Especially since Jason had noted that this was the vicinity where he had first inhaled whatever had made him ill last night.
Jonas Truro, despite being trained as a medical doctor, dug in like a regular enlisted guy to pick up some of the stones they’d noticed before and examine them minutely, hanging on to only one or two that he said were just samples. He threw the rest back along the roadside with a shake of his head and a shrug. “They seem like regular stones to me.”
And Jason, even with his enhanced senses while in human form said he didn’t perceive anything about the rocks other than usual natural odors.
Sara had been watching Jason carefully, trying to guess, from his expression and demeanor, not only if he sensed anything off, but also if he was feeling okay.
He glanced back often, sending her looks that seemed both exasperated and challenging, as if still not thrilled that she had insisted on coming along. She kept her expression neutral, but she would have loved to challenge him right back.
Trees grew close to the roadside, with decaying vegetation between the trunks. Jason again gagged despite his senses being so much less acute than when he was in wolf form, so it was up to nonshifters Sara and Jonas, and cougar shifter Colleen, to collect samples of stones and dirt and plants—mostly dead leaves and grass—and even a few pebbles.
If there were traces of something placed there to veil evidence of who had been there and what they had done, something shifted werewolves might otherwise have noticed and possibly even figured out, it would need to be ID’d in tests that would analyze those samples. And that could take time.
In the meantime, whoever was guilty of placing it there, and doing whatever was done to the general’s car, would be free. Maybe escaping, or maybe hiding in plain sight at Ft. Lukman. A member of the Ultra Special Forces Team? If so, why?
Or perhaps there was another culprit or motive that Sara hadn’t yet considered. The guilty person could even be an Alpha Force member, but what motive could they possibly have?
“I think we’re through here,” Jason finally said, but Sara was glad when he added, “Agreed?” at her sideways glance. Maybe he needed reminding, but at least he had acknowledged, in some manner, that he was in the presence of superior officers.
And then he coughed again.
He may have tried to hold her back, but the reality was that she should have pulled rank and not let him come along. He had no business being here, where he’d come across something harmful yesterday.
On the other hand, his presence was helpful, since he’d been able to point out precisely where he had prowled in wolf form, and where he had first sensed whatever he had inhaled.
“Yes,” she said, “but let’s walk exactly the path you took to get back on the base, from here till we get to where I first spotted you opposite the BOQ.”
“I’m fine with getting away from here, too,” said Colleen Hodell. She was a friendly, pretty woman with pale feline eyes that seemed almost translucent. Her tawny hair, though layered, was longer than Sara’s and had become mussed in the slight breeze wafting around them. She had stayed with the group yet wandered toward the fringes of the areas they explored as if believing the answers were even less obvious than the others might have considered. “My other senses are different from those guys’, but I feel a bit like gagging, too. Damn, it’s frustrating to be here and know this is a vital location for what happened to General Yarrow and only be able to pick up dirt, not find anything helpful.”
“I’ll second that.” Jonas Truro had started out wearing a camo cap over his dark hair but he’d taken it off and shoved it into a back pocket. His frown appeared as exasperated as Sara felt. They were supposed to find something here. And maybe he, as a doctor, figured he’d have better insight into the chemical reaction Jason had suffered.
But apparently he didn’t—although he had collected the bulk of the samples they were returning with. Like Sara and Colleen, he was carrying the pack that contained all he had gathered.
They all walked back together to the base’s gate where they checked in with the sentry guarding the entrance.
“I want to get all the samples right to the lab for handling,” Jonas said.
“Good idea,” said Colleen.
“I’d still like to retrace my steps of last night,” said Jason, “in case something useful comes to mind.”
She knew better, but Sara had seen Jason’s difficult trek through the base yesterday. What if he suffered a relapse, despite being in human form?
Or was she just looking for an excuse to stay with him?
Either way, she said, “I’d like to continue this recon as we discussed before and follow everything Jason did last evening to look for additional evidence. Can you take my samples with you?” At Colleen’s nod, she handed the other woman the backpack containing the sealed packages and tubes filled with all she had collected.
The other two hurried along the road toward the far side of the base—and the building containing the underground lab. Did they have enough technical personnel and expertise to conduct all the analyses here? Maybe, Sara thought, since apparently they did all their own blending of shapeshifting formula there. But analysis and creation could be quite different.
Well, that definitely wasn’t her expertise.
Organizing was. So was following through.
“Okay, let’s trace your exact footsteps from last night,” she told Jason.
He grinned down at her, but his expression appeared wan. “My pawprints, you mean?”
“Yeah,” she said, finding herself smiling at the reminder rather than recoiling at it. Interesting.
Instead of strolling down the road, they went behind the low buildings on the base’s far side. Part of the area was paved, but a lot of it abutted the narrow groves of trees that formed the perimeter of Ft. Lukman inside its fence.
Jason’s gait was slower than Sara had seen it before in human form, and she kept her pace equal to his.
They had almost reached the area between buildings where Sara had spotted Jason last night when he said, “You know, I thought I smelled something else when I got here, but I was feeling too awful to check it out.”
“Let’s look now,” she said.
Together they entered the forested area. Although it was daylight, once they walked into this place of heavy growth they were surrounded by shadows. Sara heard the singing of several species of birds, overlying other soft sounds like small animals scurrying around dead leaves at the base of the trees. No one could say this place was anything but fully alive.
“Do you smell anything unusual now?” she asked. All she sensed was the green, healthy scent of growing trees, interspersed with some heavier, darker odors of decaying undergrowth. But she realized that her sense of smell was nowhere near as acute as his.
“Nothing unusual,” he said. Even so, he walked farther into the forest and Sara followed. “I just wish...well, whatever happened must have been centered on the road outside, like we thought. I’m just mad at myself now for not having protected myself from whatever was left there. I already suspected some kind of terrorist act or sabotage or—”
“It’s not your fault,” she interrupted sharply, then paused at the way his golden eyes widened. They’d both stopped beneath some fairly low branches, in shadows.
He might have been surprised at her outburst, but she, too, had been surprised that this jaunty, devil-may-care guy actually did care. Blamed himself for the harm that someone else had caused him. At least he wasn’t blaming himself for what had happened to General Yarrow...was he?
“I know it’s not my fault,” he said softly, his gaze grabbing hers and latching on with a hot intensity that seemed to come out of nowhere. Or had she anticipated—hoped for—it all along? “But thanks for the vote of confidence.”
She opened her mouth to say something casual, but nothing came out. Not while she continued to look into his eyes, see the heat blazing between them, feel a sensuality rising within he
r from far below that didn’t belong in this cool, neutral surrounding. That didn’t belong inside her at all.
Sara wasn’t sure who moved first, but she was suddenly engulfed in Jason’s strong embrace. His mouth came down on hers, softly at first, then picking up heat and fierceness and intensity that she felt helpless to do anything about but respond in kind.
No. She never felt helpless. This was exactly what she wanted, precisely where she wanted to be: in Jason’s strong, sexy embrace. Kissing him as if there were nothing, no one, in the world but them. As if their attraction was fiery and wonderful and inevitable. And not forbidden by who, and what, they were.
Their lips parted, their tongues met and teased and tested one another as if in anticipation of a mind-blowing sexual encounter.
Sara felt the hardness of Jason’s erection press against her and pushed harder toward him. If only...
But as her hands raced under his clothes and up his back to clutch his heated flesh, she heard, in the distance, the sound of conversation. Someone must be on the sidewalk on the other side of the nearby building.
Or so she hoped. Surely they weren’t any closer.
But the sound brought her back to reality. Instead of pulling him closer, she pushed him away.
“I—I’m sorry,” she gasped. “This wasn’t right.”
“Oh, I’d say it was very right,” Jason muttered.
“I mean—”
“I know exactly what you mean.” He looked down with both heat and sorrow in his gaze. “Nowhere to go from here but back to the lab, right, Lieutenant?”
Sara closed her eyes at the jab, the reminder that she didn’t really need—that even ignoring that the hot, enticing, utterly sexy man who’d kissed her was also a shapeshifter, their lives, their careers, their military ranks made it impossible for them to do even what they had done, let alone follow through and engage in the hot sex suggested by their heated embrace.
“Right, Sergeant,” she finally said, putting as much strength and distance as she could into her voice despite her continued breathlessness.
Without looking at him again, she hurried from beneath the trees and onto the path behind the nearest building.
She thought she heard Jason following but didn’t turn to confirm it. She walked between two buildings, ironically in about the same location as she had spotted Jason yesterday. She reached the sidewalk nearest the road through the base where a few other people strolled on the sidewalk ahead of her.
And as she looked toward that road, she saw a car carrying General Yarrow drive by.
Chapter 9
Sara had peeked into General Yarrow’s Ft. Lukman office before but hadn’t gone inside.
Not without the general there.
But now he had arrived. Safely, this time. He still looked pale in his camo uniform as he sat behind his attractive antique mahogany desk. Maybe even frail, although she would never dare to tell him that.
At the moment he was chatting with Major Drew Connell, who sat on one of the couple of chairs facing the desk.
A short while ago, as Sara had neared the base’s main office building, she had seen the general being helped from the car being driven by an enlisted man—who’d presumably picked him up and brought him here from the hospital. Drew had obviously been expecting him and accompanied the general into the building.
From what Sara had seen, still at a distance, the general had refused further assistance, even an arm to hang on to.
Sara hadn’t asked for an invitation. She was still the general’s aide. She had turned quickly to see that Jason had followed her here. She gave him a quick nod that she hoped appeared dismissive, even though her glance settled, for just an instant, on those lips that had created so much emotion—and desire—within her.
Wrong. How wrong that had been. And the general’s presence only reinforced how foolish she was.
Despite how good that kiss had felt...
She had quickly reached the building, then hurried up the stairway to the general’s second-floor office.
She’d wanted to interrupt his conversation with Drew. Maybe even to hug him in relief that he was okay.
But that was almost as inappropriate as her sharing a kiss with an enlisted man.
Instead of doing anything else, she had simply come in and saluted General Yarrow. He had saluted back as if all was in order and nothing bad had happened.
“Have a seat, Lieutenant,” he had told her.
“Yes, sir.” She had quickly obeyed.
Now she remained there quietly as he continued to talk with Drew.
She liked the general’s office. It suited him, with its decor that spoke of his love of both the United States and history. The U.S. flag that hung on the brass pole behind his desk was similar to the one he had in his much more formal office at the Pentagon. Nothing else resembled his usual digs. Oh, sure, she recognized a lot of old books on the sumptuous wooden shelves behind him—the ones with military history and regulations.
But then there were the antique-looking volumes of old classics, from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
And was that what she thought it was? Before coming here, she would only have laughed had she heard he had an original script from the classic movie The Wolf Man. Now she recognized how fitting that was.
“Our investigation is still inconclusive, Greg.” Drew brought Sara’s attention back when he looked at her for confirmation. His golden eyes, so like his cousin’s, flashed as if he was furious that such an event could have occurred under his watch.
“That’s right, General,” Sara said. “But we’re still working on it.” She related how Sergeant Jason Connell and she had brought a vehicle back to the base to move the remains of the car, and how automobile expert Jason and others had studied those remains. She caught Drew’s expression as she described all his cousin had done so far.
Then she looked at the general. Her CO looked older now than his actual age: sixty-four. He took good care of himself, and most of the time he appeared younger, possibly because his hair was really black—and from what she gathered, he didn’t do anything to keep it that way. It had receded quite a bit, though, around his temples.
He frowned a lot even before—although right now the expression seemed etched into his long, lined face.
But he needed to know everything, at least all that was related to what had happened to him. As far as Sara knew, Drew hadn’t mentioned to the general the scratches on the door to the lab. Maybe he’d already had someone examine it and determined it was nothing.
Taking a deep breath, Sara told the general about seeing Jason in shifted form last night after he’d gone to the area near the base where the car might have been ambushed.
“That’s why we think this was an intentional act of sabotage,” Drew said.
“Especially since Sergeant Connell was taken ill after visiting that site,” Sara added, then described Jason’s coughing and how she had accompanied him, and other Alpha Force members, to that area to collect samples that were being analyzed.
“I see,” the general said slowly when she was done. He leaned forward, folding his arms on the top of his desk as he looked at Sara. She expected more questions about the investigation.
Instead, his expression lightened. He even smiled. “So Sara, what’s your opinion of shapeshifters now?”
She stared at him. What did he expect her to say?
When she remained silent, he continued, “Just wondering. Every time I hinted at the real nature of Alpha Force after you started reporting to me, you laughed it off.”
“I’m not laughing now,” she said, keeping her tone bright. “It’s really amazing.”
She wasn’t about to give an opinion of shapeshifting, let alone the existence of a military unit like Alpha Force. In fact, at this moment she wasn’t really sure what her opinion was.
Except that, as she considered it, the face of Jason Connell—and the feel and taste of his li
ps on hers—insinuated itself into her mind.
She felt herself start to flush and looked down at her hands, hoping that neither of the others in the room noticed.
“Amazing, huh?” The general sounded amused. But then his tone hardened enough to make her look up. “I’d just like to know whether the amazing nature of Alpha Force is what caused someone to mess with my Jeep. I loved that old thing.”
“They messed with you, too, General.” Sara knew her anger and indignation were clear from her tone. “I’m sorry about your car, but...well, you could have been killed.”
“And whoever it was apparently went to some lengths to conceal his identity and method—especially from anyone, human or otherwise, with keen senses,” Drew said.
“Yeah, looks that way,” agreed General Yarrow. “In fact, I’d like you to contact your cousin and tell him to come here now, Drew. I want to talk to him more about what he sensed when he went in shifted form to check it out.”
Meaning that Major Connell would be bringing Sergeant Connell to this office. While Sara was here.
Only a short while after they had embraced in the woods. And kissed.
Lord, how they had kissed....
“Well, it sounds as if you have a lot to discuss,” Sara said. “You won’t need me—”
“Yes, we do, Lieutenant,” the general replied sharply. But the expression he leveled on her looked curious. And shrewd. “You were helping in the investigation. I want you to join in our discussion. Unless you have something better to do?”
“I’ll do whatever you’d like, sir,” Sara said. Within reason, of course, although she wasn’t about to tell him that.
But she did have something better to do. Almost anything would be better than being in Jason’s presence at this moment.
The general’s gaze had not moved from her face as he said, “Then stay here, Sara. It’ll be good for all of us to get both your take on things and Sergeant Connell’s.” His smile broadened, then faded.
She now believed in shapeshifters. What about mind readers?
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