Nocturne 040 – Scions 02 - Patrice Michelle - Insurrection (6 page)

mostly silver with enough metal to allow the bullet to withstand being shot out of a gun.

Landon learned silver didn’t just prevent werewolves from shifting during a full moon. Apparently, the Lupreda had developed a deadly allergy to amalgams with high silver content. Once the silver entered his body and mixed with his blood, it began to poison him with fiery intent. He had no doubt that if he’d left the silver in their bodies, both he and Caine would’ve died.

But one man did die that night. Because of Landon’s primal instincts to protect his own, Kaitlyn’s father had paid with his life. Thoughts of Kaitlyn invaded his mind, making his gut clench with remorse while his groin swelled in arousal. The constant conflicting emotions that had warred within him for years had increased tenfold the moment he’d crouched down next to her in the park earlier that night.

Her sweet floral scent still clung to him while her inviting face, her perky nose, rosy cheeks and soft pink lips slammed through his mind. Taunting him, torturing him.

She was the one woman he could never have, never touch.

For many reasons.

K aitlyn sat in her car a block down the road from the Tacomi office building and warehouse.

She’d spent all morning digging up everything she could find on Tacomi. The company was the pulsar gun manufacturer whose shipment of pulsar guns had been hijacked. After much cross-referencing, Kaitlyn was able to link several indirect connections between Tacomi and the Mafia. In other words, no illegal money filtered through this business, no loans, nothing, but the ties were there—through a few employees who were close blood relatives to well-known Mafia members. She could dimsiss one Tacomi employee having ties to the Mafia as being random happenstance…but four? She didn’t believe in that many coincidences. Then she ran across a name on the Tacomi board that surprised her, Kenneth Duvoe. Kenneth was Remy’s father, who she knew was a member of the old Garotter regime. And now Remy was part of the newly formed Garotters. Yet another connection in the triangle that tied the Mafia to the gun manufacturer and the manufacturer to the Garotters. She wanted to get a closer look at the building, especially the warehouse, but security was tight with a fifteen-foot tall chain-link gate around the perimeter of the company’s two acres of land. Her stomach growled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten anything today. She’d spent her lunch hour trying a direct approach—to get a tour of the Tacomi facility by telling the man at the front desk she was writing a paper for her NYPD night class on the new pulsar weapon.

“Although I know how to use one, I wanted to delve into the manufacturing process,” she’d said, giving the young, blond-haired guard behind the desk her sincerest smile.

“Only authorized employees allowed,” the guard told her after he’d walked away to call management to see if they would give an NYPD officer a tour.

The sunshine warmed her car as Kaitlyn eyed the other buildings adjacent to Tacomi’s property. She nibbled her fingernail and considered various ways she might get inside.

A tapping sound on her passenger window made her heart jerk. She glanced at the person standing outside her car, ready to tell him she didn’t have a dollar to spare.

Landon peered in her window. Tapping again, he gave her a stern look and gestured for her to unlock the car so he could enter.

Kaitlyn hit the unlock button.

Landon quickly opened the door and slid into the passenger seat. He brought with him the cool fall air, the smell of soft leather and his own earthy masculine aroma. The appealing scents seemed to perfectly complement each other, devastating her senses.

“I’m trying to be inconspicuous here,” she said as he pulled the door closed. Even though his amazing smell made her stomach do several somersaults and his arresting green eyes caused her heart to trip in her chest, she stared at him with a suspicious gaze. “What are you doing here? And I’m not buying that you were just in the neighborhood.”

“I tracked you here,” he said simply.

She glanced in her rearview mirror to the street behind her car. “Last I looked I didn’t leave a trail of bread crumbs for you to follow.”

He chuckled, his teeth a splash of white against his tanned skin. “I used the GPS tracking built into every NYPD-issue vehicle.”

Kaitlyn shook her head. “Great, big brother truly is watching. Why are you looking for me?”

“I want to talk to you about what you saw last night.”

“What? Last night I was off my rocker and today I’m probably back on my meds, is that it?”

His lips quirked upward. “I had no idea you were so sassy.” Sobering, he continued, “It’s important, Kaitlyn.”

She blew out a breath and stared at the Tacomi building. When her line of sight landed on a tall red oak tree that butted against the fence, its limbs thick and wide, she followed the tree to the old warehouse currently being used as a haunted house.

She met Landon’s steady gaze. “I’ll tell you if you’ll do me a favor.”

“Name it.”

She smiled. “I want you to go out with me tonight.”

Landon felt like she’d slammed a two-by-four against his chest. He coughed to ease the pained sensation cinching his lungs. “You uh, want me to take you out?”

She nodded and her pink tongue darted out, swiping across her bottom lip. It took every bit of control he had not to lean over and kiss her, to lay her down in the seat right there in broad daylight. In the close confines of the car, the afternoon sun highlighted her gorgeous hair. The warmth heated her fair, peach-toned skin, making her seductive floral scent float all around him, seeping into his pores. He was acutely aware of every swallow she took, every breath, every thump of her heart. The closeness wreaked havoc with the primordial werewolf inside him.

She pointed to the warehouse adjacent to the Tacomi building. “That’s my way onto Tacomi property. I’m going to buy a ticket into the haunted house, slip out the back of the warehouse and use the tree to get over the fence.”

When she finished speaking, she turned to him and waited for his answer. Fringed with long, auburn lashes, her hazel-blue gaze made him want to stare at her all day, to get lost in their mosaic color. No murkiness or darkness hid in their depths, just honest sincerity. Eyeing the Tacomi building and the tall fence all the way around it, he set his jaw. “Why do you want to check out this building?”

She followed his line of sight. “Just following a hunch.”

He cupped her chin, turning her face to his. “Kaitlyn, I want to know why.”

Her gaze dropped to his hand touching her chin and he heard her intake of breath. Landon quickly released her, but not before he registered how soft her skin felt underneath his fingers.

“I’m investigating a connection between the Garotters and the Mafia.”

She swept her hand toward the Tacomi building. “All of this is in relation to illegal pulsar gunrunning.”

Every muscle in Landon’s body tensed in fear for her. If there was a connection and they found out she was sniffing around, the new Garotter regime and the Mafia wouldn’t hesitate to eliminate a threat to their livelihood. He narrowed his gaze. He wanted to protect her, to tell her to go home where she’d be safe, but Kaitlyn was a police officer…a detective. The need to serve for the betterment of the community was in her blood. “I highly doubt your boss would approve of you being here or in there alone.”

She stiffened, her lips thinning in a stubborn line as she leaned against her window. “I’m fine. I’m just researching.”

“But you plan on going in there without backup. It might be a wild goose chase—then again it might not be.”

She sat up straighter and crossed her arms, her action pulling her blue blouse tight against her pert breasts. “But I’m not checking out the place alone. You’ll be with me.”

Her trust surprised the hell out of him. “Is that so?”

A perplexed look crossed her face. “I don’t know why, but something about you makes me want to trust you.” She grinned. “Plus, you didn’t tell my boss I needed a psych evaluation after last night’s adventure in the park. That gives you extra points.”

Landon snorted even as he recognized the obstinate look in her eyes for what it was. She would go through with her plans whether he helped her or not. Tenacious, stubborn woman.

He let out a heavy sigh and nodded, knowing that—for many reasons—

he’d end up regretting his agreement to help.

The brilliant smile she cast his way slammed him hard, pummeling the air from his lungs. That little leprechaun on the Lucky Charms cereal box had nothing on Kaitlyn McKinney’s charm skills.

She cast a quick glance at the haunted house a block down the road. “I’ll meet you outside ‘Scream Central’ at seven.”

He resisted the urge to grunt his disgust at the idea of traipsing through screen sets of all the made-up “bullshit” horror humans concocted to scare the piss out of each other. At least the place would be dark so she wouldn’t see him rolling his eyes as they walked through it.

He gave her a curt nod, then addressed what he’d come to talk to her about. “About last night—”

“Ah, yes, my delusional moments.” Her lips lifted in amusement. He smirked. “What did you see as we walked away? You never did say.”

Pushing her hair over her shoulder, she turned to face him, her expression all business. “I saw a phosphorous iridescent glow in the shape of handprints on the flattened grass surrounding the ashes.” She paused and her brow furrowed as if she were puzzling through the scene in her mind. “It was like whoever left the images behind had squatted beside his captive and had touched the ground a few times.”

Then her eyes opened wider. “Or maybe there was more than one person at the site.”

What she described was much more detailed than what he’d seen. He knew his werewolf vision and ability to feel vibrations beyond other weres was enhanced due to his muted olfactory senses, but he’d just seen iridescent sparkles, not a specific pattern. Maybe whatever special ability she possessed that allowed her to accurately describe the zerker in the ashes also gave her the ability to “see” the entire handprint signatures left behind.

“Thanks for describing it to me,” he said.

“Did you see it, too?” Her eyes were bright with a hopeful look. He might not want her to know about his were abilities, but for some reason he didn’t want her believing she was crazy. He shook his head.

“No, but I was curious if there was something we could follow up on using special lighting or something.”

She blew out a frustrated breath and rested her wrist on the steering wheel. “The rain came down even harder as we were leaving. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing left to check out.”

He nodded in agreement. Silence descended between them, leaving him with little to focus on other than Kaitlyn. His fingers itched to cup the back of her neck and pull her close. His nose burned with the need to glide along the column of her throat and experience her scent up close and personal. His body craved hers…like—he suddenly realized with startling clarity—like he craved the hunt. The excitement of hunting his prey, stalking it, taking the animal down…the exhilaration and adrenaline that rushed through him during a hunt felt startlingly similar to the way he felt right now.

Yet with the hunt, he felt no physical connection to his prey. With Kaitlyn, he felt intimately connected, and an entirely different kind of hunger raged within him where she was concerned. She wasn’t prey, but she was deeply, powerfully…coveted.

He closed his eyes and laid his head back against the headrest, trying to calm the primal instincts claiming his thoughts. The irrepressible sensations rode down his spine, tightening his groin in unfulfilled, arousing knots.

“Are you okay?” Kaitlyn asked.

He jerked away from the feather-light touch of her fingers across his brow and narrowed his gaze so she wouldn’t see his eyes had changed color with his arousal. Many Lupreda females had told him that the unusual green shade was enticing, mesmerizing and entirely irresistible.

“I have all my rabies shots. Honest.” The melodious pitch of her laughter rolled over him in teasing, seductive waves.

“I just have a headache,” he grunted as he gripped the door handle and opened the car door.

Once he got out of the car and was about to close the door, she leaned across the passenger seat and called out, “Seven o’clock sharp, Rourke. Got it?”

“Don’t go sniffing around on your own. You got it?” he responded in a stern tone.

Giving a mock salute, she cast him a half smile and sat back against her seat. “I’ll wait for my escort.”

“Dictionary of Wolves, The Lupine Encyclopedia, Supernatural Phenomenon.” Abby ran her fingers across the spines of the books on the built-in bookshelves behind Kaitlyn. “Interesting collection. I can’t believe I’ve never been in your dad’s office before now,” she mused before she put her hand on the high-back leather chair Kaitlyn sat in. Kaitlyn tapped on the keyboard. “You’re the one who insisted on coming over to learn more about my trip to a haunted house.”

“That’s what best friends do, silly. We’re nosy like that,” Abby said with a snort. “Plus, I had a couple hours to kill before my next lesson starts.”

Kaitlyn glanced up from the laptop to the multitude of books lining the bookshelves and shrugged. “As far as the books go, for as long as I can remember my dad had a thing for wolves. He was a research nut. I guess he just glommed onto the subject matter and really got into it.”

Abby raised her dark eyebrows, accentuating her vivid green eyes. “I’m surprised your mom didn’t pack his stuff away years ago. I mean, it’s not like either your mom or you took up the interest, right?”