Hunting Her (The Keeping Her #6) (15 page)

Logan
tilted his head to study her.  After a moment he finally spoke.  "You
don't get it."  He pressed her bodily against the shower wall behind her,
his hands pulling out of the ones that held them; he took hold of her waist and
lifted her, stepping even closer so that she automatically wrapped her legs
around him.  He pressed her back against the wall and moved his hands to
position himself.  He thrust inside her heat and she gasped at the sudden
intrusion.  But she was wet and hot and he knew whatever was in her eyes, her
body was ready for him. 

"There
is no
your mess
or
my mess
," he said and his voice was soft,
belying the heat of his claim.  "There is only our mess.  Someone set a drug
dealer and rapist on your trail.  They have tried to kill you repeatedly, using
others to do it like the fucking cowards they are, but bottom line is that my
woman is in the cross-hairs.  Council member or no, when Eli takes what we have
and finally gives me a name, that someone is dead.  They were dead the second
you were targeted.  And I don't give a fuck who they are, or who they work for.

Xena
wrapped both her hands around the sides of his face, her voice quiet and not
hiding the worry behind the words.  "That's what I'm afraid of."

Logan
growled, done with this conversation.  He kissed her hard, impressing upon her
just who she was talking to, what he was to her.  And to show her, in case she
forgot again, he pulled back his hips and pressed back in thrusting hard. 

He
swallowed her gasp, taking her hard against the wall, pounding into her while
she held on to him, her eyes locked with his.  It was only with the rush of
climax that she closed them, arching her neck back, her head hitting the wall.  The
worry finally forced away.  For now.  Logan allowed himself to take what he
wanted, what he needed, and then he held his mate under the cooling water for
as long as she let him.

Xena
sighed, stepping out onto the tarmac beside the Lionsgate hangar with Logan at
her back.  Cleo, Demon, Mac, and Ben were all there waiting for them.  All
battle ready and watching everything that happened around them.  She heard the
caw of a hawk and looked up to see Shawn flying wide circles around them, probably
watching for snipers and lone gunman.
 

Again,
sigh. 
It wasn't
that she minded trouble.  By this time in her life she was used to it.  What
she did not like was that she had dragged her mate and his people into it with
her this time.  And it promised to get a whole lot worse. 

She
shook off her worries.  It was what it was.  Logan was not going to let her
take care of this on her own, and she had no intention of doing something
stupid like heading out on her own, when she knew he would just follow her
anyway.  If he was going to be involved, then she would take the help of his
people.  She liked them, that was true, but she would throw every one of them
into danger if it meant Logan was covered.  And she knew from the way they
acted, that for Logan, they would have it no other way.

It was
amusing to note that none of the clan meeting her were dressed in commando, and
yet the way they moved, watching everything and always ready, even the
untrained eye would have a hard time missing the badass vibes.  Jeans,
t-shirts, tennis shoes, or in Demon's case, motorcycle boots.  Cleo had on
khaki shorts and hiking boots, but the rest followed the same theme. 

Shifters
tended to have nice bodies, and Lionsgate's people were better than most, so
whatever the intention, they looked like a pack of ripped, good-looking,
prowling danger.  In jeans.

"Do
you think they are trying for nonchalant and unassuming?" Xena asked, not
sure if she wanted to laugh or shiver at the belligerent look on Demon's face.

"I
believe that is what they are trying for, yes,” Logan said and she could hear
the dry humor in his voice.  "Though not sure Demon is truly
committed."

Xena
snorted, and looked from the prowling leopard shifters muscle defining t-shirt
that was black like Demon's, but had the punisher skull on it, to Demon.  It
said something about Ben's inherent hotness that her eyes went to him and
stayed there a touch too long, when it was the seven-foot wolf shifter who
stood like a brick wall next to him that really stood out.

As Logan
mentioned, he may have dressed the part, but he stood with military
stalwartness, his muscled arms crossed over his massive chest, his eyes
scanning at the same time he glowered at everyone and everything.  His homely
face not helped by the scowl, the scar puckering down his cheek, or the wolf
tattoo on his neck.  Ben might draw the eye, but Demon made you look a touch too
long, and then quickly away, lest he catch you looking and you garner his
attention.  Attention you so did not want.

Xena
snorted half in agreement, half in humor.  Mac stepped forward then, and they
met him when they stepped off the plane.

Xena met
his silver eyes briefly before he looked her up and down, not as if he was
checking her out, but as if verifying she was unharmed, then he turned to Logan
and Xena had a moment to look him over in turn.  Unlike the others, he pulled
off the blending in with humans better.  Jeans, blue t-shirt over a smoking hot
body that could grace an Olympic swim team, he was tall, but not as tall as the
other men, and he wore it with an ease and fluidity of movement that rivaled
the cat that shared his mate.  And still he would be the last person you would
look at in this group, and probably would be overlooked in a crowd if he wanted
to be.  Despite that, she shivered.

That
ability he had to go unseen and unremarked only lasted until you looked into
those cold silver eyes, and then anyone who really looked, saw the predator
lurking there.  He was just better at hiding it than the others.

Cleo
joined them, Ben and Demon standing back, scanning the deserted tarmac behind
them.  There was activity farther afield, but for the moment they had the
tarmac outside the Lionsgate hanger to themselves.

"Any
problems?" Logan asked.  His hands at Xena's back guiding her forward away
from the plane, and towards the limo that waited for them.

"Nothing,"
Ben answered.  "You get what you needed?"

"More
or less," Logan answered back. 

And
aren't we all just nonchalant this morning
.  Xena thought, her own tension making her testy. 

"Eli
have anything we can use yet?"  Logan asked while he opened the limo door
for her.

"Since
he started crowing sometime around 3am I'm thinking he found something.  But
other than a small talk he had with Lucas that shut him up tight, he is waiting
to spill when he has everyone assembled."

"He
said the name you gave him narrowed things down considerably but wouldn't say
anything else."  Cleo added and it was clear from her tone she was more
than a little curious.

Ben
raised a slashing brow and gave Logan a look.  "Very unlike Eli to hold
his cards close."

"Lucas
must have put the fear of God in him," Logan said mildly enough, though
Xena could feel his tension spike.  "It's the only way Eli would be able
to stop himself from crowing his genius."

"Since
we gave him a name, and a second e-mail I don't know that he has all that much
to be proud of, Xena muttered mildly irritated and stepping up into the
backseat of the vehicle.  "We pretty much gave it to him on a
platter."

Logan
followed her in and sat close, while the rest of the team took their own seats
in the vehicle.  Ben and Mac across from them, Cleo and Demon taking the driver
seat and passenger respectively.

"Don't
tell Eli that, please," Ben said, smiling wide at her, his teeth very
white and straight.  He had a playful smile.  As much camouflage as Mac’s
ability to disappear she would guess.

Xena
narrowed her eyes on him but before she could speak, Logan did, giving Ben the
same narrowed eyed look.  "Something else happen?"

Ben
shrugged.  Logan looked to Mac.

Mac
spoke quietly, his eyes shuttered.  "I would say yes, but we won't find
out until the meeting."

"What
the fuck is up with all the secret spy bullshit?" Demon growled loud from
the front, clearly displeased with more than just this conversation.

Logan
looked from Mac to the front seat and back to Mac.

"Secret
spy bullshit?"

Mac's
only reaction was a small shrug, and Ben laughed but there was nothing happy
about it.  "Let's just say there has been a little more activity than
usual at Lionsgate, even after the 3am wake up.  Eli is even more focused now than
before he cracked the case, and no one is saying shit."

"At
least not until the meeting," Cleo added mildly enough from the driver
seat.

Xena was
not getting a good feeling about this, and from the tense feel of Logan at her
side, she was not alone.  Just then, she caught the movement of a bird in
flight and turned to look out the window, catching Shawn in his eagle form
gliding along above them in long circles.  Ben, Mac, and Demon were on red
alert despite their laid-back appearance, and neither Ben nor Cleo were making
any snappy comments.  Xena was new to Lionsgate, but she had been around both
of them long enough to know when they were not acting right.  None of them
were.  Something was definitely up, and she had a very bad feeling it was
council business that she had brought down on them.

Turns
out, she was only half-right.

***

"You
have got to be fucking shitting me," Demon growled out when Lucas finished
speaking, or more to the point growling what Eli had found.

The good
news was Xena had not brought the council down on Lionsgate.  The bad news was Lionsgate
had done that all on their own.

"He
shits you not," Eli said.  His usual teasing eyes hardened to green
glass.  "Those fuckers have files on us, videos, fucking audio
tapes."

"We
have been remiss in our security.  We found bugs in two of the vehicles,"
Lucas went on before everyone could talk.  "None at the office, since it
is scanned regularly, but we did find some in the house; two in Bernie's
things, probably slipped in when she was out of the house, and quite a number on
Ian's clothes.  Most of them, thankfully, were non-operating.  Probably because
they were on his clothes, and as such, eventually washed.  This suggests that
they are tagging whoever they can easily reach outside the house and we are
bringing them in ourselves."  Everyone turned to look at Ian.

"What?"
he asked.  "I'm friendly."

More
than one snort of disgust went through the room. No doubt, Xena thought, most
of that friendly was of the female persuasion.

"What
about the rest of us?" Demon asked, pulling his mate in closer, since
everyone was at the meeting, including little Roxy and Bernie who looked like
she was ready to spit nails at the information that she had been bugged. 
"Have you fucking scanned the rest?"

"We
have," Lucas said.  "We found dead bugs on a few of Cassandra's
clothes, one on Clytie's."

"Shit,"
Cassandra said clearly angry.  Both of her mates growled and stepped closer to
her, as if she needed protection right at that moment.  Clytie sucked in a
breath and looked over her shoulder at her own mate, obviously partly upset by
the news, but more worried about his reaction to it.

Ian went
on quickly before Demon could do more than growl like the others, but from the
storm gathering on his face someone was going to die.  "Nothing still
working, and nothing on any shifter’s things except for Ian’s.”

"They
are careful to stick to the pack members who don't have the heightened
senses," Shawn said quietly from beside Cleo who was narrowing her eyes on
her brother.

"Except
for Ian," Cleo added to her glare for her brother.  "Who doesn't
fucking pay attention to anything, anytime anything female wanders by."

Ian
glared at his sister but did not refute that very true statement.  Then he
looked at the rest of them who were all looking at his unhappily.  "I'm
friendly," he repeated on a shrug looking more than a little uncomfortable.

"Not
anymore," his father growled low.  Making Ian wince at the harsh sound of
it, if not the words curtailing his fun.

Xena was
hearing this and liking none of it.  She looked at Eli and her voice rose above
the general unhappiness, and pissed vibe floating over them.  "You hacked
into the council network?"

Her
words brought every eye to hers and not a little tension.  She felt Logan step
even closer to her back, and she appreciated the show of support.  Clearly they
were just remembering the fact that she worked for the council.

Lucas’s
face went shuttered.  "Yes," was his hard answer.

Xena
shrugged showing that she was unaffected, which she was not, but she could fake
that shit with the best of them.  "I hate to rain on your angry parade but
the council watches a lot of packs.  Namely ones who they think could be a
danger.  I agree that you should be more careful with your security but since
this is basically business as usual for them, and you aren't doing anything to
bring an enforcer to your door I don't know that you need to react, other than
to be aware of the situation, and" she looked at Ian.  "Be less
friendly."

"The
council watches a lot of packs?" Lucas asked mildly enough, though from
the look in his eyes he was not coming down from his anger quite yet.

"Standard
operating procedure," she assured him.  "The only time you really
have to worry is if your pack is red flagged for an operative."  She
looked at Eli.  Did you see anything like that in the file when you hacked
in?"

Eli
looked from her to Lucas who was looking at him and waiting for the answer.  He
shook his head.  "Lionsgate was color coded green."

"Then
they are only looking at you.  For whatever reason you are on radar, but they
have not deemed you a risk, or have any intention of acting unless they see
something that alarms them."

"And
what would that be?" Mac asked quietly.  His eyes no softer for the
information she was giving.  "What makes them change the code, and what
does a red flag mean exactly?"

"Red
flag means a shifter has done something bad enough to warrant an enforcer being
sent out, and not with a negotiator in tow," Xena answered.  She met Mac's
cold eyes without showing her inner shiver.  "It happens with shifters who
have gone bad or turned criminal.  A whole pack?" She shrugged her
shoulders and asked pointedly.  "Have you heard of any packs that have
disappeared completely, quietly just gone?"

"Not
since my grandfather’s day," Lucas answered, his eyes sharpening on her.

"That's
because Red flag is not assigned lightly," Xena took a deep breath
wondering if the truth would reassure them or not.  "Red flag of a person,
or a pack means they have done enough to warrant termination."  She looked
from Mac to Eli.  "You see a red flag on your personal file, you run, and
you keep running because a council enforcer is on your ass.  You won't get
away, but it's the only chance you have."