"Fuck," I said.
"Hold that thought," Dan said, equally frustrated. He let go of me and walked a few steps away, pulling his phone out of his back pocket and scowling.
Damned phones. Always interrupting us. Sometimes I fantasized about living for a year on an island with no technology. Just me and Dan. Maybe Bug and Jase in huts far away from ours so we could visit but not see them every day. No interruptions. Just a year of peace. With cocktails in coconuts and Dan in tight swim trunks and hot steamy nights—
"Adria," Dan said. My imaginary castaway beach fantasy vanished as my attention snapped back to him. "What can I do for you? Or is it what have you done for me?"
Adria's voice was muffled, but I caught something about "cracked" and "more encryption."
My pulse sped up more than it had from Dan's kisses. Had she done it? Had she broken the encryption?
"Great," Dan said. I could tell he was trying to sound pleased, but there was still a rough edge of frustration thrumming beneath the words. Adria was human. Hopefully she wouldn't be able to hear it.
"That's great work," he added. "We'll come into the office. You can explain it to us then."
"What?" I asked as he ended the call. "What did she find?"
"She got past another layer of the encryption. According to her, she found 'a whole lot more science crap.'"
I sat down on the bed abruptly. All this time. All this time we'd been trying to break this case open and find a new lead, and now we were doing it. We were going to have all my dad's research. Maybe there really was an end in sight.
"Ash?" Dan said. He came and sat beside me. "Are you okay?
"Yes. It's just…I think I was starting to believe that this was never going to end."
He put an arm around me, pulled me in a little. "It will end," he said. "But we're not there yet. Adria said some of the files are still encrypted. She's still working on those."
"It's a start though," I said. "If Dad's work can help reverse whatever Smith has done, it's a start."
He kissed the top of my head. "Yes it is. So we need to get into the Taskforce. See what Adria found. Then we can work out what to do with it."
Right. We needed scientists.
"Did Esme find some contacts?"
Dan nodded. "Yep. We have a few based on what our science guys could make of the initial data dump Adria found. I'll get them to take a look at some of the new stuff, and we'll make a final choice then. I don't want to yank anyone away from their work too soon."
"Okay." I ran a hand through my hair and tried to bring my brain fully back to the case from happy-kissing-Dan-sex-soon world. "I can't say I love her timing."
He looked down at me, his silver eyes still darker than normal, and smiled ruefully. "Rain check?"
"Definitely."
Adria sat behind Dan's desk and typed a series of rapid commands, her bright orange nail polish flashing as her fingers flew over the keys. "I'm dumping this into your secure server, but I've added some extra security checks, too. I'll explain those later, but I figured you probably didn't want anyone getting their hands on this who shouldn't have it."
"No," Dan agreed. "That would be bad." He fiddled with the cuffs of his shirt as he waited for her to work her magic. He had good hands, my wolf, the scars on his wrists from Tate's silver cuffs fading fast. Even though I was keen to learn more about what Adria had found, there was still a large part of me that wished we hadn't been interrupted back at the house.
"Do people often try to hack the FBI?" I asked, trying to make myself focus on Adria and not Dan.
"You'd be surprised what people try for funsies," Adria said, eyes intent on the monitor. "But for cases with this level of clearance, we lock shit down extra tight as a matter of policy. No snooping even from inside the office. People sometimes let curiosity get the better of them. Even people who should know better."
And sometimes, even FBI agents could be corrupted. I didn't think it was likely that Smith had someone inside the Taskforce, but it was a niggling worry in the back of our minds. We hadn't found any signs that anyone in the FBI was helping him, but he’d still managed to stay one step ahead of us a lot of the time.
I glanced at Dan. He didn't seem overly concerned by Adria's words. If he'd been worried about a mole, he would have told me before now.
"Okay," Dan said. "Can you give me a rundown on what you found?"
"Like I said, it's science. There's a bunch of what look like academic papers. Or maybe drafts of academic papers. I ran a search on some of the phrases and couldn't find any matches in any published journals. And then there's a lot of data I don't understand. Research findings, maybe? And a few random files. Images, mostly. I haven't checked those out yet. I haven't gotten into the last database of files yet. That stuff is buried under a lot of security. Maybe that's the notes explaining the rest. I'll keep working on it." She looked at me. "Your dad really wanted to make sure people didn't just stumble into this stuff. I looked at his file and yours for some clues, but so far, nothing."
"I told you he wasn't going to use birthdays for his passwords," I said.
"No," she agreed. "But people have an unconscious tendency to use bits and pieces from important dates and events and connections, even if they think they're being secure. Words or phrases, too. Can you think of anything that might help?"
"I can try," I said. "I don't know how much help it would be. He loved the Beatles. Grunge music. The Mariners. And Tootsie Rolls." I remembered them leading me through the path. But I didn't think he'd use anything like that for a password.
"You two go and talk about it," Dan said. "I'm going to talk to the science guys and see what I can do about finding the right people to help us understand what this means."
I spoke to Adria for about thirty minutes, then headed back to Dan's office. "Any progress?" I asked.
"Science guys have the latest info. They'll make a recommendation from Esme's short list." He swiveled his monitor toward me. "Do you want to take a look? See if any of this stuff makes sense to you?"
"I doubt it will," I said. "My dad used to give me the ‘immunology for dummies’ version of what he did, but I topped out at senior biology and chemistry. Not my thing. I like numbers, remember? Data analysis I can do, but I can't help with the science."
Dan tapped the screen. "Plenty of numbers in this. Lots of statistics."
"Okay, but they're not going to be useful unless you understand what the numbers relate to. And I doubt it's financial." I peered at the screen. Dan had the window open with a list of folders. One of them was labeled "Images." "Did you look at any of the pictures yet?"
He shook his head. "No. Do you want to take a look now?"
"Why not?" I doubted there'd be any photos in there—the images were more likely to be scans or maybe pictures from his research—but who knew?
Dan nodded and clicked to open the image folder. The files were numbered rather than named, and my suspicions were confirmed as we opened the first one, which was a scan of a page of handwritten notes in my dad's scrawling writing. I peered at the screen. It was a couple paragraphs, and most of the words were long scientific terms I didn't recognize.
"These should probably go to your scientists," I said.
"Yep," Dan said. He clicked through the files. More handwritten notes, a couple scanned printouts. And a few pictures that looked to me like microscope slide images. Dad had taught me to use a microscope as a kid and how to prepare something on a slide. He'd even once shown me pictures of the Stoker variation and lycanthropy viruses when he'd been explaining to me how the vaccines worked.
"Definitely for the scientists," I said as Dan clicked on the last file. "You—"
I cut myself off, staring at the screen.
"That's Smith," I said, voice going too high on the last word.
Dan peered at the screen, twisting his head. The man in the image was younger than the man I'd met, and he had more hair—dark hair—and he was grinning, turning back to face the camera. He was seated on a sofa next to a woman with dark hair and a pale blue shirt. I couldn't see anything of her face, but it was definitely Smith. Why had my dad included a picture of Smith with everything else?
"Are you sure?" Dan asked. He'd only ever seen the composite image that Bug and I had worked on with the FBI forensic artist after we'd gotten free from Tate.
"Yes. It's him. It needs to be aged up, but that's him." I started to grin. "Holy crap. We have a picture of him." I'd been excited that we might be able to figure out what Dad had been working on. But now we had a picture of Smith as well. It was like Christmas Day.
Part of what had held us back in our hunt for Smith was our lack of an actual photo of the man. No one who looked like the FBI image had turned up in any of our searches of companies Dad had worked for. With a real photo, the FBI could start searching their databases of faces and CCTV from the city and do all sorts of things they couldn't do with just my memories and a fake name.
Dan grinned back at me. "He can't hide from us now."
It was late by the time we were ready to leave the Taskforce.
I'd downed one too many coffees, riding the buzz. We had a picture of Smith. We had nearly all my dad's data, and we had a picture of Smith. I knew we should go home, should attempt to sleep, but I didn't want to. The detail had checked in and let us know the house was quiet just as we were packing to leave. Bug was safe.
"Why don't we go to Moxie, grab a drink?" I said.
Dan paused from shoving stuff into his laptop bag. "A drink? You don't want to go straight home?"
I shook my head. "Too much coffee."
"It's late."
"It's late, and we deserve a break," I said. "This is a victory, today. We have my dad's research. Let's celebrate. Just one drink."
He held up his hands in surrender. "Okay. Just one. We still have plenty of work to do."
"I know. But not tonight," I said. "C'mon, Dan. Buy a gal some booze. Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky."
"Maybe I want you to buy me a drink," he said, but he was smiling now, and I knew I'd convinced him.
"I will buy you all the drinks you want," I said. "As long as it's somewhere with fancy chairs and soft music and ridiculous bar snacks."
"That sounds like Moxie," he agreed. Given his choice, he probably would have chosen one of the bars the Taskforce frequented. They tended to be more low-key. Moxie was a gossamer confection of a cocktail club that Aunt B and I had discovered on one of our girls’ days out, and Dan and I had been there a few times. It was elegant and whimsical and sexy, and it might just be what both of us needed.
It didn't take long to reach the bar. We parked only a block away and held hands as we walked to the door, Dan's thumb subtly stroking my wrist. My skin tingled in response. One drink and then I was going to set my sights on a different kind of entertainment, maybe.
We were halfway down the short velvet-clad staircase that led into the bar when Dan's phone beeped.
"Not again," I groaned, seriously contemplating grabbing the damned thing and drowning it in the nearest champagne bucket.
Dan pulled out the phone and glanced at the screen. "This won't take long." He tipped his chin toward the bar. "Go. Order me a drink. I'll be five minutes." He turned and headed back up the staircase.
I continued into the club, trying not to feel annoyed. There were two empty stools at the hammered bronze bar, and I slipped into one of them and reached for the cocktail menu. The bartender was young and cute and smiled at me when I ordered two cucumber gin fizzes. He filled a dish with what looked like acid green popcorn and slid it toward me.
"Candied wasabi kettle corn," he said. "It’ll go well with the cucumber in the drinks.”
It sounded like an odd combination to me, but I'd never had a bad drink here, so I was willing to give it a whirl. I tossed a piece into my mouth and bit down, letting the hit of heat and sugar take the edge off my mood. It was odd but good. I smiled and nodded at the bartender.
"Told you," he said and went back to making drinks.
He was fast, and I was staring at the cocktails before I had time to eat much more. I sipped mine. Delicious. It slid the tension out of my spine, and as I took another sip, I glimpsed Dan coming down the stairs.
His eyes met mine and I smiled, arching my back a little, teasing him.
His gaze went dark, and even through the myriad smells fogging the air in the bar, his scent hit me.
Oh, but he was wild tonight, my wolf. I could feel the heat in him, prowling under his skin and setting a shiver over mine like the lightest brush of silken fur. A shimmer of sensation that made me want.
Want whatever he wanted.
Because I knew it would be good.
The loose stride as he walked toward me was easy, fluid. To me it spoke of what he was, and I was surprised that none of the humans around us seemed to sense the beast that stalked through their midst.
Maybe they did. Maybe for a few of them, their skin tingled with shifter buzz like mine had when I was still human. But if they did, I had no time to notice their reaction.
I was too focused on him. On heated silver eyes fixed on mine, and the smile playing around his mouth. He'd pulled his tie off and unbuttoned his collar. Deep blue suit. Stark white shirt, rumpled now after his long day.
Rumpled Dan was maybe my favorite Dan of all.
At least when he was rumpled and hungry for me as he was now.
I shifted on the stool, feeling an ache starting between my legs.
Fierce, as it always was between us. Two sparks that made flame.
I sipped the silly cocktail, the sour and sweet liquor sliding easy down a throat gone dry.
I didn't need the buzz of liquor. Not when there was Dan. But it took a lot of alcohol to give a shifter any real high, so it was really just a distraction.
Which Dan knew.
His smile widened as he reached me. He grabbed the drink waiting for him, took a swallow. "Nice," he said, putting it back.
I looked him up and down. "Not bad," I agreed.
"Only not bad?" Silver glinted at that, his eyes going brighter, the wild wolf tang of him rising around me.
"I'm not a girl who's easily impressed," I said, grinning back at him. I tossed back the rest of the cocktail, licked my lips to catch the last of it. And to see what he would do.
A wolf knew a challenge when it saw one. And this was my wolf.
He stepped closer, between my thighs, his legs pushing mine apart, making me glad for the darkness of the bar as my skirt rode higher.
"I'll have to try harder, then," he said, and then he kissed me.
Not the sort of polite public kiss we usually stuck to. No. That wasn't the mood I'd read. He wanted. And he took my mouth like he was going to have satisfaction there and then.
Wild and hard and urgent. His tongue slipped against mine, and I forgot that we had any sort of audience as the taste of him flooded through me, better than any liquor ever invented. Stronger, too.
The spark flamed, and I moaned and pulled him closer.
It wasn't until his hand was sliding down to my butt and I heard a long low whistle from somewhere behind us that I remembered we had an audience.
I pulled my mouth free, stared into eyes now all dark pupil thinly ringed with silver. Did I look as dazed as him?
I hoped so.
But we were going to have to wait just a little bitbit longer.
"Better," I said, working a little for the teasing smile when my wolf was now all need and haste and hunger that just wanted more of him.
"Just better?" One dark eyebrow quirked. "We'll see about that." His hand curled through mine, and he tugged me off the stool. I obeyed, willing to follow him wherever he was taking me at that point.
He led me back through the bar, the music pulsing through me and emphasizing the need somehow. A primal rhythm that made the wolf want to howl and the woman want to drag him into a dark corner.
We reached his car, parked a little way down the street, spotlit by a streetlamp about ten feet farther on but otherwise dark. He pushed me against the passenger side door and kissed me again, this time tugging the waistband to my shirt up a little so he could slide his hands over my skin.
I forgot where we were again, careless of the rain misting down around us. It would take more than rain for my wolf to care while Dan had his hands on me. Luckily this time, he seemed to remember before I dragged him into the back seat. He pulled back, hit the button on his keys to unlock the door.
"Buckle up." Another spine-tingling grin.
"Oh, I plan to."
It didn't take long to reach my house, though each minute keeping my hands to myself so as not to distract him in the rainy night felt far too long.
But as soon as he pulled into my drive, I undid my seat belt, pushing the door open. I ran for the front door, through the pelting rain, knowing his wolf would be unable to resist the chase. We half tumbled through the front door, giggling and dripping, hands tugging at clothing while we tried to kiss and not fall over.
"Aunt B," I hissed as Dan reached for the zipper at the back of my skirt.
He grinned down at me. "We can be quiet."
"We can be quiet once we get to the bedroom," I said. Aunt B was a solid sleeper, but good sleeper or not, I wasn't having sex in the living room when she could just wander in, searching for a midnight snack. Or a 5:00 a.m. snack, rather. Which for her might be breakfast, given her tendency to be up with the sun.
I grabbed Dan's tie and tugged. "This way."
"Bossy," he said, but he followed as I led him toward the bedroom at the back of the house. Far away from the guest room that was upstairs.
"Sometimes you need to be taken in hand," I said, grinning at him as I closed the bedroom door.
"Ash, you can take me any way you want me," he said, eyes dark and intent.
"Good. Take off your clothes."
I watched him as he undressed. He wore his suits well—hell, he wore most clothes well—but I would never grow tired of the sight of him naked.
Werewolves have fast metabolisms so we find it easier to stay in shape than humans. But Dan worked at staying really fit. He ran—both in human form and wolf—saying it was the easiest way to fit in exercise around his schedule, but the Taskforce had a gym, and he worked out when he could. More than I did.
It showed. He was sculpted muscles beneath lean flesh, strength and power in every line of his body. The moonlight coming through the window kissed his skin, making him shadow and light, his silver eyes bright as he watched me watching him. I hadn't even taken off my shoes and he was naked and waiting for me.
Heat roared through me, but I made myself wait. Let the anticipation build higher.
"See something you like?" he said. He let his hand drift down to his cock, which was hard and ready for me. He wrapped one hand around it, and my knees weakened.
"Definitely," I managed, the word a little too close to a moan.
"What are you waiting for, then?"
"Maybe I'm just enjoying the scenery."
"The scenery gets even better up close." He stroked himself again. "I promise you'll like it."
I smiled at him, feeling the sharpness of it. The wolf wanted her mate. "I'm sure I will," I said. "But I want to watch you do more of that."
I nodded at his hand.
A shiver ran over his skin.
"Show me what you want," I said softly.
He stroked himself again, his moves fierce. His eyes didn't leave mine, even though I could see his breath speed up and his muscles begin to tremble as he continued.
I toed off my shoes and started to unbutton my shirt. Slowly. "Don't come," I said. "Wait for me. Don't stop. But don't finish."
His response was more a grunt than a word. But he obeyed and watched me as I slowly undressed for him. The need in his face, the longing for me made my breath catch as it always did. It was still astonishing that I had him back. That we'd found each other again. That he was meant to be mine.
I wanted to remind us both that was true. After the last of my clothing fell to the floor, I walked to Dan. Wrapped my hand over his. He stilled, breathing fast. The gold of his skin was flushed with red across his chest, and the rapid thump of his heart echoed mine.
"You're killing me here," he said.
"Oh, but what a fun way to go," I said, squeezing slightly so he groaned. With my free hand, I pulled his head down to me and kissed him. First his lips because I wanted the taste of him in my mouth, but then I trailed kisses down his throat. He moaned again and his head fell back.
Trust.
I pressed my teeth into his neck. Not biting but claiming. He was mine. I was his. Sometimes he was in charge; sometimes I was. That was how it would work with us. We were a pair. Equally matched.
He rumbled a pleased noise as I lifted my head. Then apparently he'd reached his breaking point, because he swept me up into his arms, and before I could catch my breath, I was on my back on the bed with Dan over me, kissing me madly.
I didn't object. I was aching for him.
He pressed his teeth into my neck, gently as I had done to him, and I growled softly and wrapped my legs around his hips. "Less biting, more—"
He cut off the words with his mouth. He was so hard between my legs, pressed against my clit, giving me shivers in all the right places. I gasped, the sensation mingled with the memory of him standing there, stroking himself. The heat bloomed and burned through my skin, and I shifted beneath him, trying to find the angle where I could have all of that hard and ready inside me.
"Please," I murmured against his lips. "Please, Dan."
"I thought you wanted to enjoy the scenery."
"Fuck the scenery," I muttered. I tried to move my hand down to encourage him, but he caught my wrist, pinning my hands above my head.
"Show me what you want," he said.
I arched against him, feeling the slide of wetness against him. "That. You. Us." I arched again, and he smiled.
"Well, if you put it that way." He pulled his hips back and then pushed them forward, and just like that, we were one again.
Together.
Bound by this magic we could create between us.
Dan started slowly at first, teasing me, keeping my wrists pinned as he moved, driving me wild. He knew me too well now, knew exactly how to make me crazy. He kept up the same steady, sure pace until I was writhing beneath him, begging him for more. And then, when I was on the edge of desperation, he unleashed his strength and gave me what I wanted. What we both wanted.
Took us down into the place where it was pure instinct and need, where the animal and the human met. Where the bond between us lived. And pulsed between us as the pleasure built.
"Mine."
The word seemed to shimmer around us, filled my ears. Filled my heart. I didn't know if he said it or if it had been me. But it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that it was the truth. He was mine, I was his, and there was heat and pleasure and his skin slick against mine, his heartbeat in my ears, his liquid silver eyes burning into me until I couldn't hold on any longer, and the orgasm that ripped through me stole my breath and my mind.