by E A Price
Gunner harrumphed. “There was only one cat; I’m not dumb enough to make that mistake twice.”
Erin clucked her tongue. “Come on, you were with her more than once, I know you were together in your apartment, in your car, at a gym… let’s be honest with one another. You know my embarrassing sexual secrets, so I should know yours too.”
He was surprisingly quiet until he pulled into the SEA parking lot. He shut off the engine and turned to her with narrowed eyes. “How do you know those details about me and Isis? I never told anyone all that.”
“Ummm…” she bit her lip and desperately wished she were invisible.
Well, she was so embarrassed at that moment that there was a possibility that she might just burst into flames. She could only hope.
“Did Isis tell you all that?” His voice had turned downright arctic.
Erin hid her face in her hands. “No, I got a vision of you two together when Isis bumped into me at the coffee shop.”
“A vision?” he repeated slowly.
“More like a montage,” she explained in a muffled voice, not wanting to see his face at that moment. Wasn’t it bad enough that the images of him and Isis together would be with her forever? “The memories must have been close to the surface when she touched me.”
“Erin, fuck, I’m sorry.”
She looked up in surprise to see pain etched across his face. Okay, not the response she was expecting.
“A few minutes ago you were telling me I had to get over your past, and now you’re sorry. Jeez, and you can’t even blame PMS on your mood swings.”
Gunner took both of her hands in his and rubbed his thumbs over her knuckles. He tried to twist his face into a smile, not very successfully. His mouth looked like it was being pulled by elastic bands.
“Knowing about my past is one thing, having to see it is another. I couldn’t cope if I had to… if I could see another man…” He swallowed with difficulty, “touching you. I hate that you have visions; I hate all the things you have to see, and hell, I really wish you didn’t have to see that.”
Erin clambered over and sat on his lap, briefly pressing her ass into the horn. She giggled as the loud toot diffused the tension settling into his hard body.
“I’ve seen worse. Although, only just…”
She squealed as he nipped her buttock.
“But I think Isis did it on purpose. I think she was deliberately thinking about it and then bumped into me. I’m not sure why though, maybe she knows about us.”
“Fuck!” he roared, jerking her body.
“Oh! Right in my ear!” she grumbled.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, babe,” he crooned, rocking her body lightly. “But I think I know why she did it. She wanted to piss you off.”
“But, why?”
Gunner didn’t answer, and she patted his arm.
“To steal your gun.”
Her horror mounted as he told her about Isis finding it and then her attempted at blackmail.
“Oh, crap, I didn’t even realize. My gun was in my bag this morning.”
“I put it back.”
Erin tried to scramble out of his lap, but he clung onto her.
“Why didn’t you tell me when it happened?” she grouched.
Gunner snorted and looked at her like she was crazy. “And upset you before we had sex last night? Are you kidding me? I’m not that dumb.”
She ignored that and instead focused on what the situation meant for her. She’d be fired; she was sure of it. There was only so much bumbling the agency could put up with, and she’d reached her quota.
“Oh, this is really bad.”
“I’m going to deal with it; I’m going to talk to Isis.”
“I should be the one…”
“No, don’t, you stay away from her, she’s not reasonable,” he told her firmly.
“So how are you going to reason with her?”
His face hardened. “I’m not, I’m going to threaten her.”
“Gunner! You can’t do that!” He cannot be serious!
“She needs to back off. Look, I’ll deal with it – end of discussion.”
*
A couple of hours later, Erin was sitting outside Isis’ apartment building. Yeah, as terrific as Gunner’s plan to threaten Isis into leaving her alone was, Erin had decided to take matters into her own hands.
After cajoling Jessie into giving her Isis’ address, she took Gunner’s car – which he insisted she use in spite of her many objections – and decided to drive to Isis’ place and wait for her. She really didn’t want to talk to her at the office.
Erin lucked out. She’d only been waiting for ten minutes when she saw Isis pull into the parking spot behind her. She watched in the mirror as Isis got out and looked at Gunner’s car for a couple of beats.
Crud, she must recognize it. Well, here goes nothing.
Erin hopped out and actually managed to startle the smug tigress.
“What are you doing here?” blustered Isis, genuinely shocked to see Erin walking toward her.
Erin squared her shoulders, and tried to look as fierce as possible. Which was probably about as much as a stuffed panda bear. “We need to talk.”
Isis snorted and started walking to the door of her building. “No, we don’t.”
“You tricked me into losing my gun,” accused Erin.
“I didn’t make you do anything,” said Isis, coolly.
“Why are you trying to blackmail Gunner? Are you pissed at him because he’s not interested in you anymore?”
Isis turned toward her, eyes flashing. “No, it’s because you have my job. You’re a joke; you’re not capable of doing this job. You should be an analyst or a consultant and leave the hard stuff up to the rest of us. Do us all a favor and just request a transfer. There’s no shame in failure.”
“Then you shouldn’t feel ashamed of the fact that you failed to get my spot on the Alpha team.”
Isis bared her fangs and hissed. “Watch your mouth, human.”
“Don’t bother threatening me. I’ve spent my whole life seeing visions of people beating each other, torture, rapes, murders… I’ve seen the worst that the world has to offer and you don’t scare me. Leave Gunner alone. If you want to tell the Director what I did, then stop yapping about it and do it. I made a mistake. I know you manipulated me into doing it, but it was still my error and I will deal with the consequences. Just don’t involve Gunner, he’s not to blame for this.”
Isis watched her through hooded eyes. “You’re very protective of Gunner.”
Oh, she didn’t like the happy expression dawning on Isis’ pretty face. Uh-oh, a flush started creeping over her body. Had she just managed to give Isis even more fodder against her?
“And you’re driving his car, and his scent is on you.” The tigress’ face lit up like a firework display. “Oh, my god! You and Gunner! Oh, this is too good.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about…” began Erin, limply.
Isis grinned horribly. “Well, that’s settled then, if you two are together, you definitely can’t work together. I’ll tell the Director in the morning and he can arrange your transfer. And since I’m in such a good mood, I’ll agree not to mention the gun incident.”
Erin sagged. Well, that was kind of what she wanted. At least she hadn’t made the situation worse; this was kind of a step up from the way things had been ten minutes ago.
“Look, Isis…”
“Quiet!” snarled the tigress as she took a step toward her.
Erin prickled in indignation. “There’s no need to be…”
“I said quiet!” hissed Isis as he clamped a hand over Erin’s mouth.
Erin was about to struggle when she noted Isis’ eyes had turned yellow and were widened. The tigress sniffed the air a couple of times before she sucked in a breath.
“Fuck, Erin, run!”
Isis pushed her towards her car – Gunner’s car – but before she made it she ran
straight into a very hard set of muscles. Not the achingly familiar muscles she had come to know and love, no, these were an altogether different and unfriendly set.
She looked up to find the owner of the muscles, but a sharp smack to her face sent everything black. Vaguely as she fell into unconsciousness she was aware of the sounds a tigress roaring.
Chapter Seventeen
Gunner squeezed the receiver in his hand as once again Erin’s answer machine cut through the call.
“Erin, it’s Gunner, call me!” he hissed before slamming it down.
That may have seemed harsh, but it was the tenth call he’d made and the fifth message he’d left. His bear was prowling furiously. Where the fuck was she?
Earlier, she’d been a little standoffish about his plan of action where Isis was concerned, and then even more so when he’s made her promise to use his car. She said it was too much, and that he needed it, but he suspected another objection was the fact that he’d had sex with Isis in it. Not his finest or most enjoyable hour. He was already considering getting a new car to replace it. Not just for that reason, it was getting a bit old, and the strain of having to transport his more than ample frame gave it a shorter life expectancy than usual.
But still, she’d taken the keys and after trying to get some more visions from their victim’s belongings, her nerves had been fraught and she was pale and shaky. Gunner insisted she leave to go home and relax. Surprisingly, she did without argument. That was now over an hour ago, and he hadn’t heard from her since.
His bear was riding him to go to her, and to see what she was doing that was so damn urgent that she couldn’t answer her freaking phone! But the man tried to rationalize the situation. If she were asleep, she couldn’t answer the phone, and he certainly didn’t want to interrupt that. Likewise, if she was trying to take a relaxing bath.
But what if neither of those scenarios was true? What if she’d got in a car accident on the way home? What if she was now covered in blood, being crushed to death by his car just waiting for him to come rescue her?!
His bear howled in despair and Gunner tensed, gripping the edge of his desk, as he felt his bones cracking, trying to realign themselves. No, not now. The bear grunted and turned his back. Yeah, he got it; the hairy asshole wasn’t happy. Controlling his beast seemed to be a full-time occupation.
Perhaps he would calm a little once Erin was bonded to him. That couldn’t come soon enough; he just wasn’t sure how to broach the subject. Oh, by the way, you’re my soulmate, now hold still while I take a chunk out of your neck with my razor sharp teeth. He chuckled imagining the look on her face if he dared to say that. He wondered how she would feel about the prospect of being bitten. Absently, his hand stroked over the patch of skin where she had dug her blunt teeth into him when they were making love. Even without her breaking the skin, it had felt phenomenal. Maybe she wouldn’t be so averse to a little nip after all.
Gunner sighed and scrubbed his hands down his face. He needed to go see the Director. Again. The Director wouldn’t admit it, but he was on edge about this case and getting pressure to close it quickly. Nobody liked the idea of shifters being harvested for their organs, which meant round the clock updates on their progress. Or their lack of progress.
He lumbered to his feet, stretched out his limbs, as far as his tiny office would allow and made his way to the elevator. His fingers itched over his cell phone in his pocket. Maybe he should just try her again. There were plenty of rational explanations as to why she wasn’t picking up or returning his calls, but he just had a bad feeling.
He gave in and fumbled for his phone just as the elevator dinged at his floor. He composed himself when he saw Rory, the undeniably creepy medical examiner inside.
Rory gave him a slimy smile. “Going up?”
Gunner grunted that he was and with a heavy heart, he stowed the phone in his pocket and got in.
“How’s the case going?” asked Rory simply.
“Fine,” he muttered not wanting to be drawn into a conversation.
Although, it wasn’t really fine. They thought they’d find a link to the other missing shifters at the plastic surgery clinic. But other than their victim, none of them appeared to have undergone any procedures there. The only way to be sure would be to get a warrant to see the clinics records, but given that they’re medical records, any judge would be hesitant to do anything given how little evidence they had.
They were just hoping that the doctor would incriminate himself.
“How’s your new recruit, Erin, working out?”
His jaw tightened as his sullen bear perked up again. Erin was none of this fucking rabbit’s business. “Fine,” he said through gritted teeth.
To Gunner’s chagrin, Rory got off at the same floor and walked with him down the corridor. Would it be too rude just to say, oh fuck off! Yeah, probably. His bear grumbled an objection.
The rabbit brought it on himself. He was dismissive and rude to just about everyone in the building. Not to mention, he was kind of misogynistic and made inappropriate remarks to the female agents about them being inferior to males. The last time he told Isis that she ought to quit and find a mate to raise cubs with he ended up with a fractured wrist and twin black eyes. And, he tried to stir up trouble between teammates. A wolf in tactical had been kind of sweet on Avery until Rory managed to convince the idiot that she was sleeping with Cutter. As if! The two of them were more likely to punch each other than kiss each other. But the wolf didn’t believe it, and Avery had been a little subdued since then.
So the last thing he wanted was this poisonous rabbit getting his claws into Erin. Whoever said rabbits were harmless was clearly talking out their ass!
“I heard there was a bet going on about who’d be the first to get Erin in bed.”
“You heard right,” murmured Gunner, blandly.
“Although I heard the bet was over already.”
Gunner sucked in a breath and sped up a little, trying to shake the smaller man. Unfortunately, Rory refused to take the hint and was almost running to keep up with him.
“I mean, given that Diaz already sealed the deal.”
His bear roared in outrage. Lies! All lies! He knew for a fact that she hadn’t been anywhere near that smarmy jaguar shifter. It was the only thing that did allow him to keep his temper – the fact that he knew it wasn’t true.
The rabbit chuckled. “Two and a half weeks she’s been here. She didn’t keep her legs closed for long.”
That was it! Gunner grabbed the rabbit by the throat and slammed him against the wall. Rory’s eyes bulged as the bear roared in his face.
“You are never to talk about her again! Do you understand me?!”
“Gunner!” snarled the Director, “put him down.”
He flicked his eyes between the snake and the rabbit shifter, torn between doing the right thing and doing what he wanted. Namely to rip the inferior shifter’s throat out!
“Gunner!” hissed the Director.
With a huff, he dropped Rory to the floor and stepped over him to get to the Director’s office, ignoring the look of thunder on the snake shifter’s face.
All he could think was that Erin better call him back soon.
*
Large, warm hands clutched her arms. She looked up expecting to see her polar bear, but screamed at the monster staring back at her…
“Erin, wake up.”
Erin blinked and groaned as pain wrenched across her face. She couldn’t help the strangled yowl that escaped her lips. She felt like she’d been side swiped by a freaking bulldozer!
“At least you’re alive,” said the disagreeable voice. Ugh, Isis.
At that moment, Erin wasn’t sure being alive was such a good thing.
She found herself sitting up but leaning her head on Isis’ shoulder. Her hands and feet were bound with rope.
“What happened?” she gurgled as she tried to soothe her wooly mouth.
“Some assholes abducted us. Af
ter they knocked you out, they injected me with some kind of drug. I’ve no idea where we are. How’s your head?”
Erin looked up to find Isis staring at her with a mixture of concern and anger. Isis, concerned about her? Damn, how hard was she hit?
“It’s not that bad; I’ve had worse headaches.”
She used to suffer migraines from her visions, so she was accustomed to a little pain in the head department.
“Still, we need to be careful in case you have a concussion.”
Erin pulled back as far as the ropes would allow and gazed at Isis doubtfully.
Isis rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m a bitch, but I’m not evil. I don’t want you dead any more than you want me dead.”
Wellll… Okay, fine, no, Erin didn’t want to wish her any particular harm.
They were in a plain room; there was no window and just one solid looking door. The room was illuminated by a single, flickering bulb. While Erin was bound with rope, Isis was in shackles.
Isis saw her looking at them. “Silver, they stop shifters from, you know, shifting. Plus, it’s fucking painful.”
“Did you see who took us?”
“Four shifters altogether: a wolf, two bears, and a cougar. Fuck, I should have scented them coming earlier. My tiger’s livid.”
“It’s going to be okay,” said Erin automatically.
Isis smirked. “Spare me, let me guess you were a cheerleader in high school?”
“More like the weird kid that no one wanted to talk to because she heard voices and freaked out and had visions during gym class,” admitted Erin sadly, “although, I would have done pretty much anything to get out of gym.”
“Jeez, maybe you are perfect for Gunner.”
“This from the tiger who was trying to hook up with him yesterday,” scoffed Erin.
“I only said that to annoy you…”
“Mission accomplished.”
“I’m not interested in him; he’s a bit too serious for my taste. Given all your issues though, you make a great couple.”
She couldn’t help the bubble of laughter that escaped. “Wow, almost a compliment, I’m flattered.”
