Jace (River Pack Wolves 2) (Paranormal Romance) (10 page)

“Not seeing any movement,” he said.

She did a peek-check as well. “I think we need to get closer. Those low windows could give us a preview of what’s waiting inside.” She gave him the most honest look he’d ever seen from her. “We need to be careful. If they’re in hospital beds, it might be hard to move them. We need to count the guards, assess the weapons, and make a plan to take them all out at once. Give us time to move the prisoners.”

He gave her a small smile. “You know, I could use someone like you on my other missions.” Not only was it true, it made him want to shove her up against the wall and kiss the hell out of her. Which really wasn’t appropriate at the moment. “I don’t suppose you’d consider joining the pack?”

She rolled her eyes. “Are you kidding me? You guys don’t have near as much fun in your jobs as I do.”

He snorted a laugh. “All right, we do this your way. I’ll take one of the near windows, you take one closer to the door. Get a peek-check, then reconvene back here. Acceptable?”

She smirked. “I can work with that.”

They split up, crouching low and running fast. The thrill of being on a mission with her was getting his wolf way too excited—it kept trying to claw its way up from the depths. Jace reached his window at the same time Piper reached hers, and with a coordinated signal between them, they both peek-checked at the same time, then ducked back down below the window. What he saw was not encouraging. By the frown on Piper’s face, she’d seen the same thing.

Nothing.
 

There were hospital beds inside the building all right, but no people whatsoever. Jace stood and peered in the window again; Piper did the same. Then she slammed her fist against the side of the window, making it rattle. Jace jogged over to her, pulling out his phone to text his brothers and the rest of the pack. He quickly tapped out the message:
hospital here, no prisoners.
Then he stowed his phone in his pocket again.

“I’m going inside,” Piper ground out. She stormed off toward the door a dozen feet away. It was locked. She banged on it and yanked the handle, then finally whipped out some claws and sliced through the thin sheet metal with a screeching sound that echoed down the street.

Jace rushed over to her. “Piper—” But she’d already reached through the door, unlocked it, and yanked it open, rushing inside.

He quickly followed. She dashed along the two rows of hospital beds, stopping at each one to throw back the blankets and check for something, then moving on to the next. About halfway down the long open space, she scooped up something and froze.

Jace finally caught up to her. “What is it?”

She had an envelope in her hands, but she was just staring at it. “If Noah had been here, he would’ve left some clue for me. He knows I would come looking for him.”

Jace nodded. If one of his brothers were in trouble, Jace would do the same, looking for them tirelessly. And he would expect them to help by leaving clues along the way. As messed up as Piper’s family was, he had no doubt that the bond between Piper and Noah was just as strong.

“Why don’t you open it?” he asked.

She flipped open the flap to show him—the envelope was empty.

“An empty envelope? What does it mean?” He frowned—it wasn’t much of a clue.

She looked at him with one of those hard looks that he didn’t like, like she was churning through her mind whether she could trust Jace enough to tell him the truth.

“I’m here to help you, Piper,” he said gently.

She nodded. “It’s not what’s inside, it’s the envelope itself.” She took his hand and ran one of his fingers along the back flap. It had a slightly raised embossing. When Jace looked more closely, could see an emblem: some kind of eagle and flag, barely visible.

“It’s some kind of official US government envelope,” Jace said, still not really understanding. “How does that help?”

“It’s the official stationery of Senator Krepky’s office in the capitol.” Piper’s voice was flat.

“You think one of the Senators is involved in this?” Jace suspected it was a government operation, but he couldn’t believe the politicians would get their hands muddy with any of it.

“I’m going to find out.” Piper stuffed the envelope into her jacket pocket and turned to stride away.

“Hang on!” Jace reached out to tug on her elbow and stop her from leaving. “We’re sticking together, remember? Let me help you with this.”

At that exact moment, the rest of the pack stormed into the building, weapons out, fanning to check every nook and corner to see if someone was lurking there. Jaxson was in the lead. He quickly gave the all clear signal to his pack and hurried up to Jace and Piper.

His brother scowled at him. “Empty warehouse. Recently evacuated. Last time I was in this situation, it went south pretty badly.”

He was right, of course—the last time they found a supposedly empty warehouse, when they were trying to rescue their brother, Jared, it turned out to be Agent Smith’s trap to capture them all.

Jace tugged Piper closer, his hand still on her elbow. “Jaxson’s right. We shouldn’t stay here. Let’s head out and make our plans from there.”

Jaxson signaled to the rest of the pack to head out of the building again. Daniel stayed behind. He and Piper exchanged some kind of look Jace didn’t understand.

“This is all smoke and mirrors, Piper,” Daniel said coldly. “Father’s playing some kind of game with us.”

“This isn’t a game!” Piper shot back, her body going rigid with tension again.

“Noah isn’t here,” Daniel said. “There’s no evidence he or any other shifters were
ever
here. The only actual evidence we have is an email that says he’s fine.”

“You know that’s not what he meant.” Piper’s dark eyes were on fire with anger.

Daniel dismissed that with a wave. “I’m going back to work. If I still have a job after what you pulled this morning. You can chase your fantasies all you like, Piper.” Then he turned on his heel and stormed out of the warehouse, fists clenched.

Jace looked at Piper, but she was too busy burning holes in Daniel’s back to notice. “Ignore him. Trust your instincts on this. But we need to get out of here. We can’t help your brother if we get caught in an ambush.”

She gave him a sharp nod, and they headed out after the rest of the pack, giving Daniel wide berth. But as soon as they were clear of the door, Piper pulled off to the side, heading in the opposite direction.

“Where you going?” Jace turned to trot after her.

She stopped and let him catch up. “I’m going to figure out what happened to Noah.”

“Maybe it’s not the Senator. This looks military to me.” Jace tried to soften his voice and reached for her arm, but she pulled away. “Is it possible your dad is involved? Agent Smith was on his turf. There’s a connection there somehow.”

“I’m following the clue Noah left for me.” Determination was a cold fire in her eyes.

“We can get the witches to help again,” Jace tried.

She scowled. “Your witch is a novice.”

“She’ll get closer this time. At least give it a chance. If you take off again, how am I going to convince the pack you’re not just a loose cannon?”

“I’m sure you can be convincing when you want to be.” Then she reached up and grabbed his cheeks and pulled him down to kiss her. It was hot and fast, her tongue demanding a response from his, and he was crushing her body to his before he knew what he was doing. Just as lightning fast, she pulled back and smirked at him.

When he tried to bring her close again, she just pulled further out of reach.

“You’re just trying to distract me,” Jace said, breath already heavy from that one kiss. He wiped the taste of her off his lips with the back of his hand—not that he exactly minded that method of distraction.

Her smirk grew wider. “Yes.”

“Is arguing just foreplay for you?” He was hoping that
foreplay
meant there would eventually be
more play,
but mostly he wanted to keep her from running off to do some dangerous solo mission again.

“Yes.” Her smirk was so flirtatious now, it was all he could do not to force her up against the wall and give her a dose of her own medicine.

“It’s not going to work,” he said instead.

Her smile tempered a little. “The distraction or the foreplay part?”

“The distraction.” This time, he did move a little closer. Maybe he could kiss his way into convincing her to stay.

She looked him up and down in a way that made his wolf surge up—and the man in him wanted to do all kinds of naughty things, right here, right now, forget the rest of the pack. They were all headed back to the van anyway.

Her roaming gaze finally found his eyes. “Where I need to go, you can’t come. There’s no way you can get into the Senator’s office like I can.”

Dammit.
She was probably right about that. And yet he had absolutely no desire to let her go. “I don’t like this, Piper.”

“You don’t have to.” The warmth in her eyes cooled, like those brief moments of openness and flirtation had passed, and she was building up all her emotional walls again. Keeping him out; keeping him at a distance. She did it with everyone in her life. He’d only known her for a short time, but he’d already figured out that much.

He leaned in close, finally pushing her back against the rusty, corrugated wall of the warehouse, one hand on either side of her head. He was close enough to kiss, but instead he just whispered softly, “I want you to come back. Without handcuffs this time. Don’t make me come rescue you again.”

He thought she might kiss him, but the walls were already firmly back in place. And his words just conjured a cold fire in her eyes. She put both hands against his chest and shoved him away from her.

“I didn’t need rescuing! I could’ve taken care of that myself. I don’t need your help, Jace River. Or anyone else’s.” Then she wrenched away from him and stormed off.

Other than physically grabbing her and locking her in the van, he couldn’t think of any way to stop her. He banged his head softly against the wall… and prayed she would make it back safely from whatever foolishness she was determined to do this time.

Piper hiked up the long stretch of white stone steps to the capitol building in Olympia. It had taken her over an hour to get there, but she could still feel Jace’s lips on hers—that hot kiss outside the warehouse lingered long past the few seconds his mouth was actually on hers. It made her momentarily forget her brother had been kept inside that dingy medical prison, with people doing who knew what to him.

But she was back on point now.

The towering granite columns of the capitol building were imposing to most people—they spoke of a stately elegance that was hilarious in the face of the smarmy politics that happened inside the building itself. Pepper was a fan of democracy, but sometimes it was a wonder it could survive all the machinations of the politicians that made it run. It was certainly messy, and she had her hands in a fair share of the muck. Her work on the Senate Defense Subcommittee involved security issues and shifters—two things she knew quite a bit about—but she stayed away from the politics as much as possible. Her brother knew about her work, and he knew that envelope would point her directly here: Senator Krepky’s office.

The gorgeous marble dome inside the capitol building soared above her, adding its regal gold-trimmed gleam to the interior. Piper waved to the guard manning the security checkpoint just inside the entranceway and swiped her credentials—the real ones that had top-level clearance for the Senate building. The guard gave her a warm smile return—he was the kind that remembered faces, and he always seemed to know hers, even with her somewhat infrequent but still regular visits to the capitol.

Once past security, she strode purposefully toward the Senator’s office. She had already made an appointment with Michael, Krepky’s personal assistant—getting an appointment with the Senator himself was quite difficult and completely unnecessary. Michael had access to all the Senator’s top-secret information, the Senator’s office, and he probably knew more about what was going on in the defense subcommittee than the Senator himself. The trick in counterintelligence was always to know where the true power resided—and Piper’s radar for detecting the holders of power was as finely tuned as the radar she used to tell the good guys from the bad.

Jace River was definitely one of the good guys.

Her thoughts kept drifting back to him. She’d spent the entire car trip down to Olympia replaying that scorching kiss. She couldn’t decide if Jace actually cared about her, for some strange reason, even though he had no reason at all. Just when she was convinced that he only cared about the mission, being a hero and rescuing other shifters, he went and did something like he did at the warehouse—not the kiss, but that soft whisper in her ear, saying that he wanted her to come back. Or asking her if she was okay once she was released from her father’s custody. Or holding her when she felt woozy from the witch’s spell that forced her to relive her mother’s death. Piper doubted Jace had any idea the effect those things had on her—and she was little surprised herself at how quickly his small touches and concerned looks and hot kisses had reached inside her and stirred things around.