Wolf Shield Investigations: Boxset

by Dee Bridgnorth

  A killer who’d then been directed to stalk and murder her own twin sister. They’d managed to step in just in time, and in the months since, Krista had been under psychiatric care.

  Braxton sat nearby, and it didn’t take a genius to notice the looks of envy he shot across the room toward Sledge and Marnie. He missed his mate—Logan could feel it, could practically hear his wolf howling in loneliness. “How’s it going?” Logan asked him. “How’s Serenity?”

  “She’s doing well. Life is better for her in the city, doing her own thing, and she’s safer there than she would be with us right now.” He ran a hand over the back of his neck, grimacing. “At least, that is what I keep telling myself.”

  “And you’re right. It’s better for her to focus on her life and her career right now. Once this dies down and we take care of these people, it will be safe for her to be part of things again.”

  “Of course. That doesn’t make it any easier.”

  “Of course not.” Logan was glad he didn’t have to worry about things like that, being on his own. There had been a moment or two as of late, while each member of his team found their mates, that he’d envied them. They didn’t have to be alone. They had found the people meant for them, the women their wolves were meant for.

  But love meant fear. It was something he’d learned the hard way. And right now, if he had to worry about the safety of his mate, it would’ve meant taking attention away from the group. There would be no focusing fully on one or the other, stretching him to the breaking point.

  Hell, he felt close enough to the breaking point already. No sense in making things worse.

  He nodded to Marnie, who smiled in return. She was still a marked woman, and they all knew it. Sledge had refused to leave her home alone, and of course, he was right. They were still actively protecting her, and it wasn’t as if she had never been to headquarters before.

  That left and Zane and Aimee, who were currently in the middle of an argument. “I just don’t see why you think it has to be you all the time,” he growled, fists in his pockets. “The world keeps spinning if you lay low for a while.”

  Yes, because she was also a marked woman, and now that she had killed her own mother, one of the architects behind the work that had left his group part human, part wolf, there was no hope of flying under the radar any longer. Naturally, the powers that be would know Lydia’s disappearance wasn’t a random coincidence.

  Aimee was having none of her mate’s warnings just then. “I think I’m the best one to decide what I need to do, and if my being around helps you guys anyway, why would I not want to be here? This is just as much for me as it is for you. When are you going to figure that out?”

  Logan cleared his throat as he approached. “Listen, we appreciate every bit of help you can give us. But please, don’t take more chances than are necessary.”

  She blew a strand of strawberry blonde hair away from her forehead, frustrated. “I should’ve known you would be on his side.”

  “There aren’t any sides to be had,” he reminded her as gently as he could. Truly, Zane had the patience of a saint—it helped that he was madly in love with the girl, of course. “We are all on the same side here. But you’re in a unique position. Yes, you have expertise we could use, and an understanding of the people we’re dealing with—at least, a slight understanding. You know some of how they think. We can use that. But you’re also in their crosshairs just as much as any of us. Even more so, maybe, since you betrayed them.”

  He hated to see her shoulders sink, the corners of her mouth turning downward. “I know,” she sighed. “I just can’t sit still and let all of you do what you’re doing without at least helping. It’s not the way I am.”

  Zane slid an arm around her waist, and she turned to press her face against his neck. Logan turned away then, not wanting to come in between them during a private moment.

  This was what life had become, not only managing his team but being careful not to step on any landmines as his team members navigated their new relationships. It was nearly impossible not to hurt somebody’s feelings.

  He clapped his hands briskly when Val and Hawk appeared, accompanied by Doc. “We’re all together again,” he announced with a tight smile.

  “Try not to sound too happy about that,” Val snickered.

  He rolled his eyes at her. “Sorry if the importance of the situation makes it hard for me to be excited. You know me—I would’ve knitted you all custom sweaters in honor of the occasion otherwise.”

  “So long as mine is pink,” she grinned. No surprise there, given her penchant for wearing the color and dying her hair a bubblegum shade. It occurred to him that he had no idea what her natural hair color was. Maybe she had forgotten by then too.

  He looked over the room. “Well, we all know what we’re up against here. Our friendly hacker thinks she has us figured out. We haven’t gotten any sort of communication from her since yesterday. The phone she was using to text was left behind in the car. That was to be expected, of course.”

  “She still has your number,” Hawk pointed out. He sounded mad enough to spit nails, like the very thought of the girl whose name nobody knew was enough to sicken him. “She can reach out when she feels like it.”

  “And I have no doubt she will,” Logan muttered. She was an enigma, that girl, but she wasn’t the type to sit back and let things happen without her. “She’ll want to be the star of the show now. She’ll want to remind us how clever she is, how she got the drop on us without our even knowing how. It’s not enough for somebody with that sort of intelligence to know they won. She’ll want to rub it in our faces.”

  “I have a few things I would like to rub in her face.” Hawk didn’t seem to notice Val when she tried to soothe him, dead set on being angry for as long as he wanted to. From where Logan stood, it looked like it would be quite a while.

  “We can’t let this steal focus,” he reminded everyone, not just Hawk. “She’s not the enemy. We know who the enemy is, and they know who we are.”

  “Honestly, this is exactly what those jerks want too,” Aimee mused as Zane rubbed her shoulders. She looked roughly as furious as Hawk. “If they knew she came onto the scene, they would laugh themselves sick—just another diversion, another problem for you to deal with while they sit back and spin their webs.”

  Everyone was looking at him, waiting for his advice, for his decision. What was to be done? “Hawk and I have discussed leaving coded messages for her on a few heavily trafficked forums for hackers.”

  “I haven’t found anybody there who reminds me of her,” Hawk explained. “And I’ve been looking for days before Logan met her. These guys—and girls,” he was quick to add, a guilty glanced tossed Val’s way, “love bragging about what they’ve managed to do, the level of security they managed to overcome, the Easter eggs they dropped in important files, how smart they are in general, but there’s nothing out there right now that sounds even remotely familiar.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t spend a lot of time on those boards,” Marnie shrugged.

  “She would definitely be aware of them, though,” Hawk insisted, “because honestly, half the work these people do—maybe even more than half—isn’t for the sake of their personal gain. It’s not like they’re breaking into bank networks or stealing routing numbers to offshore accounts. They aren’t trying to make themselves rich. They do it for the sake of doing it and getting away with it. What’s the fun in that if you can’t brag?”

  “Complete with screenshots to prove what they did,” Val added, shaking her head. “A bunch of showoffs. If any of those images were intercepted…”

  “That being said,” Logan concluded, “we considered posting messages she would recognize. Something about enjoying our meeting at the café, asking after her baby.”

  “I have to admit, the stroller was a genius touch,” Marnie murmured. “She knows how to blend in.”

  “She knows a lot of things she shouldn’t necessarily know.” L
ogan paced at the front of the room, before the screen against which they normally projected information about suspects or clients. “She made us from the very beginning. We didn’t even arrive at the same time—we staggered our arrival so nobody would get the idea that we were together, yet she still knew exactly who was around, who was watching. She expected it. Just like she expected me to follow her, going so far as to have another car waiting.”

  “She’s military,” Jace concluded, his brows drawn low over his eyes. “Is that what you’re trying to say?”

  “It’s the closest thing to a theory I’ve come up with yet,” Logan confirmed. “She’s not some random, everyday hacker. She’s smarter than she should be, more aware. Let’s look into records the way we did with Aimee before we understood more about her background. Computer techs, especially.”

  “Logan? We have a visitor.” Val bent over her laptop, frowning. “At the front door.”

  She cast the image to the screen at the front of the room so all of them could see. Whoever it was standing before the camera wore a ball cap, the brim pulled low over their eyes. Slight in build, dressed in black. There was no logo or anything like that stitched into their clothes or hat.

  Under one arm, they held a padded envelope.

  It was a test. He felt it, his skin tingling. His wolf sat at attention, prepared to fight if need be, though he doubted a fight would be necessary. No, this was a mental battle. A battle of wills. Was his curiosity strong enough that he would take a chance? That he would open the door to a stranger?

  “What’s your call?” Braxton asked, tension clear in his voice and the way he held himself. They were all on edge now, with Doc advising Marnie and Aimee to go to one of the back rooms along with Val. This didn’t please Marnie too much, and Aimee looked downright furious. If anything, she could handle herself just as well as all of them. One sharp look from Zane was enough to close her mouth, though Logan would’ve bet good money there would be a fight later on.

  Just another reason he was glad to be alone.

  “I’ll answer the door,” he announced, pulling his pistol free. “Jace, I want you at my back. Everyone else, brace yourselves in here just in case.”

  He knew as he crossed the room, opening the first of two doors leading out to the parking lot, that he was probably overreacting. But it was better to overreact and maybe have a little egg on his face later than to underestimate their foe and end up ambushed.

  He signaled to Jace to fall back a step or two, his weapon at the ready. Was this it? Would this be the first official shot fired across the bow? Only one way to find out.

  He opened the door slowly, cautiously. The delivery person stood with their head lowered, the brim of their cap covering their face. “Delivery,” they announced in a deep voice.

  Too deep. Comically deep. Deeper than someone with such a slight, curvy frame—only now did Logan take note of the breasts, the hips.

  “Son of a bitch,” he groaned as the hacker lifted her head, smiling brilliantly.

  “Found you,” she beamed.

  Chapter Six

  It was perfect—almost beautiful, in fact. She couldn’t have planned it better if she tried.

  He was absolutely gobsmacked, his jaw hanging loose when their eyes met and he realized who he was looking at. “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he muttered after getting control of himself.

  The next thing she knew, his hand was around her arm, and he was yanking her into the building, slamming the door shut.

  And she came face-to-muzzle with a semiautomatic, pointed straight at her. “Whoa!” she cried out, turning away with her hands held up in a defensive gesture.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay,” Logan growled, placing one hand over the gun and lowering it. “It’s her.”

  “And you still think it’s okay?” the other guy asked, his voice rumbling. “Because I get a very different feeling.”

  “Geez, if I’d have known I would be greeted this way, I wouldn’t have bothered coming out here.” Jenna brushed invisible dust from her shoulders. “You think you’re doing somebody a favor, and you end up with a gun between your eyes.”

  “Little girls who play games sometimes end up that way.” Logan loomed over her, hands on his hips.

  “Who’s a little girl? I know you’re not talking about me.” She met his gaze, reminding herself that it didn’t matter how pretty his eyes were. Or his face. Or any of him. “By now, I would think you’d show a little more respect when talking about me. I mean, it isn’t like you guys keep the address to this place where just anybody can find it.”

  He let out a long sigh, his brows drawing together as he continued to hold her gaze. What was he thinking? She would’ve given anything to find out. “Come on, you’re already here. You might as well come all the way in.” It was obvious his friend didn’t agree, but his friends didn’t have a say in the matter.

  This was it. She was finally going to get to see where these people did their work. She knew it shouldn’t matter; she’d told herself plenty of times not to be so interested in this group. Not to think about them too much, not to wonder about them. Not to make this too personal.

  Even so, there was no ignoring the little thrill that ran through her the moment before they entered the actual offices.

  And when they did, Jenna found herself surrounded by men who still held guns on her. No doubt, they’d been watching the security feed as Logan pulled her into the building. What were they thinking? Did they not trust their leader?

  Or did they just not like her? Well, that was to be expected, and it was always the risk a person took when they did the sort of work she did.

  Only one of the men didn’t hold a gun, but he was the only one she found even remotely threatening. It was the way he looked at her, the hardness in his eyes. He was a good-looking guy, not as bulky or beefy as the others but fit.

  It all came together with an almost audible click in her head. This was their network guy. This was the one who had an actual reason to hate her. She lifted her shoulders in a halfhearted shrug. “Sorry,” she mouthed. He scowled more deeply than ever before looking away.

  “You can all stand down,” Logan advised them, a little exasperated. “Here she is. Her ears must be ringing.”

  “I think you mean burning,” she retorted. “You were talking about me? I’m flattered.”

  “I wouldn’t be so flattered if I were you since we weren’t exactly complimentary.”

  She looked around at all of them, one at a time. “Listen, it’s nothing personal. I didn’t set out to make your life more difficult. What I’ve done I did because I had to make sure you guys were worth the effort.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” asked the guy with the long hair whom she’d spotted at the café.

  She pulled off her hat, letting her ponytail unfurl after being tucked inside. “First things first. Can I know your names? I mean, I know your names, but not who’s who.”

  “How do you even know our names?” Logan demanded, moving closer. She barely had space to breathe; he was so close. Under any other circumstances, she might not have minded too much—there was most definitely something about him that called out to something inside her.

  She looked up at him, trying to ignore the tingle in her fingers and toes when their eyes met. What did it all mean?

  “No offense,” she managed to say, “but what do you think I did when I entered your network? I didn’t just leave those files there for you. I did a little looking on my own. Don’t worry,” she added, looking at all of them with her hands held up, palms out. “Your information is still completely confidential. I left it there. All I did was open the files. Honestly, I’ll bring my laptop in. You can search yourself.” She met the eyes of the network guy, glaring at her again from across the room.

  “Nothing was copied,” he muttered, and it seemed like each word had to be pulled from him. He didn’t want to confirm what she said. “I made sure to check.”

  “S
ee? I’m telling the truth. I wasn’t trying to expose anybody. I just wanted to know.”

  “Know what?” Logan growled. Again, she knew she should have been intimidated, but the only thing that intimidated her was the reaction she had to him. It certainly wasn’t fear, though anybody with half a brain would’ve been afraid of him.

  Especially knowing what she knew.

  Rather than give him a clear answer, she repeated her first question. “What are your names? That’s not such a difficult question, is it?”

  Logan sighed, pointing to them one by one. He started with the long-haired guy. “That’s Sledge. Braxton. Jace.” He was the one who’d pulled the gun on her by the door. “And Zane.”

  She pointed to Braxton. “You’re the one who was across the street from the café.” He nodded, looking bored.

  “Now, you know them. Who are you?” It was clear Logan wasn’t about to let her go without getting the information he wanted, and she guessed it was only fair to give them what they wanted, sort of a gesture of good faith. Still, it wasn’t easy to reveal something about herself.

  “My name is Jenna. Let’s leave it at that for now, okay?”

  “Why?” Logan pressed. “Would we learn something about you if we know your last name? Maybe there’s something out there you don’t want us to find?”

  She knew it wasn’t right to smile, that it would only make her look smug and patronizing. She couldn’t help it, just the same. “You could try,” she murmured. “But you wouldn’t find anything. Trust me, I’ve made sure of that.”