JARVIS

by Becca Fanning

  Never let it be said that Cinda was high maintenance. Well, if Jarvis ever did say that, she’d slaughter him.

  Hell, she might do that anyway if her suspicions were correct. Before she could stalk after him, find out what that whole ‘nostril flaring’ thing had been about, her cell phone buzzed.

  Tempted to ignore it, she didn’t because she recognized the ringtone.

  Answering the call, she murmured “Didn’t think I’d be hearing from you again, Rizzoli.”

  Jane Piccolino snorted. “How many times with the Rizzoli shit? You’re the only one old enough to have watched that when it was being streamed. You know, not on reruns?”

  Cinda took the hit with little less than a hiss. “That used to be one of my favorite shows, bitch.”

  Jane laughed. “Used to, being the operative words there.”

  “Can I help it you look like Angie Harmon?”

  “No.”

  “You should be grateful. She was a supermodel. I’m giving you a compliment.”

  “You never give compliments, Cinda. This I have learned.”

  Cinda grunted. “Is this ‘let’s piss Cinda off’ day or something?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve only been on the line with you for less than a minute. I haven’t had much of a shot at ruining your day.”

  “Nice to know you’ll volunteer for the next special event.” Cinda rolled her eyes. “What do you want anyway?”

  “Thought I’d let you know. Kinder’s appeal fell through. The SOB is going to be fried.”

  Satisfaction more than flooded her. It whizzed through her system like coke through a newbie’s blood. “You shitting me?”

  “As if I’d do something so cruel to you.”

  There was still that teasing tone to Jane’s voice, but Cinda knew she was deadly serious. The breath she let out was a little shaky with relief. “I thought they’d grant him it, you know?”

  “Nah. Not with those charges. I knew it was in the bag, but you went too close on this one, Cinda,” Jane said, and this time, she heard the reprimand in the detective’s voice. “When you go to close, you get burned. You got burned and then some.”

  “It didn’t leave scars,” Cinda discounted.

  “Maybe not visible ones, but they’re not the dangerous scars. It’s the mental ones that fuck you up. You gotta be careful. Be kind to yourself for a little while.”

  “Thanks for the advice, Mrs. Psychiatrist.” She rolled her eyes at the wall in a stupid attempt at shrugging it off—stupid because Jane couldn’t even fucking see her do it—but the advice hit home.

  The scars were there and they were buried deep. She’d only told Jarvis the half of what had happened. She had no desire to tell him anymore, but if it came down to it and the nightmares returned, she’d have no choice but to admit to the source.

  Truth was, she was okay. Which she knew made her sound crazy, but she’d needed to trap Kinder. Had needed to make sure that the SOB could hurt no one else. Because of that, her She Bear felt nothing but satisfaction at what had happened. Even though it had almost led to their demise.

  If she had dreams about anything, it was about the women who’d died at his hands. Her friend from work had been one of them. Loretta never said boo to a goose because she’d been so soft. What had happened to Loretta, and what Kinder had almost done to Cinda, was something she’d never discuss with anyone. Not even Jane who’d worked the case and knew the grizzly details.

  Cinda was too ebullient to let anything drag her down for long. She’d worked in war zones, had gone undercover on the streets, she’d done too much, seen too much to let this situation with Kinder stop her from living her life. It just hurt because this time, it came too close to home.

  Although she’d helped catch the son of a bitch, it wouldn’t bring Loretta back. And that hurt.

  With a sigh, she said, “Thanks for letting me know, Jane. I appreciate it.”

  “Hell, you could have Googled it, but I figured it was best for me to tell you. You know, considering we were in this mess together.”

  “Like I said, I appreciate it.” And she did.

  “It’s weird without you around here. How’s Houston treating you?”

  Jane was one of the few people in Philly who’d known she was a Shifter. That alone was the reason she’d helped her trap Kinder—figuring that the Bear would keep her safe.

  Well, she hadn’t been wrong. But neither had she been wholly right.

  Clearing her throat, and knowing the other woman knew of her background and heritage, she admitted, “I found my mate.”

  Silence fell down the line. Then, a burst of laughter came.

  “What the hell are you giggling about?” she demanded on a huff.

  “You. I’m just trying to imagine the poor bastard who’s going to have to try to live with you.”

  “Hey, I’m not so bad. Dear Goddess, you make me sound like Hannibal fucking Lector.”

  “Jeez, you and your vintage cultural references,” Jane huffed. “I miss that, actually. Having to Google every fucking thing you say became part and parcel of my working day.”

  “I’m just grateful I put the taxpayer’s dollars to work.”

  Another snort. “Seriously though, that’s great news about your finding your mate.”

  A satisfied smirk tried and failed to settle on her chops. “It would be if he’d fucking Claim me.”

  “Whoa, that’s disappointing,” Jane remarked. “I figured you’d be fucking like bunny rabbits. That’s how it always is in the books.”

  Cinda’s eyes widened, then, she spluttered, “You read paranormal romances?”

  Jane groaned. “Shit.”

  Cinda burst out laughing, only her roars of laughter were ten times stronger than Jane’s had been for her admission. “You read paranormal romance. Oh. My. Goddess.”

  “Fuck off,” Jane roused. “I read them when I was younger.”

  “What? Yesterday? You were younger then, honey,” Cinda teased, her Texan twang coming out to party as she finally, after so many years, had something to tease Jane about.

  “Screw you,” Jane said without much heat. She knew Cinda had her by the balls.

  A faint motion in her peripheral vision had Cinda jerking upright and seeing her mate, standing there watching her laugh, a smile on his own lips that had her grinning back at him. She held up a finger, silently indicating she’d be a minute, then told Jane, “Anyway, I’d best be going. Thanks for the heads up, Rizzoli.”

  The detective snorted. “Is he there? Tell him from me that I’m disappointed as fuck to learn that Claimings aren’t the fuckfest I’ve always read about.”

  “Oh, I’ll be sure to tell him. Every single word. You get back to your books, sweet pea. But if you decide you want a real Shifter, I’m sure I could arrange for you to meet a couple hundred of them.”

  Jane chuckled. “Bitch.”

  “Speak later,” Cinda retorted smoothly, grinning as she cut the call.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you laugh like that,” Jarvis remarked as he folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the doorjamb.

  She took the opportunity to perch her ass on the back of her desk and clasp the edges with her fingers. “No? Well, Jane always makes me laugh.”

  “I’d ask if I knew her, but let’s face it, I don’t know anyone in your life.”

  Sadness shimmered over his face and it hurt her to see it. Desperate to take it away, she murmured, “You remember I told you about the detective who helped me catch that rapist?” When he nodded, fire flashing in his eyes in remembered ire at her putting herself in danger. “Well, that was her. We were good friends.”

  “She knows you’re a Shifter?”

  “Yeah. That’s why I was laughing. I told her we were mated, and she let slip she reads paranormal romance novels.”

  Jarvis’s lips twitched. “I can see why you laughed.”

  She hooted. “If you knew her, you’d understand even more. God
dess, the woman makes a brick shithouse look wimpy. She’s like Wonder Woman, except she’s stacked with muscles.”

  Jarvis pulled a face. “Now I’m shaking in my boots.”

  Cinda snorted. “You totally would if you saw her.” She grinned. “Anyway, she called me with good news. The SOB, the rapist, he was trying to appeal his death row sentence. He lost.” She did a happy dance—one of many she’d undertaken in front of him.

  The sight never failed to have him chuckling. “I’d happy dance too because that’s fantastic news, but it might ruin my street cred.”

  “What street cred?” she demanded, a teasing glint in her eyes that had him grunting at her.

  “You do know I’ve been given permission by Mundo to spank you?”

  She snorted. “I’d like to see you try.”

  “Is that a dare?” His eyes flashed, this time not with fire but with the hint of a challenge.

  “I’d say it is but I feel like you’d make me eat my words, so I’ll back the fuck off this conversation.”

  He smirked. “Wise decision.” He pursed his lips as he studied her a second. “I know you’re confused, Cinda.”

  “Confused? About what?” she tried and failed to sound unconcerned.

  “About why I haven’t Claimed you.”

  She bit her lip. “I’m trying to be patient.”

  “I know you are. But I know that’s not being helped because you don’t understand my reasoning.

  “I wanted to Claim you that first night. Then, I realized you hadn’t been eating and you needed to get your strength back--”

  Before he could continue, she hurled at him, “My strength back? Goddess, Jarvis, look at me now. I’m back to my proper weight!”

  “Yeah, I know, and that’s because I’ve made it my goal for that to be so.”

  She folded her arms across her chest, mimicking his stubborn posture. “So, what? Now I’m back to my weight, that mean you’re going to Claim me now?”

  He grinned. “It should mean that, but I’m liking getting to know you, Cinda.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Bullshit. You’re punishing me.”

  “I’m not doing anything of the kind,” he retorted.

  “No? You’re not making me wait like I made you wait? But dammit, Jarvis, you weren’t suffering!”

  “And you are?” He cocked a brow. “You horny, baby?”

  She groaned. “Yes. Fuck. I am.”

  His grin widened. “But, are you nervous around me still?”

  His question had her staring at him. “What do you mean?”

  “You flinched.” Those two words seemed to choke him.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “At the restaurant, that first night, you flinched when I leaned over to kiss you when I paid the bill.”

  Her eyes widened and her memory scanned back to that moment. She remembered him putting his arm around her as he stacked bills on top of the check, then he’d leaned down to nuzzle her throat and she’d…

  Dear Goddess.

  She’d flinched.

  But the server had come to take payment and she’d ducked to grab the doggy bag of food the server had brought with her.

  Had she forgotten? Or had she purposely pushed it from her mind?

  She gulped. “I swear, I didn’t realize.”

  “I know. You didn’t act awkwardly around me. It was only then I realized it was more subconscious than anything else.”

  Her hands were shaking as she unfolded her arms from her chest. With trembling fingers, she ran a hand through her bob, disheveling the neat cut. “I’m sorry, Jarvis.”

  He shook his head. “There’s no need to be sorry. I’m not saying it for you to apologize, doofus,” he teased gently. “I’m explaining why I’ve been acting the way I’ve been acting.”

  “You’ve been protecting me,” she said on a long exhalation.

  He smiled. “Exactly. Look, you might think you’re ready to be Claimed, and never doubt that I’m not ready to do the Claiming, but I want you to be wholly ready.”

  “That might not be for the best, Jarvis,” she said softly. “I haven’t even realized that I’ve been pulling away. If I don’t realize it, how can I react to it? How can I stop it if I don’t even know I’m doing it?”

  He sighed. “Then I’ll make you aware of it.”

  “That will just put me on the defensive.” She grimaced. “Dammit. I just want you to Claim me. Why do things always have to be so complicated?”

  He cocked a brow at her. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

  She felt her cheeks flush with heat. It wasn’t beyond her understanding that she was the one doing the complaining when he had the right to be bitter. She’d denied him the mate bond all these years. He was the one who should be ready for the Claiming.

  “I know, I know. If I’d never gone off and done what I had to do, this would never have happened.”

  He pursed his lips. “To a certain extent.”

  “Thank you for not rubbing it in my face.”

  “I have something else I can rub in your face later.”

  She burst out laughing. “Eww.”

  He winked, then, his smile turned a little serious. “I have a task for you if you’re up for it.”

  “What kind of task?”

  “Toni called me earlier. I was debating on whether to involve you or not.”

  She frowned. “I’m not sure I like the sound of that. Is it to do with Harry and Leah?”

  “No. It’s about Martinez.” He’d explained how the vengeful Cartel leader, who was behind bars thanks to the MC, had tried to trap The Nomads by planting dirty weapons and drugs on them.

  Having managed to send Sammy to jail, they’d manipulated Spyder into contacting the MC. He’d been charged with the task of getting The Nomads to take a package and transport it for them.

  Two things had stopped the plan from working… a plan that would ultimately have resulted in some of the brothers going to jail as well as starting a war between The Nomads and Spider’s Venom, Spyder’s old MC.

  One, Spyder had tried to use Mars’s daughter Ava as leverage. When that had failed, the second saving grace had been Spyder coming to learn that he was mated to Jessie.

  As a result of those two happenstances, the MCs had worked together to bust Sammy out of jail, freeing him from Martinez’s influence in prison, and foiling Martinez by stealing a huge chunk of funds he used to care for his family.

  “What’s he done now?” she asked cautiously. “Has he threatened someone else?”

  He shook his head. “No. When we had to get a message to Martinez, to warn him to back off, we used his cell mate. Turns out Spyder knew him, and we promised we’d help not only him, but his daughter too.”

  “Why’d you promise that?” she asked, curiosity prompting her to lean forward. If that was her singular failing, it was that she’d been born curious to a fault.

  “Well, he was a Shifter, but he’d never admitted to it in human court.”

  “That was stupid. If his actions were exacerbated by being a Shifter, he’d have gone to a different jail and had a different sentence.”

  He nodded. “I know. Ava’s been working on trying to get him a hearing. So far, so good, but basically, Joe went to jail for protecting his daughter. She was being abused by his ex’s boyfriend.”

  “Joe killed him?”

  Jarvis grimaced. “And the girlfriend.”

  “Dear Goddess.”

  “Exactly. The last place a little girl needs to be is in the welfare system.”

  “Damn straight,” she bit off. “What’s the situation?”

  “We thought getting Toni and Justiss to be the adoptive parents would ease things with welfare. After all, Justiss is rich as Croesus, and Toni is not only a doctor in the human world, but she’s trained as a healer to boot.”

  “What went wrong?”

  “Though it’s a pretty guarded secret, welfare found out about Graver.”<
br />
  “Shit. And because human society is so fucking backward, they don’t approve of a triad.”

  He grimaced. “Exactly. Ava found this out on the down low, but she changed all details to fit mine. And now, because we’re mated, you’re on the files now.”

  Cinda gawked at him, then shook her head to clear it. “Ava just changed the files. Like that?” She clicked her fingers, gawking at him when he nodded.

  “She’s a hacker, Cinda. She does whatever the hell she pleases. How do you think we put a muzzle on Martinez? She hacked into his bank account and transferred the funds out for us. She’s doing it all illegally.”

  “Goddesses.”

  He grimaced. “Tell me about it. She had the girl moved from the foster home she was in to another, changed the social worker dealing with the case, and altered all the documents referring to Toni, so it looks like everything’s starting from scratch.” He grunted. “I have no idea how she manages to keep everything in order. The woman’s either a mad genius or just loopy.”

  Cinda snorted. “I’m sure she’d appreciate both descriptions.”

  “Oh, I’ve called her that to her face. She just winks. She thinks we’re weird because we’re old.”

  “We are in comparison to her.”

  “You’re a baby in comparison to me,” he retorted.

  “Either way, we’re geriatrics where she’s concerned.” She blew out a breath. “So we’re going to have to look after the kid?”

  Jarvis pursed his lips. “Yes, and no. Once things are in place, she’ll live with Toni, Graver, and Justiss.”

  “But social welfare runs spot checks.”

  He shrugged. “We’ll deal with that as it comes. As head of the biggest Clan around, Mars has a lot of weight with the associations that liaise with us and the human government. He can pull strings, Ava can hack them, and we just have to be the faces the drones deal with.”

  “I can do that.”

  He smirked. “You’re afraid of kids, aren’t you?”

  She blinked at him, trying to portray a look of ‘butter wouldn’t melt’. “No. Of course not.”

  “Bull. I remember when Jessie was a kid. You were terrified of her.”