Chapter 2
The email from her boss should have been routine.
Another case file, another reminder of deadlines, another demand for reports written in bureaucratic doublespeak.
Instead, along with the case file that had been flagged priority one, there was a single line of instruction: Follow up with Sam Kinkaid.
That name alone was enough to make her pause.
Lina closed the laptop and rubbed the bridge of her nose.
She’d known, when she accepted the Bureau’s offer, that straddling two worlds would never be easy.
To most of her colleagues, she was just another agent with a knack for catching what others missed.
Few suspected she was anything more. Only a select few higher-ups understood that the lynx who sometimes walked in her skin gave her sharper instincts than any human training ever could.
Now the Alpha of the Kinkaid Clan had cut through multiple layers of bureaucracy and asked for her by name. He wanted her on this case. Wanted her working with…
She exhaled, lips pressing together. Liam Kinkaid. Holy wow.
Their paths had crossed once, briefly, in the controlled chaos after a joint operation.
A handshake, a curt exchange of credentials, the awareness of a man who carried himself with the kind of quiet authority you couldn’t fake.
Most women would’ve called him handsome.
He was tall, broad-shouldered, blond, with hard eyes that gave nothing away.
But it hadn’t been his looks that stuck with her.
It had been the weight of his presence. The sense of contained strength, the way his gaze had lingered half a second too long, like he saw something in her she wasn’t ready to admit even to herself.
His inner lion had to be a massive beast, and it made her lynx want to either hiss in challenge or run away in fear.
That unsettled her more than she liked. Lina Goodwell didn’t run from one damned thing.
Never had. Never would. She was a warrior, just like him.
But her inner lynx had sensed the Alpha lion in his soul and responded to it in a surprising way.
Never had another shifter of any species gotten such a rise out of her inner beast. Not once in her entire life, and she wasn’t quite sure what that meant.
Shaking off her silent conjecture, Lina reached for her go-bag and started laying out the basics.
She had her sidearm and backup, her FBI credentials, a burner phone, and extra clothes, just in case.
The routine motions steadied her. She’d worked undercover with cartel families, tracked human traffickers through seedy motels, negotiated with snitches in alleys that smelled of rot and despair.
She could handle one Navy SEAL with a lion inside him.
Maybe.
The thought of spending hours working side-by-side with Liam Kinkaid made her pulse pick up in ways she didn’t really want to analyze. Attraction was dangerous. Distraction was deadly. And the woman they were hunting, a certain evil witch named Mrs. Entwistle, was neither predictable nor merciful.
Lina zipped the bag shut with more force than necessary. She’d meet Liam Kinkaid on neutral ground tomorrow. They would hunt a witch together, pool their resources, follow the trail until it ended.
Whatever spark had flickered between them once didn’t matter. What mattered was the mission. At least, that was what she kept telling herself.
The next morning dawned gray and damp, a mist rolling in from the Atlantic that clung to the coastal streets and blurred the low skyline.
Lina arrived early, as she always did, parking her Bureau-issued sedan a block away from the designated coordinates.
She preferred to scope a location before stepping into it, habits honed from years of undercover work and more than a few near misses.
The café looked ordinary enough. It had aged brick walls, big windows, a neon Open sign buzzing faintly in the light drizzle. Public, yet private enough for a conversation.
Her lynx stirred uneasily as she approached. She didn’t need to see him to know he was already there. The lion’s presence hit her like a warm current of air in the cold morning mist. He had one hell of an aura, even from a distance.
Lina stepped inside the café, scanning quickly.
Just a few people were there this early.
There were a couple of commuters getting coffee and a muffin on their way to the train station down the street, and a few elderly people reading newspapers at a table in the front window. A little farther back, she spotted him.
Liam Kinkaid had claimed a corner table, back to the wall, eyes on the door.
Of course he had. Even out of uniform, he radiated warrior presence with those broad shoulders under a plain gray T-shirt, posture relaxed but coiled for action, gaze assessing.
His golden hair caught the dim light, giving him the look of some mythic hero carved in stone and dropped into a modern coffee shop.
His gaze flicked up, met hers, and for just a beat, softened. Recognition. Maybe even something more. She almost shook herself for the silly thought. That had to be wishful thinking from her lynx who hadn’t been let out to play with a handsome male in far too long.
Lina’s pulse stuttered before she got it back under control. She’d spent her life facing down predators, criminals, and worse. But the way Liam’s presence filled the space around him, tugging at her lynx until her claws ached to come out, was a whole different kind of danger.
Professional, she reminded herself. Keep it professional.
She walked over, her stride steady, her expression cool. If he noticed the way her lynx bristled and then settled in wary fascination, he gave no sign.
“Ms. Goodwell,” Liam said as she reached the table, his voice low and rich, carrying just enough warmth to take the edge off the formality. He hadn’t used her title, which was safest out here in the open. She’d do the same.
“Mr. Kinkaid,” she returned, sliding into the seat opposite him. She set her bag down at her side and met his gaze head-on, keeping her voice low so that only they could hear. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a witch hunt.”
A flicker of a smile touched his mouth. “I’m looking forward to it. It irked me that she got away the first time.”
“And the second, judging by the file I was given. Your kin down in Texas had dealings with her recently, I read.”
“They did, but she’s a slippery fish,” Liam agreed.
“The best kind to hunt,” she said, looking up as a waitress started toward them to take their order. “I like a challenge.”
The waitress stopped at their table and promised to be right back with the egg sandwiches they both ordered.
The café had a small grill in the back where a short-order cook made sandwiches and egg platters for the bustling breakfast crowd.
Most were orders to go, but there were a few tables scattered around the place, including theirs.
When the waitress left, Liam leaned back, his gaze raking over her.
She fought not to fidget with the apex predator looking out of his eyes at her.
Lions were intense, and this lion seemed more intense than the others she’d met, with the possible exception of his Alpha, Sam Kinkaid.
That guy was one scary mofo, as one of her fellow agents had proclaimed when he’d met the man during an op a few years back.
Lina felt her own lynx stirring at the back of her mind, wanting to meet the challenge she saw in Liam’s eyes.
She might be smaller than him, but she was also a predator, and she’d proved herself a damned good hunter in both of her forms. Which was why, after all, they’d come to her for help finding the witch who had escaped justice from the Kinkaids twice now.
Lina vowed the woman wouldn’t escape a third time.
She forced herself to focus on her notepad, pen clicking against the table. Work. Facts. She needed to think about anything other than the way his deep, masculine voice did things to her pulse.
“So, have you given any thought as to how you want to proceed? I’ve read the file, and I’ve done some preliminary research, but I’m wondering where you’d like to start,” she asked diplomatically.
Liam regarded her another moment then sighed as his massive shoulders relaxed.
“I’m ashamed to admit that it’s become obvious that the military approach hasn’t worked.
I don’t know where Mrs. E got her training, but she always seems to be one step ahead of us.
Which is why I’d like to hear your ideas.
You’re the wildcard, Lina. Your tactics are bound to be different than any I’d use. ”
“I think that’s a fair statement,” she replied, surprised a little by his openness.
She was glad to learn he wasn’t going to go all king of the jungle on her and expect to take over all aspects of this mission. If he kept going like this, she could definitely work with him, and they just might get this job done.
“All right. First, I want to do a deep background on the woman. I read the file I received last night, and it’s good, but there are holes in the data set that need to be filled.
I’d like to talk to some of the ladies from her old neighborhood,” Lina said, meaning some of the Marsh Witches of Sagaponack who had been friends and neighbors of Mrs. E for years without realizing she was a traitor.
They were bound to know things about her that might come in handy.
“That can be arranged,” Liam replied, nodding. “Two of my cousins now live in the same community, and their new mates are related to some of those ladies. I’ll call them and see if we can set something up.”
“Good.” Lina nodded.
That was a good start. Hopefully, someone from that coven would know something that could lead them to their quarry. Either that or give them the next link in the chain that Lina could follow.