by Dana Archer
“Yes. Mira and I are over.”
“And you realize I have a past too, right?”
He didn’t want to think of her with other men, but he nodded, knowing she had a point to make.
“And you believe me when I say I’m no longer sexually involved with my old lovers?”
“Yes.”
“And if you see me with one, you’re not going to flip out and tell me I can’t talk to him or remain friends with him, right?” Wide-eyed, she blinked at him. “Because that wouldn’t be fair.”
She’d led him exactly where she wanted him. No way could he refuse her and not come off as an jerk. He cleared his throat. “I won’t stop you from remaining friends with other men, if that’s what this is about.”
“It is, but only partially.”
“What’s your other reason?”
“Punishment, I suppose.” She pursed her lips. “Every time I see Mira, I’m going to think about the two of you. I’m a big girl, and I’ll get over it, but it’s not fair that you won’t suffer with the same problem.”
Rafe’s cats stirred. They wanted to study Jasmine through his eyes. Something about her words, or maybe her scent, had made them wary. He didn’t think she lied, not exactly, but she wasn’t being completely honest either.
Rafe thought back to her reaction when she’d entered the room. She’d been nervous, slightly afraid even, and she hadn’t even known about Mira then. Something else about him had upset her.
He studied her for some clue. She watched him just as carefully. Trying to read his expression? Yes, that was it. She was testing him.
“I’m assuming you’re still friends with an ex-lover?” Rafe finally asked.
“Yes.” She covered Rafe’s crotch with one hand, then slid the other over his bottom, down the center, between his butt cheeks. With a single finger, she pushed against his jeans.
“Jasmine.”
“Yes, Rafe?” she purred.
“What are you doing?”
“Just giving you a visual of what I used to do with my very good male friend, the one I refuse to lose.” She moved her hands to his waist and tipped her head back. A challenge shone in her steady gaze. “And just so you know, I only have one male friend.”
Josh.
She slipped from Rafe’s embrace and washed her hands at the sink. Rafe focused on her motions and ignored the angry snarls from his cats echoing in his head.
A door creaked open. Josh’s scent drifted to Rafe, and Rafe’s tiger slammed into his chest, demanding to be released. He fought the animal. No way did he want to do anything to encourage Jasmine to seek out Josh.
Jasmine draped the towel over a shoulder and faced Josh. “Hey, I forgot to tell you. I dug out the old photo albums you asked me for a couple of weeks ago. Found some great pictures of when we went to the prom and all those dances. I thought maybe we could sit out on the swing after dinner and look at them.” She licked her upper lip and dropped her gaze to skim the length of Josh’s body. “You know, remember old times.”
It was too much. Rafe reached for her, but she ducked and scrambled to the other side of the counter. She had the audacity to waggle her finger at him.
“Now, now, I don’t have time for any of that. Dinner is almost ready, then Josh and I are going to reconnect. I’ve had to keep all my friends at arm’s length over the past few years.” She flashed another grin. “That is okay with you, isn’t it?”
Rafe leaned against the counter at his back and crossed his arms. “Sure. It’ll give me time to talk to Seth and Levi about us.”
The color drained from her face. “About us?”
He nodded. “I want to make sure it’s okay with them that we’re involved. You know, get their permission. I don’t want them to be upset when they realize I’m sleeping in their mom’s bed.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. What if this doesn’t work out?”
He cracked his jaw. “Then we part ways gracefully. We’re grownups. We’ve both already proven we can remain friends with an ex-lover, but I don’t think it’ll come to that.”
“You’re pretty confident in yourself, aren’t you?”
He closed the distance between them, but didn’t pull her into his arms. He pressed his lips to hers and just…breathed. A few seconds, that was all, and he eased back, but it was long enough to remind them both they were connected. The hint of awareness in her eyes proved she felt their growing bond too.
“No, I’m confident in us. I’ve waited a very long time to find a woman like you. I’ll do what I must to win your heart, and if that means welcoming Josh to our dinner table every night, I will.”
It sure didn’t mean he’d be happy about it, but such was life.
He glanced at where Josh stood silently watching the exchange. “I want to talk to you after you’re done reminiscing with Jazz. Evan found out some very interesting things while he was talking to some of the humans in town.”
“About what?”
“Your brother.” And the debt Tony had amassed over the past year gambling on cage fights.
Chapter 25
Rafe leaned against one of the half-finished cars in Jasmine’s garage. Josh took up a similar position across from him.
“What do you want to talk about?” Josh asked.
“Recognize this?” Rafe held up one of the dozens of bid sheets Evan had found in the storage unit Tony had shared with his neighbor.
“No.” Josh frowned. “What is it?”
Josh’s scent didn’t change nor did Rafe’s cats alert him to any questionable body language. Rafe blew out a relieved breath. Josh hadn’t been a part of Tony’s gambling life.
“A bid sheet.”
“For what?” Josh snatched the paper. “Cage fighting? Where is there cage fighting around here?”
Rafe shrugged. “These operations tend to move from place to place. Sometimes they’ll set up a fight in an abandoned warehouse or a field, other times, they’ll have a makeshift ring in somebody’s basement or barn. The people who watch these fights are there for the violence, not the atmosphere.”
Josh crushed the paper in his fist. “And you’re saying my brother went to these fights?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Evan found that in the storage unit Tony shared with his neighbor, Cindy.”
Josh crossed his arms over his chest. “Then it must belong to that no-good husband of hers. That guy is always in the bar. If I let him, he’ll drink until he passes out.”
“Look at the handwriting on the back.”
Josh smoothed the paper, stared at it for a minute, then cursed.
“Recognize it?”
“Yeah.” Josh shoved the paper back at Rafe. “And so what if Tony was bidding on fights. He had a good job. If he wanted to spend his play money on fights, he could. It wasn’t like he was neglecting Megan or anything.”
Rafe sighed. He too would be protective of his brothers if someone thought to drag their names into an illegal activity. It was possible Tony hadn’t known…at first. Shifters rarely changed forms in front of humans. The instinctual drive to protect their species stopped most accidental shifts, even when faced with danger. At some point, Tony had learned the truth, though.
Rafe handed the pamphlet back to Josh. “Read the back.”
“I did.” Josh cracked his jaw. “A grand on the Hunter’s wolf form beating the Kagan’s.”
“Tony knew what the fighters were. He’s not innocent in this. These men are brought into the ring in chains or if they’re meant to fight as animals, in muzzles.” Rafe paused, letting that sink in.
Josh’s body tensed and an enraged look settled over his face. He slid his gaze to the wrinkled paper in Rafe’s hand but didn’t speak. No matter. Rafe had made his point.
“Even if Tony didn’t realize they were shifters, he couldn’t have missed the fact they were treated as slaves. I can guarantee you none of those men want to be in there. They’re fighting for t
heir lives,” Rafe added.
“They’re kidnap victims?”
“Or they were raised in cages for the sole purpose of fighting. The Kagan is probably a male from the Kagan wolf pack. Their territory is only twenty or so miles from here. We can contact them and see if they’re missing any members. The Hunter?” Rafe shrugged. “No clue. It might be a title he’s earned. He’s listed as undefeated against other wolves.”
Josh’s eyes’ darkened. “The guys who run these fights need to be found.”
“Agreed.” Rafe nodded. “This fight was a week ago. Think back. Did Tony mention if he was going anywhere?”
The chances of finding the operation were slim, but Rafe would pass on whatever information he could to the Shifter Affairs agents. Sometimes their tactics of following a financial trail worked better than trying to pick up a scent.
“I don’t know.” Josh held up a hand. “That’s the god’s honest truth. Tony called and said he was bringing Megan over in ten minutes. He needed a break. She’d had him up three nights in a row, and he couldn’t take a fourth night. I assumed he’d stayed home and slept. It wasn’t the first time he’d needed a break.”
“You mentioned before that Megan had nightmares. What about?”
“She won’t always tell us, but she gets worked up and won’t go back to sleep until every single light in the house is turned on. Every light, Rafe. Even the oven light.” Josh shook his head. “Other times it’s because she thinks someone is going to get hurt. Those aren’t as bad because once she sees or hears the person’s voice, she settles down.”
Rafe curled his fists. The worry over losing a loved one was common with rescued shifters, so was the fear of the dark. The knowledge didn’t soothe him, though. “Does she talk about her birth parents?”
“No. Not a word. Whenever we’ve asked her questions about the past, she ignores us or cries. We assumed she just wasn’t ready to talk about it.” Josh motioned toward the house. “You’ve seen her. Other than her nightmares, Megan’s a happy kid. She’s not fearful of strangers, and she isn’t exactly afraid to speak her mind. We didn’t see a reason to push her if she wasn’t ready to talk about her past.”
Rafe wasn’t fond of bringing up the subject either. Upsetting the little girl was the last thing he wanted.
“There’s something else”—Josh scrubbed a hand down his face—“about Megan. It might be nothing.”
Rafe waited a moment, then prompted, “What about her?”
“She talks to herself.”
“As in, she has an imaginary friend?”
“Not exactly.” Josh rolled his shoulders, then blew out a strained breath. “Sometimes when she’s alone, she talks. Well, whispers.”
Devin had mentioned the same thing. It had struck him as odd, but Rafe hadn’t asked him more about it. Securing her safety had been more important.
“What does she say?”
“I haven’t been able to tell. She only does it when she thinks nobody is close, and when she does talk, it’s more of a whisper. Her voice is so low it’s tough to make out anything. The moment she senses someone watching her, she clams up.”
“Okay. We’ll keep an eye on her. She might just be trying to talk to her cat.”
Rafe rubbed his aching temples and focused on the other question he had for Josh. “Why would Tony have been sharing a storage unit with Cindy? And why would only her name be on the unit, not her husband’s too?”
Josh frowned. “Just hers? That’s odd. I have no clue.”
“Tony and Cindy were friends? Or lovers too?”
“As far as I know, only friends. She’s friendly with everybody, though, so who knows if it was more. I never cared to ask. Not my business.” Josh narrowed his eyes. “What else was in the unit?”
“Random stuff. Books, old furniture, boxes of junk. Nothing that would offer us other clues.”
“So all we can say for sure is that Tony was bidding on shifter cage fights?”
“And that he’d lost about twenty-grand at it. Tony had kept a log of the fights and his bids. I can’t say whether he was paid up on it, but that’s a lot of play money to be tossing around, especially after just adopting Megan.”
Josh clenched his hands until white-knuckles betrayed his anger. “Why would he get involved in this? He knew Megan was a shifter too.”
“Those bid sheets go back a year. He was involved in exploiting shifters long before he ever became a father of one.”
Josh turned and slammed his balled fist against the table. A container of nuts and bolts spilled. The pinging sounds of metal hitting the floor filled the room. He planted his palms on the surface and hung his head.
“He never talked about adopting a kid. One day, he just showed up with Megan. He made a point of complaining about the lawyer fees. He even waved the stacks of paper and bitched about how long it had taken to sign everything. I never looked at any of it. I should’ve. Maybe I would’ve noticed something wrong.”
“And you didn’t think it was strange that he just came home with a kid? That social workers didn’t inspect the house or talk to any of you?”
“Sure, but”—Josh glanced over his shoulder—“he was my brother. A good guy. No matter what he was involved in, he cared about Megan. I guess I just didn’t want to know.”
“Understood.”
And Rafe did. It was easy to ignore inconsistencies when you cared about the person involved. He’d done the same where Jon was concerned.
“I’ll talk to Cindy tomorrow night and see what I can find out.” Josh bent and picked up the screws that had fallen. “Maybe she knew more than she let on.”
“Do you want me to send one of my brothers with you?” Better he ask. Josh wasn’t the type of man who likely responded well to orders.
“And take a guard away from Jazz and the kids?” Josh snorted. “No way. I have a carry permit. If the guy comes at me, I’ll shoot him.”
“Then you better shoot to kill.” Rafe gave Josh a warning look. “Shifters heal quickly.”
“Good to know.”
Rafe made his way to the door. He wanted to spend some time with Megan. He hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to her earlier in the day. There’d been too much going on.
“And Rafe?”
Rafe stopped with his hand on the door. “What?”
“If you break Jazz’s heart or disappoint her kids, you’re going to regret it, and believe me, I’ll be watching to make sure you treat them right.”
The warning didn’t surprise him. The acceptance behind it did.
“Aren’t you going to try and steal her from me?”
“No.” Josh placed the container of screws on the countertop, then left through the back door.
Rafe didn’t know what to make of the change in the human’s attitude, but he wouldn’t question it. Competition for Jasmine was the last thing he wanted to worry about, not when more practical matters came first. And keeping her safe until he could inflict a life-threatening wound ranked right up there.
Chapter 26
Jazz couldn’t tear her gaze from Rafe. After an initial awkward moment where Seth and Levi had stared wide-eyed at Rafe when he’d taken his bowl of ice cream and sat on the floor with them, they’d settled into a discussion about their favorite superheroes. Then they’d looked through the boys’ comic book collection and played a board game. It didn’t take much to imagine Rafe stretched out on the floor watching cartoons or playing ball in the yard.
The clock on the wall chimed. “Okay, kids. Say good night to Rafe. It’s time for bed.”
“Can Rafe read us a story?” Levi asked.
“Please,” Seth added.
She glanced between her kids and a grinning Rafe. He winked at her, and she smiled. “Sure. Hugs from me first.”
Seth and Levi squeezed her tight, then Rafe kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll be down soon.”
She caught both boys watching them closely, curiosity on their faces. Her skin warmed. “Okay.”<
br />
Rafe flashed her a pleased smile. “By the way, Seth and Levi gave me permission to love you.”
“They…did?”
“Mmm-hmm.” Rafe took her hand and ran his thumb over her knuckles. “I explained how special you are to me. That I wanted to make you happy. And the best way to do that is to stay close to you.”
“So we told Rafe that he could move in,” Levi said.
Seth nodded. “We can be a real family.”
“That’s okay, isn’t it?” Levi asked.
“Yes.” She swallowed hard. “That’s okay.”
Seth and Levi raced toward the stairs. Rafe slipped his hand around her waist and pulled her close. “And just so you know, they told me I could share your room since Mira would be sleeping in the spare one.”
“You’re sneaky.”
He brushed his lips over hers. “I am when I need to be. I do house big cats. Sneaky is one of their traits.”
He slipped from the room before she could respond. Jazz shook her head. He’d won them over. And her.
“Rafe’s very good with kids,” Mira said in a low voice.
Jazz tore her gaze from the stairs and faced the other woman. Mira stood with her hands linked loosely in front of her. Jazz swept her gaze over Mira. Her beauty was still as profound as the last time Jazz had seen her. Genetics had definitely been kind to her.
And she’d been Rafe’s lover.
Jazz shoved the thought deep before her jealousy could stir. From the way Rafe had worked her body, she’d known he was experienced. It’d be ignorant to think he didn’t have tons of ex-lovers around. It was just unfortunate one of them was staying in her house for at least the night. Tomorrow? She had no clue. Rafe had told her they needed to talk, but they hadn’t had a chance. The kids had needed her.
Mira stared at Jazz expectantly, obviously awaiting a response.
“Yes, very good,” Jazz forced herself to say.
“Your boys seem to like him too.”