by Crissy Smith
“Instead I’m moving up my timetable,” Sparro stated. “As soon as your vacation is up, you’ll be transferred to this office. Under my authority.”
“You can’t do that,” Remy shouted as he jumped up from his seat.
Kieran shot out his hand and yanked his partner back down.
“I can and I am,” Sparro told him.
“He has partners, a boss and a job,” Remy said. His voice had turned gritty by the end of his sentence as his wolf rose to the surface.
Kieran needed to get control of this conversation or Remy would get fired along with him.
“Does he?” Sparro questioned. “Is there anything you’d like to tell Kieran?”
“Don’t try to turn this around,” Remy demanded. “You’re trying to take him from us and I won’t let you!”
While Kieran had no idea what Remy needed to tell him and how Sparro would know, he couldn’t let this go on. “Remy, let me take care of this.”
Remy dropped back in his seat with a grunt. “Go ahead. You’ve been doing so well.” He waved his hand.
Kieran laughed. He really hoped Remy hadn’t betrayed him because damn, he liked his partner. If what he’d said was true and Caspar had called Remy, his partner’s appearance here made sense.
It was hard but he had always trusted Remy and he needed to continue to do so.
“Oh, you misunderstood,” Sparro said pleasantly. “Kieran won’t be coming alone.”
“You’re transferring my team?” Kieran asked. That wasn’t the worst news he’d ever heard. He could figure out what was going on with the Walkers in town while still seeing Dakota. There was only one problem. “I work for Caspar.”
“Caspar has accepted a very important undercover assignment that will keep him busy for the next several months,” Sparro informed him.
“Caspar doesn’t work in the field,” Kieran argued.
“This isn’t something he could turn down,” Sparro said. “He asked for this, as a matter of fact.”
Alarm bells began to go off in his head. Caspar had once told him that he’d screwed up big and had been taken out of the field. Nothing would ever get him to work the streets again.
“No,” Kieran said. “He can’t.”
Sparro sighed. “I tried to talk him out of it.”
Kieran heard the sincerity in Sparro’s voice. For just a moment Kieran felt something more than suspicion. Caspar had shared a lot with Kieran back when he’d been trying to earn Kieran’s trust. But Kieran had never been able to get the full story of what had happened on Caspar’s last mission. And Caspar hardly ever spoke about Sparro. Actually, Kieran was really trying to remember anything Caspar might have said about this shifter in front of him.
“He’s finishing a task that he started long ago,” Sparro told him.
“I won’t let him put himself in danger,” Kieran said.
“Me either,” Remy agreed.
“Well, as he’s on his way here, I’ll let you attempt to change his mind. Although I doubt you’ll be successful.”
“When will he be here?” Kieran demanded.
“Should be late tonight,” Sparro said. “In the meantime let’s talk about your new roles within the Organization.”
“I won’t agree to anything without talking to Caspar,” Kieran said.
Sparro nodded. “Monday morning you will report here to me. I’m sure you can find your way inside.”
Kieran grunted, not rising to the bait. He’d be doing a whole hell of a lot more than just showing up for work. Kieran still hadn’t figured out what Dean was up to and why he had his file. Now he needed to know about Caspar’s last assignment, deal with the Walkers at the hotel and somehow figure out what was going on with Dakota and him. Oh, and Remy was hiding something also. Just a few simple tasks.
He snorted as he stood. “Sure thing.” He circled around the chair to stride to the door. When Remy didn’t join him, he paused to look over his shoulder. “Remy?”
His partner’s gaze was still on Sparro.
“Come on, Remy,” he urged. “We need to talk.”
His partner rose slowly to tower over Sparro. When he placed his hands on the top of Sparro’s desk and leaned forward, Kieran prepared to launch himself at his partner.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to do but if you hurt anyone I care about, I’ll bring my entire pack down on you,” Remy threatened.
Sparro shook his head. “Calm yourself, wolf.”
Kieran knew before Remy started to growl that Sparro had said the wrong thing.
The lion shifter got to his feet as he snarled. “You forget your place, pup. You are obligated to me by your blood. I own you, or your pack will suffer my wrath.”
Remy lunged but Kieran was able to wrap his arms around his partner’s middle and lift him off his feet. He ran out of the room, carrying Remy, before slamming the door behind him with every ounce of strength he had left.
“What the fuck are you thinking?” Kieran demanded as he slammed Remy against the wall.
“He’s up to something!” Remy shouted.
“No shit!” Kieran replied. “Let me figure it out.”
Remy took a deep breath before he banged his head against the wall. “Fine. Let go of me.”
Kieran released him then took a step back. He eyed his partner. For the first time he noticed how tired his friend looked. “You need some sleep,” he said.
“Yeah,” Remy laughed. “You’re not looking too good yourself, buddy. You need to drink.”
He hadn’t forgotten that he had to get blood. The headache that he hadn’t quite managed to get rid of was a constant reminder. “I will.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Remy snapped. “Take my blood.”
“No,” he refused.
“Really?” Remy pushed off the wall as he glared at him. “You don’t trust me?”
That wasn’t one hundred percent true but he didn’t want to get into anything right then. “You haven’t checked into your hotel yet?”
“No,” Remy said. “I came straight here.”
“Do that,” Kieran ordered. “Take a nap and meet me for a drink later.”
“What are you going to do?” Remy asked.
Kieran glanced at Sparro’s door. Kieran couldn’t share his plan just yet. “I’m going to take a walk before I go back to my room and rest myself.”
“Right,” Remy said as he followed Kieran’s gaze. “Text me later on where you want to meet up.”
Kieran nodded.
As Remy strode past him, Kieran drew in a long breath. As tired as he was, he had a lot of work to do. He gave one last look to Sparro’s closed door then he headed for the stairs. He’d take the long way down to see if he could gain more intel before he left the building.
He stalked down the hall and as he turned the corner he froze. And there she was.
Dakota leaned back against the exit grinning. “I knew you’d come out this way.”
Kieran started walking again, admiring her. She’d changed clothes from when she’d gotten him out of the cell. Her hair was still damp so he could only guess that she’d showered somewhere in the building while he’d been in with Sparro.
“You think you know me?” he asked as he reached her. He breathed in her clean sweet scent and grew hard.
She licked her lips, and he followed the motion. If she was playing him, Dakota was damn good with her acting.
“I don’t know what you’re doing here or what my boss wanted with you but I don’t think that’s the only thing wrong. You’ve been weird since I released you.”
How long had it been since he’d vowed to protect her by leaving her alone. “It doesn’t matter. I’m leaving.”
“What?” She placed her hands over his heart.
“I’m leaving,” he repeated.
“You’re going back to your hotel?” she questioned, but the way her voice wavered Kieran was sure she already knew his answer.
“No,” he said softly.
>
“You can’t leave me,” Dakota said. “We’re not done yet.”
Kieran gripped her wrists. “We are now.” He moved her out of the way before he pushed open the stairwell door and walked through it.
He heard her breath catch. As much as it tore at him, he didn’t have a choice. Kieran would make it up to her but first he needed answers. If Dakota were with him, he’d be putting her at risk.
It was one thing to trust her with her own people. The Organization wouldn’t kill her. He couldn’t say the same about the Walkers or whatever Caspar had gotten himself into.
If Kieran ended up working with her, then he’d be able to really have something with her. They still had hurdles to overcome, her shifter status being the biggest, but if he was going to go all in, he’d have to accept every part of her.
She’d been right when she’d accused him of trying to forget that she was a shifter. Seeing her every day at work would be a constant reminder since she’d either have to use her senses around him or even shift into her jaguar.
He stomped down the stairs, not caring to be quiet like he normally would. He needed to find food then get back to his suite. The best option would be to check out but that would take him away from the Walkers. As long as Remy stayed off their radar, he might be better off where he could keep an eye on them. Changing hotels wasn’t the right move, he was sure now.
As he jogged down the stairs, he heard the door above him slam open.
“Kieran!” Dakota shouted.
He sped up and was down the last couple of floors before she’d cleared the landing. Kieran ended up in the parking garage. He leaped over a car then hopped the concrete barrier. His power was waning but he could lose her.
The morning was too bright and he wished he’d brought his sunglasses. He needed to feed.
Kieran stopped a block away to gather himself. Being in a crowded area would work to his advantage. He would hunt.
Chapter Seven
Dakota leaned closer to her monitor as she clicked out of one file and opened another. She was still steaming from her encounter with Kieran earlier so when she pressed her mouse a little harder than normal, her nail broke.
“Son of a bitch,” she cursed under her breath.
If she’d only caught up to him, Dakota would have given Kieran a piece of her mind before letting him know she knew what he was trying to do. He was pushing her away and Dakota was not going to allow it.
She understood that he’d had a rough morning but that was no reason to push her away. Dakota wasn’t weak, and he was going to finally have to accept that. If he thought he needed to protect her, he was going to have to learn how it was going to be between them. She was just as strong as he was and wouldn’t back down from a fight.
When she’d first met Kieran, she’d known he was stubborn but she had been certain the connection they’d shared had changed things. Oh how wrong I am.
Not finding the report she wanted in the file she’d chosen, she moved onto the next one. If Kieran was going to act like a jackass, she’d give him time to cool down before she went searching for him.
In the meantime she wasn’t needed in the field, so she was going to do a little digging around to find out more about Walkers. The more intel she had, she was hoping the better understanding she’d get about how to handle her man.
“Ah,” she murmured. Here was a case from back in the seventies. As she read through she grew more and more frustrated. It was obvious that key details had been deleted from the dossier. How was she going to learn anything if the secrets around the Walkers remained?
“Hey.”
Dakota jerked her head up as she heard her partner’s voice. “Oh, hi,” she said as she leaned back in her chair. “Finally done with your secret meetings?”
Their boss had called Dean into his office as soon as Kieran and the wolf shifter had left. Dakota hadn’t even known that Kieran’s partner, Remy, was in town but Dean seemed pretty knowledgeable about everything going on. She felt very left out.
“Mind if I shut the door?” he asked.
Dakota lifted her eyebrow. “If I say no, are you going to take me to one of the cells?”
“That’s not fair,” Dean argued. “I had nothing to do with Kieran getting locked up. He attacked our boss.” He went ahead and closed her door before he strolled to one of her guest chairs.
“What was he doing in your office in the first place?” she questioned.
“I don’t know for sure,” Dean replied.
“But you have an idea,” she guessed.
“It doesn’t matter,” Dean said. “That’s not what I came to talk to you about.”
Dakota scoffed. “What’s going on with you? You’ve been acting weird before Kieran even got here.”
“I know,” he agreed. “And I’m sorry that I didn’t talk to you before now.”
The seriousness in his voice was not what she’d expected. Dean was usually lighthearted and loved to joke around. “What is it?”
He took a deep breath before he spoke. “About six months ago, I called my uncle to talk about my future with the Organization.”
“Why?” she asked. “We don’t have a choice in our service.”
“But that doesn’t mean I can’t change where I serve,” Dean said.
“You want out of the field,” she said for him. She’d always known that Dean’s heart hadn’t been in the same place as hers but he was good at his job.
“I never wanted in it,” he confessed.
Damn it, Dakota didn’t want to lose her partner but Dean was also her friend. “What can I do to help?”
He smiled. “You’re already doing it.”
“What do you mean?” she questioned. She hadn’t even known he was trying to get reassigned.
“The reason Caspar sent Kieran here and wanted me to watch out for him is because Caspar will be taking a short-term job in the field. He needs to find a place for Kieran that he’ll fit in. Kieran won’t work for anyone other than Caspar and hopefully Sparro. I guess it hasn’t been easy to place him.”
Dakota snorted. “He does seem to enjoy pissing people off.”
“Yeah.” Dean nodded. “If he’d attacked anyone other than Sparro, they’d be dead. But since Sparro has dealt with some of the most dangerous agents, Caspar sent Kieran here.”
“They want to transfer Kieran?” she asked.
“Yes, and his partner. Not only can Sparro handle them but with the Walkers in the city organizing, we need more of their kind.”
“Organizing?” Dakota jumped to her feet. “What do you know about that?”
“Sparro was contacted by a Walker that lives here and has several others in his employment. They’ve stayed in the shadows for the past several years but they’ve been more active lately,” Dean said.
“So we need Walkers on our team. And Kieran will be the first,” Dakota said. “Does he know?”
Dean nodded. “Sparro told him today.”
And right after that, he’d told Dakota he was leaving. “Did he accept?”
“He wasn’t given a choice. Monday morning they report for duty here.”
She wasn’t so sure that Kieran was on the same page as her boss and Dean. She grabbed her bag from beside her desk. “I have to go.”
“Wait!” Dean rose and placed his hand on her arm.
“What? I need to talk to Kieran.”
“We need to talk about you and him,” Dean told her. “Sit back down.”
“Why?” She pulled her arm from his.
“I know you have feelings for him,” he said. “I’m worried about you.”
“There’s nothing to be worried about,” she assured him.
“You’re falling for a guy that you know nothing about,” Dean said. “He’s dangerous, Dakota.”
“I know what I’m doing,” she said. “Kieran is a good man.”
“Who suffers from PTSD from years of torture,” Dean argued.
“How do you know about th
at?” she asked. Since her chair was there, she went ahead and dropped into it.
“I was given his folder so that I could give my opinion on whether or not he’d be helpful with the other Walkers,” Dean explained.
“And how would you know that?” she asked.
“Because for the past month, I’ve been their contact within the Organization.”
She stiffened. “Just how many secrets are you keeping, Dean?” she accused.
“It’s not like that,” Dean said as he held up his hands. “I had to find a replacement and the only way I could was to dig into the only agent who isn’t here by a blood bond. I was doing what I was ordered.”
“So that’s just supposed to make everything better?” she asked.
“I’m just trying to tell you why I’ve done the things I have,” Dean said.
“All I’ve gotten from this conversation is that you didn’t trust me and worked behind my back to get what you wanted. Well, congratulations.” Dakota stood. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have a few errands to run.”
She picked her bag back up before she stormed out of her office. This was such bullshit! After all the years that she and Dean had been partners and friends, he was just pushing her aside to get what he wanted.
Dean had to know that she would have supported him every step of the way. Or maybe he hadn’t since confiding in her wasn’t a step he’d taken.
Her partner had also found out things about Kieran that she wanted to know. She wouldn’t ask him, though. If she had to wait for the rest of her life, one day Kieran would tell her what had happened himself.
Instead of taking the elevator like she normally did, Dakota pushed the stairway door hard, letting it slam against the wall. She thundered down the stairs as her mind whirled.
Dean was leaving her. Kieran might or might not be staying. No matter how she looked at what the morning had brought, changes were happening and she had no control of any of it.
Her jaguar was closer to the surface than it’d been in months. She needed to get out into the wild so she could let her animal loose and hopefully gain some clarity. There was nothing like shifting then running.
Just letting the world around her revolve for the time being. Until she came up with a plan, Dakota was at a loss for what to do.
