Travis had left without another word. She leaned back in her seat after submitting a request for a new system from IT as an emergency. Lucky for her, the Agency had IT support twenty-four hours and every day of the week for situations like this. Which made her wonder how often computer systems fried on their own.
An hour later IT brought her a whole new system with promises of wiping the other one, even though all the information was gone already. She hadn’t mentioned that Zeek had sent her a message, she was hoping the vampire was smart enough to cover his own tracks, unless he was planning on her getting in trouble. The ultimate revenge, getting her fired.
She ran a hand through her hair and set back to work. She found herself typing in a different IP address this time… the Agency’s onsite server IP. Skye glanced behind her to make sure no one was looking over her shoulder and she went to work. Deciphering codes and codes of information gave her very little insight to what the Agency was. There wasn’t anything there that raised a flag for her.
She flicked through the screens, glancing for something and then saw a folder for intel missions. She opened the one title drug lords and her eyes widened. The Agency wasn’t planning on getting the drugs off the streets, no, they were planning on putting more bad batches of drugs into the system to kill more humans. They wanted the death rate to double by the end of the year and for the mafia to be held accountable.
She copied the file to a flash drive. Pounding on the door hastened her actions. She pulled the flash drive out just as the doorjamb splintered. Two massive men barged in, sweeping the room with large guns. Fear threatened to freeze her in place, but the look in their eyes told her that they were out to kill. She did the only thing she could think of; she jumped out the window. In midair, she forced herself to shift into an owl and fly into the night. The flash drive clutched in her talon.
CHAPTER THREE
Zeek stood outside on his balcony. Finally home, it would be just another hour until dawn hit and his black out shutters would be drawn. He’d sent the fox away with a mission of looking into the Agency. He’d been sure she was smart enough to do it, at the very least because of curiosity. But instead, he found her trying to hack his system again. Had he not just woken up and checked the security, she probably would have gotten in, and who knew what the Agency actually wanted with that information.
He’d fried her computer, but not without gathering information. Skye Lannister was a known shifter in the mob’s headquarter’s city. She’d worked in an IT department for almost ten years until suddenly she’d left her job. Her application to the Agency said that it was a personal matter and not to contact the employer.
A hoo-ing sound caught his attention, and he looked up just in time to see an owl wavering through the air. The bird dropped out of the sky and landed on the floor of the balcony. He looked down expecting to see a dead bird, but instead, Skye’s pale body lay in a heap. Small slices covered her skin; some healed up into pink lines and some still bleeding. Her chest heaved with her breathing giving him satisfaction that she was alive. The smell of her blood hit his nose and he groaned. What he would do to just lick up every bleeding cut, but he preferred his meals able to consent.
He scooped her up and her auburn hair fell away from her face. Her brow was scrunched up in pain, giving her delicate jaw line a grumpy look. Why had she flown to him? He laid her down on his couch and grabbed an afghan to drape over her. Her body relaxed into the warmth. Her fingers uncurled and a flash drive fell to the floor with a small tap against the wood.
He glanced at her before picking up the device. Shifting took a lot of energy and she’d just flown two hundred miles to his home, she’d be sleeping at least until sunrise. He left her on the couch and went to the computer. Plugging in the thumb drive, he hoped she hadn’t had time to encrypt it or it could take him longer to break that code.
Luckily for him, she hadn’t, and a few files popped up on the screen. A missions folder with files for drug lords. Interesting. He clicked on it and found the file corrupted. Crap. There were too many things that could cause a file to go corrupt, but if he had the time, he could recover, at the very least, some of it. He heard Skye groan in the other room and cursed. He waited a few moments to make sure she settled back down.
How long would it be before the Agency realized that she escaped with information? His guess was they didn’t have long before they sent someone after her. He could use her to his advantage, hold her hostage to try and exchange her for information, or force her to hack the Agency’s system because she was clearly capable of it. He grinned. Yes, under the threat of death, he bet she’d work for them.
He stood and went back to the living room to find her sitting up on the couch. “Why did you come here?”
She nearly jumped off the couch but clutched the blanket to her. His lips jerked up in a smile. He’d already seen her naked before, and now she was fighting for modesty in front of him, again. Her face flushed red as she stammered through her words.
“I…I didn’t know where else to go. These men, they just…” She shook her head. “I had to get out of the office quick, and I knew I couldn’t go back home. Your IP address gave away your location. So I came here.” She felt around the couch looking for something. “Oh no, shit, shit, shit.”
He crossed his arm. “Looking for something?”
“I had a flash drive in my hand. I must have dropped it when I started losing consciousness.”
“Speaking of, shouldn’t you still be unconscious? You were only sleeping for ten minutes, tops.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m exhausted and won’t be able to hold shifted form for a while, but I’m strong enough not to have that weakness.”
Well, that was good to know, but her not being a weak shifter might put a bump in his original plans. “You didn’t have a flash drive when you flew here.”
“I need to go retrace my flight then. There’s information on that drive that can’t get into the wrong hands.” Her eyes flickered to him. “Yours included.”
“You’re not going anywhere, fox.” He took a step towards her. “You came here of your own accord, but you’re not leaving. You’re an Agency member, new or otherwise. You’re valuable. I let you go once and I can’t make that same mistake again.” He narrowed his eyes. “You shouldn’t have come back here.”
She clutched the blanket to the point that her knuckles turned white. He didn’t miss the hitch in her breath and the slight widening of her eyes. She was starting to realize this was a bad option. Good. “I thought maybe…”
“Maybe what? That I could help you? Oh, little fox—“
“I have a name.” She snapped.
“Yes, you do, Skye Lannister, thirty, you worked in the IT field ever since you joined the workforce, you applied to the agency two months ago. You got the job almost instantly, probably because they needed your skill set and your…naïvety.” He shook his head. “Your records were easy enough to find. I could have dug further, but I thought that was enough.”
She swallowed. “Then why don’t you use my name?”
“Because I don’t like to get personal with my hostages.”
“Hos-Hostage?” She nearly squealed. “What good can I be to you if the Agency didn’t share fucking anything with me.”
He found her slight panic cute and hid his chuckle. “You’re dealing with the mob and the Agency.”
“You have to sleep for the day.” She snapped back.
He nodded. “But my house locks down at dawn, and without a code, you’re not getting out.”
“Except I’ll be able to shift by noon.” She threw a hand over her mouth as if she realized she’d given herself away.
He nodded. “You’re right; I guess I’ll just have to take precautions.” He rushed her and yanked the blanket away. Wrapping his hands in her hair, he shoved her towards the hallway. “You’re not escaping this time. If I have to, I’ll take you to the boss and leave him to deal with you.”
“The swirly eye creep?” She grounded through her teeth.
“That’s one way to describe him.” He opened the door to the office. He shoved her in, being a little more forceful than he probably needed to be. He hated threatening women, but if she could help them get one step closer into the Agency, then he’d be willing to threaten her. When it came to going through with it though, he’d have to hand it off to someone else. It was never his style.
She growled and tried to yank away. “You bastard, you have my flash drive. You lied to me!”
“And you had no clue that I did.” He shook his head. “The Agency really should have trained you better.”
“I doubt they expected me to get caught.” She eased up on the yanking.
He used one hand to dig in the drawer of the desk, grabbing the silver handcuffs he was looking for. The black fabric covered the loops so they wouldn’t burn, but they’d still keep her weakened enough to keep her from shifting. “They expect everyone to get caught. They’re slacking somewhere for some reason.” He snapped them around her wrists. “Your files are corrupt anyways. Care to share what was on them?”
“No.” She growled and yanked her hands away from him.
“You’re lucky; I was going to cuff you to the bed.”
Her cheeks flushed. “You wouldn’t dare.”
The red of her blush looked good on her. “Any man would be happy to have a naked woman chained to their bed. It’d be a great way for me to wake up at sundown.” He licked his lips, making a show of his tongue darting between his fangs.
“I’m going to need some clothes.”
“No, I think you’ll stay naked for a bit longer.” He jerked his head towards the door. “The couch is yours for the day. I’ll decide how to handle this at sundown.”
“And the files?”
“I’m going to see if I can use some tools to recover the files, at least what saved of them.”
She shook her head. “They weren’t meant for you.”
“Then who were they meant for? Why copy them?”
“I was going to go through them more thoroughly at home. To see if what I was speed reading was right.”
He raised a brow. “You don’t think it was right when people suddenly came after you? You must have tripped one of their alarms.”
“Must of.” She muttered.
“Go back to the couch and rest. I have some other things in here to take care of, and I don’t want you to overhear.”
She muttered something under her breath which sounded like a sarcastic ‘yes sir’ to him. He let it go and grabbed his phone. His shutters went down and he heard the alarm activate. No one was getting in or out without the code.
He dialed Laura, his daytime runner. “Hey, I know it’s early, but I need you to do something for me.” He gave her instructions on what he needed and hung up. He walked out to find Skye asleep sitting up on the couch. Damn shifter. She was more tired than she wanted to admit.
He snatched up the blanket from the floor and tossed it on her again. There was just something about the woman. Part of him knew that he wouldn’t be able to hand her over to the boss, but the other part of him knew that it might be the only way to make her useful to them.
Skye woke up with the blanket covering her. The muscles in her neck and back ached as she stretched them. She hadn’t intended on sleeping sitting up, but the moment she plopped down on the couch her eyes had started to close. Zeek must have thrown the blanket back on her again. Zeek, the handsome bastard that was keeping her hostage. And he had her flash drive and files. This night wasn’t looking any better than the night before.
She padded around the floor she was on and found the bathroom; a shower would have been nice, but really wasn’t an option with the cuffs on and she didn’t want to make it seem like she was comfortable in his home, though that might have made his plan seem more useless. She really didn’t think that the Agency was going to come to her rescue or be willing to trade anything for her. Zeek’s plan was going to blow up in his face and then she was going to pay for it.
She took care of business and splashed some water on her face before walking out. Zeek was standing in the hallway with a bag.
“You slept all day.” He tossed the bag towards her and she caught it by the handle. “I had my daytime runner sneak into your office. She was able to grab your phone. She told me that one of the windows was boarded up. Did you jump through it?”
“My only way to escape.” She sighed. “What else is in the bag?”
“I had her go to your house and get you some clothes. I’ll take the cuffs off so you can change. Then I’ll take you to get something to eat since I have no food.”
So he wasn’t a complete asshole. “Great way to treat your hostage. You going to take me around town with handcuffs on?”
“I’m hoping you’ll remember that many humans are currently shooting shifters on sight.”
There was that. Not to mention he moved faster than she did even in her shifted forms. “What a world we live in. Makes me wonder why the paranormal creatures decided to come out in the first place.”
“You sound bitter.” He raised a brow. “Come here so I can take the cuffs off and you can get dressed.”
He had a strange way of not getting attached to his hostages. She wasn’t going to give any information he might have been looking for with the ‘bitter’ comment. “Did you manage to recover the files?”
“Still curious as to what they tell you?”
“Maybe I’m wondering if it was worth jumping through the window for.” She took a few steps towards him and held her hands out so he could unlock the cuffs. “Was it?”
He unlocked her cuffs and traced her wrists with the pad of his thumb, soothing the discomfort there. “It told me exactly what I needed to know, even with half the files missing. You’ve helped me out a lot, fox.”
She tried not to react to his touch. “I didn’t do it for you. But I guess now it doesn’t matter.” She’d screwed up. But being here still seemed better than what the Agency was thinking about doing to her.
His phone rang as she dressed. He flipped it open. “Zeek speaking, what’s up?”
She tried to listen to the other end of the conversation, but again she couldn’t hear it.
Zeek made a few noises of agreement. “Okay, I’ll handle it while I’m out.” He hung up and met her gaze. “We have devices on our phones that limit the amount people can overhear. Since we’re all paranormal creatures, we can hear it through the muting while we’re on the phone, but other paranormal creatures like you, trying to ease drop, can’t.”
It explained a lot, and it was a smart technical move. “So no one can accidentally hear you out in public.”
“We never know where the Agency is and who is out to get information. Maybe people work both sides and will share information with the highest bidder.”
Maybe that’s what she should have done, at least that way her bills wouldn’t be stacking up. She finished dressing and checked her phone.
“I put a program on it; I’ll know if you text someone for help.” She couldn’t tell if he was lying or not.
The phone rang in her hand and she looked down at Travis’ number.
“Go ahead and answer it.”
She took a deep breath and answered it; she tried to make her voice sound as natural as possible. “Hey, Travis.”
“Went by your house today, you weren’t home saw someone else though. Do you have a friend staying with you?”
She glanced at Zeek, wondering how much she could get away with. He simply motioned for her to keep talking. “New roommate, thought it might help with the overdue mortgage.”
“And work?”
“I took the day off, I worked late last night and needed a day to rest.” Her voice shook just a bit, betraying her.
“Why don’t I swing by and pick you up for dinner?”
“Can’t, sorry.” She pressed her lips together. “I have dinner plans.”
Travis was silent for a moment. “So you’re seeing someone else then?”
“Need I remind you, again, that you broke up with me?” She snapped. “The moment I was hired at the Agency?”
She looked at the smirk on Zeek’s face and shook her head. “I have to go. My date will be here soon to pick me up.”
“And where is here? Because you’re not at home. I’m sitting on your front porch.”
Well wasn’t that just a little creepy. “None of your business.” She hung up on him and glanced at Zeek.
“Is that something that’s out of the ordinary for him?”
She shook her head. “Yes and no, but I don’t like the idea that he’s creeping around my house.”
“I’m willing to bet the agency sent him.” He motioned to the front door. “Let’s go; I’m sure you’re starving.”
Shifting took a lot out of her so of course she was hungry, he could probably hear her stomach growl while she slept through the day. Of course, he was supposed to be sleeping as well. She’d never had too much interaction with vampires, did they die during the day like the legends said? She pondered the question for a moment while they walked out of the front door.
Zeek led her to his car, he could have just transported them there, but he wasn’t sure how she would react to that, not to mention he needed to deal with one of their drug dealers on the way. He glanced at Skye. He wasn’t sure if he wanted her to see that side of things, but it might also make her realize that he wasn’t someone to mess with. There was no doubt in his mind that the Agency had sent that Travis person to her house to see where she was. Luckily, she hadn’t been stupid enough to return home or she’d be a dead shifter. Probably blown off as another victim of discrimination and hate crime. Write her off as just an unlucky shifter. But the little fox was so much more than that. Just like the creature she’d taken form as, she was sly, smart, and one hell of a hacker. Her looks lived up to the nickname as well. Her auburn hair fell over her shoulders and her brown eyes shown with intelligence. Her body was sleek and athletic, with ample breasts. If she wasn’t Agency, he could see wooing her. But the number one rule he had was not to touch anyone was that was Agency. Things just got complicated that way.
Code Name: Fox / Mind Games (Syndicate Series Book 1) Page 3