“Thank you, Mrs. Wagner.” What else was she supposed to say? The woman squinted her eyes and pursed her lips, assessing her.
“I need to see you in my office,” she finally said after what felt like an eternity.
Crap. Maybe her boss had heard the bit about bringing in the press, and she was going to lose her job after all. “Yes, Ma’am.”
She squared her shoulders and mentally prepared for the battle ahead. Like hell, would she lie down and let that asshole take her job from her. She was good at what she did. If anything, she was overqualified for her position, but everyone had to start somewhere. She’d pay her dues and do it with pride. She deserved to be there as much as—if not more than—some of the shifters who held higher positions than her.
Mrs. Wagner closed the door behind them before crossing to her desk.
She steepled her fingers. “Are you happy with your job here, Kaitlin?”
Happy? Sure. Mentally stimulated? Not a chance. “Yes, Ma’am.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed again. “No more bullshit. You do know that shifters can sense when someone is lying to them, right?”
Fuuuck. She was digging a deeper hole for herself. “Sorry. I’m happy here, yes, but I don’t feel as challenged as I’d like to be. I’m willing to work hard and earn the right to a more exciting position, though.” That was the truth.
Mrs. Wagner nodded. “I agree.”
Yes!
“In fact, I have an assignment for you. It seems your reputation has reached farther than our head offices here in Philadelphia. You’ve been specifically requested to assist in the decoding of an encrypted document.”
Kaitlin did her best to keep her face from showing her shock. She wasn’t a hotshot hacker by any stretch of the imagination. How did Howlers, Inc. even find out that she did some of those kinds of jobs on the side? She’d learned from the best when she’d been in college and in need of a bit of cash to pay for tuition, but it hadn’t been her primary source of income back then, and it wasn’t now. Not by a long shot.
Who, other than Becky—the one who had taught her in the first place—would have that information? The people who had hired her in the past had gone to great lengths to keep their identities private—even from her.
“Was the intel I received wrong? Are you not the right person for this job?” Mrs. Wagner asked.
She could deny it. But why? This opportunity could be the break she’d been waiting for. “No, not at all. Your intel was correct. I have the skills required to do that sort of work.”
“And you are aware that discretion is of utmost importance? It wouldn’t do to go running to the media with that sort of information.”
Kaitlin gasped. “No, of course not. I only said that to get Jeff off my back. I’d never go to the press.”
Mrs. Wagner smiled. “I’m teasing, dear. I didn’t believe it for a second. Now, you’d best get home and pack. You leave first thing in the morning.”
“Leave?” Where was she going?
“You’ll be working with an associate in Maine. You’ll have more details when they become available. For now, I suggest you pack enough for a week. I suspect you’ll be there several days, minimum. If our usual guy can’t crack this one, I can’t imagine it’ll be a cakewalk for you, either.”
When she didn’t move right away, Mrs. Wagner’s eyebrows lifted. “Is that going to be a problem, Kaitlin?”
She rose from her chair and took a step back. If her boss wanted her to go straight to the airport with nothing but the clothes on her back, that’s what she’d do. “Not at all. Thank you for this opportunity. You won’t regret it.”
Before the woman could say anything else—or heaven forbid, change her mind—Kaitlin bolted out of there. She went straight to her cubicle, grabbed her purse and mostly empty takeout coffee cup, and headed out of the office.
By the time she reached the sidewalk, her smile was broad and her step was light. She’d waltz right up to their man and show him she could play with the big guys and win.
Three
Luca should be working. He’d been at it nonstop, barely taking an hour here or there to eat and sleep, but he couldn’t crack the damned encryption on the hard drive. Each time Luca got close, he was looped around again and again. But was he working? Hell no. He was wearing a groove into the wooden floorboards, pacing back and forth like a caged wolf needing to be let out to run in the forest.
He, of all people knew what was at stake if the vampires returned to Dexter. Niko’s mate had almost died the last time they’d been after whatever information was on that stupid bit of technology. He needed to focus, but it was impossible.
He’d pretended well enough when Aric Wolfe had been there a few hours earlier, but he couldn’t sit still now if his life depended on it. The Alpha of the Blue Creek wolf pack had been breathing down his neck for days, but miracle of all miracles, he’d been called home to deal with some rogues. Not that Luca wished him any trouble in Blue Creek, but who could work when all he could hear was growling and grumbling every few minutes? Not knowing what was on that drive had the other pack’s Alpha on edge.
That wasn’t why he wasn’t working now, though. No, he’d given up the pretense an hour ago. Kaitlin was coming. He didn’t even flinch at the possessiveness rushing through him. His heart jackhammered against his ribs as he strode toward the window again. Of course, his wolf wasn’t onboard yet. How could he be? He paid no mind to the games Luca played or the humans around him. All the wolf needed was a quick sniff to know what Luca’s entire being was already screaming at him. My Kaitlin. My woman. My mate.
He’d made a special request the day before to have her brought in to assist. All he’d had to go on was her name and that she lived in Philly. Aric had made a phone call to his pack. Within minutes, the wheels had been rolling in the right direction. They’d contacted her employer and set it up. All he’d had to do was arrange for her lodging—right here at the farmhouse—and her transportation. Emmet was already on his way back from the airport. How long had it been since he’d texted with an ETA of twenty minutes?
He glanced at his watch and growled. He should have paid closer attention.
“For crying out loud, you’re going to scare the crap out of her if you’re growling like a rabid dog when she walks up those stairs,” Rylee chided. “Here, have one of Maple’s candies.”
Luca glanced at his brother’s mate. He was tempted. Really tempted. Those candies were his downfall. But his stomach clenched at the thought of putting anything into it. “No, thanks. Maybe later.” Yeah, for sure later. There was no way he was going to be able to resist now that he knew Ry had some.
Rylee’s eyes rounded. “You never say no.”
She was right. Maybe now wasn’t the best time to start new habits. “Can I have one for later?” Wouldn’t hurt to build a little stash in case someone else—like Niko—decided to eat them all before he got around to finding them.
“For a second there, I thought we’d have to call 911.” She pulled a purple foil out of her pocket, then a blue one. His favorites. Okay, that was a lie. He had no preference. He loved them all the same. Rylee came toward him, and the second she was close enough, he snatched them. She rolled her eyes at him and smiled.
Before he even registered what he was doing, he had the purple foil unraveled and the candy in his mouth. “Damn, that’s good.” It seemed his stomach could handle it after all.
A car door slammed at the front of the barn, then another. There was no way those twenty minutes had passed already. The candy could have turned to sawdust in his mouth, and he wouldn’t have noticed it. He bolted for the window, but he was too late. They were already out of sight.
The way both Niko and Rylee looked at him with total understanding shining in their eyes, it was obvious they knew—or, at least suspected—what this female whose soft footfall had just landed on the first step leading to the loft meant to him.
“Deep breath, bro,” Niko said as he c
ame to stand next to Rylee. “She’s here. She’s not going anywhere.”
Emmet’s big head, then broad shoulders blocked his view, and for a second, he considered knocking him out of the way, but then the sweetest smell of jasmine and cinnamon drifted to his nose, almost taking him to his knees.
The wolf froze, then tensed inside him. Mine, it shouted into Luca’s brain.
A growl rose up his throat at how close the other man was to Kaitlin, but the words Rylee had spoken moments before silenced him. We can’t scare her. Emmet is mated to Bonnie. It’s just not official yet, he reminded the beast, his voice as calm as he was able to manage with the adrenaline pumping hot in his veins. She was even more stunning in person than she had been in the photo he’d uncovered. Luca’s lungs burned with the effort to fill them. His heart pounded so hard he was sure the other shifters in the room could hear. If he could string two words together, he’d say something, but his brain refused to work.
“What’s everyone staring at?” Emmet asked, his tight posture a sure tell that he’d noticed the rising tension. One eyebrow quirked as he glanced between him and Kaitlin and back again.
“Hi there, I’m Rylee. This is my husband, Niko. We have nothing to do with the work you guys do, but we wanted to stop in and welcome you before you got to work,” his sister-in-law said, coming forward to greet Kaitlin—to his rescue. He steadied his breathing as both she and Niko shook her hand.
“Pleased to meet you, Kaitlin. We hear you’re the best at what you do,” Niko said, putting her at ease in a way that made Luca jealous. Unlike his brother, he’d never been good with words.
Kaitlin’s eyes rounded, and her lips parted. For a second, a flash of recognition shone in her eyes. She glanced at him again and took a deep breath before releasing it slowly.
“Is everything okay?” Niko asked when she still didn’t say anything.
She shook her head and pushed her glasses up her nose. “Yes, sorry. And, thank you. It’s been a long day already. Your voice reminded me of someone I know.”
Niko smiled, but didn’t say another word.
***
Kaitlin didn’t like being the focus of so much attention. What the hell were they all staring at? Did she have something on her chin? She’d had a pastry at the airport, but it hadn’t been jelly filled or anything. The damned thing had been tiny, stale, and had cost a fortune. Totally not worth the money.
She glanced over at the one man who had yet to say a word, and her heart skipped a beat. Hot didn’t begin to describe him. He looked so much like Niko that they had to be brothers. Maybe she’d get lucky, and he’d be her co-worker for the next few days. There was no way a man like that would be single, but a girl could still enjoy looking even if she couldn’t touch.
His eyes widened a little at her perusal. Just when she thought he couldn’t possibly get any sexier, he smiled. Yep, I’m a goner. With a shaky breath, she took a step closer to the man, intent on introducing herself, when everything inside her froze.
What were the odds? Luca’s brother’s name was Niko, and his wife was Rylee. Mrs. Wagner had said the client had requested her specifically for this assignment. It made sense. Well, not completely. Luca had no way of knowing she moonlighted as a hacker from time to time, but he knew she was good with computers. He’d sung her praise when he’d finally broken into the outer shell of her system.
Her breath caught in her lungs, and her heart did its best to beat right out of her chest. Please, please be right.
The man twisted a piece of blue foil between his fingers with a look of what she could only describe as expectation in the depths of his eyes.
She didn’t care if she made a fool of herself. If she was wrong, she’d deal with it. She had to know. “Luca?”
The smile that had transformed his face widened, and everything else faded around her. It was him.
“I thought you’d never get here.” His deep, velvety voice, more potent in real life than over the headsets, wrapped itself around and inside her, making her toes curl.
A little squeak slipped past her lips, but then he was moving, or maybe it was her, and a second later, his arms were around her. He squeezed her hard enough to make it difficult to breathe, then lifted her clear off the floor as if she weighed nothing at all. He buried his face in her hair and took a long, deep breath.
“You smell so good,” he whispered as though that was a perfectly reasonable thing to say to someone he’d just met.
She stiffened for half a second before hugging him back. Any other man, she would have pushed away for attempting something like that. But this wasn’t just anyone. This was Luca. She may never have met him in person, but she’d fantasized about him plenty. Even her best imaginings hadn’t come close. If he was as nice in person as he was online, her heart didn’t stand a chance.
When he finally put her feet on the floor again, he held her until a throat cleared behind her.
“We’re going to head back to the house now,” Rylee said, taking hold of her husband’s hand and tugging him toward the stairs.
“I’ll bring Kaitlin’s things inside, then I have to run,” Emmet said. “I have to fix the sink over at the rental.”
“Is that what you’re calling it these days? Bonnie has a long honey-do list for you, does she?” Niko teased, earning him a growl from Emmet. One that he snuffed almost as soon as it began.
“I’ll get Kaitlin settled in, then we’re going into town to grab a few things we’ll need. We’ll pick up something at the diner while we’re there, so don’t wait on us to eat,” Luca said.
“Oh, I assumed I was staying at a hotel.”
Luca’s smile dimmed a little. “You can if you want, but I figured since we’d be keeping long hours, and we have more than enough room, you could stay here. You’ll have your own room, of course.”
Emmet had driven her out from the small town. It wasn’t a long commute, but she loved a good challenge. If Luca was anything like her, hours would fly by, and by the time they stopped for the night, they’d be ready to hit the sack. “No, you’re right. It’ll be easier to get the work done that way.”
“Great. Let’s get your stuff brought inside. We’ll hit the ground running first thing tomorrow.”
Four
Kaitlin had noticed the muscle cars lined up on angle along the right wall inside the garage-come-showroom when Emmet had brought her up to the loft. From the outside, the building had looked like a dilapidated barn, but it was clean, sturdy, and lit to showcase all the toys inside. A row of motorcycles graced the opposite wall. They all looked sleek, fast, and dangerous as hell. The cars, she could handle, but the bikes? No way. She’d have a heart attack before they got to town. What kind of impression would that leave if she died of heart failure within an hour of meeting Luca?
He stood there, his chest puffed out and a smile on his face. “Pick your chariot,” he said, gesturing toward the cars.
She looked at each one, trying to figure out what to say without sounding like an idiot. She didn’t know a damned thing about cars. “These are all yours?”
“Yeah. Well, the cars, anyway. Niko and Rylee ride.” His gaze flitted to the other side of the barn. “If you want, I can ask them if they’d mind if we took one out on a warmer day when the roads are dry.”
“No,” she all but shouted. “I’m more of a car person—a slow and steady one. Like a minivan, or a station wagon.”
Luca gasped and whipped his head around, his eyes wide. “A station wagon?”
If he hadn’t looked so horrified, she might have stood a chance at keeping a straight face. Maybe. Had she stopped smiling since she’d met Luca? She doubted it. “Not really. But I’m not getting on one of those death machines any time soon. Does that one even run?” she pointed to one that looked to be a century old. The body was all wrong for a modern-day motorcycle. Even she knew that.
He glanced at the old bike, then over his shoulder as if afraid his brother might have magically appeared. �
�Don’t let Niko hear you say anything about his baby. And yes, it runs perfectly. It’s an Indian Chief. Fully restored.”
She gave it another skeptical look. Even from where they stood, she could tell the paint gleamed. “Still not getting on it.”
Luca’s chuckle sent a wave of heat rushing through her.
“That’s my girl. Cars are much better. Besides, even if we wanted to take one for a spin, it’s winter. Way too cold to go whipping down the highway on one of them.”
“Am I?” she asked, only half teasing. They’d flirted like crazy online, but that didn’t mean he wanted to pursue anything outside of the gaming world. But then, why bring her all the way to Dexter? As good as she was, there had to be someone who was better qualified out there.
“Are you what?”
“Your girl.”
Simmering passion flared in his eyes. “I want you to be. I won’t push you, but you have to know that I’m…that you’re…” he paused, took a deep breath, then started again. “I’m very attracted to you.”
His gaze followed the trail of her tongue over her lips. “I’m very attracted to you, too.” A few years ago, when she hadn’t felt quite right in her skin, she would have shied away from their conversation, but she’d come to terms with herself. She liked—no, loved—who she was. Some might call her chubby, or even heavy, but her curves were all hers, and she wouldn’t change them for the world. And from the looks Luca had been giving her since she’d arrived, he didn’t hate them, either.
Luca stepped in front of her, closing the gap between them until only an inch separated them. The heat rolling off his body warmed her in the coolness of the barn.
He leaned closer, his maple sweet breath mingling with hers. If it weren’t for his gaze focused intently on hers, Kaitlin would have closed her eyes and waited for his kiss.
“I’m really glad you’re here, Kaitlin.”
Hacking That Sass: Sassy Ever After Page 2
