Chapter 5 Cassie
Cassie
My fangs descended as Bella punched me in the face, making my head snap to the side.
“Damn it, Bella!” I growled. “Watch the nose! The doctor said they can’t keep re-setting it.”
My friend and coworker bounced on her toes, a shit-eating grin on her face. “I can’t help it if you have a delicate nose and slow reflexes.”
I growled low in my throat and told my inner demon to settle down. She was already ready to come out and fight. It was only through years of practice that I was able to keep her under control.
“Pavlovski! Weatherby!”
We both jumped as our boss bellowed at us from the other side of the gym.
As usual Lois was dressed in a tight white tank, black tactical pants, and boots, her hair cut short in a spiky crew cut kind of thing.
She was tall and broad and built like a tank, the exact opposite of her mate who was a petite and very girlie femme.
“Clean up and get to the conference room,” Lois ordered. “Now! We just caught a new case.”
“Yes ma’am,” we responded in unison.
As much as my vamp hated being told what to do, even she knew better than to cross the wolf shifter who was our boss. I’d seen grown men piss themselves with just a look from Lois. She didn’t even need to wolf out to scare people.
Not wanting to draw Lois’s ire, we made quick work of unwrapping our hands and washing up. We were both in workout clothes, but she wouldn’t care about that, so we didn’t bother to change.
Our boss was sitting at the head of the conference table, and several of our teammates gathered around.
“Thanks for joining us,” Lois said sarcastically, even though it hadn’t even been five minutes since she’d summoned us.
I slid into a chair next to Wanda while Bella took the seat next to Martha.
Bella had been the one to put in a good word for me and Darla, her sister, convincing Lois to give us an interview after we’d both retired from the military.
I didn’t know Bella too well before I came to work here at Sapphic Security, but my good friend Darla vouching for me was good enough for Bella to help me out too.
It was a plumb assignment, really. Founded by a group of lesbian shifters who wanted to make their own way after leaving the military, Sapphic Security had quickly grown into one of the most respected security companies in the world.
With a few exceptions, nearly every employee was a supe, mostly shifters and vampires, although there were a few other species represented in our ranks.
We specialized in close protection – industry speak for bodyguard work – as well as both on-site security and cyber security. Our clients were mostly the elites who could afford us, like politicians and billionaires and entertainers, but we also had major contracts with a few government agencies.
Sapphic Security had branches in several cities, but most of the vampires ended up at the Seattle office.
The dreary weather that lingered here for most of the year suited us just fine.
We’d all be parboiling at the LA office, that’s for sure.
Not that we turned to dust like they showed on TV shows and movies, but our super fair skin was extremely sensitive to sunlight.
Even in Seattle we all wore sunscreen whenever we went outside.
We’d started working here at the same time, but Darla hadn’t lasted too long at the company.
Not because she wasn’t good at the job though.
Much to our boss’s irritation, she’d found her mate on her very first solo assignment.
When the job was over, she accepted a job at the local hospital, where she could both use her military medic experience and work near her mate.
It was okay though, I still saw her all the time, and I loved her human mate, Kathryn.
“Let’s get started,” Lois barked.
Yes, barked. Somehow her wolf was always close to the surface. If you looked her in the eye I swear you could see the wolf looking back at you.
“It appears that some asshole is targeting women’s soccer players. Coaches too.”
“Oh, I’ve heard about this,” Wanda said. “A player got pushed onto the train tracks in Chicago and another one had her pet killed, right?”
“Did you want to do the briefing, Diaz?” Lois shouted.
We all stiffened, like little rabbits sensing a predator nearby.
Wanda sank down a little in her chair. “No ma’am.”
Lois let her glare linger on Wanda another few seconds before continuing. “Here’s all the incidents so far…”
She passed around a stack of papers outlining the time, place, location, and other details about incidents suspected to be related. None of us dared suggest that she use the very expensive screen on the wall to project the list and save some trees. Lois liked paper.
I skimmed the handouts, seeing that every attack involved the highest ranked soccer players, all of whom had gone to the International Games in addition to playing for their respective teams. It had started off like basic stalker shit, but now the attacks seemed to be escalating.
“This guy’s been quiet for a coupla weeks,” Lois continued. “But now he’s shown up in Seattle. He left a message for Ruby Wozniak, the team captain here in Seattle.”
Another stack of papers was distributed, this one showing a defaced door and a perfectly made bed with some kind of weird little stuffed animal on it. I squinted. Was the bear a biker?
“Ruby’s father is also the team owner for the Seattle Starfish, so needless to say he was concerned not only as the owner but the father of their star player. We’re going in on close protection, starting this afternoon.”
We all straightened, waiting for our assignments.
“Diaz, I want you doing your mumbo jumbo computer shit, see if you can find any chatter on the interwebs about this, or any hits out on players, whatever you could find.”
Did I mention Lois was a Luddite? Anything involving tech was pretty much a mystery to her. Fortunately Wanda was a grade A hacker. If there was anything helpful out there on the web, she’d find it.
“Martha, you’re going to take a temporary administrative assistant job.
That will get you into the main office and give you an excuse to be talking to the players and anyone interested in the team,” Lois continued.
“Teresa and Angie, you’ll be on comms monitoring the team.
The rest of you will rotate in through stadium landscaping, concessions, or posing as fans. ”
Lois looked at me and I fought the instinct to shrink back in my chair. “Weatherby, you’re on close protection for the player, Ruby Wozniak. I want you with her twenty-four seven until this is over.”
I resisted a groan. If there was one thing I hated, it was athletes.
I’d never once met an athlete who wasn’t an asshole, and my work here at Sapphic Security had done nothing to improve my opinion of them.
My last job was as a temporary bodyguard for a baseball player who thought he was God’s gift to women.
I’d spent as much time fending off his advances as I had protecting him.
“What’s my cover?” I asked.
“You’re gonna be a writer doing an in-depth series of interviews on women’s soccer. That way if we have to move you to another player, we won’t have to change up the story.”
“It’ll be hard to explain why a writer is hanging around with someone around the clock,” I pointed out.
Lois gave me a look that could melt steel. “Figure it out, wouldja? Christ on a cracker, do you need me to help you figure out how to wipe your ass too?”
My boss was nothing if not colorful.
“No ma’am. I’ve got this.”
“Good. I considered having you stay at one of the safe houses, but that will make it too obvious Ruby is under protection. Wanda and Martha, you’re on locksmith duty. You’ll go to the client’s house and secure it. Change the locks, add cameras, the whole shebang. Be sure to wear the uniforms.”
A fake locksmith service was one of our many covers.
“Understood.”
Lois looked around the table, her expression turning even more stormy than usual.
“I know most of you idiots are mated now, but for those of you who are not…” she made eye contact with me, Marilee, and Janice. “Stay. Away. From. The damned client!”
Her voice rose angrily with every word. She felt very strongly about people mixing business and mating.
The funny thing was Lois had met her own mate while working a security job.
And while Wanda, Martha, Bella, Angie, and Teresa had all met their mates while serving as bodyguards, it wasn’t exactly their fault.
None of them had gone into their jobs looking to hook up with the client.
But fate was fate, and you couldn’t predict when you were going to meet your mate. Every supe knew that.
“I have zero interest in finding a mate,” I assured her.
I’d learned early on that love came with conditions and pain.
My parents weren’t fated mates – although supposedly they fancied themselves in love at some point.
That love didn’t keep my father from treating my mother like shit.
The worst part was that she was so besotted with him she was willing to take whatever abuse he dished out.
I’d decided long ago that I would stay single, no matter what happened. I wasn’t cut out for relationships.
But even if I did meet my mate somewhere along the way, that didn’t mean I had to act on it. I was an expert at shutting down my emotions, and I was in control of my vamp at all times.
Lois gave me a suspicious look, then continued the rest of the briefing.
After she dismissed us, I made a quick stop at my house to grab a Go Bag and a week’s supply of blood for my stay at this Ruby Wozniak’s house.
While I was there I traded my camo pants for dark washed jeans, a black shirt, and my favorite leather jacket.
It was custom made to hide a myriad of weapons.
Finally I let down my blonde hair, releasing it from the ponytail I favored and giving me a softer look.
Satisfied that I looked like a writer instead of a bodyguard, I drove one of Sapphic Security’s armored SUVs over to the Starfish stadium.
It was located partway between Seattle and Tacoma, which meant I spent way more time than I wanted sitting on the I-5 waiting for traffic to move.
By the time I got to the stadium, I was feeling annoyed.
Well, not annoyed exactly but kind of anxious. Or maybe expectant. For some reason, my inner vampire was super restless, and the closer we got to the administrative offices, the harder it was to keep her calm. Weird.
I found the office of the president. A sign read, Stanislaus Wozniak, Owner and President in bold letters. The door was partway open, so I knocked on the door jamb and let myself in, rolling my eyes at the lack of security.
“Mr. Wozniak?” I called. “It’s Cassie Weatherby, I’m here for the interview.”
I smelled something enticing. It was a blend of lemon and something herbal. I inhaled deeply, taking the scent into my nose as I looked around.
An older man sat behind an enormous cherry wood desk. Stanislaus Wozniak, I assumed. But it was the person next to him that caught my attention.
Dressed in a tight tee shirt and long shorts, she was obviously an athlete based on her fit physique and the confident way she held herself.
The woman was medium height, with narrow hips, small breasts, brown eyes, and long brown hair pulled up in a high ponytail.
She was beautiful. I felt this almost magnetic pull towards her, something I’d never felt before.
I suppressed a groan. I was attracted to my client, that would make this job more complicated than I expected.
My vampire was going crazy, pushing inside me, trying to get out and get to the woman. What was that about? I took a deep breath, sternly ordering her to stand down so I could focus on my job.
“Cassie? Hi, I’m Ruby Wozniak.”
Her voice was husky, like the women who DJed on nighttime radio. My fanciful thoughts were interrupted by a roar deep inside me.
Mine, my vamp screamed. Mine!
Suddenly I understood why I felt so drawn to Ruby. My new client was my fated mate. Damn it. Lois was going to kill me.