by Dianna Love
All it took for Cole was hearing that one woman had died.
Justin kept at it. “If Katelyn hadn’t run off, Sammy might have convinced her to become a shifter. She could bond with him if he changed her into a bear. Then they’d have bear babies for sure.”
Rory snarled, “That is not what we do.”
Justin stopped.
When Cole and Rory turned back to him, Justin said, “We won’t survive if we don’t bond with a mate of some kind. Are you telling me you wouldn’t at least ask a woman who loves you if she’d consider changing into a shifter?”
Cole and Rory both said, “No!”
“You’re a pair of meatheads.” Justin strode past them, but he didn’t make it far, because he reached the bar where they had agreed to meet up.
That was if they’d waited there for Cole as directed.
Watching Justin disappear into the bar, Cole said, “So you understand why I’m not telling the Guardian any of this?”
“He doesn’t know about your mating curse?”
“He does,” Cole admitted. “He called me on it. That’s not why I asked you two not to talk to him. I need help wrapping everything up before ... the time comes for me to do what is right. The Guardian would pull me back if he thought I was too focused on protecting Tess instead of watching out for Gray Wolf and myself. I need some room to move and react at a moment’s notice. He knows I’ll come in when it’s time, but I won’t hold it against you if you call the Guardian before I turn myself in. I feel like I know when I’m in control, but ... that could change.”
Rory listened intently and finally nodded. “You would do it for me.”
“I would, but Justin isn’t going to be easy to convince.”
“True, but he’s always done the right thing when the time came to act.” Breathing out a rough breath, Rory asked, “Is there anything the Guardian can do for you?”
“No. Nothing has ever been normal about me being a shifter, starting with my changing too early. Just so you know, once I find Sammy, I want to see Tess one last time, then I’m going to the Guardian.”
Rory put a hand on Cole’s shoulder and looked him in the eyes. “The Guardian is allowing you to be out here hunting Sammy while you deal with the mating curse, which is unlike him, so I take that to mean we all have some autonomy. We’re here to help find Sammy and to help you. How far along is the curse?”
“Claws come out sometimes. Gray Wolf was almost impossible to control up until three days ago, but something happened after he broke loose at SCIS and battled two jackal shifters. I have no idea. Maybe that release calmed him.”
Or maybe being close to Tess calmed him.
Cole wished it was that simple, but it wasn’t. If he stayed around Tess, eventually Gray Wolf would snap.
Rory muttered, “Good wolf. The only good jackal shifter is a dead one.”
Cole would hate losing a future with these men. “I promise you I won’t put anyone at risk, but if ... the unexpected happens and the curse progresses faster than I realize, you have to do your duty.”
“Justin will balk.”
“I know. That’s why I’m telling you. Do whatever it takes. I don’t want to die with the blood of an innocent on my hands.”
Patting his shoulder, Rory said, “I understand. Now, let’s get a beer and soothe Justin’s fragile psyche.”
Cole laughed at the idea of soothing someone who turned into a monster grizzly bear with jaws that opened wide enough to snap off a human head.
As they walked into the bar, Rory said, “Speaking of Katelyn, the Guardian says he’ll have news soon about a meeting.”
“We need to find her,” Cole muttered. “Wait, did he call while I was up with Tess?”
“Yep.”
“What’d you tell the Guardian about where I was?”
“Not me. Justin took the call and told him you were interviewing potential mates.”
“I’m gonna kill that bear.”
“You’ll hurt his feelings.”
Cole laughed, but the sound died in his throat. He’d lost his human life to being a shifter. Now he’d lose his shifter life and brothers-in-soul from the mating curse.
He never had a chance at a future, but he now wanted to make sure Tess was safe before he was gone again.
That wouldn’t happen as long as Brantley was in the picture.
Chapter 20
Friday morning, Tess stood behind her desk at the downtown Spartanburg offices for SCIS, checking quickly through her messages. Nothing from Scarlett Sullivan, a consultant shifter who tracked and provided intel. No one in SCIS knew her animal. Not even the jackals on staff could figure it out. They scowled that her scent was off, whatever that meant.
Brantley took issue with Scarlett and didn’t hide his irritation.
Scarlett rarely showed up at SCIS in person, preferring to send in her reports and speak occasionally by phone.
Tess believed it was because Brantley considered Scarlett part of the security department and under his thumb.
As for Tess, she’d been trying to build a professional relationship with Scarlett, the one shifter who said what she meant and didn’t make Tess uncomfortable the way the jackals did.
Now Tess could add Cole to that list. Her worldview had broadened in the last two days.
Regardless, Scarlett trusted no one and hadn’t checked in today when Tess was hoping to have heard back about the side project. She’d asked Scarlett to track down the alpha who was involved in the shifter battle that triggered her mother’s heart attack. Tess had been putting out quiet feelers to her law contacts, seeking out a judge who might entertain her motion to have the court files unsealed. She’d been too off her game after her mother’s death—and too close to the case for reasonable analysis—but now, she had questions.
Brantley walked in without knocking.
Tess held her temper, but she did not acknowledge his entrance while she finished working through her notes.
Rude attitude deserved a rude response.
She and Brantley were headed for a confrontation, but that would have to wait for the right time. Rumor was, someone high in the government had used his or her influence to push Brantley’s resume through and influenced him ending up as Tess’s partner.
But he was not lead on the Black River Pack investigation in the southeast, which clearly was a bigger deal for him than she’d realized. Her background with shifters had given her a step up on him.
And now Cole had her looking at Brantley even closer.
Tess kissed no one’s butt at a job, but as a woman in SCIS, which was a dangerous field of operation, she had to go the extra mile every day to prove her capability.
Once she had a solid two years here, she’d put in to work with the national headquarters over all the SCIS operations, which would eventually lead to the director’s position where she could really make a difference.
When her visitor exhaled a long sigh, she dropped into her chair, looked up innocently and said, “Anything new on the blast at the food bank?”
Brantley’s face darkened with annoyance, but he pulled back a chair facing her and sat. “Body parts of one person have been recovered but no identity yet.”
That would be Sonic. Cole’s snitch friend had been blown to pieces.
Tess couldn’t very well tell Brantley she had information on the identity of the body without exposing the fact that she’d seen their escapee last night.
She asked, “Do we know if the body parts belong to a human or shifter?”
“Lab report on a recovered limb indicates the person was human. They’re still running tests.”
Maintaining a hardnosed professional tone for Brantley’s benefit, Tess asked, “Has there been any sign of Colin O’Donnell? I reviewed the traffic cam from the food bank explosion. O’Donnell ran out a second before the bomb detonated and he was carrying that homeless woman, but he never looked at the camera.”
She knew that was because of Cole being
a trained operative.
Tess pointed out, “He could have been saving that woman since I doubt she had any serious role in all of this. Probably an innocent caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.” That was close to what had happened. Her chest had ached at watching Cole almost die in the video.
He had tried to protect the homeless woman.
Brantley snorted with disgust. “Probably more like O’Donnell intended to use her for a human shield.”
Don’t kick Brantley.
At least they had no positive ID for Colin-Cole other than the SCIS staff members who put the mask on him after he’d shifted back from his wolf. How much could they have seen while nervously hurrying to install the mask?
Tess might not be objective after having been with Cole last night, but Brantley was just as subjective with his opinions.
She thought of a way to keep Brantley busy today. “You should interview that homeless woman for more information.”
Brantley waved off that suggestion. “You heard that initial interview with her. We’d get more out of a hamster.”
“Not necessarily,” Tess argued. “I just read a report from one of our people who found someone at the local shelter who knew the woman and could speak her broken language. Evidently she has no teeth and speaks Spanish. That’s probably why it sounded like gibberish.”
“So?”
Lifting the report, Tess scanned it and said, “One of the nurses who spoke Spanish said the homeless woman claimed an angel swooped in, picked her up and flew her away from the devil’s wrath.” Looking at Brantley, Tess added, “We could get more out of her with that translator.”
“She’s in the wind. Someone checked her out and no one can find paperwork on who did it or where she went.” He shared that with a smug look.
“When, exactly, were you going to share that information?” Tess asked, glad she already knew what had happened to the woman.
“Didn’t seem important since, as you said, she probably didn’t play any role in the event.”
She’d love to tell Brantley the escaped shifter was not with the Black River pack, but he’d love that. She had no proof other than talking to Cole, which she could never mention.
More than that, Cole trusted her to protect what he’d shared. She couldn’t betray that trust unless she discovered he’d lied to her.
She knew in her heart he hadn’t.
Plus, when she began putting the pieces of her conversation with Cole together, she figured out why he didn’t want to be seen with her or for SCIS to be involved in tracking Colin.
She believed Cole was making himself a target to draw out the Black River wolf pack.
The note on Sonic’s chest had been addressed specifically to Cole.
The next time she saw Cole, she might shake his head loose for taking these risks.
If she ever saw him again.
Unwilling to entertain that dismal thought any longer, she asked, “So nothing new on O’Donnell?”
“I stopped by the lab on the way here and the only thing they have determined is that his blood doesn’t match a specific shifter species of wolf or anything else.”
Tess had an idea why.
Cole had described his kind as an apex predator.
She knew there was more to it than that, but she’d have to wait until he was willing to trust her with more.
The deeper she got into this investigation, the further she moved from the center where she belonged. She couldn’t do a thorough job with her bias toward Cole, because she was withholding important information.
But Brantley was pushing just as hard to pin the bombing on Colin O’Donnell and prove he was a Black River pack member based on puny, circumstantial evidence.
Cole claimed there was a mole in her division of SCIS and she believed him, so for now she was sharing little.
Brantley scrolled on his phone as he spoke. “Our people continued tracking the missing paper trail on O’Donnell and actually got something. His identity disappears in records around the age of twenty-two when he entered this country. He dropped off the radar, which is suspicious in itself. No one disappears completely. Plus, we can’t find a photo anywhere of this guy. Even if a person goes into an agency such as the CIA, someone can confirm or deny his existence through our agency channels, especially if that person is found committing a crime.”
Cole didn’t commit a crime at the food bank, Tess wanted to argue, but she had no way to prove who he was or what he’d done in the past seven years.
So why am I so ready to defend him?
Because while her mind was having a tough time with all of this, her heart had already made a decision and opened its gates.
Brantley was still reading from his phone notes. “On top of that, a year after O’Donnell disappeared, the Black River pack surfaced for the first time that we know of in the Middle East, then expanded to South America where they’re now headquartered.”
“You do realize this is all circumstantial, don’t you, Brantley?”
“So? It’s evidence. What’s your point?”
“My point is that I don’t want to get so focused on one potential tie to the Black River pack only to find out later O’Donnell isn’t connected and we wasted a lot of effort on him.”
Brantley didn’t even blink. “It’s not a waste. He’s our prime target right now.”
Showing a clear concern for the case so he didn’t turn this around down the road, Tess said, “It’s a shame we didn’t get a photo of O’Donnell while he was here, which is understandable since our people would have been in jeopardy. The staff was right to worry more about installing the mask the minute O’Donnell shifted back to human form than in taking pictures, but we could sure use a photo right now. I suppose we all thought we’d have plenty of time to observe him once he arrived at the SNR facility.”
Someone had tried to kill Cole on the way to that prison.
Tess intended to find out who inside SCIS was involved.
If Cole was correct in his suspicions and the mole turned out to be Brantley, she wanted to know who his powerful contact in the government was before she put him in cuffs.
Brantley eyed Tess with a superior look when he casually mentioned, “An image of O’Donnell is not a problem. I brought in a sketch artist last night to create an image. She spent hours with both of the men who had attached the mask.”
Oh, hell. Brantley had probably been rubbing his hands together just waiting to drop that little bomb.
Tess refused to show any physical reaction about the sketches, but her stomach threatened to revolt over the results.
She said, “Really? When did the artist finish?”
“About one this morning.”
“Eight hours ago. Why haven’t I received those drawings?”
“You haven’t? I sent them to you an hour later.” He scrolled on his phone, mumbling to himself. “Here it is. I’ll send it again.”
Her gut was screaming that he lied about sending them earlier. She tapped the keys on her laptop and opened her email, then downloaded the images. Damn.
The artist had captured Cole’s image right down to his intense gaze, which seemed to stare at Tess, accusing her of taking the wrong side.
She would always stand on the side of the law.
But her legs were a bit shaky at the moment.
Moving on as if he were now running the meeting, Brantley said, “I sent the picture to contacts overseas and in South America immediately. Nothing has come back from our South American resources yet, but I did hear back from someone with US military who confirmed the man we’re calling Colin O’Donnell might have been seen in military operations overseas.”
Tess pondered what Brantley was sharing. Did he have more he was holding back? “Are you saying O’Donnell was in our military, but we have no record of his enlistment?”
“No, but you’re assuming he was fighting for our side. They didn’t indicate he was, so he might have been with our enemies. Could b
e a sleeper cell sent here. We just don’t know yet.”
Great. Cole was either part of a deadly wolf pack or a terrorist.
Putting a push of challenge in her voice, Tess said, “Since I seem to be the only one looking at all possibilities, I’ll play devil’s advocate. What if O’Donnell was in a Special Forces group with missions off the books?”
Brantley leveled her with a hard look that said he didn’t care for her dig at him. He moved ahead. “I sent an inquiry through a ... close contact I have in the government, one of which is an associate of a person in the Pentagon who would know about anyone in our military. I’ve heard nothing on it. I’d say that’s not realistic right now.”
Who was Brantley’s contact?
Cole had made a valid point when he told Tess that SCIS had no evidence he’d committed a crime, but escaping from that transport yesterday screwed his argument for innocence. She had a hard time caring that Cole had broken a law by escaping since he’d managed to stay alive.
Ready to wrap this up, Tess asked, “What about the Jugo Loco? Was there any evidence of it being in the food bank building?”
“Actually, yes,” Brantley replied. “The explosion knocked a metal wall over piles of food supplies which protected some of the supplies from the fire. They found six jugs of standard tea that tested positive on site for Jugo Loco, but our people are doing a chemical analysis to be sure.”
So Cole had been telling the truth on that as well.
Why do I keep questioning him?
When she thought about it, she kept mentally judging everything she learned about him and the food bank explosion to build a case in her mind for his innocence.
A case she could defend, if she ever had to do so.
Changing subjects, Brantley asked, “You got an update on the bear shifter responsible for the Nantahala Honeymoon Massacre?”
Tess had just looked at a new report on that case this morning. “Not really. Can your jackal shifter who fingered the bear’s scent at the scene see if he can find anything around the food bank location? If the Black River wolf pack really did take in a bear, which is odd in itself, maybe he was involved in this distribution point.”
