank, yall use to be partners but I’m detecting some kind of problem between you two?”

  Skylar just smiled before saying, “You wouldn’t even believe me if I told you.”