by M. J. Scott
Maybe that’s why she hadn’t quite let go of him yet; she was looking for someone who’d protect me as fiercely as she had. Who loved me as much as she did. Someone to keep me safe when she couldn’t any longer.
The waiter brought two more martinis, dirty, the way Bug liked them. I’d rather have a margarita any day but the martinis were our thing. Bug sipped hers slowly and just watched me.
“Daniel’s fine,” I said at last, more to get it over and done with than anything else. We had this conversation at least once every time we hung out. At least this time, I had some information other than “I have no idea”. It might mollify Bug into letting me off the hook. “He’s doing well at the FBI.”
“Is he seeing anyone?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”
“Why not? If you’re over him, you wouldn’t care if he was dating.”
Ouch. That hit a little too close to home. I stabbed at the olives in the bottom of my glass with a toothpick. “I don’t care. I just don’t want to know. I’m helping him with a case. That’s it. So don’t go picking out wedding colors or anything crazy in your head.”
She pursed her lips, shook her head a little. “I’m not.” She wasn’t? Why not? Just because I wasn’t dating Dan any more didn’t mean I’d never marry. I’d dated a couple of other guys since—granted, not for a long time, but I’d tried. I just hadn’t hit the jackpot yet. “I’m only twenty-seven. There’s plenty of time.”
“Time goes faster than you think,” she said owlishly then drained her martini.
I sighed. She was right, I knew that. Just like I knew she only pushed me because she loved me. I knew just how fast things could be taken away. But time, slow or fast, wasn’t going to fix Dan and I. The only thing it might do was let us both let go of the pain.
***
I was getting closer. I could feel it. There’s an element of luck to what I do. Or instinct, maybe. Sometimes there’s nothing else to explain the feeling telling you to follow one trail and not another. To chase down one name in a list of company directors or try a certain account number when there are hundreds to choose from.
It doesn’t happen often but when it does, I’ve learned to listen.
And today, after a lazy Saturday with Bug and a Sunday spent mostly running into brick walls at work, certainty that I was making progress had filled me. No Monday-itis for this little accountant. I hummed as I typed in the last six digits of a complicated account number and hit enter. But instead of the log-in screen I expected, my screen went black.
‘I’m watching you’. The letters that flashed up next were huge and blood red. Then they changed to the photo of me at my parent’s funeral. Startled, I squeaked and pushed my chair back. Jase was in the room before I could blink.
“What?”
“The screen.” I sucked in a breath, trying to convince myself I was being stupid, and then laughed. But even to my ears it came out high and strange.
Jase looked at me, concern drawing his eyebrows together. Then he stepped between me and the desk, bending down to look at the monitor. “It looks normal.”
I peered around him. He was right. Just my normal island wallpaper and my browser page. “O-kay.”
Jase turned back to me, leaning against the desk with his arms crossed. “Ashley, what did it do?”
“It said. . . .” I tried another laugh—surely this was someone’s idea of a sick joke—but it came out more like a yelp. “It said ‘I’m watching you’.”
“I’m calling Agent Gibson.”
“No.” I grabbed for Jase’s arm but he avoided me easily, twisting with unnatural speed to move around me. I turned to face him. “Don’t do that. And don’t panic. I’ve come across this sort of thing before.”
I had. People hiding their tracks often set up booby traps to scare off anyone who tries to find them. This was just one of those.
Yeah, right, said my subconscious. If it’s a generic booby trap, then why was there a photo of you? Something not to think about. I tried to shake off the vaguely queasy feeling in my stomach.
Jase took advantage of my distraction to get between me and the computer again, breezing past me in a waft of expensive aftershave. He started tapping at my keyboard.
I tried to see around his back. “What are you doing?”
“Esme said they’d be recording whatever you did on your computer.”
“They what?” I gave up trying to look, sinking down into my chair instead.
They were recording? Oh God. My emails? Everything? I tried to remember if I’d bitched to anyone about Dan or the Taskforce via email over the last few days. I couldn’t remember anything. I tended not to use my work computer for anything personal anyway. My private accounts were on my phone and my home laptop. “And you didn’t think to tell me about it?” I scowled at Jase.
He shrugged one shoulder. “I assumed you knew.”
Which was reasonable. After all, I was the one who’d made the agreement with Dan. Dan who hadn’t mentioned this level of surveillance. Obviously we needed to have a discussion about full disclosure. First the agents watching my house, and now this. I should’ve doubled my hourly rate. I shuffled my chair closer to Jason, watching him in resignation as he worked some computer magic.
Jase kept tapping and then, as I watched, made a satisfied noise as the screen turned black and the letters flashed again. He growled, low in his throat. “Is this what you saw?”
I nodded, “I—” then the photo flashed up again. Crap. Now I was in for it.
“Fuck, Ashley. That’s bad.” He grabbed the phone, hit something on the speed dial. “Can I speak to Special Agent Daniel Gibson please? Tell him it’s Jason Trent from Ashley Keenan’s office.”
“Give me the phone.” And why the hell did I now have Daniel’s number on my speed dial? I was rapidly tiring of ‘let’s keep Ashley in the dark’.
He avoided my grab for the phone, shook his head, nodded toward the computer. “You weren’t going to tell me about the photo, were you?”
“I would’ve.” I grabbed for the phone again.
Jase stood, holding it out of reach. “Sure, you would. You’re playing with fire here. And it’s dumb to do it just because you don’t—” he brought the phone back down “—oh, hello, Agent Gibson.”
I heard the vague rumble of Dan’s voice on the other end of the line. I wanted to hit speaker-phone and listen in, but then Jase might get really peeved.
“We have a situation here. Ashley’s triggered something on her computer. There was a message and a photo of her. Uh-huh. Okay.” He yanked the network cable out of the back of my computer then hung up the phone. “They’ll be here shortly. He said not to touch anything.”
I sank back into my chair, scowling at the monitor. Hopefully Jase would think I was as annoyed as I looked. Truth was, I’d rather put my hands on a live snake than touch my keyboard right now. Not when the photo of me was still taking up the screen.
Jase scowled too, fangs bared. An indicator that he was very upset.
I bit my lip, wondering if I’d screwed something up, if I hadn’t been careful enough?
What if it was Tate and I’d tipped him off?
Shit.
We both stared at the photo for a while, though I’m not sure what we were expecting to happen. With the network cable pulled out, my computer was cut off from the world. At worst, my firefighter of the month screensaver might pop-up and embarrass me a little, but that was about it.
“Coffee?” Jase asked eventually in an apologetic tone. His scowl had eased back to a vague frown of worry.
“No, thanks.” I managed a smile. He’d done the right thing. When in doubt, yell for help. That was the smart thing to do. But I’d freaked out. When yelling for help meant yelling for Dan, my mental heels apparently dug in. I was going to have to get over that if I was going to make it through this case. Spank my inner two year old and act like an adult. An adult who wanted to stay alive.
“How was
Aunt B?” Jase asked.
I appreciated the small talk. “She was fine. We—”
Dan appeared at my office door, two more agents behind him. He caught my gaze briefly, as if reassuring himself about something then looked at Jase. “Has the computer done anything else?”
“No,” Jase said, then stopped and looked at me. “That was the first time, right?”
“Right.”
Jase and Dan both looked as though they didn’t believe me. I moved my chair out of the way of the desk and sat, not saying anything as Dan’s agents converged on my computer. They were both weres, if the vague tingle in the air meant anything. Dan wasn’t close enough to feel, which I was just fine with. So I had maybe three werewolves and a vampire in my office, all on edge. Not saying anything was the sensible plan.
Or at least not saying anything until they started firing questions at me. After I’d explained exactly what I’d been doing, what I hadn’t been doing and answered every other obscure thing they asked, I subsided into silence again, gnawing a fingernail.
“You’ll ruin your manicure,” Jase said, coming over to perch on the arm of my chair. I jerked my finger out of my mouth. I could almost hear Aunt Bug saying ‘Don’t chew your nails, Ashley, it makes you look cheap.’
“Do you think it was Tate?” I said quietly.
Dan lifted his gaze from my monitor. “We don’t know.”
“I didn’t ask what you knew, I asked what you thought.”
“Speculating doesn’t help. I like to work with facts.” He turned back to the computer.
Me too. But the facts I had weren’t comforting.
Fact. Someone knew I’d been after Tate’s accounts.
Fact. That someone knew who I was.
Fact. Jase said the vamps were nervous.
Fact. I could smell Dan’s wild scent again. Which meant, he wasn’t as calm as he was pretending to be.
Fact. Neither were the other two wolves, if that’s what they were. Their scents weren’t as strong as Dan’s or as enticing but I could still smell them, stronger than a man, or maybe just different. Nervous FBI werewolves.
That couldn’t be a good thing.
And the biggest fact of all, the one I was trying not to think about, was that the last time Tate had taken an interest in my life, he’d killed a lot of people. My family. My—Panic bubbled up in my stomach. I wasn’t the only potential target. “I need to call Aunt Bug.” My voice shook a little.
Daniel didn’t look up what he was doing. “Why?”
“She was here this weekend. If they were watching me, they were watching her.” Jase put his hand on my arm. I shook him off. “Dan, I need to call Bug, now.”
“I’m sure she’s fine.” But he tossed me his cell.
My fingers shook as I dialed the numbers. It took me three tries in the end. And I got her machine. I hung up. “She’s not there. She should be home by now. She left the hotel this morning.”
“Maybe she’s out,” Jase offered.
I shook my head. “She said she was going to have a quiet night at home.” I pressed redial. Machine. Again. I left a message asking her to call me. Then tossed the phone back to Dan and picked up my purse. “I’m going to see if she’s okay.”
Dan moved around the desk, blocking my path. His scent rose around me, confusing my growing panic with an equally strong pull of attraction. I backed up a step, only to bump into Jase behind me.
“Hold on a second,” Dan said as I headed sideways, trying to avoid both of them.
“No! She’s my aunt. My family.” All I had left.
He blocked me again. “Let me call the Caldwell PD, get them to send someone over.” He gestured at one of the men, who pulled out another cell phone and started dialing as he walked out into the foyer so I couldn’t hear what he said. Jase headed after him, going who knows where.
I glared at Dan. My hands kept balling into fists despite my efforts to relax them. My pulse pounded in my ears. “Fine, you do that. But I’m going anyway.”
Jase appeared, holding my jacket. “I’ll come with you.”
“Nobody’s going anywhere,” Dan growled.
It was almost a shout and it jolted my attention from Jase to Dan. The agent by my computer raised his head too, looking at Dan with surprise. I took a deep breath. Which was a mistake. Dan’s scent was stronger still. Which meant he was getting more agitated. Not reassuring on any level. I moved away from him, stopping when I hit the edge of the small conference table with a bump that sent the vase of flowers on it rattling.
Jase caught the vase before it could fall and I jumped at his too quick movement.
“The two of you need to calm down. Wait until we check things out.” Dan said, lowering his voice a little. “If she’s there you’ll have driven all that way for nothing. And if she’s not. . . .” He paused and fear swept back like ice sweeping under my skin. “If she’s not, then you could be walking into a trap.”
Well, yes. I watched the movies too. Had shouted at the stupid heroines who went rushing into danger but now I understood the urge perfectly. Bug was my family. And the need to go to her—to know she was okay—was stronger than any concern for my own safety. I wanted to go. Had to go. If anything happened to Bug because of me. . . . I gripped the table, nausea rising.
“Ash, sit down.”
I wasn’t sure who was talking. The fear buzzing in my ears made everything sound far away and echoey. “No.” I tried to lift my head but the room swayed. All I could see was my baby sister. My parents. Lying dead. That couldn’t happen to Bug.
Hands came around my arms, pushed me gently into a chair. When I opened my eyes, Dan was kneeling in front of me. “Don’t try and stop me, I—”
“Agent Gibson?” The agent who’d been speaking to Caldwell PD, reappeared.
“Yes?” Dan said.
The agent shook his head. “I’m sorry, boss. They did a drive-by. There’s a car in the drive but no lights.”
Chapter Seven
“Tell them to break in,” Dan said as I surged to my feet. He rose with me, hands clamped around my arms. “Ashley, calm down. She could just be out.”
“You wouldn’t tell them to break in if you thought that,” I snapped, trying to dislodge his fingers. Stupid. I couldn’t break a werewolf’s grip any more than I could blink my eyes and be transported instantly to Bug’s house. All I was doing was earning myself a nice set of bruises in the shape of Dan’s fingers on my upper arms. Didn’t stop me trying. “I need to go. Let me go.”
Jase murmured something soothing. Dan just held me, his grip relaxing enough to feel supportive rather than restrictive. “Ashley, you need to calm down. Get her something to drink,” he added, looking over my shoulder at Jase. “I don’t need her going into shock.”
“I’m not going into shock.” I jerked against his hands again and this time he let me go. I only just avoided falling backwards. “I’m not hysterical. I’m not a stupid female. I just want to get to Bug.”
“I know that,” Dan said. “But you have to wait until we find out what’s going on.”
“You find out. I’m going.”
He made an exasperated sound. “Be reasonable, Ash. You can wait a few more minutes.”
“Fuck reasonable. Fuck you.” I stormed over to my desk, grabbed my purse out of my drawer, scrabbling for my car keys. “I’m going.”
For a moment he looked plainly furious then his face became cool and controlled. He stalked toward me. I could practically see his hackles bristling. But I stood my ground, my fingers clenched around my key tag. He snatched the keys out of my hands anyway. “If you won’t see sense then fine. But I’m driving.”
“Not in my car, you’re not.”
“No,” he agreed with an evil smirk. He tossed my keys to the agent behind me then pulled another set out his pocket. “We’ll take mine.”
“I’m coming too,” Jase said.
“What makes you think my car is set up for vamps?”
�
�You’re Taskforce,” Jase replied smugly. “If it’s not, then you’re an idiot.”
Dan’s eyes narrowed but he didn’t say anything. We headed down to the garage under the building. Dan’s car turned out to be a very nice Jeep with very vamp-friendly UV screened windows. It would be dark soon so Jase would be fine at the other end too.
I sat in back with Jase, leaving Dan in lone splendor up front. As soon as we pulled into traffic, Jase pulled out his cell and started making calls, canceling my appointments for the rest of the evening. I could see Dan watching me in the rear-view mirror, checking how I was doing.
Terrible just about summed it up.
I folded my arms, staring out the window at the cars crawling along beside us battling rush hour. “Can’t this thing go any faster? Don’t you have a siren or something?”
“I do, but I don’t have a jet engine. There’s nowhere for me to go in this traffic. We’ll be out of it soon.”
Not soon enough. Minutes crawled by and with each second my fingers dug harder into my palms. What if Bug was—I fought the urge to scream. Jase finished his calls then silently offered a hand.
I took it, not caring what Dan might think about me holding hands with a vampire in his backseat. And contact, any contact at this point, was comforting even if the slightly cool temperature of Jase’s skin only emphasized the fact he wasn’t human.
“Have you heard anything?” I asked after another minute or so. I knew it was a stupid question but I couldn’t help it.
“Have you heard my phone ring?” Dan steered the Jeep around an ancient looking truck and into a slightly faster-moving lane.
“No.”
“Then I haven’t heard anything.” He shifted in his seat and his gaze met mine again in the rear view mirror.
“I thought maybe you might have. . . .”
His eyebrows rose. “What? Psychic powers? I’m a werewolf not a vampire.”
So what? Wolves did use a form of telepathy in wolf form, and some of them carried those powers into their human shapes. How was I supposed to know Dan wasn’t one of them? “You must have vampires on the Taskforce who are.”