Walk on the Striped Side

by Jessie Lane

  Gage gave a bloodthirsty grin. “You’re damned right that’s enough. Did Lulu’s lover know his wife was having an affair?”

  “Yes. He also knew that his wife was pregnant, but he told Lulu he was sure the baby was his.”

  “So there’s a good chance Andrew Holden confronted his wife about the affair. If he did, the wife might have decided it was time for him to go. She could have worked with her lover on a plan to kill him. Especially if the baby wasn’t Holden’s.”

  The information might see circumstantial, yet with the photos, it should be enough to stop the Ninth Circle Council from moving forward on trying to have Lulu detained and tortured.

  “Let’s go get those pictures from my sister and show those stuck up, aristocratic demons where they can take their evidence and shove it.” Giving her another playful slap on the ass, he hopped out of the bed with renewed purpose while bellowing, “Get your ass moving, Amazon! I’m ready to show those pencil pushers they fucked with the wrong tiger!”

  ***

  Six hours later, they were still sitting in the waiting room outside of the Ninth Circle Council’s meeting room, waiting for an audience. Well, Elena was sitting. Gage was doing his best impersonation of a caged tiger at a carnival, pacing back and forth, back and forth, while snarling and complaining. Not that she could blame him.

  Both of them had come straight here after picking up the copies of the photos from Lulu and they’d yet to be seen by the demons. The more time that passed, the more Elena suspected there was more going on here than they’d previously believed. Why else would the council ignore their summons for a meeting like this?

  Elena’s cell phone chimed with another text from Chloe. They’d had a steady conversation for the past few hours about the lack of progress on Lulu’s case and the way the demons were giving her and Gage the runaround.

  Help will be there any minute.

  Elena stared at the message. What the hell did she mean? Who exactly would be able to come and help them?

  Ten minutes later, she had her answer and she didn’t know whether to laugh or die of shock.

  Kent strolled into the waiting room with a determined stride and stopped in front of a curious Gage. Elena didn’t really know the man since she’d only met him a couple of times, but she could guess by the look on Gage’s face that this wasn’t the demon’s normal scene. Despite her mate’s surprise, she had to admit that he certainly looked like he belonged in this stuffy hellhole.

  His brown hair was slicked back and he was wearing a black three piece suit with a white shirt and a blood red tie. He looked like the typical upper-crust citizen except for that five o’clock shadow on his jaw and the displeased look on his face. Both of those things screamed he’d rather have been drinking a beer in front of a ball game instead of standing right there.

  He was sexy and dangerous in the sense that one didn’t see him as a threat until it was already too late. If Chloe had gotten herself wrapped up with this guy, Elena wasn’t sure who she felt sorrier for, Chloe or Kent.

  “I hear they’re avoiding you two?” Kent asked.

  “What kind of games are they playing here, demon? You should go in there and warn them not to fuck with my family. I’ll start ripping spines out and tearing heads off if they keep this shit up.”

  Kent shrugged. “You’ve been around long enough to know that the Ninth Circle is and will always be up to something. I hear you have evidence that casts doubt on the charges against your sister.”

  Gage held up the manila envelope between them that contained the pictures Lulu had given them.

  Holding his hand out, Kent asked, “May I?”

  Gage handed the pictures over reluctantly and watched the demon closely as he opened the flap and pulled the pictures out to flip through them. Besides his obvious distaste for being there, the demon schooled his features so that she couldn’t tell what he was thinking as he looked at the images. He didn’t take long before he stopped analyzing them and looked back at Gage with a new, somewhat resigned face.

  “For whatever reason, Councilman Holden is gunning for your sister as his brother’s killer. You’re going to need someone with some serious power to go in there to vouch for you and these pictures.”

  “Well, where the hell do we get this person, Kent?” Gage snarled in anger.

  “You’re looking at him, you bad tempered bastard. Follow me and keep your mouth shut.”

  Not waiting to see if they would respond to the vague bomb he’d just dropped, Kent spun on his heel and started walking at a fast clip towards the large, closed, heavy wooden doors that separated them from the council. The very same doors that the butler who’d escorted them into the waiting room had informed them would be useless to try and open because only council members or legacies, which were demons who’d been invited to join the council, could open them without suffering the pain of death via a nasty spell cast by an extremely talented witch.

  And there was Kent, about to grab that door handle like he didn’t have a care in the world. Did he not know about the death spell?

  Slightly panicked for the demon’s life, Elena called out a warning as she watched his hand extend towards the knob. “Don’t touch—”

  The rest of her warning came to a screeching halt as Kent grabbed the knob, turned it, and flung the door open so that it swung wide and banged loudly against the wall behind it. The voices that had been obviously arguing among the inhabitants seconds before were silenced at his dramatic entrance.

  Stepping forward into the room, she and Gage followed him until they stood directly behind him in the middle of the floor with two long, polished wooden tables on either side of them. Both tables were full of councilors except the table on the left seemed to be short one member since there was an empty seat. The room was dimly lit and shadows filled the corners and edges, casting a sense of mystery and caution. The back wall was painted from top to bottom with a mural that depicted demons in some kind of battle against each other.

  Elena didn’t have time to examine the room any further, though, because her attention turned to Kent when he started to speak.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen of the Ninth Circle Council, I could be polite and say it’s a pleasure to see all of you, but I’d rather not waste time with lies.” Waving the pictures up in front of him, he continued, “It’s been brought to my attention that Councilman Holden has pressed charges against feline shifter, Lulu Ivanov, for the murder of his brother, Andrew. As per the laws that this Council laid down over a thousand years ago, charges can be placed on hold pending a thorough investigation if acceptable evidence of reasonable doubt is presented in favor of the accused. I hold such evidence.”

  Murmurs flew wildly on both sides of the room, however they were immediately overwhelmed by the belligerent voice of one man at the end of one of the tables, who stood from his chair and pointed at Kent. “You have no right to be here and present evidence. You’ve neglected to assume your family’s ancestral Council seat.”

  A few of the demons agreed with the man’s objection while others argued loudly against him.

  Kent held up his hands and the room quieted. “The lot of you have worked long and hard to get me to either ascend to my family’s seat or appoint another to take it. You’re right, I’ve avoided making that decision for quite some time, but the fact is that the seat is still mine if I choose to claim it, which means I still have every right to come in here and present whatever evidence or argument that I want to until the time comes that I have relinquished my seat to someone else. These pictures show your dead brother’s wife with her lover, whom Lulu Ivanov is claiming is the real killer. Will you look at them, Councilman Holden, and consider the evidence?”

  “I refuse to consider any evidence from a man who has spit on his obligations to his family and this council. You should leave now and take the trash you brought in with you.”

  Gage growled at the slight and started to step forward, however Kent held a hand up and stopped h
im.

  “You won’t consider the evidence I vouch for because I’ve yet to make a decision on my seat?”

  “What’s your word worth?” Holden spat at him viciously. “You have no honor.”

  Kent snorted and then looked from Holden to the other side of the room where the vacant seat sat. “If that’s how you want to play it, then you can enjoy the repercussions of pushing me too far.”

  Kent left us in the middle of the floor as he walked to the empty seat. Elena felt the room as a whole hold their breath in anticipation of what he would do.

  Placing the pictures on the table, Kent then reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocket knife. Flicking it open, he circled the enormous, ornate chair until he stood behind it and held his hands up for all of them to see. In one hand he grasped the knife, and in the other, he held his palm open wide in front of it.

  “Upon my duty as one of the descendants of the Nine Circles of Hell, I assume my family’s seat and the responsibilities of such on this Council.” Slicing his palm open along what palm readers would call his lifeline, Kent watched for a second as the blood flowed freely down his hand and then he grabbed the middle of the top of his chair with his bloody hand. Elena gawked in fascination as his blood seemed to soak into the chair instead of dripping down it as she had expected it to, almost as if the chair was consuming it.

  It seemed as though Kent and this council had a lot more going on behind the scenes than she could have ever imagined. When Kent lifted his hand back up and showed it to the room in some kind of demonstration that only the other demons would understand, his blood on the chair was gone and his palm had already healed itself. The sight of both things was enough to baffle Elena’s brain for the next twenty years.

  In a clear, controlled but booming voice, Kent spoke, “And my first act as Councilor is to submit this evidence and order an immediate reprieve in charges against the accused, Lulu Ivanov, pending a thorough and honest investigation.”

  The room erupted into chaos and Gage looked at Elena with a smile of satisfaction she couldn’t help likening to the Cheshire Cat.

  CHAPTER-TWENTY-SEVEN

  Gage

  Now this was a motherfucking party.

  Adam’s little bar was packed with his family, Elena’s sisters, his unit, some of the McPhee Pack, that annoying vampire from Germany, and the man and woman at the center of the celebration; Lulu and Kent. His sister was sitting at the bar with Babushka, taking celebratory shots of vodka. Was her ordeal entirely over? No.

  As they were leaving, Councilor Holden had warned them that this was far from over. Not to mention the whole council seemed frazzled and were already arguing amongst themselves over the pictures they’d left. Kent had basically bought them time to get either a confession or substantial evidence against the man Lulu was accusing to clear her name once and for all. It wasn’t the perfect solution, however it was a temporary band-aid that Gage would gladly accept.

  Who knew that Jenna’s SWAT partner was such a big wig in the demon world? The guy had always come across as a laid back, pretty boy to Gage. He would have never guessed that under all those smooth pickup lines and blue collar, bulletproof vest was an influential member of demon society. Kent was a classic case of appearances being deceiving.

  He was extremely grateful to the man for coming to their rescue yet a bit worried about what Chloe had bargained with in order to get his help. He wasn’t the only one who was worried, either. His mate stood next to him, cuddled into his side, as they both watched the duo in a corner of the room as Kent taunted Chloe in such a way that it caused the crazy, high maintenance woman to point a finger in his face and flay him with her words. That pair was a disaster waiting to happen.

  The only thing more worrisome than those two? Elena’s younger sister, Delta. She’d walked into the bar, taken one look at Rhett Baines, and had fallen underneath the vampire’s playboy spell. Even now, out of the corner of his eye, he could see the two sitting at a table in a dark corner sharing a drink. It was a good thing Elena hadn’t seen that yet. He didn’t feel like holding her back from trying to kill the vampire when he’d much rather be enjoying the booze and the fun.

  Elena was already a bit tipsy from her third Jack and coke, and he had to admit to loving the side effects of his woman being just a tad wasted. She kept pointing out and giggling at the silliest things, such as his brother trying to do the caterpillar on the small dance floor. Gage wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or just her good mood in general, however it had affected her scent. She smelled more like chocolate chip cookies instead of chocolate spiced with chilies, and his mouth was practically watering to taste her in every way.

  Jenna shouted Elena’s name and waved for her to join her over by the jukebox, so Gage reluctantly let his delicious smelling mate go so that she could get to know the Alpha female a little better, but he snarled at a man who checked out Elena’s ass as she was walking away from him.

  Moving back to the bar, he ordered another drink and bumped his shoulder against his sister’s in a playful push. “Feel better now, sister mine?”

  Lulu’s drunken smile was a little wobbly and a little sad. “Yes and no, brother mine. I’m grateful that Kent could help my case, but I’m still worried about the outcome. I loved Andrew and it slays me that anyone would accuse me of killing him.”

  He draped his arm across her shoulders and leaned in so that they could speak in lower tones. “I understand that, and I hope you won’t hate me for saying this, but Andrew wasn’t worthy of you.” She stared to protest and he shook his head to shush her. “Any man who can’t see the value of you as a mate and just wants to use you is not worthy of your time. Trust me. Take your time to heal, but don’t give up. There’s someone out there for you.”

  She threw back her shot of vodka. “Let’s get my head off the chopping block before we worry about my love life, okay?”

  Babushka butted into their conversation. “Gage has life of his love now. He should worry about putting his batter of baby in his woman’s womb.”

  Gage went cross-eyed at trying to keep his grandmother’s mixed up speech straight in his head. “Do you mean baby batter, Babushka?”

  “Da. Now is the time to think of batter of the baby,” she said, smiling coyly.

  “We just mated. Why are you so obsessed with great-grandchildren already, grandmother?”

  Babushka’s smile stretched widely across her face. “Because she is heated.”

  It took Gage a minute to realize what his grandmother was really saying. “You mean, she’s in heat?” he whispered. Granted, human women, or even Amazonians for that matter, weren’t like shifters to go into an actual heat, but he understood what his Babushka was trying to say. Elena was at her most fertile right now.

  “Da, my boy!” she shouted in excitement.

  Gage opened his mouth to ask something else but ended up tackling his sister and grandmother to the floor when the sound of gunshots rang out in the room. Five shots were fired, and the moment the sounds ceased, Gage was up on his feet and racing towards where he’d last seen his mate. She was still there, however she was also the one holding the handgun, pointing it at the floor with a very angry Alpha McPhee now standing in front of her.

  “You crazy bitch, you could have shot my mate!” Adam thundered.

  Gage slid to a stop behind Elena and wrapped a protective arm around her waist. He reached forward and pried the gun from his mate’s hand before she could do something reckless in anger, like shoot Adam since he was yelling at her. He saw that Jenna was physically trying to push Adam out of her way, though she was failing miserably.

  “Get out of the way, you big bastard! Did she get it? Did she fucking kill it?” Jenna shouted excitedly.

  Gage shook his head at the little wolf’s antics. Jesus, these women were nuts. Thankfully he was only responsible for one of them.

  “What is she talking about, Elena?”

  She turned in his arms and gave him fevered and fran
tic eyes. “It was that humongous spider again! I’m telling you, Gage, that damn thing is the size of Texas and he’s following me. I have a stalker spider!”

  He stared back at his mate in abject horror. She’d shot up the place over a spider?

  “She’s not lying!” Jenna yelled. “I saw that freaky, little bastard and he was definitely watching her.”

  Adam growled. “Get your mate out of here, Ivanov, before she gets her hands on another gun and accidentally shoots somebody.”

  Gage wasn’t one to normally take orders from a flea-ridden wolf, yet this time, his tiger agreed with the man. He bent down, put his shoulder into Elena’s stomach, and then picked her up in a fireman’s carry. When she started to struggle, he popped her hard on the ass, and she shrieked in surprise. The whole room erupted in catcalls and applause as he carried her out of the building.

  He stumbled a few steps when he walked off the curb, but managed to catch his balance without dropping his mate on her head. Maybe he’d had a bit more to drink than he’d originally thought. Had the bartender handed him a second bottle of whisky after he’d finished the first?

  Elena was smacking his ass and saying something that sounded a little like ‘beating his booty,’ but he could be wrong. When they reached his truck, which was parked in the dark parking lot behind the bar, he set her down and opened the door for her.

  “Get in, woman.”

  “Are you ordering me around again?” she challenged.

  He swayed a little on his feet. “Yes. Ass. In. Truck.”

  She poked him in the chest with her finger. “If you want an ass in the truck, all you have to do is get in yourself.”

  All this talk about asses and his truck was getting him horny. He grabbed her by her hips, swung her around and pushed on her back until she was bent over with her chest on his seat.

  Looking down at the sweet curves of her backside, he purred, “Speaking of ass in my truck.”