Page 56 of Covert Affections (Shadow Agents/PSI-Ops #5)

Jesse fucking hated that she was out there with the other male, but he stayed the course, remaining by the window. Mist from the rain splattered on him, and he hoped it would do something to lessen the smell of body spray all over him.

“You’re not answering your cell, and I went by the bar to check on you, and you weren’t there.

I got worried,” the wolf-shifter replied.

“I found your phone out back in a puddle, near the dumpster. You never go anywhere without it, and I’m positive its yours, seeing as how I was over here the night you decided to glue red rhinestones to the case. ”

Jesse’s jaw set as his imagination ran wild with thoughts of what the shifter and Lindy had done after she was finished gluing things to her phone. From the suggestive note in the man’s voice, it was more than merely talking or hanging out.

“I think I smelled blood back by the dumpster too, Lindy,” said the male. “Did I?”

“Yes. From my hand,” she responded quickly. “You saw the cut, remember?”

“What I smelled wasn’t your blood,” Robert said, his voice low and tight. “It’s been raining hard, but I’m pretty sure I caught faint traces of blood from a cat. A cougar, to be exact.”

The fucker was good, Jesse would give him that much.

“Really?” asked Lindy, feigning shock. “There was mountain lion that close to the bar? I bet it was hungry and smelled food in the trash. Poor thing. I should leave a bowl of…”

“Don’t even think about it,” warned Robert. “They’re not something you want to attract.”

“Hey. I happen to think they’re pretty,” argued Lindy.

Pretty? She thinks I’m pretty?

Jesse worried his jawline, trying to figure out when it was that he’d gone from an alpha male shifter to a damn house cat who was pretty and fluffy.

At some point, he’d become a mockery of himself, and, oddly, it bothered him a hell of a lot less than it should, considering Lindy was the one doing it.

“No offense, Linds, but did you bathe in your body spray?” questioned the wolf-shifter.

“Spilled it,” said Lindy quickly. “I was cleaning it up when you came in.”

“Sorry,” Robert said. “I’m tracking dirt and mud in, but… I needed to see with my own eyes that you’re all right. It’s been a hell of a night.”

“Oh God, is it Charley?” she asked, worry coating her every word. “I was going to call to check on her, but then I found Fluffy out back, and I panicked.”

The smell of his mate’s fear struck Jesse in the solar plex. He nearly rushed out of the room and straight to her, to hell with the other male.

“Fluffy?” asked Robert.

“Stray cat out behind the bar,” said Lindy, conveniently neglecting to mention Fluffy was a mountain lion.

“Lindy, did you bring home a stray cat?” asked Robert.

“I would never. I’m banned from pet ownership, remember?” Her response was filled with mischief and misdirection.

Jesse made a mental note to remember his wife was fine lying under pressure and had a unique ability to talk around the truth. Adorably cute now that she was doing it to another man, but it wouldn’t be so cute if she was doing it to him.

“Yes,” said Robert. “But I know you’re not much of a rule follower. Listen, I can’t say I’m happy you have a cat in the house, because I’m a wolf, but I get we’re not a couple anymore. I don’t get a say in the matter.”

That’s fucking right!

Jesse clenched his fists. The man needed to know he and Lindy would never be a couple again. That she was Jesse’s. Period.

“But do us all a favor and remember to feed and water it, all right?” Robert added.

“Oh, I don’t think Fluffy is the kind of cat who would let me forget.

” Lindy let out a small laugh that faded fast. “What’s going on?

The truth, because I know you, Robert. Something is bothering you, and it’s not the smell of a cat.

Talk to me. We may not be a couple anymore, but you’re one of my best friends. That will never change.”

Yep. I’m so going to kill the man.

Jesse stuck his head out the window, letting the rain fall on him in hopes it would calm his temper. It didn’t. When he pulled his head back in, rain dripped from his hair to the floor.

“Those bodies in the woods that we found,” Robert said, his voice trailing off for a moment.

“They were mutilated, Lindy. I’m positive it was shifters who did it.

They played with those women before they killed them.

I’ll need to wait for the reports to come back from the medical examiner, but I think the women were sexually assaulted and then torn apart, limb by limb.

A few parts are…missing. They might have eaten them. ”

Jesse jerked back, his mind reeling with the knowledge of who had committed the atrocities. The hybrids. He should have been out there hunting for the bastards. Not here, shacked up with Lindy. What if by being here, he led the hybrids right to her?

He shouldn’t be here. Shouldn’t be anywhere around her.

Between The Corporation and the hybrids, he was a target, and being near Lindy painted one on her as well.

One second Jesse was standing in human form, and the next, he was shifting into cat form and leaping out the window and running in the direction of the crime scene.

There was no way in hell he was letting the hybrids or The Corporation anywhere near his mate, even if it meant he had to keep his distance from her as well.