Polar Bears are Forever: Book One Supernatural Enforcers Agency

by E A Price

  He passed the missing person file to Gunner, who flicked through it.

  “We managed to retrieve his clothes, phone and wallet from the trash,” said Gunner. “So, whoever dumped him in that container must have hoped they’d be incinerated at the same time. Jessie, see what you can get from the phone.”

  He skimmed the phone across the table, and Jessie immediately picked it up and started studying it. He hesitated slightly. “Erin,” he said softly, “do you think you could get something from his wallet? A, uh, vision or something?”

  Erin ignored her heated cheeks and the interested glances of her teammates. “I’ll try, can I touch it?”

  “Sure, the crime scene techs are finished with it.”

  Gunner rose to his feet and loped around the table in easy strides. He passed her the wallet, rubbing his fingers against hers as he did. She withheld a moan and firmly clamped her legs together as she met his stormy gaze. It was woefully unfair just how much he turned her on with a slight touch and a look. At that moment, her inner nymphomaniac was practically winking at him.

  Thankfully, she was soon distracted. As soon as she clasped the wallet with both hands a vision flashed before her eyes. Their victim, James Silver, was sat at a high table in a club. He pulled out some bills and threw a couple on a waitress’ tray as she handed him a drink. He then pushed one into the waistband of her blue hotpants and leered. She gave him a suffering smile and walked away. He swigged at the drink and looked around at other women. He smirked as a tall, skinny blonde sauntered over to his table. She rubbed his arm, and he whispered in her ear, making her throw her head back, letting out a cacophony of high-pitched, fake laughter.

  Erin blinked and was surprised to find Gunner kneeling beside her. One of his large hands hovered over her shoulder, unsure whether to touch her.

  “Are you alright?” asked Avery tentatively.

  Erin gazed around at the worried faces of her teammates. “Of course.”

  “You just went so pale, and your eyes went blank…” murmured Gunner.

  She laughed lightly. “I wouldn’t know; I’ve never seen myself have a vision before.”

  “You saw something?” demanded the Directory, ignoring the disapproving look Gunner hurled at him.

  “Yes,” she told him uncertainly, “I’m not sure how helpful it is. I guess it was from the last time he used his wallet. He was at a club, and there were neon flamingos on the walls and people dancing in cages.”

  Jessie raised an eyebrow. “Strippers?”

  Erin, in spite of herself, blushed. “No, they had their clothes on, or at least they had their bikinis on. He paid for a drink, leered at the waitress and then a blonde woman came up to him. I don’t think he knew her.” She smiled self-consciously. “It’s not much help.”

  “It might be the last place he visited, and she might have been the last person to see him,” said Gunner softly. “Did you get a good look at the blonde? Would you recognize her again?”

  She nodded fervently. “Definitely.”

  Gunner stood up to his full height, towering over her. She tried to restrain herself from quivering.

  “Cutter, go to the crime scene, see if you can pick up anything and see how they’re getting on with the search. Plus, it couldn’t hurt to scare the hell out of the good people at Cinderella – just in case they’re holding something back. Jessie look into his background, see what you can find but go through his phone and get Wayne a list of his friends.” He nodded at Wayne. “I want you to talk to them, and see what they can tell you about him. Avery and I will make the death notification to the family, and we’ll check out his apartment.”

  Erin looked up at him almost coyly. “And me?”

  “I need you to look through mugshots for the blonde woman.”

  “Keep me informed,” ordered the Director.

  Everyone filed out the room, eager to get moving.

  Gunner lingered at the door and gave her a meaningful look. “We’ll talk tonight; don’t leave this building without me.”

  With that, he was gone, too quickly for her to even argue. Sneaky bear.

  Oh, well, here we go, desk duty – yay.

  *

  Erin yawned and licked at the mountain of whipped cream perilously piled onto her hot chocolate. Feeling bored of looking through photo after photo of young blonde women, she decided to take a short break and had taken refuge in the coffee shop across the street.

  Mmmm, perhaps coffee might have been a better choice. She hadn’t exactly had a lot of sleep in the past two nights – she had something much better to do – but now she was starting to feel a little weary. And the bags developing under her eyes certainly weren’t helping her self-esteem.

  Gunner didn’t look weary at all. Damn, lucky shifter. No, he’d spent half the night pleasuring her and the rest of it traipsing round a crime scene and he still looked as fresh as a daisy in his tight, muscle hugging t-shirt and jeans that looked like they’d been sprayed on…

  No, stop it, she was still annoyed with him. She knew there was a policy against teammates dating, and she had briefly thought about that before she threw herself at him, but she hadn’t really thought about how he’d feel about it. He said he didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea. But what idea was that? That they were dating? Was that wrong? Bad, troubling thoughts sought attention, and it was becoming difficult to ignore them.

  He didn’t want anyone to know about them being together because he was planning on dumping her.

  He didn’t want anyone to get the impression they were dating because it had just been a one-night stand for him, or rather, two-night stand.

  He was embarrassed by her and didn’t want people knowing that he had slept with the decidedly un-skinny, human nutjob.

  Apparently, she was good enough to have sex with, but not good enough for anyone to know about!

  She felt her blood boil but then tried to calm herself. She was thinking the worst of him, and that wasn’t fair. He deserved the benefit of the doubt. Hmmm, but how could she know that? She’d only known him for a little over a couple of weeks. For all she knew, he was a full-on horndog who regularly seduced and dumped women. And yet… she felt like she’d known him forever. That she was meant to know him. Everything felt so right and so natural when they were together. It certainly explained why she was so quick to rip off her clothes for him. Or maybe that was just the prudish part of her trying to justify the newly discovered sex maniac.

  Maybe he was just concerned about their jobs, she rationalized. Maybe he really enjoyed working with her and was worried they wouldn’t be able to if the Director knew there was something between them. Yes, yes, she liked that idea. It was so much more palatable than the alternatives.

  “Erin!”

  Ah, crap.

  Erin bit back the sigh that wanted to escape as Isis gracefully sat down in the seat opposite. She crossed her long legs and flashed a dazzling smile.

  “I’ll have my usual, Tony,” she called out to a gangly teenager behind the counter.

  To the frustration of everyone waiting to be served, the smitten Tony immediately whipped up a skinny latte for Isis. She winked at him when he placed it on the table for her, nudging Erin’s purse out the way. He looked like all his dreams had come true. Pretty mediocre dreams thought Erin grumpily.

  “So, how’s it going?” asked Isis seemingly amiably.

  “Fine,” mumbled Erin.

  “What’s that? Hot chocolate?”

  “Yes,” she hissed, a little self-conscious. She had no reason to be!

  “Good for you,” said the tigress condescendingly and patted her pancake-flat stomach. “I have to watch my weight.”

  Erin looked at her doubtfully. She bet Isis was naturally toned, and she was fortunate to have a shifter’s metabolism. Erin struggled to maintain her current, curvy shape, and even that was a little big for her taste.

  Isis leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. Her eyes were filled with fake co
ncern. “How’s it really going? I know there were a few… objections to you joining the team.”

  She prickled, even though she knew it was true. “No, it’s fine.”

  The tigress eyed her keenly. “How’s Gunner treating you?”

  Oh, very well. The things he had done to her… Erin desperately tried to ward off the rising heat threatening to reach her cheeks.

  “Fine, we get along fine. I enjoy working with him; he’s… he’s a good guy.”

  She’d almost said amazing, wonderful, the man of her dreams – but she caught herself. Nothing good could come from Isis knowing about her feelings for her boss.

  Isis nodded absently and clapped her hands together. “I’m going to get some sweetener.”

  Erin raised an eyebrow. Why didn’t she just get her lapdog Tony to fetch it? He looks like he’d do just about anything for the thrill of getting a wink from the beautiful shifter.

  Isis smirked at her, and Erin felt a small shiver of alarm. What was she up to?

  The tigress rose to her feet, to her more than a little intimidating six-foot-one in heels height, and started to walk away. She brushed past Erin, grazing her arm and Erin froze as a vision flittered in front of her eyes.

  Erin gasped and gave a lurch forward, spilling hot chocolate all over, and inside, her purse.

  Isis made an unsurprised ‘oh’ sound. “I’ll get napkins.”

  Within seconds, Isis returned and pressed a wad of napkins into her hand. Erin diligently mopped up the mess and began emptying her purse to clean everything inside.

  Unconcernedly, Isis stirred sweetener into her coffee. “Something wrong?”

  “No,” muttered Erin, her head bent to her task.

  No, nothing was wrong. Nothing at all! She’d just had a succession of visions of Gunner and Isis having sex – why the freaking hell would anything be wrong?!

  Isis must have been thinking about it when she brushed against her arm. She guessed Isis did it on purpose. A lot of psychics saw the memories closest to the surface, and Isis was probably hoping Erin would see that, that, montage, of sex. Well, Isis had lucked-out – those images were now seared into her psyche for all eternity.

  Erin tried to ignore the images of a very nude Gunner and Isis looking like they were enjoying themselves just a bit too much in her opinion. There was altogether too much screaming, moaning and groaning for all that to be okay!

  “So,” started Isis, sounding far too chipper, “is Gunner dating anyone at the moment?”

  Erin stopped and looked up into Isis’ smug, catty face.

  “No, not as far as I’m aware,” she replied in an even voice.

  Which was actually kind of true. She wasn’t sure that Gunner did actually consider them to be dating. As far as she knew, he could still consider himself to be footloose and fancy-free. Yeesh, that depressed her more than she felt comfortable admitting.

  “You probably already know that Gunner and I dated a while back.”

  “Oh? I hadn’t heard that you dated.”

  She stressed the word. She knew they’d hooked up – and sadly she now had that mental image for life – but she didn’t think it actually amounted to dating. In Jessie’s words, ‘they did the pelvic mambo until stripy bitch-face realized she wasn’t going to get a promotion out of it.’ That squirrel sure had a way with words.

  “Yeah, well, we did. And since I’m not seeing anyone at the moment, I was wondering if he wanted to hook up again.”

  Isis said it nonchalantly, but the way her eyes sharply watched Erin for a reaction were a dead giveaway. The cat was trying to get a rise out of Erin. Perhaps she was angling for a cat-fight. Well, she would be sorely disappointed.

  “Oh? Are you lonely?” asked Erin sweetly.

  Isis’ jaw tightened ever so slightly. “Not at all,” she growled before her voice turned to a husky drawl. “It’s just that Gunner is one hell of a fine, big specimen if you get my drift.”

  Of course Erin got her drift – the two eavesdropping middle-aged women from three tables over got her drift!

  Erin cocked her head to one side, ignoring her rising hackles. Everything about her wanted to scream at the female shifter to stay the hell away from her polar bear! But no, she wouldn’t do that, and not just because she wasn’t sure if he actually was her man. No, getting angry and throwing things - punching walls – was the shifter way to react. She was human, and she was going to react the human way – by calling her bluff.

  Erin plastered a huge, sickly smile on her face, pretending she’d had a marvelous idea. “Shall I talk to Gunner for you? Shall I let him know that you’re interested?”

  Isis’ eyes started turning yellow, a sign that she was annoyed and that her cat was trying to muscle in on the conversation. “No, there’s no need for that.”

  “Nonsense, I’d be happy to let Gunner know.”

  “Really, there’s no need for that,” snapped Isis, cheeks turning puce.

  Erin shrugged exaggeratedly and felt inordinately happy. Hey, it was a small win, and the tigress deserved it – she was trying to steal Gunner!

  Time to go before she managed to do anything embarrassing and spoil her – admittedly small – triumph.

  Erin got up and threw the used napkins in the trash. She then went back to the table and swept her hot chocolate sodden possessions into her purse.

  “I better go. I guess I’ll see you back at the office.”

  Isis grinned, displaying an alarming amount of straight white teeth. Her displeasure had all but evaporated, and she suddenly seemed very pleased with herself. “Yes, Erin, I’m sure you will.”

  Erin’s heart sank as she hotfooted it back to the office. That wasn’t good. Isis was far too happy and clearly up to something; Erin dreaded to think what that might be.

  She just better stay the heck away from Gunner. This inner jealous bitch was a little new to Erin, so she wasn’t entirely sure what she was capable of. But if Isis tried to get her claws into her polar bear, Erin was sure she’d find a way to teach her a lesson.

  Yep, I am human, hear me, ah, scream really loudly!

  Chapter Twelve

  Gunner gazed around the victim, James Silver’s bedroom. It was modern and sparse, decorated in white, black and chrome. Erin’s bedroom was cornflower blue. The color suited her; it was pretty against her flushed skin.

  There were dozens of pictures of family and what Gunner assumed were friends and maybe ex-girlfriends. Erin didn’t have any photos in her apartment. That thought made his bear unhappy. She deserved to be surrounded by people who loved her. Well, now she had him, and he could surround her. Would it be too much if he bought her a picture of himself for her apartment?

  Silver’s wardrobe was neat beyond compare. He’d never met a guy who had so many pairs of shoes. Erin had a grand total of six pairs of shoes. She didn’t seem to be interested in clothes. But then she looked lovely in plain, simple clothes.

  Fuck! He had to focus. Everything he did just brought him back to her, and as much as he enjoyed that, he really needed to concentrate on what he was doing.

  Gunner, Avery, and about half a dozen crime scene technicians were poking around the apartment. There were no unusual scents to be found, but it wasn’t impossible to mask scent, and those of the SEA techs were muddying up whatever was already there.

  A number of items of clothing and a suitcase appeared to have been taken, as well as his deodorant, a toothbrush and so on. It was unlikely that Silver packed the suitcase himself, given what happened to him. The theory was that whoever abducted and/or killed him packed a suitcase to make like he’d left town, and then typed out a note on his laptop to say he was leaving town. They’d already bagged the laptop.

  Whoever it was didn’t exactly do a good job. They hadn’t taken anything personal like family photos. Either they didn’t care enough to try or they had no clue as to what a person would take with them if they were leaving town forever. Honestly, it looked more like he’d gone on holiday.<
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  Silver’s parents and sisters were devastated when they learned the truth. Death notifications were brutal and the worst part of the job. Either the family broke down or they didn’t care. Gunner hated both reactions.

  He’d considered bringing Erin with him to talk to the family, but he decided against it. His bear was still a bit antsy where she was concerned. When he arrived home in the wee hours of the morning to find her gone, the beast was frantic. A million fearful thoughts raced through his mind, centering around her leaving him or being abducted. Unable to calm the bear, Gunner had allowed the shift and the bear ran all the way to her apartment to make sure she was there safe, and alone. She was. Thank heavens!

  But those moments of uncertainty still worried him, and her safety was foremost in his mind. Luckily, he’d found a way to keep her nice and safe in the SEA building for the day. She hadn’t liked it, but it was the only way he had been able to appease his animal. The only other option was to keep her glued to his side, which wasn’t exactly feasible. Appealing - yes. Feasible – no. If the two of them were going to have a long-term relationship, then they needed to find a middle ground that allowed his bear the control he needed but also meant she wouldn’t be restricted to office duties.

  Of course, that depended on her and whether she still wanted him. Fuck, she had looked mad earlier. Mad about him leaving her alone in the night and then mad about him wanting to keep their relationship private. He needed to explain it better. There just hadn’t been time. Fuck, she looked cute when she was angry – all pink cheeks, flashing eyes and heaving chest. If he weren’t so sure it would have a detrimental effect on his sex life, he would actually consider purposefully trying to annoy her.

  He needed to set things straight with her; that was for sure, and soon. But first of all he needed to decide how to handle the situation. They couldn’t date because they worked together - it was against office policy. His bear huffed and chuffed at him. So what? Screw that! He wanted Erin, and who knows, maybe they could make it work. He’d worry about her no matter what, so having her closer would actually make that easier to bear. Maybe if he threw himself on the mercy of the Director, or even better, maybe if he got Erin to throw herself on the mercy of the Director…