5. Jamie
Now this is the cutest shit I have seen in a month.
I looked at Nathan sitting on the couch with our new client and knew instantly that my Alpha was in love with her. The way he’d moved away from her self-consciously told me more than if he’d been lip-locked with her when I walked in. The disappointment in her eyes said even more. It almost made me want to apologize for my shitty timing.
Nathan was a stoic, at least as far as Wolves went. Kept his cards close to his chest, thought through his responses to things, and was generally the adult in the room even when the rest of us were good and pissed off about something. But too much of that could make a man uptight–or drive a Wolf a little crazy from boredom, skin hunger, and restlessness.
Point was, it was good to see him opening up to a woman, even if it was kind of unexpected. The timing in general kind of sucked. We were up against a serious enemy. One who could spread misery for the humans far and wide, kill Madelyne and her son, and cause serious problems for shifters, too.
“So, what have you got for me?”
I smiled and deliberately sat down between them, as much to break the tension as to give both a good view of the tablet screen. “So. Here we have a layout of the house and grounds. The whole place is covered with security cameras, but Matthias knew the layout well enough to find a blind spot and disable a few in the side yard. That’s why we don’t have footage of the murders.”
“I see. What is your solution?” Nathan sounded a little growly. I could see the Wolf in his eyes, just a touch agitated about where I’d sat myself.
I fought down a laugh at the sight. “The answer is to change everything up. Camera placement, sensors, everything. Since a Tiger can leap twenty feet vertically, we can’t set them high enough that he can’t get at them. Armored enclosures will be a lot more effective, especially if they’re domed so claws will slip off of them.”
“Better make those domes armored glass, in case he gets clever and brings a rifle,” Nathan said. Madelyne, meanwhile, was watching the screen intently as I took notes and attached them to the diagram.
She smelled nice. Very nice. No perfume today, just soap, toothpaste, skin cream, and her own scent under it all. I sniffed appreciatively, feeling the first trickle of attraction. Behave, I told myself.
“One idea I had is to include infrared cameras next to the regular feeds. The infrared can pick up if someone’s body temperature is unusually high.”
Madelyne’s brows drew together. “Why would that matter?”
“That’s a clue that we’re dealing with a shifter.” Nathan considered the screen, then looked across me at her. “We tend to run hot. Wolves the least, Bears the most. Tigers somewhere in between.”
I’d never even seen a Tiger shifter before, as far as I knew, but they sounded creepy as hell. Like a Maneater who was immune to prion disease and had magical fucking powers as well.
Rakshasa.That’s what the Indians called them. They’d been plaguing South Asia for millennia and had worked their way into even some of India’s spiritual history and legendry. Even deeper than Maneaters had done with Wolves in Europe, or the Bears in Scandinavia.
“Hold on, back up a bit,” our hostess said as she blinked at us both. “Scandinavian folklore? You’re telling me Berserkers are real?”
“That is correct,” Ulf rumbled as he walked inside. “My father fought one of the Bear Warriors once, back home in Norway. The Bear was the only one to beat him.”
“How’d he survive?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Turns out the Bears are healers. My father woke up without a scratch on him.” Ulf was going for a beer. Madelyne had filled up a cooler for them but kept it just inside the door as the day turned scorching. “How much of that electronic stuff do you plan to clutter this place up with?”
“We were just discussing it, Luddite,” I teased. Ulf eyed me. Of all the Wolves I had ever met, Ulf was the one who was the most old-school. I practiced with swords, but I’d seen Ulf walk into a fight with a battle axe on his back right next to his rifle. He didn’t trust technology too much, especially electronics. Their complexity just meant more points of failure to him.
“Okay. So, new cameras, infrared. Pressure sensors on the patios. Motion sensors in the yard. In the house, intrusion sensors and the monitoring setup. Some of it we can get done by tonight, the rest over tomorrow.” I added a few more notes. “Nate, I’ll need to talk some of the purchase details over with you.”
Ulf went back out with two beers and Nathan nodded. “Okay.”
Just then, Madelyne yawned so wide I could see her tonsils. Her mouth snapped shut and she covered it in embarrassment. I snorted while Nathan looked at her with concern.
“You need to go get more sleep,” he insisted.
“I’m… I’m fine,” she protested a bit weakly. “What if you need me to answer questions?”
“It will wait until you’re not yawning half your head off,” he insisted. “Now come on, go take a nap before I decide to carry you upstairs.”
I saw the little flash of mischievous delight in her eyes at the prospect before she stifled another yawn. I pressed my lips together against laughter. I really don’t think she’d mind much there, Boss.
Once we had shooed her upstairs, Nathan eyed me and went for a beer. “What’s so damn funny, Jamie?”
“You. What the hell’s the story with you and the new client, anyway? Besides her being smoking hot, I mean.”
“That’s Ben’s widow,” he snapped as he poked through the cooler. He grabbed two longnecks and passed me one.
“Ben? Our old liaison with the Navy Brass?” That was a surprise.
“The very one. Aidan’s his kid.” He cracked open his beer and took a swallow. “And yeah, she’s smoking hot.”
“I’m surprised you never slept with her,” I breathed, still remembering the sway of her ass as she walked up the stairs.
He shot me a sharp look. “Ben wasn’t poly,” he stated. “That made it out of the question. We probably would have if he’d been all right with it, but he was strictly monogamous, and she was loyal.”
“Damn. That must have been frustrating.” I opened my own beer and let it fizz up and settle before taking my first swallow. “But you can do something about it now.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “I don’t think that would be appropriate under the circumstances.”
“Come on, man, I see the way you look at her. If the two of you keep building up steam like this and don’t do anything about it, the sexual tension’s going to distract the hell out of you.”
He shook his head, rolling his eyes a little. “Jamie. Mind your own business, all right?”
I snickered and he eyed me in irritation. “All right, all right, I’ll back off. But think about what I said, okay?”
“You act like the thought’s never crossed my mind before.” He sniffed, took another swig, and looked at me. “The Sheriff’s Department will have some paperwork for us so we can operate in this area without any issues. See what kind of details you can get out of them while you’re there. On your way back, case the town some and then bring us back more beer.”
I looked out the window at the blinding day and my smile faded a little. At least my truck had air conditioning. “You got it, Boss. Anything else?”
“Yeah. If you catch sight of the subject or learn where he’s hiding, I want to know immediately.”
“Of course.” I finished my beer in a few long swigs, belched, and stood up, leaving the tablet with him. “If you need anything else, text me.”
I had only been parked in the driveway for a few hours, but the cab of my truck already felt like an oven inside. I sat with sweat trickling down between my shoulder blades as the air conditioning roared, waiting to be cool enough to focus on the road. This is the one goddamn thing about the Southwest I never will get used to.
I was from Seattle and badly missed it in the height of summer. But where my Pack went, I went.
Finally, the air conditioner started properly cooling the inside of the cab, and I could focus enough to drive. I pulled my car out of the driveway and watched the automatic gate close behind me.
It was a few miles to town. I put on my classic metal and got going, sometimes screeching along to AC/DC. Nathan’s dilemma was still rolling around in my head, amusing the hell out of me.
I had been telling the truth. The guy should just hop into bed with Madelyne. If it was just an itch he’d carried for years, he could scratch it and focus back on the job. She’d get the taste of Matthias out of her mouth in the process, so it was a win-win.
If it wasn’t just an itch, well… that would be good for him too. Nathan had always been kind of uptight, but he wasn’t quite that way around her and her kid. It was almost like she was a missing piece in his life.
Friends with benefits or committed lovers, I didn’t care as long as he did something about it. Nathan had a way of stewing over things that he didn’t resolve, and I could always see it. That was the last thing we needed right now.
Anyway, once he got the matter out of his system, that pretty, poly lady would probably be a lot more relaxed, too. Once it was more or less resolved, I wanted a chance to shoot my shot. but no way was I messing things up for our Alpha and one of my best friends in the process.
Any guy who thinks single moms can’t be hot is a goddamn coward. I hadn’t had much experience with kids, but Aidan seemed like a neat little guy, and we were going to have to all get used to each other either way. The only problems in the equation were Matthias and his crazy family.
A goddamn Tiger. Magic powers, a criminal mind, and an appetite for human flesh. I hated killing shifters–any shifter with ethics would–but this time, the guy could fucking burn.
I pulled into the Sheriff’s Department parking lot twenty-five minutes later, looked around at the baked-looking landscape, scowled, and put my sunglasses on before I stepped out. The heat hit me like I’d just opened an oven in front of me. Fuck. I can’t believe people actually choose to live out here. But I was going to have to get used to it somehow.
Inside, the air conditioning was nowhere as good as in my truck. The window unit was humming loudly as it fought as hard as it could to keep the heat at bay. I rolled up to the scratched wooden front desk and showed my ID. “Hey, there. Jamie MacMillan, Desert Guardians security. I was told to come down to do some paperwork for you?”
The deputy behind the desk was a tired-looking brunette woman with two of her fingernails colored in sloppily with marker. Mom of young kids, my inner detective noted. She looked me up and down, that same curious once-over I got whenever a human realized I was a shifter. “Yeah,” she said finally. “The Nilsson place murders?” I nodded. “Okay, hold on here for a minute.”
She disappeared into the back, and I heard the sound of metal drawers rolling open and then closing again. Paper shuffled. I looked out the window at the highway, watching the heat shimmer over the asphalt. Then she was back with a thick folder in her hand.
“Nasty business, all of that. That guy’s been a pain in the ass for us for months. Nearly everyone suspected him of something, but until he went and started killing people, none of us knew he’d really done anything. Or that he was a… a shifter.”
That little pause told me a lot. “Yeah, well, as it turns out, he is, and so are his associates. So, it’s really better to leave them to us. If you could hand me anything that was reported on him, it would sure help.” I gave her my best wholesome-guy smile.
“Give me a minute for that one. I’ve got to ask the Sheriff about it.” She looked relieved that all of it was being offloaded onto us. I wondered what had been behind their lack of action. Apathy? Laziness? Or were they just short-staffed? The lady behind the counter looked like she’d been pushed well past her limits, and not just because of her kid.
She disappeared again, and I started going through the paperwork. It was pretty standard, which was lucky because we’d had to do something like this only a handful of times. I read, initialed, dated, and signed dutifully as I went, acknowledging that we would be responsible for all law enforcement activities related to Matthias and his family. That included calls for help if he went after anyone in town.
How can an entire breed of shifters be evil?I wondered. Were they all born with brains wired for it? Were they just bad seeds? Or was it the influences of their families, of Tiger culture?
Wolves rarely went full evil like this. They sometimes went crazy, they sometimes became Maneaters, and some had turned to crime. But even then, only rarely did so much as an entire Pack go bad. We had standards.
Why didn’t the Tigers?
Pointless to think about that, anyway. Let’s be real. Whether it’s nature, nurture, or choice, every last one there’s any record or word of has been rotten to the fucking bone.
I was three-quarters through the pile when I heard the printer by the Deputy’s desk whirr to life, and I looked up to see it printing out page after page. A second later, the Deputy returned, trailed by a big, red-faced, soft-bellied guy with a gold badge on his hat. “Sheriff Bob Meyers,” he said as he walked up to the desk, offering a meaty hand. “So, you and your boys are going to handle this guy?”
He had a good handshake–firm, brief, dry. “Yes sir.”
“Thank God.” He sighed and leaned on the desk, pausing to take off his hat and drag a handkerchief over his bald head. “We haven’t had many shifters in these parts, but this guy… he’s been nonstop trouble. Folks were glad when he vanished, but they’re scared he’ll come back. I keep getting calls to see if he’s caught yet, but my boys aren’t equipped to deal with someone who can do what he did to those security guys.”
“Welp, that’s why I’m here,” I replied cheerfully. “And the more detail you can give us on him and his activities, the faster we can get him out of your hair for good.”
He shot me a slightly uncomfortable look. This was a peaceful town, probably as sleepy as they came normally. No way did a guy like this have any experience with actually putting down a dangerous perp. “We’re printing case notes for you. We have to redact some of the reporter’s information, then we’ll hand it all over.”
“Well, I’m much obliged. So, this Matthias guy, did you ever meet him personally?”
“Not while in uniform. The guy seems to disappear like smoke whenever any of us is around and on duty. But he must not have recognized me when I went to the diner in street clothes a couple Sundays ago.”
“Yeah? What happened?”
“He, his mom, and his bodyguard had a table. Almost nothing but meat on that table. Never seen Indian folks eating steak and eggs, but the mom and bodyguard were going to town on it. The whole time the three of them were speaking some foreign language. Seemed mad as Hell about something, especially Matthias.
“So, I sit down nearby, sort of keeping an eye and an ear on them, and the waitress walks up to refill their coffee and ask if they need anything else. And boom, it’s like a switch got flipped. They’re suddenly relaxed, all smiles, chatting in English over their meals. Matthias gives the woman this big, fake Hollywood grin and thanks her, asks for more eggs. It wasn’t like he’d hidden his anger to be polite, either. Everything changed at once, like he’d put a mask on.”
“I see. So, this guy was doing the con artist thing before he went all homicidal?”
“Yes, sir. That and a break-in. Made a mess of the locals’ trust in people, let me tell you. Those artists up on the hill aren’t even open to the public anymore.”
“Damn.” That was going to make interviewing them a lot harder. I’ll need Madelyne to make some introductions so I can get in and get them talking. “They give any kind of statements about them?”
“It’s all in the reports. That’s why they’re taking so damn long to print out.” He glanced behind him. The stack had grown past twenty pages. “You think you can really get this guy before he hurts anyone else?”
“We’ve done jobs like this before,” I said in my most confident voice. Rarely, but we have. “Just take my word for it on one thing, okay?”
He quirked an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”
“If anyone in town starts noticeably acting like they’re not themselves, don’t trust them. Give us a call instead. These guys are masters of disguise, and I do mean masters.”
He shuddered. “Good to know,” he muttered.
It didn’t take long to finish filling out the paperwork, get copies of it all, and then wait for the reports to finish printing. What I had when I walked out filled a three-ring binder to capacity. Matthias, Matthias, I thought in a mix of amusement and disgust. You have been quite a naughty boy, haven’t you?
I cased the town after that, wanting to do pretty much anything on my to-do list than read through that much paper. At least it gave me a chance to think before I went back and dove into the chaos of installation that was going to take up the rest of our day.
It was a pretty place, if kind of small. I was able to drive from one end of town to the other in ten minutes. The artists’ colony was up the hill behind a heavy iron fence and gate; gorgeous custom work, with the iron bent into 2D images of trees and forest animals. Maybe it was Madelyne’s work, maybe not. I knew she worked in metal, but I didn’t know if she’d done such a big job for her neighbors.
Beyond the fence, I could see a cluster of tile-roofed buildings shaded by stunted trees. In their center was a giant trellis covered with trumpet vines. It looked green and inviting in there, and also like there was a lot of money being thrown around to keep it nice. No wonder Matthias targeted it. Whole walls of those buildings were covered by murals. Suncatchers and polished rain chains dangled from the eaves. I caught a whiff of weed–no surprise at all, really.
So, a bunch of hippie artist types with a pile of money come here to make art and bake in the sun. Matthias sniffs them out and shows up. He uses one–Madelyne–as a fuck toy, then gets pissed as hell when she backs off of him and starts taking a real look at what he’s doing. She throws him out, warns the others, ruins his plans, and now he’s terrorizing her.
I found a Beer Barn and pulled into its parking lot, double-checking my wallet before going in. The whole place was humming like the inside of a refrigerator case, but it still had that sweaty, barely air-conditioned feeling to it. At least the air in there was moist. I continued mulling the situation as I picked up several six-packs of different hot-weather brews: everything from Mexican Brown Ale to Hefeweizen. I actually had to use one of those little carts to keep from risking dropping an avalanche of longnecks.
He’s doing the classic abuser thing. She cuts him off, and he becomes obsessed with revenge. Hurting her, hurting her son, killing them both. Murders six guys practically in front of her just to terrorize her.
I’d seen a lot of abusive men over the years, and I hated every one of them. I was tired of half our business being angry ex-husbands, angry ex-boyfriends who fucked up their relationships, got dumped, and then forced their ex-partners to hire us for safety. We’d only been in business a year, and I’d already seen too much.
I drove home lighter in the pocket and heavier in the cab, with six-packs stacked up in the passenger footwell beside me. It was hard not to get angry on Madelyne and Aidan’s behalf. He was a good kid, and she was one of the hottest, kindest women I’d ever met. Plus, my Alpha was down bad for her, and I was already attracted.
It’s not just a matter of Matthias being a fucking monster, either. How the hell could anyone get a taste of a woman like that and not fight like hell to keep her? Do right by her? Man, I am so sick of these fucking scumbags.
But it wasn’t like I could wave my hand, roll back time by a year, and step in before the piece of shit ever met her. No, we had to deal with the situation, and because of the paperwork I’d just signed on behalf of the company, we were technically responsible for protecting the whole town from Matthias and his people.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and find where they’re hiding. Otherwise, we’ll have to wait for him to come to us, and that’s not gonna be fun at all.
When I got home, I saw all three of my Packmates hard at work. Nathan was up on a ladder installing the new cameras. Bela was up on another ladder installing motion-sensitive lights. Ulf was keeping watch and gave me a nod as I drove in the gate.
I scooped up one six-pack of each of the different flavors and brought them inside. When I went inside, I was treated to the sight of Madelyne’s heart-shaped ass bent over the cooler as she replaced the ice packs.
“Hey there!” I said cheerfully. She straightened and gave me a smile.
“Hi. I couldn’t stay asleep, so I’m finding ways to make myself useful. How was town?”
“Tiny, cute, and hot as fuck. Kinda like you without the tiny part.”
She gave me a little half-smile. “Are you flirting with me, Jamie?”
I didn’t even blink. “Yes.”
“Well, thank you. Though I should probably be focusing on work right now. The others are out there baking themselves for my sake. You guys don’t get sunburns, do you?” I gave her half the six-packs, and we started laying them into the cooler to chill.
“Uh, well, we get ‘em, but they don’t last more than half an hour. Shifter healing’s good stuff. Also helps us recover from other things fast.” I gave her a wink. Shifter refractory periods were notoriously short and were becoming something of a legend online.
She laughed–a good sign. I was being a little over the top, deliberately. Testing the waters. If her smile had faded or gone stiff instead, I’d know she wasn’t interested. But her cheeks looked just a touch pink, and not because she’d been out in the sun.
“You’re blushing,” I teased.
“Oh, well, between you and Nathan, I’m just not used to all the attention.”
We finished up and straightened, and I gave her a naughty grin. “Well, you’d better get used to it, because all four of us have the same taste in women.”
Her eyes widened and I turned, leaving her with that as I went out to join my team and start back up on work.