Coyote's Kiss (12 page)

“You mean besides the hot sex?” she responded with a straight face.

Abilene scowled at her.

“I like Luca. He’s smart and fun. I’m not sure where our relationship is going to go from here, but I would like to find out,” she admitted. She couldn’t blame Abilene for wanting to protect her partner. If it was Cole, she would do her own interrogation.

“That’s good. Luca hasn’t really dated seriously but I can tell he really likes you,” Abilene told her. “But he is different. Have you ever dated a shifter before?”

“No, I haven’t,” she replied. “But I don’t think of Luca as a shifter first. He’s just a guy I’m interested in who happens to have that ability.”

“Okay, I was worried you were using him. Cole said you wouldn’t do that and got really pissed off when I suggested it but I had to make sure,” Abilene said.

“Using him?” Jade didn’t see where that would have come from.

“You’re a shifter behaviorist. What better way to get your research than hooking up with a shifter? Luca happens to be one and finds you attractive,” Abilene said.

Jade opened her mouth, but Abilene shook her head. “I realize it sounds stupid and insulting but I just don’t want to see Luca hurt. I spoke to Cole and the other wolf shifters. I’ll admit I didn’t know if I could believe your partner but everyone else loves you.”

She was insulted. Abilene had basically called her a slut who would sleep with Luca for her work.

“I told you not to say anything,” Zak said as he joined them. He sat next to Abilene before draping an arm over her shoulder. “Abilene really doesn’t mean any offense but thinks it’s her job to watch over Luca since his family isn’t here.”

“Luca is a grown ass man. And not only does it question my integrity but also his. I think you should trust him to know what he wants,” Jade spat.

“I agree,” Luca said as he stepped up behind her.

Jade glanced over her shoulder. He was frowning at his partner. “Like I just told Cole, no one needs to worry about what’s going on between Jade and me. I’ll take the teasing but I won’t stand for anyone grilling either of us. We’re adults.”

Jade smiled at him before offering her hand. He accepted her gesture, taking a seat beside her before lifting her fingers to his mouth and kissing them. Jade turned back to Abilene and Zak. She raised an eyebrow, daring either to comment. Zak smiled while Abilene nodded.

“Okay.” Abilene lifted both hands. “I’m sorry. I won’t say anything else. Good luck keeping Sal from butting in, though.”

Luca was in the middle of stealing a drink of her beer. He slowly lowered the bottle from his lips. “Sal?”

“He couldn’t get hold of you earlier so he called my cell. He asked me to tell you that he’ll be here tomorrow morning with the information you requested.”

“He’s coming here?” Luca sounded weird.

Jade looked over at him. Luca had paled considerably. It was all she could do not to jump up and yell. Was he embarrassed by her? Why would he have a problem with his brother meeting her?

Just as she was about to excuse herself, Luca turned and grabbed her hand. “Marry me. Let’s run away together, right now!”

“What?” she shrieked.

Zak and Abilene started to laugh loudly.

“I mean it,” Luca pleaded. “After you meet Sal you won’t want anything to do with me and my screwed-up brother. I like you and I don’t want you to be scared away.”

Completely confused, she looked from him to the others at the table. Zak was wiping tears from his eyes while Abilene grinned. She didn’t understand what was happening. “What are you talking about? Are you nuts?” How had they gone from her thinking he was ashamed to a marriage proposal?

“Okay, it’s a little soon to get married, I’ll give you that. Let’s just go away instead.” Luca was squeezing her hands.

“Umm.” She wasn’t sure what to say.

The back door opened and the rest of the group started to trickle outside. They all looked at Zak and Abilene trying to get control of themselves, back to her and Luca.

“Cody’s here,” Jamie told them. “What’d I miss?”

“Luca just proposed to Jade so they could run away together and she wouldn’t have to meet Sal,” Zak told everyone.

“What?” Cole shouted. His question was drowned out by everyone else’s mirth at what was happening.

“I’ve entered The Twilight Zone,” Jade said.

“Nah,” Jamie stated as he sat on her right. “Luca just doesn’t want his big bro to scare you away.”

Luca dropped his head onto the table and banged it a couple of times. “I knew this was too good to be true.”

Jade shared a confused look with her partner before placing her hand on the back of Luca’s neck. “Are you okay?”

He turned his head to stare up at her. “We really should go on a long vacation.”

Chapter Eight

Luca passed Jade another beer before he sat back down next to her. Once he’d explained how Sal loved to order him around and that he took his job as the elder brother too seriously, Jade stopped looking at him like he’d grown a second head or something. Okay, so he shouldn’t have actually asked her to marry him but he’d panicked. He knew his brother, and Sal would give Jade the third degree. He just wanted to spare her. Well, that and he really wanted to get laid again. If Sal scared Jade off his chances weren’t good. He hadn’t been attracted to anyone before in the way he was to Jade.

Cole was still glaring at him but Jade had relaxed against his side. He’d taken a lot of ribbing during lunch but now that they’d settled around the living room and were discussing the case, everyone had seemingly remembered what they were there for.

He glanced over at Sam who was across from him sitting against the wall. Sam hadn’t said much and that worried Luca. He was doing this for him, and now Sam was having second thoughts. Luca had overheard what Sam had said to Jade earlier, and he could understand Sam’s fear, but Luca could not leave shifters in danger.

Jade had started the meeting by telling them about the reports she’d uncovered and the agents in her office who had been killed or were missing. She wanted to look into the three shifters who might still be alive. One female fox shifter, a leopard shifter and a deer shifter. Since their bodies hadn’t been found and no one in the FBI was currently looking into their disappearances, Luca didn’t see why they shouldn’t try to find them.

“I’ll talk to the commander first thing in the morning,” Cody told them. “With all this information and what Sal is bringing us, we should be able to convince him that this is urgent.”

“Do you really think he’ll agree to look into this?” Sam spoke up for the first time.

“I do,” Cody assured him. “This is what the Coalition was founded for. To protect shifters. Yes, we police our own kind to keep humans safe, but we also need someone looking out for shifters.”

“I should have said something sooner,” Sam said quietly.

“It’s not your fault. There were enough problems to have tipped us off to look into it before. That’s in the past and we can’t change it. Now we just have to do whatever is in our power to help,” Cody told him.

Sam sighed before nodding. Luca leaned closer to Jade. “We need to look into his ex-partner. See if we can get him on our side.”

“That’s a good idea,” she whispered. “Having inside information would really help.”

“I’ll try to get Sal to contact him. My brother has pull with the agency that not even the Coalition does,” he said.

Jade grinned. “It seems like this brother might just come in handy.”

“Sure, with the investigation,” he groused. “But he treats me like I’m still sixteen. It drives me crazy. When he found out I got shot on my last assignment he flew down here to confront Zak.”

“Really?” she laughed. “I would like to have seen that. Zak doesn’t seem like the type to be intimidated by anyone.”

“He isn’t,” Luca agreed. “It was quite funny how Zak riled Sal up.” He’d been so embarrassed when Sal had yelled at Zak. Zak had shrugged it off and acted as though it didn’t matter. When Sal had found out that Zak was interested in Abilene he’d cornered Zak and given him ‘the talk’. Abilene was important to Luca so she was considered part of the family. She’d joined him several times when he’d gone home to visit and they loved her. At the time Luca had found it amusing but now that it was about to happen to him he wasn’t so happy.

“I look forward to meeting him,” Jade told him.

He groaned. She had no idea what she was in for.

“I think we’ll break into smaller teams and work each case at the same time,” Cody stated. “Right now we only have Cole and Jade’s office files but hopefully we’ll get others. So we’ll all be picking up more than one here soon.”

“How do you want us to split up?” Jamie asked.

Jamie specialized in missing persons and would be an asset. Luca would love to work with Jamie on this.

“You have the experience. Why don’t you take the FBI and ATF for your team,” Cody suggested. “Zak’s team and the wolves will take one, and mine will take the third.”

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement. Luca would get a chance to work beside Jamie and also Jade. That couldn’t have worked out any better.

“Jade, why don’t you email what you have to everyone and we can get started. We’ll work here for a couple of hours so we have even more intel to give the commander. If anyone has any resources they can call, use them. Right now it might be unofficial but I don’t think too many people will question us,” Cody ordered.

“We’ll spread out in the kitchen,” Zak said standing. “Cody, why doesn’t your group take the dining room and Jamie’s can remain here?”

Jade was already busy typing on her laptop, probably emailing her file to the others, so Luca stood. “I’ll get us some more drinks,” he offered.

As the three different units separated, Luca really had to give them credit. These agents were using their free day to start an investigation on their own in order to help others. He was glad he’d brought up his concerns.

He pushed open the kitchen door and saw that Brady and Mitch already had their computers starting up. Zak stood at the counter, filling the coffee pot. “I’ll bring some out when it’s brewed,” Zak told him.

“I’ll just grab some bottles of water for now,” Luca said. He did that, but when he turned to go back to the living room Zak had stepped in front of him.

“You doing okay?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah, sure,” Luca replied, surprised. He was fine and he wasn’t sure why Zak was asking.

“It’s a lot to deal with. You’re not even fully healed from the last assignment and now we’re taking this on. I don’t know how the others feel, but I think this is going to be a battle. The FBI isn’t just going to roll over and let us look into their agents. Even with the commander’s say. It could get dangerous,” Zak said.

“You’re probably right but I have to see this through,” Luca replied.

“Just make sure you’re careful.” Zak pointed at him.

“I already have one big brother on the way so I don’t need another,” Luca teased. He was touched that Zak cared about him but he knew how to handle himself.

“I’m going to let you comparing me to your brother go,” Zak said with a scowl.

Luca just smiled before he walked past him to join his team. Zak lightly slapped the back of his head, shocking Luca.

He passed Cody’s unit in the dining room. The area didn’t get a lot of use as far as Luca knew, but there was plenty of room for the birds of prey division.

Jamie had moved to one of the recliners and had some papers spread out in front of him. Luca passed him a bottle of water before rejoining Jade on the couch. She had kicked her shoes off and was sitting cross-legged with her laptop.

She was gorgeous, giving all her attention to whatever she was doing.

“What can I help with?” he asked.

Jamie passed him over one of the pages. “See if you can find any names in there that we might be able to contact. Preferably shifters. They’ll probably be more than willing to talk to us. Especially if they know something is going on.”

“Got it,” Luca said. He read through the report looking for names of any of the other agents who had been with Shannon Barber before she’d gone missing. He pulled out his notepad and started to work on who might be able to assist them. He’d first need to find out whether or not they were shifters. He hoped to find something important.

* * * *

Luca pulled his SUV in front of Jade’s house and peered at the small brick home. The green grass looked full and rich. The porch light was on, illuminating the white wicker furniture she had placed under the large pane of glass. The curtains were currently closed but if he lived there he would keep them open to view the glorious area.

“This is it,” Jade said before yanking the door handle to climb out.

He’d agreed to go home with her when they’d been leaving his place so he’d packed a bag with a few days’ worth of clothing and his toiletries. Now that he was there, though, he was a little nervous. She’d seen his pathetic little apartment and now he was faced with her home. From the look of the outside he could only imagine how nice the inside would be.

“Are you coming?” She peered in from the open passenger door.

“Of course,” he said and smiled. The more time he spent with her he was really starting to question what she saw in him. He was from a small town that was mainly occupied by relatives. He worked for the ATF because he enjoyed blowing shit up. He hadn’t had many friends before he’d met the Coalition guys and he was feeling just a little lacking. Jade was brilliant. Back at Zak’s house she’d easily connected two names to all the cases. She’d only read through the files Zak and Cody had but had remembered the names of the agents involved in the assignments.

Her catch had saved them all time and given them a direction to start looking in. Sam had even known one of the men and had told them how he would have seen him with his ex-partner. That concerned all of them. As glad as he was for the break in the case, Luca was feeling just a little bit self-conscience. Jade was obviously brilliant and he didn’t know how long he’d be able to hold her interest. He wanted her with every part of him, his mind, body and soul. Hell, even the coyote inside seemed to calm when he was in her presence. Luca knew that was a sign of deep trust. There was just something about Jade that he recognized had potential for turning into a serious relationship. If he didn’t mind putting his heart of the line. And he wasn’t certain if he’d be able to. He’d never been in love before.