Body Thief (24 page)
Authors: C.J. Barry
Mercer was thoughtful for a moment. “There’s something else going on here. Some other reason. I’ll get Ernest to look deeper, find the connections between the companies on each list.”
“You think he’ll be able to with Roberts hanging all over him?” she asked.
“That kid can do anything,” Mercer said, and then added, “except find where our missing trailer went.”
She did look at him then. “He couldn’t find it?”
“Hit a dead end,” Mercer said. “I’ve never seen Ernest hit a dead end, not in the years I’ve worked with him.”
“Then someone buried it,” she said. “It had to be XCEL. They were there.”
Mercer nodded, albeit reluctantly. “Ernest confirmed that no one at the transportation center called them in.”
“XCEL was there all along,” she said, licking her fingers.
“Or they were doing the final leg of the delivery,” Mercer said.
“To where?” she asked, and she caught him watching her intently as she licked the last finger. And there was a significant bulge in his pants. It finally dawned on her why he was so mad.
He wanted her.
And he hated himself for it.
“That’s the big question,” he replied and looked away.
Griffin heard his cell phone ring and fumbled in the darkness to find it on the coffee table beside the couch. He didn’t even look at the number. “What is it, Ernest?”
“Not Ernest,” a man replied.
Griffin glanced at the incoming number. It read “Unknown.” “Who is this?”
“I have a tip for you. Yeager Industries,” the man said. He gave Griffin the location and added, “Make it quick.” Then the caller hung up.
Was that a joke or a setup? Griffin debated that for a full minute before getting up and walking to his bedroom door. He stood there for another minute wondering if his life insurance was paid up. Of course it wasn’t. He knocked a few times.
“Cam,” he said through the door.
“Go to hell, Mercer. You had your chance.”
He grimaced. He deserved that. It had been a knee-jerk reaction to a serious hard-on that he’d been trying to distract her from. Because
it
didn’t care that she was a Shifter. Or that this was temporary. Or that she would walk away the minute her father was free.
it
didn’t care that she was a Shifter. Or that this was temporary. Or that she would walk away the minute her father was free.
No, all it knew was the way her shadow wafted around him when they were close, teasing him. Taunting him. Reminding him that it had been far too long since he’d held a woman, and even longer since he’d wanted to.
He cleared his throat. “We have a lead to follow.”
There was a rustling on the other side of the door, and it cracked open a few inches. Cam was soft, rumpled, and beautiful, and his body reacted way too fast. He stepped to the side a little.
“We have to follow it right now?” she asked, frowning.
“Right now,” he said.
She didn’t look convinced, and he added, “This could save us a trip underground.”
“Fine,” she replied and closed the door on him.
“I hope you didn’t wake me for nothing,” Cam said testily as Griffin pulled his car along the block near the place. It was 3:30 A.M. and the streets were mostly quiet. “Are you sure it wasn’t just a crank caller?”
“Most crank callers don’t know how to block their phone number or access a phone that’s supposed to be secure,” he said. Actually, he didn’t know if it was a prank or not, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. She’d kill him on the spot.
He parked the car. “Let’s go check it out.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re a little too chipper this morning. Excited that you get a chance to shoot Shifters?”
Griffin turned to her. “I live for it.”
Disappointment settled in her eyes. “I noticed.”
They got out of the car and headed down the sidewalk. Streetlights cast a ghostly glow over the roads and buildings as they approached the corner. Sirens wailed in the distance. The city murmured its night sounds, punctuated by car horns.
The building was wedged between two others. It was a typical storefront setup with wide glass windows and a door covered with bars for the night. If he hadn’t been given the building number, he never would have noticed it.
When they were about twenty yards away from the door, Cam put her hand out against his chest, stopping him. “There are people inside.”
He pulled out his gun and moved them both against the exterior. “How many?”
“I can’t tell for sure. At least two,” she said, cocking her head as she listened. “Could be workers.”
He doubted that. The place was dark inside. “Let’s be Good Samaritans and find out.”
Her eyes glowed iridescent in the dark. “Good Samaritan is going to be a stretch for you.”
“You too,” he noted, challenging her. She was in a hell of a mood.
“At least you know where I stand,” she stated.
He eyed her. “I think my stance is pretty clear too.”
She turned to him, and her shadow with her. It glowed with fire and life. Like a soul. Her soul. It hadn’t occurred to him before.
“No,” she said, her tone firm. “You want me, but you hate yourself for it. You want your old life back, but you know it wasn’t much of a life. You don’t know where you fit in, and you’re too afraid to find out.”
So much for a soul. The woman was heartless. Plus, this was not the conversation he wanted to be having with a gun in his hand. “For someone who routinely uses people for a living, you sure have a lot to say about the way I live my life.”
Anger lit in her eyes as she tapped him in the chest with a fingernail. “I know who I am. I know what I want. What do you want, Mercer? What in this whole goddamned, piece-of-shit world makes you happy?”
That did it. She asked what he wanted. He’d show her. He reached out and pulled her to him. She gasped as he kissed her hard. All the pent-up frustration and desire rushed out into that one kiss. He felt her fight him, no doubt still pissed from slinging arrows. And then her tension eased, and she seemed to melt into him.
It was a silent invitation that he couldn’t resist. The kiss became his offer to explore all the parts of her that he’d wanted to from the first time he saw her. Her sigh was his passport to her soft belly, her round breasts, the long line of her neck. He groaned when she ran her fingers up his chest to his shoulders.
He felt his erection grow against her pelvis, felt her rock into him. And knew without a doubt that he was in deep trouble. For some reason, that didn’t bother him as much as it should. In fact, he felt lighter. At least from the waist up.
The gun tapped against the brick wall, and he remembered where they were. With supreme effort, he broke off the kiss and checked the building they were supposed to be investigating. No action outside.
They were lucky. And he was an idiot.
He stepped away from her and checked his Glock. Now what? How was he going to explain that? Tell her the truth? That he jeopardized their safety and this entire gig by being selfish? She wouldn’t believe him. Tell her he was kidding? That was suicide. Tell her he was wrong? That would be wiser. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
“You need to make up your mind, Mercer. I don’t like this game. If you want to take revenge for what your ex-partner did to you, find some other Shifter to play with.” Her words were curt and heated.
She moved back against the brick, a ghostly blue in the night. The shadow glowed around her, but all he saw was the confusion and hurt in her face. He’d done that. She was right. He needed to decide one way or another and live with it, no matter how badly it turned out. “We have to get inside.”
The glare she gave him worried him a lot. After all, she was supposed to be his partner. She stepped forward and pinned him with a hard look. “You try that one more time, and I’ll break every bone in your body.”
Then she headed toward the front door of the building and ripped the padlock and chain off with one mighty tug. Mercer realized she wasn’t kidding about breaking him in half.
Cam was beyond pissed and thoroughly humiliated as she broke the handle clean off and pushed open the door. How could she let him get that close again, especially after last night? She’d thrown herself at him then, and he’d pushed her away—literally. And then he’d kissed her and she’d bought it again. She was an idiot.
And goddamnit, she was tired and grumpy from getting no sleep. No coffee, no shower.
Someone
was going to be very sorry he got her out of bed for this.
Someone
was going to be very sorry he got her out of bed for this.
The smell of gasoline overwhelmed the small front lobby the moment Cam stepped into it. It was strong; she was sure Mercer smelled it too. The place was empty, but there were sounds of movement behind the door that read Employees Only.
Then she realized that something was missing from this entire scenario. “They’re not Shifters.”
Even as she said it, she knew she shouldn’t have. What would he do if it wasn’t Shifters? Would he walk away and forget it? There’d be nothing in it for him. After the last few hours, she wasn’t sure anymore. Regardless if he left, she’d stay and stop them. The decision surprised her, but she wasn’t letting these guys blame this one on the Shifters.
Mercer’s expression was unreadable. “We need to get to them before they ignite the gas.”
She let out the breath she didn’t realize she was holding. “And we should check to see if this company is a Shifter sympathizer.”
He nodded agreement. “First things first.”
Mercer moved ahead of her and tested the Employees Only door. It was unlocked and swung aside easily as he moved in, gun at the ready.
He led the way down a narrow hallway, passing two offices on either side. He halted her at the end of the corridor that opened to an office space. Men moved between the desks, and Cam concentrated on the voices and sounds.
After a few seconds, Mercer glanced over his shoulder at her. She put up three fingers for the three men, and he nodded. He motioned for her to go right, and he took the left side.
The voices grew louder as she crept across gasoline-soaked carpet and around cubicle partitions.
“Make sure you cover all the computers and servers. We want everything to burn.”
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