I need you now, she wanted to say. But Amber could never say that out loud. Putting yourself out there just made you vulnerable to the wolves. And in Amber’s experience, men really were wolves.
Finally, giving in to resignation, she opened the door to her apartment and went inside.
She took one look and shrieked.
Chapter Three
Jace wasn’t ready to end the kiss. Wasn’t ready to say good-bye to the most beautiful woman he’d ever met. Wasn’t ready to give up on the possibilities that his heart wanted to explore, but his mind refused.
There was no place for a woman in his life. Especially not a woman like Amber, who was all curves and beauty and eyes that went on for days, eyes he could gaze into forever and never get his fill. Or lips that begged to be kissed, hips that sought to be held.
He’d scented it on her, known how aroused she was by the kiss. He was glad she wasn’t like him, or she would have scented it on him as well, despite his feeble attempts at playing cool.
Every time he considered going back on his decision, turning around and claiming her for his own, his mind reminded him of all the terrible people he came across on a daily basis. Shifters that were more dangerous than someone like Amber could ever fathom, let alone deal with like he had to.
No, his choice was made. One kiss and that would have to be the last he saw of her.
That was until he heard a voice screaming at the top of its lungs from the direction of her room at the end of the hallway.
In a flash, Jace whirled around and sprinted toward the sound. He cleared the fifty or so feet from the stairwell to the door in seconds, his mind racing with horrific possibilities of what might have gone wrong. Were there home invaders inside at this very moment? Was she hurt?
He reached the door and swung it open, glad it wasn’t locked, and saw Amber standing in the center of her living room, terror in her eyes as she looked up at him.
The house looked like a tornado had passed through it. Only, upon further inspection, it was clear it hadn’t been the result of any natural disaster.
Vases had been thrown against walls. Her coffee table was in splinters and the small dinner table in the tiny attached kitchen had been split down the center. The door of her fridge had been ripped off its hinges, and most of the cabinets were ripped off the wall, exposing unpainted wood and screws.
Jace didn’t even want to know what her bedroom looked like.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize someone, or multiple someones, had been here recently. And from the random savagery of it, coupled with the fact that even her largest appliances had been manhandled like tinker toys, it had clearly been shifters, probably Brenner’s friends or family.
Amber ran up to Jace, and he threw an arm around her, clutching her possessively against him as he surveyed the scene.
She was trembling, and Jace loosened his grip slightly and looked down at her. He’d not been in the situation to comfort a woman like this in a very, very long time, but he put an arm around her supportively all the same, hoping it would help calm her.
“How did this happen? Who did this?” Amber asked, fear obvious in her voice. “Why?”
“Your wallet. Did anything in there have your address on it?”
Amber thought for a moment, then responded. “Yes, I had a little card with my contact information in case it got lost.”
“The men from last night were probably the ones that came here, though I’m not sure why,” he said, knowing that wasn’t completely true.
Jace couldn’t tell her it was his fault they were after her now. That he’d turned in a wanted criminal and his friends and family were now probably on the warpath for revenge. Not yet at least. He didn’t want her to be more scared than she already was.
He did know he’d protect her. With his life even, if it came to that. That somehow he’d make it right.
“What should I do?” she asked. “Call the police?”
He frowned. That wouldn’t do anything. Most of the police were human and not very good against the type of monsters they were dealing with.
From the corner of his eye, he could see the window that led out onto the fire escape smashed and slightly ajar. They’d probably come in through the window early this morning, trashed the place, and left without ever unlocking the front door.
Which meant they could be back at any moment.
“Grab a suitcase or a backpack. Pack only the essentials. I’ll keep an eye out and see if they left anything behind that will give us a better idea of what happened.”
“Shouldn’t we call the police?” she asked.
“They’ll file a report, ask some questions, but they won’t do any real investigating since we don’t have any leads. The cops are out chasing down rapists and murderers. They won’t make time for something like this. Right now, our first priority is getting you somewhere safe.”
Amber took a deep breath and exhaled, steeling herself. “Okay. I guess you’re right. I just need a minute,” she said, releasing him and disappearing into her bedroom. As he poked around, he could hear her curse and swear. It just made Jace angrier and all the more eager to do in the people that had threatened her like this.
Even though it had probably occurred hours ago, Jace could still pick up the slight stench of wolf. Could tell there were three distinct scents, but all were similar, so they were probably related. To his surprise, none were familiar to him, so it wasn’t from the other two men that had been with Brenner the night of his capture. Jace guessed it was family members of his that had heard about it from his poker buddies shortly afterward.
Jace suspected half the reason wolf shifters were always so angry and violent was because there was always someone in their clan that had been stolen or murdered who they felt compelled to avenge. That’s why bear shifters, though bigger and stronger, were usually easier to take care of. They didn’t run in packs.
After a minute, Amber came out of her room wearing a dark-blue backpack and carrying a small duffel bag, looking harried.
“Sorry about your place,” Jace said, standing from the small pile of debris he was perched over, inspecting, and offering to carry her bags.
“Most of it was Goodwill and thrift store stuff anyway. I never had much to begin with. But it’s more the thought of it, you know? The fact that someone’s violated your space like this,” she said, surprisingly astute for someone who’d been through as much hell as she had in twenty-four hours. “They even thrashed my laptop for school. Thankfully, I back up all my files on the cloud or I’d be screwed.”
“You can use my laptop back at my place if you want,” Jace said casually as he insistently took her duffel bag and backpack. The last thing she needed to worry about was carrying her stuff or schoolwork.
“Is that where we’re going? Shouldn’t I just call a friend or someone I can stay with?” Amber asked, sounding hopeful for the first time since they’d entered the bedlam that was her apartment.
“No. My place is the only location I know for sure is safe. Until we figure out what to do next, I want to keep you near at all times,” Jace said as he headed out the door, waiting for her to follow.
“Don’t you have to go to work or something?” she asked, locking the door behind her with a mournful sigh and following him down the hall.
“Today’s my day off,” Jace said. In fact, any day was a day off if he wanted it to be. He was set for life, financially speaking. The dragons were to thank for that. But his job wasn’t about the money. It was about the hunt. About justice. About so many things he couldn’t even start to describe.
“Oh. Your day off. That’s convenient,” she said, a hint of cheeriness creeping back into her demeanor. Jace couldn’t help but be a little awed by someone who got back on their feet as quickly as Amber did.
They went down the stairs and got back into Jace’s car. He would have laughed about how quickly things had changed from how he expected them to go, if not for the fact that A
mber was in danger and her place had been thrashed with extreme prejudice.
Soon enough, Jace would make the people responsible pay. And in the meantime, the tiger inside him couldn’t help but purr with satisfaction at the prospect of spending more time around this luscious, curvaceous woman that somehow had an effect on him that no other woman had before.
Maybe fate had more planned for them than even he could have anticipated.
* * *
“I thought you said today was your day off,” Amber asked as they pulled into a small, dark parking lot behind an old bar on the first floor of a brick apartment building.
“It is. This is just one quick errand I need to run. And I imagine you could use a drink after a day like today,” Jace replied, putting the car in park after finding a large parking space.
“If you hadn’t been there to help, I would be in need of quite a few drinks. But yeah, it sounds like a good idea,” she said, following him as he climbed out of the car and headed toward the steps that led down into the bar.
At this point, Jace had to do everything in his power to avoid kissing Amber again like they had this morning. After they left her apartment, the rest of the day was spent meandering around the city either in his car or on foot. Going shopping with her to get a few necessities that hadn’t been salvageable in her apartment. Taking a stroll through the city park to get lunch at what Amber insisted was the best street food vendor for twenty blocks (and she’d been right too). Stopping by the library to drop off a few books she’d checked out earlier that week and then milling through ancient volumes of newspaper records for the heck of it.
Jace usually gave himself a day or two off after a mission before he went back to work, but by himself, that usually resulted in working out incessantly or inane repetition of things like disassembling his gun or lock-picking various pairs of handcuffs.
But with Amber around, everything was so much simpler, so much more fun. And with the combination of her intelligence coupled with her killer body, Jace could feel his tiger very near the surface, wanting for the first time in his life something more than just the thrill of the hunt. The thrill of hunting a different kind of prey.
It didn’t change the fact that as soon as she was safe, they’d have to part ways. But in the meantime, this was certainly a change of pace for the bounty hunter.
The bar, named simply O’Dell’s (though O’Dell himself no longer owned the place) was more or less the same on the outside as it was on the inside. Old, or rustic, depending on how you looked at it. Most of the time, it was just a haunt for old-timers and retirees looking to chat with a few friends while they watched the game on the dim televisions. Occasionally, younger people would wander in, hoping for some action, but on the average, the place was pretty quiet.
Which was why Jace conducted his business here. That and because they had the best wings in the northern hemisphere.
When they got inside, Jace directed Amber to a booth off to the side. A quick scan of the place told him his contact wasn’t here yet, so there would be no harm in taking it easy.
As Amber sat, Jace couldn’t help but notice for the millionth time how perfectly curved her ass was in those jeans, and he felt himself getting hard at an image of him grasping it while pumping into her as she screamed his name.
Jace sat down quickly and grabbed a menu to distract himself.
“So why exactly are we at a place like this? There are a lot nicer bars uptown,” she said as she looked around at the aging, mostly sports-related decor of the place.
“A friend of mine lives around here. I meet with him every two weeks to go over a few work things, but it should be fast.”
This particular person was one of the main liaisons for the dragons he did jobs for. Since he’d just finished a mission, Jace was anticipating a short debriefing, nothing more. But he’d been surprised before.
Wherever possible, dragons liked to communicate via means that couldn’t be hacked into or that didn’t leave a paper trail. Like having one of their people come meet you in person.
“And what is it exactly that you do, Jace?” she probed, hoping for a straight answer.
Jace could tell she’d been trying to figure it out ever since she’d met him, asking offhand questions about what school he’d gone to or how many hours he worked a week, things like that.
But in spite of the fact that everyone that knew him (which was in reality only a handful of people) knew he was a bounty hunter and he loved his job, he couldn’t risk telling her. At least not yet. If she ran, she wouldn’t be safe.
That and he was far from done being around Amber.
“I work in extreme personnel reallocation for the private sector,” he said, hoping to sound convincing.
“Wait, what?” Amber asked.
“I just… Let’s talk about something else,” he said.
Amber just wrinkled her nose slightly but didn’t press harder. Instead, she changed the subject. “So you know basically everything there is to know about me at this point. Only child, terrible parents, emancipated myself at sixteen, worked odd jobs until I could finally save up for college, et cetera, et cetera. What about you, though? Do you have any family?” she asked while he gave their orders to the waiter.
Jace took a sip of the beer he’d ordered and considered what to tell and what not to tell. Obviously, the fact that he and his brothers were tiger shifters was off the table.
“I have two brothers, one younger and one older.”
“What are they like?” she asked, curious.
“The older one’s a cop, a detective actually. He works for the city. Wish they had more like him, honestly. The younger one’s a private bodyguard. Real quiet, keeps to himself mostly.”
“But that’s not what you do, is it? Guard people?” she asked, trying once again.
“Not until now at least. But I’m finding my first assignment to be pretty satisfactory,” he replied, pegging her with a wry grin that made her blush a little. He loved getting that sort of reaction out of her.
She just took a long swig of her beer to hide herself for a moment.
“So your brothers are both local. What about your parents?” she said after swallowing half the glass.
“No idea who my father is. My mother died when we were all young, so we grew up pretty close to each other. I see them now and then just to keep in touch.”
The truth was neither Jace nor his brothers knew anything at all about where they’d really come from. Tigers were extremely rare, and because of the unique ability inherent to cat shifters to hide their scent from other shifters, it made them difficult to detect by the general population and even harder to track.
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Amber said apologetically, referring to the lack of parents.
“It’s okay. Honestly, it beats having parents as shitty as yours were,” he replied honestly. In one day, he’d heard enough horror stories to be grateful for the first time in his life that he didn’t know his real parents.
“So will I ever get to meet your brothers?” she asked.
“Believe me. Meeting one of us is enough,” Jace replied, feeling oddly jealous about her asking about his brothers. He wanted her all for his own. Wanted to take her home. The longer he was with her, the more he wanted to own her, to please her so much she passed out, make her come so hard she forgot her own name.
Dammit, this woman was getting to him.
Just then, the beat-up bell at the door dinged weakly, and a man wearing a cap and a well-worn jacket strolled into the bar, walking past them and all the way to the back corner.
That was Jace’s cue.
“You eat up when the food gets here. I’ll be right back in a minute,” Jace said, standing. “Don’t go anywhere,” he finished with a quick wink and walked casually over to his contact.
He’d be back for her soon.
And then he’d take her home.
Chapter Four
As Jace got up and walked over to the
darkened corner of the bar, Amber tried not to take another look at the shape of his perfect ass in his dark, fitted jeans that had been teasing her all day. But her eyes wouldn’t cooperate.
When he finally sat down after greeting the mysterious person he was meeting, the food he’d ordered arrived, giving her enough of a distraction to stop thinking about his frustratingly perfect body.
All day they’d hung out together, and nothing had happened. At least nothing like he’d done this morning. Just thinking about that flaming-hot kiss made her melt all over again and wet in places that begged for his attention. But ever since this morning, instead of being the overbearing jerk she would have initially pegged him for since the moment she met him, the kind of guy that would never even acknowledge the existence of a girl like her, Jace had continued to astound her with how sharply intelligent and protective he was.
Wherever they went, he knew something about the city, and whenever they were in public, he didn’t tolerate anyone so much as giving her a sidelong glance without giving them a death glare that showed he meant business.
Of course, the mystery of what the heck this guy did for a living was still in the unsolved case files of her mind, but she could put it aside for the time being.
She picked up one of the highly praised chicken wings Jace had ordered and took a bite. The flavor was perfect, nice and sweet with just the right amount of spicy to go with it. She immediately finished it and picked up another, suddenly cognizant of how hungry she was from all the walking around they’d done.
The critical little voice in her head that was always telling her she was never good enough warned that she shouldn’t overdo it and if she didn’t lose weight, then she’d never be able to “get a man” like her mother had berated her about when she was young. But no matter what she’d done or tried to change that while growing up, nothing had worked. So she’d simply learned to live with it and accept herself more and more.
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