Getting Out While You Can

Ghost File

But Dimitri being the man he was, and by that, I mean the extremely over-protective man that didn't want to let me out of his sight, he came too. Not that I minded, at least I knew that in that room, someone had my back.

I tapped my fingers against my leg as we waited. I knew that what we had was real, but I still felt tense. I felt like something was looming over our heads.

"I could go for a nice, big, glass of wine right now," I whispered.

"Oh?" Dimitri asked with a taken back laugh. "Why?"

"I just feel wound up," I said looking up at him.

Dimitri gave me a look that made my skin heat up and I scoffed a laugh, averting my eyes. "Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?" Dimitri asked.

"Like you have a bad idea."

"I wouldn't call t a bad idea. I think you'd quite enjoy it."

I laughed and shook my head. "I thought I was supposed to be the bold and inappropriate one? And you the stoic and reserved?"

Dimitri shrugged and looked straight ahead. "You ruined me."

"Oh yeah. I'm the bad influence here. With all of my sexual experience."

Dimitri chuckled and looked down at me, about to speak when the door to Croft's office opened. Croft stepped out and looked at the two of us levelly, canting his head to the side. I stepped toward him and followed him back into his office.

I sat down in a chair in front of his desk and crossed my legs, resting my hands in my lap. Dimitri sat down in the chair next to me, every bit the professional that he was. I think being in this office brought back old habits for both of us.

Well, old for me, somewhat recent for Dimitri.

Croft sat down in his chair, and I had to admit, I was a little disappointed with his office. You'd think that the man who was in charge of every single working Guardian would have an office that was bigger than a closet. I mean, the filing cabinet and files were stacked and cluttered, and there was barely any room for his small desk and these three chairs.

But at the same time, I wasn't surprised. This was how we were treated, why would his position change that?

"What do I owe this pleasure?" Croft asked moving a few files out of the way, setting them on another stack. I glanced at the files and then back at him with a raised brow. I didn't see all of the front of the file, but I saw enough to know that the file was about Tatiana.

"Well, hopefully, this meeting might minimize some of all of this," I said gesturing to the files.

"How so?"

"We have proof that I didn't do this. And who really did it."

"Oh?"

"Yes, you should look in Daphne's Sector."

A look of confusion and then comprehension crossed his face before he tented his fingers together. "How do you know about that?"

"A bird," Dimitri said. "I take it you know about it."

"It's a code. Only a handful of people in the world know about it. When we went to investigate, the sever for it was gone."

"Not gone, hidden inside of another file. A ghost file of sorts."

A smirk crossed Croft's lips. "And how, hypothetically, did you discover this 'ghost' file?"

I made a face and shrugged my shoulders in response. "Is it that important to know how we found it? Or is what we found on it on that day more important?"