by Jackie May
He risks tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. Our kiss is now in the forefront of his mind. He thinks it was worth it, though he hates that it ended up upsetting me. He’s not the only one who feels that way. I have to clear my throat in order to speak, and then my damn traitorous voice comes out shaky. “Pursuing me, huh? Is that what you’re doing?”
I laugh weakly, but Parker responds with complete seriousness. “Yes. And I will continue to do so until you tell me to stop.”
He pauses, as if he expects me to say stop right this second. I should. Part of me wants to. But I stay quiet, and Parker’s lips curve up into a tiny smile. “You do me a great honor, Nora.”
I gulp. My heart is suddenly pounding in my chest. “I can’t promise anything. I’m really messed up. I have a complicated past.”
“I understand, and I thank you for at least giving me the chance to try.”
Nick walks over to us, unknowingly breaking the tension. I’m grateful for the reprieve. “We’re ready to head out,” he says. “You guys want to follow us back?”
Parker hesitates and then sighs. “You should take her with you.”
I’m so shocked I rear my head back. Parker grimaces. “It’s not that I don’t want to, but…I’m exhausted.” He lets out another weary sigh. “If someone were to try again, I don’t think I could protect you in this condition.”
Parker swallows hard, as if admitting his weakness kills him. Which is ridiculous. He was outnumbered four to one, and he still came out alive.
In a rare moment of seriousness, Nick places a hand on Parker’s shoulder and says, “You saved her life tonight.”
Their gazes meet, and something passes between them. It sort of makes me wish I could hug them both. Nick gives Parker’s shoulder another squeeze. “Go home and get some rest, friend. I’ll look after her.”
It takes Parker a moment to accept defeat, but then he nods. Nick lets him go, and he sucks in a deep breath while raking his hands through his hair.
Nick catches the longing look Parker casts my way. His lips twitch, and I know he’s reached his serious quota for the day. He jerks his head my direction and smirks at Parker. “Well, go on. Kiss our girl goodnight. She owes you one for saving her.”
My eyes bulge, and my jaw drops. “NICK!” I punch him in the arm, and I swear it hurts me worse than him. It takes everything I have in me not to stomp my foot like a petulant child. But there is no stopping the blush that creeps into my cheeks.
Nick somehow manages an innocent shrug and heads toward his bike, whistling a cheerful tune. Jerk. I glare lasers into his back until Parker blocks my view. Suddenly he’s right there, so close I can smell his cologne and feel him invading my personal space. My heart rate kicks up so fast a ghost of a smile crosses Parker’s face. His gaze falls to my mouth, but he quickly lifts it again. “You going to be okay?”
I pry my tongue off the roof of my mouth and whisper, “Thanks to you.”
I’m rewarded with another almost-smile.
Parker lifts his hand and I think he’s going to tuck my hair behind my ear, but he cups my cheek instead. His eyes fall shut, and he sucks in a deep breath. Have to be patient. She needs time. She’ll trust me eventually.
His thumb brushes my cheek so softly my eyes flutter shut, and I shiver. The air around me shifts, and then Parker’s soft lips press against my forehead. “Good night, Nora.”
I’m speechless and frozen in place, until Parker gets in his car and drives off. I watch him go, unable to reconcile the warring emotions inside me. I don’t know what I’m doing with him. He’s too intense, and I know part of him is under the same spell everyone else is under. I know he’s drawn to me more than he should be. But for some reason, I can’t help encouraging him. I like him, but I’m playing with fire, and I always get burned.
I yelp when a hand clamps down lightly on my shoulder, and Nick chuckles. “Come on, little spitfire. Let’s go back to the Agency and beat a confession out of a merc.”
I snort but follow him to his bike. He stops before climbing on and grins at me. “You know…I also saved your life tonight. I think I deserve a kiss, too.”
He’s joking. But at the same time there’s something in his expression I’ve never noticed before. A hint of, I don’t know, a dare? I narrow my eyes at him. Just what is he playing at? When his lips twitch and I realize he’s only messing with me, I have the overwhelming urge to punch him. “You know what you can kiss, Gorgeous? My ass.”
Nick bursts into laughter and climbs onto his motorcycle, patting the seat behind him after the bike roars to life. “Come on, Nora. Let’s go interrogate our perp. I’ll let you be the bad cop.”
Damn him for making me laugh.
The interrogation room at the FUA looks the same as it does in the human world. Small. White walls. One-way mirror. Single table. The main difference is that it’s warded to be magic suppressing. By the time I follow Nick into the room, my new werewolf friend is bitching about his silver handcuffs being too tight. The guy stops complaining when he notices me. “What’s she doing in here?” He almost sounds scared. Nervous, at the very least. “She’s not a cop.”
Nick winks at me. “Nah, but she’s cute, though, isn’t she?”
I roll my eyes. Wolf Man scoffs.
“So…Dennis,” I say, reading the rap sheet sitting on the table in front of Nick and me. “No priors. Attempted murder is a pretty serious first offense. Money must be tight for you to take that job.” I meet his blazing yellow eyes. “It was a job, wasn’t it? Or did you just try to kill Parker and me for the fun of it?”
Dennis snarls at the accusation. “It was a job, but I didn’t try to murder anyone. I didn’t go near the vamp, and we were only paid to get you out of the picture—employer wasn’t specific as to how. Turning you and mating with you would have done that just fine, and you’re only human. That’s not against the law. I’m allowed to claim a human mate.”
I grit my teeth and glare at no one in particular. “There really should be a law that you can’t just take humans at will.”
Lack of that law is the whole reason Henry originally took me and why I’m neck-deep in the underworld now. But, underworlders aren’t big fans of humans as a whole, so I doubt that law is getting passed anytime soon, even if it would make my life infinitely easier.
“Fine,” Nick says to Dennis, shrugging casually. “You’re allowed to claim a human mate. Nora is exempt from that because she has underworlder blood, but you probably didn’t know that, right?”
Dennis vigorously shakes his head, staring at me with wide eyes. “I didn’t know. I swear.”
Nick cocks his head to the side, considering something, then nods once. “Fine, you didn’t know.” Can he smell lies, like a werewolf? I wouldn’t put it past him. “Tell us who paid you, and we’ll let you go.”
“Seriously?” I shout.
Nick shrugs. “Unfortunately, he’s right. Claiming a human mate isn’t illegal, and, technically, he didn’t go after Parker.”
“But he was an accessory! And he was hired! Isn’t there some kind of law against being a mercenary?”
Nick leans back in his chair and folds his arms across his chest. “Not if the job isn’t for something illegal.” When I scoff, he sighs. “I know you’re pissed, but he’s not really the person we’re looking for. Small fish, you know? We need him to talk.”
Who knew I really would be the bad cop of our strange little duo? I start to lose my patience. I want to know who paid these guys to come after Parker and me, and I have a better way of getting that info than making deals with this jerk. “Screw it.”
Dennis’s hands are shackled to the table in front of him with silver cuffs. He can’t move them, so I lean across the table and rest my hand on top of his. “Who paid you to come after me?”
His thoughts go exactly where I want them to. He can’t help it. When I hear the answer, I pull my hand back so hard I nearly fall out of my chair. “It was Huron River pack money?” My
heart plummets into my stomach at the betrayal. “But why? I helped them!”
Nick’s staring at the wolf, incredulous. “The Huron River pack hired you?”
Dennis doesn’t answer. He’s too busy gaping at me in horror. “You’re a mind reader?”
The door to the interrogation room opens, and Madison West, the Director of the Detroit Division of the FUA, strolls in wearing either a smug or impressed smile. I can’t tell which. “So it’s true, then?” she asks. “It was the Huron River pack who ordered the hit?”
“It wasn’t a hit,” Dennis growls.
“Technically,” I grumble. I turn to Director West. “Was that confession enough for you?”
“It’s unconventional.” She glances at Nick.
He shakes his head. “There was no lie in her words.”
So he can sniff out lies. I wonder if he’s a shifter of some sort.
Director West thinks for a moment then nods. “The truth from you about what you heard in his mind is still the truth.” She smiles at me like a cat who’s caught a canary. “Nora, we really must discuss, again, you coming to work for us. Think of all the good you could do.”
I can’t think of anything right now except for the fact that the pack I’d just helped put out a hit on my life as thanks. “Sorry, Director West, I have a more pressing issue at the moment than my current employment.” I turn my gaping gaze back to Dennis. “Was it really the Huron River pack? Or was it just someone in the pack working individually? Who, exactly, paid you?”
“Garrett paid me,” he snaps. “You know, the wolf your buddy here killed?” He jerks his head in Nick’s direction.
I snort. “Yeah, I don’t feel bad about Nick sending him into his next life. He was about to do me the same courtesy. You know he was.”
Dennis’s glare softens a little, as if he feels bad about that. “He wasn’t supposed to,” he mumbles, looking away from me. “It was a mistake to hire him. He’s always been bloodthirsty.”
“That’s probably why he was hired,” Nick says. He narrows his eyes in thought and taps his lips with a finger. Slowly, he nods his head. “Yeah, that makes sense. If you want someone dead but you don’t want to be guilty of ordering their hit, you hire the most unstable, bloodthirsty mercenary to do the job and give him loose orders not to kill. Very smart.” His eyes flick back to me. “Technically, whoever paid them is not really guilty of being anything more than a jerk.”
“Of course not.” I roll my eyes at the complete crap penal system of the underworld. “But guilty or not, the fact is, someone in the Huron River pack wants me dead, and I need to know who before they try again.”
I turn to Dennis with a sugary sweet smile and bat my lashes. “Dennis, sweetheart, who in the Huron River pack paid Garrett to not kill me?”
Dennis clenches his jaw, mouth shut tight as he glares at me. I glower right back. “Fine. We’ll do it my way again.”
When I reach for him, he thrashes in his chair, straining so hard his wrists get scraped raw and start to bleed. “Stay out of my head!”
“Then tell me who in the pack paid for the job.”
My fingers graze his skin, and he frantically shouts, “I can’t! I’m a lone wolf. The Huron River pack is large, strong. If I betray them, I’ll be killed.”
I lean over the table, coming closer to the wolf so I can look him directly in the eyes. “Newsflash, buddy, you’ve already told us it was them. You’ve already betrayed them. Now tell me what I want to know, or I’ll steal it from your head. I don’t like doing that, but I will because I need to know who wants me dead.”
When I reach for his hand again, he blurts out the answer I’m looking for. “It was the luna!” He deflates as the words leave his lips, and he slumps over in a resigned heap. “Luna Marie of the Huron River pack paid us.”
Both Nick and Director West gasp, but I’m a lot less surprised than I should be. I’m also relieved it wasn’t Alpha Toth. That betrayal would have stung deep.
“The luna?” Madison asks, blinking in disbelief.
I’m not surprised she’s upset that a luna—a pack’s most respected and honorable female—would do something so underhanded. Of course, she wasn’t there to see how fast Luna Marie murdered Daniel and Maya.
I freeze, the blood chilling in my veins as I piece together a bit of truth I’d missed before. “It was Luna Marie,” I murmur.
Everyone frowns at me like I’m insane, since we’d already established that fact, but I’m not talking about the contract on me anymore. It was Luna Marie who had stolen the pack money. Or, she’d been blackmailing Maya and Daniel to do it, anyway. She must have known about their clandestine relationship and used it against them. Then, she killed them both so quickly to keep them from spilling the truth. And now she’s trying to tie up loose ends with me. She can’t know for sure how much I know, or how I figured out the secret in the first place. She knows I have powers that helped me solve the mystery, but not what exactly those powers are. I’m a wild card that she can’t afford.
“All right,” Director West says, breaking the quiet that has fallen over the room. “Gorgeous, you may uncuff him. Since he has broken no law by trying to claim a human mate, and he has given us the information we needed, he is free to go. Bring in the luna of the Huron River pack for questioning, though. She may have technically broken no law, but she clearly has ill intentions toward Ms. Jacobs. We need to figure out why and make sure no more attempts to harm her are made.”
I know the answer to that, but I’ve sworn secrecy to Alpha Toth, and I don’t know if he’ll want the FUA knowing pack business, so I keep quiet. I need to talk to Alpha Toth, but before I do, I need to take care of one more thing. “Hang on one second,” I say to Nick when he moves to release Dennis. I grab Dennis’s hand once again and ask, “What’s your biggest secret?”
The question was asked so randomly and so suddenly that he doesn’t have time to try and distract his mind before his thoughts betray him. I get a picture of a young face in his mind’s eye. His daughter. He keeps her hidden in the human world. She’s about eight years old, and she’s half sorceress. She is the reason Dennis wanted to claim me as a mate. He wants her to have a mother, and he wants a strong partner to help keep her safe. The underworld isn’t always kind to mixed breeds, sorcerers especially. That’s why he abandoned his pack and became a lone wolf—to protect her. But being a lone wolf is dangerous, so when he heard of me and how dominant I would be if turned, and that I had special abilities and strong ties to the FUA, he wanted me on his side.
I pull my hand away in surprise. He gapes at me in horror. “Why?” he rasps. “Why did you do that?”
“Insurance,” I whisper. “You know what I can do. Mine is a dangerous gift to have. People might try to kill me or use me because of it. I don’t like that you know about it, and I don’t trust you. So you keep my secret, and I’ll keep yours.”
His face turns green. He doesn’t trust me, but he doesn’t see how he has a choice. If the sorcerer community learned of his daughter, she would be in danger, and he will do anything to protect her.
My face softens, and I grab his hand again to give it a squeeze. “You have my word. I’ll never tell a soul, so long as you do me the same courtesy.”
My compassion surprises him. He’s shocked that I didn’t just want to use his secrets against him to get revenge, since he’s being let go. “I won’t,” he swears. “I’ll never tell anyone.”
“Then neither will I.”
I feel bad for the guy. Not enough to become his mate, of course, but enough to scribble down my phone number onto a piece of paper and hand it to him after Nick lets him out of the handcuffs. He stares at it, confused. “Just in case you ever need my help,” I explain.
His jaw falls open, and his eyes bulge. I give him a smile. “Good luck.”
“Thank you.”
Getting back to the matter at hand, I look away from Dennis to find Nick and Director West watching me, as if waiting for some
thing. Curiosity burns on all their faces. I shake my head. “It’s not illegal and will bring no harm to anyone. It’s his secret to keep, so don’t ask.”
Madison’s lips twitch up into a smile. “Of course not. We’re just impressed with how you’ve handled this entire situation. Perhaps you would join me for dinner?”
“So you can try to recruit me some more? Sounds like fun, really, but wouldn’t you know, I already ate? And besides, Parker said I’d have to leave Terrance’s clan if I joined. Is that true?”
Director West sighs. “Yes, that’s true. But you don’t really belong there anyway.”
I bristle. Terrance’s place is the first place I’ve ever felt I did fit. “Maybe it’s not conventional, but Terrance does want me there.”
Director West holds up a hand to placate me. “That’s not what I meant. I know exactly how Terrance feels about you. He considers you clan. But the fact is, you are human. And some day Terrance will expand his clan. He’ll take a mate. Have children. How will you feel when that happens? Will you be able to live in a den of trolls?”
I squirm under her stare. I hadn’t thought about that. Terrance is one thing, but a bunch of others? And none so welcoming or understanding as Terrance? “He’s the first real family I’ve ever had,” I say, though my voice lacks conviction.
Director West’s answering smile is small and calculating. “What about Oliver? Do you not consider him family as well? You know how happy it would make him if you joined us.”
Ooh, she fights dirty.
Her smile turns smug. “Just think about it.”
When I narrow my eyes and ball up my fists, Nick chuckles and grabs my shoulder to lead me out of the small interrogation room. “Come on, little spitfire. Why don’t you come with me out to the Huron River pack instead, since I know you’re heading that way anyway.”
I grin at his rueful smile, not feeling the least bit ashamed. “You betcha, cowboy. Any chance you own something other than the motorcycle, though? As much as I love it, it’s freezing out there, and the human doesn’t have an internal heater.”
