“You know that nice, soft dirt out there in the forest? The location of my paw prints, and then my footprints, and your footprints, and the rifle shells…they’re all going to tell a story that makes you into a liar,” Jax snarled. “And for the sake of shifters everywhere, I will be pressing charges.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” one of the hunter’s friends yelled angrily. “Attempted murder? You’ll send him to prison? For trying to kill a dogman?”
Rage rose up and threatened to choke Jax, and he stuffed it back down quickly. If he went all wolf on them and ripped them to pieces like they deserved, it would only hurt the reputation of shifters.
He grabbed the rifle from the man, and sniffed. “I smell silver,” he said. “Silver bullets. Those are expensive. And illegal. You’d never waste that kind of money hunting deer. You went out there hoping to find a shifter.”
He bent the barrel of the rifle easily, turning it into a U, and then shoved it back against the man’s chest so hard that he staggered back a couple of feet. His friends made a motion as if to lunge forward, but then they glanced at the two highway patrolmen, and at Jax, with his rippling face and glowing eyes and lengthening fangs.
Muttering to themselves, they slunk back, shoulders hunched, eyes glittering with hatred.
There would always be shifters who hated humans. Jax knew this all too well. It was rubbed into his face on a regular basis.
If the hunter had succeeded in shooting Jax, he might well have gotten away with claiming that Jax had gone rabid and attacked him. Without Jax being around to defend himself, who would have listened to his side of the story?
Then Jax would have been turned into yet another horror story, yet another excuse for humans to hate and fear shifters.
We have got to solve this case before all out war breaks out, Jax thought. Yeah, he desperately needed that reward, but the stakes were way higher than money.
* * *
Vaughn sank back in his big overstuffed chair, smiling. They were getting close to finding the Chemist, he was sure of it. That little bastard had been one of Vaughn’s best drug manufacturers years ago, inventing new, marvelously addictive and species-specific drugs that Vaughn had peddled to every species of shifter – but he’d managed to deal with Vaughn on a strictly anonymous basis, despite Vaughn’s best efforts to find him. Vaughn had always wanted the Chemist under his control, working in his own personal laboratory and whipping out drugs to his exact specifications.
Not only had the Chemist refused, the jackass had screwed up one of his batches and several of Vaughn’s customers had gone rabid. That wouldn’t have happened if he’d been working in Vaughn’s own laboratory, with its strict controls. Vaughn had spent a small fortune covering it up. The way Vaughn saw it, the Chemist owed him big time.
Originally, he’d planned on having the Chemist pay him back by making sure that he worked under armed guard in Vaughn’s laboratories, but recently, his eyes had been opened to much grander opportunities. He’d come to realize his true destiny, which was so much more important than massive wealth and complete control of a worldwide crime syndicate. He’d achieved that, and he was growing bored.
Now he was ready to change the world, forever.
He still needed the Chemist under his control, in his laboratory, working to produce the drug that he’d called S-X, but he had a different goal now. He no longer wanted to ensure that the laboratory produced a safe, purified version of the drug. He wanted to make sure that he learned what had gone wrong with the drug that caused shifters to go rabid. And then he wanted to produce nothing but bad batches, again and again.
Smiling at the thought, Vaughn glanced down at the two shifter cats curled up on the cold marble floor. Pamela’s eyes were dull and glazed; he’d been withholding Afterburn from her, watching her grow weaker and weaker. She wasn’t any fun any more. Jennifer was good for a couple more weeks of play, and then he’d be recruiting a new crew of girls, he thought. Bobbi Jo Simpson would be one of them. He was sure he’d have captured the Chemist by then, and he wouldn’t need her services any longer. Sure, she’d been a good conduit of information, but it wasn’t that hard to turn a cop; he’d find another Enforcer to take her place.
He wondered how long she’d last. Afterburn only worked on feline shifters, but he had a different drug called Sizzle, which worked on canine species. He could get her hooked, then watch her crawl to him and beg for her dose. Every bodyguard on his staff would line up and use her in every hole, until she bled, and then use her some more. She’d find out what happened to shifters who thought they were his equal.
He hoped she fought the addiction. He wanted her to last for months, dying a little every day.
Reaching into his shirt pocket, he pulled out out a little metal tin, and opened it. From the tin he scooped out a tiny white pill and held it up tauntingly. “I’ve got one pill,” he said. “Who wants it? Who’s ready to earn it? I’ll let you girls fight over it.”
The girls had been friends at the club. Now, he had no doubt that whoever was stronger would rip the other one’s throat out to get that fix.
“I want it,” Jennifer whimpered. “Me. Please give it to me. I’ll do whatever you want.”
Vaughn glanced at Pamela, who was breathing shallowly; her fingers twitched and she made a small mewling noise, but she was too weak to speak. The only way to survive Afterburn withdrawal was slowly, under medical supervision, with carefully calculated doses of sedatives. Abrupt withdrawal was agonizingly painful, and deadly. Pamela probably had days to live. Maybe hours.
Smirking, he handed Jennifer the pill, watching as she eagerly sucked it into her mouth.
Shifter whore.
Animal.
Suddenly, she bit the pill in half and stuffed half of it in Pamela’s mouth. Pamela swallowed with a quick, dry gulp, and shuddered as the pill quickly began burning its way down her nerves and synapses. A little bit of light came back to her eyes and her shallow breathing grew stronger.
Jennifer swallowed her half of the pill, shutting her eyes and shivering. Then she opened her eyes and stroked Pamela’s hair with one weak, trembling hand.
“It’s okay, baby,” she crooned to Pamela. “You’ll be okay.”
That wasn’t what Vaughn had wanted at all, although Jennifer hadn’t done anything more than reset the clock on Pamela’s slow, agonizing death.
He reached down and tangled his fingers in Jennifer’s hair, yanking her head up. “You think you’re clever, bitch?” he hissed. “I hope your ass is ready for a whole lot of pounding. Turn around, hands and knees. And don’t think we’ll be using any lube.”
Jennifer shuddered, and quickly obeyed. She only wore a g-string. Her full breasts dangled, and she presented him with the magnificent globes of her buttocks, ripe and ready for him to split apart.
He called out to the four men playing cards on a massive oak table.
“Line up, boys,” he yelled at them, and they scrambled to their feet. He paused. He was about to literally rip Jennifer a new one, but after they were all done with her, she could shift and heal way too fast for his tastes.
“Bring a copper collar,” he called out to them. When he collared her, not only would the collar itch and sting her skin like crazy, but it would force her to stay in human form. No rapid healing for this animal.
Chapter Twelve
Jax paced next to his car like a caged animal. He’d shown up fifteen minutes early, and checked his watch approximately fifty times a minute since then.
Would she even show up?
He was dying to call her, but he forced himself not to.
He was reaching into his pocket for his cell phone for the hundredth time, when her car glided into the parking lot and a little bit of the tightness inside him loosened.
He leaned against his car, casually, as she climbed out of her own car and shed the trench-coat she’d been wearing. She tossed the trenchcoat into the front seat and turned to face him.
/> She was wearing the other outfit they’d bought together at Liquid. A leather bra and leather miniskirt. Both had a series of snaps which made them very easy to remove.
Her silky hair flowed over her shoulders, and he longed to bury his face in it and draw her sweet scent through his nostrils.
“I didn’t keep you waiting, did I?” she asked.
“Nope. Just got here a minute ago,” he said.
“I heard something about a hunter trying to shoot you in the woods? One of the cops told me about it.” Her brow wrinkled with worry and she tipped her head back to look at him. “Are you all right?”
He felt himself relax a little more. So she didn’t totally hate him. Maybe he still had a chance.
“I’m fine. Spent most of the evening in the woods showing the cops the scene, and then filling out reports and talking to detectives, but he’ll be charged with multiple offenses. And they have him dead to rights.”
Bobbi nodded, tension radiating off her. “I’m glad I wasn’t there. I’d have had a hard time restraining myself from ripping his face off.”
Jax couldn’t help but smile. “Sweetheart, I’ve been in plenty of situations that made that look like a walk on the beach. Nothing to worry about.”
“So, did you get your apartment cleaned up yet?” she asked, walking towards the club. He followed her.
“Not yet. Listen, I know I deserved it, and then some. I’m not used to trusting anyone…but I shouldn’t have done that.”
She shrugged. “Water under the bridge,” she muttered as they walked through the door and into the club.
As soon as they were in the main room, Caress made a beeline for Jax, who immediately slung his arm around Bobbi’s waist.
“Jax, can I talk to you alone?” Caress stood way too close for comfort, and Jax scowled and took a step back. He didn’t need this now.
“What part of the word ‘girlfriend’ are you not understanding?” he demanded irritably. He could feel Bobbi tense up as Caress continued to try to push closer.
“Just one minute? I just want to tell you something,” Caress pleaded. She lowered her heavily frosted lids. “I’ll make it worth your while. You know how good I am.” Bobbi went rigid in Jax’s arms.
“If you don’t get away from us, I’m going to demand that Cedric send you home.” Jax fixed her with a cold, hard, glare, and Caress flushed with anger and turned on her heel and walked away.
Bobbi’s breathing had grown faster and he’d felt the rippling of her muscles as she fought to stay human. Her face shifted, and her eyes flickered as he watched. Her ears grew pointy and hair, and then rounded again. A part of him was glad. He wanted her to be as jealous as he was – because that meant she cared about him. It meant that he could still win her over.
“You apparently made quite an impression on her,” Bobbi said, her voice suddenly raspy with anger.
“Believe me, she’s way more interested now that she knows that I have a girlfriend. That’s just how she’s wired,” Jax said.
“A fake girlfriend. And I’ll be gone the minute this case is solved, so I guess you’ll be all hers.”
A wave of pain swept over him. “Don’t say that,” Jax blurted out before he could stop himself. She looked at him, startled.
“I don’t want you to go.” There. He’d said it.
“What?”
“I want you to give me another chance. I don’t deserve it, but I’m asking you anyway. I want you to say here in Playa Linda, with me, even after this case is over. I know this is sudden, but I….” He struggled to find the right words. Bobbi took a step back, biting her lip, bewilderment sweeping over her pretty features.
“I need to clear my head. Just…just give me a minute to think.”
* * *
Bobbi walked away from Jax with her heart thumping painfully against her rib cage.
How ironic was this? An incredibly handsome, sexy, although admittedly infuriating, shifter wanted her to give their relationship a chance. And he was almost certainly her fated mate, if the reaction of her private parts and her pounding heart were any indication.
And she had to say no.
But she couldn’t stand to say no.
Stall, she thought desperately. It was the coward’s way out, but she was in impossible situation here.
She wanted to stay. She wanted to see if things could work out with Jax, but she had an obligation to fulfill. Family came first, didn’t it? Or what she’d little she’d known of family.
She remembered the first time she’d seen Marcus. She’d been eight years old, heart-broken, terrified. Her parents were dead. The people at the agency had talked loudly about how hard it was to find a home that would take in a shifter child; she’d stayed in a group home for weeks before they placed her, the other children huddled in a corner fearfully, staring and whispering.
The first night she’d stayed at her new home, her foster father tried to climb into bed with her, and she’d shifted and nearly killed him, tearing off a vital piece of his anatomy – he’d been naked from the waist down - and then fled the house in terror.
She’d run, and she’d run, and she’d run, travelling through the woods, hunting prey and drinking from rivers to stay alive. She’d travelled hundreds of miles until she’d reached Phoenix.
She’d been hiding out in an abandoned building for days when Marcus walked in. Wolf shifter. She’d thought he’d come to grab her, to hurt her, but he’d just stared at her for a minute, put a roast beef sandwich and a bottle of milk down on the floor, and walked away.
He came back every day for a week, leaving food for her and not saying a word, until she followed him out of the building.
She still ached with loss every time she thought of him.
“Bobbi!” She turned, startled, to see Velvet standing there.
“Velvet. What’s up? Good to see you again.” She glanced around. “Jax and I are kind of having issues. I just needed a minute to think.”
“Well, don’t worry about Aurora, if that’s who you’re looking for. She never showed up for her shift tonight.”
“Wow.” Bobbi’s eyes widened with pretend surprise. “Is that typical for her?”
“Oh, my God no. When any employee doesn’t show up for their shift, unless they’ve got a rock solid excuse and a doctor’s note saying they were in intensive care, they’re fired. Cedric runs a very tight ship. Even showing up late gets you suspended for a week, and that’s a lot of money to lose.”
“Wow. That is strange. Do you think it’s because of the weird curse thing that’s affecting all the guys she was with?” Bobbi lowered her voice.
Velvet leaned in. “I’m beginning to think it’s not a curse. I had a few of her regular customers come up to me and ask me if I could get them the same stuff that Aurora gave them. I asked what they meant, and apparently she had some kind of pill which would heighten their sexual appetite, and make sex just totally intense and crazy. They were paying like five hundred bucks a pill.”
“Wow. Really? Maybe she figured out the connection and she’s afraid to come back,” Bobbi said.
That made perfect sense. The amygdala, the part of the brain which regulated aggression, also regulated sexual feelings. If Tony had created a drug which heightened the intensity of the sexual experience, perhaps some customers were more sensitive to it than others. Or perhaps he’d made a bad batch and accidentally poisoned his customers.
She paused.
“Did Oliver show up tonight?”
“No, but he wasn’t scheduled. Oh well, more customers for me, if Aurora’s not here!”
A fritter of unease rippled through Bobbi. Could something have happened to Aurora? But the police were watching her apartment. She’ll be fine, she thought, but she couldn’t shake an odd, nagging sense of worry.
I have to find Jax, Bobbi thought.
She started to push her way through the crowd, when the man who’d been at the bar the night before grabbed her arm. “Hey, you’r
e all alone,” he leered. “Want to do a scene with me?”
“I’m looking for Jax,” she snapped. “And he wouldn’t like you laying your hands on me, trust me on this.”
A deep, rumbling growl told her that she was right.
She spun around to see Jax, shifted, on all fours, his eyes glowing bright with rage.
The man took one look at Jax and dove into the crowd. Bobbi rushed over to Jax who was crouching down to leap through the air. If he did that the man would be a goner, and Jax would end up in jail…or on the run for the rest of his life.
Frantic, Bobbi threw her arms around Jax’s thick, shaggy neck, feeling growl after growl rumbling up from his chest and through his throat. “No, Jax, don’t, please,” she pleaded. “Please turn human. Please. For me. For the love of God, Jax…”
Another growl rumbled up from Jax’s throat and Bobbi tightened her arms around his neck. For a terrifying second, she thought that maybe he’d somehow been exposed to the drug that Aurora had been peddling, that she’d lost him forever, and the thought made her sick.
Then she felt his fur melt back into his skin, and his bones shifted, and she knelt beside him, hugging his naked, shaking body. He was breathing hard, eyes still wolfen.
“He laid his hands on you,” he growled, and she knew his mind was still half animal.
“Jax. We need to go home, now,” she murmured into his ear. “Aurora isn’t even here. Jax. Take me home, now.”
“What?” he seemed to come out of his trance, turning to stare at her. “You’ll come home with me?”
He was pleading. This massive, terrifying, bad-tempered man, who could rip a human in two without breaking a sweat, was begging her to come home with him. Her heart swelled in her chest and she pressed her lips against his ear.
“I’ll come home with you. I’ll stay with you, for at least as long as I’m in town working this case,”,” she soothed him.
The Alpha Meets His Match Page 13