Secret Maneuvers

by Jessie Lane

  So, in essence, here she is. Not good enough for her mama’s side of the family and considered an abomination by her father’s side. She can’t forget that she has to pretend to be human, so they won’t catch on to what a freak she is, either. Sometimes life seems to be built like a cement trampoline; there’s no give and wherever she lands, it’s going to hurt like hell.

  The one thing that her mother and uncles have beaten into her brain, though, is that her father had many enemies. All of whom would love to kill her if they ever find out about her existence. Because of that, she’s been isolated from the world growing up until she can, without a doubt, control her abilities. Kept safely away from any and all supernaturals by living out in the country, on the outskirts of the small town named River Bend which is barely a blip on the map of North Carolina.

  If her mother ever discovers what has happened today, she’ll flip her freakin’ wig and never let her out of the house again. Her missing Uncle Owen’s voice rings through her mind.

  “To stay hidden is to stay safe, Jenna. To stay alive.”

  Today has been way too close of a call.

  “O’Conner, you ready?”

  Jenna’s head snaps up at Captain Nelson’s voice. “Yes, sir, let’s roll.” With a nod of his head, he strolls away and climbs into his SUV. As they roll through the tree-lined streets of Wilmington, Jenna watches her surroundings with excitement. She’s spent way too long trying to get out of the small town she’s been sequestered in. Now that she is finally out, she isn’t about to let some flea-brained mutt or kitty, scare her out of it.

  Taking a long whiff of the azalea aroma that is filling the air, Jenna pulls in and parks next to the Captain’s SUV at a bar named Beat Street. A rookie could have figured out that with a name like that, this is a bar that caters towards the boys in blue. Sliding off her bike, she watches as Nelson unlocks and opens his rear door.

  “Throw your bag back here, since I’m guessing your duty weapon is in there. That way you won’t have to worry about it being unsecure.”

  “Thanks, Captain.” She tosses her bag in and follows the man into the bar where the rest of her new team already sits around two round tables they’ve pulled together. As they enter, the entire lot of them yell and cheer her name while Kent bellows with his sugary, southern, North Carolina drawl, “Annie Oakley’s here, y'all!” Sauntering up to the table, she scratches her eyebrow with her middle finger in Kent’s direction as he pats the empty seat next to him, laughing at the gesture.

  A round of boilermakers and additional beers are delivered to the table by the young, pretty waitress. Captain Nelson holds up one of his hands for silence while holding the boilermaker in his other hand. “To O’Conner! For a hell of a first day on the job and for making you slackers look like little girls with guns! Throw ‘em back, boys!”

  The shots are demolished and a few of the guys choke as the burning liquor goes down their throats. Jenna revels in the hot liquid sliding down and warming the muscles in her belly. Tonight is going to be loads of fun as she drinks these guys under the table. Another perk of her biology is a super high metabolism. It takes almost twice as much as these guys for her to get any semblance of drunk.

  Kent waives to the waitress while he hollers the next round of boilermakers are on him and then winks at her. Jenna isn’t stupid. These guys think they can get her drunk and girly. It’s such a shame she’ll have to disappoint them because she’s going to have much more fun embarrassing the hell out of them.

  After the second round of shots, Jenna nurses her beer and decides now is an opportune time to try and get some info on the potential threat of the Alpha shifter.

  “Hey, Captain, who was that guy at the scene today?”

  “Red-haired, boy? He was some bounty hunter hired by the victim’s family to bring in our suspect. Seemed mighty disappointed we got him instead.” He smiles as her teammates cheer around them again.

  Bounty hunter, huh? Well he can just drag his nicely-shaped ass back to wherever the hell he came from.

  Whistles break out as several flashy women enter the place and sit down at the bar. In about three seconds flat the only three people left at the two tables are Nelson, Kent and Jenna. Looking back and forth between the guys she holds her hands up in mock surrender. “Don’t let little ‘ole me keep you two from flirting with the ladies. I can sit here all by myself while watching you guys make asses out of yourselves for entertainment.”

  The two men laugh at her. The Captain gives her a chin lift before he jogs over to one of the blondes at the bar. He might be pushing his mid-forties and divorced with streaks of grey at his temples, but he is still an extremely attractive man. Those three women over there might be out numbered with the eight guys surrounding them, but she’ll bet her favorite shotgun that the Captain will be taking one of them home tonight.

  Jenna swings around to look at Kent standing next to her. “What are you waiting for, Kent? They’re not getting any younger over there. Not that they actually could get younger. They look barely legal now.”

  Kent’s eyes watch her with amusement. “Maybe I want to stay here with you, Annie. So you can tell me what other remarkable tricks you’ve got.” Jenna’s body flushes at the innuendo.

  Looking at Kent now, she’s trying to figure out how the hell she could have missed the fact that he’s such a looker. He seems to be in his mid to late twenties so he’s a few years older than her. His dark-brown hair is crew cut and only enhances the strong lines of his nose, cheeks and jaw. His eyes are the darkest shade of cobalt blue that she’s ever seen, but right now they seem almost molten with something like lust. Not to mention, he looks just as enticing with his six foot frame in civilian clothes as he does in his standard issue black BDU SWAT uniform. Most importantly, he smells human. That means he isn’t a threat.

  Of course, it doesn’t matter how gorgeous the human looks, he won’t be getting into her panties. Hell, no one has gotten into her panties, yet.

  Initially it was because her family shadowed her every move, and then later, because she’s afraid of doing something stupid in the heat of the moment. Like accidentally breaking a human while she’s trying to get her groove on. That would be a tad awkward. So, in reality, she can admire the pretty packaging, but she can’t un-wrap it. Jenna is half tempted to call up the Guinness Book of Records and ask if she’s the oldest living virgin.

  “Let’s start out with basics, Kent. My name’s not Annie, it’s Jenna. Or, if you’d prefer, you can continue to call me O’Conner when we’re off duty. What’s your first name?”

  Kent leans closer to me as I sip from my beer. “Can’t tell you that, Jenna. You’ll just have to keep calling me Kent.”

  “Can’t or won’t?”

  “Both, but I have to admit that I like the way your lips smile when you say my last name. It makes me picture the other things your lips could do. I think I’m becoming kind of partial to it.”

  Jenna smiles around the opening of her beer and then takes another sip. “Why, Kent, you disgusting hound dog, I do believe you’re hitting on me.” Now, with a small, pleasant buzz in her head, she clunks her beer down on the table. Rock music starts to blare from the jukebox and they watch as some of the guys from their team are dragged on the dance floor by the scantily clad girls at the bar.

  The obnoxious chimes of a cell phone go off and she observes, out of the corner of her eye, as Kent takes his phone from his front pocket and looks at the caller ID. Looking up at her and then eyeing her empty bottle, Kent leans over to whisper in her ear. His hot breath tickles the edges of her earlobe and the hair surrounding it. “Wait right here, I’ll get you another drink.” Flashing Jenna a smoldering smile that displays his perfect white teeth, Kent heads towards the bar as he answers his phone.

  Turning her attention back to the dance floor, she sits there waiting for her next beer while watching and laughing at the guys who can shoot a weapon with deadly accuracy, but can’t swing their hips in time to the mu
sic to save their lives. Adorable, but pathetic. Really pathetic.

  As Jenna stands, subtly swinging her hips to the music, she catches a whiff of Kent’s scent getting stronger as he walks up behind her and boldly presses his chest into her back. He sets down the beers on either side of Jenna’s hands, resting them on the table in front of her before grabbing her hips with his hands so that he can press her body back into him further. Dropping her head back to rest on his shoulder, her body heats instantly to his touch and her muddled brain is trying frantically to remember why this is a very bad idea; especially when she feels the hard length of him growing and pressing into the cheeks of her backside. An image of the red-haired Alpha quickly floats through her mind. With a sudden shot of cold clarity, Jenna steps away from him and grabs her beer bottle.

  Shooting her eyes around the room, she assesses that none of their teammates saw the incident while also spying a pool table in the back room. Turning around to face a pouting Kent, she gestures her head towards the back. “Do you play pool?”

  His mouth breaks into another smoldering smile. “Hell, yeah. Let me show you how it’s done, darlin’.” Grabbing her free hand with his, he drags her back to the pool tables.

  By the time eleven o’clock rolls around, Kent and Jenna have played several games and are currently tied. Some of their teammates have drifted back to join them at the other empty tables while steadily placing a growing bet on who will beat who in their little tournament. Now, close to the end of what will be their tiebreaker game, Jenna only has two striped balls left on the table while Kent has five solid ones. As she chugs her tenth beer, or is it her twelfth—it starts with a ‘t’ she’s sure─ Kent sits halfway on a barstool in front of her.

  “How about a bet of our own, gorgeous?”

  Cocking an eyebrow, she grins. “Depends on the wager. What do you want to play for? Fifty? Hundred bucks to the winner?”

  Kent smiles like a cat looking at a cornered mouse. “Actually, I wasn’t thinking about money. I was thinking about a kiss.”

  Surprise flashes over her face. “A kiss? I think I’d rather the hundred bucks there, buddy boy.”

  “Agreed then. If you win, you get a hundred bucks. If I win, I get a kiss.”

  Holding her empty beer bottle for a minute, Jenna looks at the table, debating the odds. There is a damn fair chance she’s going to whip his ass at pool anyways. Why not sucker him for the hundred bucks to teach him a lesson? Glancing back at Kent with a confident smile she tells him, “Deal.”

  Walking to the side of the table, Jenna leans over and lines her shot up for the corner pocket. This is going to be the easiest hundred dollars she’s ever made. Too bad Kent’s pride is going to take a hit in the process. Seconds later, a chorus of cheers erupts around them as she sinks the red striped ball into the pocket.

  Walking to the opposite end of the table so that she now faces Kent on the far side where he still sits on his stool, Jenna lines up a long shot to take the blue striped ball into the far pocket. Just as her pool stick hits the cue ball, though, Jenna feels an electric tingle race up her back. Following the direction of the sensation, her widened eyes lift and look at Kent’s own startled eyes. She watches in her peripheral vision as the blue striped ball goes wildly off the mark and misses the pocket. Kent’s pupils are so dilated black that they almost encompass his entire cobalt blue iris.

  Oh shit.

  Her mama had taught her that feeling a wave of electric sensation through the body, and a person’s pupils expanding like that, can only mean one thing. Kent is a demon and he has just used some kind of telekinetic power to sabotage her shot. Cheating little bastard.

  Her heart nearly explodes out of her chest. How unlucky can one girl get? A shifter and a demon in one freaking day? This is some truly scary shit!

  Hastily setting the pool stick down, she sprints for the front of the bar leaving a startled group of co-workers calling after her. What’s worse, she has to pull her speed back so that she runs at what would be considered a fast human speed, instead of the preternatural one that she could easily let rip. She has to get the hell out of here as fast as possible. Bursting through the front door of the bar, Jenna rounds the corner and starts sprinting to her bike in the dimly lit parking lot. One moment, blessed retreat is seconds away and the next, Kent stands in front of her bike, blocking the way for Jenna to get to it. He’s moved at a speed that even her eyes couldn’t track.

  With both of his hands in the air, in an ‘I-mean-you-no-harm’ manner, she quickly slams her heels into the dirt to skid to a stop just a few feet in front of him. Kent looks as shocked as she feels. By his body language, there are no signs that he actually means her any harm, but that does little to reassure her. “Jenna, it’s okay. I’m not sure what you know, or what you think you know, but I swear that I’m an upstanding guy and you have nothing to fear from me, Darlin’.”

  “Good. Then, get out of my way, Kent, and let me leave.”

  The electric tingle travels up her spine again as she simultaneously feels an invisible nudge at the front part of her forehead. This jerk face is trying to poke around in her brain! “Stay out of my head, asshole!” She snarls. “You’re not welcome there.”

  Jenna continues to watch Kent’s startled face before she catches a semi-familiar scent on the wind along with the slight sounds of movement at her back. Turning her body slightly to the left, she back flips so that she is now a few feet further away, facing Kent and her new unwelcome party crasher. Standing in a defensive crouch, Jenna’s eyes rake over the red-headed, Alpha, bounty hunter from earlier today. Pompous little jerk thought he could sneak up on her. Jenna’s body starts to tremble slightly with rage and she realizes that she is literally just seconds from losing it out here in the middle of a public parking lot. Seconds from blowing her secrets to hell in a hand basket. Wouldn’t that just please her mother to pieces?

  The Alpha stands there coolly with an expressionless face, arms crossed over his massive chest. Shaggy hair blows in the wind as his eyes once again try to express assertiveness to her. Keeping Kent in her peripheral, she starts to assess what her chances are of ripping out of there on her own two feet and not getting caught.

  “Jesus, Jenna! Calm down already! You had to pop up on her like that, Adam?”

  So, the Alpha’s name is Adam? Well, Jenna’s mind is already thinking of the million ways she can tell the unwelcome, but undeniably hot, Adam, to go pound sand up Kent’s ass and then his own. Who cares if it isn’t anatomically possible? Adam’s eyes never move from her own, even as Kent yells at both of them. He is still trying to prove that he’s the big bad dominant shifter whom she should drop to her knees, beg for mercy, and offer her throat to in submission.

  She hopes he isn’t holding his breath for that to happen. Instead, Jenna bares her teeth to him in a silent growl. Her mama hasn’t raised her to bow to anyone and she‘ll be damned if she starts with him. Seemingly intrigued by her response, Adam finally speaks with a deep baritone voice that is graveled, sounding just shy of him growling. “Yeah, Jenna, calm down and while you’re at it, why don’t you tell us what you are exactly?” He stands there, silently gauging her reaction. “I know you’re not a vampire because you were walking around in broad daylight earlier today. Your scent hints that you’re some kind of shifter, but that doesn’t quite make sense, either, because you apparently felt Kent here trying to skim your thoughts. So would you like to enlighten us? I have to admit, I’m extremely curious.” His molten amber eyes twinkle with a challenge like this is some well-played game he’s enjoying.

  Jenna has to wonder if he will think it’s a game if she slams his head into the metal light post just a few yards away, then kicks him in the nuts while he’s down and out.

  This is bad. Very, very bad. To be caught between two men who aren’t human is a nightmare scenario. Especially, since they are two different species of Others. It would have actually been much better for Jenna if it had been two shifters or two demons
instead of this combination. The reason for that deduction is simple. If it had been two shifters, then all she would have to be on guard for are physical attacks. Such as a shifter’s abnormal strength and speed, or them changing into their animals. If she had been caught between two demons, it would have been the opposite. Instead of furry bodies or extraordinary strength, she would have been on the lookout for what their mental abilities are capable of.

  Demons aren’t exactly what humans think they are. When someone says ‘demon,’ frightened little humans think about the twisted, maniacal things mentioned in Holy texts or beings glamorized in Hollywood movies. Well, that is only a fraction of the truth.

  The beings that escaped from Hell are literal monsters that scare the bejesus out of just about anything. However, they can’t survive on the surface. The best they get is a twenty-four to seventy-two hour vacation of Biblically evil proportions before they start to disintegrate. You could say there’s something in their genetic makeup that can’t withstand the earth’s surface, but no one knows what it is that causes them to deteriorate away—and frankly, no one with a sane mind wants to know because everyone who enjoys living is better off if those things have to go back to Hell, for obvious reasons.

  However, that isn’t to say that they don’t get away with some scary shit while they are top-side. They’re evil beings to the bottom of their shriveled up, black, little hearts, so you can guess what they do while they are out. They go on killing sprees. They cause mass riots, sow the seeds for mayhem, start outbreaks of disease, and chortle gleefully over senseless destruction. Then there are the ones who violate the humans. This isn’t a thing to worry about if you’re a shifter or a vampire because frankly, they can hold their own. They have enough claws, fangs, speed and strength to protect themselves. Puny little humans, though, especially the women, not so much.