Chapter 20
Dagger
It’d been just over a day since I’d seen my mate—thirty-seven and half hours to be exact—when I buzzed the security intercom in the late evening.
Unless you counted the show I’d gotten to see her put on in those security tapes from the club.
Goddamn, my cowgirl could dance. Of course, my territorial jaguar had major objections to her doing it for anyone but us, but I’d just been happy to catch another glimpse of her.
“What the fuck?” Hunter’s voice barked through the speaker, lacking any of its regular calmness. “This is getting to be an unwelcome habit. Can’t you call back during working hours? Preferably sometime next year.”
I shrugged, the kid in me taking a stony-faced delight in his irritation as he glared at me through the intercom’s camera. I took the high ground, kind of. “These are my working hours. And I’m real sorry taking psycho scum off the streets doesn’t fit perfectly with your schedule. Let me up.”
I’d become so used to hunting killers and brawling creeps amongst the hazy streetlights and dark shadows, I hadn’t given a night visit a second thought. What, was nine o’clock past his bedtime? The so-called tough guy was getting soft from nudging his nose into too many books.
Hunter ranted on, words wrapped in barbwire. I didn’t even process tonight’s exact complaints, just let them wash over me.
“It’s police business,” I reminded him again.
After another huff through the intercom, he buzzed the security doors open.
Stepping into the airy industrial elevator, my jaguar—impatient to see Serenity—was yowling and scratching at my insides as the platform made its clunky ascent. Eager to be near her too, I stepped out into an odd atmosphere.
There was clear tension in the room, but my jaguar distracted me from it for a moment, thumping against my ribcage, grumbling and pawing me at the sight of our mate.
I reminded him that she was the only reason I’d made my visit and scolded him to keep his claws retracted.
His desperation—a reflection of my own—was starting to smart.
Serenity was fidgeting on a couch in a white robe. She had a towel tied round her head and draped down her shoulders, Cleopatra style.
Bryce was buttoning up his designer shirt on a couch across from her, his fingertips glowing and fiery eyes glazed in sadness.
Then you had Hunter sitting at his breakfast bar, tinkling a coffee cup repeatedly against its saucer.
Still scowling at me, of course, but in between flashes of awkwardness that disturbed the usual serious lines of his features.
Something had happened—not illegal but still serious in its own way—and I found myself sliding into full-blown detective mode, pursuant of the truth with extreme prejudice.
The simple answer came from my jaguar’s powerful nose.
Sex. They didn’t all wreak of it, but my jaguar’s hackles raised at the smell of arousal hanging heavy around the three of them. I let my predator hunt the scent to its sources, giving his powerful senses free rein. The pulse from swollen balls told me the guys hadn’t got their release.
She had, though, most likely in the shower from her own hand, but I couldn’t be completely sure. Whatever had been going on, I didn’t like it. Neither did my animal. I wanted my mate to myself. My jaguar snarled in violent agreement.
“So, you gonna tell me why you’re harassing me in my home at this time of night?
Or do we have to call up the psychic hotline for an answer?
” Hunter asked, hunched over his coffee.
A whiff of the vapors billowing from the cup told my shifter nose it was decaf.
Back in our early twenties, he’d been the most dynamic and skilled street fighter in New Omaha.
Now he was scared of a little caffeine. I sighed softly.
“I’m here out of my public duty to Serenity, brother. I promised her updates on that kid’s condition and anything to do with the case.”
Hunter scoffed and tapped his cell phone screen. “You’ve heard of these, right?”
Discreetly surveying the room, I shrugged off his question. “Some news is best delivered in person.” I focused my stare on him, my tone cold. “If you were a cop, and not… what you are, you’d understand.”
“Has something happened?” Serenity sat up from the couch and stepped forward, her sincere, bunny rabbit gaze, freshly washed skin, and peppermint breath riling me and my jaguar. I masked it well though. Years of practice.
I met her halfway on the area rug, a hand trailing the outline of her arm, never quite touching.
She craned her neck to look up at me with kind but worried eyes.
“Don’t panic,” I said in gentler tones. “The kid’ll be on his way home in a couple more days. He was lucky he only ingested a tiny amount of that poison.”
“Oh, thank God. That’s great news.” She smiled and laid an absentminded palm on my wrist, closing the small distance I’d left between us. Her satin-smooth skin smelled like lavender.
My jaguar purred at the touch, wanting to lean in, get closer—a tamed kitten beneath her hand. But he’d use fangs and claws to keep her safe and keep her near. She was his. He’d only told me a million times since we’d met her.
I lingered in her space, not daring to budge, letting her presence quell the jealousy pounding through my animal’s aura at each slight movement Hunter and Bryce made.
I had to get some alone time with Serenity. It was a long shot, but I went for it.
“I’ve gathered a whole bunch of suspects’ photos and rap sheets. Plenty of vamps among them. I think I’ve identified Conrad based on the security cam footage.” I flicked my eyes to Hunter. “Thanks for that, by the way.”
Hunter grunted out a “Sure.”
I turned my attention back to Serenity. “But I’m not sure about that Armand guy you mentioned. And then there’s all the patrons of the den to lock up, too. It’d be an immense help if you could come down to my precinct and look—”
Her brows jumped, fingers squeezing tighter at my wrist. “Oh. Sure! Anything to help.”
“She’s not going down to that war trench you call a police station, especially at this time of night,” Hunter said, glowering.
I tutted. “She’ll be with me. Nobody fu—” I looked down at Serenity’s sweet gaze. “Nobody messes with me. She’ll be perfectly safe.”
Standing sharply, scraping his wooden stool backward, Hunter replied, “Oh, I know she’ll be safe. Cause I’m coming too.”
My jaguar didn’t like that. Neither did I.
“And have you bitching and moaning the whole time when all I’m trying to do is get Serenity’s help to crack possibly the biggest crime ring in New Nebraska’s history?
I don’t think so. I’ll need to focus on the case, not put up with you.
” I snorted. “Maybe if you weren’t so whiney, I’d consider it. ”
Hunter sprang about ten feet in a single bound, thudding on the shiny oak flooring inches from me. His eyes went dark yellow as he hissed, “We’ll see who’s whining when I kick your wannabe tough guy ass out the skylight.”
“Oh, I’m no wannabe, believe me.” I liked winding him up. “And you’re crowding me. Get out of my face.”
“Perhaps I could provide an alternative to the two of you slicing each other into little pieces,” Bryce said, his sleeves now perfectly cuffed and his suave manner back on like an armored suit jacket. As he walked toward us, both Hunter and I took a couple of steps back, mindful of touch.
His fingernails still pulsing like hot coals, Bryce’s body radiated heat like an open oven door.
“And what’s that, rich man?” I asked, still squaring off with Hunter.
Bryce turned his attention to Hunter. “Hey, look at me.” Hunter obliged with a quick side-glance, and Bryce put a hand on his covered shoulder. “We all know the saying about when two jaguars fight. The loser dies in the street—”
“And the winner dies in the hospital. What of it?” I snarled. “I’m not the one getting up in people’s faces here.”
Bryce ignored me. “You trust me, right?” he asked Hunter through a smile. “Let me go instead. I’ll make sure she’s back, safe and sound.”
“Fine. Just don’t take your eyes off her.” Hunter grumbled some curses under his breath as he turned to Serenity.
It was hard not to look away as he opened his arms and she stepped into them. He hugged her, and she hugged him back. “You don’t have to go anywhere you don’t want to, okay?” he said.
Pulling back enough to reach up on her tiptoes and use his chest to steady herself, she cupped his cheek with a tenderness that hurt. “If I can bring monsters to justice, I will. Every time. You understand why I have to. I know you do.”
He nodded and smiled weakly. Then they embraced again and, when they finally parted, shared a full-on kiss. I had to look away. My jaguar roared, and I told him to practice patience.
Bryce watched this interaction with intensity too, and his hard exhale sent something sugary but sharp up my nose.
Fruit-flavored schnapps or brandy. But it didn’t cover his salty odor of pent-up desire.
I recalled his shaky fingers on his shirt buttons.
Bryce had a hard-on for Serenity. Poor bastard.
He was no threat as a proper mate anyway, not with his condition.
“Fine. Bryce, feel free to come along. At least you can keep a civil tongue in your head.”
Hunter stank of arousal as well, but his scathing looks and mistrust made it hard gauge any precise interaction with Serenity before I’d shown up.
Ten years of detective work told me a little more than a bit of petting that had been happening before I arrived—maybe with Bryce watching.
That passionate kiss had made my jaguar pace my insides, scraping my ribs like cage bars and forcing me to mask a wince.
They’d soon be full-blown mates if I didn’t stick my nose in.
And being a cop, that was my specialty.
Serenity, looking adorably casual in her robe and towel turban, looked at me with eyes wide and sincere. “If I come with you now, do really think it might help catch any of… them?”
“Absolutely.” Almost certainly not.
I was even more sure now, from the lingering scent on her thighs and hands, she’d given herself a release a short while ago.
Choosing to exclude her two male admirers too.
Promising. After all, she was meant for me, not them.
With every move she made, my body shifted to match her, to maintain the magnetism firing between us.
I just had to help her see it, get her away from these two mewling kittens who’d been trying to snuggle up to her all night.
My jaguar grumbled and snarled. I told him to relax and leave things in my hands.
I was almost certain Serenity hadn’t gifted anyone else the bond my animal and I craved, especially as I looked at poor, blue-ball Bryce and half-restrained a smirk.
Nodding at the lump in his trousers, I said, “If you’re coming, you’d better tie that thing into your waistband, and try not to pee up your three-thousand-dollar shirt next time you take a leak. ”
Hunter scowled. Bryce clenched his teeth. And Serenity looked at me with an arched eyebrow.
But a restrained smile crept onto her mischievous face. So at least my personality wasn’t fucking things up too badly as I tried to win my mate.