Snow roughly did so, glaring at the masked human. Once Brass was in place, he lifted off the human, getting in his face, and tore off the hood.
The unfamiliar male was about thirty, had swelling and raw scratches to his face, and sported some bandages. Snow grinned in satisfaction. Mel had hurt him.
The human’s dark eyes widened with fear. “I have the wrong apartment. This was a joke between me and my girlfriend, Sheila. You know. It’s a sex thing. She gets off on the burglar fantasy.”
“Shut up,” Brass growled. “Stupid human. I take it Mel has good aim. She said she nailed you with some plates and glasses to your face.” Brass frisked the front of him, pulling plastic zip-ties from the male’s pockets.
Snow snarled at the sight of them. “Were those meant for my female?” He wanted to tear the human apart.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the human lied.
Brass stood, reached down, and grabbed the human by the front of his shirt and his throat, lifting him. Timber grabbed his other arm, yanking it back roughly, and snapped on the other cuff.
“Go let your female know it’s safe and we have him,” Brass ordered Snow.
He hesitated.
Brass clasped his shoulder. “I understand wanting to hurt this male. I do. But we need answers. He can’t give them if you break his scrawny neck. Go to your female and tell Torrent to keep watch in the living room. We’re not expecting another idiot to arrive, but it’s best to be cautious.”
Snow gave a sharp nod, leaving the bedroom. Mel was his priority. He could hurt the male who’d attacked her later, after the NSO learned what they needed to know. He met Torrent’s gaze where the male stood in the living room down the hall and gave a sharp nod.
Torrent grinned and lifted his cell phone to his ear. He was in contact with Reservation. They had two teams waiting in SUVs a few blocks away.
Snow opened the bathroom door and flipped on the light. Mel was inside the tub, curled into a ball.
“We got him.” He rushed forward, helping her stand. He lifted her over the edge of the tub, hugging her. “You did damage his face.”
“I want to see him.”
“Later.” He breathed her in, refusing to let her go.
She clung to him. “I’m just so glad this worked.”
“It did. You’re a very smart female.”
She sniffed, sounding emotionally overwrought. “Vermin are pests, no matter where you live.”
He chuckled. She was too damn cute.
Chapter Thirteen
Mel woke to Snow kissing her forehead. She opened her eyes, immediately smiling at the sight of him. His hair was a little mussed and his beautiful blue eyes were locked on her. His hand gently caressed her cheek.
“Brass called. They have finished interrogating the male. We’re to meet downstairs in ten minutes.”
That information brought her fully awake.
After her intruder had been captured, they’d all returned to Reservation. She’d packed some clothing, since Snow insisted on her staying with him until they figured out what was going on and if she was still in danger. She’d been too exhausted to argue. Once they reached Snow’s place, they’d both stripped naked and cuddled. She’d fallen asleep right away.
“Did he say anything else?”
Snow shook his head. “Let’s get ready.” He pulled away, getting out of bed. He wore sweatpants, indicating she’d slept longer than he had.
Mel shoved back the covers and padded into the bathroom. Once she’d used the toilet and splashed water on her face, brushed her teeth, she returned to the bedroom. Snow waited, now wearing a shirt, too. He’d placed her bag on the end of the bed. She chose some comfy cotton stretch pants and an oversized long-sleeved shirt.
“Don’t bother with the bra.”
She turned her head, arching her eyebrows at him.
He grinned. “Species females don’t wear them unless they are working out or training. Free your beautiful breasts.”
She laughed at that. “Fine.” She dressed quickly, putting on slip-on shoes.
Snow led the way downstairs and to the same conference room they’d used for their meeting the day before. The smell of food hit her as they stepped inside the double doors. Brass, Timber, Torrent, and a male she hadn’t met before but recognized waited inside for the two of them.
Mel halted, openly gawking at Jaded Wild. She’d seen him plenty of times on the news, and his pictures were splashed on magazine covers at the checkout lines in grocery stores.
Snow wrapped his arm around her waist and drew her closer. “He doesn’t bite.”
“I know. I mean, it’s Jaded Wild. The Jaded Wild.” Mel sealed her lips, realizing she was babbling.
The handsome feline man in question grinned and came forward. “Humans have made me a big deal in your world but I’m just a normal Species.” He held out his hand.
Mel lifted hers, hating that it trembled. She’d never met a celebrity before. He gently shook her hand and then stepped back after releasing her, his gaze leaving her to stare at Snow. “Your female is adorable.” Then he looked down at her and winked. “Thank you for not screaming. Some of your females do that when they meet me now. It hurts my ears.”
Mel gave a sharp nod, keeping quiet. She didn’t want to embarrass herself or Snow by saying something she’d regret. Jaded Wild was in the same room as her! He wore jeans and a button-down silky black shirt. She couldn’t help but glance down, noticing his bare feet. Every time she’d seen him in pictures or on the news, he usually wore tuxedos or nice suits with dress shoes.
“Let’s sit. I had the kitchen staff bring us breakfast.” Brass waved a hand at the long table.
Snow took a seat to her immediate left. The center of the table had been set up buffet style with pancakes, bacon, sausage, toast, hash browns, scrambled eggs, and pitchers of juice, milk, and coffee.
Mel felt too nervous to eat but Snow quickly filled her a plate and placed it in front of her. He even poured her some milk, remembering that she liked it. He was the first to speak.
“What did you learn from the male?”
Brass had taken a bite of pancakes but paused.
Jaded cleared his throat across the table. “Justice can’t leave Homeland right now. Since I’m the other Species who must dress up in suits and ties to be paraded around the humans like I’m part of a dog and pony show, they figured you’d feel sorry enough for me to remain calm…and possibly forgiving. You won’t like what you’re about to hear.”
Snow softly growled.
Jaded sipped his coffee. “The male’s name is Darren Barrow. He’s somehow related to one of the males who shot Wind.” He glanced at Brass.
“His half-brother,” Brass stated.
Jaded nodded. “Darren said he got a message on his phone from that male, telling him what he was about to do. Darren was at work and didn’t hear it until after his shift ended later that evening. His half-brother actually admitted he was about to kill eight New Species who’d shown up at the diner and gave his location. He wanted to warn his Darren that he would be on the news later that night.”
“Darren said they aren’t overly close but when he tried to call Brad back—that’s the male who shot Wind—it went to voicemail over and over. And nothing was on the news.” Torrent paused. “He drove here from Arizona searching for his half-sibling. He swears he had no prior knowledge of what they planned to do.”
“He claims it shocked him that Brad would want to kill our kind,” Timber grumbled. “I’m not sure I believe that part but we’ve found no proof that he hated Species so far. We’re running background checks now but what information we have indicates no history of violence. Darren couldn’t find Brad, since we have both males in custody. That’s when he decided to go after the waitresses who were working that shift at the time his brother had left him the message.” Timber met Mel’s gaze. “He was afraid to call the NSO, since it’s known we trace all incoming calls. He says
he’d hoped his sibling had chickened out and had just gone into hiding. He also swears he wouldn’t have hurt you. I don’t believe that. Decent males don’t wear masks and attempt to grab females just to talk.”
“What about the reporter? Did Darren send that male into the diner?” Snow asked.
Mel reached over and took his hand. He looked furious. She wanted him to calm down.
Jaded answered. “He said he called some reporters to see if they’d heard anything about a shooting at the diner, once he’d reached this area and he couldn’t locate his sibling. None of them had. He seemed surprised when we told him that one had actually come here to ask questions, since they all hung up on him.”
“So why are you here?” Snow glared at Jaded. “What is your bad news? We have the male. He can’t hurt Mel or her friend.”
Jaded put down his coffee mug. “We have more freedom here at Reservation than we’ll ever see at Homeland. Sherriff Cooper and his deputies are responsible for that. They chase off the paparazzi. They won’t put up with the legitimate news crews for long, either. He and his deputies make them leave quickly and the humans living in this area don’t want that kind of attention, either. We’re all in agreement in our need to keep strangers away.” Jaded paused, then, “Sherriff Cooper insisted on gaining custody of the male we captured. Darren Barrow committed his crimes in the human world. It’s a jurisdiction problem. Justice would have refused his request if there was no punishment involved, but the male will be locked up for his crimes in accordance with the human legal system.”
“No,” Snow snarled. “He attacked my female!”
“None of us like it,” Jaded admitted. “I think we have better ways of dealing with stupid, dangerous humans than they do. Fuller Prison is where that male belongs, as far as we’re concerned, but we’re giving Sherriff Cooper his way this time. Who knows? Perhaps their prisons and jails are just as bad as Fuller, since humans run them, too.”
Brass cleared his throat. “Darren Barrow wasn’t a part of the attack at the diner and was at work in Arizona when Wind was shot. We’ve verified that. The crimes he did commit are breaking and entering into two human apartments. He committed assault on Melinda. The sheriff swore he’d have the human male prosecuted for both.”
“It’s not good enough.”
Mel held Snow’s hand tighter. He sounded as if he might lose his temper. She wasn’t about to let him do that.
“Mel is not technically your mate,” Brass stated softly. “She was living in a human apartment in the town. We’d be able to keep the male we captured last night if he’d come after her here, or if you’d signed the paperwork to make your mating official before this happened. Then this Darren would have been going after a Species female. That’s a New Species crime regardless of where it happens. We can’t ignore the Sheriff’s requests and his valid reasoning for jurisdiction. Those crimes were committed off NSO lands to humans.”
Snow growled.
Mel squeezed his hand tighter. “I see their point.”
He glowered at her. She inwardly winced. “It’s not like this jerk is going to get off scot-free. You heard them. Sheriff Cooper plans to prosecute him for what he did.” She glanced at Brass. “This Darren is facing jail time, right?”
Brass nodded. “Sheriff Cooper is going to take him to something called county lockup. He said the male will get time for his crimes. We have a confession from him about the break-ins, him attacking you while trying to capture you to gain answers, and that he planned to take you somewhere else to question you. We gave a copy of the video of us interviewing the male to Sheriff Cooper. The blood found in Mel’s apartment will match the male. He’ll get an attempted kidnapping charge, too. The sheriff implied the human might be facing years of incarceration.”
Jaded stood, drawing their attention. “I understand why you’re angry, Snow. We all do. Human laws are different but it’s important that we keep a good relationship with them. Especially Sherriff Cooper. He didn’t ask for the other two males who shot Wind. Just this one. Please see where Justice is coming from and why this decision was made. This Darren didn’t harm your female.” Jaded glanced at her and smiled. “You hurt him. The injuries I saw on his face and parts of his body seemed painful.”
“I want to see this male.” Snow stood and tried to free his hand from Mel’s.
She clung to him and rose to her feet, too, facing him. “Hey!”
He looked down at her, rage on his features.
“Calm down.”
“I can’t. I want to beat on the male before they let him get away!”
Mel frowned. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Your female would be correct.” Jaded sighed. “Especially since we already allowed Sherriff Cooper to take the male half an hour ago.”
Snow snarled viciously, giving Jaded an enraged look.
“Sheriff Cooper would have gotten into trouble if he’d turned over a human prisoner to another authority with that male half beaten to death by a Species. Be reasonable,” Torrent snapped. “Besides, your female did to a number on him when she fought him off. We strip-searched him. Not only did he have injuries to his face, neck, and the back of his head, but there was bruising on various parts of his body.”
“It wasn’t enough,” Snow growled.
“Calm,” Timber ordered. “We knew you wouldn’t take this well. We have other, more pressing issues to deal with.” He peered at Mel.
She got a bad feeling. “What?”
“The human said he called at least a dozen reporters asking about a shooting at that diner. One reporter already showed up to speak to you.”
She retook her seat and tugged on Snow. He reluctantly sat down next to her again. “What’s so bad about that? I didn’t tell him anything.”
Jaded poured himself more coffee and sat. “You’ve been associated with the NSO. I deal with the press often. They can be relentless. The male couldn’t remember all the ones he contacted. He did, however, give them the names of the waitresses who would have been present at the time he received the call from his sibling. You and Mary Muller always work from the time the diner opens until afternoon, Tuesdays through Saturdays. That was very easy for him to learn from the humans.”
She felt sick. “Mary and I are still in potential danger, then.”
“Here’s the good news. The male spoke to other humans in town while he waited for another opportunity to capture you after his first attack.” Brass paused. “Your friend Mary has earned quite a reputation with the humans regarding her extreme fear of animals. They laughed, he claimed, when he asked if Mary would know our kind. One even shared a story with him about a dog incident at the grocery store.” He shrugged.
Mel knew exactly what he was talking about. “Someone brought their dog shopping. I wasn’t there, but I heard about it. It ran up to Mary to be petted. She thought it was going to bite her, and she started screaming and climbed into her shopping cart. It was a weekend, so a lot of folks were there to see that go down.”
Torrent leaned forward. “How big was this dog?”
“It was a four-pound chihuahua,” she admitted. “They’re these tiny dogs that Mary swears resemble rats. Everyone laughed and she was embarrassed pretty bad. But she wouldn’t let them help her out of the cart until Mrs. Abrams left with her dog.”
Jaded smiled but didn’t laugh. “Once Darren Barrows learned that, he focused solely on you.” Jaded glanced around the table at the other New Species, before holding her gaze again. “Any decent reporter will learn that same information about Mary and dismiss her as someone who wouldn’t associate with our people. We feel the threat to her is so low that it’s not a concern. You’re the one we worry about, Melinda. More reporters could show up. We feel you’re not safe leaving Reservation. You have a reputation for being friendly, and Darren was told you’ve openly admitted to liking New Species.”
She let that sink in. “Please, just call me Mel,” she got out.
Snow
released her hand and leaned closer, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. She appreciated his emotional support.
“Mel,” Jaded responded.
She met his gaze.
“You’re in danger of at least being harassed by the press if more come here. That’s the best case. But the NSO have a lot of enemies. Some humans hate us because we’re different. Some fear us. We have religious fanatics targeting us. We almost had a human female burned alive in front of our gates because Zandy worked for the NSO. They wanted to punish her with a horrendous death just for associating with us. None of them even knew at first that she was involved romantically with one of our males until after they had taken her. The only reasonable options to keep you safe are for you to live here until we’re certain the threat has passed, or if you return to Indiana, far from the NSO. We’ll of course pay for you to relocate if that is your choice. We don’t want you to be financially burdened because you defended our males in that diner.”
Snow suddenly released her and stood. “Mel and I need to talk alone.”
The other New Species got to their feet as well.
Jaded addressed Snow. “Are you still angry with Justice for his decision to give Sheriff Cooper the male?”
Mel watched various emotions flash across Snow’s features. She wasn’t upset with the decision, herself. The jerk would serve some time for what he’d done. That’s all that mattered to her.
Snow finally sighed. “I realize how important it is for us to keep good relations with the sheriff and the humans. I don’t like it but I understand. Tell Justice I hold no grudge.”
“Thank you.” Jaded gave him a slight smile. “He’ll be happy to hear that. We all are.”
Snow led her out of the conference room and back to his place without speaking, but he kept a firm hold of her hand.
Mel had some thinking to do…but she was sure she already knew her decision.
* * * * *
Snow couldn’t shut his thoughts down. He kept imagining all the danger Mel could face if she returned to her apartment. It was tempting to see if other mates who had been targeted for being associated with New Species would share their stories with her. That might persuade her to stay at Reservation with him.
Best Friends (New Species Book 15) Page 16