by E A Price
“Okay,” said Sky, a look of determination on her pretty face. “How do we catch this son of a bitch?”
That stopped his lust and shut his bear up. “We, oh no, there is no we.”
“Oh yes, we. Someone broke into my apartment and listened to me. They listened to me. They need to be stopped.”
“And they will be – by me, while you are safely away from all this – preferably in another state.”
Sky cocked her head to one side. “You’re joking?”
His grim countenance didn’t suggest he did.
She frowned at him. “Look, even I know we need to try and flush out this guy… or girl. Men don’t have the monopoly on being perverts.”
Yeah, he knew that from experience.
“Okay, you’re getting way ahead of yourself here. First things first, I am going to get some new locks for your windows and doors because your security is severely lacking. Next, I’m going to check out your ex-boyfriend – Edward.”
“Ethan, and I can’t imagine he did this.”
Zane grunted in disapproval.
“Not that I think he’s above it,” she amended. “I just can’t imagine he’s organized enough to do it. Plus, I can’t imagine he’d spend any money on me. Didn’t when we were going out.”
“Sounds like a real winner.” Perhaps Zane should pound him on principal for his poor treatment of Sky. Actually, his bear was pushing for pounding him based on the fact that he dared to touch Sky in the first place. “Does he have a key to your apartment?”
“He did. He kept showing up after we broke up, so I changed the locks.”
Grrr. Never mind the pounding, he had a cousin who could make things disappear… “Have you noticed anything out of place in your apartment?”
“No, and that does bother me. Someone must have broken in to plant those bugs, and I had no clue.”
“Maybe Elway…”
“Ethan,” she corrected, amusement dancing on her lips.
“Planted them after you broke up. Maybe that’s what he was doing when you found him here after you dumped his sorry ass.”
She mewled doubtfully. “I suppose it isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility.”
“You said you dumped Eron…”
“Ethan.”
“After he cheated. You’re not still… you don’t have…”
She wrinkled her nose. “No. I thought I did… but no, big no. He was such a… such an alpha. Always getting angry over nothing. He used to get into arguments with everyone. He once tried to punch the deli guy for cutting a slice of beef too thin. Not to mention what happened when the guy at Burger Queen forgot his extra pickle. He has trouble with his rage and therapy does not help. He was exhausting, but at the time I stupidly thought I could change him. So no, I’m glad he’s gone. Just wish he’d get the message and leave me alone. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he grunted, trying not to scowl too ferociously.
“You look like someone just kicked you in the family jewels,” she teased.
“Let’s go and get some new locks for your windows and doors.” While he and his bear sulked over the fact that her ex-asshole sounded just like him.
*
Gunner folded his arms as Rick, the SEA Medical Examiner, looked over the body of the giraffe.
“Cause of death appears to be a broken neck,” said Rick.
“Looks like a robbery, her purse is missing.”
Rick sniffed and pointed to a mark on her chest. “It looks like she was injected, or more likely shot with a tranq gun.”
Gunner’s bear growled. “So her robber tranqed her, robbed her and then snapped her neck?”
Isis canted her head. “That’s odd. Why not just leave her after they robbed her?”
Rick stood up. “I’ll need to test her blood to find out what sedative was used; maybe that will help find out who did this.”
Gunner nodded. “Thanks.” He turned to Isis. “Get Jessie to check out any security footage she can find for the area. We got any idea what she was doing here?”
Isis shook her head. “She lives and works on the other side of town. Maybe she was looking for a little company.” The street was notorious for its prostitutes. “Wayne and Cutter are going to talk to her friends and co-workers – maybe they’ll know if she liked to walk on the wild side. But FYI she was married – they’re leaving the husband for you.”
He grunted. “Crime scene techs find anything?”
“It’s an alley, so yeah, tons. All gross and probably nothing to do with this murder.”
“Okay, keep me posted. I’ll talk to the husband.”
The huge polar bear cracked his neck. He enjoyed his job, but death notifications were awful. Especially when he had to ask questions about what the deceased wife would have been doing hanging around in this area of town. He thought of his pretty pregnant mate waiting for him and his bear rumbled. Just the thought of her was enough to get him through anything.
Chapter Ten
Zane’s bear couldn’t understand the problem. But then the bear never did. The beast didn’t see what was wrong with pulling off someone’s side mirror and trying to beat them with it just because they parked in the spot you wanted. The bear didn’t get that you can’t rear end someone, just because they cut you off. To the bear, those things were perfectly reasonable reactions.
But the problem now was Sky. There was something about her, something that called to him. He was glad she wasn’t hung up on her ex, but the ex – Esther or something - sounded depressingly like Zane.
How many times had he got in arguments over nothing? At the time, the fact that the pizza guy forgot the jalapeños seemed big, and was well worth the argument, but now… Now throwing the pizza at him seemed kind of childish and possibly an overreaction. His bear still growled in disagreement.
The bear had no restraint. On the other hand, Zane was trying to learn restraint. He was trying to be better. He’d already lost his job over his outbursts; he didn’t want to lose anything else – like his freedom. Maybe he could show her he was different to her ex. Maybe she didn’t need to see explosive Zane – maybe she just needed to see kind Zane. The Zane that said good morning to strangers on the street instead of sneering. The Zane that didn’t mind when other people talked in movie theaters and didn’t threaten to ram their popcorn down their throats. The Zane that was sweet and generous… Well, that Zane didn’t exist yet, but he was getting there… ish.
He just didn’t know how easy it was going to be. His beast was already prowling over all the bugs he found in her apartment. They were on their way to buy new locks but would that be enough to appease him that she was safe? No, it definitely wouldn’t. He almost laughed at himself – of course not, that was a no-brainer.
He flicked a look at her, making sure she didn’t notice as he flipped off a woman on a scooter. She was an elderly lady, and it was a mobility scooter – she shouldn’t be on the freaking road!
“Maybe you should move,” he growled at her. Into his apartment would be fine, nay, preferable.
Sky shrugged making her breasts ripple quite attractively. “I appreciate that you’re helping me,” she said in a lyrical voice, “but I’d rather not do anything drastic.”
“What if it isn’t Eustace doing this?”
“Ethan – and I’m beginning to suspect you keep forgetting his name on purpose.”
Zane flashed her an innocent look, and she giggled.
“What if it isn’t Lyle? You any idea who else it might be?” So he could add them to his list for a good ass kicking.
She looked out the window quickly, and Zane felt her fear resurfacing. There was something she didn’t want to tell him and it angered him… but he was gong to control that – because he was becoming a better guy for her. He could be a good guy for her – he could be the guy she wanted. Even if it killed him.
“There’s a guy at work who’s kind of been asking me out,” she said after a few moments. “An
d I already know he’s a perv. He spies on the women at the salon across the street from us. Plus, it wasn’t proved, but we found a spy hole that went into the women’s locker room – I’m certain he made it.”
Zane gripped the steering wheel. “He ask you out a lot?”
“Yeah, every day I’m working.”
“You give me his details, and I’ll check him out along with Dorian.”
Sky shook her head. “Not even trying now, are you?”
Zane smiled, something that froze as his phone rang. He would ignore it, but there was a possibility that Mercy was calling about a new client. Or his mom telling him his dad had suffered a heart attack – wouldn’t want to miss that. He managed to grab it out of his pocket and gave the screen a cursory glance. Crap - Melissa. He’d been mooning over her for months, and she rings now?
“You need me to get that?” offered Sky, holding out her hand.
He felt the old familiar pull, but it didn’t feel as urgent as it once did. In fact, it seemed to be fading. With every second he spent with Sky, the more Melissa faded into the background. Good smirked his bear.
He threw the phone on the dash. “Nah, it’ll keep.”
“Okay.” She shrugged again, and the ripple happened again. It was… lovely. Not a word he usually used.
She beamed at him, sunlight illuminating her form, making her ethereal beauty more pronounced. He sighed. Then withheld about fourteen cusses as he almost plowed into a truck.
*
Booker snarled down the phone as his gorilla moved restlessly. Disturbingly, it felt like he was being told off, and he really didn’t like that. He certainly wasn’t going to take it from his prissy pants partner. Booker did all the hard work – all his partner had to do was get buyers. How hard was that?!
“Your doctor made a mistake,” snapped Booker. “She told me it was a slam dunk.” The doctor he was forced to work with, who was supposed to make his job easier. Yeah-fucking-right.
“Didn’t you check? Didn’t you fucking investigate? Ten fucking years we’ve been doing this, and you didn’t check first?!”
The doctor had been quick to report the problem with the giraffe shifter, and Booker’s solution. Bitch.
“Look, she’s not the first we had to put down.”
He groaned. “Tell me you covered your tracks.”
Booker held his tongue. Did he think this was his first day? “We dumped the body in a shitty part of town, and the van’s in a chop shop. There’s no way it can come back to us. SEA will be chasing their tails.”
“It better not get back to you. If it does, you’re on your own.”
His gorilla sneered. “Yeah, wouldn’t want to ruin your reputation.”
The male bristled. “You get paid well for all the risks you take, don’t you?”
“Humph. How’s the auction shaping up?”
“Not great. I don’t even have half the interest I had last year.”
Booker sighed. “Yeah, well, last year we had a pterodactyl – that was a real fucking boon.”
The guy who bought her paid millions. Apparently, she now lives in a cage in the buyer’s bedroom. Could be worse, some of these rich bastards buy the rare species to eat. Booker wasn’t easily disgusted, but that did it for him.
“I sent out a few preliminary pictures of the sabre-tooth tiger, and I have a lot of females interested in him. Women love cats. And there’s high interest in the mammoth but not much else. Doubt we’ll even break a million for a giant penguin. We need more.”
“Yeah, I’m working on it, but pickings are slim.” He thought of Sky Danvers. “I might have something big, but I can’t be sure yet.” Bitch was making it difficult for him by refusing to shift. Course he could just abduct her and kill her if she turned out to be a regular horse. But killing wasn’t his first choice – mostly because it heightened the chance of getting caught, and Sky’s uncle was the alpha of a pretty affluent herd in Montana.
He blew out a breath. “I’ll have the doctor send out some more feelers.”
Booker snorted. “Fat lot of fucking good that’ll do.”
“She’s useful.”
“Yeah, for Vargas to dip his wick.” Far as he could see, her only use was in keeping Vargas in line. Fucking expensive and whiny prostitute.
“She’s an expert on extinct species, her spiel at the auction will be useful. She stays.”
“Sure.” Vargas will be thrilled.
“Just… just be careful of the next one. We don’t want the SEA sniffing around.”
Booker laughed. “Ten years and they haven’t caught on; they won’t start now.”
Chapter Eleven
Zane fit new locks; her apartment was as safe and secure as it was going to get without bars on the windows, guard dogs, and electronic locks. All good ideas that Sky shot down.
Zane grabbed his phone and called Wes – a liger shifter he used to work with at the SEA.
The liger, currently temporarily assigned to missing persons, sounded harassed and complained about his caseload while Zane listened impatiently. But yeah, eventually, he agreed to run some background checks. Zane wanted them for Ethan and Erik.
“Maybe this is something that should be reported to the SEA officially,” Wes said.
Maybe Zane thought guiltily. And his bear was in two minds about that too. For one thing, he didn’t want anyone getting near her – and that included any random male SEA agents. Then again, the SEA had a heck of a lot more resources than he did, even though he was currently making use of most of them. But the SEA was busy and tied up in knots by dumb laws. If they found out it was Ethan being a dick, all they would do was get a restraining order. Yeah, like a fucking piece of paper would ever stop a shit for brains wolf shifter. No, if it was Ethan, Zane was already considering a more permanent solution…
“You got time to deal with a girl and her asshole ex?” grouched Zane.
“Well…”
“All you could do is get her a restraining order.”
“Maybe. But what can you do? Actually, don’t tell me. Plausible deniability and all that. I’ll e-mail you the results.”
Zane grunted and then in some recess of his mind a small nudge forced the next word out of his mouth – with some difficulty it must be noted. “Th… thanks.”
Wes hooted with laughter. “Wow, I don’t think I ever heard you use that word before. Boy, that sounded painful. You need to lie down? Never mind, I’ll e-mail you the results of the checks.”
He hung up, and Zane panted. Sweaty brow but he was okay. See, manners weren’t that hard. They shouldn’t be. Thank you was just a word. He didn’t even have to mean it – all he had to do was say it. Still felt hard, still felt like he was giving in and showing weakness. Manners were something his parents had tried to instill in him from a young age, from his mom when she denied him ice cream to his dad who took his belt to him. He never gave in, though. Nope. He was just as stubborn when he was a kid. Now, though, now he wanted to be better, wanted control, wanted to impress a certain horse shifter client. Yeah, maybe she was worth showing a little weakness. His bear grumbled but didn’t argue. Yeah, he was okay.
Even more so when Sky glided into the room and handed him a glass of lemonade. Her cheeks pinkened prettily as she passed him a glass and he took a big gulp and… almost barfed at the taste. The liquid swirled around his mouth, and he tried his hardest to swallow despite the urge to spit it out. It tasted… funky.
“That’s… unusual.” That was the least offensive word he or his bear could come up with on short notice. He’d need a few days and a thesaurus to do any better.
“Yes, I sweetened it with agave nectar.”
“Ah.” That sounds terrible.
“It’s derived from plants that grow in hot countries. It’s a good substitute for sugar.”
He was right. There is no substitute for sugar.
“It’s supposed to be better for you than sugar,” she explained in between mouthfuls. “A friend of
mine claims it relieves stress, but I don’t know about that. She also claims that patting your face with butter every night before you go to bed stops wrinkles. She’s not entirely a reliable source of information.”
Sky smiled sweetly at him, and he melted just a little more. He’d never been partial to chatty women. He always seemed to prefer women who were either bossing him around or cooing at him. But Sky seemed to do neither. She took her cues from him and then prattled on about everything and nothing, always with that sweet smile on her face. When she wasn’t afraid. Grrr. Well, she wasn’t going to be afraid for long. He would see to that.
“Do you like it?” she asked.
“Ummm, yeah.”
He took another gulp, hating himself just a little bit. What? She said it was supposed to relieve stress. Although tasting the gawdawful lemonade wasn’t exactly helping his anger issues.
His phone rang again, and he ignored it in favor of looking at Sky.
“Don’t you need to…” she started.
“Nah. I’ll call them back later.”
It was Melissa again. After months of ignoring him, apparently, she couldn’t wait to get hold of him. Before Sky Danvers strolled into his office, he probably would have fallen over his feet running to take that call. He’d always felt like he was being gripped by Melissa - like she had hold of him in some way, and whenever she needed him, demanded something of him, the grip tightened. But now, he was in the grip of something else. It wasn’t the same. He didn’t feel like Sky was demanding anything from him. More like she was calling to him. Her voice, her scent, her huge green eyes, the way her cheeks slowly turned pink as she babbled about inane subjects – they all called to him. Soft tendrils of desire wrapped around him with every passing second he spent with her, and he wanted nothing more than to be near her, to touch her, hold her, kiss her, ravish her senseless…
“Are you okay?” she asked.
A slim hand pressed against his chest, and he realized his lustful thoughts had propelled him across the room until he was pressing her up against a wall. Concern filled her eyes but no fear, thankfully not that. But then, she hadn’t seen him lose his temper yet. The soft looks she gave him now could easily flutter away like a leaf on the wind. Or get stomped like chewing gum under a combat boot.
