Sealed With a Hiss

by E A Price

  But the otter shifter hadn’t seen it that way. He didn’t take rejection well. Probably the reason why he wanted to kill his wife in the first place.

  Thankfully, when he saw her at the SEA he ran off – he knew soliciting her help wasn’t legal, and he got scared and left. She caught up with him after and tried to reason with him, but the idiot wouldn’t listen. He wanted revenge or nothing. And when Madam said no, he came at her. She had to kill him – he was trying to attack her, she had no choice! It was just a lot harder than she expected it would be. She couldn’t stop shaking for hours afterward. Thankfully she wasn’t so out of it that she couldn’t call in her team for clean up, but the thought of it still made her sick. She facilitated death, but actually taking life was awful. She didn’t want to have to do that again. She just wanted everything to get back to normal.

  Of course, she wasn’t off to a good start. She almost had a heart attack when Barry stepped into the vehicle.

  Luckily he didn’t really recognize her - he was too self-centered to notice anyone around him so even though she’d been at the SEA for over a year, he still had no idea who she was. Course, she was wearing a huge wig and sunglasses – she wasn’t that easily recognizable.

  Barry eventually stopped staring at her and shrugged. “I want vengeance on Gerry Sanders – I should have had his job to begin with and because of him, I’ve just been fired.”

  Madam hesitated. That wasn’t exactly accurate. She was there. She knew Barry had plastered the walls with pictures of Gerry kissing a squirrel shifter, and she saw Barry attack the squirrel. The bastard almost knocked out a female he had a foot and over a hundred pounds on.

  Could she really do this? Could she really help this man? The last time she said no it didn’t end well. Did she dare risk saying it to this man? He wanted to hurt someone because he blamed them for getting the promotion he didn’t.

  But couldn’t this work to her advantage?

  Gerry Sanders was already suspicious about the otter shifter. She saw him – she was there. He ran after the guy like there was no freaking tomorrow. He was already working Lance Collier’s case to death. How long before he made a connection to her?

  Perhaps getting rid of him would be a good thing. But could she really? She started doing this so that people who deserved to be punished would be. Did Director Sanders really deserve anything for this idiot’s claims that he got his job?

  But what choice did she have?

  Madam licked her lips. “What do you want?”

  *

  Gerry woke to a good morning kiss, and the feel of a warm, lush body pressed against his. It was divine. His snake almost swooned.

  “Morning,” she murmured and snuggled against him.

  Gerry curled an arm around her waist and cupped her round ass. “This is the first time we’ve woken up together.”

  “Mmmm, I know. I didn’t think you’d be a morning person – I’m pleasantly surprised.”

  He chuckled. “You expected me to be grumpy?”

  Jessie kissed his chest. “Well, it seems to be your go-to mood. Not that I’m complaining. You’re a sexy grump.”

  “Well, I’m too happy right now to say anything about that, you minx.” He lifted her chin and kissed her nose.

  His growing arousal pressed into her stomach. “Ooh, I like waking up with you.”

  “Well, get used to it, I doubt I’ll be going to work for a while.” Unless Hola Sunshine was hiring. Or maybe Stop ‘N’ Go would need a new greeter. He could growl at customers and not know where anything was located – he was a natural for that job.

  “Don’t talk like that – you’re only suspended. They’ll want you back,” she said confidently.

  “Suspended is SEA speak for delayed firing. I’ll be getting a phone call from Juliet any time now.”

  “But it wasn’t your fault. All you did was…”

  “Almost kill one of my colleagues,” he finished with a humorless laugh. “It wasn’t the first time I almost strangled him either. Plus I imagine that Grant is also trying to stop me from coming back to try and punish me.”

  “When was the fist time?”

  “Hmmm?”

  Jessie scooted back and frowned at him. “When did you try and strangle Barry before?”

  “Oh, I can’t really remember. He said something about you - something about your ass maybe. So I tried to strangle him.”

  “Oh.” She bit her lip. “Well, if it comes to it, you’ll find something. Or you could be my house husband.” Her lips curled into a mischievous smile.

  His python rumbled happily. “You still want to marry me?” he asked with a slight puppy dog pout.

  Jessie traced her finger in circles on his chest and fluttered her eyebrows. “I do if you do.”

  “The only thing that’s got me through this past year is that thought,” he told her honestly.

  She smiled and kissed him. “I’m happy to hear it. Now, lie back, relax and enjoy yourself. I am going to the store to get cranberries and oranges for my Christmas cranberry pancakes – I make them in the shape of stars. You’ll love them.”

  She slipped out of bed, and his snake grumbled. Gerry tried to sit up. “I should come with you.”

  “No, stay, I’ll only be a few minutes.”

  “Well, at the very least I should call Gunner,” he said reaching for his phone.

  Jessie skipped over and plucked it out of reach. “No, you should relax. You’ve been working nearly every hour of the day for the past few weeks – maybe it’s time to let someone else do the worrying.”

  A sentiment his beast agreed with, but one that Gerry was still a little uncertain about. “But Lance...”

  “His case is in Gunner’s very capable paws, and I already filled him in on our otter shifter – he’s looking into it.” She pulled on a t-shirt and jeans. “If there is anything you want to be passed on, I can do it.” She hesitated. “Although, I am a little nervous about facing everyone at work.”

  Gerry growled. “You’ve done nothing wrong, and if anyone of them dare say anything…”

  “Gunner and Erin have been very supportive, and Isis messaged me to say I have a lot of balls. But seriously, having an affair with the married boss isn’t exactly good for the reputation.”

  He smirked. “I imagine it’s enhanced mine. I’m sure everyone will be impressed that I managed to hook such a pretty, young female.”

  Jessie gave him a sour look. “Ummm hmmm.”

  Gerry smiled lasciviously and followed it up with some waggling eyebrows. “They probably guessed it’s the size of my snake.”

  “Well, why don’t you and your snake take it easy and I will be back in a moment.”

  She kissed his forehead and after she managed to untangle his arms that were clamped around her ass, she sashayed out of there, giving him an extra ass wiggle for good measure.

  “Hurry,” he entreated huskily. He meant it, too. They still hadn’t tried morning sex as a couple, and he was more than ready to give it a whirl.

  Gerry lay back and tried to ignore his concerns over the open cases. His teams would work them out; he oversaw the teams, but they could manage without him. Other directors would probably pick up the slack if any of his agents needed help. They were all good investigators.

  He closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but he was awake, and that was it. Well, he had just slept for over eight hours. He hadn’t slept that long since… actually, he couldn’t remember a time when he had slept for such a long length of time.

  He got up and called his parents to break the news about his marriage. He wasn’t surprised to learn that they already knew. Grant had been in touch to call in the loan and told them that Gerry had cheated on his daughter, and they were getting a divorce. His snake howled at that. His parents didn’t seem to care. They didn’t want an explanation from him, nor were they upset with him. As he suspected, they told him not to worry about the money.

  The phone call didn’t exactly
make him feel better. Perhaps if they had yelled at him, it would have. At least, he would have known they cared.

  Bored, he got out of bed and puttered around the apartment. He put away all his belongings – it didn’t take long, he didn’t have much, just clothes really.

  The apartment hadn’t changed since his brother lived there, other than when Gerry repainted the bedroom. Jessie hadn’t done much, probably because she didn’t think of it as her home. She hadn’t even put up her pictures – a number of framed pictures were sitting on the floor leaning against the wall. There was a family portrait and, hmmm, a poster of the original King Kong movie. Well, she has interesting taste. He didn’t have any taste.

  Maybe they should get a new apartment together. Then she could do whatever she wanted with it.

  Speaking of his delectable little mate, where was she? She’d been gone for a while.

  He tried her phone a couple of times, but there was no answer. Impatient ass, maybe, but it shouldn’t take her this long.

  He donned some sweatpants and a t-shirt and wandered down to the corner market. Her scent was fairly fresh; he could easily follow it. But where was she?

  He went into the market and followed her scent down the fresh produce aisle. It mingled with the scent of fresh fruit and vegetables, and he couldn’t follow it any longer. Worry oozed along his spine.

  He looked around the market, but he couldn’t see her anywhere. He even grabbed a couple of terrified looking workers and demanded to know where she was. Unfortunately, his description of a red headed angel wasn’t overly helpful, and he let them go.

  He went back to the aisle where he lost her scent and growled impatiently. His beast was not happy. Where the fuck was she? Unless she had the worst sense of direction in the world, she couldn’t just go missing on the way down to the store.

  Something on the ground caught his attention. Something shiny was peeking out from under the shelf.

  His python hissed as he bent down and he brought out Jessie’s phone

  Oh god, Jessie. Something happened. There was no other explanation. She never went anywhere without her phone. She practically slept with the damn thing. He was actually a little jealous. No way would she lose it.

  He dialed Gunner.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck!

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Jessie licked her lips. Her squirrel groaned pathetically. Her mouth felt woolly and painful. In fact, her whole head did. It was like a hangover mixed with an ice-cream headache. Her mind was all soft, out of focus, and throbbing. As she tried to reach for a memory, it became more and more opaque.

  “Hmmmm,” she groaned.

  What happened? Did something happen? Cranberries. She had a vague recollection of something about cranberries and oranges. She needed to buy cranberries and oranges. But why? Everything was so darn freaking fuzzy.

  She tried opening her eyes, but she couldn’t. That was weird. She was blindfolded. Someone had blindfolded her! Her squirrel whimpered in alarm, but Jessie tried to remain calm. Maybe there was a good reason. Maybe she’d been in an accident, and she’d hurt her eyes. Maybe all her other senses would make up for it, and she could become a vigilante superhero. Boy, she really had to stop watching shows based on comic books. And that explanation really wouldn’t also explain why her hands seemed to be tied together. Oh god…

  Jessie tried to call for help, but only a squeak escaped her scratchy throat. She stiffened as she heard a door opening and then closing.

  “Hello,” she croaked before choking.

  No answer. She heard footsteps moving around the room and fear crept through her body. She tried to scent who was there, but her nose was as useless as her mouth.

  Whoever it was walked around her. She shivered as she felt them brush against her arm. Fingers sifted through her hair. She was reminded of the times she played Marco Polo with her siblings – without the pool because god knows they weren’t rich - they made do with the sprinklers. But this wasn’t fun. This was disturbing.

  Jessie tensed as she felt fingers pressing against her head. They were untying the blindfold. Please be a hospital, she silently begged. No, it wasn’t.

  She blinked and then gasped as Barry came into focus.

  “Director Sayles,” she rasped in bewilderment.

  He glowered at her before tracing a finger over the fading bruise on her cheek. The bruise he gave her. Shifters healed quickly but with their heightened strength they could inflict a lot of damage, and this would be with her for another day at least. Her skin crawled at his touch. Her beast growled.

  “What… what’s going on?”

  He smiled, but there was no warmth in it. “I suspected that Gerry was banging you back in January, but I had no idea until yesterday that he was in love with you.”

  He pointed at his neck, and she could see the angry dark bruises that had blossomed after Gerry attacked him. “I left my mark on you, and he left his mark on me.”

  Jessie flashed back to being in the market, picking up cranberries and then everything went black. Barry must have done something to her. Maybe he knocked her out. She couldn’t remember, but it didn’t matter. “You kidnapped me because Gerry beat you up?”

  Barry scowled and puffed out his huge barrel chest. “If that fucking vampire hadn’t come along, I’d have probably killed him. He’s no match for me. He’s just a fucking snake.”

  Her beast snorted. “That why your face was turning blue?” she taunted.

  He raised his hand as if he was about to strike her and she tensed. The fury on his face softened slightly and twisted into an ugly leer.

  “You know I thought you two were just fucking. Figured you were after promotion. But you love him too, right?”

  Like she was talking to this guy about her mate. “He’s not going to let you get away with this… whatever this is. You might as well just let me go now.”

  He gave her a ‘yeah, right’ look. Well, it was worth a try.

  “Bit late for that now,” he sneered.

  “Why the hell are you doing this? What did I ever do to you?”

  Barry shrugged. “Nothing. But Gerry has to be punished. I should have had his job.”

  “You kidnapped me because you got passed over for promotion?” He was nuts. Her squirrel tried not to hyperventilate, but he was totally nuts, and not paying any attention to what she was saying.

  “Do you know why I didn’t get that job?”

  “Your personality,” she spat as tears started pooling in her eyes.

  “It was because of Maggie.”

  He looked at her expectantly. Nope, not rising to it. She didn’t want to hear his crazy justification for what he was doing to her. Unfortunately, he just wanted to rant. An audience didn’t make any difference to him.

  “Gerry hounded Maggie. She was an agent at the SEA and a whorey lemur shifter. She told him I got her pregnant, said she didn’t want to have sex with me, told him I made her.” He grunted in disgust. “Course Gerry being the ass sucking fucktard he is, ran straight to Juliet, bitching and whining about me. That bitch Maggie only did it to get money out of me and when she got it she backed down. But Juliet - that fucking dead bitch didn’t trust me after that. She pushed for Gerry to get the job over me.”

  “But I thought it wasn’t her decision,” said Jessie. Lord, she was getting sucked into his crazy villainous rant.

  “It wasn’t. But the wolf shifter on the council would do anything to get into her four hundred-year-old panties.” He shuddered.

  Okay, new tactic. Keep him talking while she thought of a plan. It was looking less and less likely that he was going to let her go. “I thought you had a friend on the council.”

  “Not as dominant at the wolf,” he sneered. “Fucking dog can make anyone agree with him.”

  “So what, you’re going to kill me just for losing out on a job?”

  “He ruined my life!” roared Barry. “On wrongs swift vengeance waits.”

  Jessie goggled at h
im. What the heck was that about?

  “My wife found out about the lemur and left me; she took my kids from me. Now I don’t even have my job – he’s taken everything from me. So I’m going to take what’s his. And don’t worry about anyone coming to rescue you, if they watch those security tapes, all they’ll see is you wandering out of the store of your own free will.”

  She frowned. She couldn’t remember anything about that.

  “Now, I’m going to enjoy this.” Barry towered over her and tried to stroke her cheek. Her beast howled, and she tried to gnaw his hand. He chuckled at her efforts. “Who knows after I’m done, I might go after Gerry after all.”

  Now she really was terrified. She was scared for herself, but she had to warn Gerry – she couldn’t let anything happen to him. She had to save her mate.

  *

  Gerry watched the security tape over and over; his unblinking eyes didn’t move from the screen. The images were a little unfocused, and the tape made a disturbing crackling noise, but he couldn’t stop staring.

  VCR, he thought furiously – who the fuck used a crappy VCR security system now?! His snake hadn’t stopped yowling since he realized she was gone. Sadly, that wasn’t helping Gerry in finding her, but the beast didn’t know what else to do.

  The nervous store manager, a nineteen-year-old pimply kid, called Simon tried to touch the old VCR and Gerry snarled at him.

  Gunner clamped a huge paw on the poor boy’s shoulder and led him out of the room with promises that they wouldn’t break anything. Or at least with promises that they would pay for anything they broke.

  “Gerry, maybe you should let the tech guys take a look at that before you break it.”

  “There’s something here,” he hissed. “There’s something on this tape that will tell me where she is.” He was sure of it. There had to be. He couldn’t stand the thought that he might not be able to save her. The idea of even trying to live without her wasn’t bearable. He would get her back. He was determined he would.