Private Release (2 page)

She could do almost all the same things as she used to. Drive a car, cook, orgasm. All she couldn’t do was run and she had to rely on these crutches to walk around. That’s it.

She could’ve died when that money launderer she’d been tracking shot her, shattering her pelvis and damaging her femoral nerve.

Brianna sighed. “I’m sorry.”

Adele took a seat across from her sister, wishing Brianna would go so she could get ready for her meeting with Jared Stevens. This job would give her the financial security she would need for a while. She could get her life back on track. Perhaps start dating some more, though not many of her dates had been successful.

“Why are you going to meet this guy at ten p.m.? That seems awfully odd,” Brianna said.

“Who said billionaires were sane?”

“Didn’t his father just die or something?”

“I think so, but that’s not what I’m investigating.”

Brianna frowned. “It all sounds fishy to me. How did you get this job anyways?”

“My, we’re full of questions tonight,” Adele teased.

“Humor me.”

Adele sighed. “Gordon Thomas, whom I graduated with, referred me for the job. Jared Stevens is his new brother-in-law.”

“I remember him,” Brianna sighed with a dreamy quality to her voice. “Married? That’s too bad.”

Adele snorted. “As are you.”

Brianna chuckled, all the previous tension between them melting away. She set down her mug on the table. “I should go. Are you sure you don’t want me to drive you downtown?”

“Positive. Go home, Brianna. I’ll be okay.”

Brianna nodded. “Call me when you get home okay?”

Adele rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

Brianna gave her a halfhearted smile. “I’ll show myself out.”

When the door clicked shut, Adele relaxed. She didn’t realize how tense she had been while Brianna was here. She knew her sister would give her trouble when she found out Adele actually got a job.

Maybe she would have extra money this month to splurge a bit and not totally rely on her disability and insurance checks. She saw a bottle of nice wine in her future.

Too bad she didn’t have someone to share it with.

For the time being.

If she could complete this job and find Beare Enterprise’s missing funds then there was nothing she couldn’t accomplish.

Nothing.

Winnipeg at ten o’clock in the evening on a Wednesday was quiet. The air was changing. Winter’s last grasp was fading, as the warm wind blew around the tall office buildings. Adele always loved the sound of the chinook this time of year. She’d be glad to see winter go. Maneuvering on icy and snow-covered sidewalks was not her favorite thing in the world and Manitoba winters were brutal.

Not that she was looking forward to the bug-infested summers, but at least she wouldn’t slip on a bug-covered pathway like she would an icy one.

Under her heavy winter overcoat Adele wore her best pinstripe suit. She wanted to be as professional as possible considering that she was dealing with the CEO of a multibillion dollar company. Beare Enterprises had the attention of the world, not only because of its assets, but because of where it was located. Winnipeg, Manitoba was hardly the financial capital of Canada. They were landlocked and farther north than Toronto.

Adele wanted to be their forensic accountant. She wanted to help them track down the stolen funds.

She wanted to prove to Brianna and her old comrades in the RCMP that she still was a viable investigator. That she still had what it took to make the cut.

When she pulled up in front of the downtown Winnipeg high-rise building a valet stepped out from the shadows. He walked around the other side of the car and opened the door.

“Good evening, madame.”

“Good evening,” Adele replied. First she undid her seatbelt and then she reached over and grabbed her forearm crutches. Setting them on the ground, she slid her arms into place and stood. “Just give me a moment.” She opened the back door and picked up her messenger bag.

“Do you need assistance?” the valet asked.

“I’m perfectly fine.” Adele shut the car door with her hip and handed the valet her key.

With as much decorum as she could muster, she headed toward the tinted-glass double doors. Through the tint she could make out the shadow of a large figure and she paused as she tried to see the person on the other side of the glass. Adele could only assume it was a man because the shadow had to be almost seven feet tall.

The doors slid open automatically and the shadow in question stepped out. He was the scariest man Adele had ever seen and she had been on countless stakeouts and raids when she was in RCMP. She had dealt with some of Manitoba’s most hardened criminals, but this guy was a piece of work.

His blue eyes glittered like sapphires in the fluorescent light. He was bald and three hideous, jagged scars ran down from the corner of his left eye to the corner of his mouth, dragging part of the lip down with it. His massive arms were folded across his chest and they were horrifically scarred as well, from his elbows to the tops of his hands. Even though the air was a bit mild, it was still cold, but the man was bare-armed and didn’t seem to be at all affected by the weather.

Hello, Nanook of the North.

“Can I help you?” he asked, his voice deep and gravelly. This was definitely someone she didn’t want to meet down the back alley. She would profile this guy as a hardened criminal, but that aspect of the job was not her forte.

“I’m here to see Jared Stevens. I have an appointment.”

Shock briefly crossed his stone-hard expression. “Who are you?”

“Who are you?” Adele countered.

“Security for Mr. Stevens. No one gets in without clearing with me.”

“I’m Adele Banks. I’m the private investigator Mr. Stevens hired.”

He cocked an eyebrow, his gaze raking her from head to toe, making her extremely uncomfortable and a bit pissed off. She knew his gaze was lingering on her crutches and she wanted to defend herself. Scream at him for making his silent assumptions, but she kept her mouth shut.

She didn’t like this guy very much.

After what seemed like an eternity the security guard turned and the doors slid open. “Follow me, Constable Banks.”

“Just Ms. Banks. I’m no longer a member of the RCMP.”

A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “Fine, Ms. Banks.” He stepped aside and let her walk ahead of him.

Adele didn’t really relish the idea of turning her back on this guy, but what choice did she have? Once the door slid shut behind her, the security guard punched in a code, apparently locking them in.

“Follow me,” he said gruffly, walking past her and heading straight toward a gilded bank of elevators.

Adele followed him, but let her gaze wander over the lobby. It struck her as odd, but this didn’t look like the lobby of a company. It seemed much too residential to be in the financial district.

They stopped at the elevators. Once again the security guy popped open another panel and entered a code. The elevator doors slid open.

“After you, Ms. Banks.”

Adele shuffled as quickly as she could into the plush elevator. He followed her and the doors snapped shut. He pressed the button for penthouse and the elevator began to rise, giving her that queer sinking feeling she always experienced when riding express elevators.

He said nothing more to her on the ride up and she was thankful. It would give her time to collect herself to make a good impression on Jared Stevens. She didn’t even know what he looked like. The press had been trying for years to get pictures of the Stevens family, but with no luck, and standing next to their security guard she began to understand why.

The elevator slowed and stopped without so much as a bump. The doors opened and Adele had to stop herself from gasping when she saw the elegant apartment laid out before her with a three-sixty view of downtown Winnipeg.

“Mr. Stevens will be joining you shortly. Make yourself at home.”

“Thanks,” Adele said. She stepped out of the elevator and when the doors closed she breathed a sigh of relief that she was away from that man.

She wasn’t sure where she should go and she felt a bit odd ambling around Jared’s apartment when she hadn’t even met the man. She headed for a bank of windows close to the elevator so she could take in the sight of Winnipeg from so high up, and could see when Jared Stevens entered the room.

Adele set her attaché case down on the parquet floor and shimmied out of her parka. Drat, she needed to find a place to hang it and stat. There was a door just off to the left from the bank of elevators and she hoped it was the closet

* * * * *

Jared was as hard as a rock.

After his meeting with the elders he headed straight for his shower. He was hoping the water would take the edge off his hard-on.

It seemed he was perpetually in an aroused state when he was alone, but when he was around other females, especially of his kind, he had no reaction.

For fuck’s sake, he was just in a meeting talking about his future mate, who was present and gorgeous. If it had been a year ago he’d be ready to mount her and mark her as his own. Cassandra was everything he thought he wanted. She was the kind of mate his father would’ve wanted for him.

She was blonde, blue-eyed, with creamy-white skin—an innocent. Her family was high up in the clan and she was also in heat, but he felt nothing.

His cock had a mind of its own lately and he got hard at the most awkward times. The worst thing about it, he couldn’t release. No matter how much he jerked off.

His release, like his shifting, was stuck in neutral.

Standing here in the shower, he was as hard as anything. He braced one arm against the tile backsplash. Rivulets of almost scalding hot water ran down his back. Jared closed his eyes and tired to the picture the face of Cassandra, but it was not her face he could see.

The face he saw was blurred, but he was aware of long black hair the color of midnight, her skin copper and the scent of green tea thick in the air. There was an aura of power surrounding her, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on but it made the trapped bear inside of him growl with the need to release.

Her body was lithe, her muscles taut. She was a warrior, this mystery woman who had been haunting his dreams since his return to Winnipeg.

Dark eyes briefly came into focus, sparkling like obsidian in brilliant sunshine. She beckoned him closer as she lay down on a fluffy white bed and spread her thighs, her sex glistening, moist, pink.

“Fuck,” he cursed as he gripped his cock, wrapping his hand around it. It pulsed under his fingers and he began to pump up and down the length of it.

God he wanted to come so bad.

He wanted to shift so bad.

The bear inside him roared and he increased the tempos of his strokes, paying close attention to the underside of his head, trying to work an orgasm. His balls tightened and pressure pressed against his lower back, but nothing happened. Over and over he came to the brink. Jared was poised and ready to jump, only he couldn’t. He was so close to climaxing, his blood rushing like fire through his veins.

The scent of the mystery woman was stronger and instinctively he knew the only way he could release was to thrust his cock into her tight pussy.

Only she was just a figment of his imagination. She wasn’t real.

“Fuck,” he roared and then slammed his fist against the frosted glass doors in frustration, shattering it. Blood gushed from his hand. He stepped over the broken glass and blindly grabbed a towel, wrapping it around his hand to stanch the flow of blood. As he tied it off there was a gasp of surprise and the voice was distinctly female, it was followed by shuffling and the thud of the door closing.

Jared’s head snapped up. The scent of that woman he’d been dreaming of was heavy in the air. Like his figment had materialized. It was clinging to the tendrils of steam from his shower.

He turned off the water and headed straight for the bathroom door, leaving a trail of water behind him. All he could do was follow the enticing scent of that intoxicating perfume.

Jared flung open the door. He was pissed someone had invaded his privacy, but he had to know where that smell came from. The perfume that drove his inner beast. “What in the name of…?” He lost track of what he was going to say when he caught sight of the beautiful human female bracing herself against the elevator doors.

It was the woman he had pictured countless times, only more in focus.

His instincts told him—screamed at him—that
this
was her.

Her scent carried her fear and he could see her pulse point pounding at the base of her throat. Her dark eyes were wide, her pink lips formed a perfect O of shock and his bear growled inside like thunder rolling, loud and clear.

This was the female his inner bear wanted, this human.

Human?

Jared took a step back. She was human. He couldn’t have her as a mate. His mate was chosen. The chief had to have someone pure-blooded.