Duke (32 page)

He checked his phone, said, “Nothing from Duke, so we may as well.”

“
Yeah, nothing on my phone, either, but he knows how to find us, if he wants.”

Brain was sitting on one large rock, Gen on another, and she took her boots off and settled her feet in the icy water. “How bad did I mess up?”

“
You hurt him, Gen.
Wounded
him. Gonna have to figure out how to fix it.”

“
Do I give him time, or text him?”

He considered her a few seconds and said, “I wouldn’t call him yet, but a text might be a good start.”

Gen thought, but didn’t know where to start. “I don’t know what to say.”

“
My telling you what to say would be dishonest. It needs to come from you. From your heart, not your brain.”

From her heart.

Yeah. She’d been overthinking it. She typed:

I’m sorry. I was an idiot. Can we talk?

She hit send and then showed it to Brain, so he wouldn’t think she was asking for advice. He smiled. “It’s a start. Why do you have your feet in the water?”

“
It’s probably my version of your climbing a tree for the view. I’m a water person. This river is 147 miles long and traverses three states. I’ve either canoed or kayaked all but about ten miles of it.”

“
Well, you’re just full of surprises, but I have another for you. See the heron on the light pole, just this side of the houseboats?”

It didn’t take Gen long to see the tall, graceful, majestic bird, and she nodded.

“
She’s a shifter. In bird form now, but can turn into a person.”

Gen looked at the bird in a whole new light, and wondered at the incredible experience of being able to shift into a bird and take flight.

“
I thought you couldn’t tell me who’s a shifter and who’s human? Not without their consent?”

“
Right, if they’re in human form, but you won’t be able to tell this bird from another once it flies away, and neither of us has any idea what she looks like as a human.”

Okay, that made sense. “How do you know she’s a shifter, and a she?”

“
Wind carried her scent to me. Didn’t take long to figure out where it came from.”

When the band started, Brain got them some drinks, and they sat at the water and listened to the music. Gen asked to switch to Coke after two drinks, as she didn’t want to get drunk, and Brain explained that with his metabolism, it was impossible for him to get drunk.

Several songs in, Gen told Brain, “The heron has a thing for the lead singer. I think she’s freaking him out.”

Two songs later, he said, “Damn if you aren’t right. Heron shifters are odd, and he smells human. Gotta wonder what the story is there.”

During a particularly good song, Brain looked towards the road, paused, and looked back to the band.

“
You heard something? Or smelled something?”

“
Sounds like Duke’s Harley, about a mile out.”

Sure enough, before long a bike pulled into the parking lot, and when the rider got off, she recognized Duke’s walk. She stood to go to him but Brain put his hand on her arm. “He’ll find us. Wait for him, Babe.”

Duke walked up to them and Gen noticed he didn’t have his vest on, either. No one said anything, so she asked, “Can I hug you?”

He shook his head. “You can walk with me to my bike, get on, and ride to somewhere quieter so we can fucking talk.”

She looked down. “I need to let my feet dry before I can put my socks and boots back on. Will you sit with us for five minutes?”

“
Why are your feet in the water?”

She shrugged. “I’m a water person. Brain sat in a tree in my backyard for two hours, I sit with my feet in the river. Same thing, but different.”

Duke squatted, looked at Gen a dozen of her racing heartbeats, and looked to Brain. “Interesting day?”

“
Yeah, brother. She’s a keeper. You need to find a way to figure this out, move beyond it.”

Duke looked back to Gen, pulled his shirt off in that ultra-sexy one-hand-over-the-shoulder move, and handed it to her. “Dry your feet.”

“
With your shirt?”

He didn’t say another word, just offered the shirt and looked at her. She rolled her eyes, took it from him, and dried them. When she returned it, he put it back on and she said, “Can’t imagine having the smell of my feet on your shirt is a good thing.”

He went stock still, and the next thing she knew, he gave her the smell. It was her, and clean because of the river water.

His shirt smelled like her, and he was
comforted
by it.

He took it away almost as soon as he gave it to her, and she stopped working the sock onto her foot to say, “Thank you. I had no idea.”

Brain looked from one to the other and said, “I’ll be damned. Crossover with smell?”

“
Keep it to yourself,” Duke growled, and Brain nodded.

“
Got it. Have you told her why no one can know?”

He shook his head and Brain said, “Gen, you should keep this from everyone, even Isaac, though I know you trust him completely.”

“
Why?”

“
It’s complicated, but the short story is, if you and Duke work out, then over the years you’ll develop more than just smell. As your brain gets used to the connection, it’ll open up in different ways. Some supernaturals don’t trust the connection, think all humans with one should be put down. What Isaac knows, Abbott knows, and you don’t want the vampires in on this. Trust me.”

Gen looked at Duke for confirmation, and he said, “I told you Isaac is safe to talk to about anything supernatural as long as it isn’t club business. I’d rather he not know about this, but I’m not going to forbid you telling him.”

When her boots were laced, Gen stood, unsure of whether to go to him or keep her distance. Duke looked to Brain and asked, “You heading back or staying?”

Brain tilted his head towards the brunt of the crowed, forty yards away. “Lots of drunk pussy, I’ve scoped a few who should be ripe for the pickin’ in another twenty or thirty minutes.”

Duke didn’t touch Gen as they walked the sixty yards back to the parking lot. He let her put her helmet on by herself, and didn’t hold her arm for her to swing on behind him. She sat, stiff, behind him, her arms reaching for the seat behind her, but he turned and said, “You’ll have to hold on, Gen. No way around it.”

“
If you don’t want to touch me, why come get me? I could’ve just ridden back with Brain.”

In answer, he cranked the bike and took off.

Duke followed a GPS to get out, and she hoped Brain had one so he could find his way home, too. Instead of going back the way she took Brain, Duke headed towards Cleveland and parked in a Denny’s.

“
What made you take him there?” he asked as they got off the bike.

“
I don’t know. The river soothes me, and they have great burgers, and he was hungry, and I figured he’d be up for the ride. I was hurting, needed something to take my mind off… things.”

He nodded. “I ended up on the Ocoee river,
changed
, ran through the woods on the south side of the river where there are rarely people. So, when I came back to human and got on my bike, looked to see where you were, imagine my surprise when you weren’t too far away as the crow flies.”

Gen sighed, looked down, and discovered she couldn’t take the helmet off with her chin down. She turned away from him, lifted her chin to take it off, and said, “Mike said some really mean things and he messed with my head, and then I let them mess with us. I should’ve talked to you, but my brother’s right that I try to be strong. I hate admitting to a weakness, so I didn’t. I’m sorry, Duke.”

The helmet came off and she reached back to let the ponytail loose, her face aimed at the interstate traffic and not Duke.

“
Look at me.” It was an order, not a request, but she did it anyway.

“
The part of me that’s man accepts your apology and is ready to talk it out and work through it. The part of me that’s a wild animal doesn’t, and it’ll take some work to get there.”

“
Do you want to get there?”

He nodded, and she felt a huge weight lift off her chest. “Okay then. If we both want to, we’ll figure it out.”

“
Yeah, but right now I’m starving. I
changed
twice, probably ran fifteen miles on four legs, and haven’t eaten.”

Gen watched as Duke put away as much food as Brain had earlier.

There were no people at tables close to them, and when he didn’t talk, she said, “Brain told me you walked out without an explanation because your wolf wanted to spank me, and you needed to get away from me before the wolf won out.”

His eyebrows rose as he chewed and swallowed. “You seem awfully calm about that.”

“
I screwed up, Duke. I’m not saying it’s okay for you to, you know,
hit
me, but I guess I can kind of get why part of you would want to. I don’t understand how you can be two different beings in one body, but I hope you can find a way to explain it to me.”

Duke didn’t say another word, just methodically ate through the massive amount of food on the table.

When he finished, he paid the bill, tipped the waitress about fifty percent, and walked to his bike. Gen followed him, feeling much like she had as they left the Marina, though at least this time he double-checked her helmet to be sure it was on right.

Duke pulled into a gas station when he exited the interstate, put his vest on, and then drove to the compound with no further stops. He didn’t slow down to say hi to anyone in the clubhouse, but walked straight to his room and pointed to a drawer. “I went shopping. Yoga pants and tees are in there, along with some underwear. I’m going out on patrol. MacGyver’s in the control room, let him know if you need a laptop, but stay in here. Don’t go out in the clubhouse. Go to bed when you get sleepy, probably be at least three before I come back.”

Gen opened her mouth to argue, but he was out the door before she had a chance.

She looked through the drawer, realized he’d gone to Target for the clothes, which wasn’t really shopping, but she supposed it was the thought that counted. He’d bought the right sizes in everything, and the right style of underwear, if a crappy brand.

She gathered it all together and went into his tiny bathroom, and smiled as she saw her soap, shampoo, and conditioner. For this, he’d had to go to a specialty store, and it made her heart ache that she’d hurt him.

Duke didn’t appear to own a blow dryer, so she’d be stuck with wet hair, but she needed a shower because she needed to cry.

Her tears battled with her willpower as she stripped out of her clothes, but she waited until she was under the water to let the sobs burst forth, and when they did, there was no stopping them. She leaned into the wall as the water beat down on her, and cried until there were no more tears.

She put her hair up in a towel, wrapped her belly band around her waist, and put her Sig on her right hip. She donned the new panties and yoga pants, pulled the tee over her head, and cleaned up behind herself before gathering all of her things and heading to bed. Her extra mag went on the small table beside the bed, and she used her cellphone to read a little before setting it beside the mag and going to sleep.

Duke wasn’t in bed when she awoke the next morning. The towel had come off during the night and her hair was a horrid mess. She scrounged in her purse and found a clip, put it in a French twist, and used her emergency make-up supplies in her purse to fix her face. She wore the jeans from the night before and used another of the tee’s, slid her magazine into the belly band’s holder on her left hip, and went out into the clubhouse.

It was only eight-thirty so she hadn’t really expected anyone to be up and about, and she was right, it was empty. She went back to Duke’s room and used her cellphone to call a cab, waited five minutes, and went back out, intending to meet the cab in the bar’s parking lot across the street.

She made it out of the clubhouse and was halfway across the lot when she heard the door open and close behind her, heard rapid footsteps, and Duke was suddenly standing in front of her.

Gen came to a stop and looked up. “You never came to bed.”

“
So you’re leaving?” His face looked incredulous, though she could tell he was pissed.

“
I have things to do today, Duke, and if I’m not here to spend time with you, why the freak am I here? If I’m going to be alone I’d rather do it at home.”

The cry last night had been good for something because it let her speak to him reasonably, without bursting into tears.

He eyed the clubhouse, brought his gaze back to her. “Cancel the cab, I’ll take you home. We need to talk and there’s no privacy here.”

Gen shook her head. “You look exhausted. I’ll be fine. We’ll talk later.”

“
Yeah, I’m exhausted. I’ve been up all night. I also have half the officers ticked at me for making you cry last night, but if three of our men hadn’t reported hearing you cry in the shower, looking at you right now I wouldn’t believe it. I don’t want you cryin’ again. My wolf doesn’t, either. We need to talk, but shit hit the fan last night and I had to handle it.”

Gen crossed her arms and looked at her feet. She thought she’d been safe to cry in the shower. She should’ve known better. She took a few breaths, found her center, and reminded herself the control room was probably listening.

“
Yeah, okay. I needed an emotional release. A lot happened and I thought I could let off a little steam in private. I’ll remember in the future that isn’t an option. Now, if you’ll kindly get out of my way, my cab should be here by now.”

“
Then get on my bike and we’ll stop across the street and give him some money for his trouble, and I can take you home. We can have this talk here, in the parking lot, but this is one of the handful of places I can’t order them to shut the feed off, so you have to know it’ll be public knowledge, if we do.”