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Shifters, Inc.: The Alpha Meets His Match
Copyright 2013 by Georgette St. Clair
This book is intended for readers 18 and older only. It is a work of fiction. All
characters and locations in this book are products of the feverish imagination of the
author, a tarnished Southern belle with a very dirty mind.
License Statement
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-
sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another
person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this
book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please
purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Wolf shifter Jax Mackenzie has never been accused of being a nice guy – but being nice doesn’t
get the job done. A wolf without a pack, he works the most dangerous assignments doled out by a
private security company – and his latest case is a real killer. A fatal Rage virus is spreading among
the members of an elite BDSM club, and Jax is determined to get to the bottom of the case. To get
what he wants, he’ll ruthlessly use his supernatural strength, his wealthy connections, and Bobbi, the
beautiful coyote shifter who’s following him for reasons of her own. But the coyote is his fated mate
– and possibly his mortal enemy. Now it’s not just Jax’s heart that’s at risk – it’s his life.
Prologue
Playa Linda, California
Friday, September 28
“Silence In The court. All rise, the 13th District Court is now in session, Honorable Judge Robert
Galbraith presiding.” The clerk’s voice rang through the room. Overhead, wooden fan blades swam
in lazy circles through a soup of warm, humid air.
The air conditioning system, which dated back to the 1970s, was on the fritz again.
The defendant, a tattooed gangbanger charged with first degree murder in a driveby shooting,
stood sullenly with his arms folded, looking ridiculously out of place in an ill-fitting three piece suit.
His lawyer whispered something to him in a low, urgent voice, and the gangbanger responded with a
murderous scowl.
Court reporter Camilla Timmons delicately blotted the back of her neck with a lace hankie, and
wished that she could shift to her otter form. Her otter form liked the heat. Her human form did not.
Unfortunately, in otter form, she couldn’t transcribe 200 words a minute on her stenotype, so she was
stuck in human form until 5 p.m. It promised to be a miserable day in Courtroom 3B, she thought to
herself.
She had no idea how right she was.
“Air conditioning’s broken again?” Bailiff Thomas Hamilton said in a low voice, leaning in close
to her. A big, beefy, blond farm boy who’d grown up in Oklahoma, he’d recently come back from a 6
month stint in Afghanistan. He always made it a point to flirt with Camilla, who was a tiny brunette
with an elfin face and short curly brown hair.
“I’m afraid so,” Camilla said. “And if you make an otter joke, I will stab you with my ballpoint
pen.”
“Me? Joke? That’s otterly ridiculous.”
She stifled a giggle and kicked him in the ankle. Then she followed his gaze to the door that led
into the courtroom from the judge’s chambers.
“That’s odd. Where is he?” she asked in a low voice. She could see the court clerk glancing
worriedly at the door. Judge Galbraith was never late. He was known to fine people who showed up
five minutes late for a court appearance.
The entire courtroom was on their feet, waiting for Judge Galbraith, and people were starting to
mutter under their breath and glance at the clock on the wall. After a minute, the clerk started to walk
towards the door, when it suddenly flew open with a bang, making everyone start.
Galbraith stumbled through the door, and the assembled spectators, defendant, and courtroom
personnel, all let out a gasp.
Galbraith was a wolf shifter, a handsome gray-haired man in his sixties who carried himself with
regal dignity when he swept into the courtroom each morning – except for this morning. Today, his
eyes were glowing red, his ears pointy and hairy, his face a hideous contortion as he struggled
between wolf and human form.
He staggered several feet, stopped, threw back his head, and bayed at the ceiling.
“Your honor?” the court clerk’s voice rose in a tremulous squawk.
Judge Galbraith swung to face him, and his face rippled and shifted, his muzzle protruding, black
lips wrinkling back to reveal gleaming white fangs. The court clerk stumbled back a step, eyes
bulging with alarm, and then the judge leaped forward with a roar, shifting completely in mid-air.
Algernon Grey, court clerk of the 13th District, folded like paper underneath the judge’s massive gray
form, and let out a gurgling scream as Judge Galbraith ripped his throat out.
Pandemonium erupted in the courtroom. Camilla, blind with panic, stood frozen by her
stenographer’s stand. The judge swung around to face her, his eyes glowing red orbs of rage, and
crouched down, prepared to leap. Thomas jumped in front of her and charged at the judge, weapon
drawn, and fired two shots, two useless shots. The bullets weren’t silver-coated, so their only affect
was to further infuriate the judge. Camilla, who’d covered her face with her hands, heard a scream
and a ripping sound.
There was more screaming, more horrible death gurgles, and then the defendant’s head flew
through the air and landed with a wet thud at Camilla’s feet, eyes wide open and staring, blood
splattered across the teardrop tattoos which dripped from the outer corner of his right eye.
Thomas was lying on the floor, blood pulsing from his arm in bright red arcs. With her heart in
her throat, Camilla flung herself to her knees next to him, shoved her fingers into his wound, and
squeezed hard. The bleeding slowed to a trickle. Thomas stared up at her.
“Run,” he said.
“No.”
“Run, damn it!”
“Don’t be such an otter moron,” she said, tears filling her eyes as she forced a smile on her face.
Screaming and growling, people running, trampling each other in a desperate rush for the exits…
the smell of blood and fear…
She looked up and saw that the judge had swung back to face her, and was crouching down again,
his eyes fixed on her throat. A picture of her parents and younger sisters flashed through her mind, and
she swallowed hard, breath frozen in her chest. Then she heard a series of bangs, and watched as
black holes opened in the judge’s chest and flank. The holes began sizzling. The judge crumpled
slowly, so very slowly, onto the floor, and Jennifer turned, wild-eyed, to see an attorney standing in
the back of the courtroom, hand shaking, finger still squeezing the trigger of his gun even though he’d
clearly emptied his weapon. Silver-coated bullets. He’d had silver bullets in his gun.
A bailiff grabbed the attorney’s arm and led him, ashen faced and trembling, from the room.
Chapter One
Monday, October 1
An angry red sun boiled up over the horizon, a hungry alley cat rattled through a tipped-over trash
can, and nobody was foolish enough to mug Jax MacKenzie.
He strolled slowly down Washington Boulevard towards the water, hands shoved in his pockets.
He’d deliberately worn a silky blue Armani blazer and carried a Gucci leather briefcase to up the
odds, but apparently, the predators who lived in the shadows of Playa Linda’s warehouse district
weren’t fooled. They sensed the raw power radiating from the big wolf shifter, and stayed away in
droves.
It was a pity, because Jax was spoiling for a fight.
His wolf was pacing angrily under the surface, struggling to get out. He was frustrated and
irritable and all he wanted right now was to blow off steam in a whirlwind of fang and fists.
He was about to start working on one of the most important cases of his life, one which came with
a huge payoff attached if he succeeded, and those idiots at Hammersmith Security were trying to stick
him with some annoying little baby-sitter from the National Enforcers Council. Some pencil-pushing
desk jockey named RJ Simpson. Even the name pissed him off.
In the past, he’d had pretty good luck finding likely takers in the warehouse district. He’d come in
raging, his fury burning nova hot just underneath the surface of his skin, and would leave bruised,
bloody, and feeling much better, with the bodies of those who’d attacked him cooling in the shadows.
But he’d been walking around the warehouse district for an hour now, and he was finding that
there was an unfortunate lack of deadly assaults on the menu today. He was just about to wrap it up
and head back home when he heard the terrified screams of a woman shred the air, a block ahead and
around the corner.
Was it the woman who’d been following him in a not at all stealthy fashion for the better part of
the day? The woman who was driving his inner wolf crazy and setting off alarm bells all throughout
his body? Somehow, he was willing to bet that it wasn’t. The woman who was following him was a
coyote shifter. The woman who was screaming sounded human.
Whatever. Since it was clear nobody was going to mug him today, this would do nicely as a
tension reliever.
He broke into an effortless run, racing around the corner faster than thought, to find two jackal
shifters ripping the clothes off of a screaming young human. In the amount of time it would take a
human to draw a single breath, Jax’s gaze swept the scene. She was young and pretty and far too clean
to have come from this neighborhood; her clothes were from the Gap, her hair was golden, flat-ironed
and shiny, her purse was a Coach knockoff which had been dumped and spilled on the ground.
She lay sprawled on the ground a hundred feet away from a little green Volkswagen bug which
had a plastic flower pot in it; she and the car belonged together. She was a middle-class college girl
come slumming.
Jax recognized the jackals, they were a group of wretched, low-level group of gangsta wannabes
who sold drugs and mugged tourists. They wouldn’t last five seconds against the real criminals in
Playa Linda – but they could still cause plenty of harm to the weak and the foolish.
Take the human in question. She lay sprawled on the asphalt, crying hysterically, her shredded
clothes hanging off her body in tatters. Her neon pink bra and panties peeked through the slashes in
her jeans and shirt. There was a red mark on her right cheek where they’d struck her; she’d have a
massive bruise there tomorrow. On the ground next to her was a plastic baggie full of weed; the
jackals had clearly used it to lure her out of her car.
The jackals had been taking their time with her, cutting away at her clothes with knives, which
they dropped when Jax burst around the corner with a roar.
They swung towards Jax with a snarl, half-shifting, their clothes falling from their bodies. Their
faces elongated and turned into snouts, gray and black fur rippled over their bodies, and black claws
sprung from their paws.
Jax shed his jacket and let out a mighty howl of rage, and fell into a half-crouch as the jackals
froze where they stood, realizing too late what they were up against. He let the fury sweep over him
and transform him, and a red haze descended over his eyes. Bones stretched and muscles shifted, and
his sense of smell and hearing blazed to life as the colors of the world around him turned black and
gray. He barely registered the yelps of shock and dismay that came squealing from the jackals’ throats
as he launched himself through the air, a massive gray blur of fang and muscle and claw.
It was over in less than a minute; what was left of the jackals lay in two bloody heaps twenty feet
from Jax where he’d hurled them. Hardly a fair fight; he wished there had been more of them.
He shifted back to human form and quickly pulled his clothing back on. The woman had
scrambled over to her car and was pressed up against the door, cringing and crying. Her arm was
scraped and bleeding and her eyes were huge with fright; black makeup streaked her cheeks.
Jax swung towards her, his eyes glowing red, his face still half-wolf.
“You look tasty. I haven’t had my dinner yet,” he snarled.
“No! Please! Don’t eat me, please!” she screamed, clutching the open door but making no move to
flee. She just stood there shaking and sobbing. Stupid human. What did he need to do to get her out
of this neighborhood – run over there and bite her?
“This is the part where you run for your life!” The words came rumbling from his chest.
“Oh! Oh God, Oh God, Oh God…” she wailed. She fell into her car, fumbled for the keys, turned
on the ignition, and raced away, her loud sobs drifting through the air through her rolled-down
passenger window. She’d left her pocketbook behind. She drove off so fast that she rode up onto a
curb and hit a garbage can, sending it flying, and didn’t even stop.
Jax shook his head as her tail lights disappeared, and reached into her wallet for her credit cards,
which he shredded with his fangs to ensure that nobody would come steal them and treat themselves
to a shopping spree at her expense. Then he ground her cell phone under his foot.
He left the cash scattered on the ground. Somebody was in for a treat today.
With any luck, she’d never set foot in this neighborhood again, never buy drugs again. If she did…
well, as Jax’s grandfather had been fond of saying, there’s no cure for stupid.
As Jax buttoned up his blazer, he bent his head and surreptitiously took a deep whiff, scenting the
woman who’d been following him. The scent rolled into his nostrils, rich and sweet and heady, a
smell that was familiar and yet somehow oddly unique. Female coyote shifter, for sure. Who the hell
was she and why was she following him?
His heart still hammered fast, adrenaline singing through his veins. His eyes gleamed with
anticipation. She’d been following him since mid-morning, and he was about to find out why. He
wouldn’t hurt the woman unless he had to – unless, say, she was an assassin sent to kill him, which
was a distinct possibility – but he had no qualms about sending her home crying to her daddy the same
as he’d just done with the human female.
Chapter Two
Whoever the woman was, Jax suspected she must be able to handle herself pretty well. She’d
managed to stay out of his sight, and she’d come into the warehouse district all by her lonesome,
without getting murdered. Yet.
So much the better; it wouldn’t be any fun if she were a yowling little puppy.
He turned and casually strolled back in the direction that he’d come from, hands shoved in his
pockets. She was hanging back, staying just far enough away that she could easily duck into one of
the mazes of alleyways that snaked through this blasted, godforsaken pit of a neighborhood.
Unfortunately for her, he’d lived in this town for a year now and made a regular habit of visiting
these parts. He jogged through the streets at night, he scaled the fire escapes and leaped from rooftop
to rooftop by day. He knew every inch of this neighborhood intimately. He felt at home here; it called
out to the dark places in his soul.
After a few blocks he slowed down at the storefront of an abandoned grocery store, yanked open
the door which was hanging off its hinges, and strolled in.
The counters and shelves of the store were bare, stripped clean long ago, but a sour, musty smell
lingered in the air. Thick gray dust coated every surface like fur.
He walked to the back of the store and out the back door, and began quickly weaving his way
behind buildings and through alleys until he found her, standing at the mouth of the alleyway by a
dumpster, watching the front of the store and waiting for him to come back out.
She was an athletic looking woman, tall and compact but muscular, wearing jeans and a hooded
sweatshirt. The hood was down and her hair, so black it was almost blue, was yanked back into a
ponytail that dangled halfway down her back. The alarm bells that had been ringing through his
body were clanging loudly now. Something about her…
He felt his heart clench with something he didn’t recognize, but he thought it might be fear. Fear of
what? She couldn’t hurt him, not that it would have mattered. Pain didn’t frighten him. Nothing
scared him. When things attacked you, you fought back and killed them. Or you died. End of story.
That scent, that restlessness he felt in her presence, that unfamiliar feeling that had bubbled up in
him…could it be? No. He pushed the dreaded thought below the surface before it even had a chance
to form. No, hell no.
She stiffened and tipped her head back, sniffing the air. Despite the sour reek of the overflowing
dumpster, despite the fact that a stiff breeze was coming down the alleyway towards her, she had
scented him.
Jax rushed down the alleyway before she had a chance to turn around, slamming into her and
pinning her up against the wall with her head turned away from him. As he touched her, his senses
roared to life and he felt a rush of desire sizzling through his veins, and a very unwelcome swelling in
his crotch. He firmly tamped down his lustful thoughts, shoving them to the back of his mind as he
pinned her wrists over her head against the wall, trapping her with his body and wrapping one leg
around her.
God, that felt good. Way too good.
She went rigid, and didn’t bother to struggle, staring straight ahead and drawing in deep, angry
breaths. Even with her face turned away he could see that she was beautiful, her cheekbones sharp
enough to cut glass, her small nose tilted impishly.
Jax bent down and breathed in her sweet scent, a mixture of citrus and wildflowers and her
unique feminine aroma which smelled good enough to bottle and sell in a French boutique.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you to stay away from the big bad wolf?” he growled into her ear.
“Why no, but thanks for the advice. If I see a big bad wolf, I’ll be sure to stay away from him,”
she said coolly, without the slightest quaver of fear in her voice.
Nice. A sassy one. Under different circumstances, Jax would love to have her over his knee for
that. Unfortunately, odds were against them ever dating.
“Princess, you have no idea what you’re messing with. I’m flattered that you find me so
irresistible, but I don’t really get turned on by chicks who stalk me. Been there, done that. I spotted
you hours ago, by the way; you’re not that good.”
At that, he felt a faint tremor go through her, and he was pleased to see her jaw tighten with
anger.
“You’re not turned on?” she said, moving her body against him. “So you normally carry a
flashlight stuffed down the front of your pants?”
Damn it. She had him. He was rock hard, and when she slid her rounded buttocks against him, his
cock jerked in response. Half the blood in his body had rushed to his crotch. What the hell was
wrong with him? He was the last guy to let sex distract him.
Irritated, he bent down again and brushed his lips against the sweet, soft curve of her neck, and
felt a vicious thrill when she drew her breath in sharply and choked off a small whimper.
She wanted him as much as he wanted her. It felt good that she wanted him. Of course, it would
never happen, because she was either a crazy woman with a crush or someone sent by one of the
many people he’d pissed off in the line of duty, but damned if that whimper didn’t tug directly at his
dick.
“Okay, you got me. You’re kinda hot,” he murmured into her ear. “Is that what you want from me,
baby? I don’t do relationships, but I’m good for a one off any time you want. If you taste as good as
you smell, I might even let you come back for seconds.”
“Seriously? You actually get laid with that kind of line?” It came out in a snarl. Not only was she
turned on by him, but she was angry about it.
He grinned and tightened his grip on her. This was fun.
“You know you want me,” he breathed into her neck. “Admit it, and I’ll let go of you.”
“I’ve got nothing but time on my hands, babe. I can stand here all day.”
“Oh yeah?” he ran his tongue up the curve of her neck, and she tried unsuccessfully to stifle a low
moan, and jerked in his grasp. God, she tasted sweet. His heart hammered against his rib cage. His
cock swelled to painful proportions, straining against the fabric of his jeans.
“Just say it,” he husked, and nibbled gently on her ear, than ran his tongue along the shell like
curve, and a shudder ran through her body. Her breath quickened, and he could smell her arousal. He
took a deep breath, drawing it in through his nostrils. “Say you want me.”
“I would, but I promised my mama I’d never tell lies,” she choked out.
“Bullshit, sweetheart. You’re lying now.” This time he nipped at her neck, and she gasped and let
out a delicious little whimper, and arched her back, straining against his grip and breathing hard. He
felt her squirming against him, fighting her arousal, the muscles of her lean, hard body taut as a
bowstring.
Heat raged through him, burning down his nerves and sizzling across the synapses. God, he
wanted her so bad. He didn’t even know her name, hadn’t even looked her in the eye yet, and if she
let him, so help him, he’d take her right there in the alley. He’d taste her, he’d plunge inside her…
He spun her around roughly, pushing her up against the wall with one hand on each shoulder and
stared down at her.
Her eyes were big and as green as chips of emerald, as green as rolling hills of sweet grass, and
when her gaze met his her eyes widened with shock, and Jax nearly fell over. He felt as if a bolt of
lightning shot through him, as if the earth had been yanked out from under his feet. She felt it too; he
could see it in her eyes.
Fuck. Oh, no.
“You’re-“ he choked out.
And then she lashed out with her knee and caught him in the groin so hard that he doubled over
and fell to the ground, searing pain slicing through his body. Sparks exploded behind his eyes and he
struggled for breath.
“I have five older brothers, you moron. That wasn’t even a halfway decent wrestling hold. I
could have gotten away from you any time I wanted.”
“Oh yeah? Why didn’t you, then?” Jax wheezed, curled up on the sidewalk and cupping his
throbbing groin.
She let out an angry hiss of breath and plowed on, ignoring him. “And for your information, I’ve
been following you for days, not hours, Jax Mackenzie. I let you spot me today, because I was starting
to get bored. You’re not that good.”
And she turned and walked away, leaving him blinking back the tears of pain and struggling
between rage and hysterical laughter.
Fuck. It figured. It served him right, it so served him right that the universe would play this karmic
joke on him.
Now he knew why his wolf had been going wild for the past few days, howling and clawing
beneath the surface, begging to be let free.
The crazy coyote shifter was his Fated Mate.
Chapter Three
Bobbi didn’t stop running for another twenty blocks, dodging down side streets, racing through
alleyways, heart pounding in her chest the whole way.
She stopped when she got to the edge of the warehouse district, a decrepit section of town where
business owners rolled down iron gates to cover their store windows at night, and giant neon gang
graffiti splashed across the sides of chipped and faded buildings. Sullen teenagers lounged in
doorways or slumped against building walls, openly chugging from bottles or huffing out of paper
bags. Nobody met anyone else’s gaze.
What the heck had just happened to her? Was that some kind of witchcraft, when that guy stared
into her eyes? He’d zapped her somehow, sent an electric shock through her body.
Not for the first time, she regretted being raised by humans. Oh, the foster home where she’d
eventually landed had been the best of all possible worlds, considering…but her foster parents had
not been shifters. She’d been orphaned in Arizona, an area of the country with very few shifters, and
the best match that they’d found had been Meg and Samuel, two wonderful human beings who had no
experience or knowledge of raising a shifter child.
She’d heard about the concept of a “fated mate” – supposedly, when a shifter met their fated mate,
it hit them like a thunderbolt. Was that what had just happened to her? God help her, please let it be
something else, she thought. Like an aneurysm.
Bobbi knew better than to depend on anyone, or anything, to stick around for very long. She’d
learned life’s lessons early – when you love someone, they tend to die on you. To her, a “fated
mate” just meant someone else you’d come to love and then they’d find a way to break your heart, one
way or another.
To say nothing of the fact that the big, handsome jerk who’d just manhandled her was an arrogant
bastard who clearly had no interest in anything more than a one night stand. If the whole “fated mate”
thing was real, shouldn’t he have felt it too? And since he obviously hadn’t, whatever she’d felt back
there must have been something else.
Thank God.
It could have been instant lust, temporary insanity…anything but love.
His final taunting question rang in her ears…why hadn’t she escaped from his rough embrace
sooner? Why could she still feel his lips brushing against her skin, and why did she want to go back
for more?
Bobbi was so distracted that she barely noticed when someone bumped into her as she shouldered
her way through a crowd of surly teenagers standing outside of a pool hall. It took several seconds to
register with her as she strode north, and by that time, the purple-haired girl who’d bumped into her
was quickly dodging around a corner.
Bobbi slapped her hand onto the pocket on the inside of her jacket, where her wallet had been.
Oh no you don’t, she thought, breaking into a run.
Fortunately, the girl was only human, which meant that Bobbi outran her easily. She caught up
with the girl two blocks away, knocked her down on to the sidewalk, and knelt down, pinning her
with her knee on the girl’s stomach. She was a pretty girl with a pierced lip and eyebrow, flat-ironed
purple hair, and a cheap, fake leather jacket. A pretty necklace dangled around her neck, with an
intricately styled leaf dangling on it. It didn’t match anything she wore; odds were good she’d stolen
it.
“Get away from me, you freak!” the girl howled. “Get off me! Help! She’s killing me!”
Bobbi let out a cynical bark of laughter. “We’re in the wrong neighborhood for that,” she said,
glancing up. “Nobody’s coming to help you. Or me.” A couple of blocks away, a half dozen scruffy
emo kids watched with mild interest, but made no move to intervene.
Bobbi extended a handful of claws to grip the girl by the throat.
“Wallet. Now,” she snapped. “And don’t waste my time denying it. I’m having a bad day.”
Sullenly, the girl fished around in her pocket and pulled out a wallet, which she handed to her.
Bobbi flipped it open and looked through it. “Who’s John Mortimer?” she asked.
“Oh…crap! Wrong wallet.”
Bobbi stuffed it in her pocket.
“Hey! Give it back!” the girl protested.
“Nope. I’m going to drop it off at the police station.”
“Oh yeah? Well, tell them that he thought he was going to get a blowjob from a 15 year old behind
a dumpster,” the girl snapped.
“Will do,” Bobbi said coolly. “And you’re not 15.”
“Yeah, but he thought I was. Fucking pervert.”
“Give me my wallet.”
The girl fished around in her pocket and pulled out another wallet. “Can you get your knee off my
chest now? I have asthma. I can’t breathe.” She tried to make a wheezing sound.
“Liar,” Bobbi said absent-mindedly, opening the wallet the girl had handed her. “Who’s Edgar
Polacek?”
“Oh, crud! Give that to me!” She reached for the wallet, but Bobbi held it out of her grasp.
Bobbi stuffed the wallet in her pocket with the other one, reached into the girl’s jacket pocket, and
pulled out three more wallets, one of which was hers, a coin purse, and a baggie of little white pills.
She stuffed all the wallets and the coin purse into her pocket, and stood up, releasing the girl, who
scrambled to her feet and brushed herself off, glowering at Bobbi the whole time. “That was my
whole morning’s work you just cost me.”
“Boo hoo. Let me give you a tip; stick to robbing humans. Most shifters are a lot meaner than I
am.”
“Thanks, mom,” the girl sneered, turning to walk away.
“Please. If you were my child I’d give you to the goblins to make into stew.”
“If you were my mother I’d run away from home!” the girl snapped, eyes widening with
indignation.
“I’d pack your bags for you and change the locks the second you were out the door.” Bobbi
walked away, and the girl changed course and followed, stomping with big heavy boots.
“If you were my mother I’d call Child Protective Services!”
“I’d turn myself in to them just so I could be in a nice quiet jail cell, away from you.”
“Oh yeah? Well if you were my mother-” suddenly Bobbi burst into laughter, and after a moment
the girl started laughing too.
They’d covered a couple of blocks by then, and the girl kept glancing over her shoulder as if she
expected someone to follow her.
“Slow down! Hey, isn’t this the part where you start preaching or something? Or give me a
Narcotics Anonymous Flyer?” the girl asked.
Bobbi kept walking. “Why would I do that?”
“Aren’t you one of those do-gooder types who comes around to try to save us from the horrors of
sex and drugs? You’re not from our neighborhood.”
“No, I’m not,” Bobbi agreed, without slowing her stride.
“So who are you? Quit walking so fast!” the girl glanced over her shoulder again.
“You looking for your pimp?” Bobbi guessed.
“Not exactly. Kind of. Sometimes. My…protector. I mean, I just have to get him a certain amount
of money by the end of the day, and he makes sure nobody messes with me. It doesn’t matter how I get
the money.”
Bobbi made an abrupt turn up the steps of an old Victorian style building which had been
converted into a coffee shop. The coffee shop was crowded and the air smelled of steamed milk and
ground coffee beans and melted chocolate.
They were out of the bad neighborhood now, and in the recently gentrified section of Playa Linda
which attracted a mix of punks, emos, gays and soccer moms.
“I’ll buy you coffee, since I ruined your morning. And by the way, your protector isn’t doing a
very good job. I didn’t see him anywhere around when I knocked you on your ass.”
“He was watching,” the girl protested.
“I could have ripped out your throat with my fangs and he wouldn’t have done a damn thing,”
Bobbi said, earning her an appalled look from a mother who was pushing two babies in a jogging
stroller. The mother scowled and pushed the stroller away quickly, shooting dirty looks at Bobbi over
her shoulder.
“Coffee for me. Whatever my friend wants, “ Bobbi said, putting her credit card down on the
counter.
“Hot chocolate with whip cream, a roast beef croissant sandwich, a turkey sandwich, three
chocolate chip cookies, no, make that five cookies, and a bowl of soup,” the girl said, glancing
defiantly at Bobbi.
“Whatever.” Bobbi shrugged. “And put the money back in the tip bowl if you want to keep your
hand attached.”
“Jeez! Fine.” The girl grumbled. “How do you do that? Are you part witch?”
Bobbi ignored her, grabbing a weekly newspaper from the rack nearby and glanced at the
headlines.
Her gut tightened as she read the headlines.
Judge Galbraith Goes Rabid, Kills 5 In Courtroom
The story went on to detail how the judge had shifted right before the preliminary hearing in a
murder case and savagely mutilated the defendant, the defense attorney, the court clerk, and two
bailiffs, and chewed through the femoral artery of a third bailiff,, before an attorney put him down
with a silver bullet.
Next to it was an editorial by Stanford Roosevelt, a conservative politician, raving that this attack
was the very reason that shifters should be confined to their own reservations and kept separate from
humans.
Shifters made up a minority of the overall population, anywhere from 10 to 40 percent depending
on the region. Some parts of the country were known to be more shifter-friendly than others.
California was fairly backwards in its dealing with shifters, with far-right politicians rising up on a
fairly regular basis and attempting to inflame fear and hatred among humans.
Harsh memories threatened to flood Bobbi’s consciousness, and she quickly shoved them into a
far, dark corner of her mind. She glanced at the girl, who was scanning the room for likely marks.
“Sit with me,” she said, and the two of them sat down at a wobbly round table to wait for their
order.
Bobbi’s cell phone rang and she glanced at the screen but didn’t answer.
“I’m Bobbi,” she said, glancing up at the girl.
The girl shrugged, attempting indifference. “My street name is Pixie,” she said.
“Is it really now.”
The waitress served their drinks.
“I’m still waiting,” Pixie said, sipping her hot chocolate. The whipped cream left a little mustache
on her upper lip, and she licked it off.
“For what?”
“The pitch. Whatever it is you’re going to try to sell me. Salvation. Rehab. A group home. What is
it? You’re not buying me lunch just to be nice. Nothing comes for free.”
Bobbi shrugged. “Maybe I just find you amusing.”
She finished the rest of her coffee in one gulp, reached in her wallet and pulled out three twenties,
which she handed to the girl. “You could use this to book yourself a cheap motel room on the north
side of town, away from your useless protector. There’s a whole bunch of restaurants and bars up
there. You’re cute; you could find a job. Or you could give the money to the asshole who didn’t lift a
finger to help you when I knocked you on your ass. Your choice.”
She stood up and walked out as the waitress delivered Pixie’s food, leaving Pixie staring after
her.
Part of her wanted to run back and shake Pixie really hard, shake some sense into her, just do
anything to make her stop living the life she lived, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t afford distractions.
She was here for one reason, and she could never lose sight of that. Not for anyone. Not for the big
handsome shifter she’d been following, not for the skinny little human who was probably running right
back to her pimp with her handful of cash.
Her phone rang again, with a special ring tone, and this time she grabbed it and answered it.
A mechanical voice told her to press 3 if she would accept the call from the federal prison in
southern Arizona.
She quickly jabbed the number 3 on her keypad.
“Bobbi?”
“Heath, what the hell? I haven’t heard from you in way too long.”
“I’ve been a little tied up. I’m fine,” Heath said, but she knew he’d say that even if he wasn’t
fine. If he was minutes away from dying, he’d still tell her that everything was okay.
“I’m working on it,” she said. “I’m getting really close. Hang in there.”
“I am. It’s no problem. I’m telling you, I’m fine. Are you all right?”
So like Heath. Locked away in the bowels of Hell, and worrying about her safety.
“Everything’s going great out here,” she lied. I just met the jerk who may hold the key to your
freedom, and he’s probably my fated mate and definitely the world’s biggest jerk, and I want to
hump him like the dog that I literally am, is what she didn’t say.
There were certain things that you don’t share with your brother.
Chapter Four“Sure, you’re fine,” Kenneth Chamberlin said, putting his free weights down on the
rack with a loud clank, while watching Jax lay into a punching bag.
Several women on the row of treadmills nearby glanced over, caught sight of Kenneth, and
practically purred. Kenneth had that effect on women.
“Did I ask?” Jax had been whaling on the punching bag for forty-five minutes straight. His t-shirt
was soaked with sweat, he was breathing hard, and there was pure murder in his eyes. He’d barely
slept the night before; visions of the slim, muscular shifter had haunted his dreams. He’d never had a
dream where he could smell anything before, but last night he chased her down a dark, narrow alley,
again and again, her sweet scent filling his nostrils before she finally slipped from his grasp,
dissolving into smoke as his fingers closed around her arm.
“If you don’t want to talk about it…”
“I don’t.” Jax turned away from the punching bag, reached into his gym bag and grabbed a bottle
of water, which he downed in several quick gulps.
Kenneth shrugged, as Jax peeled the wraps off his hands and mopped at his face and hair with a
towel.
“What’s her name?”
Ouch. Right to the gut.
“Since when have you known me to get worked up about a woman?” Jax muttered into the towel.
“Since never, which is why she must be something pretty special.”
Frustration swelled inside him.
“We’re done talking about this,” he gritted out. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m a moody sonofabitch, in
case you haven’t noticed before. And right now I’m in one of my moods.”
“Well, I hope things work out with her,” Kenneth said, an undercurrent of amusement running
through his voice. Nothing ever rattled him. “So what did you want to talk about? That case you’re
working on?”
Jax glanced around the room of the elegant gym, one of the many businesses that Kenneth owned.
Toned, beautiful socialites trotted on the treadmills or bent themselves into pretzel shapes on yoga
mats. Handsome men with lean, carved muscles and blow-dried hair pushed against the Nautilus
machines, admired themselves in the floor to ceiling mirrors, and casually scoped out the women.
The gym was ironically named Candyland. Jax preferred dirty one-room gyms with names like
Sam’s Place or Joe’s Neighborhood Gym, but he came because Kenneth had given him a free
membership.
Jax answered in a lowered voice. “Yeah, sort of. It could be a political powder keg. I’m hoping
it gets wrapped up quickly.”
“If you need any help with it…I do have resources.”
Jax managed a half-smile. Kenneth, a billionaire investor, had many resources. Sometimes Jax
was one of those resources.
“So,” Kenneth continued, “no insult intended, but with a politically delicate case, how did they
decide to assign you?”
“You mean, how did they decide to assign this to a temperamental, foul-mouthed, uncouth asshole
like me?” He shot Kenneth a challenging stare. Kenneth smiled back, not in the least intimidated. He
was a panther shifter, big and lethal. Jax had had issues with panther shifters in the past, but he had
to grudgingly admit, Kenneth was a decent enough guy. Kenneth had hired him for a couple of side
jobs, and had paid him well for them.
“Exactly,” Kenneth grinned. “I couldn’t have put it better myself.”
It was a fair question. Ever since Jax had left his second pack, and his job as sheriff’s lieutenant,
behind, he’d been mostly freelancing for Hammersmith Security, a company owned by a group of
humans, based a few hours north in Los Angeles. They usually assigned him to bodyguard or
extraction jobs. Jobs that required muscle, guts, and no tact.
“That’s what I need to talk to you about. It involves Caged Heat.”
A startled look flashed across Kenneth’s chiseled features.
Caged Heat was the uber-exclusive BDSM club that Kenneth belonged to. As a favor to Jax, when
Jax had managed to extract one of his men from a boat where he was being held by Somali
kidnappers, he’d purchased a membership for Jax.
“Now that you mention it, I do recall that Judge Galbraith was a member,” Kenneth said in a low
voice, glancing around the room.
“He’s not the only member who went crazy,” Jax said quietly. “I was going to suggest that you
don’t go back to the club until we figure out if it’s just a coincidence. Right now we have no idea
what the connection might be. Untraceable drug, some kind of new virus that’s somehow spreading
among members…”
“Hmm.” Kenneth looked thoughtful. “I’m not generally one to shy away from danger…”
“I know you’re not, but we have no idea what we’re up against here. I’m going to be briefed at
police headquarters tomorrow. Caged Heat won’t be open again for another couple of days anyway,
and I’m going to be going there myself to do some snooping around.”
“It wouldn’t kill me to stay away for a bit, I suppose. If you need any help with the investigation,
call me. If it turns out to be some kind of virus, this is a danger to all shifters – in more ways than
one.”
Jax nodded. Humans were too quick to rally into mobs when it came to the shifter community,
and overall, shifters only represented ten percent of the population. Although individually, shifters
were many times stronger and faster than humans, they were also vastly outnumbered by them.
Shifters constantly found themselves having to reassure humans that they were no threat to them;
humans didn’t labor under the same burden.
“If I can figure out how to gain access to the manager’s office, I wouldn’t mind hacking into their
computer,” Jax said. “That’s the only way we’d get access to their client list without a warrant, and
we’re not ready to tip the club owners off to what we know, yet, in case any of them are involved. By
the way, are you making any progress with that little problem of yours?”
Among Kenneth’s many interests was fine art. He was an art investor. Someone had broken into
houses that he owned in Spain and in Italy, and stolen priceless art work from him. This was despite
Kenneth having the best security system known to man or shifter…and oddly enough, the thief hadn’t
bothered to steal other items that were not only more valuable, but that were easier to carry.
“Nothing yet. We’ll find him,” Kenneth shrugged.
“Or her,” Jax said, remember how easily Bobbi had turned the tables on him. “Bitter ex-
girlfriend?”
Kenneth threw back his head and laughed. “You’ve met my ex-girlfriends.”
That was true enough. Kenneth tended to date the beautiful and the vacant, movie starlets,
socialites, women who looked good on his arm.
“Tell you what,” Kenneth continued. “Meet me at my house tonight, say 7-ish, and I’ll have one of
my computer surveillance experts meet us there. Tyler. He’s a new guy, and he’s very good. He’ll
tell you how to get into their system.”
Jax nodded, and headed off to the showers.
Twenty minutes later, he was on his way to his favorite diner for breakfast, when his cell phone
rang. It was his younger brother. He answered immediately.
“Colt? You in trouble?”
“Why do you always ask that?” Colt laughed at him, and Jax felt the tiniest bit of tension uncoil in
his gut.
“Because you’re a total screw-up,” he said affectionately. “And kind of a dumbass. You’re not
flunking out of school, are you?”
“Of course I am. Every class. Straight F’s. My professors say they’ve never seen anything like it.”
He could practically hear his younger brother’s grin.
“You better be glad that’s not true, because I’d make your hide into a wolf-skin rug,” Jax
growled. His brother, despite all the odds, despite their upbringing, despite the fact that he was a
Mackenzie, was in medical school. The money from Jax’s dangerous but very lucrative assignments
was funding it, although Jax made sure Colt never knew how dangerous those assignments were.
“Yeah, yeah. How are things with you? Listen, I heard about that case up in your neck of the
woods, with the judge. They don’t think it’s the Rab-X virus, do they?”
Rab-X was a highly contagious virus which affected all species of canine shifter. Wolf, coyote,
hyena, jackal…it made them go mad, sending them on killing sprees before they died.
“I’ve heard of it,” Jax said. “According to the coroner’s report, there’s no sign of Rab-X.”
“A new virus, then? One they can’t detect? I know it’s just one case, but maybe…maybe you
should think about leaving town for a little while. You could come visit me.”
It hadn’t just been one case…but thank God the public didn’t know that yet. The reaction to one
apparently rabid shifter had been bad enough.
“Quit being such a baby. I don’t get sick, ever.”
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that. All right. Just be careful, will you?”
“Man up, little brother. And send me a copy of your grades so I don’t have to come out there and
tan your hide.”
He hung up and walked into the coffee shop, and as he did, he felt the tension start to ripple in his
body again, right under the surface. He glanced around; was his stalker back? He didn’t see her
anywhere, but that didn’t mean anything. She was apparently more resourceful than he’d realized, and
this place was packed as usual. It was very popular with shifters, because the diner cooked meals to
order for them, with vegetarian meals for vegetarian shifters like zebras, and near-raw meat for the
carnivores.
Unsettled, he ordered his usual breakfast; half a dozen hamburger patties, lightly singed, a bowl of
fruit, and a coffee. He settled down at the table and was about to dig in when his cell phone rang.
Grimacing, he answered it. It was his boss at Hammersmith Security, Reginald Ven Der Mere.
Of all the people in the company they could have forced him to report to, they’d picked the worst
possible match for Jax’s admittedly hot-tempered personality. Stupid fucking desk jockey, Jax
thought, sitting in his swivel chair behind a big mahogany desk and constantly micro-managing Jax out
in the field. The only reason Reginald even had a job at the company was because it was owned by
his cousin. If Reginald ran into a stray cat he’d scream like a bitch, but he never failed to criticize
Jax’s work.
“Jax? What is going on out there?” Reginald’s voice, aggrieved and irritable, was like a nails on
a chalkboard. Jax forced himself not to answer with a snarl. I need this money, he reminded himself.
“Everything’s going great,” he said, trying to sound cheerful and friendly and not like he wanted to
rip open Reginald’s throat with his claws.
“You never showed up at the police station yesterday to meet with your Enforcer liaison.” The
National Enforcers’ Council had offered a substantial reward to Hammersmith for the swift resolution
of what was being referred to as the Shifter Rage cases. Unfortunately, when the Enforcers had
offered the reward to Hammersmith Security to assist them in solving the case, it had come with
conditions. Jax would have to work under the direct supervision of a member of the Enforcers’
Council.
Reginald paused. “Did you just growl at me?” His voice went up a notch.
“What? No,” Jax bit out out. “It’s the static. Really bad reception in here. Gotta call you back!”
He clicked his phone off with an angry stab of his thumb.
Damn it, this was ridiculous. What they didn’t understand was, Jax never worked with a partner,
and if they wanted him to succeed in this investigation, the only smart thing to do was let him work it
alone.
“You shouldn’t lie to your boss,” a low, amused drawl came from behind him.
Jax started in his seat. It was her, walking up to his table. His personal stalker. Today she was
wearing black tailored pants, low-heeled flats, and a red blouse that set off her black hair perfectly.
A quilted black purse with a gold chain for a strap hung on her shoulder. Gold leaf-shaped earrings
dangled from her earlobes. Her black hair spilled over her shoulders in a glorious ebony waterfall,
and her green eyes sparked with amusement.
“What the hell?” he spluttered, furious at her for sneaking up on him, and furious at himself for
letting her.
She sat down at his table, looking over his plate of food, and grabbed a handful of raspberries.
With a grin, she stuffed them in her mouth.
He stared at her in astonishment. She was insane. It figured. Of course she was a total lunatic.
She was his fated mate; she’d have to be, wouldn’t she?
The morning’s frustration boiled up inside him, and he felt his ears start to go pointy as he
struggled to retain his human form. “Stalking is illegal. Do you want me to arrest you?” he snarled,
whipping the handcuffs out of his jacket pocket. Although he no longer worked for the sheriff’s office
back in Florida, he was deputized in the state of California.
“Oh, I’ve heard you like handcuffs,” she drawled, grabbing another handful of berries as she held
up her cell phone and pointed it at his face.
It was one of those huge smartphones. It had a video feature. And glaring at him from the screen
was Reginald Ven Der Meek.
“Jax, if you do not cooperate fully with your liaison, you will no longer have a position at this
company. Do you understand?”
The woman looked at him and smiled smugly. . “Roberta Jo Simpson. My friends call me Bobbi.
You can call me RJ. Delighted to meet you.”
His stalker was RJ Simpson. His liaison. The universe continued to laugh at him.
Chapter Four
Jax swallowed hard, his anger swelling up inside him, raw and red.
He needed this job. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was at stake. Enough to completely
pay off his younger brother’s medical school.
And if he were fired from the security agency, he had to admit to himself, he didn’t have too many
other options out there. Unfortunately, Jax was too blunt and outspoken to make many friends.
Kenneth would throw him the occasional freelance gig, but he couldn’t count on Kenneth’s
employees to get kidnapped in remote ports of call often enough to provide him with a steady
paycheck. “I understand,” he bit out the words. Bobbi Jo hung up and put the phone back in her
pocket.
“Our next stop is the police department, where they will be holding their briefing,” she said
calmly.
“Why were you following me?”
“Because I wanted to see if you were any good. I wanted to see how you operate.”
He narrowed his eyes at her.
He’d show her how he operated, all right.
Because he’d just had an idea. He was going to make her an offer she’d have to refuse, one which
would get her off his back. Oh, it would appear innocent enough. It would look as if he was
cooperating. It would look as if he was ensuring that his liaison was included in every single god
damned aspect of this operation.
But there was no way she’d agree to what he was proposing.
“What are you so happy about?” she asked suspiciously as he settled back in his seat, a wolfish
grin spreading across his face.
“Nothing,” he said, shoving his plate of nearly raw hamburger patties, across the table at her.
“Have one.”
Looking at him skeptically, she speared one of the patties with a fork and was about to take a bite
when somebody slapped it out of her hand and knocked it back onto the plate. She let out a growl and
her eyes blazed amber as she and Jax both turned to see a skinny, pretty goth girl with purple hair and
a pierced lip.
“What the hell?” Bobbi snapped at the purple-haired girl. “How did you find me, and why are you
slapping my food off my fork?”
“Are you crazy? That’s raw! You’ll get food poisoning!” the girl said indignantly, pulling up a
chair and plopping her skinny butt down. “So…what case are we working on?”
“Jax, meet Pixie. And watch your wallet. Number one, Pixie, you are not included in this.
Number two, shifters don’t get food poisoning. We always eat our meat raw or nearly raw. Number
three. How in the hell?”
“I followed you to the police station yesterday,” Pixie said proudly. “Then I followed you back to
your hotel. Then I followed you from your hotel this morning. I wanted to see if you were legit, or if
you were working some kind of scam. Like luring me into white slavery by pretending to be my
friend. Well, I’m half Puerto Rican, I’m pretty sure, if my mom was telling the truth about who my
real dad was. Luring me into half Puerto Rican slavery.”
“If you think this is me pretending to be your friend, you need a better class of friends.”
“You got that right,” Pixie said, helping herself to a handful of raspberries from Jax’s bowl.
Jax glanced from Bobbi to Pixie with astonishment. Bobbi flashed him a cheeky grin.
“I am surrounded by crazy women,” he said.
“Yes, you are. Tread carefully,” Bobbi said, and turned back to Pixie. “How much did you
overhear? I’m trying to decide if I have to kill you. And no, you are not working on a case with us.”
“There is no us,” Jax growled.
“I could be your informant,” Pixie said, looking hurt. “I know every kind of dirtbag in the
warehouse district, from drug dealers to pimps.”
“Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to be an informant?”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot, I’m much safer picking pockets and turning tricks.”
“God damn it.” Bobbi buried her face in her hands. “I do not need this now.”
“This could be my new career,” Pixie said hopefully. “Police informant.”
Bobbi leaned back in her chair with a sigh, and when she did the fabric of her shirt stretched
across her breasts, which were the perfect size. Not too big, not too small. Nice and round. Jax tore
his gaze away, focusing on her face instead. On her beautiful, full lips, lips that he wanted wrapped
around his…
Nope. That wasn’t working either. He stared over her left shoulder, disgusted with himself for his
lack of self-control.
“Okay,” Bobbi said to her odd Goth friend. “Listen up, and listen good. If you want to work with
me, the first thing that you have to do is give me the name of your useless, scumbag pimp so I can go
back to the warehouse district and take him out.”
“What’s it worth to you?” Pixie leaned forward and held out her hand.
“My God, you really are a piece of work,” Bobbi grumbled. She reached into her pocketbook and
pulled out a handful of twenties, which she slapped into Pixie’s waiting palm.
“My protector’s name is Tommy the Rat.”
Jax felt alarm rumbling through him at the thought of Bobbi going back to the warehouse district
by herself and taking on some scumbag pimp. There was no reason he should be worried about her,
she was nothing to him but a pain in the ass, but for some reason, the thought of her in danger raised
his hackles and made him want to shift right there on the spot.
Was it because she was his fated mate? He’d never had strong feelings for a woman, so it was
impossible for him to know what it felt like to actually care about someone else’s safety. He’d spent
his life avoiding emotional entanglements, because he knew the devastating consequences of giving
your heart to another.
Whatever. As soon as this case was over he was going to find himself an assignment far, far away
from here, and he’d stay away as long as it took for him to let these unwanted and dangerous feelings
die a permanent death. That can’t happen, a little voice in the back of his head taunted him. Once
you’ve met your fated mate, you’re a goner.
He ignored the taunting voice and turned to Bobbi. “I don’t want you going down there. I’ve got
friends on the police force. I can take care of this.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “What difference does it make to you?”
“It’s better to do it by the book.” Now, that was a crock. As if Jax ever played by the rules.
“When we go down to the police station today, I’ll talk to a captain I know, and Tommy will be in
custody by tonight. He’s got a long record; we can make sure he goes away for a long time.”
Pixie glanced at Bobbi questioningly, and Bobbi nodded. “As for the informant thing, I do not
want you seeking out information,” Bobbi said to Pixie. “If you happen to overhear anything involving
a major felony, let me know, and I will make sure you’re compensated for it. But do not launch any
little investigations on your own. Too dangerous.” She wrote down her cell phone number and slid it
over to Pixie, who stuffed it in her pocket.
“Call me tomorrow to let me know you’re not dead,” she added as Pixie stood up.
“What if I am dead?”
“Contact a spirit medium and have her give me a ring. You know how I worry.” Bobbi flashed a
feral smile. “And give Jax back his watch.”
“What the hell?” Jax stared down at his wrist in astonishment. He hadn’t felt a thing. With a sigh
and a great show of reluctance, Pixie fished in her jacket pocket and pulled out the watch and handed
it back to Jax.
“She’s good, isn’t she?” Bobbi grinned, and then quickly checked her purse to make sure nothing
was missing.
When she grinned, he caught a flash of her white, even teeth. Her generous lips looked as if they’d
been stung by a bee, and kept forcing all kinds of unwanted images into his head, but the way she
moved, the way she carried herself, she didn’t even notice how attractive she was. She was all
business, with a ready laugh and an undercurrent of steel, and not even a hint of flirtation.
Jax shifted uncomfortably in his seat as his raging erection strained against his boxer shorts.
Pixie gave a jaunty wave and walked off. “I really should have gone through her jacket pockets
before I let her go, but honestly, I just don’t want to know,” Bobbi sighed.
Jax stared after Pixie as she melted into the crowd. “Nice company you keep.”
“I’m a classy kinda gal. Shall we?” she stood up, shoving the hamburger into her mouth.
Jax let a slow smile spread across his face. “We shall.”
“What are you up to, Jax?” Bobbi asked suspiciously.
Chapter Five
“You look way too pleased with yourself,” Bobbi observed as they walked towards police
headquarters, a squat, tan brick building located a dozen blocks from the coffee shop.
Jax smiled innocently and shrugged. “Can’t a man just be happy that he’s enjoying the company of
a beautiful woman?”
“Oh. My. God. Your eyes just turned brown.” Bobbi snorted indignantly. Okay, the big, good
looking jerk was definitely up to something. And despite her struggle to appear calm and in control
of the situation, she was deeply rattled.
As an Enforcer, she worked around handsome, macho men all the time. Occasionally she had
brief dalliances with them, as long as they understood that work always came first with her, and she’d
never stay in one place or with any one man for any length of time. No-one ever got under her skin.
When she was around Jax, though, it took all of her mental reserves to maintain a cool,
professional demeanor. He set her nerves to sizzling and made her panties go damp every time she
saw him. Images of him kept flashing through her mind, little mental movies of what she’d like him to
do to her, and her traitorous nipples were hard and pebbled underneath her shirt.
God, this was annoying. It was like she’d swallowed a dose of female Viagra and now she was
walking around with a raging hard-on that she couldn’t get rid of.
Did he feel the same way? Probably not. The arrogant bastard would be more than willing to take
her for a roll in the hay, but she doubted that he was losing any sleep picturing the two of them tangled
together naked.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Jax said, as they walked.
“I’m deep in thought.”
“So, if we’re going to be working together, I need some more intel. I need to know what I’m
working with. What your capabilities are.”
“Fair enough. I’m an Enforcer, so you know that I’m trained and highly proficient in hand to hand
combat, and firearms if necessary. I followed you for several days without you noticing, and I
managed to get away from you without too much difficulty. I’m an experienced investigator. And
you? What do you bring to the table, other than an ability to throw people across the room?”
“You’ll find out soon enough why Hammersmith wanted me in on this particular investigation. I
also live here, and I’ve gotten to know the city pretty well.”
“You’ve lived here for one year now. Why did you quit your job with the sheriff’s office in
Florida?” She’d done her homework on Jax. Strictly for professional reasons, of course. Among
other things, she’d found out that he appeared to be single, not that it mattered to her in the slightest.
He looked a little disconcerted. “It wasn’t a good fit. I work best alone,” he said evenly, shooting
her a glance.
She shrugged, although she was shocked to realize that his desire to get rid of her stung. That was
so not like her.
As if reading her thoughts, he added, with that sexy grin and a gleam in his eye, “I’m a lot more
fun when I’m off work, anyway. That’s really the best way to get to know me.”
“So what’s your take on the deaths so far?” she asked, changing the subject. It didn’t do to dwell
on how much she wanted to get to know him better, in the biblical sense.
“I’d prefer to discuss that at the briefing.” Fine. He was deliberately shutting her out. She could
live with that. “So, do you live here in town?”
She shrugged as they walked up the police station steps. “No. My home base is in Arizona, but I
travel all over the country. I don’t have a pack or close family, so when the National Shifter Council
needs assistance, they send someone like me.” The National Council was made up of shifters of all
species, and dealt with matters that were more than state-wide, matters which threatened the security
of shifters all over the country and even all over the world. State shifter councils were in place to
govern the affairs of individual packs and prides.
“No close family?”
She hesitated. “Distant relations. Nobody close any more.” He was not only touching on a very
raw nerve, he was touching on the real reason she’d pulled strings, called in favors, and gotten
herself assigned to this particular case.
“What about those older brothers?”
“We drifted apart,” she said irritably. “And my personal life is irrelevant to this investigation.”
They walked in through the big double doors and Jax waved at the receptionist at the front desk,
who simpered and arched her back to give him the full view of her surgically enhanced rack.
“Hey, Sabrina,” Jax said.
“It’s Samantha. You’re so silly. Isn’t he silly?” she giggled to Bobbi. Bobbi forced a polite smile
and nodded agreement.
“He certainly is. He’s downright ridiculous,” she smiled through her teeth, shocked at the rage
that had flared up inside her when the receptionist flirted with Jax.
Could this be because of the whole fated mate thing? She was trying really, really hard not to
think about that.
The receptionist waved the two of them through, pressing a button that opened a door into the
back of the police station.
Jax and Bobbi walked down a long hallway to a briefing room where a police captain and two
other police officers were waiting. . One of them, a human with a slight paunch and slicked back hair,
nodded at Bobbi, his gaze roving over her figure appreciatively.
“I remember you,” he said. “You came in yesterday to turn in all those wallets that you found
lying on the sidewalk.”
“Just doing my duty as a public citizen,” Bobbi said.
The officer adjusted his belt and leaned back against the wall. His smile looked more like a leer.
“We could use more public citizens like you.”
Suddenly the air crackled with tension, and Jax let out a low, rumbling growl. Bobbi could
literally feel the waves of anger radiating off him. It was like the crackling of static electricity. The
hair on the back of her neck stood up.
She glanced back at him, startled. “Did you just growl?” she murmured.
“Nope.” He bit the word out, eyes glinting with anger.
The two of them took a seat at the table.
Captain Isaac Thorne, another human, nodded hello to Bobbi and Jax. Thorne was a muscular
African American man, somewhere in his fifties, Bobbi judged, with a shaved head and a neatly
trimmed mustache.
Jax, because of his involvement with Hammersmith Security, occasionally worked in cooperation
with the Playa Linda Police Department. Bobbi had met Captain Thorne when she flew into town
earlier that week. The Enforcer’s Council had arranged to work with the police department, in the
hopes of quickly resolving the case before any more incidents of Shifter Rage occurred.
The police force in Playa Linda was almost all human, with a few token shifters who’d been hired
to avoid accusations of discrimination.
“We’ll cut to the chase,” Thorne said. “This isn’t just a shifter issue. It’s an issue which has the
potential to affect human and shifter relations all across the globe. We’re in communication with the
National Enforcer’s Council and Hammersmith Security, and we’ll all be working in cooperation.
This could get really ugly, really soon if there are any other incidents. There have been two so far.
The judge who went crazy and took out half the damn courtroom last week, and the one that the public
doesn’t know about.”
He glanced at Bobbi. “I don’t know how much you’ve been told about this, but a very well
regarded surgeon, Dr. Hamish Leitner, went crazy at a family reunion on September 23, less then a
week before the incident with the judge. He was on a hunting retreat with a bunch of family members
when he leaped onto his uncle and ripped his throat out, and then killed two more family members
before his own brother shot him to death.”
Bobbi nodded. “I know about that. And it’s not two shifters, it’s three.” At the startled glances
from around the table, she said, “On Sept. 22, a wealthy, married businessman went to Mexico on an
alleged business trip, which was actually a pleasure tour. He’s a leopard shifter. He went crazy while
he was down there, killed the two prostitutes he’d been partying with, two hotel security guards
responding to the screams coming from his room, and a Mexican police officer, before they managed
to kill him. Everybody assumed that he’d gotten into a bad batch of drugs. No autopsy was done in
Mexico; his body was shipped back here and buried. His family managed to hush it up by bribing
officials down there; he’s got a wife and five kids.” She paused. “His name was Herman Bass, and
he was from Playa Linda.”
Shock and dismay registered on the face of every person in the room.
“Do you know about the Caged Heat connection?” the captain asked Bobbi.
“No, I confess that I do not. What is Caged Heat? Is that some kind of drug?”
Jax let out a snort of laughter. “Some people find it addictive.”
“Both men were members of a high end, private S&M club called Caged Heat, which serves the
wealthiest residents of Playa Linda.”
“Really.” This was interesting news. “That connection can’t be a coincidence. And it sounds as if
Herman could have been a member. He certainly had the money. And the prostitutes that he killed
were both wearing bondage gear, so we know he had the predilection.”
“We’re going to have to have his body exhumed and examined by the coroner’s office,” the
captain said.
“What are you looking for?” Bobbi asked. “What connection has the coroner discovered so far?”
“The section of the brain known as the amygdala, which regulates aggression, was swollen and
malformed in both men. We haven’t been able to discover a cause yet.” The captain shook his head.
“We’ve got to figure this out before any more attacks take place. It could be a disaster for shifter-
human relations. We don’t want another Syracuse.”
In Syracuse, in the 1980s, a particularly virulent outbreak of mutated rabies known as Rab-X had
infected dozens of shifters. Hundreds of humans and shifters were slaughtered by the infected, the
entire city was quarantined, and the army and national guard were called in.
Anti-shifter riots spread across the country, along with calls for all shifters to be forcibly
relocated to reservations which would be under military guard. Ever since then, any case of shifter
rabies sent both humans and shifters into hysterics.
Everyone in the room shuddered at the thought. Everyone except Bobbi.
Phoenix, she thought. We don’t want another Phoenix. Except that hardly anybody knew about
Phoenix, and even less people would care.
She swallowed hard and stuffed down the anger that swelled up inside her. Life isn’t fair, she
reminded herself. You can beat your head against the wall, or you can try to help as many people as
you can, make life as fair as you can possibly make it.
“Get me a picture of Herman Bass. See what you can pull up from public records and I’ll tell you
if I recognize him from Caged Heat,” Jax said to a police officer, who flipped open a laptop and
began typing away.
At Bobbi’s startled glance, Jax flashed her a savage grin. “I’m a member, courtesy of a friend of
mine that I do some work for.”
“Oh,” she said quietly, as she felt a blush start to spread across her cheeks and her nipples grew
even harder.
All kinds of thoughts were warring in Bobbi’s mind. Images of Jax at the club, stripped to the
waist…images of herself tied down and squirming as Jax caressed her with the tendrils of a
flogger…was she blushing? Please, God, don’t let me blush, she thought, staring hard at the scuffed
tabletop and desperately trying to think unsexy thoughts. Fat men in thongs, she thought. Toe jam.
Foot fungus.
Jax, naked, erect, taking her from behind…
No! Maggots. The smell of the morgue. Squeaking rats scampering in back alleys…
Her and Jax in a back alley, with her pinned up against the wall, and him sensually tormenting her
while he held her pinned firmly in place…
She squirmed in her seat, and crossed her legs, pressing them tightly together. Well, at least now
she knew why Hammersmith had picked Jax to investigate this case. If he had a membership at Caged
Heat, he was the perfect person to send in undercover.
The officer turned the laptop towards Jax, who squinted at the driver’s license picture for a
moment and then nodded. “Yes. I recognize him. He’s a member at Caged Heat.”
Bobbi glanced at Captain Thorne. “Could it be some kind of outbreak from a virus that hasn’t
been identified yet? You need to get the Health Department to shut that place down.”
“We’re definitely considering it, but we’d like to gather some intel first. Among other things, we
don’t know the name of all the employees at the club, and we also want to gain access to their client
list. And we’re hoping to do it quietly and discretely.”
“How?” Bobbi had a sinking feeling that she knew how.
“We want to try infiltrating the club,” Thorne said. “The problem with shutting the club down is,
we may never discover the source of these attacks. What if one of the patrons, or employees, is
bringing poison or some kind of mutated virus to the club?”
“And that’s where we come in,” Jax said to Bobbi.
“We.” He’d said “we.” From the wicked grin on Jax’s face, it was clear her earlier suspicions
had been correct. She knew exactly where this was going.
The captain was looking over both of them and nodding approvingly. “This is absolutely perfect,
I have to admit. The club is invitation only; there’s no way that we’d be able to get someone in there
undercover. But with Jax already having a membership, he can go there without arousing any
suspicion. And Bobbi’s new in town, so nobody will know that she’s an Enforcer.”
Bobbi nodded, pasting a smile on her face. “Yes. It’s absolutely brilliant.” Jax was watching her
with a speculative gleam in his eye. She wanted to smack him.
She barely heard anything else that was said. Her mind was whirling. She and Jax were going to
a BDSM club? Together? She’d have to let him do whatever he wanted to her…and totally keep her
cool, when his mere touch sent red-hot pulses of desire rippling through her body? ?
A sudden commotion in the hallway jerked her back to reality. The door to the briefing room
flew open, and a group of men in suits muscled their way in. Bobbi’s heart sank when she saw who
the men were escorting.
Stanford Roosevelt.
Following them in to the room was the police chief, Clinton Davis.
He swung to glare at Captain Thorne. “Why was I not informed of this briefing?”
“My secretary did in fact inform your secretary of this briefing,” Captain Thorne said.
The other police officers had stiffened visibly at the intrusion. They moved their chairs closer to
Captain Thorne, subtly but noticeably. Clearly the chief wasn’t well loved by the men in this room.
Bobbi had been told that he operated mostly as a figurehead, gladhanding with all of the politicians
and wealthy business people, and never involving himself in investigations.
“I doubt that, since I never received the information. I’d like to introduce you to State
Representative Stanford Roosevelt.” The chief, a shorter man with gray hair and a mustache, swelled
visibly as he spoke, as if merely saying Roosevelt’s name made him more important.
“We all know who he is,” Bobbi said coolly.
“Then you should know that my men are armed with silver coated bullets, in case any of you
shifters attempt anything,” Stanford, a strikingly handsome man with a shock of silver hair, said.
When he spoke to her, he didn’t meet her eyes; he spoke to a spot several inches above her head.
She could feel the anger radiating from Jax, but he managed to hold himself together, barely.
In a way, Bobbi wasn’t surprised that he wouldn’t meet her eyes. The eyes were what gave
shifters away to humans. They were always the color of their animals species, and the pupils were
shaped the same as their animal species as well. Many humans found it disconcerting to look in a
shifters eyes.
“You have no right to come in here and insult these people in such a fashion,” Thorne said
angrily. “And I trust those bullets are properly registered.” Silver-coated bullets weren’t sold to the
general public; a special license was required to buy them, and it was illegal to cheat by dipping
regular bullets in silver.
“You want to see our license?” One of Stanford’s hired musclemen sneered.
“Yes, in fact, I do,” Captain Thorne said.
“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” Chief Davis rushed in. Thorne’s eyes were blazing with anger, and
he made a visible effort to restrain himself from speaking. The officers on either side of him stiffened
at the insult to their boss’s authority, but said nothing.
Stanford sat down at a seat across from Bobbi and Jax, with his men flanking him closely.
“I expect to be filled in on every aspect of this investigation,” he said. He flicked a contemptuous
glance at Jax and Bobbi. “And I expect that any shifters involved in this investigation will be
accompanied by human minders at all times, and before they take any action or conduct any
investigation, they will formally submit their intentions in writing to be approved by Chief Davis.”
Human minders? As if they were dogs who might go rabid at any moment?
Jax let out an audible growl of anger, and the men accompanying Roosevelt clutched at their guns.
Thorne and his men jumped to their feet, their own hands on their guns.
Bobbi needed to get Jax out of there before he leaped across the table and ripped Stanford’s face
off. Quickly, she stood up, and Jax followed suit.
She looked Stanford right in the eye.
“We don’t work for you,” she informed him. “The Enforcers are a division of the National Shifter
Council, which is an independent entity, and Jax is a licensed bodyguard and investigator. We do not
require your approval. Furthermore, Mr. Roosevelt, you know quite well that the House of
Representatives Security Committee has agreed that at this point, it would be dangerous to publicly
speculate as to whether any other Shifter Rage incidents are connected to the incident with Judge
Galbraith. You know this because you were specifically ordered not to reveal that information to the
public.”
Stanford was, in fact, a member of the Security Committee. He’d been outvoted so far in his
outrageous demands on this investigation…but if this case wasn’t resolved quickly, he might be able
to swing more members his way.
“The public has a right to protect themselves,” Stanford snapped, again addressing the air several
inches above her head.
“If there are any leaks to the media, it will be very easy to identify where they came from, and the
source of those leaks would be subject to charges of treason,” she said, struggling to maintain a calm
demeanor.
Jax was clenching his hands into fists, and she could see fur sprouting from them, and black claws
curving from his fingers.
“Are you threatening me?” Stanford demanded of the air above her head.
Yes, Bobbi wanted to snarl. “If telling you to obey the law and the directions of the Security
Committee is a threat, then yes,” she said coldly. “Jax, let’s go.”
He followed her out of the room, walking stiffly, and she could feel the eyes of Stanford and his
men burning holes in her back as they went.
Thorne shot her a sympathetic look, but didn’t say anything. With the police chief on Stanford’s
side, his hands were tied.
Damn it to hell, she thought furiously as they walked outside. Damn, damn, damn. This made her
mission her so much more complicated. Jax was shaking with anger when they reached the sidewalk.
“Good job not tearing his throat open,” Bobbi said. “I know you wanted to.”
“You have no idea how badly.”
“All right. We’re going to go for a drink, and then regroup. It’s not too early for a beer, is it?”
“It’s five o’clock somewhere,” Jax said, managing a grim smile.
Fifteen minutes later they were inside the Drunken Monkey, a shifter-friendly bar that Jax had
suggested. It was dark and cool inside, and mostly empty at that time of day. Two shots of whiskey
and a frosty mug of beer had taken the edge off Jax’s anger, although Bobbi suspected he was still
brooding.
“I’m going to go outside and make a call to Enforcer headquarters,” she said. “Drink up. Please.”
He raised his mug to her in silent salute, and she walked outside to make the call.
“What the hell are we going to do, Renee?” she asked her supervisor after briefing her on what
had happened at the police station. “Do we have to put up with this? You know Stanford’s anti-
shifter agenda; giving him access to the investigation is an invitation to disaster.”
“Unfortunately, for now, we do have to put up with it. The minute he steps over the line, the
minute he reveals confidential information to the public, we can file a complaint, but right now, we
don’t have a choice. It’ll be all right; this is far from the first time that shifters have had to deal with
prejudiced morons.”
“Fine,” Bobbi said unhappily. She walked back inside, to find a considerably more mellowed-
out Jax.
She glanced around; there was nobody sitting near them, and the bartender was at the other end of
the bar.
“What’s our next move when it comes to Caged Heat?” she asked in a low voice.
“The club doesn’t open until tomorrow night,” he told her. “They’re open Wednesday through
Sunday. In the meantime…you and I need to go shopping. We’ll need to get you some appropriate
clothes.”
“What kind of clothes?” she looked a him suspiciously.
“Listen, if you want to back out, I completely understand.” His tone was patronizing, his gaze
challenging.
“You wish,” she snapped.
“Do I really, now? You think I don’t want to see you naked and chained to a St. Andrew’s
Cross?” He flashed her an evil grin. He was definitely back to his normal self right now – his
normal, dickhead self.
She refused to ask him what a St. Andrew’s Cross was, but she’d definitely be hitting up Google
later.
“If we’re going to do this, we have to do it right. I’m completely serious here.” He stopped
walking and looked her in the eye. “I can go to the club myself, if you don’t think you can handle it.
But if you’re going to come with me, you can’t arouse any suspicion. You have to act like the women
that I’ve brought there in the past.”
Irrational, ugly jealously swirled in her stomach at the thought of him and those other women.
“Go on,” she said coolly.
“You need to act submissive to me. When I give you orders, you have to obey without question.
You can act a little sassy, but then I’ll punish you. You’ll have to accept my spanking you, maybe
using a flogger. We have to put on a public display to convince people that we’re legit.”
“I’m an Enforcer. I’m not afraid of pain.”
“What about being naked in a room full of people?”
She shrugged, and said defiantly “I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.”
“You certainly don’t.”
He looked down at her his taunting tone suddenly softened. “No one but me will touch you. I
won’t let anyone hurt you.”
She swallowed hard and nodded. “If you give me your word on that, than I have no problem with
it.”
His eyes widened a little. “You’re sure.”
“I said I have no problem with it.”
He stood there for a minute, looking flustered. Clearly he hadn’t expected her to go through with
this.
Then he took a deep breath, and shrugged, smiling gamely. “Then let’s go shopping.”
Chapter Six
“My, she’s lovely. You always have such excellent taste,” the skinny male clerk at Liquid, a
bondage emporium, simpered at Jax.
Jax saw Bobbi flinch, and he glared at the clerk. There was no need to rub Bobbi’s nose in the
fact that he’d bought numerous women here before.
“Thanks for the discretion,” he said coldly, and the clerk flushed and started mumbling. “I just
meant-”
“I don’t need your help, thanks,” Jax said, and the clerk slunk away, chastened.
There were racks and racks of clothing on display. Leather, vinyl, latex, in every conceivable
color. There were costumes, shoes, and lingerie nestled in front of glass display cases of full of
nipple clamps, vibrators,butt plugs and lubricants.
Bobbi stared at the clothing, blinking, and clearly struggling to keep her cool.
Jax could have sworn that Bobbi would refuse to go undercover with him to the club. He’d even
given her an out, offering to go by himself. And yet – when she said that she’d go with him, he
suddenly realized that he’d wanted her to go to the club with him, all along. Damn his cock, doing all
of his thinking for him.
Jax led Bobbi over to a rack of latex dresses, and scanned the offerings.
“You’re a size six, right?” he said.
“Good eye.” She nodded.
He pulled a couple of dresses from the rack, and held them up appraisingly.
“Interesting zipper arrangements,” she said, looking at the dresses askance.
“That’s so I can gain access to the important areas whenever I want.” The dresses that he’d
handed her would allow him to pretty much take her clothing apart inside the club.
The thought of her restrained, her taut, muscular body stretched out and straining as he flogged her
quivering buttocks…
Heat sizzled through his nervous system, and he could feel all the blood in his body rushing to his
groin. He prayed that Bobbi wouldn’t glance down and see, but she seemed to be looking anywhere
but at him at the moment.
He knew she was turned on too. She was breathing hard, and her pupils were dilated. He could
see the hard nubs of her nipples through the silky fabric of her shirt. He wanted nothing more than to
strip her clothing off and suck those nipples into his mouth. The scent of her arousal, rich and sweet
and musky, tormented him. He could imagine exactly how she’d taste.
“Go try those on,” he told her. “I’ll be waiting for you out here.”
After a couple of minutes, he strolled to the dressing room area. She was inside one of the rooms.
He knocked on the door.
“Let me see,” he ordered her.
“I don’t know…”
He lowered his voice, his mouth inches from the door. “You need to obey me in here. The BDSM
community is pretty tight; if it seems like we’re not really a couple, word could get back to people at
the club.”
There was a pause, and then the door yanked open. She stood there wearing a black lycra dress
that fit her as if it had been poured onto her body. The hemline was so short that it made her muscular
legs look miles long. The dress had a deep scoop neck which showed off the generous swell of her
breasts, and zippers zig zagging across it front and back. He desperately wanted to grab the zippers
and yank them open right there.
“Nice,” he said approvingly. He held up several g-strings that he’d selected for her. “And you’ll
wear one of these.”
She nodded, breathing heavily. “Fine,” she said. Her face was flushed.
The two of them stood there, staring into each other’s eyes. The sexual tension was so thick that it
could have been sliced through with a knife. He wanted nothing more than to shove his way into that
tiny changing room, push her up against a wall, and, the hell with the zippers, rip the dress right off
her body. It was an expensive dress. It would be worth every penny.
Finally she spoke. “If we show up and everyone is dressed in formal cocktail attire, I just want
you to know that I will. Fucking. Kill. You.”
The tension broke, and they both broke into gales of laughter before Jax finally regained control of
himself. “You’ll fit right in,” he assured her. “I’ll be the envy of every man there.”
The thought of all the men ogling her sent a swirl of mixed emotions through him. On the one hand,
he would be proud to show her off, and he was fine with other men looking at her…from afar.
But there was something about her that set off his animal instincts, and the thought of any man
actually approaching her, especially dressed in that sinfully sexy outfit…he actually felt his fur
bristling beneath the surface, and had to fight down an animal snarl.
After they picked out shoes to complete the outfit, they went to the front counter. Jax insisted on
paying for it. “It’s on Hammersmith,” he told her. “Business expense.”
She laughed. “I wish I could be there when the accountants are approving that one.”
He shrugged. “It’ll liven up their otherwise dull lives.”
As they walked outside the store, he held open the door of his car for her. “You have plans for
tonight?’
“Working out, shower, early bedtime.”
“I could give you a demonstration of what to expect at the club.” He had tossed that out off-
handedly, like he would with any hot woman that he wanted to seduce, but he suddenly realized that
he very, very much wanted her to say yes. He didn’t want to be separated from her. He wanted to be
with her tonight…all night.
She took a deep breath and looked him in the eye. She seemed to struggle with her words, and he
could hear the faintest tremor in her voice. “I think it’s best if we keep this professional.”
Disappointment bit into him, but he knew she was right. He nodded curtly. “I’ll be by to pick you
up around nine. Are you doing any investigating tomorrow, during the day?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know yet. If I am, I will let you know.”
Somehow he doubted that.
After he dropped her off at the hotel, he grabbed his cell phone and called Kenneth.
“I need to hit you up for a favor,” he said.
“Shoot.”
“Find out anything that you can on a coyote Enforcer named Roberta Jo Simpson.”
* * *
Vaughn Waverly leaned forward, hunched over a mirror that lay on the overstuffed ottoman in
front of him, with a rolled up thousand dollar bill jammed into his right nostril. He quickly snorted
the three lines of white, granular cocaine in front of him, one after the other, shuddering with pleasure
as the chemicals roar through his nervous system.
His suite had a spectacular view of the setting sun, a giant red ball of fire melting into the horizon,
the buildings of Mexico City standing out against the sunset like black paper cutouts. The room was
enormous, with thick, soft carpeting, a massive chandelier dangling from the ceiling, and purple
velvet curtains cloaking the walls. A gold and leopard print sofa piled high with cushions could
easily have seated twenty. Sometimes it did, when Vaughn was in the mood for an orgy.
He glanced down at the beautiful blond ocelot shifter who was kneeling near his feet, staring
dully at the floor. “What are you waiting for?” he snapped, and fumbled at his zipper, freeing his
rock hard cock. Obligingly, she crawled up to him and reached for his thick, purplish rod.
“Can I have a hit first, Vaughn? Please,” she whimpered. “I’m hurting bad. I’m hurting real bad.”
Vaughn laughed out loud. She actually thought he cared about her pain. He reveled in her
suffering, gloried in the effectiveness of Compound 72, street name Afterburn, in reducing any feline
shifter to a helpless bag of skin and craving. All that shifter strength, all that power, burned away as
the desperate need for the next fix became more important than family, than life itself.
She’d been a waitress at a strip club he’d owned, and he’d tested out Compound 72 on her and a
number of the other girls, offering free samples at first.
Then the freebies stopped, and she found out how expensive her new habit was. It cost more than
money. She’d abandoned her three cubs, left her pack, and became one of his gang’s passarounds…
all for that next hit. Anything for the next hit.
“After you do your job,” he drawled, in a bored tone, and she crawled up between his legs and
took him in her mouth.
She could suck some dick, he’d give her that. That was why she was still there. Her mouth closed
on him eagerly, her head pumping up and down as his breathing grew harsh and fast. The cocaine
made it more difficult for him to come, though, and he groaned impatiently as her head bobbed and he
dangled on arousal’s precipice.
“Suck harder, you stupid bitch,” he growled, and she obliged, her head bobbing frantically up and
down, and her cheeks hollowing with the effort. Finally his excitement reached its peak and he
exploded, grabbing her by the hair and shoving his cock all the way down her throat. She gagged,
struggling to breathe, and her arms flailed in panic, but he held her in place until he was done, then
released her. She fell to the floor, gulping in air in desperate heaving breaths, eyes wide and
panicked.
“My hit,” she husked, lying curled up on the floor, shaking. “Please, Vaughn, please.”
He shook his head, which wrenched a wail of despair from her throat.
“You didn’t do a very good job.” He nodded his head at the two large, muscular men in dark suits
who stood by his doorway, glowering. “Now you’ll have to suck them both off first.”
She started to climb to her feet, whimpering with sheer misery, and he kicked her hard, his foot
connecting with her narrow buttocks, knocking her to her knees.
“Don’t walk. Crawl like the animal you are,” he snarled, and she obligingly crawled away,
sobbing quietly.
Shifters. They sickened him. They thought they were so strong, so special, when it took nothing
but a tiny little pill to knock them back down the evolutionary ladder to the pathetic, cowering
animals they truly were.
A brief picture of himself as a child flashed through his head, a lonely child, curled up in his bed,
crying. The taunts of his schoolmates rang through his ears. Your daddy left your mommy for a dog.
Your daddy is fucking a dog. Bark, Vaughn, bark!
A wolf. His father left his mother for a werewolf, and never came back. They’d been the laughing
stock of their small town. It only took his mother two years to drink herself to death.
His vision swam with rage and he grabbed a crystal ashtray from the ottoman and hurled it at the
ocelot, Pamela something, connecting with her ribcage, and she screamed in pain, but never stopped
crawling. She’d learned.
“I’m sorry, Vaughn, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” she wailed, crawling faster.
Animals.
Speaking of animals…
He grabbed his cell phone and dialed. Bobbi Jo Simpson…he had her partly under his thumb, but
not far enough. That would change very soon.
“Hello?” she answered on the second ring, and he heard her struggling to keep the fear from her
voice. He liked that. She was proud, and strong, and when he finally got the chance to crush the bitch
under his heel and leave her begging for mercy, it would give him more satisfaction than he’d felt in
ages. Certainly more satisfaction than he got from humiliating Pamela; that was like kicking a two
month old cub.
“You know what your brother is doing right now?”
“I imagine he’s sitting in his cell, given that he’s in prison and it’s nine o’clock at night,” she said
in a cold, even voice. God, she hated him. His mouth curled in a grin.
“Yes, he is. He’s reading that book you sent him. The Tom Clancy book. My guards are watching
him. Remember that. My guards. They will do anything that I tell them to. How are things going in
Playa Linda?”
Vaughn had half a dozen men at the prison on his payroll. They could make Heath’s life
comfortable, or they could make it a living hell. He made sure to remind Bobbi of that in every
conversation they had.
“We’ve made some interesting discoveries.”
“Like the fact that all of the rabies cases seem to be coming from Caged Heat?”
If she was surprised that he knew that, she didn’t reveal it in her voice. “Yes. We don’t know for
sure if The Chemist is behind it, but according to the coroner the victims’ amygdala was swollen and
deformed, so it’s a good possibility.”
“It’s him, I’m sure of it. Let me know the minute you find him. Or you know what will happen to
your brother.”
“Yes. I know.”
Abruptly, he hung up, and leaned back in the chair.
She wasn’t submissive enough. She wasn’t respectful enough. He could hear the barely
suppressed fury in her voice every time he talked to her.
For now, he’d tolerate her, because he needed her. Having an insider on the Enforcer’s Council
came in very handy, especially now that it appeared that the Chemist had resurfaced. But soon, the
time would come that he didn’t need her any more…for anything more than entertainment.
Soon the time would come that no shifter would dare address a human with anything less than
submissive fear and pleading.
The thought of it made him rock hard again, but he was bored with Pamela, who was desperately
sucking off one of his bodyguards. He could only listen to so much of her sobbing and sniveling
before it switched over from fun to irritating. He wanted someone who still had a little fight left in
her.
He grabbed his walkie-talkie and stabbed the button. “Send in Jennifer,” he ordered.
He’d go for the ass, he decided. He was definitely in the mood for some nice tight cougar ass.
Chapter Eight?” Meg asked.
“Just peachy,” Bobbi lied. She always lied to her foster mother. Meg was the type who worried,
although she tried not to let it show. “How are things at home?” Home, where she hadn’t visited in
two years. Meg and Samuel deserved better than that, but there was always another case to be worked
somewhere in the country, another emergency. Another excuse.
“All is well. David is a junior, he made the track team, Carmen is a senior, she’s in the honors
society.” Meg was naming some of the foster children she and Sam had taken in. “Bethanny, get off
the kitchen counter! Off!” Bethanny was a jaguar shifter cub who loved to leap onto high surfaces,
giving Meg and Samuel regular conniptions.
“Wow. All your kids are such overachievers. Except me.”
“Don’t be silly, dear. You’re an Enforcer! We couldn’t be more proud.”
“I never did that well in school, though.”
“Bethanny! Not the bookshelf! DOWN! Come here and help me stir the batter. I need an official
taster. What’s that, dear? Oh, school. Well, everyone has their special talent, their area where they
shine like a diamond. It just took you a little while to find yours.”
That was Meg, always putting a positive spin on things.
“Will you be home for Christmas this year?’
“I’ll try,” Bobbi promised, guilt rippling through her.
“I understand if you can’t make it. Your work saves lives. That has to come first. But if you can
make it, we’d all love to see you.”
“Thanks, Meg. Give my love to Sam. I should go, now. I’m kind of in the middle of something.”
“Nothing dangerous?’
“Oh, no. Nothing dangerous. They mostly have me on desk jobs. I help with research.” Ha. Talk
about eyes turning brown. But what good would it do to tell Meg the truth? Meg and Sam were the
type who sat home waiting anxiously when she went out with friends to the movies on a Friday night.
She could never tell them that she regularly tangled with mobsters, drug dealers, child pornographers,
and assorted other varieties of scum.
“Did you get the fudge we sent you?”
“Of course. It was delicious. I meant to send you a thank you note.” Ugh. Now she was really
hating herself. The address that Meg and Samuel had for her was at her rented apartment in Denver.
Travelling as much as she did, she used it more as a storage unit than she did an apartment. The fudge
was undoubtedly sitting in a box in the apartment manager’s office with all her other mail.
It wasn’t that she didn’t love Meg and Samuel. She did. It was just that it was safer to keep her
love wrapped up in an imaginary trunk and stored in a dark recess of her mind. She’d had parents,
real parents, who’d doted on her; she’d been in grade school when she’d received the news of their
death in a fiery car accident. She’d had an older brother who’d rescued her from unimagined horrors;
she’d been bartending at a nightclub when a grim-faced police officer came to deliver the news of his
untimely end.It felt like the universe was sending her a clear message. Her love wasn’t a gift. It was a
curse.
“We miss you, dear. Hope to talk to you again soon.”
“I miss you too, Meg. Talk soon, I promise.” And she hung up and walked back into O’Malley’s,
the dive bar where she’d come to meet Pixie for lunch. She glanced at their table; Pixie wasn’t sitting
there. Great. Somewhere, somebody was missing a wallet.
The din was loud, the air was smoky, and 1980’s rock blared from a jukebox.
She pushed her way up to the bar and ordered a beer. Suddenly, her senses went on full alert, her
nipples swelling to hard little buds, and she felt hot and itchy, and ready to rub her private parts up
against the nearest piece of furniture in a desperate bid for relief. . What the hell?
It definitely wasn’t because of any of the rough crowd pressed up against her at the bar, reeking of
beer sweat and cigarette smoke.
“Enjoying your lunch?” She turned around to see Jax towering over her, looking ridiculously
pleased with himself. He wore a black t shirt, jeans, and motorcycle boots. The t-shirt accentuated
the swell of his biceps and his flat washboard stomach. The man didn’t have an ounce of fat on him,
she’d wager.
So – apparently her body could sense when Jax was near, and it was like his presence flipped on
the remote control which accessed all her erogenous zones.
“How did you find me here?” she demanded.
“Same way you kept finding me, sweetheart. I followed you. How’s it feel?”
“Creepy, and disconcerting,” she grumbled. She slapped a five dollar bill down on the counter,
grabbed her beer, and headed back to her table, with Jax following close behind.
Then she looked around. “Damn it, where’s Pixie? I don’t trust that girl when I can’t see what
she’s up to,” she said, plopping down in her seat and squirming a little, because Jax had deliberately
brushed up against her as he sat down and it sent a little jolt of electricity straight to her vagina.
“You shouldn’t trust me even when you can see what I’m up to. Because you only think you can
see what I’m up to,” Pixie said, squeezing between two longshoremen to sit down at their table.
“If someone decides to snap you in half because you just stole their wallet, you’re on your own,”
Bobbi informed her.
“I’m hurt. I almost never get caught,” Pixie said, making a sad face which lasted for about two
seconds.
Today she was wearing her leather jacket, a red plaid miniskirt, and torn fishnets, and Bobbi
could swear she had a couple new piercings since yesterday, although she had so many it was hard to
keep track. The pretty leaf necklace dangled around her neck, along with a chain with a lock on it and
a charm necklace with a skull charm.
“What are you up to today, Pixie?” Jax asked.
She leaned forward and said in a lowered voice, “I gave Bobbi some good intel on a gang that’s
selling meth down here.”
Bobbi nodded. “Yes she did. I’m proud of her. And just think, the only wallet she has on her right
now is her own. Right?”
Pixie shrugged, plucking a wallet from her jacket pocket. “It depends on your definition of
ownership. Finders keepers, right?” She opened the wallet and went through it, plucking out numbers
written on scraps of paper.
“Eboni, Velvet, Desiree…you won’t be nodding those numbers any more if you’re hooking up
with my friend here,” she said to Jax.
Jax slapped his hand on his rear pocket. “How in the hell?” he roared.
Pixie tossed the wallet back to him.
“I am not hooking up with him!” Bobbi gasped, face turning scarlet.
“Really?” Pixie arched a delicately plucked eyebrow at her. “Well, that’s too bad. The condoms
in his wallet?…ribbed, flavored, and, wait for it, extra large.” She winked. “You’re missing out.”
Jax’s face flushed with anger, as he grabbed the scraps of paper and tossed them into the ashtray
on the table.
Bobbi swallowed hard, forcing away memories of Jax rubbing up against her a couple days
earlier. “Pixie. We’ve discussed this already. Don’t steal wallets from shifters; they might bite.”
“It’s not stealing if I give it right back. I didn’t even keep any of the money.” She tossed the
wallet at Jax, who went through his billfold and then shot her a murderous look.
Pixie rolled her eyes, fished around in her pocket again, and tossed him a couple of twenties.
“Jeez. Fine. Here I am, risking my life for the police department, doing my public duty, helping clean
up the streets…”
Jax made a motion as if he were politely applauding, and then made a shooing motion. “I need to
talk to Bobbi alone. Scram.”
Pixie stood up, giving Bobbi a jaunty wave. “Let me know if he gives you any trouble,” she said
to Bobbi. “I know people.” And she sauntered off through the crowd.
“I’m picturing wallets just leaping out of pockets and landing in her hand,” Bobbi sighed. “She’s
freaking incorrigible. But, I’ve got to give her props, she’s very good.”
She shrugged, then turned back to Jax. “So, did you follow me here just for the sheer perverse fun
of it, or did you need to speak to me? Because I’ve got a phone. I gave you my number yesterday. You
could have just called me.”
“Nahhh, this was way more fun. And I came here to tell you that I think you should move in with
me.”
Bobbi sat there for a minute, struggling to pick her jaw up off the floor. “I….you…what?” she
spluttered. For once she was so taken aback she couldn’t even come up with a snappy comeback. Jax
leaned back in his chair, grinning hugely and clearly enjoying her flustered state.
“Just for the duration of the investigation. Although if you’re a really good little girl, I could
extend that a little bit so- hey!” Jax barely had time to move his hand out of the way of the steak knife
that she jammed into the table top.
“Fiesty. I like that,” Jax grinned fiercely, his knee rubbing up against hers.
Bobbi jerked her knee away, and suppressed a whimper. “I thought you like your women
submissive.”
“Ultimately, that’s what turns me on, but I like a woman with some fight in her. It’s no fun being
with someone when she just rolls right over.”
“Speaking of your many women, I doubt they’d appreciate me being there when they sleep over.”
Bobbi gritted the words out, forcing a polite smile on her face.
“There will be no sleepovers while you’re there.”
“Because you think I’ll be taking their place?” Bobbi demanded indignantly.
“No. Because, believe it or not, I do have some respect.”
“And you think I should move in with you why, exactly?”
“Because once we go to the club and people see us as a couple, word will get out. You’re
staying at the Plaza Hotel right now; yes, I know what room you’re in and what you’ve ordered so far
on your room service menu,” he added at her startled look. “If we’re pretending that you’re my
girlfriend, then you should be staying with me. We don’t know how long this investigation will take;
we could figure it out tonight, or it could drag on for weeks. I’m in it for as long as it takes, and I’m
willing to do whatever it takes. Are you?”
His gaze pinned hers to her chair. The rest of the room seemed to disappear as she fell into the
ocean of his eyes, which were a light shade of brown flecked with black. They were fringed with
thick black lashes which would be the envy of any girl, and they held glints of sensual promise.
She forced herself to concentrate. Yes, she was willing to do whatever it took. She owed to
Marcus. Unfortunately, Jax was right. As hard as it would be for her, she should probably move in
with him temporarily, to ensure that nobody saw through their cover.
“So, I take it you have a second bedroom I can sleep in? Or at least a couch?”
“I have a couch.” He looked amused, which immediately made her suspicious.
“Fine.”
He reached in his pocket and pulled out a key, handing it to her. At her surprised look, he said, “I
trust you. More or less. Well, mostly less, but put it this way, I don’t expect that you’ll steal from me.
You have a good reputation among the Enforcers. Don’t go inviting your friend Pixie over, though.”
“Are you crazy? She’d find a way to smuggle your furniture and TV out in her pocket.”
“We should actually head over there now, so we can go over tonight’s plan,” Jax said.
“Now?” To Bobbi’s mortification, it came out as a startled squeak. Her, Jax, under one roof, all
alone…damn it, now she completely understood the concept of blue balls. Blue clit, that was it. She
was suffering from blue clit. And she had a whole new sympathy for what men went through.
Jax held up his hands placatingly. “I will be a complete gentleman, unless you request that I do
otherwise. That offer’s open any time, by the way.”
“Wow. We went from you throwing out an invitation to a one night stand, to us living together and
you offering sex on demand. I feel like we might be moving a little too fast.” She stood up and
grabbed her purse.
“What can I say. You’re irresistible.” Jax winked at her.
She followed him out the door. Jax headed for the Harley Davidson that was parked out front,
with two helmets dangling off the handlebars. A mangy looking hyena shifter was eyeing it, and Jax
let out a snarl which sent the hyena scrambling and yelping for cover, and then Jax handed Bobbi her
helmet. She buckled it on, her heart sinking in her chest.
Whatever it takes, she reminded herself. Whatever it takes.
Chapter Nine“Your safe word is onions.”
“That’s a stupid safeword,” Bobbi grumbled.
“Okay, pick your own safeword.”
Bobbi sighed. “Onions is fine.”
“You sure you’re okay with this?” Jax and Bobbi stood outside the club in the parking lot next to
the building. The BDSM club was housed in a large, two story brick structure on the outskirts of
Playa Linda. It could have been an office building or an apartment building, from all outward
appearances. There was no sign advertising what they’d find inside.
Bobbi felt as if a thousand butterflies were swarming in her stomach, but she took a deep,
steadying breath, closed her eyes, and summoned up a picture of Marco. Not the way he’d looked
when he died, but the way she remembered him when she was in her teens.
She opened her eyes and saw Jax staring at her with an expression that she couldn’t read. “I’m
okay with it,” she said. “We’re doing what we have to do. For the investigation.”
He nodded, his gaze sweeping from head to toe, seemingly transfixed. “For the investigation.”
She was wearing the black latex dress with zippers, ridiculously high heeled glossy black patent
leather pumps, and a collar fixed around her neck.
Jax was wearing black jeans, motorcycle boots, and a black t-shirt with a skull on it. The t-shirt
accentuated the curve of his biceps, and the muscles of his six-pack which stood out in sharp relief.
Bobbi stood close enough to Jax that she smelled his earthy, masculine scent. His skin was smooth
and tan; she wanted to run her tongue along that curved bicep.
Jax reached out and snapped a leash on to her collar. His fingers brushed against her neck, and
she shivered.
“Are you cold?” Jax asked, his voice husky. “You want my jacket?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re a strong woman. You don’t have a problem with playing the submissive?”
“It doesn’t hurt my ego, and I’m not afraid of it. It’s a role I’m playing for the night. It doesn’t
change who I am or make me any less strong.”
“No, it doesn’t.” He ran his finger along her jawline and then trailed it down her neck. A wave of
heat washed over her, and she realized that her g-string was soaking wet with the juices of her desire.
Already. Before they’d even walked in the damned club.
Jax cleared his throat, tearing his gaze away from her, and he turned and led the way, with her
following obediently behind him. As they approached the massive steel front door, Bobbi saw the
red eye of a security camera winking down at her from just above the doorframe.
The door swung open without Jax having to knock, and a burly security guard let them in. The two
of them walked down a long nondescript hallway with wood paneled flooring until they reached a set
of double doors.
They walked through into a huge room which was lit with spotlights. Strains of classical music
drifted through the air.
Throughout the room were numerous bondage stations, with every imaginable restraint device.
Big X-shaped structures that she recognized as from her furtive Google search a couple of hours
earlier, chains dangling from the ceiling, pommel horses, what looked like barber’s chairs, tables,
benches, ob-gyn tables with stirrups, and structures Bobbi couldn’t even recognize.
Women and men in various stages of undress, all wearing fetish and bondage gear, were either
standing and chatting, or participating in scenes. There was a big rectangular raised stage in the
middle of the room, and a man was being flogged by a dominatrix. He wore a leather hood, and his
hands were handcuffed together and yanked over his head, affixed to a dangling chain. At the other
end of the stage, a woman on a St. Andrew’s cross was being paddled.
There was a bar at the far end of the room; Jax had told her that only soft drinks, juice and water
were served there. Drunk people and flying bullwhips were a bad combination, he explained.
There were a number of doorways leading to private rooms. According to Jax, members could
play there with the person they’d brought with them, or with any of the assortment of attractive hired
submissives, both male and female, who worked at the club. The submissives always had a choice as
to whether they wanted to accompany a particular patron, and there were a number of ways they could
summon help immediately if things got out of hand, but that rarely happened. The members were
vetted very carefully, and those who caused problems were removed from the membership list
immediately.
As the two of them walked in, numerous people waved at him, and he waved back. Several
women gave Bobbi the once-over, with narrowed eyes and calculating looks. Bobbi could imagine
that Jax, with his rugged good looks and domineering, screw-you attitude, was considered quite the
prize here; the women were sizing up what they perceived to be the competition.
You’ve got nothing to worry about, she thought, with an odd twist in her guts; I’ll be gone before
you know it.
Jax led Bobbi over to the bar, where a handsome Hispanic man wearing a leather bondage
harness, leather thong, and sandals, walked up to greet them. Waxed smooth, stunningly beautiful, was
Bobbi’s quick mental assessment. His eyebrows were perfection.
“Evening, Jax. Who’s your new friend?” the man smiled at Bobbi politely.
“This is Bobbi. Bobbi, this is Fernando. How’s everything going?”
“Can’t complain. It’s good to see you again. What can I get you to drink?”
“Nothing right now, thank you.” Jax and Bobbi had agreed beforehand that they wouldn’t eat or
drink anything inside the club, in case it was contaminated with something that had caused the shifters
to go rabid.
Bobbi felt terrible not being able to warn everyone there of the certain danger that lurked, but she
had to agree with Captain Thorne’s assessment; it was crucial that they find out the origin of the
attacks. If the attacks were caused by someone’s deliberate action, and they shut the club down, then
they might not discover who the perpetrator was – and worse, if the perpetrator was deliberately
causing the Shifter Rage attacks, he or she could strike again, on a much larger scale. “How about an
appetizer?” Fernando asked.
Jax grinned at him. “I’ve got my appetizer, right here.” He bent down and gently nipped at
Bobbi’s neck, while holding her leash tight, and she let out a low moan of pleasure. It felt good not to
have to hold back; as long as they were in the club, she could moan and whimper as much as she
wanted to, and it was all part of their cover.
“She sure is appetizing,” a muscular blond man leaning against the bar looked over Bobbi
speculatively. A slim, beautiful redhead, wearing a leather bra, leather thong, and heels, knelt at his
feet.
The man glanced at Jax. “You like to share, right, Jax? Interested in a little swap?” The redhead
looked up hopefully.
Bobbi tensed, but Jax wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her up against him. “I don’t
share this one. She’s special.” His eyes sparked with a flare of warning.
The redhead pouted, but the man nodded and took a step back. “No problem. No harm in asking,
right? If you change your mind…” his gaze roved over Bobbi’s chest and at that, Jax let out a low,
rumbling growl that made the man jump.
“Were you listening to me?” Jax’s lips peeled back to reveal his descending fangs.
Bobbi could feel Jax’s muscles tense. And he had quite a lot of muscles to tense; he was like a
solid wall of muscle.
“Sorry, sorry. No offense meant. Estelle, come,” he snapped at the redhead, and he turned and
walked away. The redhead scrambled after him on all fours.
Ewww, floor cooties, Bobbi thought.
She turned and stood on her tiptoes so she could whisper in Jax’s ear. “Don’t make me kneel on
the floor. Please,” she murmured.
“On this floor? I wouldn’t dream of it. At home, that’s a different story,” he answered in a low,
sensual growl.
Part of her wanted to snap out a sarcastic answer at the presumptuous bastard but the more
realistic part of her had to admit that if they got home and he wanted her on her knees…well, she only
had so much willpower.
“So, we haven’t seen you in a while,” Fernando said. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“I’ve been out of town on business,” Jax said. “I decided it was about time I came back to
unwind.”
“Well, if you need anything special, you know where to find me,” Fernando said with a wink, and
sauntered off to serve a customer at the other end of the bar.
“Anything special like what?” Bobbi raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“Oh, various people here offer certain extra services. You can pretty much get anything that you
want here. Fernando is bisexual, he specializes in threesomes with male and female couples. You
could have him if you wanted.” Jax’s eyes flared, and he raised an eyebrow at her, waiting for her
answer.
“I don’t want him,” Bobbi said, rolling her eyes. Then, wickedly, she leaned into him and
breathed into his ear “Only you, baby.” His low groan was a delightful reward for her teasing.
So, Jax was jealous of her, it was becoming more and more obvious. To her dismay, she realized
she liked that he was jealous of her. It was vitally important that she didn’t let her emotions get
tangled up in this case, but here she was, taking the role of Jax’s girlfriend way too seriously already.
“Hello, Jax,” a low voice purred from behind her, and she turned to see several stunningly
beautiful women clustering around them, uncomfortably close.
“Bobbi, this is Charm, Velvet, and Caress,” Jax said. “They work here. Girls, this is my girlfriend
Bobbi.” The girls’ eyes widened.
“Girlfriend?” Caress said, staring at Bobbi with open interest. “I’ve never heard you introduce
anyone like that before.”
Bobbi tensed, fighting down an irrational surge of fury as the three girls undressed Jax with their
eyes. Jax’s arm tightened around Bobbi again, as if he sensed her anger and was reassuring her. “Get
used to it,” he said, and led Bobbi away from the bar by the leash.
They stood in the middle of the bar, surveying the crowd.
Male and female wait staff were dressed provocatively, in fetish gear, in black leather, latex, and
lace. They walked through the crowd carrying trays of drinks, or, in some cases, Bobbi realized, trays
of sex toys. They were stunningly beautiful, with perfect toned bodies, hair styled to perfection,
makeup laid on with a heavy hand.
“Are they on the menu?” she asked Jax.
“They can be if they choose to be,” Jax said. “They can also just be eye candy. The owner never
requires the staff to do anything that they don’t want to do.”
Her eyes drifted to a woman bent over a pommel horse. She wore fishnets and a garter with no
panties. Her wrists were bound and fastened to the ground with a long chain. A muscular man stood
behind her, with a paddle, smacking the large, perfectly round globes of her buttocks, which were
glowing red. A ball gag was stuffed in to her mouth.
He carefully moved the paddle, smacking fresh areas of flesh every time.
The woman squirmed and let out muffled cries of pleasure with each blow.
“Nnnnn! Nnnnnn!” she cried out.
Bobbi felt wet warmth seeping between her legs. She couldn’t take her eyes off them. What was
the woman thinking? Were she and the man together, or were they strangers meeting just this once, to
play out a forbidden fantasy?
“What are you thinking?” Jax asked, his lips close to her ear, his breath heating her skin.
“I’m thinking…this type of relationship could be a way of keeping women at a distance. Reducing
the relationship to nothing but sex, and ensuring that you’re always in control.”
“It can be, and for a lot of members of the club, it is. But it can also be a means of attaining the
ultimate intimacy. The submissive’s surrender is the most extreme form of trust, and for a dominant
or master to truly own his submissive can be the ultimate commitment and responsibility. And
remember, the sub is the one who really calls the shots. He or she can put a halt to things any time
they want, and the dominant has no choice but to respect that request.”
“True. But BDSM as a way to gain more intimacy…that’s not what it’s all about for you, is it?”
Bobbi said,
Jax paused a minute before answering. “No. It hasn’t been,” he said.
Bobbi nodded. A tiny part of her couldn’t help wondering if he was implying that he wanted to
change, but it didn’t matter in the end. Because of her past, because of her obligations, their
relationship came with a built-in expiration date.
She followed him to an empty seat. He sat down, pulling her down with him, and she fell onto his
lap.
He was rock hard, and when he wrapped his arms around her waist, he felt so warm, so strong, so
right, that part of her wanted to just melt into his arms and forget about the whole investigation. Well,
really most of her wanted that. His fingers lightly skimmed her arm, raising goosebumps, and she
whimpered and squirmed a little. She was pleased to hear him gasp as she wriggled, and she could
feel his cock move under her buttocks.
“Careful, babe. I’m holding on by a thread here,” he groaned.
“Tell me about it,” she muttered.
“Oh, so you’re willing to admit that I might be having a little bit of effect on you too?” he
murmured into her neck, and ran his tongue along the curve, scraping his teeth gently along her skin.
“I’m sure it’s just the atmosphere of the club that’s – oh, God.” He bit her ear, tugging at her
earlobe with his teeth.
“What was that, sweetheart?”
“Nothing,” she choked out. “I was just saying that…ohhh…” His hand slid between her thighs,
and he ran his thumb along the outside of her sopping wet g-string.
“One more time? What? I can’t hear you.”
“You…bastard…” she gasped, as he rubbed his thumb back and forth, and red hot sparks of lust
shot through her groin. Involuntarily, she felt herself leaning back in his lap, and her thighs parted to
accept his caress.
“Let me go first, then. I’ve wanted you even before I saw you. When you were following me, I
sensed you, and my wolf went wild. He was howling for release. When I saw you in that alleyway, I
wanted you so badly it hurt, and when I had you in my arms up against that wall, breathing your scent,
I almost came on the spot. I’ve barely been able to sleep or concentrate since the first time that I ran
into you.”
“Okay, maybe, I might, kind of…” she muttered, writhing as he continued his slow torment,
slipping his finger underneath the crotch of the g-string and sliding his finger over the wet petals of
her labia. She’d shaved, and there was nothing between his finger and her smooth skin.
“Yes?”
“Oh! God! Want you, too…”
“Can you put those words together into a sentence?” He rubbed his thumb over the engorged bud
of her clit, and flames licked up from her pussy, shooting throughout her body.
“You are such an asshole…”she moaned, and he laughed into her ear.
“You’re just now figuring that out, huh? And I thought you were so clever. Now say it.” He
abruptly pulled his hand away, leaving her aching with need.
“I want you too! All right? You fucking son of a bitch.”
His low chortle was maddening, and if she weren’t forced to play the submissive, she would have
turned around and smacked him silly.
“All right then, babe. Glad the feeling’s mutual.” He shoved his knees between her legs,
spreading them open wide and forcing her legs open in the process. One hand was around her neck,
and the other dipped between her legs again, stroking her firmly. “And here’s your reward for being a
good girl,” he husked into her ear.
She arched her back and moaned in pleasure, not caring that they were being watched. There was
something so primitive and yet so powerful in belonging to Jax, in having him show off his possession
to everyone…no, in pretending to belong to Jax, she reminded herself quickly.
Through her half-lowered lids, she could see other couples, and other singles, watching as Jax
held her firmly in place and stroked her to mindless pleasure. She didn’t care.
“They all want you,” he murmured. “The men, the women…because you’re so fucking hot, baby.
But they can’t have you. You’re all mine.”
Hot tendrils of pleasure stroked through her as Jax’s fingers moved faster, and she felt the heat
gather and clench behind her navel and then explode, burning shards of pleasure flying through her
body as she shuddered helplessly to her climax.
“Oh, oh, oh…” she whimpered, limp and boneless, and the only thing supporting her was Jax’s
strong, muscular arm, which was now wrapped around her waist and holding her tightly.
Jax stroked her neck with his tongue as the last spasms wracked her body and she finally stilled.
She could feel his cock pulsing underneath her, straining at the fabric of his pants.
“I want you,” she moaned. “Inside me. Take me to a room. Please.”
“We have to put on our big display first,” he murmured. “Convince everyone we’re real. Then,
believe me, nothing in the world will stop me from fucking you so hard, you forget your own name.”
Abruptly, he stood up, pulling her to her feet. Her knees were shaky and her legs trembled for a
few seconds before she got her bearings. The hem of her dress had ridden up until it was more of a
belt, and her-g-string was exposed. She leaned on Jax and started to pull the hem back down.
Jax smacked her hand. “Leave it,” he ordered her. When she tried again, he smacked her right butt
cheek, and she gasped at the sensation. She’d never been spanked before – never trusted any man
enough to let herself be dominated – and the sting of his hand was shockingly pleasurable.
“I said, leave it,” he growled. “I want everyone to see what’s mine. I want them to want it…and
know that they can’t have it.”
Somewhere in a far off recess of her mind, she thought she should be furious at him – but she
wasn’t. She was so turned on that she wanted to sink to her knees and beg him to take her right there.
Swallowing hard, skin flushed, she let him lead her over to a long chain that dangled from the
ceiling. Jax pulled a pair of handcuffs from his pocket and swiftly cuffed her hands over her head.
Standing behind her, he unzipped the back of her skirt and pinned up each side to little Velcro tabs on
the sides of the skirt. Her buttocks were fully exposed, with only a thin strip of cloth running up her
butt crack.
He ran his hand lovingly over her buttocks, and cupped her right cheek in one hand, squeezing
hard. “Your ass is so beautiful,” he said, his voice husky with desire. “Whose ass is it?”
“Yours,” she whimpered, because she knew that’s what she was supposed to say for the purposes
of their cover, and also because she realized she wanted it to be true.
She was unprepared for the flat of his hand striking her butt cheek and she started and let out a
yelp.
“Yours, what?” he barked.
“Yours, sir,” she gasped.
“I’ll be back,” he whispered in her ear, and he walked away. She stood there, suspended,
exposed, a cool breeze blowing on her from an overhead fan.
So she’d learned something new about herself today; she loved to be dominated. She loved to feel
as if she were owned, if by the right man. Of course it was all an act, but part of her yearned for it to
be true.
She had no right to wish that, of course. She was lying to Jax about why she was here. Lying to
her bosses. Lying to everyone. When this case was closed…Jax would never want to speak to her
again.
She yanked at the cuffs with her wrists; she was pinned tight, waiting helplessly for Jax’s return.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes for a moment. Let yourself enjoy it, she thought. It had
been so long since she’d let herself go…
“I’m back.” Jax’s voice startled her, and she straightened up, rigid with anticipation. Out of the
corner of her eye she could see that he held a flogger, with dozens of leather tendrils spraying out
from the handle that he gripped.
“Spread your legs apart.”
She took a wide stance, and as she did, he gently ran the tendrils over her bare buttocks. Then he
drew the flogger back and snapped it, and the tendrils stung the bare skin of her buttocks, making her
jump.
“Who’s the boss, baby?”
Snap! The tendrils struck again, and she felt red lines of heat spreading across the skin of her
buttocks. It was painful, but in an oddly pleasurable way.
“You are!” she cried out.
“What?” The next flick of the flogger sprayed across her buttocks with more force, and she yelped
and did a little dance step where she stood, gasping.
“You are, sir!” she cried out loudly.
A half circle of men and women had gathered to watch.
“Who owns that pussy?” Crack! The flogger snapped again, and she squealed at the hot flashes of
pain spraying over her skin.
“You do, sir!” she cried out.
“Who owns that ass?” Another blow, higher this time. The skin of her buttocks was so warm she
was sure it glowed. Every snap of the flogger felt as if it were travelling straight to her pussy, sending
a jolt of arousal through her body with each blow.
“You do, sir!”
“Who’s your master?”
Snap! And a lightning bolt of pleasure shot through her body, and she wanted him inside her so
badly that she ached.
“You are, sir!”
“Have you had enough?”
“Yes sir! Please, sir! I’ve had enough!”
“No, you haven’t! You’ve had enough when I say you’ve had enough!” And there were three
more strikes in rapid succession, which had her dancing on the spot and squealing.
Then he released her handcuffs, and she staggered back, panting for breath, and reached for her
hem to push it back down…until she saw his warning look.
“Do I have to flog you again?” he growled.
“No, sir. Please, sir,” she gasped, her breath coming in heated pants.
He reached forward and unzipped panels of latex that covered her breasts and peeled them back.
Then he bent down and sucked one of her swollen ruby nipples into her mouth, and she let out a wail
of pleasure and desperate need.
“Ooooohhhh,” She whimpered as he scraped her nipple with her teeth.
“Now I get you all to myself,” he said, holding up a small key.
He led her through a door and down another hallway, into a big room with a circular bed.
Handcuffs dangled from a chain on the wall over the bed. The covers were black and velvety.
“Take your panties off.”
With a moan, she stripped off the soaking wet panties and dropped them to the floor.
“On the bed, on your hands and knees. Now.”
She quickly complied.
“Back up, baby. I want your ass at the end of the bed.”
When she’d obeyed him, he knelt down behind her and spread her pussy lips open with his
fingers, and she cried out as he began caressing her with his tongue.
“You taste so good,” he gasped, between laps. “I’ve wanted to taste you ever since the first time I
smelled that sweet aroma. You’re like honey.”
He buried his face in her, his tongue diving in. He seemed to be breathing in her scent, suckling
her juices, without need for oxygen.
She clutched at the bed, her breath coming out in short, harsh pants as he suckled at her, nipping
and teasing her sensitive flesh until she wailed aloud. He speared her with his tongue, thrusting it
inside her and forcing it into her tight hole and she struggled not to scream with frustration as he
tormented her with deep, thirsty jabs. She wanted more. Despite the fact that she’d climaxed a mere
15 minutes ago, she already was burning for him again, craving release.
“What do you want, baby?”
“I want your cock,” she gasped. “I want you inside me.”
“Yeah, you do.” He sounded infuriatingly smug, but she was too far gone to care.
He stood up and unbuckled his pants, dropping them to the ground.
She heard the crinkling of cellophane as he ripped a condom from its wrapper, and then a brief
pause as he rolled the condom onto his massive girth.
Then he gripped her hips with both hands and she felt the head of his cock pressing up against
her. He held on to her and pushed hard, sliding several inches inside her, but he was so huge that it
took several more thrusts before he was all the way in.
She could feel her muscles clamping tightly around him, stretching to accommodate his thickness.
. He let out a harsh gasp and began pumping into her, forcing his way in until he had plunged in to the
hilt. His testicles slapped against her as he rocked into her body in a steady rhythm, and she had to
brace herself on the bed against the force of his thrusts.
“You’re so tight, baby. I love it,” he groaned, his breaths coming faster and faster.
Soon that delicious feeling of heat swept over her again, and she knew she was about to climax.
“Faster,” she begged. “Harder.”
“Like this?” and he obliged, gripping her tightly and slamming into her so hard that she was
rocked forward with each deep thrust of his cock. He gripped her hips so tightly his fingers sank into
her flesh; she’d have bruises there in the morning.
“Yes…yes…” The heat rose up over her in a wave and drenched her, sucking her into a
whirlpool of pleasure. Then the heat exploded, and as her muscles spasmed and clamped down on
his cock, he uttered a harsh, guttural cry and joined her in climax.
Slowly, he pulled out of her, leaving her spent and gasping, collapsed on the bed. He stood there
by the bed, and she felt an odd emptiness, a chasm widening between the two of them.
She sat up, beads of sweat rolling down her forehead, her face warm and flushed as her rapid
breathing slowed. Jax reached out and caressed her hair and stared down at her, his eyes still glazed
with desire.
“You were incredible,” he told her.
And she realized: he’d never kissed her.
It shouldn’t matter to her. This was all an act, right? Then why did she suddenly feel so lonely,
even though Jax was standing right next to her, his fingers tangling in her hair?
She forced a smile. “The earth moved for you, too?”
“Baby, the whole galaxy moved.”
With a sigh he released her hair. “I want to stay in here with you all night, but we’ve got to go out
there and start investigating.”
“I know.”
She stood up and put her clothing back on.
“Those girls I introduced you to before? I bet you can start up a conversation with them. They’ll
be curious about you.”
She and Jax had rehearsed their story at the apartment earlier, as she sat next to him on his couch
trying not to notice the hugeness of his erection. They would tell everyone that they’d met at a bar a
couple of weeks ago, and had instantly fallen for each other. They’d been together ever since,
according to their fake story. He told her not to worry about people asking her what she did for a
living; at BDSM clubs, it was considered bad form to ask questions about people’s vanilla lives.
Some people volunteered that kind of information, other people couldn’t afford to, for fear that word
of their proclivity for kink would get back to their boss, their wife, their boyfriend, their parents, their
pastor…
“Good place to start.” Her voice was all business now, as she zipped her dress closed over her
breasts and pushed her skirt back down.
He unclipped the leash, and the two of them walked out of the room together.
Together, but miles apart.
Chapter Seven
“Hey, Jax, are you ready for Act Two?” Caress, the submissive Jax had introduced them to
earlier, cooed seductively.
Bobbi felt a flare of anger burning through her as Caress leaned in much too close and pressed her
breast against Jax’s arm. Caress’s scent rolled over them, some kind of cinnamon perfume mixed
with the odor of her own musk. Jax looked annoyed and took a step back, his arm slung around
Bobbi’s waist.
What are the rules for a submissive when an overeager ho-bag puts the moves on her
dominant? Bobbi thought irritably. Would it be completely wrong for me to shift, and rip her throat
out? OK, since Caress was human, that would hardly be fair. That was okay, she could kick her ass
in human form just as easily.
“Have some class,” Velvet snapped at her, walking up behind them. “He’s with someone.”
“That’s never stopped him before.” Caress licked her lips. “I’ve missed you, Jax. It’s been too
long.”
Before she knew it, Bobbi had half-shifted and her face had lengthened into a snout, ears
sharpening to points and claws springing from her hands. A growl ripped from her throat, and Caress
gasped and jumped back.
Jax threw his head back and laughed as Bobbi shifted back, and Caress shot him a wounded look
before scampering off.
“Ignore her,” Velvet said, rolling her eyes. “She always wants what she can’t have.”
“Everything okay over here?” A handsome man with a British accent walked up to them. His dark
hair, shot through with streaks of gray, was close clipped, and he had a goatee. He was burly,
wearing only leather pants and sporting arms corded with muscles and a sculpted six pack.
He’s got nothing on Jax, Bobbi thought dismissively.
“Hello, Cedric. Bobbi, Cedric is the owner of this fine establishment.”
“This place is amazing. Lovely to meet you,” she said.
“And it’s even lovelier to meet you. Jax, I approve. Bring her around any time.” Cedric made a
big show of kissing her hand, and Bobbi saw Jax’s eyes narrow and change color briefly before he
composed himself.
“Well, I’ll let you all chat. Bobbi, let me know if you’d like a tour of the club some time,” Velvet
said. Jax gave Bobbi a quick nod, and she said hastily “How about now?” and followed Velvet
through the crowd, leaving Jax to chat with Cedric. It would be a perfect opportunity for Jax to pump
Cedric for information.
Velvet led Bobbi on a tour through all of the various restraint stations and showed her racks and
display cases full of implements of punishment, which were available for purchase. Employees
cleaned every restraint station and play area thoroughly with a disinfectant solution after each use,
mopping up sweat and bodily fluids, Bobbi noticed. Those solutions killed viruses, bacteria,
fungi...but would the solution kill whatever had led to the Shifter rage attacks?
Then Velvet took her through a hallway that lead to the club’s special theme areas. There was a
medical play area set up like a doctor’s office, a dungeon, an alien spaceship, a room decorated like
a pirate ship, a room decorated like a college classroom, and a jail cell.
When they finished their tour, she saw Jax standing in the center of the room, with a beautiful
bleached blonde who wore an outfit made of a series of leather straps that crisscrossed each other.
Her hair was so blond it was white, and she had luscious red lips that gleamed with gloss, and black
eyeliner slashed across each eye in a cateye style. Her boobs were clearly fake, but they were
spectacular.
Jax had discussed this with Bobbi before they came to the club. This was her cue. He was going
to stage a very public punishment scene with one of the submissives, and while he had the crowd
distracted, she would break into the main office and hack into the computer.
She was expecting the punishment scene. What she wasn’t expecting was how much it stung her to
the core to see him with another woman. True, he was about to whip the woman, not have sex with
her – but when he’d punished her, it had felt so intimate. It had felt exactly like sex. And watching Jax
punish someone else felt like being publicly betrayed.
If she were in a relationship with a dominant, she realized, she wouldn’t want him to do scenes
with anybody else.
Velvet followed her gaze, and her eyes widened.
“Uh-oh. Jax and the angel of death. Don’t let him go in a private room with her,” Velvet said.
“What?” Bobbi was startled.
Velvet glanced around furtively, and pulled her aside, away from the crowd. “Don’t tell anyone I
told you this,” she said in a low voice.
“My lips are sealed.” Bobbi’s heart pounded. This was it. She’d finally get some answers.
“It’s weird, because Aurora’s worked here for like, four years. Longer than me. I’ve been here a
year. She’s always really popular with the customers, and she takes guys into those rooms all the
time. But all of a sudden – well, it could just be a coincidence, I guess.”
“What do you mean?”
“Two customers she’s been with have died over the past couple of weeks, and both times it was
just a few days after they went in a room with her. One of them was that judge that was in all the
papers, the one who went crazy. Before that, one of them was a doctor who went on some hunting trip
and died in a hunting accident.”
So, word had gotten around at the club, which wasn’t surprising. It was a small scene. Fortunately
nobody knew about the third shifter, the one who’d gone crazy in Mexico, because his wealthy family
had done such a good job of quashing the news. “That is weird. Have other guys gone into rooms
with her and come out okay?”
“Oh, sure. So far. I mean, she usually has a few customers a night, so it could just be a weird
coincidence. I mean, it’s not like they died the same way,” Velvet said doubtfully. Then she glanced
over at Jax and Aurora. A big crowd was gathered around them. And why not? They were both
physically beautiful specimens, about to take part in a highly erotically charged public flogging scene.
Bobbi took a deep breath. Now was her chance.
“I can’t watch this, Velvet. I need to be alone for a few minutes.” Bobbi blinked back fake tears
and turned to rush off. Years of living on the street as a child had taught her better than any theatre
class how to manufacture whatever emotion she needed to portray for the moment. She could cry on
command like a Broadway star.
She wove her way through the crowd and slipped down the hallway, pretending to head for the
bathrooms.
Jax had given her a map with a layout of the building earlier that day at his apartment. She
glanced around quickly to make sure that nobody was watching, and then slipped down a side
hallway that lead to the owner’s office suite.
At the doorway, she quickly jimmied the door open with a lock pick that she’d secreted in her
dress, and slipped inside the office.
The office décor was oddly incongruous after walking out of a room full of whips, chains, and
writhing half naked bodies. It was decorated like the office of an executive at a hedge fund firm, with
a leather top mahogany desk, mahogany book shelves, and comfortably padded leather sofa and
chairs.
The laptop on his desk was folded shut. Quickly she pulled out the USB device from a tiny hidden
pouch which she’d sewn into her dress. Jax had given it to her. He’d gotten it from some billionaire
friend of his who had computer hackers in his employ; it would quickly copy all the information on
the laptop, including, hopefully, a list of all the clients and all the employees at the club. There were
many employees who were off the books, but the hope was that the owner at least kept a record
somewhere.
She’d have to work fast. She jammed the USB device into the appropriate slot, and shifted
impatiently from one foot to the other as the red light on the device flickered. It would glow green
when it was done.
They could have most likely gotten a warrant to search the laptop, but that would have alerted
Cedric to what was really happening at the club. For all they knew, Cedric could be behind the
series of shifter attacks. Or he might erase all the information on his laptop out of fear that he would
somehow be incriminated, or because of some other illegal activity going on at the club…or simply to
protect his client list, which represented the crème de la crème not just of Playa Linda, but of nearby
Los Angeles as well.
Jax had told her that there were a number of movie stars, directors, and producers who regularly
visited Caged Heat.
The red light was blinking faster and faster, meaning the device was nearly finished, when Bobbi
heard footsteps coming down the hallway.
Her heart pounded in her chest. No! She had to have this information! She couldn’t blow this!
The door handle was turning. Her heart was in her throat.
Green! The device blinked green, and she yanked it out and stuffed it back into its tiny
compartment in her dress… but the door was opening.
Quickly, she walked away from the desk, standing in the middle of the room, and burst into loud,
noisy sobs, burying her face in her hand.
The door flew open, and Cedric burst in, then stopped in astonishment at the sight of her.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded.
“I – I – I’m sorry,” she wailed, wiping the tears from her cheeks with the palms of her hands. “I
couldn’t stand seeing Jax out there with that woman! And right after we were together, too! I had to
get away!”
“How did you get in?”
“The door was open. I just ran down the hall and ran in the first room I could find,” she sniffled.
She pictured Jax with Aurora, and felt something hot and painful twist inside of her. She manufactured
a few more sobs which were half-genuine, and wiped more tears off her face with the back of her
forearm.
“Oh, my dear.” Cedric walked over, gathered her in his arms, and gave her a hug. “This scene can
be difficult for the novice. No offense, but you seem as if you’re new to the scene.”
“I am,” she whimpered as Cedric released her. “But I love it, except for having to watch my man
with another woman! I know it’s not sex, but…it feels like it is. I can’t stand to see it.” The worst
thing was, she was actually telling the truth, and it made her feel weak and queasy and disgusted with
herself.
“Well, that’s an important conversation to have with your dominant. You shouldn’t suffer in
silence. If you’re not both on the same page with what you want from the relationship, bad feelings
will fester and finally explode.”
He picked up a tissue from a box on his desk and handed it to her.
She nodded, wiping at her face.
“For what it’s worth,” he added, “There are plenty of monogamous couples who grant each other
permission to play with others, especially in public scenes at venues such as this one. It can be a way
for couples to safely explore with others and dissipate those urges, without threatening the bond of
their relationship.”
“Well, I hate it,” Bobbi declared.
He nodded. “Jax needs to know that. I’ll just tell you, though, Jax is…I’ve never seen him in a
true relationship with a woman. He has play partners, and then he moves on. I’m not telling you this to
hurt you, but you need to know what you’re getting into. Confidentially, he had a pretty brutal
upbringing. He lost his mother at a young age, and his father, who was the Alpha of his pack in
Florida, was known as a drunk, abusive bastard. It’s a wonder that Jax and his younger brother
survived it. It’s left him hardened, and he doesn’t really open up to anybody.”
Bobbi nodded. “I appreciate you letting me know. It’s hard to hear, but…I’d rather go into this
relationship with my eyes open.”
Cedric looked her over, an appreciative gleam in his eye. “Jax doesn’t know what he’s at risk of
losing. You’re the most attractive woman I’ve ever seen him with – and it’s completely natural,
which isn’t his usual thing. If things don’t work out with him…”
She forced a smile. “Thank you, Cedric, but it’s hard for me to think of anyone else when I’m with
him.”
“Well, he’s a lucky man, then, although I doubt he appreciates it. Just keep it in mind.” And he
turned to walk out of the office. She followed him, tossing her crumpled up mascara stained tissue
into a wastebasket.
Cedric was actually quite attractive, and she could see herself being with him in other
circumstances. But she’d be leaving town soon, as she always did – and more importantly, she
wasn’t lying when she said that being with Jax completely fogged her thinking and pushed the thought
of all other men out of her mind.
As they walked out into the hallway, they ran into Velvet, whose small, pretty face was puckered
with concern.
“I was looking for you. Jax is done with Aurora. What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Oh, nothing. It’s just very hard for me to see Jax with another woman,” Bobbi said, pretending to
sniffle.
“He’s a dumbass. Seriously, what a jerk,” Velvet said, as Cedric locked the office door and
Bobbi followed Velvet back to the main room.
Velvet grabbed Bobbi’s arm. “Come with me,” she said, leading Bobbi around restraint stations
and kneeling men and women, back to the bar. A blandly handsome man with dark hair, a goatee, and
pale blue eyes was scrubbing the counter. He wore black leather pants and a black tank-top.
“Bobbi, this is Oliver. Oliver, this is Bobbi. Oliver is Aurora’s boyfriend; they live together.”
Oliver wiped his hands on his pants, and then reached over the bar and shook her hand. “So,
you’re Jax’s girlfriend,” he said. “That was quite a scene they just had, wasn’t it? Red hot.” He
winked at her.
“Actually, Bobbi is kind of new to this whole thing,” Velvet said. “I don’t think she’s used to
seeing her boyfriend with another woman.”
“Oh, hey, those kind of scenes don’t mean anything,” Oliver said. “It’s just business. When she
puts on a good show, it makes the customers hot. That’s all. Lots of the girls who work here have
boyfriends; some of them are even married.”
“Yeah, at the end of the night, Aurora goes home with Oliver,” Velvet said.
“Good to know.” Bobbi managed a weak smile.
That might be true, but Aurora clearly spent plenty of time in the rooms servicing customers as
well, so clearly she and Oliver had some kind of understanding.
“Well, I better let you get back to work,” she said, and turned to walk away.
“See? It’s no big deal,” Velvet said as they made their way through the crowd.
“How long has she been with him?” Bobbi asked, glancing back at him. He was leaning over the
counter, flirting with a pretty blonde.
“Like, six months, I think. They’re pretty serious. They live together.”
Hmmm, Bobbi thought. So it wasn’t that Oliver had suddenly appeared in Aurora’s life and then
men started dying.
“What are you thinking?” Velvet asked.
“Oh, if they’d been together for just a couple of months, I’d have wondered if Oliver were behind
the deaths of her customers. Like, maybe he secretly didn’t like seeing her with other men, and it
was some kind of curse…but it doesn’t sound like it.”
“I never got the impression that he was the jealous type. If anything, he’s always pushing her to go
with rich guys. Kind of like a pimp, if you ask me,” Velvet said.
Suddenly, Bobbi spotted Jax standing with Aurora next to a table which had several dozen
glowing candles on it; Velvet had told her earlier that the candles were used to drip hot wax on
people’s sensitive parts.
Aurora’s back was cris-crossed with red lines, and she was practically purring with satisfaction.
Caress stood nearby, arms crossed over her chest, glowering at them.
Bobbi felt her stomach churn at the sight of Aurora leaning on Jax, rubbing up against him. She
took a deep breath. Okay, maybe this was just work for Aurora…but Aurora obviously really enjoyed
her work.
What was she supposed to do now? What was the best way to keep her cover? Walk away, maybe
flirt with some guys and chat them up, see what kind of information she could shake loose? Confront
Jax? Or – he insides twisted at the thought –walk up to him with a big smile on her face and pretend
that everything was fine and dandy?
Velvet abruptly marched up to Jax and slapped him across the face, hard.
Jax spun to stare at her, astonished. “What the hell was that for?”
“You know, when you have a real girlfriend, you’re supposed to treat her like one,” Velvet
hissed, eyes narrowed with anger. “You really upset her with that scene. And now you’re rubbing
yourself all over another woman, right in front of her?”
“Mind your own business!” Aurora glowered at Velvet.
Velvet’s eyes glowed an unearthly blue. She was some kind of witch, clearly.
“Make me!” The candles all flared suddenly, flames leaping a foot high. Pouting, Aurora turned
and stomped off.
Jax rubbed his cheek, struggling to find words. “I, ahh…” he glanced at Bobbi, who made a big
show of looking upset, blinking back tears and putting on her “I’m about to cry” face.
Then Jax said the last thing in the world that Bobbi would have expected. Words that she
wouldn’t have believed that he had in his vocabulary.
“You’re right,” he said to Velvet.
Chapter Eight
Even though it was all an act Bobbi was putting on as part of their cover, seeing Bobbi’s tear-
streaked face was like a punch in the gut. He hated seeing Bobbi upset – even fake-upset.
“I’m sorry,” Jax said to Bobbi. He glanced over at Velvet. “You’re right,” he repeated, “I
shouldn’t have done that. It won’t happen again.” And he was telling the truth.
Velvet gave him an indignant eye roll. “Whatever. I know your reputation, Jax. Bobbi is a nice
girl. She deserves better than you.”
“I know,” Jax said, meaning it with every fiber of his body.
Velvet grabbed a napkin from the bar and quickly scribbled her number on it, handing it to Bobbi.
“Call me if you need anything,” she said, and walked off.
Jax slung his arm around Bobbi’s waist. People were watching them, eavesdropping. “I didn’t
mean to upset you,” he said. “Let’s go.”
He suddenly realized that she had Cedric’s scent all over her – and not just Cedric’s typical scent,
but that special musky aroma that signified arousal.
His wolf roared beneath the surface, pacing and throwing itself against the cage of his skin. It
wanted out, it wanted to tear across the room and rip Cedric to shreds, no questions asked.
But who was he to be jealous? He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, forcing himself to stay
calm.
Bobbi turned and followed him out of the club, and across the street to his car, where he stopped.
“Listen, honestly…I really didn’t mean to upset you back there. If I did upset you, that is. That scene
with Aurora – it meant nothing to me. I was just creating that distraction we’d agreed on.”
“It’s all right,” Bobbi shrugged, but he heard the faintest tremor in her voice. “It was all part of
our cover.”
“Yeah, but…” it was true, and yet, it had felt wrong every minute that he’d been doing it.
Normally, nothing turned him on so much as hearing a beautiful woman moan as he dealt out erotic
punishment – it was just how he was wired. And he didn’t care who the beautiful woman was; it was
all the same to him.
But this evening, the whole time that he’d been flogging Aurora, he’d pictured Bobbi, and it made
him feel guilty and queasy.
“I should have come up with a different distraction. And if we ever need to have you search the
club again – that’s what I’ll do,” he said. He paused.
“Umm, I noticed…”
“What?” she said.
“I…uh…I noticed Cedric’s scent on you,” he muttered.
“When I broke into his office, he came in just as I finished downloading the information. I
pretended to be upset that you were having that scene with Aurora, and he hugged me and said he was
sorry.”
“Did he really?” Jax’s eyes glowed, and for a brief second, the bones of his face rippled as he
struggled to regain control. “Did he say anything else?”
“Does it matter?”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” A dark shadow swept over his face as fur started to sprout. Jax shook
himself, and used all of his self-control to stay human, to keep the wolf caged within him.
His woman. Cedric had made a play for his woman.
Not his woman, he forced himself to remember. She didn’t belong to him.
Even saying those words in his head hurt.
Man, was he in trouble.
Bobbi raised an eyebrow at him. “Did you just start to wolf out on me? And I’m not interested in
Cedric, by the way.”
“So you got the download? Let me have it.” Jax was desperate to change the subject. He needed
to get his mind back on business.
“Later. I need to send a copy back to the Enforcer’s council, anyway.”
“I’ll send them a copy.”
“Really? Because a couple of days ago you were spending the better part of your days standing
me up while your boss tried to arrange for you to meet with me.”
“That was before I found out how beautiful you were.” Jax bared big white teeth in a feral grin.
Bobbi didn’t melt or simper, not that he would have expected her too; she was too smart to fall for his
bullshit.
“Your eyes. They just did that turning brown thing again,” she said scornfully.
Atta girl, he thought admiringly. He loved it when she threw his garbage back in his face. Nobody
else did that. He loved the challenge, loved how strong she was, loved that he’d finally found a
woman worthy of dominating.
It couldn’t last, but why not enjoy the little time they’d have together?
A burst of laughter made them turn their heads; several couples were heading their way, towards
the parking lot.
“We’ll discuss this at home,” Jax said.
Bobbi nodded, and they rode back to his apartment in silence. Bobbi was staring out the window,
seeming a million miles away.
His heart quickened at the thought of what they might have found on the laptop. If he got the
reward money, he’d never be beholden to anyone again. His own needs were simple, and it was easy
enough for him to find bodyguard or bouncer gigs to support himself. All he wanted to do was to
ensure his brother’s future, and he could relax, once and for all - as much as someone like him, who
was coiled as tightly as a snake, could ever relax, anyway.
Jax’s apartment was in a low key area of town, in a former factory building which had been
converted into lofts. Houses in the area were small and modest, but well kept up. Businesses tended
to run to mom and pop grocery stores. His apartment was decorated in wood and leather, with little
attention to decorating detail. Pictures of him and his brother, and art prints of classic Harleys,
adorned the brick walls.
“I’m going to change and take a quick shower, and then we can talk,” Bobbi said when they were
in Jax’s apartment.
He shook his head in mock sorrow, looking over the latex dress with fondness. “If you must.”
“Tell you what. I’ll keep wearing these heels if you put on a pair and walk in them for the next
few hours. No? I thought not,” Bobbi grumbled, and headed into the bathroom with her overnight bag.
When she came out she was wearing gray sweatpants and a baggy white t-shirt, and she’d wiped
all her makeup off. Her face was fresh and clean, her skin clear and rosy. She looked even prettier
without makeup. When she slid onto the small couch next to him, she smelled like sunshine. She
wore no perfume at all, just her own natural scent, and he wanted to taste every inch of her body.
She leaned back against the couch cushion, and her t-shirt pulled tight over her chest. Her nipples
were hard, straining at the fabric of the t-shirt. She felt it too, he was sure of it.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing.” He swallowed hard. Think of the money, think of the money. Think of anything but
burying himself deep inside her wet heat and making her scream with pleasure. “Can I get you
something to drink?”
“No, let’s just get down to business. Did you find out anything useful at the club?”
“Let me have that USB stick, and we’ll talk about it.”
She flashed him a challenging stare. “You don’t trust me, do you?”
“Nope.” He leaned back, moving away from her slightly, but it didn’t help. Her scent tormented
him, promising ecstasy. “It’s nothing personal, sweetheart. I don’t trust anyone, not completely. And
you don’t trust me either, or I’d already have that USB stick in my hand.”
“Fair enough. What are you afraid I’ll do, exactly?”
“There’s a substantial reward offered for the resolution of this case, as I’m sure you know. For
personal reasons which I can’t get into, I need that money. I need to be the one that solves this case.”
Bobbi shrugged, and her he watched her breasts move under her shirt, and shifted uncomfortably
on the couch.
“The money means nothing to me, but solving this case is vital,” she said. “I don’t have a
problem with you getting the reward money, but I’m afraid that if I let you take the lead, you’ll cut me
out of the investigation and then screw things up trying to resolve things on your own.”
“What makes you think I’ll screw things up?” Jax demanded indignantly.
“You’re hired muscle. You’re not an investigator, and you have no finesse. You nearly went wolf
right in front of Stanford Roosevelt. You have a reputation for being temperamental, impulsive, and
nearly causing an international incident with the daughter of the Prime Minister of Maribuntu.”
Maribuntu was a tiny nation in Africa. Jax had rescued said daughter, a lion shifter, from
kidnappers; he’d gotten her safely home to her palace, only to have her try to sneak into his hotel
room that night to personally thank him. Her bodyguards had been hot on her heels, and he’d barely
made it out of the country alive.
“Hey. That was hardly my fault. I didn’t ask that woman to break into my hotel room,” he
protested, suppressing a smile at the memory. She’d been stunning; he’d been dying to bite and lick
her chocolate skin, but he knew not to mix business with pleasure. Especially when it involved the
rulers of small, medium, or large sized nations.
“How about when you saved the life of the head of Primestar Pharmaceuticals, and then publicly
called him an arrogant douchebag and threatened to shove his head up his ass?”
Jax grinned again. “Well, I can explain that one. He was an arrogant douchebag. And he needed
to back down before I shoved his head up his ass.”
Bobbi rolled her eyes. “I apologize, Jax, I was completely wrong about you.”
He held his hand out. “Good. Give me the USB stick.”
“Tell me what you found out.”
God, she was maddeningly stubborn. “I found out that Cedric is aware that the judge went crazy,
and to be on the safe side, he had all the food and all the drink at his establishment tested for every
type of toxin known to man. They took air samples, they took fabric samples from the bed in the
private room where the judge spent time, they checked the air vents and AC unit, they checked the
kitchen. Nothing.He also mentioned the doctor’s death, but he doesn’t know that it was a rage attack.
It did concern him that two of his customers died within such a short time period; he knows that an
establishment like his is controversial, and could be subject to people trying to harm him or his club
for various reasons. He actually went so far as to call in a witch of some type, to see if there was a
curse on the place. She couldn’t detect anything. He’s hoping it’s just a bizarre coincidence. If he
knows anything more, or if he’s involved, he’s hiding it well. He does know that I work for
Hammersmith Security; he mentioned that if there are any more deaths, he’d be interested in engaging
my services to investigate.”
. He held out his hand again.
She shook her head. “I will give it to you first thing in the morning, as soon as I’ve had a chance
to make a copy of it.”
Frustration pulsed through him. This woman was driving him crazy. Why couldn’t his fated mate
have been sweet and compliant and eager to please?
Because that kind of woman would bore the pants off you, his subconscious taunted him.
“Where is it?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “In this apartment.”
“Fine,” he let out an exasperated breath. “Be that way.”
“I will. I am, in fact, that way.” She stood up. “So, I guess I’m going to unfold the sofa now. Why
are you smiling?”
Jax laughed. “It doesn’t unfold.”
“But…it’s like a loveseat. It’s tiny. I can’t sleep on this!”
He shrugged. “Well, I’ve got this lovely hardwood floor…or my bed. My bed is very big, and
very comfortable.”
“You don’t have a futon? A sleeping bag?” Her eyes widened.
“Nope.”
“You planned this.” She folded her arms across her chest and glared at him.
“Of course. Why would I pass up the chance to get you into my bed?” He leaned back, smiling.
Score one for Jax.
She sat down again, warily. “So you are saying that if I come sleep in the same bed with you,
you’ll behave yourself?”
Jax burst into laughter. “Of course I’m not saying that. When did I say that?” He reached out and
ran his thumb along the curve of her neck, up to her jaw.
“But you won’t behave either. You can’t keep your hands off me.” His voice was low and husky
with desire.
“You arrogant son of a bitch!” He loved it when her eyes sparked like that. His cock was
swelling in his pants again, aching for her.
“I’m arrogant for a reason. I’m told I’m pretty damn good.” She started to stand up, and he
grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into his lap. He let out a groan as her butt made contact with
his cock, and tightened his arm around her waist.
“Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want it too.” He stared at her, and she met his gaze
challengingly, but didn’t say a word. She squirmed on his lap, trying to stand, but he held her in place
easily, and she finally dropped her gaze and bit her lip, letting out a tiny whimper which set a raging
fire racing through his nervous system.
“I might, potentially, find you sexually desirable,” she muttered finally. “But don’t let that go to
your head. As you yourself pointed out, I’m a crazy woman.”
“That makes you even hotter.”
Suddenly, she looked up and looked him right in the eye. “I felt something strange the first time I
saw you. And when I first looked you in the eye…”
Wow. She was going to talk about the elephant in the room.
“Yes. I felt it too. Unfortunately.” He looked up at her. “I’m not trying to be an asshole, Bobbi.
It’s just – I’m not capable of having a normal relationship. I never have been. I’m moody, I’m
temperamental, I’m a natural born loner, and I’ve never been able to fit in with any pack. If I met a
decent woman, which you seem to be, the absolute best thing I could do for her would be to run far,
far away.”
“Unfortunately, we’re stuck together for the course of this investigation,” she pointed out, shifting
on his lap.
He let out a low strangled groan. Why did she have to keep doing that to him? “Yes, we are.”
“That feeling, was that…was it true what they say? The whole…fated mate thing? You can really
tell immediately when you’ve met your fated mate?”
Jax looked at her, puzzled. “Weren’t your parents fated mates?”
A curtain slid down over her gaze. “I...My real parents died in a car accident when I was eight.
And we’d moved to a part of the country where there aren’t many shifters, for my dad’s job, so I
wasn’t ultimately raised by shifters. I’ve heard about the concept, but I never thought it applied to me.
I didn’t even know if it was real.”
“Oh, it’s real all right. My parents were fated mates. Then my mother died, and my father went
crazy.” The memory stabbed Jax in the heart, and he took a deep, painful breath. “That whole fated
mate thing…it’s the worst thing in the world. It makes you weak. It makes you dependent on one
person, and if you lose that person…it destroys you.”
Ugly memories of his father came flashing through his mind. When he was eight years old, his
mother had died giving birth to Colt. His father had been a harsh, angry man even before she died,
but that sent him over the edge. He’d descended into a vat of alcohol and self-pitying rage, and never
climbed back out. Colt had been raised by relatives until he was five years old, because their father
wanted nothing to do with him, and when Brick Mackenzie paid attention to his younger son at all, it
was to beat and abuse him for the smallest infraction, real or imagined, and to let him know at every
opportunity that he’d killed his own mother, and Brick wished he’d never been born.
As soon as Jax was old enough, he’d stepped in to defend his little brother, which just infuriated
his father even more. There were many nights when Jax had fallen asleep bleeding, bruised, with his
shifter powers slowly knitting his broken bones back together, after absorbing the brunt of his father’s
rage. When he was 18 he’d moved out and taken his brother with him, leaving his pack who’d never
lifted a paw to help because they were terrified of Brick.
And all because of love. All because his father couldn’t live without his fated mate.
“So we both have messed up pasts and want nothing to do with real love or a relationship,”
Bobbi said, jerking him back to the present. “You know what? Good. That means we both want the
same thing. Screw the fact that we’re fated mates. When this is over, we’ll go our separate ways and
just…deal with it.”
Jax should have felt relieved at the thought of Bobbi leaving forever, but instead he felt a chasm
of emptiness opening up inside him, yawning wide in the spot where his granite heart should be.
What choice do I have? I’ll do it, he told himself dully. I will leave when this investigation is
over.
Suddenly, Bobbi had wriggled again, and now she was straddling him, pressed up against him.
Her soft breasts were mashed into his chest, and the hard little buds of her nipples revealed her
desire.
“You know what’s the best way to drown your sorrows and forget about the past?” she said, and
leaned forward. She brushed her soft lips up against his, and lightning bolts of lust zapped through
him.
“What?” He wrapped his arms around her, one arm on her waist, the other cupping her butt cheek.
“Sex. Mindless, kinky, no holds-barred sex.”
That was exactly the answer he’d been hoping for.
Chapter Nine
She was in a bed, and her head was way too foggy. She had no idea what time it was, or where
she was, for several long, fuzzy moments.
Bobbi sat up, slowly getting her bearings. The room spun in slow, lazy circles and then settled
down. Jax’s bedroom. Big picture of a Harley Davidson motorcycle, painted in neon colors, facing
her. Black curtains, drawn, shade pulled down. A big wall clock adorned with deer antlers; Jax
liked to hunt.
She looked around the room.…it was empty. No Jax.
She climbed out of bed and walked into the living room. He wasn’t there. He wasn’t in the
kitchen. He wasn’t in the bathroom.
He was gone, and it was 9 a.m. She never, ever slept that late. Every day, without fail, her body
jerked her awake at 5 to 6 a.m. and didn’t let her go back to sleep.
And she hadn’t drunk any alcohol last night, so there was only one reason that she’d have
overslept and woken up with a fuzzy head.
Jax had brought her a bottle of water last night, during a break between one of their marathon
lovemaking sessions. It had several slices of lemon floating in it. At the time, she’d thought it was just
a thoughtful touch on his part.
Now she realized that the lemon was probably meant to disguise the taste of whatever Mickey
Finn he’d slipped her.
That could only mean one thing.
She ran over to her suitcase and quickly felt around the tiny hidden compartment where she’d
hidden the USB stick the night before.
Gone.
That son of a bitch. That bastard. She didn’t know if she should be even more furious that he’d
waited to drug her until after they’d had sex half a dozen times instead of drugging her as soon as she
refused to give him the USB stick – or if she should be flattered.
That jerk. That douchebag. She was glad as hell that she hadn’t told him about Aurora last night.
Now she knew never to reveal her full hand to him.
That asshole. That manipulative scumsucking pig. And what was even more infuriating was,
that was totally the kind of move she should have pulled on him, first – but that bastard had beaten her
to the punch.
Furious, she searched through her jacket for her cell phone – only to find the cell phone was gone,
replaced with a note. “I’ll be back soon. Don’t worry, your phone is safe with me. I loved last night.
Are you up for a repeat?”
So he was doing everything that he could to slow her down.
She kicked over his kitchen table, sending the plates set on it flying, and then ripped down his
bookcase, scattering books everywhere. She picked up a vase and hurled it against the wall, where it
exploded into pieces.
That fucking bastard! He was really, really good.
She ripped off her clothes, shifted into coyote form and attacked the couch, slashing cushions and
tearing the leather from the frame. Stuffing rained down like snow. Howls of rage ripped from her
throat.
Fortunately for her, she didn’t trust anybody and operated on the assumption that her phone could
be stolen or hacked at any time. She had a photographic memory, so she didn’t need to keep a contact
list, and the Enforcers had installed a special program on the phone which completely wiped clean all
information after every phone call.
She shifted back to human form and got dressed faster than ever before, pulling on jeans, a t-shirt
and a pair of low heeled boots in less than a minute. Then she quickly stuffed all of her clothes in her
suitcase, slung it over her shoulder, and stomped off to find the nearest cell phone store.
Minutes later, she was dialing a number on her new, pre-paid cell phone.
“Pixie,” she said. Pixie, who apparently was not an early morning riser, mumbled incoherently
into the phone.
“Wake the hell up,” she said. “We’ve got work to do.”
* * *
“Nice place,” Pixie said admiringly. It had only taken three cups of coffee, five cookies, an
omelette, a stack of pancakes, and a cappuccino to get her awake and coherent. It was 10:30 in the
morning, and Bobbi had been boiling with anger for the last hour and a half.
“Remember. We’re not here to steal. We’re here on a job. Professionals concentrate on the job at
hand, and do not let themselves get distracted.”
“What about skank-ass hoodrats, like me?”
“Them either, if they want to get paid.”
They were in the wealthy section of Playa Linda, an oceanfront neighborhood of spotless
sidewalks and sprawling, oversized mansions plopped onto acres of manicured lawn.
At the moment, they were standing in front of a building that looked like a stack of glass and steel
cubes, a postmodernist structure that gleamed in the mid-morning sun.
They’d driven there in the rental car that the Enforcer’s Council had provided for Bobbi. They
were sparing no expense on this investigation.
Bobbi and Pixie marched up the long paved walkway to the front door and Bobbi leaned on the
doorbell with her thumb, not letting up until she heard footsteps pounding towards her.
The man who opened the door was stunningly handsome, with jet black hair and golden eyes.
Panther, by the smell of him.
He wore a beautiful bespoke blue silk suit and shoes that appeared to be of buttery soft Italian
leather, with silver buckles on them. He flashed Bobbi and Pixie a dazzling smile, a smile that would
have melted the panties right off of lesser mortals. His teeth were blindingly white.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” his voice was low, rich and sexy. He purred more
than spoke.
“Fuck off,” Bobbi informed him pleasantly. “I know for a fact that Jax is in your house. I want to
speak to him. Right. Fucking. Now.”
“Don’t get on her bad side,” Pixie added helpfully. “You haven’t seen her when she’s pissed off.
She’ll kick your ass.”
“Oh?” he quirked an amused eyebrow. “And what will you do?”
“Cheer her on,” Pixie said, smirking. “Maybe take some cell phone pictures and post them on
Instagram.”
He sighed and turned to Bobbi. “So, you’re Jax’s Enforcer friend, Ms. Simpson. And you must be
the thief. Pixie, is it?”
“Ooooh, he knows who I am!” Pixie lit up. “I’ve got a reputation!”
“I have a lot to teach you,” Bobbi said, shaking her head. “Like the fact that you do not want a
reputation. You want to be invisible.”
Kenneth stood in the doorway for a moment, looking as if he were debating, until Bobbi let out a
low warning growl.
Yes, he was a big guy and a panther could take a coyote, but when Bobbi was angry, she had the
crazy eyes. She gave off the, “I will fight you until one of us is dead, and I will take chunks of flesh
with me,” vibe. And she meant every bit of it. It was enough to make bigger, tougher shifters back
down because they could easily sense the damage she’d inflict on them, even if they won.
He shook his head at her, and stepped out of the way. “I’m Kenneth Chamberlin, by the way.
Pleased to meet you. Come on in,” he said, and led her down a very long hallway, to the right, down
some more hallways, up some stairs…
Bobbi saw Pixie’s eyes shuttling from side to side, taking in all the priceless objects, the
paintings, the vases on columns, the statuettes on shelves, and she shook her head at her in warning.
“I’m watching you,” the panther said, as if he had eyes in the back of his head “It won’t help,”
Pixie said cheerfully. Bobbi nodded in silent agreement. When it came to theft, Pixie had mad skills.
She would most definitely be leaving the house with something that didn’t belong to her.
They followed Kenneth down yet another hallway and into a room that overlooked the bay. The
room was a giant glass cube that protruded from the house. The walls were glass, providing a
stunning view of the ocean. A cloudless sky of endless blue stretched out forever, and the blue-green
water wrinkled and swelled. White triangles of sails bobbed serenely.
The furniture in the room was industrial themed, with gleaming steel and black leather. Jax was
sitting at a desk with another wolf shifter, a handsome, leanly-muscled man with glasses, and the two
of them were intently looking over the massive screen of a computer on a gleaming ebony desk.
A third man sat on a black leather sofa near Jax, a muscular blond with a sexy scruff of a beard.
Lion shifter. Hot as hell. He looked as if he lived in the gym. Bobbi saw Pixie’s eyes flick over him
appreciatively.
Jax glanced up, startled. “I thought I scented you coming down the hallway, but I told myself I
must be crazy,” he said, shaking his head. “How did you find me?”
“I never give away my trade secrets. Especially to people I can’t trust. You actually drugged me
and went through my things, you fucking lowlife?”
“Oh, come on. You can’t be angry. We agreed last night that neither one of us trusted each other.”
“Did you tell her about me?” Kenneth asked Jax.
“Not by name, no.”
“The odds of her guessing that you’d be with me, and at this particular house, are pretty slim.
And she didn’t follow you here. So I’m going to guess that she planted a bug either on you, or your
motorcycle, at some point.” Kenneth looked maddeningly amused. Jax merely looked disgruntled.
The shifter who’d been sitting next to him stood up and walked out of the room.
“I didn’t think she’d wake up this early,” Jax said to Kenneth. “I must not have put enough
sedative in her drink.”
“Shifter metabolism, you asshole. Of course it wore off fast.” Bobbi glowered at him.
The worst part of all this was, she was still incredibly turned on by him. Seeing him sitting there
in his sweatshirt and jeans, dark haired and dark eyed, with that sexy curve of his upper lip…her
whole body ached from last night, and yet she wanted to grab him and rip his clothes off with her
teeth. Easy, girl, she mentally instructed her vagina. He’s nothing but trouble.
Jax raised an eyebrow. “I actually gave you less than the recommended dose, because I was
concerned about overdoing it.”
“Am I supposed to give you credit for that, you son of a bitch?” she hissed.
“Well, I was hoping so, yes. And maybe some sexual favors later.” Then Jax ducked as she
heaved a glass paperweight at her head and it bounced off the wall next to him, leaving a dent and
then crashing to the floor and shattering. “Too soon?”
“Hey!” Kenneth protested. “No trashing the place. Save that for Jax’s house; he’s the one who
screwed you over.”
“I already did. And I’m not done. Not by a long shot.” She saw Jax wince. Hopefully he was
picturing the damage she’d done. She was sorry she hadn’t taken more time to rip up every last piece
of furniture in his house, but she’d been in a hurry to track him down.
Unfortunately she probably wasn’t going to get the opportunity to throw down right here, with a
panther and a lion and another wolf in the same room with Jax. She bristled with anger. There’d be
time for payback later.
The shifter with glasses came back in the room. “It’s not on the motorcycle,” he said, waving a
small handheld device. Bobbi squinted at it quizzically.
“It scans for bugs,” he told her. “My own design. Tyler Witlocke, pleased to meet you.” He turned
to Jax and held the device up high, starting at the head and slowly sweeping downward.
Pixie was wandering around the room, picking things up from desks and shelves and putting them
back down again. Letter openers, fountain pens, an ipod, scissors… Kenneth watched her through
narrowed eyes, as did the lion.
“Seriously, my little street thief, give it up,” Kenneth said, looking bored. “You won’t have any
luck here.”
Suddenly, so fast that Bobbi barely saw her move, a letter opener flew from Pixie’s hand to land
in the wall right next to Jax’s head. It stuck there, quivering.
Startled, the lion shifter leaped up with a roar, and shifted into lion form quicker than a flash. He
swung to glare at Pixie with giant golden eyes.
Hair trigger temper on that one, Bobbi thought, quickly moving between the lion and Pixie.
.
Bobbi couldn’t help but notice a black plastic bracelet with a blinking green light on the lion’s
right hind ankle. The lion shifter was on supervised probation, for something. It looked strange and
out of place on the lion’s furry ankle.
Kenneth had sprouted a mouthful of fangs, and the color of his eyes was pure gold. His jacket split
open as his shoulders broadened.
Jax and Tyler jumped to their feet, startled.
“You’re right,” Pixie said, flashing a self-satisfied smirk. “No luck at all. It’s skill, not luck.”
The lion changed back to human form, standing up right, stark naked, glaring down at his shredded
clothes. Bobbi barely even noticed that he was absolutely huge in certain important areas of the
anatomy. Lion sized, even. Also he was definitely a natural blond.
Looking around the room at their shocked expressions, Bobbi started laughing so hard that tears
came to her eyes. They ran down her cheeks.
Pixie joined her. The two women stood there and howled with laughter. “Come on,” Bobbi
gasped, wiping at her face. “You have to admit that was hilarious. Your faces! Oh my God.”
She turned to the lion shifter, who was standing there glowering at them, arms folded across his
broad chest.
“Sorry about your clothes. Not really. Every friend of Jax’s is on my shit list today.”
“Dominick, do run along and get dressed. We’re not animals. Most of the time, anyway. You can
find some clothes in any of my closets.” Kenneth’s jacket and shirt were split open, but he’d only
partially shifted, so his pants were intact. He stripped off the jacket, removed his cuff links, and
began unbuttoning his shirt.
With a growl directed at Pixie, Dominick left the room.
Kenneth turned to Pixie in exasperation. “So, what else of mine have you pilfered?”
Pixie shrugged insolently. “Nothing you can’t afford to replace. Maybe nothing at all. You could
try to search me, but I’d recommend against it.”
“Life is never boring when you’re around, is it?” Kenneth said to Jax. He still looked more
amused than angry, which was probably a good thing. He looked as if he could be lethal when he was
angry.
Jax had found the bug, with Tyler’s help. He pulled his wallet out, and fished out a tiny metal
transmitter. He turned to Pixie, looking half outraged, half astonished.
“You planted that in my wallet the day you stole it, didn’t you?”
Pixie shrugged. “Ya think? Who knows? I can’t remember back that far.”
“How could you have known to have a radio transmitter ready to plant on me? You didn’t even
know I was following you that day,” Jax protested to Bobbi.
“Didn’t I?” Bobbi smiled with no warmth whatsoever. “Keep telling yourself that. And give me
back my phone.”
Tyler handed it to her. If Jax had given him the phone, they’d already gone through it looking for
information. Good luck with that, she thought. Kenneth was chuckling quietly. “Really. This is the
most fun I’ve had in ages.” He glanced at Pixie. “Kindly don’t toss any more weapons around, though.
Dominick is my bodyguard. He has a hair trigger temper and could easily have hurt you. He can’t
always control himself when he’s in lion form.”
Pixie sneered at Jax. “That’s what you get for drugging my friend, you pig. I don’t have many
friends, and the few that I do have, it’s a really bad idea for anyone to mess with them.”
Jax let out a low, irritable growl and then turned to Bobbi. “Fine. You found me. Let’s get down
to business.”
Chapter Ten
“We’re going to have a hard time moving forward with this,” Bobbi said coldly. “Since I have
certain trust issues with you now. I already told you I don’t want the damned reward. Why did you
steal the USB?”
Jax growled in exasperation. “I’m a control freak, and this case is very, very important to me. I
don’t want to risk anything going wrong.”
Bobbi settled on the couch, as Dominick came back in the room, wearing a silky oxford-style
shirt, trousers, and a belt.
“Well, now that I know I can’t trust you, I’m glad I didn’t tell you about the common denominator
that I found between the three men.”
Everyone turned to stare at her.
“Spill it,” Jax demanded. “You know how important this is.”
“First give me the damned USB.”
“You work for the Enforcer council, am I correct? I’ll email the information on the USB to them
right now,” Tyler said.
She gave him Renee’s email address and then watched as Tyler emailed the contents of the USB
to her. Then she called Renee to make sure that she’d received it, and also told her about Jax’s
conversation with Cedric.
“You need to pass all of that information along to the police,” Renee said.
“With Stanford breathing down their necks?” Bobbi protested.
“I told you. Until he gives us a reason to file a complaint or take official action, we’ve got no
legitimate reason not to cooperate,” Renee said. “We don’t like him any more than you do, but his
campaign against shifters is all the more reason for us to be on the up and up with the police
department and with this investigation. We don’t want to give him any room for complaint against the
Enforcers.”
“Fine,” Bobbi said, and hung up, frustration boiling inside her.
“This bites,” she grumbled.
A male servant who looked like a classic English butler, right down to the black suit with bow tie
and tailcoat, came in, wheeling a silver tray laden with pastries, sandwiches, and hors d’oeuvres.
Pixie’s eyes lit up.
Kenneth nodded his thanks. “Thank you, Edgar,” he said to the servant. “I figure that might at
least briefly distract our larcenous little friend here,” he added, as she quickly began loading food
onto a plate.
“Technically, that USB was mine,” Jax informed Bobbi, his tone aggrieved. “Remember, I gave it
to you so you could hack into the club’s computer. So I wasn’t stealing. I was taking back my
property.”
“We were supposed to work together. Drugging me and then running off with the fruits of my
labor is not working together.”
“Fine. I’m sorry,” he bit out. He don’t look sorry. He looked irritated and defensive. “What’s the
common denominator?”
Bobbi took a deep breath and counted to ten.
Despite her anger at Jax, she still needed him and his local connections – more than ever now that
any information that they gave to the police would be immediately handed to Stanford Roosevelt.
And underneath it all, as angry as she was at him, she still wanted to see him solve the case and
get the reward. She couldn’t explain it, it made no sense, but she believed that on some level, a
really, really well hidden level, he was basically a decent person…to say nothing of that whole fated
mate connection.
“First, let me explain something to you. I don’t want to have to work with a pigheaded,
doublecrossing jerk who sabotages me, any more than you want to give up control of this
investigation. But we’re stuck with each other, and we both have skills and resources that can help
each other. Pixie, chew your food for God’s sake, your cheeks are bulging like a squirrel. You’re
going to choke and then I’ll have to Heimlich you. So, where was I? Oh, yes. I will tell you what the
common denominator is, but if you screw me over again, I will be forced to report back to your boss
at Hammersmith.”
Jax’s eyes flashed amber with rage, and his lips peeled back to reveal his fangs.
“What did you expect?” Bobbi snapped. “That just because we had some mindblowing sex, I’d
roll over and let you do whatever the hell you want? Fuck you. Give me your word that you won’t try
to ditch me again, or I will call them and tell them what you pulled.”
Everyone in the room suddenly looked very interested at the mention of mindblowing sex. Pixie
gave her thumbs up and said something with her mouth full, something that sounded like “you go,
girl.” Crumbs fell out of her mouth on to the floor, and the servant grimaced and quickly picked them
up with a napkin.
“Sorry, Jeeves,” Pixie mumbled, spilling more crumbs.
Jeeves. Bobbi had to give her credit. She was a well-read street rat.
Jax was clearly furious, and struggling to stay calm. Bobbi didn’t care. She stood there glowering
at him, arms folded across her chest, watching the bones in his face ripple as he fought to keep his
wolf contained.
God, it is pathetic how much I want him to bend me over his knee and spank me right this
minute, she told herself. I need to invest in a very efficient vibrator.
“Listen,” she continued. “Kenneth clearly has resources. I don’t know how much we can count on
police assistance any more, now that Representative Roosevelt’s in the picture. We need to work
together and pool all of our resources and skills, unless we want to see more Rage cases and have to
face terrified human mobs everywhere we go.”
“She’s right,” Kenneth said. “I’m willing to do whatever I can to help.”
Jax nodded. She glanced around the room. “And I take it you trust everybody here with the
information that I’m about to reveal.”
“You’re questioning my trustworthiness?” the lion shifter snarled. “You brought a thief into my
employer’s house.”
“Pixie has my back. I trust her way more than I trust you,” Bobbi snapped at him. “And given that
you’re a convicted felon, Mr. Ankle Bracelet, I’d say that’s pretty hypocritical coming from you.”
“I’m on probation because I got in a bar fight. More than once. I have anger management issues,
which you should keep in mind. I say the thief should wait outside the house, with-“
Bobbi let out a snarl that ripped from her throat, and felt her fangs lengthening in her mouth.
“Lay off the girl,” Tyler said calmly, pushing his chair back and standing up.
“Or what?” Dominick sneered. “Go back to your desk or I’ll break your glasses, you little –
argggh!”
Tyler shifted so fast that he was a blur of motion, and the next thing Bobbi knew, Dominick was
on his back on the ground, and Tyler was an utterly enormous gray wolf snapping at his throat.
“Stop it! Both of you!” Kenneth snapped at them.
Tyler shifted back to human form, his shredded clothes on the floor. Pixie was staring, jaw
hanging open.
“Wow, are shifters all huge like that?” she asked. “Because I’ve never done it with a shifter
before, but oh. My. God. That is now on my to-do list.” She snickered. “Get it? Because I’m going to
do a shifter.”
“Yes, Pixie we get it, but thank you for explaining it to us,” Bobbi said patiently.
“You’re welcome.” She went back to stuffing food in her mouth.
Sighing, Tyler picked his glasses up off the floor and trotted out of the room to get clothing.
Dominick stood up, feeling his throat and glaring. “I could have taken him. He just caught me off
guard for a minute. Element of surprise,” he muttered, and scowled at Bobbi’s knowing smirA cell
phone chimed melodiously, and Kenneth answered, and then appeared agitated.
“Again?” he muttered. “How? Are we making any progress on this case yet?”
A pause.
“Fine. I’m a little tied up at the moment. I’ll call you back.”
“Your thief struck again?” Jax asked him. “If you need me to kill anyone, let me know.”
“It may come to that,” Kenneth said, his voice cold. Bobbi felt a little shiver run through her. She
had a feeling that Kenneth would be a lethal enemy. Shifters of the feline species tended to toy with
their prey before dispatching them.
Tyler walked back in, wearing khaki slacks and a polo shirt. He’d had to cuff the bottom of the
pants, because Kenneth was several inches taller than him. “He’s kind of hot, in a nerdy way,” Pixie
said in a quiet voice to Bobbi. Tyler winked at her, sat down at Kenneth’s desk, and began typing
away on the computer.
“Shifters have freakishly good hearing,” Bobbi said to Pixie. “Especially the canine species.”
Then she turned to Jax.
“Aurora,” Bobbi said. “Your girlfriend Aurora is the common denominator.” That came out way
more bitter than she meant it to.
“What do you mean? And she’s not my girlfriend.”
“Aurora went into a private room with every one of those guys who later went rabid – and in each
case, a few days later, they suffered those rage attacks. But here’s the thing – she also went into that
room with a lot of other guys, who didn’t go rabid. The other girls at the club are aware that she’s
been with three guys who died within days after she was with them, but they only know about the
judge being rabid. They think the doctor died in a hunting accident and the businessman died of a drug
overdose…but they’re still talking about it. I don’t know if Aurora knows, but word will get to her
soon – unless this is something that she’s doing deliberately, in which case of course she already
knows.”
Then he looked at Pixie. “Did she just eat a quarter of the food on that tray?”
“Hey, if she’s eating, she’s not stealing. I think,” Bobbi shrugged. “Anyway, I know where
Aurora lives.”
“How?”
“I called Velvet, got her talking. Pretended that I needed more reassurance that Aurora wasn’t
interested in Jax. She mentioned that the two of them live downtown somewhere, with a room-mate
named Ashley. I couldn’t come out and ask her for the exact address, but-”
“
“3062 Montgomery Avenue,” Tyler said. He’d been frantically tapping on the laptop keyboard as
she spoke; Bobbi hadn’t even been aware he’d been following their conversation.
“How?” Bobbi marveled.
“The owner of Caged Heat had a list of all his employees, with their club names and their real
names, and their contact information, on his laptop
“Nice.” Bobbi nodded approvingly. “We need to run background checks on Aurora, her
boyfriend, and her room-mate. Her boyfriend’s name is Oliver, and he works at Caged Heat. I’m
going to have to pass this information on to the police, but I’d like to do some checking of our own
first. Tyler, can you hack into the police department database without leaving a trace?”
He laughed.
“So you can, I take it,”Bobbi said.
“Child’s play. However, Aurora is the only one whose name is on the lease. She’s lived there for
three years,” Tyler said. “Her boyfriend’s full name is Oliver Ferguson, according to Caged Heat’s
records. Give me a few minutes while I see what I can get from police records.”
They waited while he tapped and clicked for several minutes.
“Aurora’s been busted for shoplifting several times; apparently she’s got expensive tastes. She
hasn’t been busted recently. Oliver Ferguson’s never been arrested. He grew up in Utah with a
Mormon family, worked for his family’s bank there, was engaged to another Mormon, then eight
months ago he moved to San Francisco by himself, lived there about two months working as a bus
boy, then moved here six months ago. He was practically a choir boy before he left home. I’ll do
some more research on him.”Bobbi nodded. So far, she was running into dead ends when it came to
fulfilling her personal mission, the one nobody knew about…not even Vaughn. For a brief moment
she’d hoped that perhaps Oliver was the Chemist, but clearly he wasn’t, not based on what Tyler was
saying. None of what Tyler described matched up with the information she’d been able to unearth on
The Chemist.
“Send me in,” Pixie said suddenly.
“What?” Bobbi was startled.
“Let me go to the neighborhood and do some snooping around. I could get into their mailbox and
jack their mail. Maybe something will be addressed to the room-mate,” Pixie said. “This woman has
never seen me before.”
“Depending what we’re looking at here, this could be extremely dangerous,” Bobbi protested.
Pixie made a face at her like a teenager who’d just been reminded to wear her seatbelt.
“I’ve been living on my own since I was twelve. In squats. Under highway overpasses. I’ll be
fine.”
“I don’t trust her,” Dominick snapped. “She’s a thief. That’s the definition of untrustworthy.”
Bobbi swung on him, eyes blazing, but before she could speak Kenneth interrupted her. “I do trust
her.”
Everyone turned to stare at him. Even Pixie looked shocked.
“You do?” Pixie said suspiciously, as if he were about to make fun of her.
“I didn’t achieve my success through good luck and good looks, although I do possess those in
abundance. To succeed in the business world, you have to be able to read people. I trust her to do
what she says. I don’t trust her to walk out of here without some of my belongings in her pockets, but
if she says she’ll go in undercover, that’s what she’ll do. And she’ll be very good at it.”
Pixie positively beamed at what he was saying.
Bobbi nodded, impressed. She had to give Jax’s friend credit.
Jax, on the other hand, got nothing.
He was staring at her, and she felt a warm sensation sweep over her, and a tingling which started
between her legs and spread up inside her. She scowled and turned her back on him, arms carefully
folded over her stiffening nipples which were poking at the fabric of her shirt, like little beacons of
betrayal.
She didn’t care how difficult it was, she would never have sex with him again, and she was not
going to let her attraction to him cloud her thinking.
“Aurora will probably be working at the club tonight,” Jax told her. “We should go back. We
need to see who she takes into private rooms, in case something ends up happening to them.”
Bobbi considered it. “Fine,” she said, turning part way back to face him, but keeping her arms in
place. “But we’re not doing another scene together. We can just go in and mingle. Go flirt with
whoever you want to. I don’t care. We’ll hang out and keep an eye on Serena and see what she’s up
to.”
“But – “ Jax stopped himself. “All right. If that’s the way you want it.”
He actually looked hurt. What did he expect?
Bobbi took a seat in an overstuffed chair. Pixie perched on the arm of the chair.
“What are the possible reasons that some of the men, but not all of the men, who come in contact
with Aurora would go rabid?” Bobbi asked. She had an idea why, which was the very reason she’d
gotten herself assigned to this case, but there could be other causes. It might be the Chemist’s work,
but there were other possibilities as well. Whatever the cause, they needed to get to the bottom of it
before anti-shifter hysteria took hold and it was open season on shifters.
“V.D.,” Pixie declared. “Maybe some of the men who were with her used protection and some
didn’t.”
All the men in the room winced at the thought, and Bobbi chuckled quietly. Yep, that would be
one nasty strain of the clap, all right.
“Some kind of curse?” Dominick’s brow wrinkled in thought.
“Possibly, but you’d think it would affect everyone she came into contact with,” Kenneth said.
“She could be doing it deliberately. It’s possible she targeted one of the men for some reason, and
poisoned the other two to cover it up. All three men were wealthy and powerful, which inevitably
means they have enemies,” Jax said.
“The police are looking into whether any of them men have enemies who could have
accomplished something like this, although no trace of poison or toxin has been identified in their
bodies yet,” Bobbi said.
“A virus? Maybe she’s like Typhoid Mary, she’s contracted something that doesn’t affect her, but
can infect others?” Kenneth suggested.
“That’s a possibility,” Bobbi nodded. “It would be great if we could get a blood sample from
her, but I doubt she’d volunteer. Even a saliva sample might reveal something.”
“Jax could offer to buy her a drink at the club tonight, and then pocket the glass afterwards,”
Bobbi suggested.
Kenneth nodded. “Good plan. I have chemists on my staff.”
Bobbi paused as a thought struck her. “Tyler,” she said. “Can you look at the information that was
on the USB and see if Cedric keeps a record of when customers go into a private room with
submissives?”
“On it.” He was already typing on the computer. She turned to Jax. “Did you see if Aurora went
into any private rooms with anybody last night? I didn’t notice.”
Jax shook his head. “No, I didn’t, but I wasn’t paying attention to her most of the time, so I
couldn’t say for sure. Let’s hope not.”
“It would help if we knew what the time span was, between when she went in those rooms with
the men, and when they went rabid,” Bobbi said.
“Give me a minute…now, that’s interesting,” Tyler said. “She normally entertains between three
and six customers a night in those private rooms. Last night, she didn’t go into any private rooms. The
men who died – when she went into the rooms with them, the rage attacks occurred two to three days
later, based on what Jax has told me.”
“She knows,” Jax said. “At the very least, she knows about Judge Galbraith. She could hardly
have missed that; it was all over the news.”
“Did she seem nervous to you at all?” Bobbi asked.
“Not that I noticed, but there’s got to be a reason she changed her pattern like that,” Jax said,
shaking his head.
“We’ll really need to keep an eye on her tonight,” Bobbi said. “See if she goes into any rooms
with anybody, and if she does, we’ll have to make a decision – because they’d be at risk of turning
rabid.”
Jax nodded, and Bobbi turned away, arms still folded tightly across her treacherous nipples, and
wondered how long her resolve to stay away from him would last.
Chapter Eleven
Later that afternoon…
“I think I’m breaking out in hives,” Pixie said anxiously. She thrust her skinny arm in front of
Bobbi’s face. “Look at my arm. Does this look like a hive? What’s a hive look like, anyway?”
Bobbi frowned down at her arm. “I see nothing but a skinny white arm. You need to get more sun.
I thought you were half Hispanic.”
“My mom could have been lying.”
Pixie had come to meet Jax and Bobbi at the police station to report on her progress, but she’d
frozen in place on the sidewalk outside, staring up at the looming brick structure.
“I thought that you had turned over a new leaf. You’re supposed to be working with the cops now.
You’re practically one of them,” Jax said.
The late afternoon sun was heading for the horizon, and long shadows washed out over the
sidewalk. Pixie put her hands on her hips. “From a distance. Through an intermediary,” she
muttered.
“All right, fine. Just give us what you got,” Bobbi said patiently.
“I managed to talk to Aurora and her room-mate. Something’s definitely wrong there. I met up
with them outside the building. I asked them what the neighborhood was like, told them I was looking
to rent an apartment, and Ashley kinda glanced at Aurora and said, we might need a room-mate soon.
And Aurora looked annoyed and it’s way too soon to be talking about that, but Ashley said, stop by in
a couple of days. And Aurora gave her a dirty look and walked away. Bobbi’s eyes lit up. “That
makes it sound as if Oliver is getting ready to take off. Or he’s already pulled a disappearing act.”
“Oh, and I went through their mail,” Pixie said. “I didn’t steal it, though, that’s a federal offense.”
“I’m glad to hear you have some limits,” Jax said.
“You’re not paying me enough to commit a federal offense,” Pixie shrugged. “Anyway, Ashley’s
full name is Ashley Marie Chapman, and she got a credit card bill from Macy’s, if that helps Tyler
when he’s hacking into the national databases. And that’s it for me. I’m getting out of here before I
find out what hives look like,” she said glancing nervously at the police station. Then she paused and
held out her hand expectantly. Bobbi and Jax glanced at each other. Jax pulled out his wallet, Bobbi
pulled out her wallet, and they each slapped several twenties into her hand.
“Gee, I love being a cop,” Pixie said cheerfully. “See ya.” And she waltzed off.
Jax called Tyler and gave him Ashley’s full name.
“Captain Thorne’s waiting for us. Let’s give him what we’ve got,” Bobbi said.
“Let’s hope to God that Roosevelt’s not in there still,” Jax growled. “I’m not sure I could hold
myself back a second time.”
Bobbi sniffed the air as they walked through the front door of the police station.
“I don’t smell the overpowering aroma of hatred, prejudice and stupidity,” she said. “I think
we’re good.”
That earned her a brief smile.
Captain Thorne met with them alone this time, in his office. It was small and the walls were made
of cheap, fake wood paneling. Pictures of Thorne with his wife and teenagers adorned his desk and
the bookshelf behind him.
“I can’t apologize enough for what happened here earlier,” he said as they sat down.
“You’re not the one who needs to apologize. I know you’re in a tough spot, and you did
everything that you could do,” Bobbi said.
“Well, I may have to report back to Stanford, but I don’t have to report quickly,” Thorne said.
“No point in giving information until it’s been thoroughly checked out, and confirmed.”
“I appreciate that, but Stanford’s a dangerous enemy. Tread carefully,” Bobbi said.
Jax nodded. “Yeah. The chief’s got his head so far up Stanford’s ass-”
Bobbi kicked his leg. “Language! We’re in polite company.”
At that, Thorne threw back his head and laughed, a deep, rich sound.
“Me? You got the wrong guy,” he said.
Bobbi and Jax filled him in on the connection with Aurora, and gave him the names of her two
room-mates. He nodded thoughtfully.
“I’ll assign a detail to watch her apartment. Front and back. At least for the next few days,” he
said.
“We’re going back to Caged Heat tonight. If we see her go into rooms with anyone, we’ll let you
know, because they’d be at risk of going rabid,” Bobbi said.
Of course, that meant they’d need to stay at Caged Heat all night. All night with Jax. All night
resisting him.
Be strong, she instructed her private parts.
Unfortunately, she didn’t trust her lady bits in the slightest where Jax was involved. While Pixie
was out sleuthing, she’d gone back to her hotel room and changed into a sports bra to hide her rock
hard nipples – but she couldn’t hide the truth from herself.
No matter how angry Jax made her, her nether regions had a mind of their own when it came to
Jax. His scent, his strong, masculine presence, his-
“Bobbi? Hello?” Jax said.
“Oh,” she said, startled. They’d been talking, and she had completely zoned out.
“Do we have anything else to tell Captain Thorne?”
“No. I think we’re good,” Bobbi said, standing up. “We’ll check in again with you tomorrow,
Captain. And thank you.”
Outside the building, Bobbi said “I’ve got errands to run. You should probably call
Hammersmith and check in with your boss.” At Jax’s annoyed look, she shook her head.
“Do it,” she said.
“I can barely have a civil conversation with that jackass.”
“You can barely have a civil conversation with anybody,” she pointed out.
“No argument there. Civilization’s over-rated. What’s it ever brought us? Suits and ties. Red
tape.”
“Wah, wah, wah. I gather you’re already on thin ice with them, so don’t aggravate them even
more. Do you want that reward, or not?”
“Fine,” Jax grumbled. “What time do you want to meet up at the apartment?”
“The” apartment, he’d said. Not “my” apartment. As if it were their place, as if they lived
together.
“I’m not going to stay with you any more,” she said firmly. “We can meet up in the Caged Heat
parking lot together tonight at 10 o’clock. I will be dressed appropriately. When we go in, we go our
separate ways. If anyone asks, we had a lover’s quarrel.” It made total sense, she couldn’t trust him
any more after what he’d pulled the night before, but every word that she said hurt her. She wanted to
be with him. She wanted to fall asleep with his arms wrapped around her, to feel his chest rising and
falling. After having spent one night with him, the thought of sleeping alone made her feel hollow and
lonely.
Jax’s eyes flashed amber, and his lips thinned to a hard line. “Where are you staying?”
“That information will be shared on a need to know basis,” she said. Her belongings were in the
trunk of her rented car; she’d likely just sleep at her hotel room at The Plaza, which the Enforcer’s
were still paying for.
“Fine.” His face was impassive, his tone hard as granite. He turned and walked away, and she felt
a sharp stab through the heart at how easily he’d accepted it.
Maybe he was already figuring out who’d bring home tonight from Caged Heat, she thought.
There was nothing she could do about that. Jax didn’t belong to her.
She dug into her purse and grabbed her cell phone.
It was time to make the call…to both of her bosses. The one who she officially worked for, and
the one who was probably going to kill her one of these days, if she didn’t get the chance to kill him
first.
* * *
Jax waited until he was back in his apartment to let a howl of rage rip from his throat. He wasn’t
angry at the damage that Bobbi had done to his furniture; he’d totally deserved that, and more.
He was shaking with fury at the thought of her staying somewhere else. She belonged with him, he
suddenly realized. When she wasn’t with him, he ached, and the ache got worse and worse the longer
they were apart. Didn’t she feel it too? How could she walk away from him?
He barely managed to rip his clothes from his body before he shifted into wolf form. He dropped
to all fours, a massive, raging gray beast, In a frenzy, he shredded what was left of the couch, ripped
the books on the floor to shreds, then smashed his kitchen table to pieces.
When he shifted back to human form, he was panting for breath, his chest heaving. He collapsed
on the middle of the floor, burying his face in his hands.
He’d been an idiot, stealing the USB stick and ditching her like that. He’d sent a clear message to
her: You can never trust me, and you and I are not partners.
Had he ruined any chance of things working out between them? And had he gone so crazy that he
actually was thinking of trying to make things work out between them? He’d spent his whole life
believing that a relationship would make him so weak he might as well crawl into a hole and die.
That falling in love would make him the Samson to some woman’s Delilah.
Was it possible that true love would make him stronger, not weaker? Bobbi truly seemed to want
him to succeed, in the investigation, with Hammersmith…she seemed like she’d be a real partner in
every sense of the word. She was the kind of woman who’d always have a friend’s back, he could
sense that in her.
He stood up, taking a deep breath and heaving it out.
He was still so angry at the thought of her sleeping somewhere else that his hands were shaking.
Normally he’d head down to the warehouse district and pick a fight, but today, he’d go for a run in the
woods instead. He’d shift, and run and run and run until, with any luck, he’d have burned off that
white hot rage that flowed through his veins like a river of lava.
Half an hour later, he was standing next to his car by the side of the road in a wooded area north
of Playa Linda. Pine and fir trees creaked in the wind, and the late afternoon sun’s rays slanted down,
bathing the forest in golden light. He opened the back door, tossed in his clothes, and slammed the
door shut before shifting.
He paused for a minute after he’d shifted, as his senses blazed to life, a thousand times more
intense. He tipped his head back, scenting the air. He could smell ripening berries and rich loamy
earth and every kind of plant and animal within miles. He could hear the song of every bird, braiding
together in an orchestra of trills and coos, and the beating of the bird’s wings, and the delicate crunch
of a fox’s paw on twigs.
The wind felt good ruffling through his fur, and he raced through the woods faster than an
antelope, ears back, leaping over thickets and dodging past swaying pines.
For the first time ever, as he ran, he imagined what it would be like to have someone by his side.
Would Bobbi enjoy running through the woods? He’d never seen her fully shift, but he imagined that
her coyote would be beautiful. Would she be able to outrun him? Doubtful…especially if he was
properly motivated.
He imagined chasing her through these sun-dappled woodlands, catching her and pinning her, both
of them turning human…naked and panting with the sun beating down on his skin, their senses on
fire…
Danger. Human.
He heard the sound of a rifle snick at the same time he scented the human.
Quickly, he shifted back to human form. Although it was illegal to hunt wolves, he had a strong
feeling the person aiming the gun at him wouldn’t let that stop him.
To his shock, the forest floor near his foot exploded in a cloud of dirt as a gunshot landed near his
feet.
“Hey!” he yelled angrily. “I’m human! Watch where you’re shooting, asshole!”
The only response was a bullet landing in the bark of a tree right next to where he stood – at the same
level as his head. Far off in the distance, he heard coarse laughter drifting on the wind.
Jax shifted back to wolf form and ran, and more bullets spit up dirt at his feet. He dodged through
thick bushes, the laughter and the bullets chasing him, and he smelled silver and knew the hunter was
well aware he was a shifter, not a wolf.
He raced through the woods for a good half hour before he circled back to his car, and quickly
dressed, shaking with fury.
He grabbed his cell phone, placing a quick call to the local police department, and then he
climbed into his car. Rolling the window down, he began driving, following his nose.
His keen power of scent led him exactly where he’d expected – a redneck bar called Hog Spit, on
a tiny dirt road off the main road. The parking lot was full of pickup trucks mounted with gun racks.
He pulled in to the parking lot at the same time as a highway patrol car, and leaped out of his car.
The hunter was inside the building, and Jax followed his scent, to find a heavyset, red-faced
human leaning on the bar, holding his rifle and howling with laughter with a group of friends.
“You should have seen the look on that bastard’s-” all eyes swiveled to Jax, and the man froze
mid-sentence, and leveled a pig-eyed glare at Jax.
“You got a problem, freak?” the man snapped as Jax stormed over to him. The door banged open
as the highway patrolmen rushed through the door.
The hunter raised his gun and started to level it at Jax. Both highway patrol officers pulled out
their weapons and pointed them at the human. Everyone around the group dived out of the way, and
the bartender ducked behind the bar.
“What are you doing? He’s threatening me. He ain’t human! He’s a dog!” the human wailed. Jax
felt a keen wave of nostalgia for his native Florida, so shifter-friendly, mixed with a murderous rage
and an urge to rip this human’s throat out with his fangs.
“Hunting wolves is illegal. Hunting shifters gets you an attempted murder charge,” the highway
patrol officer said coldly. “And that’s only because your aim sucks.”
“I didn’t know it was a shifter! I just saw a huge wolf, coming right at me, his fangs dripping with
rabies! Just like that judge! I thought he was going to kill me!” the hunter wailed. “I never been more
scairt in my life! It was self defense, I swear on my mama’s grave and a stack of bibles, self
defense!”
“You know that nice, soft dirt out there in the forest? The location of my paw prints, and then my
footprints, and your footprints, and the rifle shells…they’re all going to tell a story that makes you
into a liar,” Jax snarled. “And for the sake of shifters everywhere, I will be pressing charges.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” one of the hunter’s friends yelled angrily. “Attempted
murder? You’ll send him to prison? For trying to kill a dogman?”
Rage rose up and threatened to choke Jax, and he stuffed it back down quickly. If he went all wolf
on them and ripped them to pieces like they deserved, it would only hurt the reputation of shifters.
He grabbed the rifle from the man, and sniffed. “I smell silver,” he said. “Silver bullets. Those
are expensive. And illegal. You’d never waste that kind of money hunting deer. You went out there
hoping to find a shifter.”
He bent the barrel of the rifle easily, turning it into a U, and then shoved it back against the man’s
chest so hard that he staggered back a couple of feet. His friends made a motion as if to lunge
forward, but then they glanced at the two highway patrolmen, and at Jax, with his rippling face and
glowing eyes and lengthening fangs.
Muttering to themselves, they slunk back, shoulders hunched, eyes glittering with hatred.
There would always be shifters who hated humans. Jax knew this all too well. It was rubbed into
his face on a regular basis.
If the hunter had succeeded in shooting Jax, he might well have gotten away with claiming that Jax
had gone rabid and attacked him. Without Jax being around to defend himself, who would have
listened to his side of the story?
Then Jax would have been turned into yet another horror story, yet another excuse for humans to
hate and fear shifters.
We have got to solve this case before all out war breaks out, Jax thought. Yeah, he desperately
needed that reward, but the stakes were way higher than money.
* * *
Vaughn sank back in his big overstuffed chair, smiling. They were getting close to finding the
Chemist, he was sure of it. That little bastard had been one of Vaughn’s best drug manufacturers
years ago, inventing new, marvelously addictive and species-specific drugs that Vaughn had peddled
to every species of shifter – but he’d managed to deal with Vaughn on a strictly anonymous basis,
despite Vaughn’s best efforts to find him. Vaughn had always wanted the Chemist under his control,
working in his own personal laboratory and whipping out drugs to his exact specifications.
Not only had the Chemist refused, the jackass had screwed up one of his batches and several of
Vaughn’s customers had gone rabid. That wouldn’t have happened if he’d been working in Vaughn’s
own laboratory, with its strict controls. Vaughn had spent a small fortune covering it up. The way
Vaughn saw it, the Chemist owed him big time.
Originally, he’d planned on having the Chemist pay him back by making sure that he worked under
armed guard in Vaughn’s laboratories, but recently, his eyes had been opened to much grander
opportunities. He’d come to realize his true destiny, which was so much more important than massive
wealth and complete control of a worldwide crime syndicate. He’d achieved that, and he was
growing bored.
Now he was ready to change the world, forever.
He still needed the Chemist under his control, in his laboratory, working to produce the drug that
he’d called S-X, but he had a different goal now. He no longer wanted to ensure that the laboratory
produced a safe, purified version of the drug. He wanted to make sure that he learned what had gone
wrong with the drug that caused shifters to go rabid. And then he wanted to produce nothing but bad
batches, again and again.
Smiling at the thought, Vaughn glanced down at the two shifter cats curled up on the cold marble
floor. Pamela’s eyes were dull and glazed; he’d been withholding Afterburn from her, watching her
grow weaker and weaker. She wasn’t any fun any more. Jennifer was good for a couple more weeks
of play, and then he’d be recruiting a new crew of girls, he thought. Bobbi Jo Simpson would be one
of them. He was sure he’d have captured the Chemist by then, and he wouldn’t need her services any
longer. Sure, she’d been a good conduit of information, but it wasn’t that hard to turn a cop; he’d find
another Enforcer to take her place.
He wondered how long she’d last. Afterburn only worked on feline shifters, but he had a different
drug called Sizzle, which worked on canine species. He could get her hooked, then watch her crawl
to him and beg for her dose. Every bodyguard on his staff would line up and use her in every hole,
until she bled, and then use her some more. She’d find out what happened to shifters who thought they
were his equal.
He hoped she fought the addiction. He wanted her to last for months, dying a little every day.
Reaching into his shirt pocket, he pulled out out a little metal tin, and opened it. From the tin he
scooped out a tiny white pill and held it up tauntingly. “I’ve got one pill,” he said. “Who wants it?
Who’s ready to earn it? I’ll let you girls fight over it.”
The girls had been friends at the club. Now, he had no doubt that whoever was stronger would
rip the other one’s throat out to get that fix.
“I want it,” Jennifer whimpered. “Me. Please give it to me. I’ll do whatever you want.”
Vaughn glanced at Pamela, who was breathing shallowly; her fingers twitched and she made a
small mewling noise, but she was too weak to speak. The only way to survive Afterburn withdrawal
was slowly, under medical supervision, with carefully calculated doses of sedatives. Abrupt
withdrawal was agonizingly painful, and deadly. Pamela probably had days to live. Maybe hours.
Smirking, he handed Jennifer the pill, watching as she eagerly sucked it into her mouth.
Shifter whore.
Animal.
Suddenly, she bit the pill in half and stuffed half of it in Pamela’s mouth. Pamela swallowed with
a quick, dry gulp, and shuddered as the pill quickly began burning its way down her nerves and
synapses. A little bit of light came back to her eyes and her shallow breathing grew stronger.
Jennifer swallowed her half of the pill, shutting her eyes and shivering. Then she opened her eyes
and stroked Pamela’s hair with one weak, trembling hand.
“It’s okay, baby,” she crooned to Pamela. “You’ll be okay.”
That wasn’t what Vaughn had wanted at all, although Jennifer hadn’t done anything more than
reset the clock on Pamela’s slow, agonizing death.
He reached down and tangled his fingers in Jennifer’s hair, yanking her head up. “You think
you’re clever, bitch?” he hissed. “I hope your ass is ready for a whole lot of pounding. Turn around,
hands and knees. And don’t think we’ll be using any lube.”
Jennifer shuddered, and quickly obeyed. She only wore a g-string. Her full breasts dangled, and
she presented him with the magnificent globes of her buttocks, ripe and ready for him to split apart.
He called out to the four men playing cards on a massive oak table.
“Line up, boys,” he yelled at them, and they scrambled to their feet. He paused. He was about to
literally rip Jennifer a new one, but after they were all done with her, she could shift and heal way
too fast for his tastes.
“Bring a copper collar,” he called out to them. When he collared her, not only would the collar
itch and sting her skin like crazy, but it would force her to stay in human form. No rapid healing for
this animal.
Chapter Twelve
Jax paced next to his car like a caged animal. He’d shown up fifteen minutes early, and checked
his watch approximately fifty times a minute since then.
Would she even show up?
He was dying to call her, but he forced himself not to.
He was reaching into his pocket for his cell phone for the hundredth time, when her car glided
into the parking lot and a little bit of the tightness inside him loosened.
He leaned against his car, casually, as she climbed out of her own car and shed the trench-coat
she’d been wearing. She tossed the trenchcoat into the front seat and turned to face him.
She was wearing the other outfit they’d bought together at Liquid. A leather bra and leather
miniskirt. Both had a series of snaps which made them very easy to remove.
Her silky hair flowed over her shoulders, and he longed to bury his face in it and draw her sweet
scent through his nostrils.
“I didn’t keep you waiting, did I?” she asked.
“Nope. Just got here a minute ago,” he said.
“I heard something about a hunter trying to shoot you in the woods? One of the cops told me about
it.” Her brow wrinkled with worry and she tipped her head back to look at him. “Are you all right?”
He felt himself relax a little more. So she didn’t totally hate him. Maybe he still had a chance.
“I’m fine. Spent most of the evening in the woods showing the cops the scene, and then filling out
reports and talking to detectives, but he’ll be charged with multiple offenses. And they have him dead
to rights.”
Bobbi nodded, tension radiating off her. “I’m glad I wasn’t there. I’d have had a hard time
restraining myself from ripping his face off.”
Jax couldn’t help but smile. “Sweetheart, I’ve been in plenty of situations that made that look like
a walk on the beach. Nothing to worry about.”
“So, did you get your apartment cleaned up yet?” she asked, walking towards the club. He
followed her.
“Not yet. Listen, I know I deserved it, and then some. I’m not used to trusting anyone…but I
shouldn’t have done that.”
She shrugged. “Water under the bridge,” she muttered as they walked through the door and into the
club.
As soon as they were in the main room, Caress made a beeline for Jax, who immediately slung his
arm around Bobbi’s waist.
“Jax, can I talk to you alone?” Caress stood way too close for comfort, and Jax scowled and took
a step back. He didn’t need this now.
“What part of the word ‘girlfriend’ are you not understanding?” he demanded irritably. He could
feel Bobbi tense up as Caress continued to try to push closer.
“Just one minute? I just want to tell you something,” Caress pleaded. She lowered her heavily
frosted lids. “I’ll make it worth your while. You know how good I am.” Bobbi went rigid in Jax’s
arms.
“If you don’t get away from us, I’m going to demand that Cedric send you home.” Jax fixed her
with a cold, hard, glare, and Caress flushed with anger and turned on her heel and walked away.
Bobbi’s breathing had grown faster and he’d felt the rippling of her muscles as she fought to stay
human. Her face shifted, and her eyes flickered as he watched. Her ears grew pointy and hair, and
then rounded again. A part of him was glad. He wanted her to be as jealous as he was – because that
meant she cared about him. It meant that he could still win her over.
“You apparently made quite an impression on her,” Bobbi said, her voice suddenly raspy with
anger.
“Believe me, she’s way more interested now that she knows that I have a girlfriend. That’s just
how she’s wired,” Jax said.
“A fake girlfriend. And I’ll be gone the minute this case is solved, so I guess you’ll be all hers.”
A wave of pain swept over him. “Don’t say that,” Jax blurted out before he could stop himself.
She looked at him, startled.
“I don’t want you to go.” There. He’d said it.
“What?”
“I want you to give me another chance. I don’t deserve it, but I’m asking you anyway. I want you
to say here in Playa Linda, with me, even after this case is over. I know this is sudden, but I….” He
struggled to find the right words. Bobbi took a step back, biting her lip, bewilderment sweeping over
her pretty features.
“I need to clear my head. Just…just give me a minute to think.”
* * *
Bobbi walked away from Jax with her heart thumping painfully against her rib cage.
How ironic was this? An incredibly handsome, sexy, although admittedly infuriating, shifter
wanted her to give their relationship a chance. And he was almost certainly her fated mate, if the
reaction of her private parts and her pounding heart were any indication.
And she had to say no.
But she couldn’t stand to say no.
Stall, she thought desperately. It was the coward’s way out, but she was in impossible situation
here.
She wanted to stay. She wanted to see if things could work out with Jax, but she had an obligation
to fulfill. Family came first, didn’t it? Or what she’d little she’d known of family.
She remembered the first time she’d seen Marcus. She’d been eight years old, heart-broken,
terrified. Her parents were dead. The people at the agency had talked loudly about how hard it was
to find a home that would take in a shifter child; she’d stayed in a group home for weeks before they
placed her, the other children huddled in a corner fearfully, staring and whispering.
The first night she’d stayed at her new home, her foster father tried to climb into bed with her, and
she’d shifted and nearly killed him, tearing off a vital piece of his anatomy – he’d been naked from
the waist down - and then fled the house in terror.
She’d run, and she’d run, and she’d run, travelling through the woods, hunting prey and drinking
from rivers to stay alive. She’d travelled hundreds of miles until she’d reached Phoenix.
She’d been hiding out in an abandoned building for days when Marcus walked in. Wolf shifter.
She’d thought he’d come to grab her, to hurt her, but he’d just stared at her for a minute, put a roast
beef sandwich and a bottle of milk down on the floor, and walked away.
He came back every day for a week, leaving food for her and not saying a word, until she
followed him out of the building.
She still ached with loss every time she thought of him.
“Bobbi!” She turned, startled, to see Velvet standing there.
“Velvet. What’s up? Good to see you again.” She glanced around. “Jax and I are kind of having
issues. I just needed a minute to think.”
“Well, don’t worry about Aurora, if that’s who you’re looking for. She never showed up for her
shift tonight.”
“Wow.” Bobbi’s eyes widened with pretend surprise. “Is that typical for her?”
“Oh, my God no. When any employee doesn’t show up for their shift, unless they’ve got a rock
solid excuse and a doctor’s note saying they were in intensive care, they’re fired. Cedric runs a very
tight ship. Even showing up late gets you suspended for a week, and that’s a lot of money to lose.”
“Wow. That is strange. Do you think it’s because of the weird curse thing that’s affecting all the
guys she was with?” Bobbi lowered her voice.
Velvet leaned in. “I’m beginning to think it’s not a curse. I had a few of her regular customers
come up to me and ask me if I could get them the same stuff that Aurora gave them. I asked what they
meant, and apparently she had some kind of pill which would heighten their sexual appetite, and make
sex just totally intense and crazy. They were paying like five hundred bucks a pill.”
“Wow. Really? Maybe she figured out the connection and she’s afraid to come back,” Bobbi
said.
That made perfect sense. The amygdala, the part of the brain which regulated aggression, also
regulated sexual feelings. If Tony had created a drug which heightened the intensity of the sexual
experience, perhaps some customers were more sensitive to it than others. Or perhaps he’d made a
bad batch and accidentally poisoned his customers.
She paused.
“Did Oliver show up tonight?”
“No, but he wasn’t scheduled. Oh well, more customers for me, if Aurora’s not here!”
A fritter of unease rippled through Bobbi. Could something have happened to Aurora? But the
police were watching her apartment. She’ll be fine, she thought, but she couldn’t shake an odd,
nagging sense of worry.
I have to find Jax, Bobbi thought.
She started to push her way through the crowd, when the man who’d been at the bar the night
before grabbed her arm. “Hey, you’re all alone,” he leered. “Want to do a scene with me?”
“I’m looking for Jax,” she snapped. “And he wouldn’t like you laying your hands on me, trust me
on this.”
A deep, rumbling growl told her that she was right.
She spun around to see Jax, shifted, on all fours, his eyes glowing bright with rage.
The man took one look at Jax and dove into the crowd. Bobbi rushed over to Jax who was
crouching down to leap through the air. If he did that the man would be a goner, and Jax would end up
in jail…or on the run for the rest of his life.
Frantic, Bobbi threw her arms around Jax’s thick, shaggy neck, feeling growl after growl
rumbling up from his chest and through his throat. “No, Jax, don’t, please,” she pleaded. “Please turn
human. Please. For me. For the love of God, Jax…”
Another growl rumbled up from Jax’s throat and Bobbi tightened her arms around his neck. For a
terrifying second, she thought that maybe he’d somehow been exposed to the drug that Aurora had
been peddling, that she’d lost him forever, and the thought made her sick.
Then she felt his fur melt back into his skin, and his bones shifted, and she knelt beside him,
hugging his naked, shaking body. He was breathing hard, eyes still wolfen.
“He laid his hands on you,” he growled, and she knew his mind was still half animal.
“Jax. We need to go home, now,” she murmured into his ear. “Aurora isn’t even here. Jax. Take
me home, now.”
“What?” he seemed to come out of his trance, turning to stare at her. “You’ll come home with
me?”
He was pleading. This massive, terrifying, bad-tempered man, who could rip a human in two
without breaking a sweat, was begging her to come home with him. Her heart swelled in her chest and
she pressed her lips against his ear.
“I’ll come home with you. I’ll stay with you, for at least as long as I’m in town working this
case,”,” she soothed him.
So much for her resolve.
He stood up, breathing hard, and she leaned into him, drinking in his warmth, his presence. Just
feeling his body against hers felt so rightHalf an hour later, they were walking through the door of his
apartment, and her legs were quivering with anticipation. When she was near Jax he set all of her
senses on fire. It didn’t matter if he was being seductive, or a jerk, or funny, or if he was asleep for
that matter…she was a raging cloud of hormones every time he got within scenting distance.
She glanced around the living room in surprise. “I don’t remember leaving things quite this
banged up. Have you been hit by burglars?”
“Nahh, that was me.” Jax looked embarrassed. “I might have been feeling a little frustrated
earlier.”
“Wow. I’d hate to see you when you’re downright pissed off.”
“That’s probably true,” he admitted.
He was standing there in the shreds of his pants. That was the downside of shifting – ripped,
exploded, shredded clothes happened regularly.
Jax shut the door behind him and locked it.
“Did you mean what you said at the club?” he asked. “You’ll stay here with me?”
“I meant it. Once you get to know me better, you may be sorry you asked.” ”
Jax gathered her in his arms. “Babe. I’m not exactly a prize package myself,” he said, pulling her
up against his rock hard body, the thickness of his cock pressing into her stomach.
He reached down and cupped her chin in his hands to tip her head back, and brushed his lips
against hers. She parted her lips with a moan, and then he was kissing her hungrily, like a drowning
man, and the world fell away.
His tongue probed her mouth, exploring every recess, and she eagerly responded, arms circling
his waist. She wanted to melt into him, to feel herself become one with him so they were one entity,
one beating heart.
He tasted warm and sweet, and she moaned with pleasure, her moans lost in the wet heat of his
mouth.
When he slowly pulled away, he tilted her head up more to nibble at her lower lip and she gasped
at the sensation.
“I didn’t trash the bed,” he told her.
“Good thinking.”
Suddenly, before she knew it, he’d scooped her up off her feet and slung her his shoulder. He
started marching towards the bedroom.
“Really?” she yelled, hair dangling down almost to the floor.
“Yes, really! You already know I’m a total caveman, right?”
In the bedroom, he dumped her on the bed, still wearing her leather outfit. He slid on to the bed
next to her, and as he did, a wicked idea flashed through her mind.
There were a pair of handcuffs dangling from a small chain attached to the head of his bed. He’d
cuffed her there during their marathon sex session.
Before he could react, she’d quickly cuffed his hands over his head. As an Enforcer, she knew
how to quickly subdue a man.
Jax jerked with surprise. She straddled him, her skirt sliding up around her hips. She wore only a
g-string underneath it, a tiny scrap of fabric that was soaked with her juices, and with her legs spread,
her shaved lips lapped out over the sides of the fabric and pressed against the smooth skin of his
muscled stomach.
“What are you doing?” Jax growled.
“You want me to be with you? We’re equal partners. That means that from time to time, I get to tie
you down and torture you.” She bent down and traced her lips along the curve of his neck, smelling
his earthy, masculine scent.
She felt him go rigid underneath her, and his breath came out in harsh gasps when she nipped at
his neck and then lapped at the skin.
“You do understand…sweet Jesus…the concept of…oh dear Lord…payback?” His voice was
harsh and threatening. She laughed sweetly, moving down to his chest. His muscles were so well
developed they were like armor plates. His nipples were erect and hard, a dusky pink, and she tugged
at one with her teeth, wrenching a groan from him.
“I don’t just understand it…” she sucked his other nipple into her mouth and scraped it with her
teeth, and his body jerked again. “…I’m counting on it. You spank me so good, baby.”
She began kissing her way down, down, her tongue tracing circles on his flat, ridged stomach.
Fascinated, she trailed her fingers lightly along the squares of his six-pack, her tongue following
behind.
“Bobbi, please. Oh, God. I can’t take…please let me…oh, God…I want you…” Her tongue
continued its slow, sensual assault, as she moved down towards his groin with excruciating and
deliberate slowness.
She sat up and looked at him. “Can you put those words together in a sentence?” she asked, with
a wicked gleam in her eye.
He let out a howl of frustration and wrenched at the handcuffs so hard that the iron bedpost started
to bend.
“Are you sure you want to break the only intact piece of furniture in the house, Jax?”
“Damn you, woman!”
“Gee. This is fun.” She bent back down, and now she was at the tender flesh above his tangle of
black pubic hair. Gently, she cupped his testicles in her hand, stroking her thumb across them as she
brushed her lips across the skin right above his groin. He writhed in frustration.
This was glorious. He was completely under her control, burning with need for her, and every
groan from his lips sent a lightning bolt of white heat stabbing her core. A sweet pearl of pre-cum
glistened on the head of his cock, and she lapped at it, and was rewarded by the violent jerking of
Jax’s body.
“Bobbi, please!” he pleaded. “I’m going to explode!”
She ignored him. She began delicately trailing her fingers along the thick vein that ran up his shaft,
and then followed it by tracing it with the tip of her tongue.
Jax had gone rigid, panting with the effort of staying still. She could feel his massive muscles
quivering, and his body jerked again as she gently scraped his testicles with her nails.
Finally she took the head of his cock into her mouth, and sucked hard. She closed her hand tightly
around the base of his cock and began moving her mouth and hand in concert, enjoying the groans that
rolled from his mouth, louder and louder, until finally he reached his climax and exploded. Her
mouth was flooded with his semen, sweet and hot, running down the back of her throat. She sucked
until his shuddering stopped, until she’d swallowed all of it.
Then she climbed off him, and looked up, ready to torture him some more.
Uh oh.
He’d broken the headboard, wrenching his hands free. He looked at her and, with his shifter
strength, slowly pulled the handcuffs apart until one of the links snapped.
With a yelp, she tried to scramble off the bed, and he grabbed her and pulled her back. Before
she knew it, she was across his knees, with one arm bent behind her back.
“I hope you enjoyed yourself, beautiful…” smack! One hand came down hard on her right butt
cheek. She yelped and wriggled, but he held her firmly in place. “…because you’re about to find out
what happens when you try to out-Alpha the Alpha.” Smack! She shrieked, squirming frantically, and
he laughed.
Several more hard slaps descended on her, and she could feel the perfect prints of his hand on her
buttocks.
He dipped his fingers between her legs, slowly stroking her. “You’re soaking wet, baby. I love
how much you want me.”
“You stuck up bastard!”
His finger slipped inside her and curved, and he began stroking her inner wall. Instantly heat
washed over her, and she gasped, parting her legs.
“Like that?” he asked.
“Yes! Right there! Ohhhh…yes…I’m going to come…”
“Not yet, you’re not.” He pulled his hand away, and every nerve ending in her body howled in
protest. Flames of lust were licking at her hungrily, and she shrieked in anger.
He smacked her butt again, hard, a rain of punishing blows that left her butt glowing and pulsing,
and left her panting with frustration.
“Jax! You bastard! I hate you!”
He began stroking her again, fingers flicking her swollen bud. “I know you do, princess, but you
also want me so bad, you can’t see straight.” He paused. “Don’t you?”
“Jax!”
“I can’t hear you…”
“Yes! I want you! Oh my God, I hate you so much!”
Laughing, he flipped her over on to her back, and began kissing his way down her stomach. When
he reached the cleft between her legs, he placed his hands on her thighs and spread them open wide.
“Oh,” Bobbi whimpered.
Suddenly she didn’t hate him quite so much.
He buried his face between her legs, drawing his tongue along the seam of her labia, and then
spreading them open with his fingers. He began caressing her with his tongue in long, slow, laps, and
she wailed her pleasure.
Again she felt that slow build of heat in her pelvis, warmer and warmer, and her thighs quivered
as his fingers and tongue worked their magic until she felt the blazing wave of ecstasy sweep over
her.
She was drenched in heat and light, and her eyes were screwed shut so tightly she could see
sparks, and she felt Jax moving up until he was lying on top of her, pinning her hands above her head
and biting her neck.
“I hope you learned your lesson,” he murmured into her shoulder.
“Yes,” she panted, although she couldn’t remember what lesson she was supposed to have
learned.
Chapter Thirteen
“Tyler wants us to meet up for coffee,” Jax said.
“I’m asleep. What time is it?”Bobbi pulled her pillow over her head.
“Six-thirty. Wake up, morning glory.”
“I fell asleep two hours ago. And I ache in parts of my body that weren’t in my anatomy and
physiology class.”
“I told you not to try to out-Alpha me, babe. I’ll always win.” Jax’s grin was savage and
triumphant.
Bobbi lashed out at him with a vicious kick, but he jumped out out of the way.
“Too slow,” he grinned.
She scrambled out of the bed, and he danced back, taunting her.
“Well, look who’s awake now. You’ve got major bedhead. You might want to fix that before we
go out. Or not; it’s pretty sexy.”
She threw a pillow at his head.
“There’s not much you’re going to be able to do about those love bites on your neck, though.”
“Love bites? Damn you!”
She ran in the bathroom to look. There were three bites on her neck, glowing like neon signs.
Stupid Alpha males, always feeling the need to mark their territory…
No. She wasn’t his territory. Damn, damn, damn.
It took her twenty minutes to get ready, most of which was spent carefully applying makeup to her
neck.
Tyler was waiting for them at the outside table of a small coffee shop called Coffee Muggings. He
had his laptop open. The surrounding tables were empty. As they walked up, he was tearing pieces
from his croissant and tossing it to small brown sparrows who hopped at his feet.
He glanced at them, looking amused. “Sleep well?”
“I bite,” Bobbi warned him, sitting down with an oversized mug of coffee. She took a healthy
swig.
“Yeah, she does,” Jax confirmed with a smirk.
“Jax, shut it. Tyler, Aurora didn’t show up at work last night,” Bobbi said.
“What about Oliver?” he asked.
“Apparently he wasn’t scheduled. He wasn’t there either,” Bobbi said. “But it’s apparently the
first time Aurora’s failed to show. I called Captain Thorne on our way over here; he said the police
detail was watching her place all night, nothing unusual went on. They can see into the livingroom
window through the window blind.”
“Ashley’s history isn’t that interesting. She’s a graphic design student, never been arrested. There
are some things bothering me about Oliver, though,” Tyler said, shaking his head. “Something’s off
here. You’re sure he’s Aurora’s boyfriend?”
“Yes. What makes you ask?”
“Well, mainly because he’s gay. I even know who his boyfriend was, in San Francisco.”
Bobbi and Jax both shot him startled glances.
“Huh. Usually my gaydar’s pretty good,” Bobbi mused. “I certainly did not pick up on that aspect
of his personality while he was talking to my boobs.”
“He what?” Jax demanded, with pure murder in his tone.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Jax. You probably didn’t notice because Aurora was rubbing her crotch
all over you at the time.” The hair on her arms stood up at the memory of Aurora pressed up against
Jax, and she swallowed down her rage with considerable difficulty.
“She was not rubbing her crotch all over me. Tell me more about Oliver’s conversation with your
boobs.” Jax bit the words out and glared at her through narrowed eyes.
“Children, please. Can we save the lover’s quarrel for later? Thanks,” Tyler said, ignoring the
dirty looks they both shot at him. “Here’s the thing. You can learn a lot about a person by going
through their phone records and credit card bills. Patterns emerge. Oliver Ferguson is acting like a
completely different person here in Playa Linda then he’s acted in the past.”
“For instance?” Jax said.
“Well, here’s the life story so far. He was brought up by a very religious family, and was
engaged to a Mormon girl. But over the past few years in Utah, he started secretly making trips to a
gay bar, according to his credit card history. Then he broke off the engagement and told his family he
couldn’t live a lie any more; I know because hacked into his email account, which by the way has
gone completely silent since he moved here to Playa Linda. Before that, even in San Francisco, he
sent them emails pleading with them to understand that he’d been born gay, knew it since he was
little, he had no choice…and his father sent back the occasional hate mail saying that he’d shamed
their family, and he was dead to them.”
“That sucks,” Bobbi said. “Okay, go on…”
“Eight months ago he moved from Utah to San Francisco, got a job at a gay bar, and started buying
a lot of gifts for a man named Brad Sommerfield. Brad worked at the bar with him. I managed to get
access to Oliver’s text messages. Oliver only lived in San Francisco for a couple of months, but they
were full on in love, a whirlwind romance…and then suddenly, he cuts off all contact with Brad,
breaks up with him by text and tells him he realizes he’s not gay after all, never wants to hear from
Brad again, and moves to Playa Linda.”
“Huh. I mean, I guess he could have changed his mind…” Bobbi frowned. That didn’t sound
plausible. A man who’d secretly gone to gay bars for years, who’d known since he was a child that
he was gay, who’d broken off his engagement and felt so strongly about coming out that he’d risk
being ostracized from his family forever…
“Ever since he’s been here, his spending patterns and life patterns are different. He buys different
food. He eats at different times of the day than he used to. He used to go to movies and plays and he
used to buy books; he’s stopped doing that. He shops at different types of clothing stores. I analyze
data to discern behavior patterns for a living; I know something’s off.”
“Can you pull up a picture of Oliver’s driver’s license, from Utah?” Bobbi asked.
“Hah. Such silly questions,” Tyler grinned. “Give me sixty seconds.”
While he searched on his computer, Bobbi and Jax drank their coffee. Jax trailed his fingers along
Bobbi’s inner thigh, and she shivered as desire crackled along her nerve endings. She tried to move
his hand, and he tightened his fingers on her thigh.
“Quit,” she whispered.
“What’s the magic word?” he whispered back.
“The magic word is, I’ll kick your ass from here to Los Angeles and back if you don’t move your
hand,” she whispered.
“Apparently you can’t count, because that was a whole lot of words, not one.” He tightened his
hand even more.
“Tyler is trying to work. Quit acting like a teenager,” she whispered.
“Guys, I’m a foot away from you, and I’m a shifter, which as you know means I’ve got pretty good
hearing,” Tyler said. “You really don’t need to whisper. I get it. You’re screwing each other’s brains
out and you can’t keep your hands off each other.”
Bobbi let out a low, annoyed growl, although she wasn’t sure who was riding her nerves more –
Jax with his sensual tormenting of her tender flesh, or Tyler with his smug observations and the little
smile quirking his mouth.
Then Tyler turned his laptop to face them.
Jax and Bobbi leaned forward to stare at Oliver Ferguson’s Utah driver’s license.
Jax shook his head, glancing at Bobbi. “It looks a lot like him, but that’s not him,” Jax said.
“That’s not the man we met at Caged Heat.”
* * *
“He’s on his way up,” Royce, Vaughn’s head bodyguard, announced.
Vaughn nodded, bent over the glass tabletop, and snorted another line of cocaine. He felt his
heart speed up as the cocaine burned through his nervous system.
Then he kicked the coyote shifter who lay curled up at his feet. “Get up, you stupid whore,” he
snapped. “Sit in the chair.”
The shifter, Regina, scrambled to comply. She was naked, heavy-breasted, wearing nipple
clamps that he was sure burned her sensitive nipples. They were connected with a chain. He reached
out and yanked the chain, and smiled at her cry of pain.
He’d deliberately picked a coyote shifter today, as a stand-in for Bobbi, who was angering him
more every day. She wasn’t checking in as often as she should. Wasn’t keeping him in the loop. He
was sure that the bitch was hiding something from him. Every time he made Regina scream with pain,
he pictured Bobbi in her place.
Soon enough, he promised himself.
The door opened, and Vaughn smiled at the tall, distinguished man who walked in, surrounded by
security.
“Hello, Mr. Roosevelt,” he said. “Come have a seat.”
Stanford Roosevelt looked as regal as ever, in his conservative gray suit and dark gray tie. He
was in Mexico for the day to talk to their trade commission, but he’d ducked out of his hotel for a
quick, and very secret, meeting with Vaughn.
Stanford walked over and sat down at the table, with his bodyguards hovering protectively
nearby. He stared with fascination at Regina, who sat naked next to Vaughn, trying to cover her
breasts and crotch with her arms.
“Doesn’t she bite?” he asked Vaughn.
“Not unless she wants to die, in slow, screaming agony,” Vaughn smiled, baring his capped white
teeth. He yanked on her nipple chain again, and she shrieked.
“Try it,” Vaughn said to Stanford.
Tentatively, Stanford reached out and give the chain a light tug. She whimpered.
“That all you got?” Vaughn jeered.
Stanford yanked again, hard. This time she screamed in pain, and Stanford smiled with delight,
like a child who’d just been handed a delicious box of chocolates.
“Oh, my,” he said. His breathing quickened, and the crotch of his pants tented.
“Soon, they’ll all be like that, crawling and begging,” Vaughn said. “Every god damned shifter in
the world. Locked up in reservations. Under our thumb. Where they belong.”
“Have you found the man you’re looking for yet? I don’t feel like I’m getting full cooperation from
the police,” Stanford said. “However, I do know they’re watching one of the employees who works at
Caged Heat. Not a shifter. Some human whore named Aurora.”
“I know. It had occurred to me that the Chemist could be a woman, but it’s definitely not Aurora
or her room-mate Ashley, or her boyfriend. I know the dates that the Chemist worked for me, and
approximately where he or she was at the time, and these three were all in different parts of the
country during that time period. They don’t match up, and there’s nothing in their background that
would indicate they had the kind of skills that he did. What’s more likely is Aurora is selling drugs
for him. My men will be making a move on her very soon. Trust me, she will tell us everything we
want to know.”
Stanford nodded. “We need those drugs,” he said, staring at the naked shifter as if hypnotized.
“We’ll get them. This is what I do,” Vaughn said confidently.
Once they figured out how to reproduce the bad batch, it would be child’s play to dump the batch
in the water supply of several major cities. Tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of
shifters would go rabid. The streets would run red with blood, the air would be rent with screams.
Chaos and panic would sweep the country, martial law would be declared.
And from the ashes, a new order would rise. Stanford would be recognized as a hero, a visionary
who’d tried to warn everyone that this day would come. If only they’d listened to him…how many
lives might have been saved? His opponents would topple like dominoes.
Every shifter in the country would be rounded up, forced to wear copper collars for life, and
forcibly relocated to reservations where they belonged.
Stanford would ensure that Vaughn was protected in all of his operations, and would even allow
him to peddle drugs on the reservations. With the shifters in despair, trapped on reservations forever,
they’d turn to drugs more than ever before.
Stanford was still staring at Regina, his eyes round as pennies.
“Get on the floor, on your knees,” Vaughn ordered her. “Kneel in front of him.”
“Really?” Stanford’s eyes lit up. She quickly sank to her knees in front of him, letting out a low
moan. Vaughn knew she was desperate to free her nipples from the cruel bite of the clamps; he also
knew she wouldn’t dare.
“Of course. Nothing but the best for my friends.”
Stanford’s hands scrabbled at his zipper, yanking it open, and he smiled blissfully as she took him
in her mouth.
“Now that’s where a shifter belongs,” he breathed. “Just like that. Oh, yes…”
His security guards stood behind him, pretending not to look but sneaking peeks out of the corners
of their eyes.
Vaughn leaned back in his chair to watch, with a satisfied smile. He wondered if Regina had
enough brain cells left to understand what it meant to her future, that he was allowing her to see him
meeting with the state representative, and to overhear them making their plans together.
It meant she wouldn’t survive to see the sun set.
Chapter Fourteen
“I’m fine. Quit being such a mother hen,” Bobbi said. She was standing outside of an apartment
building on one of San Francisco’s rolling hills, talking to Jax on her cell phone. The October air was
cool and foggy, a chilly contrast to Playa Linda’s bright, sunny weather. Shreds of mist drifted by
like ghosts.
“How long will you be there?”
“I’ll be back this afternoon.”
“I should have come with you.”
“You should calm down. Chillax, bro, as Pixie would say. I have to go now.”
After talking to Tyler that morning, she’d tried to reach Oliver’s ex-boyfriend by phone, but was
told he wasn’t working at the bar that day. Tyler had managed to track down his address, so she’d
hopped a commuter plane to San Francisco and taken a taxi to his apartment.
She jabbed her finger against the tiny round button that would buzz Brad’s apartment. A minute
later, a man answered.
“Who is it?”
“Brad? My name is Bobbi Jo Simpson. I’m with the National Shifter’s Council, Enforcer
Division. I have some questions for you about Oliver Ferguson.”
There was a long pause, and then a tremulous voice spoke. “I’ll be right down,” he said.
A couple of minutes passed, and then the front door opened, and a handsome young man with
spiky blond hair and tight black jeans stood there. His brown eyes were haunted.
“Is Oliver all right?” he asked.
Bobbi hesitated. “I honestly don’t know,” she said, although she suspected that she knew the
answer.
“Did something happen to him?”
“Let me show you a picture and see if you can identify the person in the picture.” His eyes
widened, and she added quickly “It’s not a morgue picture.”
She pulled out the picture that Tyler had printed for her. He’d gotten it from the USB stick she’d
given him; Cedric had a picture of every employee who worked for him.
“This man claims that he’s Oliver Michael Ferguson, date of birth 2/25/1980,” she said. “But
when we looked at his driver’s license picture from Utah, they don’t appear to be the same person.
Very similar, but not the same.”
He looked at the picture, eyes widening, shaking his head. “That’s not Oliver. Oh, God. What
happened to Oliver?” He looked up, eyes filling with tears. “Did he…did he kill Oliver and steal his
identity?”
Her heart quickened. She was getting close now, so close. After so many years. Five long
years. “I think that’s a distinct possibility,” she said. “Do you recognize him?”
He stared at the picture again, hot tears coursing down his cheeks. “I knew Oliver would never
have sent me that hateful text. I could never believe it, but when I went to his apartment it was empty
and the landlord told me that he’d dropped a final rent check through the mail slot and gave no
forwarding address.”
“Dropped it through the mail slot…because it wasn’t Oliver, so he didn’t want the landlord to see
him,” she said. “It was the man who stole his identity. Think, Bradley. This is really important.”
“That looks like…oh, my God. Okay, I remember this. There was a man with brown eyes, and no
facial hair, and not as tan, but the shape of his face…he kind of looked like Oliver. This could be the
same man. He came by the bar a few times. He said his name was Roger, but one day somebody came
up to him and called him Tony, and he answered without thinking, and then he got really angry and left
the bar. The man who called him Tony – the man had prison tattooes, like he knew this guy Tony from
prison and Tony didn’t want to be recognized. That was right before Oliver disappeared.”
He blinked, hard. “Where is Oliver’s body? What did this man do to him?”
She ached for Bradley. To have his lover disappear like that, and then to find out that his lover
had most likely been murdered…“I don’t know, Brad, but you’ve been incredibly helpful. Do you
remember anything more about this Tony-slash-Roger guy? Or the person who recognized him?”
“I’ve never seen either of them since.” He wiped the back of his face with his hand. “Where is
this man who’s pretending to be Oliver?”
“We’ve got a pretty good idea. Listen, I promise you this. When we apprehend him I’ll let you
know. Give me your phone number.” She dug out a pad of paper from her purse, and he wrote it down
with a shaky hand, his eyes huge and dewy with tears.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Bradley. I’ve got to get home now. We’ll catch this man, I promise you
that, and he will pay for everything that he’s done.”
Oh, yes he will, she thought. Somewhere out there, a man named Tony had an invisible expiration
date stamped on his forehead.
* * *“Something feels off. I don’t like it,” Bobbi muttered. Pixie, Jax and Bobbi were standing
across the street from Aurora’s apartment building. The plainclothes cops in the building across the
street had been watching all night long, and hadn’t seen Aurora coming or going, they’d reported.
They also hadn’t seen Tony, or Roger, or Oliver, or whatever his real name was, either. They had
Oliver’s cell phone number, also from Cedric’s records; the police and Tyler were both tracking it,
and Oliver’s cell phone had last pinged about five miles away from Aurora’s house, a day ago, and
then had gone dead.
Tyler hadn’t yet had any luck in finding Oliver’s real identity the day before. Neither had the
police. Captain Thorne told Bobbi that they were going to pick Aurora up for questioning at the end of
the day if they didn’t find Tony’s identity by then, but Bobbi wanted to get a head start on the
investigation. It was partly because she didn’t trust the police with Stanford watching over their
shoulders, and partly for reasons of her own.
“Ashley said to come by and check, to see if she was going to have a room available. The cops
have been watching all night. Nothing could be wrong in there, right? I’m just going to ring the buzzer
and see what’s up.”
“If you’re not back out in ten minutes…five minutes. If you’re not back out in five minutes, I’m
coming after you,” Bobbi said.
“I’ve got mace, I’ve got a switchblade, I’ve got my mad ninja fighting street skills, and they’re all
human, not shifter, so if anything goes wrong I can take them. Chillax, dude,” Pixie rolled her eyes
and strolled off across the street. She didn’t have to ring the doorbell; she followed an old man into
the building.
“Yeah, Chillax,” Jax grinned. Bobbi tried to smack him, good-naturedly, but he dodged her.
“Too slow.”
“You were saying that last night, too…when you were begging me to let you come.” Her voice
came out in a seductive purr, and then she blushed and looked away. What was coming over her?
Since when was she a seductive minx?
Jax trailed his fingers down her arm. “Oh, keep up with the sassy talk. You know the great thing
about payback, beautiful? You never know when it’s coming.”
“I can run pretty fast.” She flashed a self satisfied smile, but then worry quickly puckered her face
again. She glanced at her watch. “I’m going in.”
“It’s been sixty seconds!”
“I really don’t like using an untrained civilian in these situations.”
“The police were okay with it when we ran it by them.”
“They don’t care about her welfare.” Bobbi began walking across the street, with Jax right
beside her. They climbed the steps. When they got to the front door to the apartment building, Bobbi
paused; she was fine with jimmying the lock, but she didn’t have to. Pixie came flying down the hall
towards them, yanked open the door, and fell into Bobbi’s arms, babbling hysterically.
“What? Slow down!”
Jax pushed past them and ran into the building.
“She’s dead! Her head’s all like – Oh God – I think I’m gonna barf!”
“Aurora’s dead?”
Pixie leaned over the steps, and threw up. Apparently she’d had oatmeal and apples for
breakfast.
Then she straightened up, blinking watery eyes. “No. Her room-mate Ashley’s dead. In the
livingroom, and everything’s, like, totally trashed. Aurora might be dead, I don’t know, I didn’t
search the apartment.”
Bobbi quickly dialed the police department. How the hell had this happened? Vaughn must have
an inside man on the police department, damn it.
“You should leave. I’ll call you later.”
Pixie nodded, scrambled down the steps, and walked west, clutching her stomach.
Bobbi rushed into the building. She’d already been given the layout of the building, with the
location of Aurora’s apartment, emailed to her by her contact at the Enforcer’s department.
She wouldn’t have needed it, though; all she had to do was follow the scent of drying blood. The
door to Aurora’s apartment gaped open, and Jax was standing in the living room.
The apartment had been decorated in bright primary colors, with a red couch with yellow and
blue cushions, red lacquer coffee table, and a yellow rug with big red and blue polka dots wrinkled
up on the floor.
A woman lay curled up on her side, crumpled up by the couch. Her head had been bashed in so
thoroughly that it was impossible to tell what color her hair had been, and Bobbi’s stomach lurched
when she saw that every one of the woman’s fingers had been broken. The floor was pale bleached
wood, and the spreading pool of blood around her head looked so dark against it, it was almost
black. Her dress had been ripped open down the front and there was a constellation of cigarette
burns clustered on her breasts.
“She’s been tortured. Somebody was trying to make her talk, probably looking for Tony,” Jax
said, his voice shaking with anger. “There’s no sign of Aurora here. Apparently the police were only
watching the front of the building, not the back.”
“That sounds…really incompetent.”
Jax shrugged angrily. “They see it as a shifter problem. They’re claiming it’s top priority, but
obviously it isn’t.”
The room had been searched with savage thoroughness. Sofa cushions slashed, curtains yanked
down, cupboards emptied and cups and plates shattered, refrigerator door hanging off its hinges,
bathroom door gaping open to reveal a shattered medicine cabinet lying on the floor…
“I bet they were hoping to find Tony’s stash,” Bobbi said.
She heard footsteps pounding down the hallway, and the two police officers who’d been assigned
to watch the apartment burst in.
“Nice damned job watching the apartment,” Jax snarled.
“Hey! They only had enough manpower to watch the front of the building last night. Budget cuts,”
one of the officers muttered, not meeting Jax’s eyes.
Bobbi felt the hair on the back of her arms lift. One of Vaughn’s men, she’d bet money on it. She
just had a feeling…and her feelings were never wrong.
How had Vaughn turned somebody so fast? Was the man like her, somebody who’s loved one
needed protecting, somebody desperate? Somehow, she doubted it. Another underpaid civil servant
with dollar signs in their eyes.
She wanted to hurt Vaughn so badly.
She closed her eyes and thought of Heath. Heath surrounded by a prison gang, Heath being
stabbed to death with the sharpened handle of a toothbrush or strangled with a sheet made into a
noose…
This case couldn’t finish fast enough for her. Tony had to be found.
Jax continued to rage at the cops. “I know that you don’t care less about what happens to shifters,
but that dead girl on the floor? She’s human. And whoever did this to her took their sweet time
making her final minutes of life pure agony and terror, right under your noses, while you sat across the
street with your thumbs up your asses.”
“Listen up, you mangy-“ one of the cops stepped forward belligerently, thrusting his jaw out, then
quickly moved back when Jax’s eyes glowed amber and his jaw thrust forward.
“Let’s go downtown and fill out the report.” Bobbi grabbed him by the arm and dragged him
towards the door, calling back over her shoulder “Try not to screw up the crime scene as badly as
you did your protection detail.”
She knew it didn’t matter what she said. If at least one of them was working for Vaughn, then no
evidence would be found at the scene.
“So now Aurora and Tony are both in the wind,” Jax said as they climbed into the car. “I don’t
get the impression they ran off together, though. It seems like Tony took off, and then Aurora.”
“Well, the police can put out an APB for Aurora too,” Bobbi said, trying to banish the sight of
Ashley’s poor, tortured body from her mind. Every time she closed her eyes, the bloody scene flashed
across her lowered lids like a still from a horror movie.
I will gut you someday, Vaughn, she promised herself.
Was she somehow responsible for this? Vaughn was like an octopus, his tentacles reaching into
everything. Could she have stopped him without endangering Heath’s life?
She leaned her head back against the seat cushion and tried to blink away Ashley’s tortured final
moments.
When would this ever end?
“It’s not your fault,” Jax said, his hand on her knee.
You have no idea, Bobbi thought. You’ll be changing your mind about me, about us, sooner than
you know it.
Chapter Fifteen
“I think we have a winner,” Captain Thorne said to Bobbi and Jax. They were in his office, still
shaken and angered by what they’d seen earlier.
The police had gone through the apartment, lifted fingerprints, and run them through the national
database. “Lorenzo Antonio LaRosa, known as Tony. He was a former college chemistry major,
kicked out because he was using the school laboratory to manufacture drugs. Then he went on to have
several drug manufacturing and distribution arrests. Went to prison for four years, finally. He got out
about eight months ago. Skipped parole, disappeared.”
Bobbi’s heart sped up so fast, she thought it would leap from her chest. The time period that he
was in jail…that fit perfectly. That would explain why there hadn’t been any other drug-related
Shifter Rage incidents in the last five years. Everything fit. This was it. She had a name now. After
all these years…
Now the trick was going to be getting to him before everybody else did.
She’d find a way, no matter what it took.
“So, I guess the theory is he went to San Francisco, ran into Oliver, saw how much Oliver looked
like him, probably chatted with Oliver and realized that Oliver was new in town and estranged from
his family…”Jax mused.
“Exactly. Killed him, took over his identity, moved here to make a fresh start.”
Jax glanced over at Bobbi. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
She was struggling to maintain a calm demeanor, and she probably could have fooled most
people, but Jax could read her moods. He was in tune with her in a way that nobody else was.
“This guy…he’s hurt a lot of people. That’s all. Sometime the job gets to me.”
Ugh. She was lying by omission, still. She hated to lie to Jax; it felt wrong and ugly.
“Do you have any idea what happened with the second police detail that was supposed to be
watching the back of the building?” she asked Captain Thorne, to change the subject.
“I have my theories,” Captain Thorne said, brow wrinkling with anger. “I tried to inquire and was
shut down immediately. You know the political pressure I’m under here. And you know how some
people feel about this case.”
Stanford Roosevelt. The name hovered unspoken in the air.
“All right,” Bobbi said. “I appreciate everything that you’re doing for us. We’ll keep in touch.”
* * *
“So I’m fired?” Pixie crossed her arms indignantly. .
“You are not listening to me. Did you see what that dead woman looked like? This case has gotten
very dangerous. I don’t want you to end up looking like that.”
“There’s still things I could do. I know drug dealers. I could ask them –“
“Listen. I value your insight,” Bobbi said patiently. “I invited you here so you could brainstorm
with us, but anything that involves you going out on your own and investigating…do you realize that
it’s pure luck that you didn’t walk in on the people who killed Ashley? They’d have torn you apart.”
“Fine. If you value my insight, ask me some questions.” Pixie looked disgruntled, but slightly
mollified.
They were sitting downstairs in Kenneth’s living room, which had the same astounding view of
the ocean as his upstairs office. The living room was dominated by an l-shaped black leather sofa,
and a big square matching ottoman. Abstract paintings adorned the walls. Tyler, Dominick, and
Kenneth were there, with Dominick keeping a distrustful eye on Pixie.
“Why are we meeting here, anyway?”
“So we can pool all our resources, and because we can’t meet at my place because my apartment
got trashed by a couple of psychopaths,” Jax said.
Pixie’s eyes widened in alarm, and Bobbi added “By which he means, Jax and I.”
“Wow!” Now she was staring at them with admiration. She turned to Jax. “Seriously. You must
have some moves.” She turned back to Bobbi. “He might just be a keeper, if he stops drugging you
and stealing your stuff, and let’s be real here, that’s not necessarily a dealbreaker if he’s that
mackable. I mean, I’ve broken a bed before, but I’ve never trashed an entire apartment.”
“Mackable? Don’t tell me! Get your mind out of the gutter. Seriously, what is wrong with you? It
happened because we were arguing.” Bobbi felt her cheeks heating with embarrassment. Everyone in
the room was looking at her and Jax now.
“Of course it did.” Pixie raised an eyebrow. “So, are we going to get details?”
“Actually I think you were just about to share your valuable insight as a member of the
downwardly mobile, chemically enhanced, legally disenfranchised economic subset,” Bobbi said.
“So. Imagine you’re Tony or whatever his name is, you’re a drug dealer who sold a bad batch of
drugs and has to skip town. Soon cops are going to know your identity. Cops are going to be looking
for you at every airport, every bus and train station. There’s a risk that all of your known associates,
everywhere in the country. What do you do?”
“As far as we know, he’s still got that batch of drugs, right? Those things that fetched him five
hundred bucks a pop?” Pixie pointed out. “And nobody knows that sometimes, the drugs will make
you crazy – at least none of his potential buyers know.”
Bobbi nodded. “Okay. Good. He’s carrying around a potential fortune and he needs to get out of
town fast. He could even give someone a sample and let them test it out. It would have to be
something that heightens pleasure immediately, for Aurora to be able to be selling it at the club. And
then it takes several days to make the users go rabid. So – he could give a buyer a sample, convince
them to buy it, and then take the cash to go somewhere else and start over. He could buy himself a
new face and a new identity.” Her stomach twisted at the thought. Tony couldn’t go free. “I’ll pass
that on to the Enforcer’s council and the police.”
“That was good,” Kenneth said. “So, now imagine that you’re Aurora.”
“She’s lived in this area all her life,” Tyler jumped in. “I don’t think she’d go far. She’s not Tony,
who’s a felon and a murderer, and who’s lived all over. She’s not sophisticated. She saw an
opportunity to make some quick money, and she took it. She might even be booked in a hotel in town,
waiting her next move.”
“Well, she probably gets a lot of cash tips from the club. We can start checking around at hotels
to see if anyone looking like her registered at the club…but if she’s in some fleabag motel paying
with cash and using a fake name, maybe even a disguise…” Bobbi frowned. “There’s thousands of
motels or hotels she could be staying at.”
“We could just look for credit card and debit card use,” Tyler said, and began typing into his
computer.
“Come on, how stupid do you think she is?” Bobbi frowned.
“Pretty stupid,” Jax said. “From personal experience.”
“Really?” Bobbi speared him with a glance. “How personal was this experience?”
He ran his fingers down her arm. “That was in the past.”
Kenneth looked at Jax and raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.
“I’m not seeing anything,” Tyler said.
“How about Ashley’s credit or debit cards?” Pixie asked. “Not that I’m an expert on using stolen
cards or anything, but…if Aurora saw those guys coming for her, she could have grabbed Ashley’s
purse and run out the door with it.”
“And left her friend behind to die? Charming.” Bobbi winced at the thought.
“Bingo,” Tyler said. “We have a winner. The dead Ashley Poncini apparently booked a hotel an
hour ago on 453 Biltmoore Avenue.”
Bobbi was already dialing the police. “Sweet!”
After she talked to Captain Thorne, she stood up. “The police are going to pick up Aurora at the
hotel. I have to make a phone call to my boss and run some errands, and I’ll call Captain Thorne later
to see what they find out from Aurora. I’ll call you back in a few hours,” she said to Jax. She glanced
at Pixie. “I’ll drop you off at your place.”
Pixie had found a room to rent in a weekly hotel, with the money Bobbi was paying her to be an
informant.
Once Bobbi had dropped her off, she grabbed her phone to dial Renee’s number, but before she
could, the phone rang. She grimaced; it was Vaughn.
“Hello,” she answered reluctantly, picturing Pixie’s face.
“Why the hell didn’t you call me up with the name of the chemist?”
So he clearly, definitely, had an inside man at the police station.
“I was about to,” she lied.
“I get the feeling you’re lying to me, Bobbi. One word from me, and your brother’s guts are
spilling out on the floor.” Vaughn’s voice crackled with rage.
She heard an odd moaning, whimpering sound in the background. It sounded like a woman
sobbing hopelessly. Her stomach twisted; if she could have crawled through the phone and ripped
Vaughn’s throat out with her fangs, she would have.
“If you kill my brother, you lose your only hold on me,” she said, struggling to keep her voice
steady.
“I bet the Enforcers would love to know that you’ve been a double agent for me, all this time,” he
sneered.
“If you do that, then you’d have to implicate yourself as well. I have to go, Vaughn. I will let you
know when there are any new developments in the case.”
She hung up quickly before she said anything that she’d regret, anything that might get Heath
killed. She was so angry that her hands were shaking.
* * *
Kenneth turned to Jax. “So. You’re actually serious about this girl?”
“Maybe,” Jax said defensively.
“Hmmm.” Kenneth leaned back in his chair, smirking. “Maybe doesn’t sound so serious. I gather
it’s all right for me to date her too, then?”
The words had barely left his lips when Jax leaped across the room in wolf form, only to meet
Kenneth’s panther. The two circled each other, snarling and snapping, before Kenneth abruptly turned
human again, standing naked and laughing in his living room.
Growling, Jax followed suit, becoming human again.
Kenneth’s servant, Edgar, had been standing by. He looked at the naked shifters and their
shredded clothing scattered across the floor. “I’ll fetch you some clothing, then,” he said in his
disapproving Alfred-the-butler voice.
“Thank you, Edgar. That doesn’t sound ‘maybe’ to me,” Kenneth said to Jax, laughing. “You’ve
never been jealous of a woman before. If anything, you’ve offered to share your women with me,
usually before I get a chance to ask. Would you like to rethink your story?”
“Fine,” Jax gritted out. “If anyone comes near her, I’ll tear their face off with my teeth. She’s
mine. I’ve asked her to stay with me.”
“Your fated mate?” Dominick asked him.
“Could be,” Jax admitted reluctantly.
“Well, I’m glad to tell you that I didn’t find anything too bad in her history,” Kenneth said.
“I forgot I asked you to investigate her. I should probably respect her privacy,” Jax said, although
part of him was itching to know. He wanted it to come from her, though. He wanted her to want to
share with him, to tell him everything. He wanted to be a part of her. And he was beginning to think
he’d be willing to do the same with her, as painful as his past was.
“It’s not a big deal. Only child. Parents were killed when she was 8. She apparently ran away
from her foster home and an investigation showed that her foster father had attempted to abuse her.
She didn’t resurface again until she was 14, when she was taken in by a new foster couple, and lived
with them until she was 18. Minor scrapes with the law for a few years until she straightened her act
out and became an Enforcer at age 21. Citations for bravery in the field, for saving a fellow
Enforcer’s life. Never married, no children, no current known romantic entanglements.”
An only child. Odd, he thought.
“So…her foster parents, they had a bunch of other kids?” Jax asked.
“Well, not at the time that she was living with them. It was her and one other younger sister.
Why?”
Jax frowned. It was strange that she’d lie to him about having five older brothers…and when he’d
asked her about them, she’d tensed up and said they’d grown apart. Why would she make something
like that up?
“What?” Kenneth asked him.
Jax shook his head, not wanting to betray Bobbi…but how well did he really know her?
His heart told him that she was a good person, that she wasn’t deliberately lying to him about
what mattered the most - that she wanted to be with him.
But still…
“Jax, I’m your friend. Before you become too deeply entangled with this woman, you should make
sure she’s on the level with you,” Kenneth said. “What’s bothering you?”
“It’s…It’s not a big deal. When I first met her, she mentioned that she had five older brothers,”
Jax sad reluctantly. “Later, when I tried to ask her about them, she changed the subject. I don’t know.
She doesn’t like to talk about her family.”
A sudden low growl from Dominick, made Jax start. Jax turned to see that Dominick was
scowling, his eyes glowing golden. “I could follow her for you,” he offered.
“No, thank you,” Jax said, surprised at the offer. “For one thing, I guarantee you she’d spot you.
She’s good that way. And besides, she’s staying with me now – I know where she is most of the time.
And if what you’re suggesting is that she might be cheating on me, I’d scent any other man on her.”
“I can look into it,” Kenneth said. “The thing about her brothers.”
Jax shook his head vigorously. “Don’t. Maybe it’s just something she’s insecure about, having no
family. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“All right then. If you decide that you want to find out more, you know who to call.”
Jax nodded, and headed out, with a deep sense of unease rumbling through him.
As he was walking to his motorcycle, his phone rang. He grimaced. It was Reginald Ven Der
Mere.
Sighing, he answered the phone.
“Reginald. I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch,” he said. “We’ve been making really good progress.
I-“
“Did you assault a man in a bar and bend his rifle, and then threaten him?” Reginald’s voice rose
higher and higher with every word, until it ended on a squeak.
“What? Are you referring to the man who went into the woods with illegal silver bullets and shot
at me while I was in human form and in wolf form?”
“Did you, or did you not?”
“The man who’s now being held without bail on charges of attempted murder of a shifter?”
“The fact that you’re afraid to answer my question tells me all that I need to know.”
“Afraid? Did you just refer to me as afraid?” Jax roared, his face bristling with wolf fur and fangs
thrusting threw his gums. “Come down here and say that to my face, you little bastard!”
“You have violated two very important terms of your contract,” Reginald said primly. “You
threatened me with violence, and you have threatened violence against a human in a public place, and
this is part of a pattern of behavior, mind you. We have sufficient information from our contacts at the
Enforcer council and know the identity of the culprit in the Shifter Rage cases. You are officially
removed from this case, with cause, and your services will no longer be required at Hammersmith,
Incorporated. Your letter of termination will arriving by Federal Express.”
He clicked the phone off before Jax threw the phone down with a roar of rage and stomped it to
pieces.
As he did, he saw Kenneth open his front door and look out.
“What’s going on?” Kenneth called.
Kenneth had a very good camera system watching the exterior of his house.
Jax took a deep breath to calm himself as Kenneth walked over. His voice shook with anger as he
related what had just happened.
“Ridiculous. I’ll have my lawyers on it immediately.”
“I can’t ask that of you,” Jax protested, his heart pounding a million miles a minute.
“I have lawyers on retainer, twiddling their thumbs, looking for work to do. Lawyers with teeth
like sharks. Literally. I have actually found that shark shifters make the best lawyers.”
Jax couldn’t help laughing at that. “Maybe. I’d owe you one.”
“I guarantee you I’ll collect.”
Jax tried to keep his temper in check as he headed to the cell phone store to buy a new phone –
third one that month, he was one of their best customers – and then went back to his apartment to start
cleaning.
Bobbi got home later that evening, and he tried really hard not to quiz her on what she’d said to
her boss, or why she never wanted him in the room when she was calling her boss.
“New couch?” she said. “Wow, this place looks…less trashed then before.”
“Yeah, once I replace the kitchen table and chairs, bookshelves, and repair the claw marks on the
walls…”
“Man. We have the temper from hell, don’t we?”
“We certainly do,” he nodded. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him, burying
his face in her hair. Her sweet scent set his senses on fire. He felt himself growing hard as she leaned
into him.
A tiny, treacherous part of him had worried that he’d smell another man on her. He didn’t. But
who had she talked to on the phone when she’d left him?
Tyler had told him that her phone had sophisticated security software that wiped all her calls as
soon as she made them. Tyler had also told him that was fairly standard issue for members of the
Enforcers Council.
Still, the fact that she’d told him that one little lie was nagging at him. It was swelling inside him.
The lie didn’t feel so little any more. What else had she lied about?
She nuzzled her lips against his neck and he let out a groan of pleasure, but the lie still tugged at
his consciousness
“What’s bothering you, babe?” she breathed into his ear.
He took a deep breath. He knew he was tense, and she could clearly sense it.
“ Hammersmith fired me from the investigation today, because of the incident with the hunter at
the bar.” That was only part of the reason he was tense, and he hated that now he was keeping things
from her as well.
But the alternative would be to tell her that he’d asked Kenneth to run a background check on her,
and that he knew she’d lied about having older brothers. What if she got up and walked out on him?
He couldn’t risk that happening, he realized. And it made him ill.
“What? That’s baloney! They can’t do that to you!” she was outraged. She began fishing in her
pocketbook for her phone.
“No, don’t worry about it. Kenneth said he has lawyers on retainer who will look into it. Shark
shifters.”
Bobbi let out an incredulous laugh, but then she quickly grew serious again. “I can call my
contacts at Enforcer headquarters.”
“Let’s see what Kenneth comes up with first. Let me make you dinner,” he said.
“So we’re eating beer and coffee? Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m just saying, you
don’t have the most well stocked refrigerator. Actually I think I finished off your coffee this morning.”
“Okay, okay, so I’m going to pick up some Italian from the restaurant around the corner. Feel free
to stock up the refrigerator with anything that you want. You could even try to teach me how to cook.”
“A skill I’m sadly lacking. I can defrost like a champ, though.”
After a hearty meal of fettucine alfredo, the two of them relaxed on Jax’s couch, digesting.
Maybe, Jax thought, maybe if I open up to her, she’ll feel comfortable enough to open up to me.
This was partly his fault, he thought; he’d given her plenty of reasons not to trust him.
“My father’s probably dying of emphysema,” Jax said. “And I won’t be going to his funeral.”
“Oh?” Bobbi looked shocked. “A werewolf with emphysema?”
“My father went into an incredibly destructive downward spiral after my mother died. She died
when I was eight, giving birth to my younger brother. He’s the one that I want to earn all this money
for; he’s in medical school.”
“That’s fantastic.”
“It’s a bloody miracle that he turned out to be such a good kid. My father blamed him for her death
and was absolutely brutal to him, until I turned 18, moved out, and took him with me. Nobody in my
pack raised a paw to help us; we left the pack and moved north to a new town. And frankly, because
of my bad temper, I blew it with the new pack I joined, and lost my job, which is why I’ve chosen to
work freelance and be on my own. I never thought I could open up to another person.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, squeezing his hand, but she didn’t say anything else.
“You should meet my brother someday.”
“He sounds wonderful.”
“And your brothers?” he pushed on. “Are they going to run me through the wringer when I meet
them?”
She went tense. He felt it. She was still sitting next to him, but she’d suddenly pulled away from
him. It was like they were standing on different sides of the Grand Canyon.
After a long, long pause, she said “I don’t know. I’m still not at the point where I can talk about
my family.” Her voice had grown distant, her expression far away. She was looking at the wall, but
seeing something else.
“Okay. I get it.” But he didn’t.
Anger and grief suddenly filled him, and a raging frustration that he couldn’t express. He wanted
to be with her. Wanted her to truly be part of him…but she was pushing him away. Building up a big,
hard wall between them, and he had no idea how to break it down.
Suddenly he felt like he couldn’t breathe, and he knew that if he didn’t get out of the apartment
he’d explode.
“I need to go for a run,” he said abruptly, leaping to his feet.
“Now?” she asked, startled. It was eleven o’clock at night.
Without answering, he turned and rushed from the apartment, slamming the door behind him.
Chapter Sixteen
“There’s no nice way to say this, but you look like crap,” Pixie observed. “I’d drink like ten more
cups of coffee if I were you.” They were at a coffee shop in the lobby of Bobbi’s hotel, which she
still hadn’t officially checked out of.
Bobbi grimaced, rubbing at her face, downed the rest of her coffee in one gulp, and poured herself
another. Her unbrushed hair was a rat’s nest. Her eyes were puffy from lack of sleep.
Jax had been out until 4 a.m. She’d fallen asleep curled up on the couch, waiting for him. When
she came in, he’d been a mess. Leaves in his hair, swollen lip, black eye. He’d gone for a run in the
woods, and gotten in a fight, it was clear.
After he came in the house, he’d ripped off his clothes by the door, shifted into wolf form, and
stalked into his bedroom without a word. She imagined he’d lie there for the night in wolf form, and
be mostly healed by morning. Shifters healed much faster in their animal form.
It was all because she’d blurted out that she had five older brothers the very first time she’d met
him – and it made no sense that she’d slipped up like that. She’d never, ever talked about her
brothers to anyone. There was something about Jax, though, that had immediately disconcerted her.
She spoke without thinking when she was around him.
And more than that, she realized, she instinctively wanted to share with him, wanted to open up to
him. It was an instinct that she was fighting with every last bit of her strength, but the instinct was so
strong that it burst through when she least expected it.
And now for some reason he was honing in on her brothers…why? Was it possible that he’d
found out the truth? She didn’t think so – she prayed he hadn’t.
She had to fulfill her mission, her promise to herself. Her obligation to Marcus.
“Let’s go for a walk,” she said to Pixie.
“What happened with Jax?” Pixie asked when they were outside the lobby.
“We’re fighting,” she admitted. “It’s…kind of my fault. He wants me to talk about my past, and I
can’t. He started telling me about his past, I refused to answer anything about mine…”
“Oh, screw that,” Pixie snorted. “None of his damn beeswax. Dump him and move on to the next
one. Oh, I forgot to tell you, I’m doing it with a shifter!” she added. “A jackal. Oh my God. Huge
where it counts. And hot! Let me tell you-“
“Don’t!” Bobbie pleaded. “I’m sleep and sex deprived. Too much. Just be careful, Pixie, jackals
are among the least trustworthy of shifters.”
Pixie flashed an evil grin. “I don’t need him to be trustworthy. I just need him to service me.”
“Watch your back, though.”
“Always.” Pixie glanced in the mirrored reflection of a store window.
“Speaking of watching your back…” Pixie said.
“Jeez. I smell lion shifter and yes, that is Dominick lurking behind us. Come on, this should be
fun.”
She and Pixie casually strolled around the corner, and then made a series of quick dashes and
dodges until they had doubled back and came up on the same block as Dominick.
“Hey! Leo the Lion! You’re busted!” Pixie yelled.
Dominick swung to face them, his face angry.
Pixie and Bobbi trotted up to him.
“Seriously? Jax told you to follow me?” Bobbi demanded indignantly.
“No, he did not. When he finds out, he’s going to kill me.” Dominick looked very unhappy.
“So this is Kenneth’s idea?”
“No. He’ll fire me.”
“What is that annoying beeping noise?”
“My ankle bracelet. I just stepped out of my confinement zone and violated my probation.”
Dominick’s cell phone started vibrating in his pocket. Wincing, he pulled it out.
Before he could stop her, Bobbi snatched the phone. “Hello, this is Enforcer Roberta Jo Simpson,
license number EN7234. Dominick is accompanying me on an investigation of high importance. We
were pursuing a suspect, so we were forced to leave his area, but he will be returning immediately.
You can call headquarters to verify.”
She rattled off the number to her contact at the Enforcer headquarters, listened to the probation
officer on the other end, and handed Dominick’s phone back.
He spoke to his officer and then hung up.
“Why did you do that?” he asked her, surprised.
“You may not have noticed, but the human world isn’t always that kind to shifters.” She glanced at
Pixie. “Or drifters. We’re better off when we stick together.”
“Why are you following us?” Pixie demanded. “Are you following her, or me?”
Dominick was sullenly silent.
“You knew where to find me. I used my debit card to buy breakfast for Pixie and myself. So Tyler
must have tracked me here with his computer hacking ninja skills. Why are you two checking up on
me?” Bobbi folded her arms and glowered at him.
“We’re just concerned about Jax. He’s a good guy. I’ve never seen him like this about a woman
before,” Dominick said reluctantly.
Bobbi sighed.
How could this end well? It couldn’t.
“I am not cheating on him.I can’t discuss anything further than that. And you’d better get back to
your zone.”
She and Pixie walked off.
“I’m going down to the police station to see if they got anything useful from Athena. Remember
what I said. Do not investigate anything else on this case. We talked about you looking for a
waitressing job, right?” Bobbi shot Pixie a severe look.
Pixie gave her a mock salute and sauntered off, no doubt to track down her new jackal shifter
boyfriend.
* * *
At police headquarters, Captain Thorne met up with Bobbi in the conference room.
“You look like hell,” he observed as she sat down at the table across from him.
“Why does everyone feel so comfortable telling me that this morning?”
“Because you have that air about you that makes people feel at ease with expressing their
innermost thoughts?”
Bobbi shook her head. “Nope. That can’t be it.”
Captain Thorne had poured himself a mug of coffee when she came in the room. He pushed it
towards her across the table. “Here. Looks like you need it,” he said.
“I’ve already had four cups,” Bobbi said.
“Have a fifth. Trust me.”
She grabbed creamers and sugars from a small dish, and began stirring it up. As she quickly down
the cup, Thorne briefed her on the results of the interview with Aurora.
“She started dating Tony a couple of months ago. She knew he was a drug dealer. He used her for
her connections to wealthy clientele at the club, had her pushing this drug he calls Pure Pleasure, and
everything went really well at first. They were making a fortune. She started going to private
parties, selling them there, working as an escort and selling dozens of the pills to her clients. Then
suddenly, over the past few weeks, these rabies-like events started happening. Because of the cover-
ups, it took a little while for Aurora and Tony to figure out that she was the common connection, but
when it happened Tony panicked. He told Aurora he must have cooked up a bad batch.”
“Does she have any idea where he might be?”
“Unfortunately, no. He took off and left her holding the bag. Over the past few days, she suddenly
started seeing people following her, and she got spooked. When the people broke into her apartment,
she grabbed her room-mate’s purse and climbed out a window.”
“She knew she was leaving her room-mate behind to die? Did she even call the police?”
“Nope. She was holed up in that hotel room with a hundred thousand dollars cash that she’d made
from selling those drugs, trying to figure out her next move.”
“Wow. What an ice hearted bitch.”
“True dat. She’s facing multiple murder charges now because of the clients who died, but she’ll
probably never be held accountable for her room-mate’s death.” Isaac sighed heavily, then spoke to
her, his voice low even though they were alone in the room. “The people who started following
Aurora…that started as soon as the police learned about her possible involvement in this case.”
Vaughn. Vaughn had caused this, Bobbi was sure of it. Bobbi yearned to tell Captain Thorne, but
couldn’t. Isaac seemed like a human who genuinely cared about shifters, who could see that they
were as human as he was, and it was incredibly frustrating to watch him fumble in the dark when she
could give him all the answers that she needed.
Unless he was on Vaughn’s payroll, and was gauging her for a reaction…but she didn’t think so.
She was a good read of people, and she felt that he was genuinely angry and frustrated by what had
happened.
“Watch your back,” was all she said.
He stared at her, as if wanting to ask more. She looked away.
“Have you found out anything more on your end?” he asked.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
“Unfortunately, no. Tony’s going to be a lot harder to find than Aurora. He’s a seasoned criminal,
an ex- felon, a drug dealer who likely has connections all over the country, maybe the world.” She
stood up, her conscience jabbing at her angrily with little pitchforks.
“I’ll keep you posted,” she said. He nodded, watching her thoughtfully.
I hate this, she thought, as she walked out. Lying to good people, covering up for the scum of the
earth…it felt as if it would never end. As she left the station, her phone buzzed with a text message
from Jax. “Sorry about last night. I’m out right now, be home afternoon or early evening,” the
message said.
With nothing else to do, she headed back to her hotel room and napped for a few hours. Then she
woke up, took a shower, and took a call from Heath.
“I’m fine,” He reassured her, but he sounded tired. Prison was getting to him. Her stomach
squeezed tight the way it always did when she talked to him these days.
“I’m making progress for our mutual friend. Everyone still treating you okay?”
“Like a king. Better than I deserve. Thanks for the book, by the way.”
“I’ll go mail you another one right now.”
“You’re the best. I’m sorry I screwed up so badly. I’m sorry this is all on you.”
“I screwed up plenty in my time, I just was lucky enough never to get caught. And if our positions
were reversed, you’d do the same for me.” She paused, then blurted out “Heath, have you met your
fated mate yet?”
There was an astonished moment of silence.
“You mean here? In prison? Ahhh…Bobbi, you know me well enough to know that I don’t swing
that way. And prisons are still unisex, much to my sorrow.”
“Never mind.” She was mortified. What had she been thinking?
“Why do you ask?”
“Oh, just curious. About fated mates. You know, since I missed out on growing up in a pack and
really never learned a lot of basic shifter knowledge that would have been passed down…nothing.
Never mind.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s the problem with modern society. A lot of shifters drift away from their
packs and prides, miss out on the old lore. From what I remember my parents telling me, the
experience is different for different shifters, but basically, from the moment you meet your fated mate,
you feel an instant attraction like nothing you’ve felt before, and you never want to be with anybody
else. Even if you try to fight it at first, it grows on you, to the point where it’s painful until you finally
give in and accept it.” He paused. “Hey, wait a minute. Did you meet your fated mate? Is that why
you’re asking?”
“Me? Don’t be silly. I’m going to go mail you the book right now. Stay safe.”
She hung up quickly before he could ask any more questions. For the first time ever, she was glad
he was in prison – because he couldn’t call her back and harangue her for answers that she didn’t
have.
After she’d bought and mailed him the book, she was struck by an idea. There wasn’t anything
else she could do to investigate the case at the moment; they were all stuck in wait-and-see mode…
but she had an idea of how to pass the time, and maybe distract Jax from questioning her about her
past.
She headed over to Liquid.
After browsing through the racks, she settled on a minidress that unzipped in about 20 different
places, and a g-string that untied on the sides. She’d bought her trench coat with her; she changed into
her new outfit in the dressing room, put her trench coat on, and sent Jax a text. “Meet me at your
place. Now.”
He didn’t reply, so she headed over to his apartment.
Maybe she could take his mind off the whole issue with her brothers. She’d sure as hell give it
the old college try, anyway.
When she got to his apartment she climbed his stairs quickly, hurried down the hallway – and
froze on the spot.
The door to his apartment was unlocked. She pushed it, and it swung open.
The smell rolled towards her as she stood there in the doorway, assaulting her nostrils.
It was the scent of cinnamon, mingled with skank. Caress.
Was Jax in there now? She was in human form, so her senses, while better than human, couldn’t
quite discern whether she was smelling him because he lived there and his scent permeated the
apartment, or because he was in there with Caress.
Either way it didn’t matter. He’d let Caress come over, and she could smell Caress’s arousal
reeking through the air, taunting her. Caress and her mate. Her fated mate.
She was so angry that for a minute she literally couldn’t see. Her vision swam red and she thought
she’d choke. Her bones rippled and her face lengthened, and a snarl rolled up from her chest and her
clenched fists became paws.
There was only one thing that she could do. Run. Otherwise she’d tear into the apartment and kill
them both, she knew it.
Jax had told her that when he was boiling over with rage and frustration, he’d head to the
warehouse district and hurl himself into a fight with whatever lowlife was stupid enough to challenge
him.
Sounded good to her.
She threw herself into the car and jammed her foot on the accelerator, heading downtown in a
scream of tires and a cloud of smoke.
* * *
“Where the hell is she going?” Jax asked Dominick, astonished.
“I don’t know, but she’s sure in a hurry.”
They’d pulled up in front of Jax’s apartment building in Jax’s car, only to watch Bobbi take off as
if all the hounds of hell were chasing her.
Quickly, Jax and Dominick jumped back in Dominick’s car and raced downtown.
They barely managed to stay on her tail, and lost her once she got to the warehouse district. Jax
pulled over, climbed out of his car, and listened.
He could hear howls and snarls a couple of blocks ahead and to the left.
Without a word, he and Dominick shifted so fast they didn’t even take the time to shed their
clothes, and raced around the corner to see Bobbi, dressed as if she were about to head straight for
Caged Heat in a tight little black dress and heels, surrounded by a dozen jackals to the left, and a
dozen hyenas to the right.
It appeared she’d stumbled on a gang fight, and both sides had paused and turned all of their
attention to her.
With a roar, Jax and Dominick raced over, just as Bobbi shifted to coyote form.
What followed was a blur of fur, flying bodies, screams, howls, fangs, and thuds. While
Dominick’s lion and Jax’s wolf were huge and fearsome, they were still badly outmatched by the two
dozen gang members. Bobbi was a ferocious ally, hurling herself into the thick of the fight, but she
was barely holding her own.
It was impossible to say how much time went by before sirens wailed in the distance, growing
louder and louder. At the sound, the hyena and jackal gangs immediately scattered, and Dominick,
Jax and Bobbi shifted back to human form.
Bobbi picked up the scraps of her dress from the ground, groaning and bleeding from a dozen
places, and covered herself as best she could.
“What the hell?” Jax stared at her outfit in astonishment.
“Long story,” she moaned. “Ow. Let’s go back to your place so I can shift and start healing. Ow.”
Dominick watched the last of the jackals disappear. “Yeah, you better run!” he yelled through
split, bleeding lips.
“Fucking A’,” Jax agreed, groaning in pain as he popped his dislocated shoulder back in place.
“We showed them, all right.”
“They ran like jackals. Did I mention, ow?” Bobbi tied a piece of cloth around a bleeding wound
on her arm.
“Several times, yeah. Man up and take it like a shifter,” Jax said, earning him a growl and a kick
from Bobbi.
Dominick glanced down at the blinking red ankle bracelet. “God damn it,” he said. “I violated
my probation again.”
“I’ll take care of it. Call your probation officer.” Bobbi reached into her purse, grabbed her
phone, and handed it to him. He called, let Bobbi talk to his probation officer, and then gave her back
her phone.
The three of them limped back to their cars, wrapped in the shreds of their clothing, and headed
back to Jax’s place. They staggered up the stairs, holding each other up, and soon as they got to Jax’s
door, Bobbi stopped in her tracks and a look of rage clouded her face.
“She’s still her. Your fucking girlfriend is still here.”
Jax noticed it right away. The smell. Caress, the overeager sub from Caged Heat. His apartment
stank of her.
“What’s going on? What is she doing in my apartment?” he demanded of Bobbi.
“I could ask you the same god-damned question.” Bobbi glared at him.
He looked at the lock on his door. “It’s been jimmied. The crazy bitch broke into my apartment.”
“Oh. Ohhhh…” he could see comprehension dawning on Bobbi’s beautiful face. “I thought you let
her in,” she muttered. “That’s why I headed down to the warehouse district. I was looking for an
excuse to kick some ass. Tension reliever. It seemed to work for you.”
“That still doesn’t explain the dress.”
Jax watched as a blush swept over Bobbi’s face. “It was a surprise. For you. That’s why I wanted
you to come meet me here.”
“Really?” Jax suddenly realized he was grinning like an idiot. “You did that? For me? Babe, I am
going to make all of this up to you. As soon as I stop hemorraghing. I swear.”
The tension and anger that he’d been feeling drained away.
“Hey, I’m standing right here. Bleeding. And you apparently have a crazy, horny stalker in your
apartment,” Dominick snapped.
“Fine, I’ll deal with it. And quit being such a pussy. Ha. Lion shifter. Pussy. That was a good
one,” Jax laughed, as he dialed his cell phone.
“Oh yeah, it was hilarious.” Dominick didn’t look at all amused.
The three of them stormed into the apartment. Caress was sprawled naked on Jax’s bed, and she
shot up when they banged into the room. Jax had to physically restrain a growling, snarling Bobbi.
“What is she doing here?” Caress wailed. “Who is that man? Jax, why don’t you want me any
more?”
“That’s it. I’m calling the police,” Jax snapped. He grabbed the handcuffs that he kept by his
bedside and quickly cuffed a sniveling, crying Caress to the bed-post.
The police arrived in minutes. Jax uncuffed Caress and waited while she got dressed; then the
police cuffed her again and marched her out of his room.
“Jax! Don’t let them take me, Jax! Why are you doing this to me? I just wanted to be with you
again,” Caress whimpered as Jax and Bobbi followed them to the door
“I’m filling out a restraining order against you,” Jax snapped at Caress. “And while I’d never hit a
lady, if you ever come near me again, I won’t save you when Bobbi rips your face off and you spend
the rest of your life eating through a straw.”
Bobbi half shifted and lunged and snarled to bring home the point, jaws snapping inches from
Caress’s throat, and Caress let out a scream of terror, cringing away from her.
The cops glanced at the three bleeding, battered shifters, standing in their tattered shreds of
clothing.
“Man, you guys know how to have a good time,” one of them said, shaking his head as they led
Caress away.
“I guess they never heard of safe sex,” the other one added.
The three shifters limped into Jax’s living room.
“All right, here’s the plan,” Jax said through split, puffy lips. “Dominick, you’re welcome to shift
and heal for a few hours here. Bobbi and I will be in the bedroom, doing the same. Then when my
bones are back in place, I’m going to come out and politely ask you to get the hell out, unless you
want to listen to Bobbi show me exactly what she’d planned to do to me when I got home.” He looked
Bobbi up and down appreciatively. “Babe, I think I like the dress even better now. What’s left of it.”
With a look of disgust, Dominick limped off, shifting as he walked, and curled up in a giant ball
of golden fur on the floor in front of the sofa.
Chapter Seventeen
Jax stretched langorously on his bed. After he’d healed last night, he’d let Bobbi demonstrate
exactly what she’d had planned for him. Then he’d shown her a few new tricks off his own, tricks
which included ropes and intricate knotwork, and the new vibrator he’d bought just for her, so he
could stimulate as many pleasure points as possible on her body, simultaneously.
Her shrieks of pleasure and pleading still rang in his ears. Screams of “If you don’t let me come
right now, you mangy useless back alley mutt…” A smirk formed on his lips.
He’d warned her a while back. Payback was a bitch. And he was a complete and utter bastard.
Even the fact that Hammersmith had royally screwed him out of a small fortune wasn’t bothering
him this morning. Bobbi was in the shower, and he was planning on following her in there…until his
phone rang.
It was Kenneth, so he answered it.
“Good morning,” he said, in a ridiculously good mood.
Kenneth’s serious tone caught him up short.
“Are you alone?” Kenneth demanded.
“Not really. Bobbi’s in the shower. Why?”
“I need you to come to my house. Without her. And don’t say anything to her until you’ve spoken
to us.”
A chill ran over Jax’s body. “Tell me what this is about,” he demanded.
“Jax. Just get over here.” Kenneth hung up.
Jax swallowed hard, glanced longingly at the shower, and then climbed out of bed and pulled his
clothes on quickly. Damn Kenneth. He could smell Bobbi’s sweet, clean smell, drifting from the
shower, the soap, the shampoo, her own special aroma…
He wrote a note which he left on the bed.
“Kenneth has an emergency, I’ll be back with breakfast. Be here waiting for me, and ready for
more, or there will be consequences. Love, the biggest bastard in the universe.” One of the things
she’d called him last night.
He added a little smiley face next to the writing, just to be a jerk.
He pulled in to Kenneth’s driveway twenty minutes later, a scowl stamped on his face, and
stomped up to the door. The butler showed him in, directing him to Kenneth’s office on the second
floor.
Kenneth and Tyler were there waiting for him. He didn’t like the look on their faces.
“What?” he demanded uneasily, without so much as a hello.
“Bobbi Jo’s been talking to a drug dealer who used to be Tony’s boss. And to some man in
prison,” Tyler said, also without preamble. “She’s been filling the drug dealer in on all the details of
the investigation.”
“What?” Jax felt as if Tyler had literally hit him with a sledgehammer. He staggered back a step,
his world suddenly reeling. “There has got to be some mistake. There’s no way.”
“We’ve been monitoring her calls ever since you told us how she lied about her older brothers,”
Tyler said. “I hacked into her cell phone. And I wish I were making a mistake. The drug dealer she’s
talking to is Vaughn Waverly. The man in prison isn’t related to her; he’s from Arizona, the same city
she grew up in. It’s possible she’s romantically involved with him. She told him she loved him, and
she wouldn’t let anything happen to him. Vaughn made it quite clear to her that if she didn’t keep him
filled in, the man in prison would suffer the consequences. His name is Heath Gallagher.”
Jax found himself struggling to breathe. He recognized the name Vaughn Waverly. Vaughn was
one of the biggest dirtbags on the continent, an untouchable drug lord and pimp who operated out of
Mexico.
This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t.
“You’re lying to me,” he growled, his body shaking with the effort to stay human.
“Jax. I wish we were. I heard it myself.”
“You had no right!” It came out in an anguished howl, and suddenly Jax lost control and his wolf
was hurling through the air at Tyler.
Instantly Tyler and Kenneth shifted, and the three of them briefly battled before the panther and the
wolf pinned him down.
After his struggles slowed, they let him up, and he turned and raced from the room.
“Jax! Get back here! Jax!” Kenneth yelled.
Jax ignored him.
He had to get back to Bobbi. He had to. She’d explain this to him, she’d make it right, she’d put
his universe back together. It couldn’t be true.
But when he got back to his apartment, Bobbi was gone.
* * *
“Pixie, I am going to murder you. I mean it. I am going to dismember you.”
“You’d have to catch me first.” Pixie sounded annoyingly cheerful on the other end of the phone.
Bobbi was walking down the street in front of Jax’s house, frustration sizzling inside her. After
reading Jax’s text, she’d been headed out to grab a coffee, when Pixie called her to tell her she was
still on the Rage case.
“I’ve caught you before. You’re human, it’s not that hard.”
“First you have to find me, then catch me.”
“I told you, very clearly, very many times, that I did not want you investigating this case any
more. It is dangerous. You could die.”
“Do you want to hear what I found out, or not? Because you’re the one who’s all like, this case
could ruin human-shifter relations, it could start a war, et cetera, blah blah blah. And I know where
Tony LaRosa is going to be tomorrow morning.”
“What?” Bobbi stopped walking. “What did you just say?”
“Tomorrow morning at 8 a.m., Tony LaRosa will be at the old Engstrom Tomato Canning Plant,
selling his stash to a dealer named Raj, for a quarter million dollars. He let Raj test out the samples
last night. And I didn’t ask around, by the way, I did some skulking and eavesdropping, so nobody
even knows that I know.”
“I may not kill you,” Bobbi conceded, “but I will maim you a little bit. Pixie, that’s brilliant. Now
get the hell out of that neighborhood, and come back to my place. I want you staying in my hotel room
until Tony’s picked up. You hear me? I’ll meet you there in fifteen minutes.”
Silence.
“Are you still there? I was only kidding about maiming you. I’ll just slap you around a little.”
“Someone’s following me,” Pixie said in a strained voice. “Same guy who I saw a few blocks
back. I just saw him again.”
“What? Get to a place with lots of people. Don’t hang up. Just run.”
Bobbi heard a strangled scream, and then silence, and then more screaming and cursing.
Then another voice came on the phone, and her blood turned to ice.
It was Vaughn Waverly.
“Hello, Bobbi. A car is coming towards you now. See it?”
“Yes,” she said coldly.
The limo with the tinted windows pulled up next to her. “Get in the back. Hand your phone to the
man in the back seat. If you do anything else, your friend will die…very slowly, over the course of
the next several days. And you’ll get to listen.”
The door swung open, and she climbed in, heart pounding.
She handed her telephone to a big, burly man, and watched while he stomped it into the floor of
the limo.
Then he grabbed a copper collar from the seat next to him, and snapped it on her neck, which
began to sting immediately.
Now she couldn’t shift. Smart move on Vaughn’s part.
Before she could move, the thug had grabbed a hood and put it over her head, then he quickly
bound her hands behind her back with a zip tie. She sat silently, listening for cues and paying attention
to their twists and turns. It was a half hour drive which felt as if it took years, but she had a pretty
good idea where they were.
She was dragged out of the car; they had parked in a garage. Next she was marched down a long
hallway and through a door, and then then the hood was yanked from her head. She was in a specious,
luxuriously decorated livingroom with overstuffed white sofas and white fluffy carpet. All of the
drapes were pulled.
Pixie sat in an overstuffed arm chair, her lip swollen, her right eye blackened, her cheek puffy.
Her hands were folded in front of her, and she glared sullenly at the floor. She was wearing a plain
white t shirt and white leggings, and she was barefoot. . Her leaf necklace still dangled around her
neck.
Similar clothing lay in a pile on a couch next to Pixie’s chair. A beautiful cougar shifter lay curled
up on the couch next to the pile of clothing. She had long, streaming black hair, and wore a copper
collar. Her face and arms were bruised, and she was sallow and covered with a sheen of sweat.
Drug withdrawal.
Pixie glanced up when Bobbi walked in. “You shouldn’t have come for me,” she mumbled
through swollen lips. “This was my mistake. I screwed up; I’m the one that should be paying for it,
not you.”
“It’s okay. We’ll be fine,” Bobbi said, although she sincerely doubted it.
Two large, burly men were standing behind Pixie. “Strip, and put those clothes on,” one of them
barked at Bobbi, as the thug from the limo slashed open the zip ties on her wrists. “Everything off.
Bra, underwear, jewelry.”
Bobbi did as she was told, changing into a form fitting white t-shirt and white leggings. There was
no way she’d be able to conceal any weapons underneath those clothes; Vaughn wasn’t taking any
chances. The bodyguards collected her clothing and weapons, and one of them walked out of the
room with them.
Bobbi sat down on the couch next to the shifter, and turned when she heard footsteps approaching
her.
“Hello, Bobbi Jo. We meet at last.”
The drug lord stood before her, impeccably groomed in his hand tailored gray raw silk suit. He
was handsome, his eyebrows perfectly shaped, his fingernails manicured. His tie was lavender and
the little folded pocket square above his left breast pocket matched it perfectly.
“You didn’t need Pixie,” she told him. “You already have my brother.”
“Extra insurance,” he smiled gently. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t trust you, but I know that you’ve
been hiding information from me, and you’re a fucking fleabag mangy animal whore just like all the
others of your kind.” He said it in the same polite, civilized tone he’d use if he were complimenting
her on her dress.
Bobbi didn’t react. His opinion meant nothing to her. “What do you want, Vaughn?” she asked.
“I want to know where Tony LaRosa is.”
She kept her expression completely neutral, but relief washed over her. He didn’t know that Pixie
had told her about the meeting tomorrow morning. This was the only card she had left in her hand.
Here in this house, with a copper collar on her neck, surrounded by armed men, she had no
chance. But if they travelled to meet Tony LaRosa, maybe she could create some kind of diversion, so
Pixie at least could get away.
“I know where he’ll be tomorrow,” she said.
Vaughn’s eyes lit up. “Where?”
She turned to look at him. “If I tell you now, you have no reason to keep me alive. I know you’re
planning on killing me, and then my brother, and Pixie, once you get your hands on Tony. And I know
how much you want Tony. So listen carefully. As a shifter, I am capable of willing my own heart to
stop. If I die, the knowledge of where Tony is dies with me.”
“Don’t!” Pixie protested. Bobbi ignored her. Vaughn’s eyes had grown murderous, but she
plowed on.
“Tomorrow morning, Pixie and I will get in the car with you, and I will tell you where to start
driving. I will keep giving you directions until we get there. It is in a remote location, so it will be
easy for you to grab Tony. I am not telling you anything else until then.”
“I’ve never heard that about shifters,” Vaughn snapped. “I think you’re bluffing.”
“Humans don’t know everything about shifters. If you think I’m bluffing, try me.” He made a move
towards her. She didn’t flinch, didn’t blink.
He stopped, and began pacing, his face darkening with rage, muttering a stream of curses.
“Fucking bitch, whore, scumbag lying slut, shifter cunt…”
Finally he spun to face her. “Fine. But tomorrow morning, you’re going to find out what happens
to people who mess with me.”
He jerked his thumb at her and Pixie. “Lock the bitches up.”
“Wait, I thought we got to play with them,” one of them men protested, and then flinched when
Vaughn swung on him. “Did I stutter?” he hissed.
“No, sir.”
“We’re going to need dinner, and access to a bathroom. And I want her to come with us.” She
pointed at the cougar shifter.
“Why?”
“Because Pixie and I are lesbians, and we’re planning on using her all night long for an orgy,”
Bobbi said, completely straight-faced. “Since it’ll be our last night on earth, we’d like to enjoy it.”
Vaughn stared at her as if trying to figure out if she was making fun of him. Bobbi stared back.
“Fine,” he said coolly.
Bobbi could only imagine the revenge that he would exact on them all when he had his hands on
Tony.
As the three men led her, the cougar shifter, and Pixie to their room, she heard one of the men
complain in a low voice, “So wait, we got nobody to fuck tonight? And these three lesbos get to do it
with each other all night long? Seriously?” It came out in a whine.
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll make up for lost time tomorrow. You know how the boss is.”
The cougar shifter staggered and fell against Bobbi, who helped her stumble into the room. It was
a large bedroom which had been completely stripped of all furniture; the windows had bars on them.
The cougar fell to her knees.
“What do you want me to do?” she asked in a dull voice.
“What?” Bobbi was startled.
“What do you want me to do for you? Do you want me to start with you, or her?” she muttered,
glancing at Pixie.
“We’re not lesbians. I just said that to get you away from them.”
“There’s no escaping Vaughn.” The cougar shifter curled up in the carpet in a ball of misery. “I
used to think there was, but not any more.”
“Don’t give up yet. What’s your name?”
“Jennifer.”
“I’m Bobbi, this is Pixie. Don’t give up.” But the cougar’s eyes were staring at something far, far
away, and she lay silent on the floor, shaking and sweating.
“Pixie, if I get a chance to create a diversion tomorrow, you need to take the opportunity and run.
Without looking back,” she said in a low voice.
“No.”
“Do as I tell you, damn it.”
“Or what? You’ll come after me and kill me? That’ll be hard to do if Tony’s murdering you. This
is my fault; tomorrow morning, I create the diversion, you run.”
“As if. Damn it, Pixie, I don’t even like you. I’m not your friend; I was just using you. I lied to
you all along like I lied to everyone. I’m not worth dying for. I was going to fire you, by the way.
Then I was going to leave town without saying goodbye. So when I create a diversion, you will run
for it.”
“You know what’s the problem with trying to talk to old people like you? They’re hard of
hearing. I said no. I meant no. Get over it.”
“Dumbass useless human.”
“Stupid shifter bitch,” Pixie muttered, and then they both started laughing. Then Bobbi glanced at
the door and their laughter died out.
Bobbi sat on the floor next to Pixie, wrapping her arms around her knees and trying without
success not to think about what Vaughn would do to them tomorrow after he got his hands on Tony.
Chapter Eighteen
“Up ahead,” Bobbi said to the driver. “Turn left.”
She was in a stretch limo sitting between Vaughn and a bodyguard. Pixie and Jennifer sat in the
seat behind her, also flanked by bodyguards. There were four other cars following them, packed with
men who were armed to the teeth and wearing bullet proof vests. The windows of the limousines
were all darkened.
The old factory loomed ahead. It was a brick building which hadn’t been used in twenty years.
Vines snaked up the outside of the building, pulling apart the fire escapes and iron scaffolding.
Windows were boarded over and a rainbow of graffiti sprayed across them.
“Is he going to be there?” Vaughn demanded.
“Maybe.”
Suddenly Vaughn’s fist lashed out, catching the side of her head so hard her ear rang. “If you’re
fucking with me, you’ll watch while I peel your friend’s skin off,” he snarled.
She clenched her teeth and stayed silent.
They pulled up and parked in front of the building.
A dozen man ran in ahead of them. After a pause, Bobbi heard gunshots, and screams.
Then Vaughn’s radio crackled to life. “We got Tony, boss.”
A fierce grin spread across Vaughn’s face. He turned to Bobbi. “You’re about to learn the true
meaning of pain, bitch.”
The door of the limo open, and his bodyguard climbed out.
Vaughn grabbed a handful of her hair and dragged her out of the door.
His men followed suit, dragging Pixie and Jennifer, punching and kicking the women as they
hauled them towards the warehouse.
“Party time!” one of the men yelled. The other men whooped with glee.
As they were hauled into the door, Bobbi caught a final glimpse of blue sky and white clouds
overhead. She couldn’t see any way out of this. Outnumbered, outgunned, and in the middle of
nowhere. Best case scenario – they managed to get themselves shot to death before Vaughn had a
chance to start torturing them.
An image of Ashley’s tortured body flashed before her face. The broken fingers, the angry red
circles where the men had burned her breasts with cigarettes, again and again.
I’m sorry, Pixie, she thought, suddenly wanting to cry for the first time in a very long time.
They were dragged down a long hallway, and into a huge space dimly lit by the dirty light that
filtered through cracked windows. There were stacks of wooden crates, some broken and some intact,
and wooden pallets, and cardboard boxes piled randomly throughout the room. Every surface was
furred with thick gray dust.
In the center of the room, Tony was on his knees, eyes wide with fright. Bodies lay scattered
around him in pools of shiny red blood.
The drug dealer and whatever bodyguards he’d brought with him, Bobbi imagined.
Her heart beat faster at the sight of Tony. Her prey, her quarry, so close and about to be snatched
from her grasp. Vaughn would hold him prisoner, but he’d ply him with drugs and high end liquor and
women as long as Tony manufactured more drugs for him. Tony would never suffer like he deserved.
A scent drifted to her nostrils, and her eyes widened.
No. Way.
It couldn’t be. How…?
Suddenly the room exploded in roars of rage, and air was full of shifters, leaping from behind the
boxes.
Bobbi hurled herself against Pixie and knocked her to the floor, covering her with her body.
Gunshots rang out, and there were screams and the smell of gunpowder and blood and adrenaline.
Bobbi clawed the copper collar from her neck, and then did the same for Jennifer. Pixie had
picked the locks the night before with the lock pick she’d had hidden in her hair, but there had never
been an opportunity to escape. They’d always been surrounded by dozens of men at the house, and
Bobbi could smell the silver bullets in their guns. There would be no point in running; they’d cut her
down before she got twenty feet.
She heard screams as several shifters fell to the floor, and saw them writhing in their death throes
as smoking holes sizzled and burned them. Within seconds they went still.
There were more screams, as shifters brought down humans, ripping their throats open.
Was Jax one of them? She scanned the room wildly. Where was he? Was he dead?
Bullets pinged on the floor next to her head, and she heard Pixie yelp with alarm.
She grabbed her and, shielding her with her body, began moving her across the floor, towards a
stack of boxes that could provide some shelter.
“Motherfucker! Ouch! Sonabitch!” Pixie cried out, as shots whizzed by.
“Are you shot? What happened?” Bobbi cried out, alarmed.
“No, I just felt like swearing,” Pixie gritted out.
Once they were behind the stack of boxes, Bobbi turned to check on Pixie, who was pressing her
hand against her bleeding shoulder.
“Behind you!” Pixie screamed.
Bobbi whirled, shifting as she turned, and narrowly dodged a fusillade of bullets as she launched
herself at a beefy bodyguard. She ripped his throat out in one swift motion and, praying that Pixie
would be all right, dashed around the stack of boxes and into the fray.
As she rounded a corner, she tripped over the body of a panther shifter, whose eyes were wide
open and staring at the ceiling. Quickly she scrambled back to her feet.
She spotted Tony on his hands and knees crawling frantically for the door.
Vaughn, flanked by several big, bulky bodyguards, ran in front of Tony, blocking him.
“Oh, no you don’t,” he snarled. “You’re mine.”
Blinded with rage, Bobbi launched herself at Vaughn and knocked him to the floor. One of Tony’s
bodyguards jumped on her. She whirled and tore into his throat with her fangs, his warm blood
spraying across her fur.
“Stop!” a bodyguard screamed.
He stood in the middle of the room, his arm wrapped around Pixie, a hand over her mouth, a gun
pointed at her temple.
“Everybody back off, or the bitch dies. We’re leaving, and we’re taking this whore with us for
insurance.”
Bobbi froze. Everyone froze.
Jax shifted into human form. “You’ve got no way out,” he snarled. “The police are on their way.
Hear those sirens?”
“Then I guess she dies,” the man snapped. “If I’m going down, I’m taking –
owsonofafuckingbitch-”
He yanked his hand away. It was streaming with blood from where Pixie had bitten him. His
finger clicked uselessly on the trigger of his gun.
“I can count, you asshole,” Pixie snarled, spitting blood. “Your gun was empty.”
A howl of rage tore through the air, and a giant grey wolf that Bobbi recognized as Tyler knocked
the bodyguard to the ground and tore him open.
The other shifters had finally gained the advantage, and pinned the remaining bodyguards to the
ground, except for two bodyguards who stood near Vaughn and Tony. A dozen shifters faced them in a
giant half circle, growling and snarling.
Jax rushed over to Bobbi, who shifted back to her human form.
“Are you all right? Oh my God, say something. Are you okay? Bobbi, are you all right? Talk to
me!”
“Be quiet for half a second so I can answer you! I’m okay. How did you find me?” Bobbi asked,
dazed, staring around at the carnage.
“Tyler was secretly hacking your phone calls.”
“What?”
“Long story. I’ll tell you later.”
Tony was curled up in a ball on the floor, hugging himself and whimpering. Still alive. So far.
Bobbi would be taking care of that immediately.
Kenneth was there, and Tyler, and Dominick, and dozens of shifters she didn’t recognize. Sirens
wailed, growing closer and closer.
“You’re sure you’re all right?” Jax demanded. “I thought I’d lost you. You scared the hell out of
me.”
“I’m fine.”
She took a breath.
Now was the time. She’d dreamed of this moment for so long, planned for years and years…so
why was she hesitating now?
Because it meant goodbye, to Jax, to all her friends in the Enforcers, to everyone. After she did
what she’d come here for – they’d have to kill her, or she’d have to escape and leave them all behind,
forever.
She closed her eyes and thought of the shredded, bloody remains of her brother Marcus, of the
way she felt the day she’d looked at him lying on the coroner’s table, forced to confirm his identity by
scent alone.
She swung towards Tony, shifted back to coyote form, and leaped through the air, crouching over
him. She raked her claws across his handsome face, and he screamed, and blood flowed from the
wounds. Then she turned human again. He needed to hear what she had to say.
“You killed my brother for profit, you fucking animal,” she hissed into his face. “And I’m going to
claw your throat out and watch you drown in your own blood. Marcus Hall, that was his name. You
made the drugs that drove him mad, and that’s why you’re going to die today.”
She felt Jax come up behind her.
“Don’t do this, Bobbi,” Jax pleaded. “You’ll go to prison, or you’ll be on the run for the rest of
your life. Do this the right way; let him go to trial and he’ll rot inside a prison cell for the rest of his
life. He’ll never see the sun.”
His fingers closed on her arm.
“You’ll have to kill me,” she panted.
“You know I won’t do that. I would rather die. Please listen to me, Bobbi, I’m begging you.
You’ll be leaving behind Pixie; she needs you. You’ll be leaving me behind. I love you. I know it
sounds crazy, but you’re a part of me now.”
Bobbi closed her eyes and felt the red, red rage boiling up inside her, and the pain of her
brother’s death.
“Bobbi. He’s right, for God’s sake.” Her head jerked up, and her eyes widened in surprise as
Heath walked towards her, flanked by two wolf Enforcers.
Heath was pale after six months behind bars, but other than that, he was her big, handsome older
brother, the one who made all the girls simper when he swaggered by. His curly brown hair had been
clipped close to his head. He was wearing street clothes, not an orange jumpsuit.
“Who the hell are you?” Jax barked. Even in this most extreme of situations, she could feel Jax’s
jealousy flaring.
“It’s Heath. He’s my brother.” Tears of relief burned her eyes.
She didn’t know how he’d found her here, but he was safe. He was out of prison. That was all that
mattered at the moment.
Heath knelt down next to her. “Bobbi, we’ve planned this for five years, but he’s right. We got
this scumbag, and he’ll never hurt another shifter with his drugs. Don’t kill him like an animal. Let the
justice system do its job. We’re here to represent the shifter community, and it’s our duty to be better
than this pig.”
Tony lay wailing and bleeding on the floor. The stench of urine assaulted Bobbi’s nostrils; he’d
wet himself.
“I didn’t know, I didn’t know!” Tony howled. “I make people feel good! I didn’t mean for anyone
to die, for God’s sake! Why would I do that? It’s terrible for business!”
Shaking with the effort it took to keep herself from killing Tony, Bobbi fell into Jax’s arms, and he
pulled her to her feet.
As she did, Heath suddenly lashed out and kicked Tony in the ribs so hard that Bobbi heard bones
crunch, and he spit on Tony’s face. “That’s for my brother, and every other shifter you’ve poisoned,”
he snarled. Two Enforcers pounced on him and dragged him backwards.
“Okay, now we’re done,” Heath said, as the Enforcers spun him around and walked him away.
“You fucking bitch! My lawyers will have me out on bail by this afternoon, you stupid whore!”
Vaughn howled in rage. “I come here looking to buy warehouse space, and you lead me into a trap?
You lunatics assault me? I’ll sue you, you bitch!”
Jax let out a growl, and Kenneth put a restraining hand on his shoulder.
Bobbi walked up to Vaughn, and her smile spread across her face. She’d been waiting for this
moment for six months.
“You’ll spend the rest of your life buried in a cell block so deep that you’ll forget what the moon
and stars look like. I’ve played you, Vaughn. I was working deep, deep undercover for the Enforcers,
and so was Heath. We planted him in that jail, and I’ve been collecting evidence against you from the
minute I started working for you.”
Vaughn’s jaw fell open. “No. No,” he spluttered. “No. No. No. It’s not possible. No.”
“Every politician, every judge, every dirty cop that you have on your payroll, is going down with
you. We’ve bugged you, we’ve videotaped you, we’ve had a hell of a lot of fun doing it. By the way,
I hear that Stanford Roosevelt is your special little friend these days. Maybe you can have adjoining
cells,” Bobbi taunted him.
“Your brother is a murderer! He killed a man! He was caught on videotape!”Pure triumph sang
through Bobbi’s blood. She’d waited for this moment for so long, pictured the look on Vaughn’s face
when he was finally brought down. The rage, the self-pity, the stark terror…it was all there.
“It was an Enforcer-sanctioned kill,” Bobbi said. “He killed a drug dealer. It was all done so we
could send him to prison.”
“You’re lying. You’re lying.” Vaughn’s eyes were bulging out of his head.
“If I’m lying, how is my brother here, with Enforcers, out of prison and not under arrest? We shut
the investigation down and pulled him out, because we’re done. We have everything that we need to
lock you up forever.”
She stood up and walked away.
Bobbi felt weak with relief that this whole ordeal was over. Heath was tough as nails, but having
him in prison was the hardest thing she’d ever experienced. Even though she knew that the guards
were watching out for him, an inmate could have gotten to him at any time. It was a daily struggle to
quell her fear for him and carry on as if everything was okay.
As soon as Heath had gone to jail, she’d approached Vaughn and begged him to use his
connections to protect her brother. She’d promised him inside information, but everything that she’d
fed him had been carefully orchestrated by her bosses. She’d given him information that set up rival
drug dealers for the kill, that weakened their organizations, that helped hijack their illegal drug
shipments…helping to wipe out dozens of high level criminals while they carefully prepared their
case against Vaughn.
As she walked away, Vaughn lunged at her, but Jax lashed out with a kick that sent him flying and
crashing to the floor.
“Come near her again, threaten her again, and you die,” he snarled, his voice half-human, half-
wolf.
Suddenly, Jennifer flew through the air in cougar form, raking Vaughn’s abdomen with her claws
before several shifters jumped on her and pulled her off.
Vaughn screamed in agony, and the Enforcers quickly called for an ambulance.
“That was for Pamela, you fucking murderer! That was for her cubs!” Jennifer screamed, tears
streaming down her cheeks.
She turned to Bobbi, as the Enforcers rolled Vaughn onto a pallet of wood and carried him,
bleeding and screaming, from the warehouse.
“Aren’t you going to kill me?” Her voice was leaden with despair.
“Why?”
“I just murdered a man. You’re a cop. You have to kill me.”
“He’ll live. And it was temporary insanity.”
“Just kill me. You don’t know what it’s like, kicking this. I’ll be dead soon anyway. Do it,”
Jennifer pleaded.
Bobbi knelt next to her, grabbed her hand, and stared her straight in the eyes. “Quit being a weak
ass pussy and act like a cougar,” she snapped. “You’re embarrassing me.”
“What?” Jennifer gasped, shocked.
“I don’t do warm and fuzzy. Listen the hell up. You can go to the hospital and take sedatives and
go through medically supervised withdrawal. You can go to rehab. You must have something you
want to live for. I know you do. Tell me what it is.”
Jennifer’s eyes flooded with tears. “Pamela’s cubs,” she sobbed. “They’re in foster care. Their
dad is in prison and he never wanted them. I used to take care of them while Pamela waitressed at the
club. We’d sit there and make crafts out of egg cartons and milk jugs. They called me Auntie Jennie.
Now they’re in a big group home and their own pride won’t take them in.”
“Thirty days in rehab. Then I will help you get custody of those cubs. I swear to God. Look at me.
Tell me you’ll do this.”
“I’ll try,” Jennifer wiped at her face. “I was with Pamela when she died. Oh, God. I begged her
not to die. Vaughn sat there and watched and laughed, and then him and all his body guards all lined
up and took turns with me, one after the other.”
“You just laid open his intestines. He’ll poop into a colostomy bag for the rest of his life, in a tiny
dark prison cell that reeks of his own feces. And you won’t try to kick. You’ll do it.”
“I’ll do it,” Jennifer echoed.
Jax pulled Bobbi into his arms. Tyler was pressing his hand against Pixie’s bleeding wound.
“What you did was the strongest thing I’ve ever seen anyone do,” Jax told her. “I know I talked
you out of killing him, but if someone caused my brother to die, I’m not going to lie to you, I might not
have been able to hold back, even if it was an unarmed human lying at my feet pissing himself in
terror.”
“I’m glad you stopped me,” she groaned, falling into his arms. She was wrung dry emotionally,
her legs like wet noodles barely able to hold her weight. “Now get me out of here before I change my
mind.”
Chapter Nineteen
“Explain to me how he’s your brother,” Jax said, glancing over at Heath, his arm tightening
around Bobbi’s shoulders. “He isn’t related to you. I could smell it.” Bobbi could swear Jax still
sounded jealous.
They were all gathered in Kenneth’s living room, with a tray of drinks spread out before them.
Bobbi was on her third beer, and Jax’s arm was slung protectively around her shoulders.
“When I was eight years old, I ran away from my abusive foster home, and ended up living in a
squat with a bunch of other runaways, both shifters and humans. I lived with them till I was fourteen,
and we were closer than most blood relatives. We hustled, we shoplifted, we sold stolen property,
we always found a way to put food on the table. When I say we had each other’s back, I mean, any
one of us would have died for the others.” Bobbi leaned into Jax. “They are my brothers, although
not legally.”
The sun was sinking into the horizon. She still felt sick, and unsteady on her feet.
“So what happened?”
Bobbi sighed. “Ironically enough, it wasn’t all the near misses we had with cops. Gentrification
happened. The squat we’d lived in – one day a construction crew showed up and knocked it down. I
was home alone at the time, the cops picked me up and brought me downtown. And then…funny as
this may sound, this time social services placed me with an absolutely wonderful human couple, and
that couple had taken in another young shifter daughter, and I sensed that she needed me. And I
decided not to run away. I decided to go to high school and have something resembling a normal life.
I always kept in touch with my brothers, but when they saw that I was in a nice home with decent
parents, they agreed with me that I should stay there.”
“So what happened with Marcus?”
Bobbi’s smile vanished, and sorrow washed over her. “Marcus…he’d been raised in a horribly
abusive home, by an uncle who was a pervert, who raped him daily for six years. Marcus killed his
uncle when he was twelve, got sent to juvie, got abused there too, by the guards and the older kids.
He really tried to battle his demons, but he became a drug addict, and none of us could bring him
back.”
She stared at the floor. “I think that taking care of me helped force him to hold it together for a
long time, as much as he could anyway. It was after I moved in with my foster parents that he really
went off the rails.”
“Bullshit,” Heath snapped. “Do not nail yourself to that cross. I loved Marcus, and I’m sorry
about every lousy thing that ever happened to him, but deciding to do drugs? That’s on him. He went
to rehab, he relapsed. We worked overtime, two and three jobs, we saved up money to put him in
rehab again, he relapsed again.”
“It’s true,” Bobbi shrugged unhappily. She turned to Jax. “But when he died all I could think about
was revenge. He was with a bunch of other shifter kids, runaways, dregs of society, and they did this
new mystery drug which made them go rabid and attack each other, and nobody cared. I became an
Enforcer with the specific plan to use my connections and access to legal databases to track down the
man who’d created the drugs that killed him, but I never found him. I stayed with the Enforcers
because it turned out I was very good at it and I finally felt like I was doing something useful, serving
a higher purpose. I did eventually find out that the Chemist, as Tony was called, worked for Vaughn,
and that’s why I approached my bosses with the idea of taking Vaughn down.”
She moved on the couch, sinking into Jax’s arms. Jax was still here. Jax still wanted her. He
forgave her; it was an undeserved miracle.
He wrapped his arms around her body and nuzzled her neck. “I’m never letting you out of my sight
again, by the way,” he breathed into her ear, and despite her exhaustion, the feeling of his warm
breath sent a pleasurable little shiver through her body.
She turned to Heath, snuggling into Jax as she moved. “Okay. How did you find me at the
warehouse today?”
“We called the Enforcers last night when we heard that phone call between you and Vaughn,”
Kenneth said. “None of us knew how to find Vaughn or you. I called in all the reinforcements I had
at my disposal, and we prayed that when Vaughn showed up at the factory, you’d still be alive and we
could force him to give us your location. Finding you there was an unexpected bonus.”
Heath nodded. “Once the Enforcers got that call, they pulled me out of prison, and I flew out here
right away. We were doing everything we could to find you and Vaughn, but we were in the same
boat as your friends here. Our only hope was that we’d snag Vaughn when he went to the factory.”
“So…the Enforcers are okay with you trying to kill Tony?” Pixie asked skeptically.
“Ah, no,” Bobbi said. “I left out the little detail that I wanted to be an Enforcer specifically so I
could track down one criminal and kill him. They might have considered that a dealbreaker. Heath got
himself hired by them for the same reason. That is why we’re both ex-Enforcers, as of today. That
whole threatening to kill Tony incident, with Enforcers present…my bad. Oops.”
“What? They fired you?” Jax said, shocked. Then he shrugged. “Oh well. Welcome to the ranks of
the unemployed. You’ll come to enjoy the taste of Ramen noodles. And we’re shifters; we can always
hunt our food.”
“I can support you guys by boosting wallets,” Pixie volunteered. “You could be my new
protectors, like Tommy was. Except you wouldn’t pimp me out. You wouldn’t, right?”
“Gee, you’re the best. And no stealing, no pimping, no breaking the law,” Bobbi said, firmly. “By
the way, do I want to know what you have in your pockets right now?”
“Kenneth’s wallet. I think his Amex Card is made of pure gold. Seriously, think of the shopping
spree we could have.”
Dominick let out a growl of anger and swung to glare at her.
“I am sitting right here. Give it back.” Kenneth held out his hand, and Pixie dug into her pocket
and tossed it to him.
He turned to Jax, flipping through his wallet and counting his credit cards. “My lawyers worked
out something of a deal with Hammersmith. They’ll give you $25,000 for the work you did on the
Rage case, even though they did have an airtight contract which you violated when you threatened
Reginald Ven Der Mere.”
Jax nodded. “Thank you. I do owe you. I don’t know how I’ll pay you back, but…”
“Well, this brings me to an idea that I’ve been batting around for a while,” Kenneth said.
“Shifters, Inc. A security firm made up of shifters, watching out for our interests. I think this whole
ordeal has shown us how much that’s needed. My business connections and my friends would give
the security firm all the work we’d ever need.”
Bobbi and Jax glanced at each other.
“So, now I just need a bunch of crazy, dysfunctional shifters with no common sense and a
tendency to rush into danger, and I’m golden,” Kenneth said.
“Huh. I don’t know anyone like that, do you?” Bobbi said to Jax.
“Nope,” Jax said. “I think he’s out of luck.”
“I have an assignment for you already,” Kenneth said. “It involves Pixie.”
“Me?” she looked shocked.
“Yes. I need a good thief.”
“Wow. Really?” Pixie’s eyes were wide with amazement. “We’d all be like the most janked-up
pack ever. I like it.”
“Pack?” Jax, Tyler and Dominick said simultaneously.
“I’m not part of your pack?” Pixie said, looking mortally wounded.
“Of course you are,” Bobbi said quickly. “Because that gives me the right to cuff you upside the
head every time you do something stupid. I foresee multiple concussions in your future.”
“How can we be a pack? We’re all different species,” Jax protested.
“And we annoy the hell out of each other,” Dominick added. “Well, you all annoy the hell out of
me, anyway.”
“Feeling’s mutual, but you had our back when we needed it, didn’t you?” Jax said.
“I owed you,” Dominick grumbled, but Bobbi thought he looked secretly pleased.
“Does the job offer apply to my brother?” Bobbi asked.
“Certainly. Any man who can survive in federal prison for six months undercover is a man I
would find very useful on my staff,” Kenneth said.
He held up his glass of Macallan Whisky. “To Shifters, Inc.!” Everyone in the room held up their
glasses.
“To Shifters, Inc.!”
Pixie whispered to Bobbi “I hope he prints up t-shirts for us.”
Later, Bobbi found Pixie staring out the window at the setting sun, looking mournful.
“What? We didn’t get tortured to death and we all have gainful employment. Why the long face?”
Bobbi asked.
“I don’t have any luck with men,” Pixie said.
“What do you mean?”
“The jackal I was hooking up with…that’s how Vaughn found me. I guess Vaughn’s men were
asking around about me, because they’d been following you and knew you and I were buds. He sold
me out.”
“Oh, Pixie. What a douche. I’m sorry. But you make your own luck when it comes to men, okay? I
mean, Tyler likes you, but you’ve never even noticed.”
“What?” Pixie glanced over at Tyler, who was sitting at his desk looking at his laptop. “Look at
him,” Bobbi said. “He’s watching you in the laptop’s reflection.”
“Wow. He is.” Pixie sounded amazed. “I just would never expect a decent guy to like me.”
“Something to think about. You don’t have to make a decision right this minute.”
“Huh.” Pixie looked thoughtful.
Later that night, Jax and Bobbi went back to Jax’s house, where Jax ordered pizza for them. Bobbi
sat curled up on his couch, head resting on one of the pillows. Kenneth had offered to let Heath stay at
his place until he found an apartment in town.
She was exhausted and wired at the same time. Her whole life had changed so fast…it felt as if
someone had yanked a rug out from underneath her and she hadn’t hit the ground yet.
Her mind was bouncing like a rubber ball, from one thought to the next.
Jax is mine, Jax is mine…the refrain kept playing through her head. It was a comforting refrain,
like a warm blanket she could wrap around herself.
All that anger and hatred she’d carried inside her like festering poison, her overwhelming grief at
Marcus’ pointless death…she’d have to learn to let it go now.
“What are you thinking about?” Jax asked.
“I’m compiling a very long mental list of all the things that I have to do tomorrow. I need to call
Captain Thorne and apologize for not being able to let him in the loop. I need to call Bradley in San
Francisco and let him know that we arrested his lover’s murderer.”
“You need to get all of your belongings shipped here to Playa Linda. To our apartment.” He put
heavy emphasis on the word “our” as he plopped down on the couch next to her. She leaned back and
draped her legs across his lap, feeling his hardness. She breathed in deeply, inhaling his scent. Ahhh,
Eau de Jax. She never tired of it.
“Yes,” she said. “I need to do that too. So. What are you thinking about?”
“I’m thinking that I nearly lost you and it nearly killed me. Last night was the longest night of my
life. I didn’t sleep a wink. I spent all night pacing the floor at Kenneth’s house while Kenneth
gathered his security forces, and we tried to figure out how to find you, and everyone tried to keep me
from going crazy,” Jax said.
“So does that mean you’re too tired for sex?” Lord, she hoped not.
Jax threw back his head and howled with laughter. “Oh, you were serious. You’ve met me, right?
Hello, I’m Jax. Addicted to sex with Bobbi Jo Simpson.”
Then he grew serious. “So, if I asked you to quit working in this field and promised to support
you and-“
She shook her head. “I can’t do that, Jax. I’m not a stay at home kinda gal. I’m not a desk job
kinda gal.”
“I understand. It was worth a try. The only thing I ask…from now on, if you’ve got any
problems, bring me in. I know I walked in on the middle of an investigation, and your brother’s life
was at stake, and you’d just met me, but-“
“Lying to you was torture. And I will never lie to you again. Now tell me you’ll stop inviting
crazy bimbos over from Caged Heat for afternoon sex.”
Jax punched her arm. “Are you serious? I’m a victim here! You should feel sorry for me! No?
Okay, fine, be like that. I will promise you this. I’ll never be with another woman, and I don’t think I
need to tell you that I couldn’t stand the thought of you with another man. You are my fated mate, I
love you, and I don’t want anyone else but you.”
She leaned up to kiss him, but he put his hands on her shoulders.
“Say it back.”
“I’m terrible at the mushy stuff. Don’t actions speak louder than words?” She straddled him and
wriggled, and he let out a groan. Then in one swift motion he threw her down on the couch and pinned
her hands to her sides.
“I’m even worse at the mushy stuff. If I can do it, so can you. Say it, or no sex.” He grinned down
at her wickedly. “I’ve got nothing but time on my hands, babe. I can sit here all day.”
“Really? Using my own words to mock me?” She struggled, but he held her in place. She glared
up at him. She could knee him in his groin, but she had plans for that groin in the near future, and
didn’t want to risk injuring it. Damn him, he had her right where he wanted her.
She took a deep breath, and looked him in the eye. “I love you too. You are my fated mate. If any
bitch tries to rub her tits on you again, I will mangle her. And you’re the most incredible sex I’ve
ever had. Are you happy?”
“I’m always happy when I get my way. Was that so bad?”
“Terrible,” she muttered, but she was smiling.
Epilogue
“Is it really 7 a.m.? Did we really sleep that late?” Bobbi squinted at the wall clock
“We really did. You wouldn’t stop attacking me. I begged you to stop violating my virtue and let
me sleep,” Jax sighed in mock sorrow, shaking his head.
“Hah. Keep that up, and maybe I will let you sleep next time,” Bobbi said.
“You’re bluffing, and we both know it.” Jax stretched and yawned. Bobbi stared admiringly. His
body was magnificent. She reached up and ran her fingers along the rock hard muscles of his torso,
smiling.
Then she sat up. “There’s a phone call that I really need to make.” She fumbled through her
suitcase, which she’d tossed to the side of the bed, and pulled out a t-shirt, which she yanked over her
head.
“I know. You want to step outside to do it in private,” Jax said, sounding resigned.
“No. I want you here for this.”
She grabbed her cell phone from Jax’s night stand, and punched in the numbers. She grabbed
Jax’s hand with her free hand, and squeezed hard.
Meg answered, sounding surprised and worried. Bobbi never called just to check in. “Bobbi Jo?
Are you all right?”
“Tell her I say hi!” Sam called out. “Remind her to wear her seatbelt! She was never very good
about wearing her seatbelt.”
Bobbi smiled.
“I’m fine. I’ve been meaning to call you for a while. I miss you guys. Listen, I wanted to tell you.
I met this guy…I was thinking about bringing him home for Christmas.”
THE END
Thank you again for reading! Be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you can find out when the
next Shifters, Inc. novel is released!
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I blog at
http://www.georgettewrites.com
Document Outline
- Prologue
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen
- Chapter Seventeen
- Chapter Eighteen
- Chapter Nineteen
- Epilogue
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