Treason in Norfolk

by Paige Tyler

  Eden smiled as she sipped her margarita. “Landon definitely doesn’t work at a desk job and his career is anything but destroyed. Of course, I can’t really tell you what kind of work he’s doing because then I’d have to kill you.”

  Everyone who’d ever dealt with classified information used that silly line about protecting top secret data, but Travis chuckled anyway. He probably would have made a comment, but the server arrived with their food. Smothered with salsa and cheese, and corn tomalito on the side, the enchiladas looked delicious.

  “Ft. Carson is in Colorado, right?” Eden asked as she cut into her enchilada, eager to dig into the spicy goodness. “What brought you to Norfolk?”

  He glanced at her as he picked up his knife and fork. “My sister’s graduation from Old Dominion. Summa cum laude with a degree in electrical engineering.”

  The pride he felt at that accomplishment was obvious on his face. Eden could relate. When her sister graduated from college last year, she’d been more excited for Emily than she’d been at her own graduation.

  She ate a forkful of enchilada, almost moaning at how yummy it tasted. “Are you from the Norfolk area?”

  “Great Bridge.”

  “That’s a nice part of Chesapeake.” She studied him. “But it begs the question of why you joined the Army instead of the Navy. You grew up like twenty minutes from half a dozen naval bases.”

  He let out a snort. “Because I wanted to get as far away from home as I could get and it’d be my luck that I’d end up stationed at one of those three bases.”

  “Ouch.” She winced. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”

  “They weren’t all bad. At least when Gwen and I were kids. But as we got older, it was obvious the only reason our parents stayed together was for my sister and me, and it showed.” He loaded his fork with the spicy meat and tortilla mixture. “It would have been better for them to get a divorce and put us all out of our misery.”

  When he looked up at Eden, there was pain in those dark eyes, and her heart tightened a little for him. “That sucks.”

  He shrugged. “It is what it is. Now, I only have to see them a few times a year. The only bad thing about living all the way out in Colorado is that I don’t get to see my little sister often enough.”

  Eden got that. It was hard being apart from her family, and she only lived a few hours away. Sure, she went on missions that took her hundreds of miles away, but in between, she could visit her parents and sister as much as she wanted. She wanted to ask Travis if he had a girlfriend, but something told her he wouldn’t be having dinner with her if he did. For some reason, that made her ridiculously happy. Which was crazy. He lived more than halfway across the country. On top of that, he was Special Forces. He was probably deployed more than he was home. She wasn’t into the long-distance thing, even if he was handsome as sin.

  “What about you?” He reached for his beer. “Did you grow up nearby?”

  She scooped up some corn tomalito with her fork. It was sweet and creamy and so good she was tempted to ask the server for a whole bowl of the stuff. “My sister and I were born in Pensacola, where my dad was stationed, but then he got transferred up here to the Dam Neck Fleet Training Center when I was eight. Lived here until I left home to go to college.”

  “And now you work in DC at Homeland with Landon Donovan.” Travis regarded her thoughtfully. “Exactly how closely do you two work together?”

  She smiled. “If you’re asking if we’re seeing each other, the answer is no. He has a beautiful partner on the job he’s completely in love with.”

  Okay, maybe she shouldn’t have mentioned that, especially since almost no one at the DCO knew about it. But it wasn’t like Travis was going to tell anyone. As for Landon and his partner, Ivy Halliwell, getting involved with each other was risky as hell considering the DCO had a no-fraternization policy and they’d probably both be fired if it got out, but if they could make it work, good for them. She’d always thought that policy was stupid anyway.

  “Good to know.” Travis’s mouth quirked. “Although, I have to admit, I’m still kind of surprised Landon left Special Forces.”

  She sipped her margarita as she considered that. “What about you? Have you ever considered getting out?”

  He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Maybe. If I could find a job looking for a guy with my particular talents.”

  Eden lifted a brow, another forkful of cheesy enchilada halfway to her mouth. That was cryptic. He obviously knew hand-to-hand combat and how to handle a weapon, but something told her he wasn’t talking about those skills.

  “What particular talents are we talking about?” she asked.

  He picked up his beer and took a long drink. His mouth twitched as he set the bottle down. “I do a mean bump-and-grind, so maybe something at a special-operations-themed nightclub featuring half-naked male dancers.”

  Eden gaped. Not only because his words shocked her, but because she suddenly had an extremely vivid image of a half-naked Travis suggestively gyrating his hips to Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back.” The thought alone was enough to make her drool.

  She gave herself a mental shake and got her naughty mind stuffed back in its box. Across from her, Travis grinned.

  “Cat got your tongue?” he asked.

  That question flummoxed her even more, though she couldn’t say whether it was because Travis was hinting at her shifter nature or because he realized where her mind had been.

  “You know, for a minute there, I almost believed you,” she said with a laugh. “I have to admit, the idea of seeing you doing a striptease is intriguing.”

  His smile widened. “I’m not going to be getting a job at Chippendales anytime soon, but if you’d like to see me half-dressed, all you have to do is ask.”

  Heat swirled in her belly at the sexy glint in his eye, not to mention the not-so-subtle offer. As they gazed at each other, she felt the fire seep lower. Damn. She couldn’t remember a guy ever get her going so fast purely with a little playful banter.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said softly.

  She didn’t even realize her fangs had elongated slightly until she ran her tongue over them. That was when she noticed the lights in the restaurant were a little brighter than they should be. Crap, now her eyes were glowing, too.

  She dropped her gaze casually, reaching up to brush her long hair back from her neck and taking the opportunity to get her inner kitty cat under control. Unfortunately, the move did nothing to quench the heat pooling between her thighs. It wasn’t something that would send people running for the exits, but it was incredibly distracting for her.

  When she lifted her head again, she found Travis regarding her with that same sexy smolder she’d seen in his beautiful dark eyes last night. Maybe he hadn’t caught the shifter show, or hadn’t been concerned if he had. Her instincts told her it was the latter. He didn’t seem like the kind of man to miss anything.

  Eden expected him to use the little slip-up as an excuse to bring up the subject of what he’d seen in the alley behind the restaurant, so she was surprised when he continued the previous conversation like nothing happened.

  “Actually, as good as my dancing is, I was talking about my computer skills. I spent most of my teen years writing code and hacking computers for fun.”

  Huh. A Special Forces troop with mad computer skills? She could see John being very interested in recruiting a person like that into the DCO. Travis was getting more fascinating by the moment.

  “So, if there were a job out there, would you take it?” she asked.

  He shrugged and loaded his fork with more enchilada. “Maybe. I’m too distracted at the moment to really think about it.”

  “Distracted by what?”

  “You,” he said simply.

  The softly spoken word produced another spike between her legs, and she stifled a moan.

  “What about you?” he asked. “You just in town for your sister’s wedding?”


  Eden had never met a man who had the ability to toy with her then move on to another topic of conversation as if they’d simply been talking about the weather.

  “Yeah,” she said. “It’s been fun getting a chance to spend a lot of time with family and friends, too.”

  “I take it you don’t get to come down here from Washington often?”

  “Not really,” she admitted. “My job makes it hard to visit as often as my parents would like. They’re constantly on me to move down here and get a job at one of the bases in Norfolk or Dam Neck.”

  He took a long drink of his beer as he considered that. “Do you like working for Homeland?”

  She nodded. “It’s a good job, and I fit in there.”

  “Because of your special abilities?

  Eden didn’t answer right away. Mostly because she didn’t know what to say. Luckily, her cell rang. Saved by the bell.

  She pulled her phone out of her purse and glanced at the name displayed on the call screen then gave Travis an apologetic look. “I need to take this. It’s someone from my office I asked to look into those guys who jumped Brandon and Tim.”

  Travis nodded and motioned for her to go ahead. She knew it was rude as hell taking a call on a date, but Kendra might have something important for her. If nothing else, talking to Kendra would give her time to figure out what she was going to tell Travis about her “special abilities.”

  “Hey, Kendra. What’d you find out?”

  “Not a whole lot yet, but I figured I’d call and fill you in on what I have so far,” her friend said. “First off, I did a background check on Travis Dempsey. You’ll be happy to know he’s clean as a whistle. Top-secret security clearance, impressive military record in Special Forces, and hunky looking as hell, too, which never hurts. So, if you were concerned the whole thing was contrived for Travis to get close to you, I think you can stop worrying about it.”

  Eden relaxed in her chair, happy to hear her instincts about Travis had been right—not that she really ever doubted them.

  “Anything on Brandon and Tim?” she asked.

  She hoped Kendra didn’t say Brandon was crooked. Emily would be crushed—and probably blame Eden for telling her.

  “I thought you’d want me to first focus on the guys who jumped you, so I haven’t had a chance to look into your sister’s fiancé and his best man,” Kendra said. “You know, this would go a whole lot faster if I could tell John what I’m doing. Then I could get some of the other intel analysts involved. I can only do so much without arousing suspicion. You sure this isn’t something I can tell him about?”

  “I’m sure,” Eden said quickly. “I really don’t want to involve John in any of this. That’s all I need—him sending Clayne Buchanan down here to crash my sister’s wedding. We’d catch the bad guys, all right, but probably burn down the country club in the process. No thanks.”

  The DCO’s resident wolf shifter wasn’t quite as surly and difficult to work with as he’d been before getting back together with his former partner-slash-girlfriend, Danica Beckett, but he still didn’t do subtle very well.

  “Okay,” Kendra reluctantly agreed. “But I think you’re making this harder on yourself. John is probably going to find out what you’re up to anyway.”

  “I’ll deal with that if it happens,” Eden told her. Across from her, Travis had set his fork down, waiting for her to finish her call. “What’d you find out about the guys who jumped Brandon and Tim?”

  “Well, for starters, the two guys Norfolk PD have in their lockup are freelance muscle out of New York City. They both have extensive arrest records up there and were apparently brought in specifically for this job. I have them on video coming down the New Jersey Turnpike the day before yesterday. I have no idea who hired them, but whoever it was, they must have paid them well. Neither one is saying a word about who brought them in, even though they’re looking at some pretty serious time because of those automatic weapons.”

  “And the other three guys?” Eden asked. “The ones who got away.”

  “Not much there. The cops found the car they fled the scene in about a mile away from where your future brother-in-law and his friend got beaten up. It was stolen and they wiped the whole thing clean of prints. I’m doing computer searches of all the local video footage and traffic camera photos I can find, hoping we’ll get lucky. Nothing yet, though. If they took the turnpike down like the other guys, it wasn’t within the past few days.”

  “What about the wolf shifter?” Eden asked.

  “Not a thing.”

  Dammit. Eden found that hard to believe. The DCO was exceptionally good at finding and keeping an eye on shifters. And that big-ass wolf shifter she and Travis fought in the alley definitely should have been on the DCO’s radar.

  “So, what are you going to do now?” Kendra asked.

  Eden sighed. “Probably dig around a little more and see what I can uncover.”

  “You sure you don’t need some backup?” Kendra asked. “I can get Declan to go down there if you need him. I promise he won’t say anything to John.”

  Eden glanced at Travis to find him regarding her with blatant interest. “No, I’m good. I think I have my own backup already in place. Keep digging for whatever dirt you can find and call me as soon as you find something.”

  “I will,” Kendra promised. “Be careful.”

  Eden hung up and put her phone away with an apologetic smile. “Sorry that took so long.”

  “No problem.” Travis regarded her thoughtfully. “Since you said the big guy with the claws and fangs we fought the other night is a wolf shifter, I’m going to assume since you have claws and fangs as well, you’re some kind of shifter, too. Am I right?”

  Eden chewed on her lower lip. “You sure you want to hear this? Finding out the world is completely different than you think can be hard for some people to take.”

  She held her breath, part of her hoping he’d say he didn’t want to hear it. Travis might not have freaked out in the alley, but that could be because he was a soldier used to seeing things in the heat of battle. What if finding out what she was disgusted him?

  “I want to hear it,” he said. “If you trust me enough to tell me.”

  “Can I trust you?”

  “Yes.”

  She really hadn’t needed to hear him say it. She already knew she could trust him.

  Eden took a deep breath then plunged in. “I’m a feline shifter.”

  She braced herself, waiting nervously for him to react to the bombshell she’d dropped.

  He nodded thoughtfully, the corner of his mouth edging up. “I should have guessed you were a cat, with moves like that.”

  Okay, that went way better than she’d expected. “I’m not really a cat. I have certain naturally-occurring feline genetic material buried deep in my DNA. The scientists where I work think residual animal DNA appears in all of us in the form of a recessive gene. I have the traits of a cat because the gene turned on for some reason.”

  “That explains the claws and fangs, as well as the green eyes and the speed,” he mused as if she’d told him she was good at spelling or math.

  Eden waited for him to say more, but he only picked up his beer and took a long, slow drink. She grabbed her fork and scooped up some of the previously untouched black beans with their sprinkle of cheese that came with the enchiladas. Travis had to be thinking about what she’d told him. How could he not? He was probably trying to come to grips with the knowledge there were actually things that could go bump in the night out in the world. He hadn’t bailed, though. That had to be a good sign.

  “When did you first know you were a shifter?” he asked softly.

  She gave him a small smile. “The gene turned on when I was eighteen. So, right before I graduated from high school.”

  He nodded, considering that. He was really taking this rather calmly. “Does it hurt when the claws and fangs come out?”

  “Not really,” she said. “They mostly tingl
e.”

  “Is what I saw as far as it goes?” he asked. “Do you ever turn into an actual cat?”

  She laughed. “The fangs and claws can come out a little bit more if I’m really pissed, but that’s about it. I don’t grow fur or turn into a real cat. I hope you’re not too disappointed.”

  “Nah.” He flashed her a grin. “You’re a cute kitty just the way you are.”

  It was a silly thing for him to say, but it made her feel ridiculously good anyway.

  Travis picked up his fork and dug into the rest of his enchilada. “So, the guy in the alley is a wolf shifter, which means he’s like you, but with wolf DNA instead of feline?”

  “Exactly.” She smiled. “You know, you’re handling this way better than most people. You sure you’ve never met a shifter before?”

  “Not that I know of.” He shrugged. “As far as being able to deal with the unexpected, that’s eight years in Special Forces coming through. Dealing with the unexpected and unusual is part of the job description. I’ve lived among and fought alongside people from every corner of the globe, and the one thing I’ve learned is that what a person looks like doesn’t matter as much as whether you can trust them to have your back when the time comes. I’ve already figured out I can trust you with my life, so nothing else matters in my book.”

  Eden blinked. She’d just dumped a whole bucket of weird crap on Travis and all he’d done was nod and told her he trusted her. She’d said it before and she’d say it again—she truly had never met anyone like him.

  “I do have a question, though,” he said, glancing up from his plate.

  “Okay. Go for it.”

  “Do you really work for the Department of Homeland Security? And are there others out there like you and the big-ass wolf shifter?”

  She bit her lip. “Now we’re verging into territory I can’t talk about. Not because I don’t trust you, but because it involves secrets that aren’t mine to share. I can tell you I work for an organization that’s technically part of the DHS called the Department of Covert Operations—the DCO for short.”