Page 18 of Covert Affections (Shadow Agents/PSI-Ops #5)

Chapter Sixteen

Lindy

A suspicious silence settled on Teresa’s end, broken only by a muffled exhale that Lindy recognized instantly.

Teresa was smoking. It was a habit Lindy had been hoping the woman would kick, but so far, that was a no-go.

She had a feeling Teresa would cling to her cigarettes as hard as the woman’s leopard-skin shirts clung to her boobs.

“Your silence is really inspiring confidence here. You don’t know his name, do you?

” asked Lindy with a roll of her eyes, kicking off her shoes before heading through the small house to the hallway and then to her bedroom.

“This is how you end up being featured on one of those true crime podcasts Charley and I like so much.”

Teresa made a dismissive sound, punctuated by a small tapping sound that Lindy could only guess was Teresa tapping ash into something that was anything but an ashtray.

Much like the time Lindy had found her using an old set of dentures as one that had been in the bar’s lost and found box.

“Kitten, the day I worry about someone like Boat Guy being my end is the day I hang up my leather paddle.”

Lindy paused, raising an eyebrow as she slipped out of her shirt. “Don’t you mean wooden bat?”

“It’s like you don’t know me at all.” Teresa made a small, offended sound in the back of her throat, clearly feigning indignation. “Do I need to take a minute to tell you about what I can do with a leather paddle?”

“Please don’t. Teresa, I worry. That’s all,” Lindy said with a mix of annoyance and amusement.

She was fairly used to Teresa’s eccentric ways.

It had been thirteen years since Teresa had gone from being the crazy egg lady to the avenging angel.

In that time, Teresa had taken Lindy under her wing, opening her eyes to the truth—that Lindy was more than human and that the world was full of supernaturals who existed under the noses of everyday people.

Lindy went from having limited knowledge of what a succubus was to having a decent understanding. While she wasn’t a demon, in the true sense of the word, it was still hard not to see that side of herself as evil. Especially with what her succubus side was capable of.

Her heart ached at the remembered pain of what it was like coming out of the lust-filled haze of a sexual feeding to find the man she was with at the time wasn’t breathing and that his heart had stopped.

For two tense minutes, she’d thought for sure he was dead and gone and that the thing inside her that she’d been born with had turned her into a murderer.

"Speaking of things we should actually worry about, my nephew tells me you've been trying to get him to stop coming by the bar to check in while he’s on patrol each night,” Teresa said as if sensing the path Lindy’s mind had taken.

Lindy learned early in her friendship with Teresa that the woman was far more than she admitted or appeared to be.

She tried to downplay all of it, stressing that she only had a small amount of succubus in her compared to Lindy, but none of that accounted for her ability to read a situation in seconds, almost as if she had a sixth sense.

Not only that, but Teresa had an interesting way of seeming to know certain things before they happened.

"Robert and I aren’t dating anymore. He doesn’t need to go out of his way every night to come check on me.

I’m fine,” said Lindy, heading into the bathroom and starting some bath water.

It was part of her nightly ritual. Teresa would call while she was still at the bar and stay on the line for the drive home.

They’d then hang up when Lindy’s bath was fully drawn.

Another part of the nightly ritual, as of late, was Teresa doing her best to talk about Robert, her self-proclaimed nephew, as much as she could.

Lindy knew the two weren’t biologically related, but it sounded as if Teresa had been close to Robert’s family at one point, but neither spoke much of it all for her to know for sure.

Robert worked for the local sheriff’s department.

But he wasn’t human, and the sheriff’s department was only part of the truth.

Robert was older than he appeared to be.

Just like Teresa was. Lindy wasn’t sure just how much because he was vague about it.

The biggest kicker wasn’t the fact he was immortal.

No.

It was the fact he could turn into a wolf.

When he’d confided in her, telling her about his past, that he’d been a soldier who had volunteered for testing, and that was how he ended up being able to shift into a wolf, she’d thought he was joking.

When Teresa had backed his story, Lindy had sat and listened to him recount the horrors he’d been forced to endure.

Not only had the experiments been barbaric and unthinkable, reminding her greatly of ones she’d heard of Nazi scientists doing during World War II, they’d left him broken in some manner.

According to Robert, he wasn’t a perfect specimen.

At least not in the eyes of the very government that had asked him to be all he could be and more and then tortured him.

The same government that then turned around and tried to eliminate Robert and the men in his test groups, wanting to wipe any proof of their wrongdoing from the books and existence.

Robert had only been about halfway through his confession to Lindy when she’d broken down in tears, more out of anger at the people who did it to him than out of pity.

He'd never explained how he was broken or why he and the government thought as much, and she didn’t pry.

She did wonder about his safety and if men in black would swoop in under the cover of darkness and steal him away.

She’d thought the fear somewhat irrational until Teresa had let it slip that it was a worry she’d had for him too.

Evidently, that was how she came to be in the area.

To help protect him, she’d uprooted her life and moved to the area years and years ago, wanting to give him a safe haven of sorts.

Lindy had shared a tiny bit about her past—of her earliest memories—with Robert and Teresa.

Of being in a lab surrounded by men in lab coats and armed guards.

When she’d mentioned it, they’d gotten quiet and gone off for a bit to talk.

She’d overheard Robert calling his friend—Michael Gavin—giving him the run down of what she’d confessed, all while Teresa paced nervously.

Lindy had met Michael a few times. She knew very little about him other than the fact he was Canadian, could allegedly turn into a moose (the irony was not lost on her), he’d known Robert a long time, and Robert trusted him fully. That was enough for her.

When Teresa and Robert came back to her, after his call with Michael, they had fake smiles on their faces and pretended nothing was amiss.

She knew better.

Her past had rattled them.

Robert had tried to pry more information from her, but Lindy had changed the subject, wanting to know more about what it was like to shape shift.

Lindy then spent nearly a month straight asking him nonstop questions.

The man took her curiosity like a champ, never complaining or refusing to answer even the strangest of questions she’d had.

Like when she wanted to know if fleas were a worry for any kind of shifter with fur.

He’d wised up and started trading answers for sexual favors.

And then she’d gone and ruined that. Much like she ruined everything she ever touched.

“I don’t think you answered me yet on Boat Guy’s name,” said Lindy, wanting to talk about anything other than Robert. The conversation always ended up in the same spot—no place good. Teresa always found a way to bring up the topic of starting things up with Robert in the bedroom again.

That could never happen.

“I’m sure he’s got a name,” Teresa said with a grumble. “Wasn’t his name that I was interested in when I agreed to take the trip with him, if you catch my drift. I should note, he’s very into me using my leather paddle. Most men are, even the ones you think wouldn’t be.”

“You’re terrible.” Lindy chuckled as she sat on the tub's edge. Steam filled the room around her as she watched the tub fill. “Seriously though, be careful. It’s not safe to take off to sail around the world with a guy you don’t even know the name of. What if he’s dangerous?”

“Kitten, every man can be dangerous. Hell, every woman can be too. But he should be more worried about being alone on the ocean with me ,” Teresa returned, a note of truth in her voice. “I explained what we’re capable of, Lindy.”

Teresa had explained on more than one occasion just how powerful a succubus could be.

Lindy wasn’t so sure she believed her. To date, there didn’t seem to be much in the way of perks, and weaponizing lust didn’t seem very useful.

Lindy more than understood how dangerous her succubus side could be, but that had been during the act of sex itself.

Was she supposed to screw everyone who made her mad or threatened her so she could then go nutty and overfeed?

Nope.

She wouldn’t do it. Though Teresa swore up and down they could do far more than that.

“If I wanted, I could do some real damage,” said Teresa, pride in her voice.

“Boat Guy needs to be on his best behavior with me or else. Lucky for him, I was feeling generous. He got a rope burn while we were sailing, and I healed it for him. Can’t have him down and out…

yet . Not until I’ve gotten what I need from him. ”

Teresa had stressed time and time again that Lindy’s “gift” could be channeled into something special—like healing. Lindy didn’t believe her. To date, for Lindy, it had only been a source of pain and death.

“I worry. That’s all,” said Lindy softly.

“Ah, this is nothing really compared to the time, years, and years ago, that I spent a month in Reno with a guy, whose name I didn’t know at the time.

But I’m pretty sure that we ended up at an all-night chapel in Vegas during it all.

Whole thing is a little fuzzy. You know, he and I never did figure out if we’re married or not.

Probably not, but you never know. If we are, I sure hope it’s an open marriage seeing as how I was just paddling Boat Guy’s bottom a few hours ago.

I’m sure he’d understand. Sometimes, you do what you gotta do. ”

Lindy groaned.

“I blame Sweet Cheeks’s stash. He has great taste in women and cannabis.”

There was so much to unpack there that Lindy wasn’t even sure where to begin. She was surprised Teresa had never told her about Reno and the all-night chapel before. They were incredibly close. Why keep that from her?

Then again, Lindy hadn’t been totally honest with Teresa as of late. She was struggling with her darkness, but if Teresa learned the truth, she’d show up and do something drastic like hogtie Lindy to Robert.

“Are you telling me you’re married to the guy with the gross omelet order?

” Lindy asked, having heard Teresa talk about Sweet Cheeks more than once over the years.

Lindy had yet to ever meet the infamous Sweet Cheeks, but if he was anything like Teresa, he was a handful.

She kind of feared the day they were both in the same area at the same time.

It would surely end with someone needing bail money.

Teresa balked audibly. “I’m telling you that I may or may not have ended up at an all-night wedding chapel in Vegas. I can’t be expected to know if that means I’m married to the man or not.”

That was a yes without saying the word. Lindy shook her head. “Honestly, what am I going to do with you?”

“Give me grandbabies, or as close as I’m ever getting to them,” Teresa said at breakneck speed. “I’m sure I’d settle down some if I had grandbabies.”

“Not happening.” Lindy’s ovaries winced at the idea of reproducing. “Bug Robert for some, and don’t you dare say you’re hoping the two of us have babies together.”

From everything Robert and Teresa had ever told her about the supernatural, you could only have children with your mate.

And she and Robert were not mates. The last thing Lindy wanted to do was open the door for Teresa to hound her more about resuming her sexual relationship with Robert.

As his honorary aunt, you’d think she’d be against him doing the deed.

Nope.

She was basically his wingman.

Lindy’s succubus side had gone too long between feedings and spent most of its time trying to convince her to sleep with every man she crossed paths with. Lindy spent more time trying to keep hold of it and keep it locked down than she did on anything else in her life.

“Ha, I know you and Robert ain’t gonna ever start popping out little ones. I don’t push him at you for that reason,” Teresa said, finally admitting she did, in fact, shove Robert at her all the time.

Lindy thought harder about Teresa’s comment about giving her grandbabies.

If she wasn’t talking about doing it with Robert, did that mean she saw Lindy as a daughter?

The idea left happiness spreading through Lindy.

In truth, Teresa had filled a void in her life and felt more like a mother to her than anyone ever had.

“You need to feed the beast, Kitten,” stressed Teresa.

“I’ve got a drop-in-the-bucket amount of succubus in me compared to you, and I know damn well how famished I get between feedings.

I also know you ain’t been seeing to its needs.

That’s dangerous, Lindy. I told you before you’re different.

A mix of more than one thing. A lot more, and that’s not something that happens naturally. ”

Lindy wasn’t sure she liked the direction the conversation was going. She shut off the bathwater and stood. “I know you’re worried about me. I’m fine. I promise.”

“Uh-huh,” Teresa responded before pausing. “Everything lined up for that man-meat market thing you got planned for Charley?”

“It’s a job fair to find Charley some help at the rescue,” replied Lindy, biting back a smile. The event would hopefully end up being filled with hot dudes, all ready and willing to do manual labor.

Yum.

“Oh, tell me more,” said Teresa with a laugh. “And get me some pictures. Never can have too many photos of hot men.”