SHORTS FROM THE SHELF features short serialized fiction by author Shannon Muir, administrator of SHANNON MUIR’S THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF, that may be later released as part of e-book or print collections. The story line featured currently is “Give Me Another LaChance,” which will run over the next eight consecutive days. This is Part Seven.

Relief washed over Rowan, seeing Rikah now free from her imprisonment. He’d been assigned to take her back to her children, after which he’d agreed to return one last time for debriefing and to turn in his credentials.

“Thank you again,” Rikah said. “I’m glad to be free, but now I have more questions than answers. And I have no idea what to do now,” Rikah told Rowan as he drove her back to her home.

“I need to talk to you about that. I’ve been asked to leave the agency for not following orders when it came to handling things with you, at least on a formal level.”

“I’m not following.”

“They’ll always be keeping an eye on me, and since my cover wasn’t blown on the field except to you, they want me to stay out on the field being their eyes and ears. But there’s a price to that.”

“I’m still not following, Rowan.”

“Since I’ll only be a consultant, I won’t have a steady paycheck. I’ll be called on when needed. Edmond’s family paid you a lot of money, and we now know you’ll never fully be able to leave the life you left behind. Especially not to build the one I want with you, and our daughter.”

He heard Rikah’s audible gasps without turning his head from the road.