by Alisa Woods
At that exact moment, the rest of the pack stormed into the building, weapons out, fanning to check every nook and corner to see if someone was lurking there. Jaxson was in the lead. He quickly gave the all clear signal to his pack and hurried up to Jace and Piper.
His brother scowled at him. “Empty warehouse. Recently evacuated. Last time I was in this situation, it went south pretty badly.”
He was right, of course—the last time they found a supposedly empty warehouse, when they were trying to rescue their brother, Jared, it turned out to be Agent Smith’s trap to capture them all.
Jace tugged Piper closer, his hand still on her elbow. “Jaxson’s right. We shouldn’t stay here. Let’s head out and make our plans from there.”
Jaxson signaled to the rest of the pack to head out of the building again. Daniel stayed behind. He and Piper exchanged some kind of look Jace didn’t understand.
“This is all smoke and mirrors, Piper,” Daniel said coldly. “Father’s playing some kind of game with us.”
“This isn’t a game!” Piper shot back, her body going rigid with tension again.
“Noah isn’t here,” Daniel said. “There’s no evidence he or any other shifters were ever here. The only actual evidence we have is an email that says he’s fine.”
“You know that’s not what he meant.” Piper’s dark eyes were on fire with anger.
Daniel dismissed that with a wave. “I’m going back to work. If I still have a job after what you pulled this morning. You can chase your fantasies all you like, Piper.” Then he turned on his heel and stormed out of the warehouse, fists clenched.
Jace looked at Piper, but she was too busy burning holes in Daniel’s back to notice. “Ignore him. Trust your instincts on this. But we need to get out of here. We can’t help your brother if we get caught in an ambush.”
She gave him a sharp nod, and they headed out after the rest of the pack, giving Daniel wide berth. But as soon as they were clear of the door, Piper pulled off to the side, heading in the opposite direction.
“Where you going?” Jace turned to trot after her.
She stopped and let him catch up. “I’m going to figure out what happened to Noah.”
“Maybe it’s not the Senator. This looks military to me.” Jace tried to soften his voice and reached for her arm, but she pulled away. “Is it possible your dad is involved? Agent Smith was on his turf. There’s a connection there somehow.”
“I’m following the clue Noah left for me.” Determination was a cold fire in her eyes.
“We can get the witches to help again,” Jace tried.
She scowled. “Your witch is a novice.”
“She’ll get closer this time. At least give it a chance. If you take off again, how am I going to convince the pack you’re not just a loose cannon?”
“I’m sure you can be convincing when you want to be.” Then she reached up and grabbed his cheeks and pulled him down to kiss her. It was hot and fast, her tongue demanding a response from his, and he was crushing her body to his before he knew what he was doing. Just as lightning fast, she pulled back and smirked at him.
When he tried to bring her close again, she just pulled further out of reach.
“You’re just trying to distract me,” Jace said, breath already heavy from that one kiss. He wiped the taste of her off his lips with the back of his hand—not that he exactly minded that method of distraction.
Her smirk grew wider. “Yes.”
“Is arguing just foreplay for you?” He was hoping that foreplay meant there would eventually be more play, but mostly he wanted to keep her from running off to do some dangerous solo mission again.
“Yes.” Her smirk was so flirtatious now, it was all he could do not to force her up against the wall and give her a dose of her own medicine.
“It’s not going to work,” he said instead.
Her smile tempered a little. “The distraction or the foreplay part?”
“The distraction.” This time, he did move a little closer. Maybe he could kiss his way into convincing her to stay.
She looked him up and down in a way that made his wolf surge up—and the man in him wanted to do all kinds of naughty things, right here, right now, forget the rest of the pack. They were all headed back to the van anyway.
Her roaming gaze finally found his eyes. “Where I need to go, you can’t come. There’s no way you can get into the Senator’s office like I can.”
Dammit. She was probably right about that. And yet he had absolutely no desire to let her go. “I don’t like this, Piper.”
“You don’t have to.” The warmth in her eyes cooled, like those brief moments of openness and flirtation had passed, and she was building up all her emotional walls again. Keeping him out; keeping him at a distance. She did it with everyone in her life. He’d only known her for a short time, but he’d already figured out that much.
He leaned in close, finally pushing her back against the rusty, corrugated wall of the warehouse, one hand on either side of her head. He was close enough to kiss, but instead he just whispered softly, “I want you to come back. Without handcuffs this time. Don’t make me come rescue you again.”
He thought she might kiss him, but the walls were already firmly back in place. And his words just conjured a cold fire in her eyes. She put both hands against his chest and shoved him away from her.
“I didn’t need rescuing! I could’ve taken care of that myself. I don’t need your help, Jace River. Or anyone else’s.” Then she wrenched away from him and stormed off.
Other than physically grabbing her and locking her in the van, he couldn’t think of any way to stop her. He banged his head softly against the wall… and prayed she would make it back safely from whatever foolishness she was determined to do this time.
Chapter Eight
Piper hiked up the long stretch of white stone steps to the capitol building in Olympia. It had taken her over an hour to get there, but she could still feel Jace’s lips on hers—that hot kiss outside the warehouse lingered long past the few seconds his mouth was actually on hers. It made her momentarily forget her brother had been kept inside that dingy medical prison, with people doing who knew what to him.
But she was back on point now.
The towering granite columns of the capitol building were imposing to most people—they spoke of a stately elegance that was hilarious in the face of the smarmy politics that happened inside the building itself. Piper was a fan of democracy, but sometimes it was a wonder it could survive all the machinations of the politicians that made it run. It was certainly messy, and she had her hands in a fair share of the muck. Her work on the Senate Defense Subcommittee involved security issues and shifters—two things she knew quite a bit about—but she stayed away from the politics as much as possible. Her brother knew about her work, and he knew that envelope would point her directly here: Senator Krepky’s office.
The gorgeous marble dome inside the capitol building soared above her, adding its regal gold-trimmed gleam to the interior. Piper waved to the guard manning the security checkpoint just inside the entranceway and swiped her credentials—the real ones that had top-level clearance for the Senate building. The guard gave her a warm smile return—he was the kind that remembered faces, and he always seemed to know hers, even with her somewhat infrequent but still regular visits to the capitol.
Once past security, she strode purposefully toward the Senator’s office. She had already made an appointment with Michael, Krepky’s personal assistant—getting an appointment with the Senator himself was quite difficult and completely unnecessary. Michael had access to all the Senator’s top-secret information, the Senator’s office, and he probably knew more about what was going on in the defense subcommittee than the Senator himself. The trick in counterintelligence was always to know where the true power resided—and Piper’s radar for detecting the holders of power was as finely tuned as the radar she used to tell the good guys from the bad.
Ja
ce River was definitely one of the good guys.
Her thoughts kept drifting back to him. She’d spent the entire car trip down to Olympia replaying that scorching kiss. She couldn’t decide if Jace actually cared about her, for some strange reason, even though he had no reason at all. Just when she was convinced that he only cared about the mission, being a hero and rescuing other shifters, he went and did something like he did at the warehouse—not the kiss, but that soft whisper in her ear, saying that he wanted her to come back. Or asking her if she was okay once she was released from her father’s custody. Or holding her when she felt woozy from the witch’s spell that forced her to relive her mother’s death. Piper doubted Jace had any idea the effect those things had on her—and she was little surprised herself at how quickly his small touches and concerned looks and hot kisses had reached inside her and stirred things around.
Whenever he smiled at her—and even worse, when he beamed that hot, smirky grin—it wasn’t just her lady parts being warmed. The man was a hot shifter determined to help find her brother, and his kisses were like a drug for her inner beast. To top it all off, he seemed to actually care about her.
It was a deadly combination. And a dangerous one. It was seriously messing with her vow not to get involved, and certainly not to mate with, anyone, ever. Period. Full stop. It didn’t matter how hot that shifter boy was or how much he wet her panties. Mating wasn’t something she could even contemplate, not after what happened to her mom.
Piper needed to stay focused on her task, which right now included checking in with her office before she wound through the long corridors of the capitol to pay a visit to the Senator’s minion. She needed to put out any fires at Civilian Defense and see if they knew about her infiltration of the Joint Base before meeting with Michael and doing what she had to do to uncover the Senator’s involvement in all of this. She glanced down the hall to make sure it was clear, then paused by an alcove with a bust of a previous governor and dialed the number of the secure line for her office.
The call operator, Shelley, answered on the first ring. “Al’s carpet installation, can I help you?”
Piper gave her access code, the 17 digit number that was her lifeline wherever she was in the world.
Shelley replied, “Piper! I was wondering when you were going to check in, girl. Your supervisor is not very pleased about your vacation plans.”
So far, so good. “Yeah, well, looks like I’m going to extend that vacation a few more days. But if you need me on the defense subcommittee, I’m available. Is there anything on the docket?”
There was a pause while she checked. “Nothing right now, but I’ll let you know.”
“Great. And is Simpson really pissed off at me? I mean, more than normal? Like does he have an actual reason I should be aware of?”
She let out a small chuckle. “No, just his usual grumpiness. I think his wife is holding out on him again. That boy really needs to get laid on a regular basis or he just makes everyone’s life hell.”
“Sounds like need to know information, and I did not need to know that.”
Shelley laughed, and it was a good sound to hear. Piper trusted her to give a little heads up—or insist that Piper come into the office—if anything serious was going down. Which, if Simpson had any clue what she had been up to, would constitute a major crisis.
“All right,” Piper said, “let me know if anything comes up. I’ll be taking the next few days for some personal business. Hope to wrap it up really soon. Can’t wait to get back in the field.”
“You got it.” The line clicked off.
Piper strode down the hallway, making the last few turns to reach Michael’s office, which was adjacent to Krepky’s larger, official Senate office. She didn’t bother knocking, just opened the door, right on time. Michael sat at his desk, peering at something on his screen, but he looked up when she closed the door behind her.
A smile lit his face. He was young—probably no more than 30—and not terribly unattractive, but he had a smarmy way about him. His smiles were the kind that were calculated to either win votes for his boss or threaten people into backing him. Everything served a purpose in his grander scheme.
“Piper!” he effused, rising from his chair. “Can’t tell you how glad I am to see you.”
“I’m sure you could tell me,” Piper said in a voice that invited the flirtation she knew he enjoyed. “But I don’t really have time for flattery right now. This is just a quickie visit, Michael.”
He gave her an exaggerated pout as he rounded the desk, then strode forward for one of his patented, far-too-familiar hugs, the kind he gave all the pretty assistants and interns. She allowed it, but couldn’t help comparing it to Jace’s quick embrace: where Michael left her feeling chilled, Jace had set every part of her on fire.
She shoved that thought out of her mind. Focus, Piper.
When Michael released her, she said, “Look, I know you’re busy, so I won’t waste any of your time.”
He gave her a flirtatious smile. “Time with you is never a waste, Piper Wilding. Still waiting to find out if you live up to your last name.”
So… that’s how it was going to be. Piper held in her sigh. “Not sure I have time for that today, Michael.” She hadn’t slept with him—yet—but that had always been dangled as a possibility. And before today, she probably would have used this opportunity to initiate Michael into her list of “not-definitively-bad” guys who she slept with to score information necessary to her job. She drew the line at sleeping with the definitively bad guys, as a general rule, unless necessary… but in her line of business there were often a lot of gray areas. And an orgasm was an orgasm. Didn’t really matter who it was with. Until… until Jace River cruised into her life and held out the promise of more. A whole lot more. And suddenly the Michael’s of the world got shoved off the “maybe” list onto the “no way in hell” list.
Which made the idea of sleeping with him now give her the creeps.
Michael leaned forward and swept a lock of her long, black hair over her shoulder, a touch as calculated as it was shudder-worthy. “Oh, come on, Piper. You’ve been teasing me so long, I’m not sure I can withstand a rejection at this point.”
She forced a flirtatious smile onto her face and leaned into him, fussing with his collar and giving him a long, hot look straight in the eyes. “I’m not saying never… I’m just saying I don’t have time to do it properly right now.”
He took that as a license to pull her closer, sliding his hands around her waist and yanking her body up against his. His erection poked her stomach, and she had to force herself to keep the smile and not actually throw up in his face.
It was so obvious that Jace River had already ruined her—bad—for anyone else. And she hadn’t even slept with him. Damn him.
“I hear shifter women are extraordinarily hot and dirty in bed.” Michael leered and came close to kissing her, but held back. “How about a taste as a little down payment?” Then he kissed her, forcing his tongue into her mouth and digging around like he was searching for some kind of buried treasure.
God. Noah had better survive whatever trouble he was in, so she could beat the shit out of him for putting her through this. She made a mental note to replay all the gory details for him once he was safe again. Thinking about that got her through the kiss. When it was over, Michael pulled back and gave her a little space. Thank God.
“Too bad I can’t stay and play.” Piper pulled back a little farther. “But like I said, not much time today. Just need to know something.”
Michael was all smiles and erection still pressing into her side “What can I help you with, hot little Piper?”
She played with his collar again. “I was wondering if there was some kind of new program the Senator was looking to start. Something having to do with shifters.”
“Why do you ask that?” He frowned a little.
“Some rumors I heard. About shifters in special programs, possibly in the military.” T
here, she said it. She couldn’t get too close to the truth without having him clam up tight.
“That, my hot shifter girl, is classified information. I’d need a lot more inducement to give you all the details of a program involving shifters.”
Which only confirmed the existence of one.
Piper leaned close again and gave him a soft kiss that lingered—more erotic and less slobbering dog, the way he’d kissed her. It was remarkably difficult to pull off—the only way she got through it was by closing her eyes and imagining Jace was on the receiving end.
When she stopped, Michael was breathing hard. “Damn. I am so going to enjoy fucking you.”
She had to repress the shudder. “Consider that an advance for a little more information about this program involving shifters. I promise to make it up to you later.”
He wet his lips, hesitated, and finally said, “Let’s just say the Senator has big plans for shifters. He’ll be making a public announcement soon, anyway, so I guess there’s not much harm in telling you what’s coming.”
She waited.
“You know the Senator’s long been interested in the way that the government can use the resources that shifters possess. He’s recently become more concerned about those who aren’t in our military programs or government programs, such as yourself. He’s looking at proposing a new registration system.”
She frowned. “Registration? You mean like what we already do with the police?” Any shifter—including her, especially those in the military or government service already, but really anyone who had been identified as a shifter—had to provide DNA samples to the police in both their shifter and human forms. They basically assumed that shifters were criminals just waiting to commit a crime, and the government wanted to have them on file, just in case.
“No, that’s not what I mean.” His hold on her got a little tighter. “Piper, he’s going to start advocating for registration of the general public. You know I have a soft spot for shifters…” He gave her a squeeze. “But the Senator is more concerned about the danger your kind might present.”