by Lauren Wood
Immediately, she doubled over. “Can’t breathe,” she wheezed.
“Shit. Ms. Schmidt? Tara?” He put an arm around her and led her to the chair. “I need you to breathe.”
She clutched at his clothes, and she started to hyperventilate. “Okay,” he said as he held her. “We’re going to the clinic. Hold on. It’s right next door. Can you walk that far?”
She nodded, and he half carried her to the clinic next door. “Dr. Gratsky,” he yelled. “Dr. Gratsky!”
The doctor rolled down from the bedroom upstairs and opened the door. “Come in,” he waved his hand. “Come in. Jesus, Brent. What the hell did you do to her?”
“Me?” Brent frowned as Tara practically pooled into the chair. “I didn’t do anything. I was questioning her, and then she freaked out.”
“She’s not freaking out,” Gratsky said as he looked her over. “She’s having a panic attack. Leave.”
“Leave? I can’t leave. She’s a suspect,” Brent argued.
“Out.” Gratsky ordered. “You can watch from the door, but it’s clear that you’re upsetting her.”
Brent opened his mouth to state his case, but Gratsky pointed to the door. Slightly concerned, Brent slipped out the door. While he waited, he pulled out his phone.
“Callie? It’s Brent. I know it’s late, but I need you to look at that file that you sent me.” He tapped his feet impatiently. “Is there anything in there about her being accused of a crime?”
“No. No crimes, boss.”
He tapped his feet. “Nothing about jail or prison or interrogation?”
“No. Wait, hang on. It’s not a crime she committed, but she was locked inside a room for three days.”
“What?” Brent growled. He suddenly felt furious that someone locked her up.
“Yeah.” He could hear the sleep in Callie’s voice. “When she was seventeen, she had a boyfriend that went a bit crazy. I guess he decided she wasn’t allowed to leave for college. Anyways, her aunt called the police, and they found her quickly enough.”
“Three days is not quickly enough,” Brent hissed.
There was silence on the other end. Finally, Callie cleared her voice. “Anything else, boss?”
“No. Go back to sleep. I’m sorry I woke up.” He hung up the phone and closed his eyes. He was the biggest dick.
Well, now what the hell was he supposed to do? Every indication he had that she was nervous and guilty was only because she was having flashbacks of being kidnapped.
“Way to go, Jenson,” he muttered.
The door opened, and Brent looked up. Gratsky glared at him. “Want to explain why you gave the human a panic attack?”
“I was questioning her about an incident,” Brent admitted. “How was I supposed to know that it would cause a panic attack? Believe me, I could have gone a lot harder on her.”
“Well, I had to give her a sedative, and the clinic is full. So you’re going to have to find a place for her to sleep it off.”
“Great,” Brent murmured. He followed Gratsky into the clinic and found Tara quietly lounging in the chair.
“Ms. Schmidt?” he asked. She smiled at him. “Tara?”
She leaned forward. “You’re so sexy.” She practically flowed in his arms.
He couldn’t help but smile as he lifted her. “Okay. Let’s find you a place to stay tonight.”
She nuzzled up against his neck. “So sleepy.”
“Yup.” He glanced at the doctor. “Are you sure she’s going to be okay?”
Gratsky nodded. “Yeah. Have her stop by in the morning, and I’ll check her over. She’ll just sleep it off.”
Brent cleared his throat as the woman’s hand began to wander. “Okay.” He laughed uncomfortably and pushed her hand away. “Okay. The sooner we find you a bed, the better.”
He couldn’t help but react to her body as she pressed against him. He wrapped his arm around her and led her across the parking lot back to the condo building. The receptionist’s eyes widened. “Mr. Jenson?”
“Hi Lauren. Any chance the guest apartment is open?”
She frowned and shook her head. “I’m afraid not. Lynette’s cousin is staying in there.”
“Great. Okay.” Brent cocked his head. “I guess I’m sleeping on the couch tonight.”
Lauren frowned. “Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. She got a tranquilizer. Not from me. From Dr. Gratsky. She had a panic attack. My fault. Anyways, if you could keep this quiet, I’d appreciate it.”
She nodded. “I’m not seeing anything,” she said with a smile.
“Thanks.”
Tara giggled. “She’s pretty. Can she join us?”
“Oh God. Good night Lauren,” Brent muttered. He walked Tara to the elevator and held his breath as the doors open. Alone, she immediately wrapped her arms around him.
“Have I told you how sexy you are?”
Brent began to sweat as he grabbed her hands. “You have. And you’re quite sexy yourself. But this can’t happen.”
“Because you think I built your little tunnel?” she whispered. “Because I think that’s hot.”
He moaned. “Okay, that is certainly at the top of my list. But you know what’s even higher?”
“Hmm?”
“The fact that you are under the influence of a drug.” He cupped her chin. “And I want you to be completely sober when I taste you.”
She whimpered, and he sent up a prayer when the door finally opened. He helped her to the condo, and then to his bedroom. “Your place is so nice,” she whispered.
“Thank you. Easy,” he said as he lowered her onto the bed. She kept her hands wrapped around him, and it took all of his control not to topple over top of her. She had nothing but lust in her eyes.
“Baby,” he muttered. “I can’t. Not when you’re like this.”
But he didn’t have to worry. Her hands loosened, and she fell back on the pillow, already sleeping.
He took a moment to study her. She looked like an angel as she curled up in his bed.
She looked like she belonged.
But more importantly, she didn’t look like someone who was trying to discover all of their secrets.
Or maybe she was right where she wanted to be.
He couldn’t turn the suspicions off. And as he sat up and stared at her, he realized that he wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight.
***
Tara woke up with a dry mouth and an uneasy feeling. She stretched her hand out for a moment and smiled when the silk sheets caressed her skin.
Wait a minute. I do not have silk sheets.
She raised her head and blinked several times. As her vision cleared, she could see that the bedroom did not belong to her. The room alone was as big as her whole apartment, and the windows stretched from ceiling to floor. It was clear from the view that she was high up. As her brain struggled to make sense of everything, her eyes landed on the man lounging in the door.
And suddenly, her memories of last night events came rushing back.
The interrogation. The panic attack. The clinic.
The sexy flirting.
She winced. How embarrassing.
Still, it was clear that they were both fully dressed, and from the irritated look on his face, he didn’t get much sleep. She slowly pushed herself up on her arms.
“Good morning,” he said sarcastically. “Go ahead and take a shower. I’ll make some breakfast, and then you have a follow up appointment with Dr. Gratsky.”
Christ. Apparently, she was still a prisoner. She sat up and tried to do something with her hair. “Wait a minute,” she rasped. She reddened and cleared her throat. “Are you going to let me go?”
“No.”
Her eyes widened. “Why the hell not? They only thing you have is a video of me wandering around the woods. That’s not enough to keep me here!”
“I’m the head of security, and I think it is enough. The tunnel into our territory took work and planning. I’
m treating it as a large threat, and you are the only lead we have. I’m not letting you go, Ms. Schmidt.”
She blew out her breath in frustration. “Okay, but I have a job. And I have bills to pay. If I miss even one shift, I’ll get behind. I know that you can’t possibly understand living paycheck to paycheck, but you have to let me work. Or are you so cold that you’d force me into financial ruin even if I were innocent?”
“If you’re innocent, I’ll pay for your time here,” he said quietly.
“And if I’m not?”
“You won’t need to worry about paying your bills.”
A shudder of fear coursed through her. She scrambled off the bed. “Okay, but I could lose my job if I miss too many shifts. Come on, I have shift tonight. Surely you’ve got enough people that can watch me so that I can work and you can still keep an eye on me. Please.” She felt desperate as she pleaded with him. She couldn’t afford to fall anymore behind in her rent. She’d be homeless.
Brent stared at her. “Shower. Breakfast. Clinic. I’ll consider your request,” he said finally.
She had a feeling it was more than he normally gave. “Thank you.” She paused for a second. “And thank you for taking me to the clinic and getting me help. And not taking advantage of me last night.” Not that she expected she was his type anyways. He probably had slim, beautiful, and rich women hanging off his arm.
She saw a flicker of something pass through his eyes. Then it was gone. “Shower,” he repeated.
“Right. Shower. I guess I still smell like cigarettes and alcohol.” She backed into the bathroom nervously, and finally, she shut the door and sagged against it.
How in the world had her life come to this? One moment, she was looking for love, and the next, she was a prisoner to the sexiest man she’d ever laid eyes on.
Tara could sense the raw power of him that lingered just beneath the surface. She didn’t know much about the shifter community, but she had a feeling that they were brutal when it came to protecting their own.
And for some reason, they saw her as a threat.
Not good at all.
Chapter Three
After breakfast, Brent took her to the clinic. Handing her over to Gratsky for a bit, he met up with Micah and Jackson in the meeting room to update them. They were both smiling and cheery as he walked in. He felt a streak of irritation. He knew that they were taking this just as seriously as he did, but they got to relieve a little stress last night. For him, the stress just piled a little bit higher on his plate.
“Morning, Brent,” Micah said.
He growled in returned, and the men cocked their heads. “Not a pleasant night last night?” Jackson asked.
“Rather than answering my questions, the suspect had a panic attack. I had to take her to Gratsky, and he plied her with a sedative. She was useless for the rest of the night,” he grumbled. “And then I had to watch her sleep because I was afraid that it was a ruse to escape.”
“What the hell did you do to her to cause her to have a panic attack?” Micah asked with a wry smile.
“Nothing.” Brent sighed. “Apparently, when she was a teenager, her boyfriend went a little berserk and locked her in a room for three days. I guess when I locked her in here, she had some nasty flashbacks.”
“Jesus. You sure can woo them over, can’t you,” Jackson said in disbelief.
“I’m not trying to woo her over,” he snapped. “I’m trying to get some information. She is the only lead we have, and I’m not going to just let her walk free until I know what she was doing there.”
“And have you found anything?” Micah asked.
Brent swept a hand through his hair. “As far as her co-workers are concerned, her story checks out. She’d been dating a guy named Matthew for a few weeks, and he invited her out to the park. She told them the same story the next day. That she heard him calling for her, but she never saw him. I’ve gone through her phone records. Everything she’s texted backs her story, but that doesn’t mean it’s true. It could just be an elaborate ruse.”
“Do you have anything on this Matthew guy?”
Brent shook his head. “I’ve got a few names in the database, and I’m going to show her their pictures, but I doubt she’d date any of them.” He opened the file folder and passed them out.
Jackson whistled. “Well, if she dated any of them, I’d be surprised. Two of them are old enough to be her father, and one of them looks like a meth addict.”
“Yeah, she’s definitely on a different level,” Brent admitted.
A smile tugged at Micah’s lips. “So you think she’d attractive?”
“I think I’m not going to be distracted by her looks,” Brent snapped.
“And that’s why she spent the night in your bed last night? And had her hands all over you?” Jackson asked.
Brent rolled his eyes. Of course the front desk girl reported him. “Her hands were all over me because she was drugged, and she spent the night in my bed because Micah’s mother has guests in the spare condo. Just because she spent the night in my bed doesn’t mean that I spent the night in my bed.”
His two friends exchanged a look, and Brent ignored it. “I’d like to accompany you to the meeting with de’Massier this evening. I know you’re about to sign the treaty, but I find it suspicious that all of this is happening at the same time.”
Micah nodded. “We’ve discussed that. It’s not a bad idea, but I don’t want to come across as aggressive with accusations. This is a big moment for his clan and my pack, and I really don’t think he’s involved. But you’re right. We can’t ignore the timing.”
Brent nodded. “I’ve run a few scenarios, and I can’t come up with a plausible reasoning that he would be behind it. The treaty, if nothing else, makes us scrutinize him harder. If he wanted to get in and out undetected, he would have done it without the façade of wanting peace. What does make sense is that someone doesn’t want the treaty signed. And that could be any number of people.” He hesitated. He hated to bring it up, but he knew he didn’t have a choice. “And by that, I mean his people and ours.”
Micah looked up sharply. “You think we have a traitor?”
“I think you almost married someone who wanted to kill you,” Brent pointed out. “We’re a big pack, and even though we live peacefully, that doesn’t mean that everyone is trustworthy. Is it possible that someone is using Tara as a red herring? Yes. It is more plausible that they’re using a human as a messenger between the two cultures? Absolutely. I’m more inclined to believe the latter.”
“You’ve always had trust issues,” Jackson mused.
“That’s not correct at all. I stood behind Micah when he chose Stacey over Bridgette. I fought along side you when you were protecting Natalie,” Brent protested.
“You trust us. But you don’t trust anyone else,” Micah pointed out.
“It’s my job not to trust anyone,” Brent said coldly. “It’s my job to protect you two and this pack. The tunnel is proof that I’m failing my job. I won’t let my guard down again.”
“Brent,” Micah said with a frown. “You haven’t failed anyone.”
He ignored his alpha. “Before the meeting, we’ll go have drinks at Dave’s Dive.”
“You want to investigate the place?”
Brent turned his back. He didn’t want his friends to see his face when he told them the truth. “Tara has requested that I let her work. I’m keeping an eye on her,” he said in a neutral voice.
Even as he walked away, he could feel them smirking. He needed to get down to the bottom of all of this before his reputation was shattered completely.
***
Tara was careful not to stare at the three men sitting in the corner booth by the door. Micah. Jackson. Brent. Just Brent alone was an intimidating force, but the three top men of the Woodland pack together? Terrifying.
Not to mention that there were two other people stationed out the backdoor. Dave was about to have a nervous breakdown, but he didn’
t dare voice his opinion. He said that as long as the men didn’t scare away his customers, they could sit and stare at Tara all they wanted.
And Tara didn’t tell her other co-workers the truth. She kept her mouth shut and tried to pretend that tonight was just like any other night. Truthfully, she was grateful that Brent was even letting her do this.
“Hey pretty lady.”
Tara looked over and saw one of her regulars take a seat at the bar. She immediately pulled out a glass and poured him his favorite beer. “Hey Leonard. How’s it going?”
The man was pushing seventy, and Tara knew his wife had passed away almost a decade before. He was a dirty old man, but he never meant any harm, and he always joked but never touched. Tara knew Leonard just wanted some company when he got lonely.
“Still waiting for you to come home with me,” he said with a wink.
She smiled. “I’m still waiting for you to invite me,” she said teasingly.
“Any time you want!”
“That’s not an invitation,” she said as she sat the beer down. “You want your cheeseburger?”
“Yes ma’am. Extra bacon. Hold the veggies. Bunch of fries.”
“Please tell me this is the only time you eat like this,” Tara said as she rolled her eyes.
“Scouts honor,” he lied.
“Please. Our burgers alone are enough to give you a heart attack.”
“Then I’ll go die with a delicious taste in my mouth while I’m staring at the prettiest thing in this town,” he said with a large smile.
“If you think flattery is going to get you extra fries, you can guess again!” She rang up his order and moved around the bar to check on her tables. Finally, she stopped by the pack.
“Gentlemen,” she said coldly. “Can I get you anything?” Everyone had been staring at them all night. It was probably because no one wore suits in this place.
Jackson smiled. “I like the sound of that cheeseburger with extra bacon. Rare please.”
Tara nodded. “Okay. Mr. Gordon?”