"Royce, you must be out of your goddamned mind." Maybe it was the carpet over the office floor that masked the sound of her booted heels as she approached; or maybe it was the fact that Agent Tanner was so deeply sunk in his furious diatribe that he could not notice a thing beyond the cocksure replies of the green-eyed man before him. 

No matter. Bree had heard quite enough. Her cold whisper of a voice, thick with barely concealed rage, cut through the air between them like a razor-sharp knife, and if she could have? The frigid gaze of her grey eyes would have pinned Tanner to the canvas walls of her faux-office like a butterfly to a board.

"Do you see any handcuffs on Mr. Sampson? Leg irons maybe?" She cocked one eyebrow as her arms fold over her chest, the fingers of one hand thrumming impatiently against her arm. The question was entirely rhetorical, and she wasn't waiting for a response from Tanner at least.

"No? Really? You're sure?" Bree glanced at Ethan for a moment, shrugged her shoulders as if she were helpless to find an answer herself before looking back at Tanner. "You know why? That's because he's [i]not under arrest.[/i] He's not being detained here either. As a matter of fact, he's as much a free person as you and me and, if he wished, could walk right on out of here, right now. This very second. He is here entirely of his own volition, Royce."

And while this statement wasn't [i]entirely[/i] true, Bree was on a roll and she wasn't really in a mood to cut Tanner any slack at the moment. Ethan needed to be here if, for no other reason in the world than to clear his name [or at least one of them], and get his life back. But damned if that was any of Tanner's business - any more than a whole bunch of other Bree-related issues that he apparently had decided was suddenly in his purview. 

Somehow her voice never rose above the decibels needed to travel between this odd little threesome congregating outside her cubicle. "And for the record? No, I'm not screwing Ethan Sampson either. But the man I [i]am[/i] currently sleeping with is due back in Richmond tomorrow evening, so if all goes well? I will definitely be getting lucky tomorrow night - at the very least, smiling wide by morning after. I'll keep you in the loop."

"And but for the aforementioned decided improvement in my sex life with the ex-Navy Seal turned banker? What in the [i]hell[/i] do you think I could be blackmailed with? Crazy cat lady spinster here, remember?" Bree dropped her folded arms, opening them wide with another shrug. "Unless you think me and Riddick were somehow in the center of some international crime syndicate on my weekends off, holed up with my fuzzy slippers and a pint of Ben & Jerry's every weekend with our Netflix? No?"

Bree let out a long, frustrated sigh, rolling her eyes mightily as her arms fell to her sides. "I like you Royce, a lot. You're a great partner and probably one of the best agents I've [i]ever[/i] worked with. But how about you give me just half of that respect. Oh, and kindly stay the hell out of my personal business."

Her grey eyes turned to Ethan now, shaking her head slowly, incredulously. "Let's go, they're ready for us in the conference room." She didn't wait for Ethan to rise or Tanner to speak before she turned to stalk away - and then whirled back around once more. "Bring the Werther's with you. No, not those... The whole bag, right there in the drawer. Yeah, I get the feeling this is the start of 'one of those days... '"