Chinchilla and the Devil

by C. D. Gorri

“Did you call me a donut?”

  “Nah, it means cupcake.” He winked.

  “I guess it’s better than doll face,” she murmured.

  “You don’t like doll face?”

  “Whatever. Anyway, I had your red ass beat,” she replied and tossed the bag that had carried her clothes behind a tall tree for later.

  “Maybe,” he said noncommittedly, but he knew the truth.

  His sassy little chinchilla had him by a good couple of yards. Maybe that wasn’t so bad, getting beat by a woman. Well, by this particular woman at any rate.

  “Alright, we need to avoid the cameras by scaling the outside wall and entering the communication department main offices through the deck just outside the reception area.”

  “You guys have a deck up there?”

  “Yeah, well, shifters in closed spaces tend to not do so well. The administration thought the decks would relieve some of that stress by offering a place to take some fresh air during breaks without us having to wait for elevators and such.”

  It was a good plan, actually. Thoughtful too. He might mention it to Joe Canary for the NJ offices of PRIC next time he went to the office. The good thing about his job was he didn’t have to come in very often. Only when the boss had special paperwork for him. They had their own couriers, but sometimes it was better to get these things in person. Sofia interrupted his train of thought as she walked them to the spot where she thought it would be safest to try and make their climb.

  “Abigail, my current temp boss, has her computer set up right smack in the middle of the floor so she can watch everyone.”

  “Yeah, that’s a bit creepy,” Tony mused.

  “I suppose, but the rest of us have cubicles, so it isn’t that bad.”

  “Alright, instead of scaling the walls, I can partial shift, just my wings, and carry you up? Is that alright?”

  Just the idea of getting his hands on her again made his Devil growl, but not in a mean want-to-hurt-you way. More in a yes-please-want-to-touch-you way.

  Shit. When had he become so damn desperate for a woman? He shook his head and tried to keep his eye on the ball.

  “Um, yeah, okay,” Sofia said. He could tell she was nervous without having to scent it on her. It was in her voice.

  “Do you not want to do this?”

  “No, I do. You need to find your missing shifter, and I need to stop the meatball bandit before we have a riot of hangry shifters on our hands.”

  “A deal’s a deal. You scratch my back, I scratch yours.”

  Just picturing her underneath him scratching his back made his pants uncomfortably tight. How was he going to carry her without her noticing his little, okay not little, his massive problem?

  “You okay?” She asked.

  He nodded dumbly. Taking her by the waist, Tony couldn’t help the hiss that escaped his lips as she pressed her soft, warm body to his.

  “Shouldn’t you take off your shirt?” She whispered.

  “Uh, yeah,” he muttered and tugged the black cotton over his head. Sofia took it from him and cocked her head, causing a ripple of curls to cascade over one shoulder. She was so incredibly beautiful in the night dressed in a pair of tight black leggings and a long sleeved black sweater.

  Canadian spring was not unlike New Jersey spring, temperatures dropped to the twenties at night only to reach high forties in the daytime. She shivered, and he immediately wrapped her up in his arms.

  “You’re hot,” she said, and he felt his devil preen at the praise. “No, I mean, you’re burning up.” She sounded alarmed.

  “I run hotter than most shifters.” He shrugged and rolled his neck. Trying to shift just his wings was difficult and required tremendous control, but he could do it.

  Tony had spent many a night learning all he could about his devil and how to control every aspect of his shift. There wasn’t a lot of information documented about his kind. He wasn’t comfortable questioning the Leeds family, and the Di Carlos didn’t have that information. A lot of what he knew, he had learned himself.

  “You ready,” he whispered. Sofia nodded and clung to his shoulders.

  “Yes.” Her eyes seemed glued to his lips.

  His concentration flew out the window, and Tony’s mouth went dry. He wanted her. But this wasn’t the time or the place. First, he’d solve his case, then find her meatball bandit, and lastly, he’d close the deal.

  Mine. And there it was. His possessive side still growling in his head. Growing louder by the second. It was about time he admitted that sweet Sofia was the one. Even if only to himself.

  There was no way he was letting anyone come between him and his chinchilla. She might not know it yet, but this devil had just declared his intentions.

  Grrr.

  “I’m ready, too,” she replied.

  Tony hoped she meant it because there was no way he was turning back now.

  22

  Sofia thought she handled herself admirable considering she’d been naked with the sexy Tony Leeds twice and hadn’t yet begged him to do all the naughty things she wanted him to. Not out loud anyway.

  The Communications department was quiet and dark as they slunk past the cubicles to the main desk where Abigail Freejumper, frog shifter and temporary head of the department, kept her computer locked down. So she thought.

  “How do you know your boss’ password?”

  “She was having issues this morning with one of our programs, and I had to show her how to access the correct forms. I needed her password to do it.”

  “And she didn’t change it?”

  “Not to my knowledge.”

  “Alright Sofia, it’s your show.” He breathed the words quietly in the darkened office.

  She felt his warm breath tickling the back of her neck. Licks of awareness flared to life between them, and Sofia stilled herself against it. This was neither the time nor the place. Breaking into one of the most classified facilities in the world while she was employed there was not a good idea.

  If she were to get caught, she’d definitely be fired, and that was the best thing that could happen to her. The worst, well, she supposed death was pretty damn bad.

  “She didn’t change it.” She sighed in relief as she began searching through the encrypted files for the link up to the database.

  “Here,” Tony said and plugged a flash drive into the machine while Sofia clicked copy.

  “I’m transferring copies of all the cadets who fit the age range you are looking for,” she whispered

  The sound of footsteps coming closer brought both their heads up. Sofia’s heart began to race.

  Uh oh. Things were about to get FUC’d.

  23

  Present time inside one of the many WANC interrogation rooms.

  “Alright you two, so aside from the fact you guys are gonna be bangin’ it out soon, how close have you come to finding this meatball thief and your missing fox?” Asked Miranda Brownsmith.

  Tony laughed at the blonde bunny, and Sofia’s inner chinchilla was suddenly furious. The fact that Miranda batted her big eyes at him and giggled too only made it worse.

  OMG. She was jealous and there was nothing she could do to quell the sensation. As if he understood, he reached under the table and grasped her thigh with his big, warm hand.

  He squeezed gently and turned to look at her, all mirth gone from his face. Sofia breathed a bit easier, and when she noticed the red rim around his eyes, her heart began to pound.

  In the day that she’d known him, she’d come to realize his devil was all about being present when the touching and kissing happened. She didn’t mind it at all.

  Actually, it was kind of hot. Clearing her throat, she squirmed in her seat and turned her head to face the FUC agents in the room. They were waiting for an explanation, and she didn’t have one. Yet.

  “Well, I have an idea about how to capture the meatball thief,” Tony replied.

  “How’s that?”

  “Sometimes a good old-fashioned
stakeout works best.”

  “Oh yay! That sounds exciting!”

  “Miranda,” growled her husband. “How is crouching in the woods waiting for a meatball thief exciting?”

  “Honey bear, you know you love a good stakeout, and afterwards you can have all the pie you want,” his wife returned.

  The bear snagged her around the waist and brought her close to him. The gesture was warm and loving, and Sofia was almost jealous. Would have been if Tony wasn’t slowly stroking up and down her thigh under the table.

  “Tell us what you know about your missing shifter and why you think he’s here,” Alyce Cooper interrupted.

  Hmm. Sofia’s ears perked up. It was true she didn’t know a lot about his case. The idea of finding out more intrigued her.

  “Alright. I don’t know why we don’t normally share information with other shifter run organizations. Truthfully, I find that policy to be counterproductive,” Tony began. “PRIC is all about the endgame, not the politics.”

  It was her turn to grin as she listened to his positively fascinating Jersey drawl while she relayed the pertinent facts of the case.

  “We’ve become aware of a child abduction ring operating in the States for the past fifty or so years. I’ve traced twenty-eight abductions to these bastards, and I’ve managed to locate nine out of those. Todd Grano, the missing fox shifter, would be the tenth.”

  “What?” Ms. Cooper straightened, and the other agents in the room growled and gasped appropriately.

  “As far as we can tell, the group responsible for these shifter kidnappings is experimenting on them, but to what end we can’t say. We’ve found two of their facilities, but only after they’d been burned down along with the bulk of their records and any evidence we might’ve found. The only common denominator is this, a scarab.” He held up his phone and showed the image of the scarab to the FUC agents in the room.

  “I hate bugs,” growled Viktor.

  “We need to stop them from taking any more children,” agreed Chase, now that he was a papa bear he was all about protecting the little ones.

  “I traced the path of Scarab all the way to here. The van they’d used to kidnap one of the kids I recovered was registered to a John Smith. Obviously, an alias, I was able to track purchases made with the same credit card to this general area. Once I entered it into PRIC’s general information base, I was immediately notified of your location. Then it hit me. This guy was experimenting on kids. Trying to infiltrate the shifter world, maybe he succeeded in getting in the most heavily guarded secret we have.”

  “FUCN’A,” whispered Sofia.

  “I need to see the records Ms. Cooper,” Tony said, not missing a beat.

  “I can see that, Mr. Leeds, but who or what exactly are you looking for?”

  “This kidnapping victim is a fox shifter. He’s twenty-one years old, but he might be under the impression he is older or younger. His abductors took him when he was just three years old, as is their signature. The younger the shifter, the easier to manipulate. They would have altered his genetic code somehow using the DNA of other shifters. I don’t know if you track cadets and staff with blood samples–”

  “We do,” said Alyce. “But the new cadets' information would be slow in getting into the system. Miranda, call Jessie and ask her to get into medical and see if she can’t trace any cadets whose blood samples seem corrupted.”

  “I’m on it,” said the bunny.

  “Now, why do you think this group would send one of their victims here, Mr. Leeds?” Ms. Cooper asked.

  “FUCN’A is the doorway to the new world for this group. I believe they are linked to a mad scientist who tried to disrupt the natural evolution of shifters a hundred years ago.”

  “What?”

  “You know what I am–”

  “You mean a Jersey devil?” Asked the croc.

  “Yes,” said Tony. “There are a lot of myths about where we come from, but I’ve done the research. My ancestors were victims of that first mad scientist. His name was Wembley Ranklinger.” He turned to look at Sofia. “I think whoever is behind the scarab organization’s kidnappings has somehow gotten ahold of Ranklinger’s journals and is trying to recreate them.”

  Sofia swallowed. He’d never revealed this part of his theory to her before. It made sense, though. Why else would he be here?

  “How do you know this?” Ms. Cooper asked.

  “Because I was kidnapped, and my family was killed when I was just a toddler. I somehow escaped, but not before they’d begun experimenting on me.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Let’s just say my devil countenance is a little different from the other members of the Leeds clan.”

  “How did you survive what they did to you?”

  “I don’t remember much from that time only what came after. I was adopted by mouse shifters and reunited with my biological grandmother and cousin years later, but the DiCarlo’s are my family.”

  “Then why do you go by Leeds?” Asked Miranda.

  “To protect them,” Viktor answered for Tony, and the croc gave a nod of respect to the devil in the room. Sofia felt warmth spread throughout her. She felt pride and rage on his behalf. Someone had hurt him, and now they were hurting someone else.

  “You said your family was killed?” Ms. Cooper asked. Sofia couldn’t quite stop the growl that escaped her throat, after all, who would bring up such a thing?

  “I am asking for a reason Ms. Pelosi, please calm your animal.”

  “Sorry, ma’am.”

  “Yes,” Tony said. “My biological parents were killed with silver bullets fired from high-powered assault rifles at close range.”

  “It was just you and them?”

  “No, I had a brother. Not a trace was found of him except for a bloody onesie. He was presumed dead,” Tony responded mechanically.

  “We are sorry for your loss,” said Chase.

  “Thank you, but I am here now to find Todd Grano. This missing fox could be the clue we need to uncover Scarab and stop them for good. It’s my belief he’s a sleeper agent.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “He probably doesn’t know who or what he really is. After all, you guys make potential cadets take a series of thorough tests before accepting them. They couldn’t risk him knowing and blowing his cover. No, he’s a sleeper alright. A dangerous one.”

  24

  “Okay, tell me again why you think your missing fox is here?” Sofia padded over to Tony in her pajamas and slippers. She handed him a steaming cup of coffee.

  After they’d been over the story and the plan about a million times with Ms. Cooper and the other FUCs, Sofia and Tony were permitted to return to her townhouse. The agents had their best computer experts and scientists working on rushing the new batch of cadets’ DNA samples through their lab. If something were amiss, they’d find it, she was sure.

  “Not again. Why don’t we just cuddle instead?” He nuzzled her neck as she handed him the steaming black brew.

  “Is this espresso?”

  “Yeah, I bought myself this manual press for my birthday last year,” she began and squeaked when he placed the cup on the table and hauled her down into his arms.

  “I knew you were perfect, doll face, but I had no idea you were this perfect,” he growled and nipped her bottom lip before soothing the abused flesh with soft laps from his tongue.

  Sofia melted into his embrace. Was it too fast for this? Maybe. But she didn’t think so. She’d spent twenty out of the last twenty-four hours either with Tony or thinking about him.

  He was funny, smart, and sexy as hell. Both she and her chinchilla had wanted him from the second she laid eyes on him decked out in black from head to toe with a swagger only a real Jersey boy could flaunt. He was cocky, arrogant, but charming and sincere.

  She felt his desire for her right down to her bones with the way he wrapped his arms around her body. Sofia moaned into his embrace, opening for him and deepening thei
r kiss until she wasn’t sure where she ended, and he began.

  “You taste so good, mi pasticcino,” he growled, taking her face in one hand and kissing her, eyes open and focused on her.

  “Tony,” she whimpered. “I want you.”

  “You have to be sure, baby, because once I start making love to you, I won’t be able to stop.” His voice was deep and rough, and Sofia whimpered in response.

  Her belly warmed, and heart pounded. She felt the evidence of his desire long and firm under her buttocks. Liquid heat pooled between her legs. Sofia had never been more sure of anything in her life.

  Heart pounding, sex wet with need, she lifted herself up to straddle his thighs before mashing her mouth to his. A desperate moan escaped her throat as she tore at his clothing.

  She needed skin to skin contact. Sofia’s body was on fire with need, and he seemed to reciprocate the feeling. In a frenzy of motion, they went at each other. The feel of his body against hers was intoxicating.

  “More,” she demanded, swallowing his groan as her fingers raked down his back.

  Only the thin wisp of lace between her legs separated her from his engorged manhood. His cock was thick and long. It pulsed underneath her, and Sofia ground her hips, welcoming the rush of wetness.

  “S’good,” he grunted and swallowed one large nipple, suckling the tiny bud until she was moaning and writhing mindlessly against him.

  Tony lavished attention on one plump mound, then the other. Distributing equal care and tenderness on both her bountiful breasts while kneading the globes of her ass with his other hand. She practically glowed with the knowledge that he found her curves appealing.

  More than, in fact, if the way he groaned, grunted, suckled, and whispered praises to her was anything to go by. His own body was magnificent. The perfect blend of hair and muscle, and if she wasn’t mistaken, the red glow of his skin was a sign that his devil was just as invested in this as he was.

  Damn, that was hot. Fingers tore at the elastic holding his hair back, and she gripped his longish locks, holding his head to her breast as he sucked and pulled her to the brink of orgasm.