Roman's Gold (Underground Heat, Book 1)

by Ann Gimpel

  Kate stood and walked in front of him. Her amber eyes were pinched with worry. “Do not delude yourself. If you get into trouble, he can’t bail you out without compromising himself.”

  He opened his arms. She stepped into them and wrapped her arms around him. Her breasts pressed into his chest. He dropped his hands to her wonderful ass and pulled her against him. Heat roared through him when he kissed her. Her scent eddied in the air, tempting him. His cock strained against his pants. It knew what it wanted: Kate. Any part of her would do.

  He broke the kiss. “Kate. My heart, my life. I love you. I don’t want to leave your side. Not ever, but I have to go back to work. I’ll end up on the defensive if they have to hunt me down.”

  Her face was flushed, lips slightly parted. “I don’t want you to leave, either. I love you and I’m worried sick something hideous will happen.” She gripped his face between her hands. “Maybe you could call in sick. Anything so you didn’t have to put yourself at risk.”

  Devon laid his hands over hers, bent, and kissed the tip of her nose. “If it weren’t for Tanaka, I could. Whenever things like this happen, they circle the wagons. They’ll be searching for me soon, if they aren’t already.”

  “Oh.” She looked distraught; her lips pressed into a worried line. “You have the list of names. You’re still coming by later tonight, aren’t you?” She dropped her hands to her sides and took a step backward. Tears glistened in her eyes.

  His heart swelled. He wanted Kate to love him and want him and miss him when he wasn’t by her side. “Of course I’m coming to see you. This isn’t any easier for me than it is for you. If I had my way, I’d never leave you again—ever. Here.” He dug the list out of a pocket, scanned it, and handed it back to her. “Probably ought to burn this.”

  “I thought you needed it.”

  “I do, but I have an eidetic memory. All I needed was to see it.”

  “If I text or call you, which wrist computer?”

  “It would be safer to use the untraceable one. I’m hoping no one saw us at Tanaka’s house today. It would be hard to explain.”

  She cocked her head to one side and nibbled her lower lip. “Maybe not all that difficult. You came to me through your doctor. We hit it off and started dating. It’s not like I’m a therapist. Surrogates sometimes pair up with men who started out as clients.”

  “Good to know. Hope I don’t have to use the information. Bye, Kate. I love you, sweetheart.” His heart swelled. The words were sweet on his tongue.

  She brushed a hand over his still-erect cock. “Love you, too, my mated one. Save some of that for later.”

  “Mated one. I like the sound of that. So does my cat.”

  “Oh?” She quirked a brow. “He’s started talking already?”

  “Mostly, he just purrs, but yes.” Devon laughed and let himself out her front door. He felt buoyant inside, light and happy. It was the first time in a long time he’d had something to look forward to. He couldn’t wait to gather Kate into his arms later that night, strip her clothes off, and sink deep inside her. Human sex or cat? Aw, what the hell. We’ll do it all.

  “Yes.” His cat purred agreement. “She is our mated one. We will love her and care for her forever.”

  He sprinted for his car, got in, and collected his wrist computer. Devon groaned when he looked at the display. He tapped keys to listen to seven messages from headquarters, all of them marked urgent. He hit redial on the last one from his captain.

  “It’s about time, Heartshorn,” the captain growled. “Where the fuck have you been?”

  “Chasing down leads in plainclothes.”

  “Hmph. Did you listen to all your voicemails?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “So you know Tanaka killed his wife, then offed himself.”

  “Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir.”

  “I need you at headquarters as soon as you can get here. We’re holding a debriefing at sixteen hundred hours.”

  Devon glanced at the time on his wrist computer. “I can be there in about ten minutes. Could I meet with you before the meeting?”

  “About what?”

  “I’d rather tell you when I get there, sir.”

  “Fine.” The line went dead.

  Devon snorted. His captain certainly wouldn’t win any awards for his social abilities, but he was a hell of a good cop. In the brief time Devon had worked for him, he’d developed a solid respect for Captain Lance Aaron.

  * * * *

  As usual, the building elevator was on the fritz. Devon took the stairs two and three at a time. He was breathing hard when he made it to the fifth floor where the brass had their offices. He knocked on Captain Aaron’s door.

  “Come.”

  His boss looked even more out of sorts than usual. Tall and well-muscled, his brown hair was clipped short. Sharp green gaze zeroed in on Devon. “Sit.” He pointed to a chair. Devon dropped into it.

  “Got a call after yours. Seems Tanaka had some nosy neighbors. They uploaded a video from right around the time forensics thinks he died. You were in it. Kate Roman was with you. What’s up with that? Did you know her before I assigned you to follow her? Spill it, Heartshorn,”

  Truth had always been Devon’s friend. It was possible they’d hook him up to a full-body lie detector, so whatever story he came up with had to be close enough his physical reactions wouldn’t give him away.

  He sucked in a breath and looked right into Captain Aaron’s green eyes. “Tanaka approached me after the riot the other night. He’d been having some, uh, unusual experiences and—”

  “What kind of unusual experiences?”

  “His senses were so acute they bothered him and he mentioned dreams where a wolf was chasing him.”

  “What’d he want from you?” Aaron’s eyes narrowed.

  “Since I’d had the same series of infusions, he wanted to know if I’d experienced any of the same things.”

  His boss leaned forward. “Have you?”

  Devon shook his head. “Not really. Nothing I couldn’t deal with, anyway.”

  “Okay, so that was last night. What happened today? How’d you end up at Tanaka’s house?”

  “That’s easy. His wife called me. You can check my wrist computer. She called me from his. I figured it was task force business so I picked up. She sounded distraught and asked if I could come over.”

  “Where does Kate Roman come into this?”

  Devon felt heat rise to his face. “Uh, see I was having some problems and the doctor gave me a referral to her a while back. We sort of hit it off, and—”

  The captain waved him to silence. “I do not want to know about your sex life. I finally comprehend why you didn’t want to implicate her as a shifter, though.” He shot Devon a lascivious, knowing look. “I can understand why you’d want to fuck her. She’s a pretty hot property, but why’d you drag her to Tanaka’s?”

  Devon shrugged. His face got even warmer. It was a struggle not to launch himself across the desk and wind his hands around the captain’s neck. “We were eating lunch when the call came in. I thought maybe another woman might be useful calming Tanaka’s wife. Kate was game, so we took her car.”

  “Why didn’t you call headquarters?”

  Devon shot him an incredulous look. “About a hysterical wife? Come on, Captain. I try not to kick things upstairs until I’m sure there’s really a problem.”

  “Hmph. What happened at Tanaka’s house?”

  “Kate talked to the wife. I talked with him. They both seemed better. He stopped waving his gun around and we left.”

  “You didn’t see him kill himself? Or his wife.”

  “No.” Thank Christ we got out of there. No matter how capable a forensics team was, there was no way to tie a death to the exact second it happened.

  “Was that what you wanted to see me about?”

  “Yes, sir, and one other thing—”

  “What? Hurry it up. Debriefing’s in fifteen minutes.”

&
nbsp; “You’ve seen my records. I had special psychological training from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office. I’ve noticed a few alterations in how I see the world since I got that series of infusions. I was going to offer to sit down with the guys, sort of one-on-one like, to talk with them.” He cleared his throat and dropped his gaze. “Don’t want to lose anyone else, sir.”

  “I’ll think about it and let you know.” He stared hard at Devon. “I am not pleased you took a shifter anywhere. You haven’t heard the last of this. Dismissed.”

  Devon opened his mouth to protest Kate wasn’t a shifter, but didn’t want any more of a confrontation with his boss than he already had. He shot to his feet, nodded smartly, and walked out into the hall. He headed for the vending machines to get coffee before the meeting. His head felt fuzzy, not conducive to choreographing his next move. Caffeine might help. Then and again, it might not. His lids were heavy, his muscles sluggish.

  “Heartshorn.” Devon spun to face his captain.

  “Sir?”

  “Back in my office.”

  Devon followed him. His heart beat hard against his ribs. His throat was dry.

  Captain Aaron slammed the door. “I just watched the video carefully. You and Roman were in the driveway when shots sounded from inside the house. She made a dash for the door. You dragged her back and stuffed her in the car. Let’s play this one again from the top, Heartshorn. By God, if I’m not convinced you’ve told me everything, I’ll hook your sorry ass up to the polygraph.”

  Chapter 11

  Kate paced back and forth in her living room. It was nearly ten o’clock with no sign of Devon. Worry made her stomach burn. She’d had a bad feeling when he’d left her office in the middle of the afternoon, but she’d chalked it up to nerves. She kicked herself for not teaching him how to communicate with her telepathically. Yeah, right. When would I have had time for that?

  When I was rolling around in bed fucking him, her pragmatic side answered.

  She glanced at her wrist computer for the umpteenth time. Something flashed across the tiny display. If she hadn’t been looking right at it, she would have missed the one frantic word. Run. She stared at the screen; it was blank. She clicked icons. The computer told her an incoming message had aborted. Caller ID listed the originating computer as Unidentifiable.

  Her eyes rolled frantically. Terror tightened her throat until it was hard to breathe. She grabbed a bag she always kept packed and started down the stairs. Was it safe to take her car or had it been compromised earlier at the Tanaka house? She wanted to call Max, but that didn’t feel safe, either. If they ransacked her house, they might be able to trace the vid feed from her computer. How safe were the scrambled feeds anyway?

  Because she wasn’t sure, Kate stopped by the terminal and clicked keys frantically. When she was done, the hard drive would self-destruct. If this were a false alarm and she ended up back home, she’d have to buy a new central processing unit.

  Kate’s gaze tracked through her home and her beloved possessions. She clenched her jaws together. They were only things. She could start over just like she’d done lots of times before. The thing she couldn’t replace was Devon. He was in big trouble. Had to be. Maybe he was dead…

  I’d know if he were dead. She wondered if that was a panacea to allow her to keep moving. If she let herself think about losing her mated one, she might not care enough about living to give whoever was after her the slip.

  In the garage, she made a decision and unplugged the electric motorcycle from its charger. She slipped a helmet over her head and strapped her suitcase to the small luggage rack. Her car stuck out like a sore thumb, especially if the police were looking for her. The bike would blend right in. She knotted her hair and tucked it under her jacket. Without it to give her away, she could pass for either sex, at least from a distance.

  She fanned magic about her and listened intently with her cat senses. Nothing. Kate didn’t hesitate. She backed the bike out of the garage, punched the button to lower and lock the door, and raced down the street. She hadn’t gone two blocks before she heard the distant thrum of gasoline powered engines. Her eyes raked the darkness. She did not want to meet whoever was coming up the warren of roadways ending at her street. There was virtually no traffic in the Berkeley Hills since the homes had emptied out.

  Something caught her eye. She angled the bike up a dirt road which led between rows of a ruined apple orchard and doused the lights. She pulled magic to hide the heat signature from her engine and got off the bike, barely allowing herself to breathe. The growl of reciprocating engines got louder. Heat-seeking radar pinged off the ward she’d erected around herself and her bike. Kate forced herself to stand her ground. The pull of her cat form was strong; she ignored it. Her best chance was to sneak out of Berkeley as a human. If she took to her animal form, she’d be stuck in the woods and less than useless to Devon.

  Her heart seized in her chest when she thought of him. Her eyes ached with unshed tears. What the hell had happened? Had they beaten the truth out of him and dumped him in prison? Had they killed him like they did the other shifters to spare themselves the expense of keeping him locked up?

  I can’t think that way. I have to believe he’s still alive. I’d feel it if he weren’t. An idea slammed her between the eyes. If she’d had other shifter partners, she would have thought of it sooner. Kate focused on the roadway a hundred yards from her. The lights from two trucks lit the night, then passed by. It was time to go, but she took a moment to commune with her cat. She was breaking shifter rules about maintaining the integrity of each of her forms, but she was scared and desperate. “Find Devon’s cat. He’ll know if Devon is still alive. No matter what the news, tell me.”

  “But—”

  “I know it’s against the rules. Just do it.”

  Her cat growled. “I love him, too. If he has been damaged, we will kill who is responsible.”

  Kate sent magic spinning downhill to see if there were any other vehicles coming. There wasn’t much time. Once the police discovered her house was empty, they’d come racing after her. She straddled the bike without starting its engine and let it coast downhill. It went just as fast as it would have if she’d fired the engine, but without a damning heat signature trail to follow. In a few minutes, she merged with other traffic and felt safe enough to engage the engine.

  She wanted to go by her office and destroy her hard drive there, but it was too dangerous. If they wanted her badly enough to storm her house, it was a good bet cops would be waiting at her office. She worked at moving beyond her fear to develop a viable plan. The shifter underground had a headquarters, but she didn’t know where it was. Information like that was on a need to know basis.

  Kate glanced at her wrist computer. She should chuck it. They could trace her through the electronics. Part of her was surprised they hadn’t done that first. Maybe they’d been so confident they’d trap her at home, it hadn’t occurred to them. She pulled to the corner, parked her bike, and ducked into a bar. It took moments to sell her wrist computer for black market cash. She clicked a few buttons to erase its data, handed it over to its new owner and fled.

  Her next stop was in the seedy section of downtown. She drove up and down streets blazing with neon and finally picked a likely establishment with the help of her cat senses and shifter magic. They ran true. In less than five minutes, she was out the door with a brand new wrist computer.

  The proprietor assured her it was untraceable. It cost five hundred credits in black market cash, but she had thousands in her escape suitcase. Kate snorted. The man who ran the shop had looked her over appraisingly, licked his lips, and offered to drop a hundred credits off the price if she’d service him. She’d tried to look flattered, told him she might if she weren’t in a rush, and counted bills into his grimy hand. No point in antagonizing him. If she were on the run for an extended period of time, she might need him again.

  The rush of cool, night air was welcome on her overhea
ted face. Kate tapped Max’s number and waited. She kept her visor up so he’d recognize her through the vid feed. It was late, past midnight. She hated to wake him, but…

  “Roman,” he snapped. “What?”

  “I need to hide. Things have gone to hell.”

  “What are you calling me on?”

  “Don’t worry. It’s not traceable. I just bought it.”

  Breath whistled loud in her ear. “Shit. I heard something went down at police headquarters, but I didn’t want to look too interested. Go to…” He rattled off an address in Hayward. “Tonight’s code is—” papers rustled, “—nightshade. Knock twice, give them the code, and they’ll let you in.”

  “Can you find out if—?”

  “Get some sleep, Roman. I’ll talk with you in the morning.”

  She stared at the display. He’d ended the contact. Kate blew out a breath and looked around her. It was a while since she’d had to navigate on her own without the benefit of her car’s onboard computer. She turned hard left and headed for the expressway. Her hands gripped the controls so hard they hurt. She forced herself to relax them.

  “He lives,” sounded deep in her mind. “We will save him.”

  “Yes,” she answered her cat, “we will.”

  “Devon’s cat is ready to fight. So are the rest of us.”

  “I’m heading to safety for tonight. Tomorrow, we will come up with a plan.”

  “Once you are safe, come to me.”

  “I will.”

  Something close to hysteria raced along her nerve endings. Kate wanted to turn the bike around, storm the police department—or the prison—and wrest her love from wherever they’d locked him up, but that was foolhardy. She’d be throwing her life away and not helping him at all.

  “Hold on, Devon,” she projected, hoping against hope, it would somehow get through. “I will get you out of there.”

  * * * *

  The address Max gave her was in Hayward’s sprawling warehouse district. It was badly signed but she didn’t want to risk feeding the address into the nav app on her wrist computer. Finally, she found the right place, got off her bike, and unstrapped her bag. She took off her helmet and locked it to the bike. Her legs were wobbly; a headache pounded behind one eye. She rapped twice on a corrugated metal door.