Alpha Geek

by Milly Taiden

  He rained kisses over her lips and jaw, taking her earlobe between his teeth and sucking hard. “I’ve been dreaming of fucking you against a door again.”

  Good god. The guy just didn’t stop. She let out a slow breath and cupped his face in her hands. “Soon.”

  Lying wasn’t an option. The minute they knew he was going to be fine, she’d get him naked so fast, his head would spin.

  “Not soon enough,” he growled and gave her another kiss before tearing himself away.

  She watched him hurry around his desk, his fingers tapping on keys and booting the computer system.

  “So what don’t I know?”

  “Zeke’s lab partner stole his research. I’m hacking his bank account and computer to see where he went.”

  She gasped.

  He glanced up from his computer and raised his brows. “What?”

  It dawned on her there was a lot she didn’t know about him. “You can do that?”

  He turned back to his keyboard. “Yeah. When I was in college, I worked at a big banking company that paid me to hack into their competitor’s programs to get the latest information on what they were planning or working on.”

  Her jaw dropped. “But that’s illegal.”

  He shrugged. “Tell that to a kid who needed tuition money. At the time, my parents said if I wanted to go to college, paying for it was my problem. They were hippies, so it wasn’t something they really cared about.”

  She couldn’t see Knox being part of a hippie family. He was too numbers involved, and by the looks of his office, secretly obsessed with comics and comic book movies. Nothing about him screamed flower child.

  Then again, the idea of Knox, big, geeky Knox with a tie-dye shirt and daisy crown made her snort a giggle.

  “What are you laughing at over there?”

  “I thought you could read my mind.”

  He gave a raspy laugh. “I can, but I’d rather you tell me instead of stopping this to look inside your head.”

  She glanced at the rows of bookshelves with different comic characters, memorabilia, and action figures. The whole office was like a giant toy store exploded. “You have a thing for comic book characters, I see.”

  She walked to one shelf with multiple versions of the same guy. “Who is this?”

  He raised his head and glanced at her. “Doomsday.”

  “I don’t recall hearing his name before.”

  He chuckled and continued clicking keys. “He’s not really a good guy.”

  Interesting. She continued down to another row. “Now these guys I recognize. Joker and Harley Quinn. The craziest couple ever.” She turned to him and frowned. “Why would you dedicate a full shelf to them?”

  He sighed. “Each shelf is divided by my favorite characters. At the top are collectibles. In the middle are comic books. Below are movie memorabilia.”

  The whole room looked like a collector’s dream. She rushed to the other side where she saw a figure that looked somewhat familiar. “This guy looks like Iron Man, but I can tell he’s not.”

  “No, he’s not,” he said and continued clicking.

  She slapped her hands on her hips and growled. “Well, who the hell is he?”

  Without looking up, he answered. “Sinestro.”

  She frowned. “Another bad guy?”

  “Yes.”

  “I didn’t realize you liked them so much. Whatever happened to Captain America and Thor?”

  “They’re pussies,” he growled.

  She choked on her laughter and walked back to him. “They are not! I happen to like Iron Man.”

  He shrugged, his brows low in a fierce frown as he stared at his screen. “He’s okay, but they’re Marvel. I’m a DC fan.”

  “What does that mean?”

  He stopped and glanced up at her. His eyes widened. “You’re breaking my heart here, love.”

  “Oh, cut it out. You’re lucky I know any of them. I’m not really into comic books, but that Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man is too tempting to ignore.”

  He gave a rough growl, his gaze back on the screen. “I’m warning you.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him, knowing he wasn’t even looking at her. “I don’t know what the big deal is anyway.”

  He inhaled hard. “You’re right. There is no big deal. The bad guys are the best. End of story.”

  She rolled her eyes and went to stand by him. “What are you doing now.”

  “Zeke gave me the guy’s name and address. I was able to get his personal information from his work file at the university.”

  She pulled a chair up by him. “You hacked into the school?”

  FOURTEEN

  Scarlett couldn’t believe her eyes.

  “Yeah. Then I used his direct deposit information to find out his bank. I got into the bank and I’m looking at his latest transactions. I’ll look at his credit cards next. See where they’ve been used.”

  Holy shit. If she’d wondered about his intelligence before, she didn’t any longer. Knox was really fucking smart. She glanced down his intense face to his neck, to his T-shirt. That’s when she realized it read E=MC².

  “Why are you staring at my T-shirt?” he asked, writing something on a pad before going back to clicking keys furiously.

  “I hadn’t really seen you in anything other than a dress shirt before,” she gulped.

  His bright blue eyes rooted her to the spot. Blue eyes, no longer brown. “I normally wear comic stuff. You may as well know now. As for this shirt, it was the first I grabbed. Do you know what it stands for?”

  “Energy something or other.”

  He grinned and shook his head. “E represents energy. M represents mass and C represents light.”

  “Right. Like that tells me the secrets of the universe,” she replied sarcastically. “I’m not the genius between us.”

  “All it is saying is for a specific amount of mass, if you multiply it by the speed of light squared, you get its energy equivalence.”

  She yawned. “Bored. Now tell me what you’re doing with…” she glanced at the paper next to him, “Francis Souza.” She snorted. “Seriously? His name is Francis?”

  “Yeah, goes by Frank. And I am now looking at his credit cards. He rented a car; a charge came through ten minutes ago from a gas station on I-95 down near Richmond.”

  She jumped to her feet the same time he did. “That’s hours from here.”

  He nodded, grabbed an empty duffel bag, threw the laptop on his desk into it and turned to her. “Let’s go. We don’t have time to waste.”

  She ran beside him, down the hall to one of the back entrances to the mansion. “Where are we going?”

  “I sent Nick the latest information. He should be coming down the other side of the house and meeting us outside. We have to hurry if we want to get to Francis before he reaches whoever he is planning to sell that to.”

  “We don’t know that he’s doing that, though,” she said once they reached the backyard. “And how the hell are we leaving?”

  “Yes, we do know. His phone records indicate he’s been talking to a number registered to a military general and a second number to a known black market bio weapons seller.”

  She stopped in her tracks. “You got all that while I was looking at your toys?”

  “Yes.” He stripped off his shirt, jeans, and shoes, handing them to her. “Shove this in my duffel.”

  She cleared her throat and started tossing his clothes into the bag. “As much as I love seeing you naked, I don’t think now’s the time―”

  “I got your message,” Nick interrupted. “You sure about this?”

  “He always told me he knew people in the Department of Defense, but I thought he was just talking out of his ass,” Zeke said.

  “What the hell is going on?” Scarlett snapped. She turned to Nick. “Start talking, now.”

  “When I injected Knox, I knew the possibility that he’d have more than one animal to shift into existed. He says another
has spoken to him and he’s ready to let him out.”

  “I thought you said it was bad to let him out into society. All that crap about not knowing if he would go postal and shit,” she snapped.

  Zeke cowered away from her. “Yes, but we need to get Frank before he tells anyone about my research.”

  Knox backed up until he was a good distance from them. Nick grabbed her hand. Then she watched Knox shift into a massive eagle many times the size of any she’d ever seen in the wild. His talons were the size of her face.

  “Oh, my god,” she whispered.

  “Jesus,” Nick mumbled.

  Knox’s eagle spread its wings to the tune of at least twenty feet. The damn thing was the size of a small plane.

  “Come with me,” Knox spoke into her mind. She threw the duffel over her shoulder and ran.

  “What are you doing?” Nick ran after her.

  “He needs back up. While I agree we should use his bird, someone has to go with him to neutralize the threat. I’ve done this kind of stuff with you many times, Nick.” She climbed on the eagle’s back, holding on to his neck.

  “I’m calling some guys I know in the DC area. We’ll get you back up right away. Knox got us a license plate so we’ll send someone to get him, too. In case you don’t get there fast enough.” Nick had his phone in his hand as he spoke.

  They took off, flying high and fast into the clouds. She was glad for her lioness. She dug her claws into the eagle’s feathers and it allowed her a safer hold.

  “Why didn’t you say something about the eagle before?” she asked.

  “I didn’t realize what he was. He just showed up this morning, wanting to communicate.”

  “Are there others?” she asked, her gaze on the buildings and houses that looked toy-sized.

  “Other what?”

  “You know what I mean, Knox. Don’t play dumb. Other animals that you haven’t mentioned.”

  “It’s possible. I’ve had some strange sensations, but I guess I’ll know when they decide to connect.”

  There was a long pause before she spoke. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you, Knox.”

  “Don’t―” he interrupted her.

  She closed her eyes for a second, pressing her cheek on his soft feathers. “If I hadn’t been such a coward about my feelings and stayed with you, you’d never gotten hurt.”

  “Look where we are,” he said as he soared higher into the clouds. “If I were still human, we wouldn’t be able to do this. You’d be scared to hurt me.”

  He was right, but that didn’t make her feel any better.

  FIFTEEN

  Knox didn’t like taking Scarlett into any kind of dangerous situation. By the time they arrived at Richmond, Knox had a feeling they were cutting things too closely. He landed in the back of a rental car lot. The sun was setting and so they were easily covered under the dark.

  They got a car and while she drove, he was able to hack into the GPS of the car Francis had rented and locate him.

  Scarlett dialed Nick while Knox tracked their target.

  “Nick?” Scarlett spoke into the car’s Bluetooth speaker.

  “My guys are racing to the house where Knox says the car is parked.”

  “We’ll be there in the next few minutes. What do you want us to do with him?” she asked.

  “I called in some favors in DC and was able to delay both people he’s supposed to be meeting with. You have about thirty minutes to get in, get our stuff, neutralize him, and let our guys get him.”

  Knox glanced at his mate. She might not bear his mark yet, but she was his. He worried she might get hurt. He finally understood where she was coming from when he’d been human. But he was a lot stronger than her, and he’d rather handle the guy himself than get her involved.

  “Does she really have to be there?”

  “Save it, hot stuff,” she told him. “I worked with my brother for years. I’m in charge. I’ve done this countless times and you have no clue what needs doing.”

  “She’s right,” Nick added. “Scarlett leads. You follow her orders, Knox. Don’t try to be a hero. She knows what she’s doing.”

  The house was off a dirt road. They turned off the car lights so they wouldn’t be seen. Francis’s car was parked out front and lamps inside the house were on.

  They drove to the side and parked behind a barn. His gut told him this wasn’t a good idea.

  Quietly, they walked up to the house and peeked through a window. The last thing they needed was to go in and the guy be surrounded by explosives. He inhaled. “I don’t smell anything from out here, the wind’s blowing the wrong way.”

  She turned to face him. God, she was beautiful. Her face pursed as she thought. “We have to split up so he doesn’t take off on us. I’ll take the back and you take the front.”

  He grabbed her shirt and looked her in the eyes. “Be careful.”

  She smiled and pressed a kiss to his lips. “You’re bossy but so damn hot.”

  He watched her walk away and headed for the front door. The house had one floor, so nowhere for Francis to run. He waited until he knew she was opening the door before he put pressure on the front lock and broke it, making minimal sound.

  Inside, he heard Francis talking to himself.

  He waited behind a sofa for the man to come out of the bedroom. His gaze went to the hallway. Scarlett should have come up from the back already. Suddenly, Francis came into the room, dragging Scarlett at his side.

  “Come out, don’t you think I have cameras in this place?” Francis asked, pointing a gun at Scarlett’s side. “You must think I’m really fucking stupid.”

  He stood up from behind the sofa and watched the pale, pimply man that couldn’t weigh more than a hundred ten pounds wet shove a gun deeper into his mate’s side.

  “You have something that isn’t yours,” Knox said, staring point-blank at the guy.

  He smelled the guy’s fear, but that gun helped him feel in control. He didn’t know they were shifters.

  “Yeah? So Zeke sent you two to get his serum back? Too bad. It’s mine now and I’m about to make millions by selling it to two different people.”

  Knox strode forward. “Can’t let you do that, kid.”

  “Stay right there or I’ll shoot her,” he screamed. “Don’t fuck with me. I’ll do it.”

  Knox met Scarlett’s gaze before looking at Francis again. “Then I kill you and the serum still goes with me.”

  “Over my dead fucking body!”

  Scarlett turned, swiping razor-sharp claws over his face. Francis yelled and fired one shot after another into Scarlett’s side. Knox was too far to stop it.

  Knox’s wolf pushed out, taking control. He shifted and tackled the guy, the gun hand was mangled before he got a chance to shoot more.

  In less time than it took Francis to take his last breath, he was torn limb from limb. The wolf clawed at him, bit and ripped him to bite-size pieces.

  The door burst open and Nick’s guys flowed in. Knox changed to his human self, picked up a bloodied Scarlett and carried her out. “What do I do?”

  She winced in pain. “I need to shift.”

  He saw her struggle to get into her lioness, but once she did, she slumped over and passed out. Nick called in more favors and got them a helicopter to take them home, along with the serums.

  SIXTEEN

  Scarlett sat up in bed and watched Shani bring her a tray with soup. “You know, I can eat fine. I can even walk if you all would stop babying me.”

  Shani grinned. “Shush. Knox is beside himself that he let you get shot.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Newsflash. I did that on purpose. I just didn’t expect the asshole to empty the damn clip in me.”

  Shani flinched. “I know. I’ve never seen you need so much recuperating sleep before. You were out for three days straight.”

  She didn’t like thinking about it, but that dickwad Francis had hit some vital organs when he shot her. Luckily, she could shift
into her lioness or she definitely would’ve died.

  “How’s Nick?” she asked, knowing her brother better than anyone. He was probably holding himself accountable for the fact his men weren’t there when she needed them.

  Shani grimaced. “He’ll be okay. He just needs time to see you’ll be fine.”

  “I already am. If they would stop treating me like I’m going to break, I could get up and walk around and find out what’s going on with Knox’s tests.”

  Shani widened her eyes. “Oh! Yes. So apparently, Zeke hasn’t found anything to say that he’s going to go postal or on a killing spree with dual animals inside him.”

  Good. She already knew that, but it was nice to hear the words. Maybe now he’d get naked and they could break a bed or two. The mansion had enough of them that it would take a while to go through every room.

  “I see your smile.” Shani laughed. “I’m going to get Knox, and then Nick and I have to go home.” She winked at Scarlett. “Have fun.”

  * * *

  Scarlett didn’t realize she’d dozed off. She woke to Knox sitting beside her, with his laptop. “What are you doing?”

  He raised his gaze from the computer. “Making sure the people meeting up with Francis didn’t have anything to go after.”

  She yawned and sat up. “Hacking stuff again, huh?”

  He grinned. “Yes.”

  She glanced around the bedroom and raised her brows. “Your bedroom, I presume?”

  “That’s right. I didn’t want you far from me.” He closed his laptop and set it on the bedside table next to him. “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m fine, Knox.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him on to the bed where she kissed him. “How are you?”

  “Fine, now that you’re awake.” He cupped her face in his hands. “I’ll die if something happens to you.”

  “Come here,” she said and made him get under the covers with her. She leaned into his side and let him hold her. She could think of a time not long ago that she would have laughed at the idea of Knox being in bed with her. “Nothing will happen to me.”