by E A Price
“Ah, a farewell to arms and waistlines with the pizza.”
“Exactly, you fancy tagging along?”
Jessie hesitated. It may be nerdy but to her, it sounded kind of fun. She went out with her last boyfriend for six months because he owned an original Space Invader’s machine – she was trying to get the high score. “I’d love to, but…”
His face dropped, and she thought about it. Actually, why shouldn’t she go? Her squirrel chittered in disapproval but where was the harm? She just had to make it clear that they were friends and nothing more. The last thing she wanted to do was lead him on. But there was nothing to say they couldn’t be friends.
“Actually, yeah, that sounds like fun. I could do with a fun night out with friends. I just have to talk to my boss.”
Robbie beamed. “Great, we’ll be leaving in an hour.” He gave her a wave and walked away humming the Star Wars theme.
Jessie hushed her inner beast. They were just friends – nothing was going to happen. The little squirrel had nothing to worry about. As for Gerry – she was worried something may happen there. She wanted that; she really did. But he was married, and she’d been brought up to be a good girl. Sometimes she wished she was a bad girl, although to be honest the opportunity had never come up until now. She wasn’t afraid to flirt, but the men who usually chased after her had trouble getting a girlfriend in the first place, never mind a wife.
She smiled as she walked past Norma, who nodded her inside. Gerry was sitting at his desk staring out the window, but when he scented her, he stood up.
“Jessica… Ms. Duchamp.”
“You can call me Jessie,” she murmured as she closed the door behind her. “Everyone does.”
His eyes gleamed. “Then I’d rather call you Jessica – it suits you more.”
“People normally say that about Jessie – they say it’s more fun.”
“I think Jessica’s classier. It suits you.”
Jessie bit her lip. “How are your bruises?”
“Healing, thank you.” His eyes never left her as she walked towards him. “Please, sit down.”
She dropped down onto his couch, and he surprised her by coming around his desk and sitting next to her. He stiffened slightly, as he lowered himself.
“You should take it easy,” she commented.
He shifted slightly, and his knee brushed against hers. “Believe me, I am.”
Jessie twisted her hands nervously. She felt like she was on a first date of all things. “My little brothers and sisters used to say that, too, always so they could run outside, climb the tree and fall down again. Do you have any siblings?” She was yammering, she knew she was yammering but oddly he didn’t seem to mind.
“I had a brother…”
Her hands flew to her face as she assumed the worst. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
“No, he’s probably still alive. He stole my family’s money and ran off to the Cayman Islands.”
“Oh, jeez, I am sorry.”
Gerry shrugged. “Snakes aren’t always the most feeling of creatures. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be.” His eyes glittered hopefully, and she tried to ignore her little swooning animal.
“Well, I have seven younger siblings,” she babbled. “My parents were high school sweethearts. They started early, if you get my drift.”
“I do,” he breathed, and her cheeks reddened. “How was your first day?”
“Great, I actually wanted to thank you for this opportunity.” He raised his eyebrows, and she relaxed into a giggle. “Hey, I’m female, I’m allowed to change my mind suddenly.”
He smiled. Her chest heaved. He leaned closer to her. She could feel herself drawing nearer. She felt hypnotized. It was going to happen. He was going to kiss her again god knows she was going to let him.
The phone rang. Jessie jumped, and they banged foreheads.
“Oh shit, I’m sorry!” she whined, clutching her head. Did he have a freaking steel plate in there?
“Are you okay?” he asked rubbing his own head.
“Of course, you should get that.” She jumped to her feet and made a dash for the door.
“Jessica…”
She was already out of there before he could stop her. That was close – too close. She should be relieved, but all she could feel was abject disappointment.
Chapter Ten
February
Hester crossed and uncrossed her legs. Gunner raised an eyebrow - a sign that he was interested. The cheetah shifter preened. Gerry and his snake sneered. Surely Gunner and Hester could eye-fuck each other in private. His own blue balls were making it difficult for him to tolerate watching other people flirt. He really shouldn’t have yelled at those two kids he spotted making out while on his morning run.
“What is it?” he asked with impatience.
Hester dragged her attention to Gerry. “You need to cool it with Miriam Quirk. She’s spotted your agents following her.”
Gerry’s eyebrow twitched, and he gave Gunner a sharp look. Miriam was their prime suspect, but he hadn’t realized that his team had actually been tailing her. Judging by Gunner’s look, he didn’t either. Zane. That fucking bear shifter could never let anything go.
“Miriam’s lawyers are going mental. They’re threatening to sue us.”
“We could arrest her for murder,” suggested Gunner.
Hester snorted. “You don’t have any evidence that she did actually kill that guy.” Gunner opened his mouth to object, and she added, “Or hired someone to kill him.”
“She has a motive and the money…”
“And an alibi and no evidence she paid the money to anyone. Miriam’s lawyers would suggest that he attacked another woman, and they killed him. He wasn’t charged with rape, but he has prior arrests for violence against women.” Hester shrugged. “Miriam’s a lost cause, and really can you blame her if she did it? The guy was a monster who got what he deserved.”
Gerry pinched the bridge of his nose as Gunner snarled, “Murder is still murder. We can’t have vigilantes running around killing people. It would be fucking chaos!”
Hester harrumphed and gave the bear the evil eye. Well, at least, the brief flirtation between them was over. His python hissed in pleasure. Gerry didn’t have worry about accidentally vomiting anymore.
The cheetah sniffed as she left the office. Gunner shuddered lightly. “It’s a little scary that she’s a lawyer.”
“Hmmm.” He couldn’t agree more. “So where are we with the case?”
Gunner leaned back in his chair. “Frankly, nowhere.”
“Another dead end,” muttered Gerry.
The polar bear pursed his lips. “We’re closing other cases.”
“You’re right, sorry,” said Gerry, absently.
“Good god, Gerry. Are you feeling okay?”
He bristled. “What are you talking about?”
“Normally when I get pissy you just tell me to ‘suck it up, buttercup’. You ill or something?”
Gerry gave him a sour look. “Haven’t you got work to do?”
Gunner grinned at his reaction. “We’re not giving up on the cases. They’re just… on the backburner for now.”
“Yes,” he murmured in agreement.
The huge polar bear turned sheepish. “I need to tell you something about Zane, he…”
“Juliet already told me,” interrupted Gerry, putting the huge shifter out of his misery. “Why exactly is Zane harassing that lawyer?” More like threatening from the furious report Juliet gave him.
“He says the guy’s married to someone he went to school with and he’s, I don’t know, shafting her on alimony.”
Gerry shrugged. “Then get the Sigma Team to handle – they deal with things like this. Zane shouldn’t interfere; he’s only making things worse. And make sure he leaves this Miriam woman alone. The last thing we want is a lawsuit because Zane is stalking her. One more problem with him and he’s fired. I’m serious; I’m at the end of my rope with Zane.�
�
Gunner nodded as he left.
Gerry rubbed his temples. Let’s see… Zane, his marriage, his idiot brother-in-law, the open cases – they were all problems floating around his mind, but in truth, he could only focus on Jessie.
Seeing her every day was tough. Seeing her talking to other men and laughing with them was agonizing. Scenting their desire for her was intolerable.
There was one bobcat shifter in particular that offended him – Robbie or something. Gerry had tried to figure out if there was a way to transfer him to another city – no such luck. Unless someone from the other city offered him a job, or he chose to transfer, Gerry couldn’t send him packing. His python had some dark thoughts about how to get rid of him, but Gerry wasn’t about to even consider those options.
The fact was that he had to work with Jessie. He had to be around her, and she was going to talk to other men. He was just going to have to figure out how to make this work, even if he felt like his animal was hanging on by a thread.
What choice did he have?
*
Okay, white chocolate and peanut butter or milk chocolate and peanut butter. Hmmm, this was like Sophie’s choice.
Jessie tapped a finger against her lip and considered her options as she stared at the vending machine. They were both so delicious. Peanut butter made everything delicious – it was a curse!
“Anything good in there?” crooned a deep voice.
She almost jumped. Almost, but the voice was far too welcome for that. She turned to find Gerry grinning at her. Her squirrel sighed. Other people in the building reckoned they’d never seen him smile. He smiled at her all the time!
“There must be,” he continued, leaning against the machine. “You’ve been watching it for the last five minutes.”
“Just looking for the meaning of life. Ah – it’s forty-two!”
Gerry knit his brows together. Okay, clearly not a sci-fi fan. Her squirrel told her to stop being nerdy.
“I’m actually just contemplating white chocolate or milk chocolate.”
“Ah, a great dilemma.”
“What would you get – if it were you trapped in the dilemma?”
“I don’t know,” he said slowly.
“Then you’re absolutely no help,” she teased.
Gerry chuckled. “Agreed. I’m afraid I don’t eat chocolate.”
The earth possibly stopped moving at that moment. “Are you serious? Are you allergic?” There really was no other explanation for not eating chocolate by the fist full.
“No, I just don’t eat it. I haven’t in years. I occasionally have cake when it’s my birthday. But it isn’t chocolate.”
Jessie placed a hand on his arm. “Good lord, are you okay? Do you need to sit down?”
He burst into laughter at the seriousness of her tone and even patted her hand. His skin was surprisingly warm, and she noticed that he left his hand laying over hers. She wasn’t complaining, it felt really… nice. Her beast chirped. Okay, it felt totally amazing! More amazing than a hand should.
“I believe I shall survive. But as to your dilemma, why not buy both.”
“Wouldn’t that be greedy? I mean I do have my figure to consider.”
Gerry looked her figure up and down. He took a long time considering her figure. “I… should not worry about your figure. You are… that is to say…. Without inciting the terrifying feminist in HR, you are… You should have both.”
Her squirrel almost swooned. It was possibly the worst compliment she’d ever had, but somehow it gave her the biggest buzz of her life.
“You know what,” she reluctantly removed her hand from his arm – with difficulty, too, because he seemed to be unconsciously resisting letting her go. “Why don’t we share?”
She got for both bars of chocolate, opened them up and snapped them in half, so each of them had half of the white and half of the milk. “Now I get both, and you get to find out on what you’re missing.”
“I already know what I’m missing,” he muttered darkly, as he stared at the chocolate. “But thank you, I’m sure I will enjoy them.”
“My pleasure. You should probably eat them before you pass out from lack of chocolate. You think I’m joking, but I read that it can happen.”
“You are very kind, Jessica.”
“It really is my pleasure… Gerry.”
She bit her lip; maybe she shouldn’t call him that. But oh, he looked so pleased that she did. His silver eyes lit up, and she could feel herself moving to him. Her body moved before her brain could stop herself. He was like a giant freaking magnet. She had to kiss him, she had to touch him, she had to feel him pressed against her…
“Hey, Jessie! Oh, and ah, Director.”
She jumped back as if scolded as Robbie bounded into the room. Gerry, who had looked so hungry moments before, composed himself and gave the bobcat shifter a blank stare. Robbie was totally oblivious to what was about to happen.
He reached into the refrigerator, grabbing a yogurt. “Hey, I had a really good time last night,” he said to Jessie. “I’m not sure I ever ate so much pizza in one go.”
Jessie turned to him trying to give him the kill signal to tell him to shut up. Or given the way her beast felt, it may have been the signal threatening that she was about to kill him.
Yes, she hadn’t done anything wrong with Robbie – they really had just gone out as friends with a dozen other people from the tech division. But she didn’t want Gerry to think she was dating. It was important to her that he not think that.
She turned back to Gerry, and where there should have been a devilishly handsome snake shifter, there was only air.
Crap.
She barely even paused while inhaling her chocolate bars.
*
Jessie forced a smile onto her face as Cora came into her office. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Cora – Jessie could usually manage to like everyone – but Cora was a little odd. And not fun odd – odd-odd.
“Hey, it’s Lia’s birthday, I thought you might like a cupcake. You miss out being up here.”
“Aww, thanks – mmmm, chocolate hazelnut. That’s my favorite.” She licked at the buttercream and her squirrel moaned at the delicious scent – it was almost as good as a certain snake shifter who shall remain nameless.
“So how’s it going?”
Jessie shrugged as she nibbled on the cake. “Frustrating but interesting.” They had a steady stream of cases to deal with, but the ones they didn’t solve niggled at her. She’d been putting in a lot of extra hours, trying to search for some shred of evidence that would help. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the Director worked incredibly long hours, and she liked being near him. No, definitely not. It didn’t soothe her beast at all being close to him.
Cora peered at her computer screens. “I heard about your most recent case; it sounds like the guy got his comeuppance.”
Jessie frowned at her. That wasn’t a very healthy attitude for an SEA agent. “I really don’t think that murder is ever justified.”
The mole shifter snorted. “So you think animals like him should be allowed to get away with rape?”
“Of course not! But I certainly don’t think people should take the law into their own hands.”
Cora’s eyes flickered, and even though she was a mole, the squirrel felt a little trepidation. “The man was a bully who hurt women; no one should put up with bullies. What was it in The Odyssey, something like on wrong swift vengeance waits?” She softened a little on seeing Jessie’s expression. “Sorry, it’s just something I feel strongly about. Anyway, speaking of which, how are you dealing with Director Sanders?”
Her squirrel growled her little growl. “What do you mean?”
“Everyone says he’s a total bully.”
Jessie felt the heat rushing to her cheeks. “I don’t think…”
“Apparently, he’s a total cold bastard.”
Her beast bridled at that. How dare she? She didn’t e
ven know Gerry – she had him all wrong! Besides, that was a bit rich coming from her. She’d been a bitch to everyone since she started; she was only just starting to thaw now. Jessie resisted the urge to gnaw Cora to death. “Says who?” she asked icily.
“Well, everyone.”
“I have a lot of work to do, Cora.” She bit her cheek to stop herself from saying anything else. If she didn’t, her squirrel would have a few choice words.
Cora was a little taken aback, but she didn’t think anything of it. “Okay, see you later.”
Jessie waited until she had gone and closed the door. Her hands were shaking. She was so angry that she was actually trembling. How could she get so upset over a silly mole shifter talking trash about Gerry? She wasn’t even that insulting. Gerry probably wouldn’t even care or be surprised to hear it. But she didn’t like it – not one bit. No one speaks that way about her python! Well, not hers but… that’s not the point. No one speaks about him that way!
Well, it was good to know her obsession with him was getting better – not!
Chapter Eleven
March
Madam smiled at her latest client.
She had been a little concerned over her last endeavor, but thankfully those idiotic SEA agents managed to destroy the evidence all by themselves – she didn’t have to do anything! And any fears she may have had about Miriam confessing were unfounded. The young woman was far too angry to do anything crazy like that.
She was back on track, and Howard had the perfect case for vengeance. She traced her finger over his signature on the contract. He was so eager that he hadn’t even bothered to read it.
Howard tapped his foot impatiently, scowling out the car window.
“Now,” she said brightly, “we have the vehicle all ready, and the man in question is subdued and waiting for whatever vengeance you wish to bestow on him. Your alibi is all lined up, and my people will be standing by to clean up after you’re finished.” She passed him a stone and explained that it was for emergency use only.
“I can’t wait,” said Howard with furious glee. “You know he only got community service – community service for murdering my wife!” He balled his fists, and Madam made soothing noises. “Fucking judge just reckoned it was a tragic accident. He was driving the vehicle he was to blame!” Howard’s eyes bulged as he spat the words out.
