The Better to Eat You With: The Red Journals

by Cara Villar

  “It’s like a plush Minority Report,” I murmured, pushing past Vince and heading towards the male standing behind the chairs and overseeing everything. Fletch, a.k.a. Lisandro Duenos since he also didn’t use his real name at work, was just over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and narrow hips, his arms and legs strong and lean rather than bulky. His hair was cut short on the sides but long on top, giving him a dark sweep of a Mohawk from hairline to nape. His dark brows had a tendency to be higher on the outside, making him look a little like a Vulcan. And yes, I had teased him about that when he was little…and then again when he was older and the new Star Trek had come out.

  I have no shame.

  As I approached, lavender eyes lifted and met mine, amusement sparkling in them. A shade lighter than his sisters, Fletch had caught many a young—and old—female’s eyes with those sweet peepers, and he’d worked them for all they were worth.

  “Good Gawd, female.” He exclaimed, turning on his heel and dropping his folded arms to face me. “Tamp down the lusting, will ya?” My cheeks flushed and burned instantly, and I scowled hard at the naughty glint in his eyes. Fletch was a panther Shifter, and also an Empath. His psychic gift was more inwardly aimed than Jade’s kinetic powers. While she arranged furniture and fitted disco balls, Fletch felt out the chi of a room as a whole and made sure it was exactly what they both wanted. His position as head of security couldn’t have been more perfect. Who better to ensure bad things didn’t happen than someone who could feel every ‘bad’ emotion in his territory.

  “Could you say it any louder?” I snapped, even as my arms went around his shoulders and he lifted me off the floor in a strong, familiar hug. The scent of lemon and pomegranate assailed my olfactory senses, making my head whirl with flashes of memories of swinging a small, dark-haired boy in my arms, of teaching a recalcitrant teenager about the periodic table and a beaming young man graduating college.

  “I could say it louder, but then I might deafen the wolf and Vampire at your back.”

  He lowered me back to the floor and I leaned back to meet Fletch’s grin with one of my own, then turned to face the other two males currently bulldozing my life.

  “Vince, Felix, this is Fletch, my techy guy. Fletch, this is Vince and Felix.” I beamed with pride of my delicious techy guy.

  Fletch’s brain went a mile a minute, processed twice as fast as anyone else’s, and accumulated knowledge like I did DC sneakers. The empathic Shifter had a thing for puzzles as a kid, couldn’t get enough of the jigsaws and rubix cubes as a teen. Where other boys wanted Gameboys, Fletch wanted a Pentamix.

  “So you are the reason my brain turned to jello when I walked in Red’s house,” Felix remarked from the bank of monitors.

  “That would be me.” Fletch preened, ever the modest inventor, then he wagged his finger. “And if it was on, you shouldn’t have been in there.”

  “Exactly!” I exclaimed excitedly.

  Felix rolled his eyes and extended a hand, “Pleasure, mate.” He sounded genuinely impressed, until Fletch raised his to ward off the touch.

  “No touching. Sorry.” Fletch smiled solemnly and tapped his temple. “Can’t take the pressure.”

  Vince’s brows shot up. “You’re psychic?”

  “Empathic,” Fletch replied, and gestured to Jade, serenely leaning against the wall by the door. “Jade’s the psychic.”

  As gazes turned to her, Jade smiled innocently and pinky waved. Vince fidgeted a little, and Felix rubbed his palms against his hips. I grinned, betting both men were thinking about that handshake.

  “You’re touching Red,” Felix remarked, moving to Vince’s side, sounding possessive and threatening enough to make me grind my teeth. Even Vince arched a brow in the Vampire’s direction.

  Fletch shrugged, and before I could say anything, he replied, “I’ve been touching her my whole life. She’s as familiar to me on the psychic field as she is to my Shifter senses. You gentlemen, however, are complete strangers.”

  “Panther…” Vince’s nostrils flared, and his head tilted in that decidedly un-human way of his. “Right?”

  “Right,” Jade said, suddenly appearing at Vince’s side. The big Alpha turned his head and looked down at her as she reached up and patted his blonde head. “Good puppy.”

  “What’s this?” Felix asked, bending over a monitor that flickered through what looked like pictures of driving licenses. I tilted my head as I came to his side and tapped the screen, making the larger shots zoom out and fill the page with multiple shots.

  “That’s the LAC, legal age checker. For everyone who comes in, we take a digital shot of their driving license.” Fletch shrugged. “It picks out the ones that are false. Comes in handy for minimizing underage drinking, the occasional fight and law suits.”

  I looked over at him. “You get fights in your clubs?”

  The Shifter grinned. “Be a bit suspicious if we didn’t.”

  “True.”

  “Do you keep these on record?” Felix asked, flicking through categories and filters.

  “Everything is archived in our main server.”

  “What about multiple shots of the same license?” Felix continued, fascinated.

  “The program is facial recognition designed. Same face shows up, the new license replaces the old.”

  “What about name changes? Address? Dates of birth?”

  “The old ones are still there, just muted to take up less room. They’re permanently deleted after five years.”

  “Wow…” I grinned, straightening. “Wouldn’t the CIA love you?”

  “Yeah.” Vincent rumbled at my back. “You created these programs yourself?”

  “Sure did.” Fletch grinned, waving his hand at the whole set-up. “Improvements are made all the time. Anything that sparks my fancy, I try and create.”

  “Some more successfully than others,” Jade snorted. “His first attempt at a retinal scan blinded him for a week.”

  “Only in one eye!” Fletch protested.

  “And the palm scan that electrocuted you?” she asked, brows raised.

  Fletch looked sheepish. “How was I to know that the mother board had to be at least a half-inch beneath the pad?”

  I snickered, sliding my arms around Fletch’s waist. “I have something for you.” I said, and after a final scowl, Fletch looked down at me.

  “Oh?” he asked, his eyes big, beautiful and framed by thick dark lashes, as innocent and beguiling as his cat could be.

  I nodded and held up Natasha’s special business card. “Think you can figure this out?” Fletch’s long pianist fingers took the card from me, his thumb flicking out the USB connector one handed. Shoulda known he’d seen one before.

  “A flash card?” He asked, and then flinched when Felix shoved the little book in his face. The Shifter took the book gingerly between two fingers until Felix let go. Then he riffled through the pages. “Oooohhhh, an encrypted flash card.” Fletch’s gaze met mine and he grinned. “You brought me a challenge. Come with me.” His arm snaked around my waist and lifted me off the floor so suddenly I squeaked.

  As Fletch headed for a door on the left that I hadn’t noticed before, Vince casually plucked me from his arms with a growl, to which Fletch just grinned. Jade laughed as I wriggled free and followed Fletch, bypassing a scowling Felix.

  What? I said with a look.

  You know what, his look said back.

  I grinned.

  “Okay…” Fletch murmured, sliding into the lavish leather seat of an arcade machine setting on some kind of circular platform. Reaching out, he pulled towards him a broad curving screen attached to a high arch that disappeared behind his chair. He tapped the screen, and a blue light flared in his face.

  My mouth hanging open in awe, I breathed, “It’s so pretty.”

  Fletch grinned. “Want a closer look?” he asked, and patted his lap.

  “Red—“

  Felix’s protest was cut off when I sprang up onto the platform an
d dropped into Fletch’s lap. He scowled hard when I smiled winningly at him. He crossed his arms, uncrossed them and walked out. Vince snorted and leaned on the side of the chair to watch, as curious as I. Having never really spent long periods of time with other wolves, it was odd to find myself comparing our similarities to one as big as Vince, not just in form, but in sheer presence. Was I softening towards him?

  Nah.

  Fletch pointed to where the USB slot was, and once I’d got it in, it opened instantly. Fletch’s arms reached around me, his chin on my shoulder, and his long, elegant fingers flew across the keyboard, typing a jumble of words, letters and symbols that meant nothing to me, but had me fascinated all the same.

  After a few minutes of silence, watching boxes pop up, flash with writing, and then disappear again, Fletch slumped back with a surprised grunt, and I turned on his lap to look at him. His clear, pale purple eyes were distant, even as they glowed in the light of his monitors. He was thinking, and I always found it captivating to watch his facial expressions as his extraordinary mind worked through some enigma he was figuring out how to solve.

  “The algorithms in this are just so…” He rubbed his palm over his mouth, his eyes dancing as his mouth curved. “Complex! This was no slouch that encrypted this. This was a professional, as in world-class hacking encryption professional. I haven’t seen ciphers like this since I hacked into…” He cut off abruptly and cast Vince a sidelong glance, suspicious as the Alpha blinked innocent blue eyes right back at him. I smirked as Fletch cleared his throat and looked back the screen of running data. “Whoever did this has taken the most simple of symmetric keys and backed it up with the NASA equivalent of codes.” His smile was huge, as if I couldn’t have given him something better if I’d tried.

  “Can you…break the code?” I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. I’m sure they all added up to something really very simple, but I’d once asked Fletch why Windows firewall always clashed with my other anti-virus programs, and I ended up with a three page explanation via email. Well intended, but ultimately pointless since I didn’t understand most of it. Not that I’d told him that. I’d just smiled and said, "Yes, I got it, thank you.”

  “Hell yeah I can, but it’ll take me a couple days.” His hands curved around my waist, big, warm and familiar. “Which is good, actually. Jade wants you over for dinner. She’s got a new recipe for her lasagna she wants you to try.”

  “I’m sure I can manage to fit in at least one Duenos dinner night,” I mused. “If you throw in black forest Gateau.”

  Fletch’s eyes narrowed. “Slave driver.”

  “Harsh mistress, thank you.”

  “Bring your fan club.” He grinned, and I left playful lavender eyes to meet the fiery ice of an Alpha.

  “Fan club, eh?”

  Vince shrugged. “You have cute,” His eyes dipped to the barely-covering-anything hem of my skirt, “feet.”

  Heat suffused my cheeks. All this blushing is making me thirsty!

  “So,” Fletch said, one hand typing, his eyes on the screen. “Why do you have an encrypted flash card, sweetheart?”

  I grinned. “I’ma huntin’.”

  His lashes flickered as he glanced at me. “And the info on this USB could help you, right?” His lips, slightly on the full side, but nicely shaped, quirked at the corners. “Do you know what this…guy? Looks like?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t, but I think Felix does.” All I had was a lousy description and a scent.

  “You should check the LAC. You can put in the description and it’ll bring up every license that matches, and then you can link it to our security system and check out the recordings.”

  “Which is exactly what we did.” Jade beamed as she walked in.

  “And we got a hit, pet,” Felix added as he followed her in. His gaze swept me from head to toe and back again before he met my eyes. His jaw went rigid for a moment, and I frowned at him. “He’s going under an alias, one Adam Harris.”

  I snorted. “A name as common as muck. Any search for a name like that would have had thousands of hits.”

  “Which is why I did the description instead. A club like this? Ambrose wouldn’t be able to resist.” Felix shook his head. “He’s as much a politician as anything else.”

  I nodded in agreement. His ego would demand he be seen in the new hot spots, his image made all the more inflated by association, and Jade’s clubs were always ridiculously successful.

  “According to our records,” Jade explained, “his license is registered on our systems every other Thursday.”

  My whole body tensed as I my breath caught and I sat up straight. “And he was here last…?”

  Jade grinned. “Nearly two weeks ago.”

  My heart stopped and then pounded in my chest. Tomorrow is Thursday…

  “Why every Thursday?” Vince asked.

  “Lydia dances the main stage every other Thursday,” Jade replied.

  “Who’s Lydia?”

  “The snake Shifter,” Fletch replied, and I arched a brow at him.

  He smiled charmingly back at me.

  I rolled my eyes. Men.

  “Ambrose likes unusual things,” Felix murmured. His eyes met mine, and I saw in his gaze what he was saying. Best keep my genetic cocktail under wraps.

  “Does Lydia know Ambrose?” I asked, wondering if the snake Shifter was a possible lead.

  Jade shrugged. “No more than I do. She just sees him as a well-paying fan.”

  Damn. “So he’s just here for the entertainment? Never caused any trouble?”

  “He got a bit irate once when one of our security guys stopped his…” Fletch paused, frowning. “Bodyguards?” Jade shrugged. “They had guns. We wouldn’t let them in.”

  Jade snorted. “All very gangsta-mafia.”

  “Yeah, right.” Fletch shook his head. “They don’t bring anything with them now, and are used to the routine of being thoroughly searched. No guns, no knives, nothing now. They come in clean or they don’t come in at all.”

  I glanced at Felix, and his imperceptible nod told me this was definitely to our advantage. “Looks like we’ll be back tomorrow night.” I grinned, hopping off Fletch’s lap and heading for the door.

  The sooner we got this guy and handed him over to the council, the sooner Natasha’s death could have some form of justice. Despite the fact that I never knew the woman, Felix’s obvious grief was enough to stir even the most cold of hearts. And if that’s what Ambrose did to someone who was merely a messenger, what the hell would he do to someone who was outright trying to defy him? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. All I knew was that the sooner we caught this guy, the higher the chances were I wouldn’t ever find mutilated bodies of innocent people.

  “Ahem, Miss Red.” I stopped and turned at Jade’s voice. She crossed her arms and raised her brows, and I stiffened. I knew that look. “Don’t you have something to do before you leave?”

  Oh no.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied as primly as possible, tugging at the hem of my blazer. Fact was, I knew exactly what she was talking about.

  “You,” Jade’s grin was positively malicious, “owe me a dance.”

  She said it. She actually said. And in front of the Vampire and the Alpha too! Kill me. Kill me now.

  “A dance?” Vince asked. “You don’t like dancing, darlin’?”

  “I—”

  “She dances very well,” Jade cut in. “She used to dance professionally.”

  “Professionally?” Vince’s grin was slow and hot, with interest. “I never would have guessed.”

  I bristled. “Why not?”

  Red, seriously, do you want to dance or don’t you?

  Jade shrugged. “Think of it as payment for services rendered to aid your hunt.”

  Cow.

  “Red’s got moves that’ll leave you quite speechless,” Fletch drawled, smiling as cunningly as his sister, and no doubt well attuned to my emba
rrassment, indignation and intense reluctance. I scowled at him

  “Jade, I’m working. I really don’t think”

  “It’s been four years, Red.”

  “What has?” Felix asked.

  I covered my face with my hands, my stomach falling out at my feet.

  “Red lost a bet and now owes me a pole dance,” Jade replied, as if the concept of me dancing on a stage with a pole while doffing clothes wasn’t the massive deal I was making it out to be.

  “A bet?” Vince’s brow arched. “Explain.”

  Jade beamed. “She underestimated me. I bet her I could find a Moonshine dealer even in the middle of nowhere. Red scoffed, so I proved her wrong.”

  “Moonshine?” Felix arched a brow at me, and I tilted my chin a little higher.

  “I can’t get drunk,” I clipped. “Moonshine has an intoxicating effect.”

  “Damn, darlin’.” Vince grinned. “Moonshine kills every inhibition in you. The one and only time I did it, I ended up cuffed buck naked to the back of my lieutenant’s outhouse!” He chuckled at the memory.

  “Oh man,” Fletch laughed. “Red ended up—”

  “Fletch.”

  “—dancing topless on—“

  “Fletch!”

  “—a bar swinging her bra—”

  “Ohmygod!”

  “—over her head.”

  I could see Fletch winging his hand above his head like a cowboy about to rope some cattle through my fingers covering my burning face. My humiliation couldn’t be any more complete.

  “Topless?” Felix was grinning too; I could hear it in his voice. “And you looked so indignant when I ripped your top clean down the middle and got a peak at your bra, pet.”

  My hands dropped to my sides as everyone looked at me, and I stared at him, blinking stupidly. I take it back; it could get worse.

  “I was fighting. He,” I pointed at Felix, “was trying to undress me.”

  “Uh-huh.” Jade smirked.

  “I don’t know why I bother trying to defend myself. No one ever believes me.” I threw my hands up and spun on my heel.

  “Main stage in cleared for one song, Red,” Jade called, and I jerked to a halt.