Brandi (6 page)

A familiar figure in a white coat walked towards them. When he passed by, Brandi growled low in her throat. She had to fight the urge to howl and break his ear drums when Dr. Santiago flinched and jumped in alarm. The tablet he clutched flew from his grip and went skittering down the hallway floor. The nervous doctor scrambled after it. She snorted at his fright and grinned as they walked on through what turned out to be a mostly empty building.

As they stepped into the elevator, Fallon and Lars were speculating about whether or not the man would have to go change clothes again.

Brandi told herself she shouldn’t feel so proud.

Chapter 5

She had slept with the bedroom door open, but Gareth hadn’t stirred all night. If he’d been human, she would have worried about him having a deadly concussion. Since he was a werewolf, she decided to risk not waking him when he probably just needed to sleep and heal.

This morning she sipped coffee as she watched Gareth still sleeping. It wasn’t something she had gotten to do much over the last couple of months. Normally he was awake long before her, but the concrete head bashing must have set his internal alarm clock back a bit, not to mention the time change from traveling.

She became wary when he rolled to face her, but her wolf perked up and whined in welcome. Her loud sigh over her internal conflict was unpreventable.

“Want some coffee?” she asked, pointing at her cup. “I promise not to put cyanide in it.”

Grunting, Gareth reached out a hand. “Sure. Give me yours… just in case.”

Gareth snorted in disbelief when Brandi looked longingly at her cup before handing it over. Surrendering her morning brain fuel was as close to an apology as he was likely ever going to get from her given the seriousness of her attack on him. His head was still throbbing, and under the pain, he was hurt and mad.

Not that he blamed Brandi for what she did in retaliation for waking up strapped to another gurney. He just wondered why he’d woke up on her couch this morning. He was on guard now. She needed him for something or he wouldn’t be here.

Balancing the half-empty cup, he rose to a sitting position and drank that first bracing sip. It tasted a bit like her, a fact that had him sighing in frustration. The more he was around Brandi—the more she was being imprinted on his senses. God only knew what fresh tortures would follow a true mating with the volatile she-wolf. If the spirits chose, he might actually start to hear her talking in his head. Mind speak hadn’t happened with his other mates, but the other two hadn’t been anything like the woman staring him down now. It was kind of alarming to know she’d just as soon kill him as have sex with him.

“It’s early yet, but I’m glad you’re awake. Some kind soul left a partial can of coffee in the refrigerator and filters in the cabinet, but there’s no food in the apartment. We’ll have to stop to eat along the way to confronting my doom.”

Hearing her familiar sarcasm, Gareth looked at her over the edge of the cup as he drank. “Are you going along with me willingly or will there be gunplay and bondage after breakfast?”

Brandi shrugged. “No shooting at least. My gun is missing. I assume it was confiscated yesterday.”

She studied him as she watched him enjoy the rest of her coffee. Her paltry few sips hadn’t been nearly enough to banish her restless night. Visions of sex with Gareth had haunted her dreams and made her feel genuine regret for her violence toward him.

She must have woken twenty times or more to check on him, before she’d finally climbed from the bed this morning and gotten dressed.

For the last thirty minutes, she had been willing him to open his eyes and prove he was okay.

She’d also spent that time trying to figure out why she hadn’t killed him. Gareth’s death would have solved at least part of her problems. She could have taken out her betraying handler afterward and quietly disappeared. There were many places to hide in the world where no one would think to look for her. Fallon and Lars might have been ordered to retrieve her, but she had a feeling they wouldn’t have bothered to do so.

But who was she trying to fool? She wouldn’t kill Gareth, or Lane, because she couldn’t run away from the shitty situation she was in. Her sense of self-preservation wasn’t larger than her concern for Ariel and Heidi.

Gareth hadn’t just brought shit down on her head with his betrayal. He’d brought it down on her pack.

Ariel might have what it took to elude Gareth’s department, but Heidi would be picked up before she knew what had happened to her. Heidi’s chances of thwarting men like Santiago… much less another insane Crane… well, they were nil.

Never one to box with shadows, Brandi’s internal soul searching had been more wisely spent on finding a rationalization about Gareth’s presence on her couch. After hours of study, she suspected she had spared his life simply because he was good in bed. The thought made her want to sigh again, but she fought the urge until it went away.

Was she shallow? Maybe she was. She definitely liked looking at him. Gareth wasn’t what you would call pretty. Life—too much life—showed on his face and in his hands. But she found him immensely attractive and her interest in him kept growing the longer she was with him.

Maybe it was the silver wingtips at his temples or the lines across his forehead. She also liked the way his steady, green gaze turned to sparkling emerald chips when he was moving inside her with steady precision.

Why in hell did he have to be a retired agent?

Her fondness for Gareth had been easier to accept when she believed he was nothing more than a simple cattle farmer. Him being a stuffy, but compassionate, werewolf Beta had barely blipped on her warning radar. It had gone totally silent after they started sleeping together. That was her real problem.

She was devastated by Gareth’s betrayal, partly because she hadn’t seen any deception happening. He had held her gaze while inside her and she’d only been charmed by the directness of it. Yet the whole time she’d had no idea who or what he really was.

Her jaded life had been filled with deceitful people and acts, but Gareth was the first person she could ever recall so thoroughly fooling her. She could never again view him as anything but a dangerous equal. It was why she was still so pissed. He had ruined her dream.

It had been nice to think of Gareth as someone she might actually want to go back to Wasilla for one day. He had destroyed her lovely illusion of having a lover she would actually miss. She hated him for that alone, but hate was not what she was feeling after her dreams last night. This morning she was back to wanting to rip his clothes off. She hated him for that too.

His steady gaze brought her out of her thoughts and back to having to deal with the reality of what to do about him today. He was going to turn her in and there was no stopping it from happening. The narrowed eyed, suspicious man on her couch wasn’t nearly as appealing as the one she had almost let herself fall for in Alaska. This one she now knew better than to trust. Her dream about a possible life with Gareth had ended as badly as all the others she’d ever allowed herself.

“If you’re planning my death, tell your Alpha I said to keep my truck. Lafayette can have my cattle. Matt can divide up the rest of my stuff as he sees fit.”

Brandi huffed at Gareth’s dry humor about dying. “You’re in a generous mood today.”

“Not really. I should have called Lafayette when I first laid eyes on you. Instead, I kept you for myself. Thirty-five head of cattle isn’t a fair trade for the satisfaction I found between your legs.”

“Keep talking about me like I’m a commodity and the knot on your forehead is going to seem like a love tap. Outwardly I may appear calm this morning, but inside I’m still very pissed at you,
Agent Longfeather
. Consider yourself warned.”

Gareth snorted and finished off the coffee. “Pissed about what? All I’m really guilty of is making you like me more than you wanted to. Sorry if I made you
feel
something,
Agent Jenkins
. I know how much you hate that.”

Brandi stood and walked over to take the cup from his hands. He could have used her close proximity to attack her, but to what end? Gareth wasn’t the kind of person who thrived on getting even or he would have tried to already.

No—what Gareth wanted was her cooperation. And that was what she would give him—until she figured out what she was up against. She was tired of being a science puppet. She had no plans to be one again.

“Yes, you did make me feel something for you, Gareth. And you know what? Finding out I was wrong hurt just as much as the last time some duplicitous bastard tricked me into caring. I guess I should have known better at my age than to be so stupid again, no matter how nice you talked.”

“Damn it, Brandi. I never meant to hurt you. Things escalated before I could work out how to better handle the situation. All we can do now is draw the trail away from the rest of our life.”

“Well, that’s your opinion of what needs to happen. I don’t know enough to have one yet. Tell me something, Gareth. You knew two months ago I was going to track down the truth about what happened because I told you. Hell, we drove to the Feldspar site together and you still said nothing about what you knew. You led me on personally and eventually sold me out professionally. You’ve been an agent for longer than I have. What conclusions would you draw in my shoes?”

Gareth rubbed his head. “A hundred years ago I made faster and better decisions. What I did with you was because I was being too cynical to see your side of it. After you left me to come here, our personal connection overrode my reluctance to get more involved. Doesn’t the fact that I came to help you tell you I genuinely care?”

“Not really,” Brandi said flatly, turning away from the pleading in his gaze. “All your lame ass excuses tell me is that you don’t want to show up today empty-handed. I imagine doing so might bring a ton of shit raining down on your head. I’m sure that would mess up your quiet retirement plans in Wasilla. Honestly? I think you’re turning me in because you knew they’d come looking for your ass if you didn’t.”

“Damn it. You’re not even trying to understand… and you’re definitely not hearing what I’m saying. Those emotional walls you’re building won’t keep the world out forever. I’m here because I care about you. That’s my only reason.”

Brandi shrugged. “Tell yourself whatever story you want. I didn’t ask you to come after me. In fact, I wish like hell you hadn’t. I might have gotten to keep my illusion that some great guy was going to be waiting for me when all this shit was over.”

Gareth let out a heavy sigh. It had been a long time since he’d screwed up so badly. “Brandi…”

“Let this conversational dead horse die, Gareth. Use the master bathroom while I make some calls. You can deliver me to your boss after we get some food.”

***

They walked in silence to the curb outside her apartment building and climbed together into the nearest cab. At her favorite Alexandria restaurant, she ordered the largest rare steak on the menu, plus some eggs and toast to mask her extreme need for the meat. Gareth duplicated her order and their nervous waitress scurried off to fill it. The woman probably couldn’t have said what put her on edge around them, but Brandi imagined two silently quarreling werewolves put off quite a bad vibe.

“Let’s call a truce over breakfast. I need the fuel. I’m sure you do too,” she said.

Gareth narrowed his gaze. Her calm covered anxiety. The smell of her stress was a subtle perfume on her skin. It made him ill to know he’d caused most of it.

“I’m sorry now that I didn’t just tell you. I wasn’t sure if I would be welcomed back to my department enough to actually be of any help in the situation. In fact, I wasn’t even sure I was coming after you until you left. About the time you got on your plane, I got a bad feeling and couldn’t stay away. I didn’t turn you in—at least not the way you’re imagining. I just volunteered to be your liaison when you got here.”

Brandi sighed and shook her head. “Let me see if I understand this, Gareth. You didn’t figure I needed to know the man sharing my bed was a former agent like I was? Should I pretend to be shocked by your decision so it fits your paradigm? I hate to deflate your sense of self-importance, but you’re not the first man I’ve slept with who’s ever lied to me about who he was.”

“Damn it—I didn’t lie to you. I just didn’t say anything. Matt is the only person who knows about my past. When I’m in Wasilla, I raise cattle and work to keep the peace among our kind. I’m a pack Beta. That’s what I am.”

“If only I had a nickel for every time a man who fucked me over declared he was just a simple guy leading a simple life. Want to tell me now this is all in my head? I also heard that excuse a lot when I went digging for the truth.”

“Be flip all you want, but it won’t change reality. You fell into my life… not the other way around. I didn’t know anything about you when you showed up, except you were in Alaska working for the National Wildlife Foundation. That was not the same thing as knowing who you really reported to, and you never revealed what organization it was until you’d called them.”