by PJ Friel
She narrowed her eyes at me, telling me that she knew damn well I was pushing her towards the less dangerous options. “No. I’ll take the house.”
I opened my mouth to argue and she slammed her hand over it. “The longer you argue with me, the longer it’s going to be before you get me back into bed.”
Shit. My girl played so dirty. I pulled her hand away, but held on to it. “Technically, we’ve never been to bed.”
“Technicalities aren’t going to get you laid again, smart butt.”
“Valid point.” I bit her knuckle. “Don’t damage your goods.”
Bryn shook her head at me and pulled her hand away. “You’re ridiculous.”
“You like it.”
“Shut up and do your job or you’re not getting any of my goods, damaged or otherwise.”
“So mean.”
She bared her teeth and narrowed her eyes, even as she shut the front door and locked it. One entry point secured, she spun on her heel and assumed a typical cop stance—gun held securely in both hands, torso turned to offer a smaller target.
As she moved down the hallway, I followed her even though I was almost a hundred percent certain there was no one in the house. If I was wrong, they were using magic to mask their scent. Either way, Bryn was out of her warrior princess mind if she thought I was letting her leave my sight.
CHAPTER 20
BRYN
If Trygg stood any closer to me, I’d feel his breath on the back of my neck. Even without the heavy breathing, he was making me jumpy. Looming behind me was a good way to get sucker punched in the gut.
“Why aren’t you checking the garage?” I pressed my back against the kitchen doorway and swept the room, looking for any danger.
“Because I’ve watched enough movies to know that bad things happen when you leave your wingman.”
“Okay, Maverick.” I rolled my eyes, then slid along the wall and whipped into the bathroom. Shower curtain open, bathtub empty. “Make yourself useful and check the closet.”
Trygg opened it straight on, his body blocking the opening.
“For f—argh’s sake!” I grabbed his arm and jerked him to the side. Tried to anyway. Dude was like a tank and he wasn’t moving unless he wanted to. Apparently, he’d rather take a round to the chest in this instance.
“Chill. It’s empty.” He actually patted me like I was a three-year-old who needed comforting.
“If you pat me again, I’m going to shoot your fingers off.”
“You don’t want to do that.” He held his pointer and middle fingers up, crooked them at me, and then waggled his eyebrows.
“Oh, my god. You’re like a fourteen-year-old,” I said, but I had to turn my back on him to keep from tackling him to the floor. He was ridiculously adorable when he was being silly.
“In terms of refractory periods, yes. But I have better stamina.”
If he didn’t shut up, I was going to put his boasts to the test.
“Just check that bedroom.” I nodded at the door to the right without looking. “And don’t get shot.”
He drew in a deep breath behind me. “Yes, princess.”
That nickname was like a knife in the gut. Technically, I was a princess, some pawn in an Outlander battle of royal houses—Svartalf versus Aesir. That was need-to-know information, though. And Trygg didn’t need to know.
I reached for the doorknob of the bedroom on the left. A loud bang sounded from across the hall. I jumped and spun around. “Are you kidding me?”
Trygg was once again making a giant target of himself, his big body blocking the door in a ridiculous gonna have to get through me first pose. He smiled at me over his shoulder. “Empty.”
I slapped my hand over my face. “You’re the head of security for a mob boss.”
“We have established that, yes.”
“Why aren’t you clearing the rooms with your gun?”
“Babe, you undressed me earlier. Did you see a firearm?”
“Um.” My face heated as I thought back to stripping Trygg out of his clothes in my office. “Why didn’t you say something? I have a shotgun in the trunk.”
“Because I’m lethal enough without one. Besides, there’s no one in the house except us.”
“How do you know that?”
He shrugged. “My gut.”
I scoffed. “I’ll take my thorough search over your gut any day of the week.”
“If we’re going to be partners, you need to trust my instincts.”
Partners. I squashed the little burst of excitement that word caused. It was never happening. If I wanted a partner of any kind, which I didn’t, that man wouldn’t be Trygg. He was an Outlander, working for other Outlanders, and probably friends with a whole lot more of them.
Sure, he was hot, gave great sex, was funny as heck, kind of sweet when he wanted to be, and Mordechai wasn’t dead, so he must be somewhat competent at his job, but none of that mattered.
Not even if he came to love you like he loved Caitlin?
Whoa. Not sure where that thought came from, but it didn’t matter. Who and what I was changed the way people saw me. I was the daughter of a mad scientist king and the great-granddaughter of Odin. Anyone who knew that either wanted to hack me into little bits for my father to experiment on or they wanted to protect me so they could get in good with the Allfather. Either way, I wasn’t a person. I was Outlander currency, and if I let him, Trygg would spend me.
What are you most afraid of, little Brynja?
I shook my head and focused on the job. “I’m going to clear this room. Stay out of my way.”
A tiny wince ticked across Trygg’s gorgeous face, then he tipped his head in acknowledgement and leaned against the wall, hands jammed in his pockets. Message received. Back to business.
I turned the knob and kicked open the door while keeping my body tucked against the jamb. A quick scan of the room showed it was empty, as was the closet.
“Clear,” I said.
Trygg grunted and came into the room. “Now what, princess?”
My cheek ticked. “Now I start touching things and see what I see.”
This bedroom must have been Gideon’s because it was everything I’d expect of a guy almost twenty years old. Decorations were stark, several posters on the wall. All of them displayed the same red-and-gold armored superhero in various poses.
In the corner sat a desk with a monitor and docking station, but no sign of a laptop. Gideon must have taken it with him when he left, or the cops had it.
Time to expend some energy.
I always focused on what I called hotspots—places where families typically met up and had the difficult conversations. Kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms. Those were all places that soaked in a lot of energy, both good and bad.
Strong emotions left residual energy on inanimate objects in the room and my retrocognition acted like a needle on a record player. I touched said object and the energy flowed through me manifesting in sound and visuals in my mind.
In a bedroom, the most likely place for a reading was the furniture and window frames. People loved doing that broody window stare. I brushed my fingers across Gideon’s desk and reached out with my powers.
Stress flooded over me. An image of Gideon furiously typing on his laptop about the Civil War. An assignment for a class he hated. Negative emotions always burned so much brighter and hotter on objects.
I pulled back and went to the window, but got nothing. Apparently, Gideon was less cliché than most. I glanced at the bed and shuddered. Did I really want to partake in a bunch of teenage masturbation scenes? I put it off for the moment and circled the room, touching things and getting little snippets of Gideon’s life, but nothing unusual for a teenager.
The entire time I was conscious of Trygg’s eyes following me, but having an audience was nothing new. The detectives always watched me like hawks on a scene, except for David. That’s why I enjoyed working with him, but David had no idea what I was doing when I roa
med around in a room. Trygg did.
He raised a questioning eyebrow at me and I shook my head. “Nothing yet about what might have caused Gideon to try to kill Mordechai.”
Trygg nodded, but said nothing. Probably still peeved at me over the partner thing. He’d get over it...or not. That wasn’t my concern. What did concern me was the dizziness I felt. It happened when I expended a lot of energy really quickly and after the stress and sex today, I hadn’t started out with a full tank. Gideon’s bed looked comfy, so I pushed back my dread and plopped down on it.
“Are you okay?”
Trygg started towards me and I held up my hand. “Yeah. Just a little dizzy. It’s fine. Nothing unusual.” I curled onto my side and grabbed Gideon’s pillow, burying my face into it. “Okay, Gideon, give me something to work with.”
Desire exploded in my belly and stole my breath. Suddenly, I wasn’t myself anymore.
I was Gideon and beside me sat another young man. He had wavy jet black hair, cut short and styled up off his forehead. On the man’s chin was a very distinct goatee. Two diamond shapes in the center of his chin and the bottom one extended out past the corners of his mouth. From there, it went up and almost connected with the thin mustache over his lip. He looked just like the actor in the superhero posters covering the walls.
I kissed the man and my heart hammered in my chest. Want and need warred with apprehension.
“I love you, Drew,” I whispered against his lips.
“I love you, too, G. Now strip for me. We only have a couple hours before your mom gets home and it wouldn’t be good if she walked in on us, considering she and your dad don’t know that you’re—”
“I want to tell them.” I interrupted. “But…”
“Shhh...don’t worry about that right now. Just focus on me.” He pulled my shirt over my head and reached for the button on my jeans, but I stopped him.
“I’m scared.” My cheeks heated and I ducked my chin against my chest. “Sorry. I’m being a drama queen, aren’t I?”
“Hey.” Drew released my pants and cupped my face, rubbed his nose against mine. “No, you’re not, and don’t ever apologize for telling me how you feel.”
“Will it hurt?”
“A little bit, but just at first. I promise to make it good for you.”
I nodded and swallowed hard. “Okay.”
“Gideon? Baby, we don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. We can just go hang out at my place and later, I’ll get you into the club and we’ll dance and have a good time. No pressure.”
“No! I want to have sex with you. Here. In my bed.”
I panicked and grabbed Drew’s wrists, held them tight and gazed into his brown eyes. Want and love and fear swirled inside me. He stared at me, his expression telling me without words that he was considering putting a stop to things in spite of what I said.
“Please. I love you.” I swung onto his lap, straddling him and pressing kisses all over his face.
Drew gripped my hair and pulled my face away from his, his expression serious. “I don’t need sex to know that, sweetheart. If you never want penetration, I’ll still be yours and you’ll still be mine. I love everything about you. Sex is just a tiny part of that.”
Contentment washed over me and I felt at peace with my decision. Drew loved me. No need to worry anymore.
“I was worried that you’d only love me if I had sex with you, only be with me if I was who you expected me to be.”
He kissed me softly, nuzzled my cheek. “And now you know that’s not true. No expectations. No conditions. Just love.”
“I know. Now, I know.” I pulled back and looked into his eyes. “Drew, I want you inside me, only you, but first there’s something you need to know.” My lips parted and icy breath blew from my mouth. “I’ve been keeping a secret from you…”
I gasped and staggered off the bed, trembling, tears blurring my vision. Gideon was gay and in love and he’d revealed himself to Drew, a human. Completely.
“Who. Is. Drew?” Trygg’s jaw was clenched and his hands were fisted at his sides.
“What?”
The anger on his face and accusation in his tone confused me. It was like a slap in the face after the warm, sweet love I’d just experienced as Gideon. And the trust. For a moment, I ached to go back into that vision and relive the joy and freedom of Gideon’s trust in Drew.
That would never be my life. I would never have that.
“Who the fuck is Drew? Do you have a boyfriend you neglected to tell me about?”
“No!” I scowled at Trygg, resenting the heck out of him for throwing reality in my face. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing is wrong with me. You’re the one lying in a dead guy’s bed whispering about some other guy being inside you.”
“Don’t be an idiot. That wasn’t me.”
“The words came out of your lips. Pretty sure it was you.”
Was he jealous?
The thought gave me a giddy rush before I stomped it under my boot.
“That was a vision. Sometimes, I say things out loud that I don’t realize I’m saying. In this instance, it was Gideon saying that. He was gay. Drew was his boyfriend.”
“Gay?” Trygg blinked at me, processing. “Huh. Do you think the boyfriend was our other shooter?”
“No. Drew is shorter and slimmer than that guy was.”
“Do you have a last name for Drew?”
“No. When you’re in bed with someone, you don’t generally call out their last name.” I brushed past him and walked out of the bedroom.
Somewhere in Akron was a man who loved Gideon. Was he looking for his lover or did he know already that Gideon was dead? I had no way of knowing, but maybe I could pick up some more intel in the other rooms before I ran out of juice.
“Ms. Ullman,” an unwelcome, familiar voice said from the other end of the hall. “I believe you were ordered to stay out of this investigation.”
CHAPTER 21
TRYGG
I scanned the faces of the two “FBI” berserkers, trying to figure out their play. That would decide whether I calmly walked down the hall or charged down it full force with claws and fangs out. The urge to shove Bryn back into Gideon’s room and shut the door on her overwhelmed me…and stunned me.
When had I gone from “let's fuck” to “I’ll die for you”?
Maybe somewhere around the time Bryn murmured desire-filled words to another man while I was contemplating making love to her in a dead boy’s bed. The rage that had rushed over me had actually scared me.
I’d wanted to kill whoever that Drew person was and then drag Bryn back to my rooms and wipe him from her memory using every inch of my body and every ounce of orgasm-inducing skill I’d accumulated in the past three hundred plus years.
Instead, I had to deal with these two assholes.
“We’re just here to ask Ms. Shelton a few questions about an ongoing investigation. Is she here?” Harry moved forward, smile lighting his face.
I stepped in front of Bryn. “No. We were looking for her ourselves. The door was open, so we were concerned.”
“I see.” Harry stretched out his hand. “I’m FBI Special Agent Harry Watson and this is Special Agent Grimm Harbard. You are?”
Look at Harry playing like he doesn’t already know me.
I ignored his hand, because I wasn’t an idiot. If Harry got his hands on me, he could mess with my head in a major way. His abilities were the definition of mind fuck. Instead I gave him a nod and my name to play along. “Trygg Mackenzie.”
“Now that the niceties are out of the way,” his partner growled, “what the hell are you doing at Ms. Shelton’s house?”
“None of your—”
“Bryn’s a family friend,” I interrupted, moving to block her from getting around me.
She pinched me hard and I barely held back a grunt of pain. I was so spanking her ass when I got her out of here. Jury was still out on whether I’d let her enjoy it
.
I eyed the giant standing behind Harry. The infamous Grimm. He was the leader of the berserker team that had been guarding Bryn when she’d been taken. I had heard of the man, but never actually met him until now.
Ruthless and driven were two of the nicer adjectives my friend Gunnar had used to describe him. I wasn’t impressed. If the guy tried anything, he’d discover firsthand all the nasty adjectives that described me.
“Sure she is,” Grimm scoffed. “You want to know what I think is happening here?”
Bryn ducked under my arm and stood in front of me. “Please, impress me with your skills of deduction.”
A soft chuckle from Harry drew my attention and I was surprised to see admiration in his gaze. “You heard the lady, Grimm. Impress her.”
“I don’t need to impress her,” Grimm glared at his partner, then turned the same look on us. “but I might need to arrest her.”
“For what?” Bryn bristled, hands on her hips.
“Breaking and entering,” Grimm snapped back.
“There was no breaking. The door was open,” I said. The whole argument was silly. I was almost certain that Grimm and Harry had no real credentials and were doing the same as us.
“So you say.”
“So we both say,” Bryn piped up. “And I’m saying that I closed and locked the door behind me when we came in, so what exactly are you doing inside Ms. Shelton’s house, Special Agent Harbard? Can I see your warrant?”
Oh, hell yeah. I was definitely going to let her enjoy that spanking.
“This is all you, man.” Harry backed away, hands raised when Grimm shot a glance his way.
“Thanks, partner,” Grimm said, but his tone was less growly than before.
“Hey, it was your idea to come here.”
My princess thrust her chin at Grimm like it was a blade. “Are we done?”
“Bryn...can I call you Bryn?” Grimm’s fumbling to make nice had me stifling a snigger.
“Ms. Ullman works just fine,” Bryn retorted.
Grimm smirked. “Ms. Ullman, you were ordered to leave Gideon Shelton’s case to the police. This is your last warning. Stop interfering in our investigation or we’ll bring you in on obstruction of justice charges and anything else I can throw at you. Are we clear?”