by E A Price
Lucie tried to slap on a happy smile as Rick glided into the room. “So, how is your second day at work going?”
He grinned showing a large amount of straight, white teeth. “Almost as wonderful as the first. I was thinking about trying out the staff canteen, would you care to join me?”
Her face took on a moue of distaste.
“That bad, huh?” he chuckled.
“They only serve food-based meals. Legally, that’s what they have to call them. I believe astronauts eat better than we do.”
He sat down on the edge of her desk, and she became very aware of his large, warm body and the sweet cinnamon smell he emitted. Her hedgehog huffed and puffed, but Lucie couldn’t help the involuntary flush his nearness caused.
“Then let me take you out for lunch,” he winked at her, “my treat.”
“Ummm…” She tried to think of a good reason why she shouldn’t. But, after the morning she’d had, a little friendly company and some nice food might do her the world of good. Her little beast squeaked at her to think of Cutter.
“It’s just a meal,” he purred, “no pressure.”
He was right; it was just a meal. It didn’t mean anything.
Lucie nodded. “Okay.”
Rick beamed. “Terrific.”
Yes, terrific.
*
Cutter rolled his shoulder back and forth. Helga was a menace. It would take him years to get over the physical and mental torture she just put him through.
He could have ignored all that if Lucie would just answer her damn phone! But no, according to Helga the Horrific, she had gone out to lunch. When pressed if she had gone alone, Helga had clammed up. Apparently she didn’t approve of gossips or any kind of physical weakness. She ought to enter the Ms. Universe competition.
Given that the doctor was also unavailable, Cutter had his suspicions, though.
He scrubbed his hands over his face. Fuck, what had he done? His wolf seconded that. He couldn’t even remember getting that drunk last night. He remembered meeting the gruesome twosome twins, thinking that he’d just have one last beer and then… ugh, nothing.
Had he ever been that drunk before? It took a hell of a lot of alcohol actually to knock out a shifter. Surely, he hadn’t gone on and drunk that much more?
What was he supposed to do about Lucie? She was now walking around town thinking that he was sleeping with other women. His chest tightened. She must think that she now had carte blanche to sleep with other men, too.
No, no he didn’t want that. Did he? Wasn’t this really all for the best? Lucie might actually get the message that he didn’t want her – no, not that he didn’t want her, just that he didn’t feel like he could be with her. It wasn’t the same thing.
He wasn’t right for her, so why was he all worked up at the actual thought of her finding someone who was right for her? He had tried to encourage her to do just that numerous times over the past year. Maybe it’s just that until now, he didn’t actually think she would. She had never been motivated to before.
But, if she couldn’t be with him, then surely, she would have to find happiness with someone else. His wolf howled. No, he didn’t want that. He didn’t want anyone to touch her – ever. She was his, and only his.
What were his reasons for not being with her? Well, he, uh… He was too gruff and violent for her. He suffered from night terrors that on occasion had him reaching for his gun and shooting the wall – another reason Mr. Wozniak hated him.
If he had just claimed Lucie straight away, there wouldn’t be any issues. The thought arose, unbidden, and – not so much gnawed – as munched on him.
That… ugh, the worrying direction of his thoughts was interrupted by the twangs of the Imperial March. Hey, maybe the Director was calling to say well done for actually getting his physical done. Nah, that didn’t seem likely.
He really should be focusing on work. Both Jessie and Primrose had been drafted onto Diaz’s team temporarily to help solve Clayton’s murder. It pissed him off to lose two members of the team, but at least he might actually get an update on the case from Jessie. He should be putting all his energy into helping Wayne and Avery with their hunt to find someone who knew their victim. Instead, he was moping around like a teenage girl who had been stood up for the prom.
With a grunt, he answered.
“Does the name Sadie Beauchamp mean anything to you?” demanded the Director.
Cutter snapped to attention, and even his wolf went silent in uneasy recognition. “Yes, why?”
“How do you know that name?”
The Director was dodging the question. He had a bad feeling about what that meant. “From an old case of mine. Why?”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
His wolf snarled in frustration. “Not since I moved to Los Lobos. For fuck’s sake, why?!”
“Her sister has been murdered and it appears that she has disappeared. And apparently she met up with Clayton Reeves before he died, and she had a note with all your details written on it.”
Well, that shut him up.
“Come up to my office; we need to talk.”
The Director hung up, and Cutter stared at his phone. This was not good.
Chapter Eight
Lucie pretended to rearrange her store of bandages as Diaz chattered to her, inanely. He was waiting for the preliminary results of the autopsy Rick was performing and seemed determined to stay and bother her.
“You know, I could call you as soon as he has finished,” she offered.
Diaz waved his hand and smiled. “Nah, it’s no problem.”
She turned away from him and frowned. No, it was no bother for him. He didn’t find her company irritating beyond belief. On a good day, she didn’t particularly like Diaz, and this was not a good day.
It started off badly and just seemed to be getting progressively more irritating. Her lunch with the doctor had not gone well – in her opinion, at least. The doctor’s opinion may differ. His non-stop flirting was unnerving, and the fact that he was laying out his numerous plans for the life he and his future mate would lead was worrying. Maybe she was reading it completely wrong, but it seemed to be he was trying to shoehorn her into that role.
She could not have gotten out of that restaurant fast enough, and was thanking whatever gods were actually looking out for her when Rick was called away to a crime scene. Oh, that sounded awful. Of course, she wasn’t pleased that the poor woman had died, but the timing had been on her side.
Diaz was babbling away about his car, or maybe his cousin. A jaguar could easily be a car or a person. She just interjected an ‘aha’ now and then, and he seemed satisfied.
Rick strode through the door and started stripping off his plastic apron. “I’ve given the bullets to one of our techs for confirmation, but they appear to have been shot from the same gun used to murder the late Agent Reeves. Like Agent Reeves, I’d say she died in the early hours of the morning.”
Diaz nodded thoughtfully. “Things aren’t looking good for Cutter.”
Lucie’s eyes whipped up, and she caught Rick’s gaze before she looked down again, pretending to concentrate on her bandages and ignoring the fact that her cheeks were heating.
“Oh?” asked Rick with interest.
Diaz chuckled dryly. “Yeah, apparently, Cutter’s connected to this victim, too, and she had his contact details. She met up with Clayton the day before he died.”
“You don’t think Cutter had something to do with these murders, do you?”
“That’s ridiculous!” blurted Lucie, as her hedgehog mewled in agreement. “Cutter would never do anything like that!”
She bit her lip as Diaz gave her a look of pity, and Rick raised an eyebrow in her direction. She muttered a quick ‘excuse me’ and fled the room.
It didn’t stop her from hearing Diaz saying, “I’m not sure he’s responsible for them, but I definitely think he is involved in all this somehow.”
Son of a biscuit,
she didn’t like this at all. No matter how awkward her relationship may be with Cutter, the need to protect him still flowed through her. Maybe she should warn him about what was happening. The worst he could do was just laugh and tell her she was overreacting, but at least she’d feel a little better about the situation. Yes, as soon as she could, she would pull him to one side and warn him.
Yes, he still had feelings like her wolf. Her heart may have stuttered for a moment, but this made her realize her feelings weren’t changed. She still wanted him. Her hedgehog snuffled in agreement. Yes, she had to make sure her wolf was okay. After all, if he was wrongly imprisoned or something, it would really put a strain on their future marriage and the dozen or so little hedgehogs they were bound to have. She should probably leave out that part when she spoke to him – she didn’t want him to make a break for Mexico.
*
Cutter was not okay. He seethed as the wolf shifter gave him an evil look and then suggested that he be suspended. What the fuck? His own wolf howled in irritation.
When the Director summoned Cutter to his office, he failed to mention the fact that a member of Internal Investigations would be there. No, the fact that a particularly cut-throat, asshole of an agent called Harvey Blue was sitting in and interjecting with his less-than-helpful insights was a nasty surprise.
Cutter had more dealings with Harvey than he cared to mention, back when they were both in Ursa and now also in the few weeks that Harvey had been in Los Lobos. Internal Investigations dealt with complaints or cases of misconduct of SEA agents. Cutter tended to get a lot of complaints regarding his heavy-handed approach to crime, and Harvey relished taking him to task over it.
“Does he really need to be here?” hissed Cutter through gritted teeth.
“I have every right to be here,” said Harvey, smoothly and smugly while completely ignoring the death glare being leveled at him by Cutter.
The Director remained stonily impassive; the only giveaway that he was repressing an urge to throttle them both was the slight twitch to his eyebrow. “Harvey is just here to ensure that procedures are followed and that there aren’t any conflicts of interest regarding you and Sadie Beauchamp.”
Cutter threw up his hands in disgust. “What conflict could there be? Yes I met her a few times, she was a potential witness on a case me and Clayton worked on back in Ursa but she didn’t know anything and nothing ever happened.”
Harvey’s eyes gleamed with interest as amber seeped into them. His wolf was pushing to the fore, and Cutter’s did, too, ready to fight if necessary. The two wolves had never come to blows before, but it had been a close call once or twice. Harvey seemed determined to get Cutter kicked out of the SEA for some reason, or perhaps arrested. Okay, maybe there were one or two reasons he could use – Cutter’s anger management issues, the fact that he was prone to violence, his lack of respect for authority – but it seemed to be more than that. There were agents in the SEA who were much worse than Cutter, mostly they worked in tactical where they could work out their anger issues on doors and random shifters who totally deserved it, but Harvey seemed to have a grudge against Cutter. There didn’t seem to be a reason for it. Hey, maybe Cutter pushed in line one time and got the last cupcake that Harvey wanted. Who knows?! Not that Cutter really cared; he could live with being hated. Being hated was a normal fact of life for him – he was okay with it.
“This would be the Maroni case?” asked Harvey, keenly.
Cutter kept his face as blank as possible, for once trying to hide the thundering emotions that resided inside him. From experience, he had learned to be wary when talking about that particular case. “Yes,” he stated plainly.
“When was the last time you saw Sadie?”
He tried to hold back his frustration. “Three years ago; back when I was investigating that case.”
“Why would Clayton want to talk to her?”
“I have no idea,” Cutter ground out. “As I have said before, dozens of times now, I didn’t even know Clayton was in town.”
“Do you think someone killed Clayton and tried to kill Sadie over the Maroni case? Do you think Clayton uncovered something about that case and he needed to talk to Sadie about it?”
The questions slapped him in the face and even halted his prowling wolf, but, in honesty, he was starting to think that was the case. But why now, after three years, he had no idea. He could only think that maybe Clayton had managed to dig something up, something that apparently he wanted to investigate further in Ursa and something that involved the now-missing Sadie Beauchamp.
“I have no idea,” answered Cutter honestly. His eyes flicked away from the obvious disbelief of Harvey to the poker-faced Director. In this instance, the snake shifter wasn’t giving anything away. Apart from the brief rage that Cutter’s more extreme actions elicited, he tended to be quite restrained and never showed much emotion, and this time was no different.
Cutter looked back at Harvey, and the all-too look of loathing was blaring in his direction. Harvey would never tell Cutter he hated him, but he certainly seemed to be thinking it loudly, perhaps hoping to blow his head up through thoughts alone.
Harvey looked at the Director. “Gerry, you need to put Cutter on suspension – now.”
“What?!” roared Cutter leaping out of his chair. His gaze roved between the sneering Harvey and the now pronounced eye twitching of the Director.
The Director didn’t like the way Harvey familiarly used his first name or gave him an order. Internal Investigations was considered outside of normal jurisdiction within the SEA, and they reported directly to the Director’s boss, but most agents in II were smart enough to show their Director – the Investigative Team Director and the SEA’s other Directors some respect. Harvey was prone to act like just about everyone in the SEA was beneath him and showed them the same contempt that he would a smelly, out of date filet of fish.
The Director leaned back in his chair and looked between the smug expression of Harvey and the murderous one of Cutter. “Look, Harv,” the wolf sucked in an annoyed breath – he hated being called Harv, “I just think that it might be a bit of an overreaction. Cutter hasn’t, in this instance, done anything wrong.”
Harvey snorted. “He knew both victims.”
“No,” said the Director in a deceptively soft voice, “he didn’t.”
Harvey looked at him, perplexed and seeing the Director’s eyes narrow, Cutter soothed his beast a little and sat down. The Director’s ire, for a change, wasn’t aimed at him, and Cutter felt a momentary warmth for his superior and a little pleased that Harvey wasn’t getting his own way.
“Cutter,” continued the Director, “knew Clayton. As did numerous other agents and Directors working here. I had the pleasure of working with Clayton when I started my career in Ursa.”
He paused momentarily as sadness briefly flashed in his eyes, and Cutter felt camaraderie with the snake shifter that had never been present in any of their previous dealings.
The Director scooted forward in his chair and leaned on his desk, tenting his fingers. “Even you worked with Clayton back when you were in Ursa.”
“I’d hardly say we worked together,” scoffed Harvey.
The Director held up a hand for silence and Cutter was impressed that the now red-faced Harvey actually shushed.
“And as far as I’m aware Cutter doesn’t actually know our second victim.”
Harvey furrowed his brow. “But Sadie…”
“Is not our second victim,” the Director told him sternly. “Our second victim is her sister, Marie. Did you know her sister, Cutter?”
“I barely knew Sadie,” he grumbled.
“There, you see.”
“But…” protested Harvey, heatedly.
“No, Harv,” snapped the Director. “Enough for now. I agreed to this meeting with mixed feelings, and I don’t believe the situation warrants Cutter’s suspension. We suspect the two murders may be linked, and we suspect someone attempted to murder Sadie, b
ut we don’t know that for sure, yet. For all we know, they are unrelated.”
Harvey looked like he had been slapped in the face and Cutter thoroughly enjoyed it. The only thing that would have improved it would be if someone actually did slap him in the face.
For a second, Harvey looked pensive until his eyes lit up triumphantly. “We found notes with Cutter’s contact details on at both crime scenes.”
The Director gave him a well-rehearsed look of boredom. “So?”
“So?!” spluttered Harvey.
“I’m sure that anyone could find Cutter’s details if they wanted. I would guess that Clayton would want to visit his ex-partner and as for Marie and Sadie Beauchamp… I’m sure Diaz will figure that out in the course of his investigation. Which we should leave him to get on with.”
“But…”
“No buts!” the Director told him firmly. “Cutter has already told us that neither victim contacted him recently. There is no evidence to suggest that he is lying about this.”
“No, I damn well am not lying,” snarled Cutter as his wolf roared.
The Director’s eyes flashed, warning him to be quiet. “Diaz is looking into the connection between these two murders, and he is also coordinating a search for Sadie Beauchamp, in case she is in danger. And while I insist that Cutter is not right to lead the investigation into either of these murders, Diaz may wish to consult with him over it. Given that Cutter still has his own active case, I believe suspending him would be a waste of time.”
Harvey’s jaw ticked as he mulled over the Director’s words, and his tone was more subdued than before. “Perhaps in my capacity as an II agent I should look over the evidence Diaz has compiled and make that decision for myself.”
The Director gave him a chilly smile. “No, you do not have jurisdiction to do so. According to SEA regulations, you are not permitted to peruse active evidence unless there are substantiated suspicions of wrongdoing by a SEA agent.”
Harvey gave the Director a look of pure hot loathing; a look that could melt a glacier and one that was usually reserved for Cutter. “I could take this directly to my boss,” he threatened, mildly.