Hidden Trump (Bite Back 2) (13 page)

He laughed. “I don’t think so. Kingslund’s not one to leave you in the dark about how she feels.”

I pulled his head back from my neck and stared at him. There could be one obvious reason he knew her so well.

“Oh no,” he said. “Not me. Look.” He kissed my forehead. “I understand kin, I understand Athanate, sort of. I don’t know if my blood will be what you need. I don’t know if I’ll be suitable for kin, but you want to bite me, go right ahead. I’m a big strong wolf and we heal even quicker than Athanate.” He took a deep breath. “And if we are cross-infusing and I’m becoming part Athanate, then the sooner we learn how that will balance out, the better.”

“And to hell with the pack?”

“No, not exactly, but we’ll work something out.”

“And Altau?”

“Same thing, and I’ll be there for you.”

“Why are you there for me?” God, I hated the way I sounded sometimes. So damn needy. But I might as well get it out of the way. “Why not the girl in the photo in your living room?”

“Because she’s dead and you’re not,” he snapped. He took a deep breath. “Because you’re damn hot. Because I really, really like you when you aren’t trying to think your way up your own backside.”

Ouch.

I could handle
really like
. And I’m not beautiful, but I could take him calling me
hot
. It said in the constitution that he was entitled to an opinion. And yes, I was thinking about it too much. I felt a little seed of hope start to push its head above the ground.

Lying there, pinned beneath him, my body was trying to convince me everything would be fine. Better than fine.

Hmm. It was probably a bit soon for him, but I was ready to roll again.

“Are there really no other girls in Denver that are hot?” I teased as I trailed my fingers down his flanks.

He snorted. “Yeah, there are plenty of girls in Denver. Some of them are pretty, and some of those might be interested in me, and a few of those might be physically up to it and maybe a couple of those might be willing to risk becoming a werewolf. But they’re not hot.” He frowned in concentration. “I don’t know. Maybe I should get out more. Where would you recommend I go to meet hot, tough, pretty girls?”

“Domina’s on 8
^th
Avenue,” I said, straight-faced.

“Like I’d have any chance there.” We laughed and he squinted at me. “How come you know about Domina’s?”

“It’s not exactly a state secret, Alex. And no, I’ve never been. What about girls in your pack?”

“Shit, no! All right for some, but it feels incestuous to me. No thank you.” He looked down at me, amusement and exasperation in his face. “So…did I pass?”

I hit him. Gently. And began to lick the side of his neck.

A cell beeped and we both jumped.

“It’s not mine this time,” I crowed. If it was his turn to get called away, I was going to be as cool as he had been yesterday.

He was getting called away. I could see it as soon as he saw the caller ID. He sat up in a hurry and started talking about problems with deliveries in Salt Lake. From his side of the conversation, I could hear him mentally gearing up to go and fix the problem.

I opened his closet and looked at his work clothes. What would he look good in, apart from anything or nothing? I pulled out some alternatives and laid them on the bed. I picked out some brogues from the shoe rack that would go well. I’d leave him to choose his boxers and socks. I’m not the controlling sort, much.

I wandered into his master bathroom and got in the shower. A minute later, he joined me.

“Here less than a morning and you’re telling me what to wear,” he complained as I soaped him up with my body.

“Uh-huh.” Much more of this and he was going to be delayed. I stretched up for a kiss, but it was disappointingly brief.

“We gotta talk.”

“Hmm. Yeah, I know your idea of talk.” I smirked and grabbed his butt.

“No, seriously, Amber.” His hands stopped roving and just held me. “You’re going to think I’m crazy—”

I laughed. “I’m the bag lady who talks to people inside her head and I’m going to think you’re crazy? Wow.”

“Yes, you are. There’s not enough time to explain it now. I’ll be back on Thursday and we need you to meet with the pack as soon as possible. There’s a file out on the table in the living room. Read it. Call me. It may be just what we need to divert attention from this stuff about changing marques.”

“Okay. You have a date. I needed to talk to the alpha anyway.”

“Huh? Why?” he asked, shutting the water off.

“It’s complicated,” I said. “We’ll talk while you get dressed.”

I wrapped up in his bathrobe and lay on the bed, watching while he toweled down. Yum. It was seriously difficult to concentrate. He was completely unfazed by me watching. Peacock.

“First, let me ask you something.” I cleared my throat. He had his pants on, which helped, some. “Are there any Weres living in Denver who aren’t part of the pack?”

“No,” he said, too quickly. I waited while he made a show of choosing his socks. “Yes,” he amended. “There’s a group trying to set up. We aren’t going to let them. And you’re not supposed to know that. Is that what this is about?”

“Maybe. I’m an unofficial consultant for the Denver PD on paranormal stuff—”

“What?” He looked startled. “They don’t know—”

“One of them does.” I waved it off. “That’s an even more complicated story. But for now, take it on trust. I’ve got a police report compiled from every attack in the area that mentions big dogs or wolves. I need to discuss it with the pack. There’s something happening, and I’m afraid it means a rogue.”

Alex slipped on his jacket. “This is
not
going to go down well.” He checked his watch. “It’s going to have to keep until Thursday. I can’t just send you to talk to the alpha. Certainly not with that as an introduction. It’s going to be bad enough as it is when he smells you.”

I shrugged; another person who’s going want to tear my throat out.
Take a number
. I’d deal with it when the time came. “Thursday it is.”

I followed him down the stairs and he pulled a set of keys off a rack in the kitchen. “These are your keys,” he said simply. No conditions, no boundaries.

We wrapped around each other at the front door.

“Got your head straight now?” he asked.

“I think so.”

“I’m your kin and you’re my pack?”

I nodded. I could work with that.

He kissed my nose. Definitely a wolf thing, that.

“I’m not going to get along well with Kingslund,” he warned. “And…”

He stopped.

“Spill it, wolf.”

He sighed. “You think you’ve melted the ice queen…I don’t know.” He shook his head. That was the end of that part of the conversation.

“We’ll work something out,” I said, realizing that was actually Jen’s phrase. It was starting to be a mantra for me.

His hand was on the door when he turned. “Tara?”

I swallowed. I shouldn’t have said anything. I must seem crazy enough to people without adding her into it. “Twin sister. Stillborn.”

“And she talks to you?”

I nodded warily.

“Cool,” he said, and he was gone.

I strolled back to the kitchen to make myself some coffee.

Skylights flooded the place with light and I sat there, eyes closed and purring to myself, snorting the scent of Alex’s Blue Mountain coffee. I had a truckload of problems, but I’d find a way around them, one at a time.

Alex seemed to understand that my needs as an Athanate might be complex. Was that just because he was an all-around good guy, or the effect of Athanate changes working on him already?

And not just Alex, but Jen as well. This morning, everything seemed possible, whatever Alex said about Jen. The Athanate in me stirred in contentment, like a snake dreaming in the hot sun. Yesss.

I gave myself a little shake and took my coffee to the living room.

She was still there, on the one section of the bookshelves that was clear. I’d walked away quickly last time, not wanting to see her, trying to pretend she didn’t exist. This time, I did her the courtesy of picking her up and looking at her while I drank my coffee.

There wasn’t much I could tell from the photo. She was bronzed and raven-haired, maybe Arapaho, maybe closer to that side than me. I’d dismissed her as pretty last time, but she wasn’t; she was beautiful. And it’s hard being jealous of a dead woman.

She was dressed for the outdoors, the sun on her face and the Rockies in the background. She was laughing. I knew I would have liked her, if we’d met. And that changed it for me. I touched the photo with my fingertips. I’d learn about her. If she lived a little in my heart, she would not be dead.

Then, having made my peace with her, I got down to Alex’s file.

But my thoughts kept returning to kin, to Alex and Jen, and to my new Athanate family, David and Pia. And so to my own human family. As much as I’d kept myself distant from them, for their own safety, they’d always been true family. They’d always been a constant, something I held to when I’d worried about becoming Athanate. When I woke from another nightmare, sweating and shivering, I’d sometimes eased myself back to sleep with memories of Kath and me braiding each other’s hair, or brushing it out, singing along to the radio. And all those precious memories were now turning sour. My teeth started to clench.

I managed to finish Alex’s file before I went to pay my sister a visit.

Chapter 13

“Really, Ms. Farrell, she’s not available except by appointment.”

The receptionist was fashionably dressed, like something off the cover of a style magazine. I wondered if they had a spare receptionist in the back office who did all the work to make sure the one at the front desk never mussed her hair or broke a fingernail.

“Well, if she’s so busy, maybe she’d prefer I talk to the managing partner instead.”

“I’m afraid he’s busy too.”

“I didn’t doubt that for a moment, but I’m a PI. By closing time I can find out where he lives, what clubs he belongs to and which restaurants he goes to. If that’s what my sister wants.”

I turned and walked away. There was no chance she’d ignore that with the firm evaluating her for a partnership. It was heavy handed, but I didn’t have time to mess around.

It was a big lobby, and I hadn’t made it halfway to the door when the receptionist called me back.

“She says she can spare you five minutes.” Behind her professionally blank face, I knew she was seething. I gave her a big smile and thanked her politely.

A secretary showed me to a gloomy meeting room in the basement. I knew Kath had picked it to keep me away from everyone else at the firm. I didn’t care.

I wasn’t kept waiting long.

“How dare you come here and harass me,” she hissed as she closed the door firmly behind her.

“I’ll tell you how I dare. I’ve been talking to the Quinns this morning.”

“So?”

“What do you mean ‘so?’ You’re telling them I’m a drug addict and a whore and I’m supposed to shrug it off? Show me.” I pulled off my jacket and held out my arms. “You said you could see the needle marks. Where? And how about you call Jennifer Kingslund and tell her she uses whores. Come on, Kath, what’s the problem? Afraid she might sue for slander and win? Ruin your bid to be a partner?”

“I saw needle marks,” she said, folding her arms and lifting her chin.

“You saw I’d had a couple of blood tests. You’ve turned that into drug addiction. You saw me dancing with Kingslund and you think that means I’m a whore. Another client gave me a car in lieu of payment and that’s proof positive I’m a whore as far as you’re concerned. You’re supposed to be a lawyer. Doesn’t the word ‘proof’ mean anything to you? And whatever you think, how could you say things like that to the Quinns?”

“You left the ball with Kingslund.”

“Yeah. And I’m staying at her house. Big deal. I’m her freaking security consultant. There was a security problem at the ball.”

“No one else had any problems.”

“Because they weren’t after anyone else. Did you watch the news yesterday? See anything about people being rescued from the Nexus building? Kingslund Group employees and a police captain. Ring any bells? That was me, doing my job for Kingslund.”

She turned her back on me, trembling with anger.

Kath and I had been close until I joined the army. The job I did there being what it was, I hadn’t been able to come home often and I’d never been able to talk about what I really was. Becoming Athanate had made that immeasurably worse.

I could see that might seem to Kath like I was being distant, but her response was out of all proportion, and worse than hurtful to me.

But I had to try and stop this from escalating. It was my responsibility. I was her big sister. Surely, I could get through to her?

“Look, I understand you might feel—” I started.

“You don’t understand anything,” she shouted at me, turning back. “Not one thing. Ten years of being told to look up to you. Ten years. Yes, you sent money, like some rich cousin who can’t be bothered to visit. I looked after Mom, too. I was there for her when she needed it. Week after week, night after night, when she woke up crying. And then you come back and you can barely bother to talk to me. In two years, how often have we spoken? You’re not interested in what I went through or what I’m doing, because it’s not exciting enough for you. Not like the army,” she said sarcastically, making quote marks in the air. “Then I find out that’s all a lie.”

“It’s not a lie! Lieutenant Krantz is wrong. He can’t see my records.”

“I called the army. I’m a lawyer, whatever you think. I don’t take uncorroborated evidence. I told you. I called them and asked about secret units and special forces. They don’t even take women.”

“And what exactly made you think they’d talk to you just because you called them? The whole point of secret is that they don’t tell anyone, for God’s sake.”

We stood there glaring at each other.

There wasn’t a way forward on that one, and there was an elephant in the room I was going to have to deal with. It’d come out over a family lunch a week ago that I’d paid for Kath’s education. Mom had used it to try and reconcile us. Kath had later given me a check while suggesting I use it to go to a drug rehabilitation program, so I guess it didn’t work quite that way.