by A. C. Arthur
The other reason he wasn’t jumping with glee at Ezra and Dawn’s union was that his brother was the second highest-ranking shifter to not only reveal himself to a human, but to fall for one and bring her into the shifter fold. Sure, there’d been two younger couples—two of the three Sanchez brothers that made up one of Rome’s newest elite groups of guards—that had mated with humans. The Assembly Leader thought the relationships might go sour and cause big problems for the shifters, but Bas and Ezra were the first two to openly defy the laws of the Ètica. Rome hadn’t tried to cover up either of those relationships, instead he’d made Bas’s mate, Priya, the official spokesperson for the shifters and had welcomed Dawn, the one with all the secrets, into the fold as well. Simply put, more situations that put the shifters at risk and pissed Eli the hell off.
“I heard about that,” Nivea said with more enthusiasm than he wanted to hear. “They said Ezra almost ripped his head right off. I guess I can imagine how he felt knowing this ‘thing’ was going after his mate.”
Eli spared her a glance before turning his attention back to the road. “Don’t sound so excited about someone getting his head ripped off. You’re a female, remember.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
He sighed, wanting this conversation to be over, wanting this stupid assignment to be over, once and for all. “It means that you might want to start acting more like a female than a G.I. Jane. From the time you wake up in the morning until you close yourself off in your room after dinner, you’re either in the field looking for a fight, or in the cafeteria picking a fight, or just always looking for some way to be physical. That’s not what females do.”
And saying what he’d just said to a female such as Nivea was the dumbest thing he could have ever done. She was a great guard and he respected that. On the other hand, she was a female, one who could be hurt or even killed being a guard. His thoughts were so conflicted when it came to Nivea Cannon and Eli didn’t know why. Or rather, he didn’t want to entertain the thought of why. All he knew for certain was that there was a war going on inside him where this particular shifter was concerned. A feeling he’d never felt with any other female in his life—the ones he’d allowed to get close or the ones he’d kept away. Nivea was unlike any of them, a fact that was more than a little disconcerting for Eli.
“First of all,” she said, slapping a palm on the dashboard as she turned sideways in the seat. “I can do whatever the hell I want to do. And second, I’m as good a fighter, maybe even better, than half the guards back at Havenway. And if you don’t like how I spend my days then stop paying so much attention to what I’m doing with them.”
Eli wished like hell it could be that simple. If he could just tell himself to stop thinking about her, stop watching her whenever they were in the same room together, and even going so far as to follow her a time or two, he would have done it months ago. Unfortunately, like Nivea, he tended to do whatever it was he wanted.
“Calm down. Nobody’s saying you’re not a good guard. I’m just saying you could do other things with yourself instead of focusing so much on the job.”
“Oh, really? What other things would you suggest I do, Mr. Preston?”
She could slide across the seat and straddle him, the memory of her soft globes in the palm of his hand was still fresh in his mind. He’d wanted to get his hands on her tight little ass for a long time and this morning, he’d finally had the chance. He almost cursed with the urgency to repeat the action. Or, for the sake of safety since he was driving, she could simply lean over, unzip his pants, and put her smart little mouth over his already engorged tip. She could suck until his release shot out of him in heavy tension-relieving jets. She could grip his length with her strong and capable hands and let him pump mercilessly into her mouth.
Beeping horns snapped him from his erogenous thoughts and Eli realized he’d swerved into the other lane while distracted by things like Nivea’s mouth. He turned the wheel in the opposite direction, jerking her across the seat until one of her hands rested on his bicep.
“Need a driving lesson?” she asked sweetly. “Surely, a male shifter would know how to handle his vehicle. Or do you need a female to drive for you instead?”
“Funny,” he replied tightly. “Just stay over there in your seat and be ready when we see Wilson. Rome thinks he might be connected to Crowe somehow, feeding him information he may have gathered from looking so closely into Rome and Nick.”
“That would make sense,” she added, immediately sobering to the business mode. “It’s like he has no other cases to work on. All he does every day is sit outside of the law firm. Then when Rome or Nick leaves, he follows them. Never says anything to them, just watches wherever they go and whoever they meet with.”
“And what’s he doing with all that information?” Eli asked her.
She stared ahead, thinking, he surmised. Nivea Cannon was definitely a thinker. Sure, she was all about action, but there was never a situation she didn’t contemplate, didn’t analyze until the very last detail. She’d been tailing Agent Wilson for two months now so he was positive she knew everything there was to know about this guy, but so far none of that knowledge had made any difference in how they dealt with the man.
“He keeps a file, one of those Redweld folders. I don’t think he trusts computers because I’ve never seen him with a laptop or a tablet or anything more technical than his cell phone. And even that’s an earlier, out-of-date model. Pencils are all over his car along with balled-up pieces of paper. He’s writing his notes longhand and the ones he keeps he puts into that Redweld.”
“Notes about shifters?”
“Notes about everything he sees that he doesn’t think is normal. I think he’s beyond looking at Rome as if he’s embezzling money or helping any drug cartel. I think he suspects something bigger.”
Eli nodded. “Something like supersoldiers.”
* * *
They’d been sitting in the truck for two hours outside of a cabin in northern Maryland where they’d followed Agent Wilson and two other agents who had exited the Bureau building with him late this afternoon. It was just after nine now, evening draped around the tree-lined ski resort with the whistle of a cool breeze outside.
Nivea answered another one of Mina’s angry texts; standing her sister up for dinner was something she would never live down. That thought was soothed by their location and the fact that Nivea loved to ski. She adored the feel of the snow slipping with icy tingles through her fingers whenever she took off her gloves. There was a freedom she enjoyed while flying down the side of a mountain, cold air cutting against the skin of her face, the exhilaration that soared through each part of her body.
Those were good memories. They were the positive thoughts she’d sworn she would have had during her time with Eli. It was imperative that she did not allow Eli, or anyone else for that matter, to dictate how she would feel or think or work. She would not be controlled or handled, not ever again.
Eli had stopped the Jeep about thirty feet to the left of the cabin Agent Wilson had entered with his two guests. He’d parked alongside two other vehicles that they figured belonged to the occupants of the second cabin, a little farther down the hill.
“How long do you think they’ll stay in there?” Nivea asked, already tired of sitting in the Jeep.
As much as she treasured her job as a guard, she absolutely despised any type of stakeout. Her legs ached from being bent in the sitting position for so long, her arms from being basically immobile. She’d never liked remaining still, preferring to move, to function, and to live. Still, she knew this was a part of the job.
“Depends on what they’re doing,” Eli replied finally, pulling his phone out of his jacket pocket.
“Three guys in a secluded cabin, hmm. I would say poker but it would be better with a fourth. Could be a guys’ night out, but wouldn’t they at least want a female for hire?”
Eli stopped pushing buttons on his phone to lo
ok over at her.
“Naughty thoughts always run rampant through your mind when you’re on a stakeout?”
Only when I’m on a stakeout with you, she thought, but definitely did not speak.
Instead, she shrugged. “Just thinking out loud.”
There was once again silence. It seemed they’d had a lot of that for long stretches throughout today. That was weird since they could have easily talked about this morning’s meeting and the priority search for Captain Crowe. They could have also talked about this morning’s hot-as-hell kiss and the way his hands had explored her body with some type of ownership. She had a feeling that was the last thing Eli wanted to discuss.
Which was all the more reason she should bring it up.
“When you’re finished letting Ezra and the others know our location for the third time since we’ve been here, maybe you can tell me why this morning. Why in all the time we’ve known each other did you decide this morning was the time to make your move?”
Eli’s fingers stilled over the phone. He pressed the button to lock the screen and stuffed it back into his pocket before turning to her.
“It happened. It’s over. There’s nothing more to talk about,” he stated, completely expecting her to accept and move on.
He had no idea who he was dealing with.
“It happened. It felt really good. And if we’re not going to talk about it, are we at least going to take it a step further?”
He froze.
Nivea felt a small bit of triumph at being able to cause that reaction in him. Nothing ever took Eli off guard. He was always prepared for any- and everything, always had an answer, always knew what to do and when. Except for right at this very moment. He looked at her as if he didn’t know whether to formulate another cool dismissive remark, or to give in to the arousal that crowded them both in the cab of the SUV.
“No,” he said slowly, solemnly.
She frowned. “No, it didn’t feel good? Because I can easily amend that to ‘great.’ It felt great.”
The word came immediately and a bit more forcefully this time. “No, Cannon. We are not going there. Not ever again.”
She could take his words as rejection and keep her hurt feelings and tingling nipples to herself. Or she could be the one to acknowledge that what happened this morning had been inevitable and that in the foreseeable future it would happen again. It was like taking that first tentative bite of chocolate, or sipping from that glass of champagne and feeling the bubbles fizz against your nostrils—one taste was never going to be enough.
With that thought, Nivea leapt from her seat. She moved over the console, planted her legs on either side of Eli, and lowered herself to a straddling position in about ten seconds flat. The shock combined with a slightly annoyed look on his face said he wasn’t impressed. That was fine because she wasn’t finished yet.
“This morning was about you, in your time, and on your terms.” She cupped his face in her palms as she spoke. “That was cool, but I’m a take-charge type of female. When I hunt I don’t settle for not catching my prey.”
He opened his mouth to speak and she dove in, taking his tongue into her mouth and sucking deeply, until she felt his hands at her lower back, going even lower to cup her ass. She loved that feeling, loved how his fingers dug right into her skin, squeezing, owning. She lifted slightly, giving him the access to move his hands deeper, so that even as he gripped her cheeks, the tips of his fingers rubbed along her center, causing her pussy to pulsate with need.
“I said,” he mumbled when she let her head fall back, absolutely loving the feel of his hands on her. “We are not doing this.”
Nivea nodded, rotating her hips over the finger he’d now moved to rub right along her clit. “Yeah, you said that,” she whispered, wanting desperately to step out of those damned mission pants so she could feel him, skin on blessed skin.
She leaned in once again, nipping his lip before reminding him, “But we are.”
Her tongue found his again and Nivea felt like she was drowning. He tasted like peppermint, probably because he always kept some type of mint on him.
She moved her hands down to grip his shoulders, strong and rigid, which she’d already known from all the sparring they’d done in the last few weeks. Eli had a great body, all chiseled and muscled, glorious to look at and even more enticing to feel. Nivea pressed against him then, pushing her breasts into his chest, her pussy into his dick. He held her there, thrusting upward as the kiss deepened, their moans filling the interior of the truck.
Then the gunshots sounded and they both jumped.
Her face stayed poised just a couple of inches from his, her mouth still parted as she panted out her breath. His hands stayed on her ass but his gaze immediately went to the left, hers going in the opposite direction, their bodies taut. In the next second they were both out of the Jeep, weapons drawn as they made their way to the next sound of guns being discharged. Eli had yelled “shots fired” into his com link, the sound of his voice exploding in Nivea’s ear. Breaking out into a run, they stopped at the back entrance of the second cabin, backs plastered against the wooded walls, arms up, guns in hand.
Every guard on duty would be patched in and would hear the call. They’d check with the controllers at Havenway for the location and head this way as soon as they confirmed. In the meantime, Eli nodded at Nivea. She took the sign and fell to her knees, coming up right beneath a back window. There was a light on so she could look inside. She held back a curse and held up two fingers indicating that there were two men, lying facedown on the floor, blood pooling from their heads.
They were just about to move again, possibly to gain entrance through the back door when there was noise and voices. In seconds, three others joined the party. Agent Wilson entered with his gun drawn, along with the two men that had accompanied him out here. They entered the room of the cabin where the dead bodies lay.
“Let’s go.”
Nivea heard the words but still did not move.
“Now, Cannon!” Eli said louder. “This isn’t our party.”
“They’re dead,” she told him as she got to her feet. “Those men are dead and we’re just leaving them.”
Eli stopped, turning so that he was now in her face. He grabbed the front of her shirt, pulling her up on tiptoe so that his nose was practically touching hers. “They’re humans. Let them take care of their own. We have to move before more of them arrive and question why we, ones that Wilson will already know are connected to Rome and Nick, are here in the first place.”
He was right. She knew it. But those men were dead. They’d been killed and Nivea wanted to know by whom. She wanted to know why. Mostly, after seeing the familiar tattoo on one of the dead men’s wrists, she wanted to confirm that it had nothing to do with her father and the people he’d been working with for the last ten years.
Chapter 4
Eli was pulling out of the driveway before Nivea had a chance to put her seat belt on. Whoever had been doing the shooting inside that cabin had come running out just seconds after they’d moved from the window. Their guns were immediately raised and even more shots fired.
Did he want to pull his own weapon and shoot back? Hell yes! But Cannon was with him and if he pulled his weapon she was likely to do the same thing. Then they’d both be up against who knew how many flying bullets and if one hit her … he clenched his teeth at the thought.
“Why are we the ones running? We have guns too!” she exclaimed about ten seconds after he’d pressed his foot so hard on the gas pedal he thought he might actually break it.
“We’re also all the way out here with no backup!” Eli yelled back at her, simultaneously looking into the rearview mirror to see that not only had the guys shot at them, but they were now chasing them in their car.
“Fuck!” he yelled, making a quick turn off the main road. If he could keep them in the mountain terrain, cutting through the worn paths in and out of the trees, maybe he could lose them.
He cut the lights to the Jeep and spoke into the com link. “Being pursued, can’t get back onto main road. I repeat, being pursued.”
The first shots to hit the Jeep cracked the back windshield, which meant they had to be using a hell of a powerful gun or rifle. The windows to all the Assembly vehicles were lined with one-and-a-half-inch bulletproof acrylic. It didn’t break completely but there was an indentation with spidery cracks instantly breaking away from it and the force rocked the vehicle as they sped over rocky terrain.
“To hell with this!” Nivea yelled.
“No!” Eli yelled right at her, but to no avail.
She’d already drawn her weapon and lowered her window. In the next second she was hanging out of it, aiming and pulling the trigger, bullets firing in rapid succession.
“Get your ass back in here, guard! Cease your fire! That’s a direct order!” he yelled.
Nivea kept right on firing while Eli continued to swerve from hitting trees, fallen branches, and all other woodland paraphernalia that he wished like hell weren’t in his way at this very moment. There was another direct hit to the back window and the Jeep faltered once more. Eli knew if they sustained another assault like that the window would completely shatter and they’d be vulnerable. Either something had to stop them from shooting or he had to find somewhere to hide. The odds of either one were slim.
Except Cannon continued shooting, and as much as he hated to admit it, whatever she aimed at, she hit. They were going downhill now at an extremely fast rate of speed. He pressed gently on the brake and yelled to her once more. “Either kill them or get your ass back in this truck, Cannon!”
She didn’t acknowledge him in any way, just kept shooting until there was a loud noise and an explosion of light behind them. Eli swerved at the sight of the burning car twenty feet from them, his heart hammering in his chest. He turned the wheel so hard this time the entire vehicle jerked and jollied down the mountain. The vehicle was swerving now, going whichever way it wanted as Eli had lost full control. Because he had no headlights on, he saw nothing through the front windshield but darkness and heard nothing from behind but the remnants of the burning car falling to the ground, the flames cracking against the night air.
