Kodiak's Claim (6 page)

“Depends on your definition of bad. My ex-boyfriend was a lying, cheating jerk who thought I should eat a salad at every meal.”

Reid couldn’t help but retort, “You dumped him because he wanted you to eat like a rabbit?”

“It’s not a meal if there isn’t protein on the plate.”

Reid almost applauded. Too many women nowadays were obsessed with weight, mainly the not gaining of. He appreciated a woman who held a different view and, even better, lived it. The pie plate was clean when Tammy handed it to his grandmother.

“You also said something about cheating?” his ursa inquired as she rinsed off the plate.

“Apparently, he was under the mistaken impression that he didn’t have to practice fidelity with me. He thought wrong.”

“Reid here doesn’t cheat. Although, he does have a temper. Why, one might say he turns into a bear when riled.” His grandmother shot him a smirk as she said it.

Tammy, however, didn’t catch the pun. Why would she? Humans didn’t believe in shapeshifters and the clans saw no reason to change that.

“Nothing wrong with getting mad so long as it’s justified,” Tammy said.

“Like punching people for supposedly sneaking?” Reid interjected.

“That wasn’t out of anger, but self-preservation.”

So would throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her up to his room then fall into the realm of self-preservation? Because he was beginning to wonder about his mental state. It sure harbored some interesting visuals about what they should be doing, and didn’t include hanging out with his grandmother in a kitchen tearing apart men and discussing the best forms of revenge.

“I should get to my office,” he announced.

“Office, but it’s dark,” Tammy observed.

“Welcome to the north. You just missed the daily dose of daylight.”

“What time is it? Last time I checked it was almost suppertime.”

“You slept right through the night and the morning. It’s actually just after two o’clock in the afternoon.”

“Two? You mean I slept practically a whole day?”

He shrugged. “I guess you were tired.”

“I was drugged.”

“Not that much.”

She glared at him.

His grandmother chuckled. “Now, now children. No sense bickering over it. What’s done is done. Let’s move past that.”

That worked for Reid. Especially since instead of riling his temper with her verbal challenge, the city girl roused other things. “I’m going to grab some stuff from my office then head over to my headquarters.”

“You work from home?”

“Not usually, although I do have a home office. I should have gone in to work this morning, but I didn’t want you to wake alone while my grandmother ran some errands, so I offered to babysit.”

“I’m a big girl. You could have left me a note.”

“But a note wouldn’t have fed you or given you the answers you needed.”

“Thank you then, I guess.” Grudgingly given, but he preferred that to gushing insincerity.

“Since you’re awake now, and Ursa is back, I’ll head over to the office. There are some things I need to check on.”

She scrambled off the stool. “If you’re leaving, I should come with you. You know, to get a look at your base of operations. Maybe talk to some staff.”

Did she not understand he was looking for an excuse to escape her, not get closer? The worst part? He couldn’t tell her no because she’d probably accuse him of hiding something.

Yeah, a major boner.

Before he could think of a plausible excuse, his grandmother, who for some reason seemed determined to work against him, had Tammy bundled in her ridiculous red parka, wearing a DOT-approved helmet, with her arms around his waist on his snowmobile. He could have taken his truck, but the time it would have taken to warm it up made it not worth it. But next time he should make the effort because having her hugging him, even with their many layers, had a ridiculous effect on him.

One he didn’t like at all, but his bear really enjoyed.

Tammy wasn’t quite sure how she ended up sitting on the ass end of a snowmobile holding onto Reid for dear life as he maneuvered a dark trail.

She blamed the delicious pie and his grandmother, who seemed to have a way of getting her to do and say things she didn’t meant to.

I’m here to ask the questions.
And yet, Tammy had found herself answering plenty as the old lady drew out most of her life history, a history Reid appeared to listen to even if he didn’t add much other the occasional manly grunt and half-hidden smiles.

So much for his claim he didn’t have a sense of humor. She’d caught his snort of amusement when she’d told his grandmother how she handled her cheating ex. She’d seen him stifle a grin when she explained her mother’s theory about aliens and their radioactive Northern Lights creating mutants. What she didn’t understand was the smoldering interest in his gaze as he watched her devour that most delicious sandwich and decadent pie. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think he found the sight of her eating arousing.

As if. No man liked to see a woman pack away enough food for two. In her defense, she’d not eaten a decent meal since leaving home.

His possible sexual interest—which probably had to do more with the novelty of someone new than her looks—would have been easier to handle if it wasn’t reciprocated. The more time she spent in the man’s presence, the more she wanted to eat him, quite literally. Or ride him. Or, heck, have him ride her. At this point, her riled hormones didn’t much care so long as they got some action. But Tammy refused to dwell on or travel down that road, for a multitude of reasons.

Firstly, he was under investigation. She didn’t get the impression he was the type to steal from his own company and have people killed or taken prisoner, but then again, most mass murderers seemed like the nicest of guys until the bodies turned up in their yard or basement.

Second, a good-looking guy like him probably had his pick of the ladies. She had no interest in having her curvy frame and technique compared against that of another woman. Positive self-esteem only went so far.

And thirdly, she was only here temporarily. Even if he was into big, beautiful women, and they did turn out to be wildly compatible sexual partners, it couldn’t go anywhere. It wouldn’t last. She had her job and apartment back home. Getting involved wasn’t conducive for a healthy emotional heart. She could too easily fall for the big guy and, in the process, end up crushed, and not just by his big ol’ body if he collapsed on her after sex.

All the reasons in the world to keep her distance, and yet she snuggled closer as he sped along, the rumble of the engine making conversation impossible. Loud motor or not, though, there was no mistaking the crack of a rifle shot—not to a girl who learned how to fire a gun before she rode a bike. Her dearly departed father had odd notions when it came to father-daughter time.

A second and third loud crack quickly followed.

Before she could wonder if hunting was allowed so close to human habitation, she was tumbling to the ground. A pile of squishy snow broke her fall, but it was the heavy, bulky frame atop hers that made her wonder if she’d die.

Insurance agent investigating a claim suffocated under the body of Reid Carver, who was shot while riding his snowmobile to work.
She shoved at his body, relieved when he growled, “Stop squirming, or are you intentionally trying to make yourself and that bright red coat of yours into a target?”

“Someone’s shooting at me?”

“You. Me. Both of us. Does it really matter? We’re just lucky they missed. No thanks to the giant bulls-eye you’re wearing.”

“Are you seriously blaming me for this?” she hissed. “Shouldn’t the fact I’m wearing a red coat be warning hunters away?” While not quite a safety vest, bright colors were recommended so hunters could differentiate folk from prey.

“If they’re hunters.”

As his words sank in, her eyes widened, and her voice came out in a hushed whisper. “You’re not kidding, are you? You think someone’s trying to kill us. But why?”

“Because of your ugly coat? How the fuck should I know?” he grumbled as he lifted his head and scanned the darkness. For what, she couldn’t have said. It wasn’t as if he could actually see anything, not without those special nighttime vision goggles. But stranger than that, she could swear he sniffed the air.

“I’m going to stand first and see if anyone takes another potshot,” he announced.

“Great. Just make sure if you do get hit, that you don’t land on me. I’d prefer to not die from broken ribs and internal bleeding.”

“Are you implying I’m heavy?”

“Not implying, stating, and I should know given you’re squishing me right now.”

“To protect you.”

Since she didn’t have a reply to that, because it was kind of nice, she didn’t bother, but she kept a close eye on him as he slowly stood to his full height and did a three-sixty, as if tempting the shooter to try again.

When only silence, broken by whistling wind, was the answer, he reached a hand out to her. Since she’d sunk in some snow, she grasped it and let him heave her out. To his credit, he didn’t strain, grunt or exclaim, “Geez, Tammy, lay off the Cheetos.”

Given his early words about her coat, she held her breath as she stood alongside him, all too aware of what a vivid target she painted. But the danger seemed to have passed. Or not existed in the first place. Despite his assertion, perhaps he was just paranoid. Maybe the stray shot truly was just a hunter who got too close.

“So now what?” she asked, brushing the snow off her legs.

“Now we go to my office, hopefully without further incident, unless you’d prefer to go back to my place.”

If he’d added something along the lines of so “we can warm up”, she might have taken the latter option. However, she got more of the impression that he meant he’d drop her off if she was too scared.

She had her dad to thank for her lack of true fear when it came to guns. If someone was going to shoot her, they could do it, whether she was at his business headquarters or his house. If, on the other hand, it was just a stray shot, then she had nothing to fear.

“Let’s keep going. I’m here to do a job, not eat your grandma’s cooking.” Although said cooking would definitely be a perk to this assignment in this sun-forsaken place.

With that decided, Reid ambled over to the snowmobile, which had kept going a short distance after they dove off before halting in a snowbank, where the engine stalled. As Reid tugged at the back end of the machine, lifting and heaving it back a few feet to set it on the trail, she hugged herself, perusing the forest around her.

Did the gunman hide behind the trunk of a tree? Did the sight of a gun track her? And was that a wire strung across the trail?

Tammy might have missed seeing it entirely if not for the speck of snow she spotted that appeared to hover in the air. Except it wasn’t levitating. As she approached, the taut wire became easier to identify, but of more concern was its location.

“Fuck me, who the hell did this?” Reid muttered under his breath, apparently having spotted the trap.

“It’s right on the snowmobile trail.”

“Yup. Chest high and meant to—” Reid paused as if to choose his words. “—um, unseat a driver.”

Unseat and injure, Tammy would also wager. The oddest coincidence occurred to her. “I guess it’s a good thing someone shot at us.”

Reid caught on quickly. “Else we would have run into it. How lucky.” Except the grim set to his face didn’t seem to really think so at all.

“Was it meant for you?”

“If you’re asking how many people know I use this trail, I’d say everybody, just like people in town use it all the time too. There are a couple of trafficked routes. I hope someone’s not trying to be a smartass by stringing these up for shits and giggles.”

“I don’t think it’s funny.”

“Neither do I, but we have our share of teens and other bored residents who sometimes don’t think before they act.”

“Do we need to report this?”

“Definitely. And I’m going to suggest they check the other trails. We can’t have this kind of stuff happening.”

“How do we take it down? I didn’t bring any scissors,” she joked.

“I’ve got something. Turn away while I cut it. I wouldn’t want the end to snap and hit you.”

Tammy gave him her back, and with only the slightest of pings, Reid took care of the wire.

Trail clear, they straddled the snowmobile and got on their way. They made the rest of the trip without getting shot at, which she took as a good sign, and with Reid driving slower than before as he kept an eye out for more wires.

He parked his sled in front of a boring building alongside a dozen or so others. The snowy lot shared space with a lot of SUVs and pickup trucks too, all vehicles capable of handling extreme weather conditions.

Given the biting wind, she didn’t pull off the helmet until they got inside, and when she did, a mass of curls tumbled around her shoulders.
I don’t even want to imagine how I look.

“You can put your gear over there.” Reid pointed to some hooks and shelves by the front entrance where goggles, helmets, and snow gear hung. She peeled off her layers and slid on the complimentary slippers sitting in a box. Wild hair, rosy cheeks, bulky sweater, two layers of bottoms, big wooly socks, and plaid slip-ons. What a way to make an impression, especially when faced with a perfectly groomed and poised blonde manning the reception desk.

Reid made the introductions. “Jan, this is Ms. Roberts from the insurance bureau. Please give her access to any files she needs regarding the trucks that went missing and their cargo. I’ll be in my office if needed.”

He’s just going to abandon me?
Yup. Without a glance in her direction, Reid left, stepping through an open doorway and firmly shutting the door. Hmph. So much for thinking he had the hots for her. Wrong! He couldn’t escape her presence fast enough.

“Travis warned me you’d be coming, so I’ve already got the files ready for you,” Jan said as she opened a drawer and pulled forth several folders.

“Have you worked for the company long?”