Polar Bears are Forever: Book One Supernatural Enforcers Agency (15 page)

Gunner raised an eyebrow.  “It was functional.”

Erin, in spite of her burgeoning jealousy, barked out a laugh at the absurdity of what he just said.  “Functional, huh?  Wow, I dread to think about what you say about me.”

“It’s not the same,” he growled forcefully.  “What happened with Isis really wasn’t the same as us.  Isis and I just wanted sex, so we had sex.  It wasn’t romantic.  It just scratched an itch.  It was, like I said, functional.”

“And what is it between us?”  She bit her lip and gazed at him uncertainly.

“Oh, Erin.”  He pulled her into his arms and buried his face in her hair.

“That’s not an answer,” she squawked, her voice muffled in his shoulder.

“I know; I don’t want to scare you off.”

His hands skimmed down her back until he reached her buttocks and started kneading them. 
Yeesh, he knew how to manipulate her body
.  Just a little petting had her sex weeping for joy.

“You wouldn’t,” she murmured, tamping down her excitement. 
She was trying to be serious, damnit!

“You say that now,” he said with a heavy sigh.  “For now, can’t we just say we’re dating?”

Gently, she managed to peel herself away from his possessive arms.

“For now?”

He nodded solemnly.

“And the future?”

“Just know that I want more.”

In surprise, she realized she did too.  For once though, she managed to keep a tight rein on her wandering mouth and instead said, “okay, and I thought about what you said yesterday, and I agree, I don’t think we should tell anyone at work.”

“Yet,” he added.

“Yet,” she agreed, thrilled at that one word.

Gunner smiled, and her insides quivered.  He gave her a quick peck on the lips and started striding to the door.  “We better go.  I’m guessing Jessie was the one who blabbed about me and Isis?”

Erin shrugged as they hurried to the car.  She wasn’t exactly keen to get her friend in trouble.

Gunner mirrored her shrug.  “It’s not a big deal.  It was months ago, and it was hardly a secret when it happened.  Why would you think I’d dump you for her?”

Her cheeks started to pinken with the effort of keeping up with him as they walked. 
At least it hid her embarrassment.
  “She told me she was interested in, umm, hooking up with you again.”

He stopped and paused, one massive hand on the car door handle.  “When was this?” he asked quietly.

Erin felt a frisson of fear at the soft tone of his voice and the darkness pooling in his eyes.  She wasn’t afraid for herself; she was afraid for a certain stripy shifter.  She didn’t like Isis –
mostly out of jealously, and she wasn't ashamed to admit it
– but she didn’t want her to become a polar bear chew toy.

“It’s not a big deal…”

“When was this, Erin?”

His eyes bore into her, and she considered that under that gaze even the most hardened criminal would be tempted to spill their guts and admit to crimes they’d never even committed.

“Yesterday, we bumped into each other at the coffee shop across the road.”

His jaw tightened, but otherwise he didn’t react.  He swung the passenger door open for her.  “We better get going.”

*

“Well?”

Erin nodded as she surveyed the neon flamingos and the giant birdcages.  “Yep, this is it.”

Before Gunner could stop her, she marched over to the table where she had seen their victim, James Silver sitting.  She pulled herself up onto his stool and drummed her fingers on the table.  She closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

Gunner hovered around her while Cutter scowled, and the club owner watched her warily.  They waited in their respective poses until the club owner couldn’t take it anymore.

“What is she doing?” he hissed.

“Fuck knows,” muttered Cutter.

Gunner snarled at him quietly, but with enough force to shut him up.

Erin shuddered as she flashed back to her vision.  The familiar scene of Silver pushing a bill into the waitress’ hotpants unfolded before her eyes.  The blonde woman approached him.  They spoke to each other; she couldn’t make out the mumbled words, it was like watching them through water.

The blonde laughed, throwing her head back with wild abandon. 
As if anything in the history of the world was ever that funny.

She stepped closer to him, resting a hand on his shoulder, and he slid an arm around her waist.  She whispered something in his ear, and a grin split his face.  She slipped away from him and swung her hips as she walked.  He almost fell over his feet to chase after her.

She led him through the club, dodging the swaying bodies.  They exited the back way, into an alley.  The door slammed shut behind them.  She turned to look at him and… and… Silver screamed in agony as two men grabbed him and pushed a needle into his neck.  The blonde woman hurried away, not looking back, as Silver struggled helplessly.  Soon enough, his struggles waned, and he collapsed into their arms.  They dragged him over to a waiting car…

Erin shuddered violently and gasped for breath. She calmed as warm hands gripped her shoulders.

“Shhh, Erin, it’s okay.  I’m here.”

Gunner curled his arms around her and pulled her back against his body.  She slumped in his arms as she panted, and he pressed kisses into her hair.

“Everything okay?” called out Cutter uncertainly.

“Yes,” snapped Gunner, “go back inside and grill the owner.”

“Inside?” asked Erin, bewildered.

“We’re in the alley,” he murmured soothingly.

“Oh.”

Erin blinked as she looked around and sure enough, they were out in the alley, stood in the very spot Silver was abducted from.  She hadn’t even realized she’d wandered out there.

“When you started moving, I wasn’t sure what to do.  I called out your name but… but it was like you didn’t hear me.  It was like you were gone.”  His arms tightened around her, and his voice was thick.  “It was… I don’t know.  It freaked me out.”

She was surprised at his tone, but it hit her –
what happened scared him
.  Her big, fearless bear had been scared when she suddenly zoned out.  She felt sympathy for him but also a big selfish dollop of joy.  It was silly, but his fear for her showed her that he cared.  Although it definitely wasn’t something she wanted to put him through again anytime soon, but she knew it would happen again. 
It had happened before…

Erin rubbed a hand over his arm.  “I’m fine.  I’m sorry you were worried.  It just sometimes happens.”

He let out a deep, almost painful breath.  He didn’t move, didn’t say anything, he just continued to hold her.  She suspected it was more for his benefit than for hers, but she was more than happy to oblige.

After a few minutes, she related what she had seen.

Gunner grunted.  “Was he alive when they took him?”

“Yes, he was definitely breathing.”

“Huh.  We better get back inside.  I’m guessing Cutter is about ready to wring the toad’s neck.”

“Toad?”

“The club owner.”

“No wonder his eyes are so bulbous. I heard that toads can lick their own eyes.  I wonder if he can lick his own eyes.”

Gunner shook with laughter against her.  “Let’s go inside and you can ask him.”

Chapter Fourteen

Gunner groaned at the flurry of activity in the SEA office.  Various researchers, analysts, and civilian employees were running around as dozens of phones rang shrilly.

He snagged hold of a chipmunk shifter, who gulped at finding himself being manhandled by the gruff seven-foot polar bear.

“Hey, Milton…” rumbled Gunner.

“Marvin,” squeaked the chipmunk shifter.  “But you can call me Milton!” he added on seeing Gunner’s ‘don’t fuck with me’ expression.

“What’s happening, Marvin?”  Gunner gestured a big paw around at the office.  “What is all this?”

Marvin looked around, probably hoping to find someone else to give the bear shifter the news. 
Gunner wouldn’t so much shoot the messenger as pulverize him.

“The uh, news, about your victim missing his heart, has been leaked.  The tip lines have been going crazy.”

“Fuck!” snarled Gunner, very loudly, although few people bothered to turn round. 
They were used to him.
  “When did this happen?  How did this happen?  Who did this?”

Gunner gripped Marvin’s collar with increasing tightness and brought his furious red face directly in front of the chipmunk.  The polar bear looked like he wanted to rip something apart – anything –
and since he already had hold of something…

Marvin tried not to whimper, but he needn’t have worried.  Within seconds, Gunner’s anger dissipated as Erin placed a hand on his forearm.

“Uh, Gunner, I think we’ve imposed upon Marvin enough for today,” she murmured soothingly.

He carefully let Marvin go, and to the surprise of the chipmunk shifter, he actually straightened out his collar.

“I’m sorry Marvin,” he muttered.

“No, no, no problem,” stammered Marvin, beating a hasty retreat, “it was probably my fault.”

Gunner grunted in agreement, but Erin gave him a scowl.

He spread out his hands.  “What?”

“It says a lot about a person’s personality and their behavior when they virtually attack someone, and then that someone blames himself for it.”

“I didn’t hurt him,” griped Gunner defensively.

Erin rolled her eyes.  “No!  You just scared the hell out of him.”

What was this about?
  He’d acted this way since… well, forever, and no one had ever called him on it. 
Maybe no one had ever dared to
.  His bear, he noticed, was unusually silent, torn between agreeing with her and actually standing up for his behavior. 
Now who was the pussy?

“Maybe you should try being a little nicer,” suggested Erin. 

She sounded like an admonishing school teacher.  Actually, that was kind of sexy.  He could imagine her in thigh-highs and glasses trying to teach him, her unruly student. 
Of course, he’d be the one doing the spanking…

“Yeah, bossman,” said Cutter, roughly cutting through his fantasy, “you catch more flies with honey.  That’s always been my motto.”

Since when?!
  His beast roared in consternation. 
Cutter was an even bigger asshole than he was!

“If we’re being picky, you could catch more flies with manure,” grouched Gunner.  “C’mon.”

He took hold of Erin’s upper arm, leading her through the throng to Jessie’s office, and ignoring the urge to punch Cutter right in his smug, wolfy face.

“Anything?” demanded Gunner brusquely as soon as they saw the bubbly squirrel shifter.

Erin threw him another glance of disapproval, and his bear nudged at him. 
Fine!

“Hello, Jessie, how are you?  Do you have anything for us?” he amended.

The squirrel beamed at him in delighted surprise while Cutter tried to stifle chuckles of derision - unsuccessfully.  He didn’t care though,
well, maybe a little
, but it was worth it to see the shy approval in Erin’s smile.

“Well, since you asked so nicely,” grinned Jessie.  “I’m still going through his financials, nothing seems out of the ordinary, but there are a couple of large charges that I’m still figuring out.  As for his background, he’s as clean as a whistle.  Wayne’s still interviewing his friends, and Avery’s trying to find a way that the body made it to Cinderella’s facility.  She’s trying to talk to all the people who have contracts with Cinderella, but there are a lot of them.”

“I see,” he growled.

Gunner let out a long ragged, breath.  Ordinarily this would be the point where he would be frustrated at their lack of progress and would throw things across the room.  He could see that Jessie was actually standing in front of her desk, trying to shield all the items on there, and Cutter had taken a few steps away from him. 
Well, they needn’t have worried
.  In deference to his little human, who he was all for impressing, he was going to try a calmer approach.

“Anything useful from the tips?” he asked, almost casually.

Jessie scrunched up her nose in surprise and let her guard down a little.  “Ah, umm, yes, maybe.  We had one that said the heart had been bought for an illegal transplant, and it gave us a cell phone number of a person to contact about it.”

“That’s pretty specific for the tip line,” mused Cutter.

Erin looked between the three of them.  “Oh?”

“Yeah,” explained Jessie, “usually we just get tons of calls about alien abductions and people trying to blame neighbors they don’t like for it.  It’s rare that we get anything helpful.”

Gunner rubbed his jaw thoughtfully.  “Did you get anything from the number?”

Jessie shook her head.  “It was from a burner phone, which I’m guessing has been dumped by now.  But, I did get the location of where the call was made from; it’s a diner down by the docks.”

She passed him a post-it with the details.  Gunner showed it to Cutter, and he nodded.  It wasn’t exactly the most reputable part of town, so it was probably worth a look.

“Cutter and I will check it out.  Erin, tell Jessie about your vision and see if you can get any security footage from around the club that night.  Otherwise, I want you to check out Silver’s belongings, and see if you can get anything from them.  Jessie, check in with the director and let him know what’s happening.”

“Me?” squeaked Jessie, in dismay.

“Yes, you.  Keep in touch.”

As they left, Gunner felt Erin tugging on his arm.  He told Cutter to wait for him in the car, and, grumbling, the wolf shifter stomped away. 
Moody bastard
.

Gunner looked at her in concern. “Everything okay, babe?”

He’d been a little edgier than usual ever since the incident at the club.  Seeing her like that, in a trance, had been chilling. 
His bear hadn’t liked it one bit.
 

“I just wanted to tell you to be careful.”

He smiled, warmed by her sentiment.  “I’ll be fine, you be careful, too.”

Erin gave him a rueful smile.  “I’ll try not to get too many paper cuts, or drop a stapler on my foot.”

“That’s my girl.”

He would have kissed her goodbye, but at the moment Diaz came sauntering down the corridor. 
Fucking jaguar always seemed just to pop up whenever Erin was around
.  Diaz grinned at Erin in no doubt what he thought was a panty-wetting smile.  His bear snarled lowly. 
That cat better keep his damn paws off
. Diaz nodded at him and gave him a sour look. 
Huh
.  Whatever Gunner did to deserve that, he sure hoped it had hurt the jaguar. 

He settled for squeezing Erin’s shoulder.  “I’ll see you later.”

*

The diner was a pretty sleazy affair called the Brown Bear because it was run by a brown bear.  It appeared to be popular because it served alcohol.

Cutter and Gunner sat outside watching the Diner from a distance.

“Do you reckon they have security cameras?” asked Gunner.

The wolf shifter snorted.  “Doubtful, I can’t imagine anyone would want video evidence of what goes on in there.”

Gunner grunted in agreement and scanned the surrounding buildings.  They were mostly run-down apartment buildings, and it was unlikely that they had security either.  They were hesitant about going into the diner.  Although the two of them could hardly be called the most civilized of shifters, they would be made as cops immediately.  They didn’t want to risk whoever made the tip actually getting tipped off that they were looking for him.

Instead, he replayed the recording out loud.  Jessie had sent the audio file to his phone.  It was a gruff, voice, and it was clear that the speaker was trying to put on an accent to hide his voice.  Unfortunately, no one in the world spoke with an accent like that, so it just made him more conspicuous.  It also indicated to them that the speaker thought they might know his voice if they heard it.

“I’ve heard the voice before,” said Cutter.

“Me too,” added Gunner.  “I’ve heard it, but it’s not someone I interviewed or arrested.”

They played the recording a few more times while watching the entrance to the diner, before getting lucky.

Gunner jerked his jaw up in the direction of the diner door.  “Look.”

Cutter snarled as he saw the man in question.  It was Alfie Morehouse, number one stooge to Tom ‘the hammer’ Murphy – one of the nastiest creatures to ever step foot in Los Lobos. 
He gave all shifters a bad name.

“That’s the voice – it’s Alfie,” muttered Cutter shaking his head in disbelief.

Gunner seconded that.  “We should have recognized it.”

They watched as the hulking frame of Alfie lumbered into the diner.  The man could never be described as graceful, but as an elephant shifter, he was freaking tough.  Added to the fact that he had no morals to speak of and a penchant for inflicting pain, if you saw him charging at you, you got the hell out of the way – fast.

“Haven’t seen him in a while,” said Gunner, thoughtfully.

Cutter gave him a significant look.  “Not since Murphy disappeared.”

About a year ago someone hired a hitman to come after Tom.  Not just any hitman, a vampire hitman.  Whoever hired him must have paid a fortune, because he didn’t work cheap.  It was strongly suggested that after years of suffering, Tom’s own daughter had snapped and done the hiring.  The details of what happened were kind of fuzzy, all the reports said was that the hitman managed to stab Tom in the heart with a silver knife and then Tom ripped the hitman’s head off.  Tom hadn’t been seen since, and, given that silver is deadly to shifters, it was widely believed that Tom was dead.

Of course, if Tom had managed to cling to life, his heart would be beyond the repair of his natural healing abilities, and he would need a new one. 
And Tom just happened to be a hippo shifter
.

The watched, eagerly, as Alfie ambled out of the diner, carrying three big brown bags, presumably filled with greasy food.  He hopped into an SUV and started moving.

Gunner started the engine.  “Let's go find out what Alfie is up to.”

He followed at a discreet distance, trying not to spook the elephant shifter, who seemed to be driving a little erratically.  Gunner shook his head; all he was doing was drawing more attention to himself. 
Not the brightest bulb…

Cutter folded his arms and tapped his foot impatiently.  The wolf shifter didn’t like to be driven anywhere; he liked to drive.  But then, so did Gunner.  They both were in possession of an asshole Alpha gene and while they generally coped, the need for control, the need to be in charge was always there.  It just meant that they became grouchy and angry over the smallest things.  Gunner felt satisfied and appeased his beast by leading his team; he wasn’t too sure how Cutter ever managed to placate his howling wolf. 
He doubted he would catch Cutter doing yoga…

The wolf fidgeted and huffed.  “I don’t know why we’re even bothering to investigate.  Why don’t we just go back to the office and wait for our psychic to see a vision?  Or even better, wait for her to have a tea party when the ghost of our victim shows up.”

Gunner ignored the furious wails of his bear. 
It was just Cutter being Cutter
.  He put Wayne through hell when he joined the team, and Avery just about had to claw his eyes out to prove she was capable.  If anyone other than Cutter had made such sneering remarks about Erin, he wouldn’t have let it go, but he and Cutter went back as far as the academy.  They’d both transferred out to Los Lobos together.  Hard to believe, but they were actually the best of friends.  They were just the kind of friends who didn’t pry into one another’s lives.

“Why don’t you give Erin some slack?”

Cutter’s lips curled upwards.  “You asking that because you think she deserves it or because you’re sleeping with her? And don’t bother denying that.”

His bear let out a warning snarl.  “How did you know?”

He snickered.  “You’re not exactly James Bond.  I see the way you look at her; you look like a 13-year-old girl who just got tickets to see her favorite boy band.  The sappy, dreamy look on your face makes me want to puke.  Then there’s your scent, you two can slap on as much aftershave and perfume as you want, but the two of you reek of each other.  And don’t even get me started about when you were kissing her hair in the alley earlier.  Then there was…”