I pondered my current life choices right up to the minute a new skip trace came through. Brad Bointon. Arrested for theft of a tractor trailer full of adult undergarments meant to supply the local stores and nursing homes, senior living facilities and oddly, Carmella Quitman, a millionaire marketing mogul who wrote some genius commercial jingles in the 1980s and now lived off residual checks and royalties.
They found Brad in possession of the trailer, wearing a pair of the underwear on his head, and blowing the horn like he was parade worthy as he drove naked through town. Well, naked, except the undergarments on his head. The crime scene photos had been posted on the town’s tourism website which the mayor claimed was accidental.
Not that the pictures being online were incidental to his escape or had any bearing on how we would catch him. It was just interesting and really weird trivia. His jail break was much less entertaining than the story of how and why he’d been arrested. Brad had been bonded out, then just skipped court. Three times his trial was reset because the judge liked him, said he was charming. But now, he was on the loose and townsfolk were hoarding their adult intimate wear because there was no telling if he would cause another shortage.
Paige and I were about to get in her car when Jax’s front door whipped open like a tornadic wind had caught it, and he stepped onto the porch looking like an ad for a cat burglar. A sexy cat burglar if I could add. He’d dressed in all black, even covered his moonlight-catching strawberry blond hair in a black beanie cap I suspected he could pull down into a mask.
With a sigh, I shut the car door and put one hand on my hip. “What are you doing?” I met him half way back to the house because somehow whenever he was walking toward me, it inspired me to walk toward him. More like I couldn’t control my feet. Couldn’t control my want. Couldn’t control me. The unseen force that drew us together as fated mates was in control. That scared me.
There, I admitted it. The whole not being in control of my own future scared the bejesus out of me. That was the holdup.
“A storm is blowing in.” Jax repeated Kendra’s premonition. “Until it makes landfall, when you chase a skip, I’m chasing with you. See? Running shoes.” He went so far as to lift his foot so I could see a pair of black trainers. “You go grocery shopping, I’m pushing the cart. You go to the movies, I’m buying popcorn and guessing the ending.” He grinned, entirely too pleased with himself. “Now, shall we go?”
Nope. Nuh-uh. “You can’t go. This is my work.” I didn’t have a reserve of money built up from centuries of life. “I have to work.”
He nodded. “And so you shall. I won’t be in the way. I won’t speak.”
He didn’t have to utter a single syllable. He would be the distraction I couldn’t afford. The loss of my focus. But I was already wasting precious minutes with this argument. These were minutes I couldn’t afford to lose in the great skip-chase game.
“Fine. Just stay out of the way.” He would, and it wouldn’t freaking matter. I wouldn’t even be able to blame him. Not unless I figured out how to stop the phantom throbbing that had moved from my chest to…lower. Much lower.
I stomped back to the car, pretending I didn’t know he was looking at my ass and pretending I wasn’t shaking it more than necessary because I wanted him to look. Also that I didn’t see Paige’s smirk when I slipped into the back seat because when Jax and I went somewhere, he drove. Paige moved around to the passenger side.
“Shut up,” I murmured when I scooted over. Seconds later, Kendra climbed in beside me with her map and the email printout of the skip’s photo. She scried as Jax drove out of our neighborhood.
Within minutes, we had a location and I didn’t speak as Jax sped off in the direction Kendra. The tracking spell took us to Brad's house. At least, I thought it was his house. We got out of the car and Pagie went around the back of the house in case Brad decided to run.
Kendra had a few hex bombs made up and was ready to use them. I didn’t have any weapons. I usually didn’t need them, because I depended on my vampire senses and strengths.
Holding a finger up, I silently counted down while ignoring how close Jax was to me. This was a bad idea. He may have ruled the vampires in the US, but he didn’t know a thing about catching a human skip.
I had no idea what was up with his sudden need to protect me while I worked.
Instead of knocking, I kicked the door in and entered the midsize home, freezing at the sight. Brad—I knew it was him from his mugshot on the skip report—stood in the middle of the living room in a pink lace babydoll nighty with a pair of matching lace panties on his head. At this point, I wasn’t sure if Brad needed to go back to jail or a psych ward. Or a lingerie store, I mean, to each his own. Where wasn’t my choice to make. I got paid to bring him in, and that was what I was going to do.
However, ol’ Brad wasn’t about to give up his freedom for a refusal to appear. He whirled around and let out a surprised squeak before darting across the room to the dining room table.
At that moment, Paige rushed in from the kitchen, having entered the house from the back door. Brad tossed a bag of feminine napkins at Kendra while grabbing an empty soda can to launch at Paige, but before he could pick a weapon to throttle me with, Jax moved forward, presumably intending to help. Instead of being an asset, he tripped Kendra, whirled around to help her and knocked me down. “Sorry,” he yelped as he tried to back away. Unfortunately while moving back he inadvertently blocked Paige from intercepting Brad.
The skip’s eyes grew larger as he got a look at Jax, then he bolted toward the kitchen and out the back door.
By the time we untangled ourselves and made it outside, there was no trace of this mostly naked guy. Closing my eyes, I focused on my sense of smell and hearing. Unfortunately, there was a rank pile of trash at the corner of the house, overwhelming my olfactory senses, and the neighbors had loud music playing. I couldn’t focus on trying to discern footfalls running away.
I shot Jax a glare. “You said you would keep your mouth shut and stay out of the way.”
I kept looking around in every direction to see if I could see Captain Psycho Crossdresser, but there was no sign of him. Dang it.
Jax sighed. “I was trying to protect you.” And there it was. The protection I didn’t need, but the idea of which said he didn’t think I could handle myself after all these months of chasing and catching skips, of learning to wield my power. “It was an accident.”
Giving up on finding Brad right this second, I whirled and stared daggers at my supposed mate. “The effect, but not the action. The action was purposeful.” I huffed out a breath and wheeled to look at him. Had my anger not been driven by his overprotective misbehavior, I might’ve been swayed by his pretty face. But anger won the moment. “And unnecessary.”
“I realize that now. I’m sorry.” He looked around me at Paige. “See? A good mate knows the power of the apology?”
“What?” My brow squinched. My eyes narrowed. What was he on about?
He yanked a book from his back pocket. It had a half-naked man on the front and a woman in an old-style corset-dress kneeling in a half-swoon pose in front of him. “It’s from a Rogue’s Guide to True Love. And I figure a mate has to be a good gentleman.” He flipped to a random page. “She unbuttoned his trousers and stuffed her hand inside. ‘You will apologize to me, right now. It’s the measure of a gentleman,’ she said, stroking gently. He inhaled deep, filled his chest with air he sorely needed as his manhood swelled in her palm.”
What in the actual… Oh Lord, could this man read a passage. It gave a girl all kinds of thoughts. Imaginings. Mental images.
“He looked down at her. ‘I think you have the measure of this gentleman in your hand.’ When she looked up, her emerald eyes flashed and she smiled the smile of a vixen. ‘I’ll need your apology, sir, and with it, the power of the apology will restore my good faith in you.’”
Gaping at Jax, I tried to think around the desire him reading historical porn fiction brought up. I didn’t know what the apology had to do with sex, because he hadn’t read the entire scene, but I too could visualize the power of the apology. And it was…mesmerizing. I saw a trip to the library in my future. There was lots more historical porn for me to enjoy.
“Oh, the power of the apology.” That part slipped out. I didn’t mean it. I mean, I meant it, but not for him to hear it, not to be said aloud, for certain.
Kendra snickered, and Paige widened her eyes. The words mating bond flashed in my head in neon colors, and I did a full body shake to get rid of the thoughts. “Can we please concentrate here? I have a job. A bond jumper to apprehend, remember?” I pointed like little Napoleon and walked on down the alley behind the house.
It dead ended at a building on one end, and a street at the other. It was lined by chain link fences and old cars better junked than as lawn ornaments, but such was the neighborhood. I didn’t judge.
Instead, I looked over at Kendra as she laid her scrying materials out on the hood of an old Ford with a battered front fender. “That’s strange.” She glanced at me. “Says he’s right here.”
She looked under the car. I checked the inside. Then we both looked at the green dumpster sitting at the end of the alley, close to Brad’s house. The source of the stink a few minutes ago. Paige sniffed the air then looked at the dumpster. Nodded.
I smirked at Jax. “I’ll hold your book.” He had to make it up somehow.
And so he did. It took about three seconds for him to haul Brad out of the garbage and bring the pink teddy clad felon to stand in front of me. I looked up from page ninety-three and watched Kendra slap the cuffs on him. Paige dragged him to the car. Teamwork at its finest.
Jax leaned in and whispered, “You should read it from the beginning.”
I handed the book back and almost glared, but I just didn’t have it in me. He was so cute. And sexy. “Or you could finish it and give me the Cliffs Notes version.”
He grinned. “Maybe I could do a Power Point? Make a little demonstration video.”
I chuckled. “Based on that scene you read, I think they might call that porn.”
He didn’t answer, because we’d reached the car. He moved closer. Much, much closer.
So much for focus. I didn’t have a prayer, at least, not while I was pinned between him and the side of the car. “I’ll bring the top hat.” He nuzzled my neck with his nose. “You smell like cinnamon and apples. And I miss food.”
Oh, Lord. Even if I wanted to resist, there was no defense to a guy who said things like that. I managed an, “Oh,” before he moved away and walked around to his side of the car. Damn it. My knees weren’t working. At all.
If it wasn’t the mating bond making me and my hopeless damp panties react to him, then if that thing ever kicked in, I was screwed. And hopeful to be so multiple times.
I sat in the back beside Brad. Paige, as the other super strong vampire of our business, boxed him in on the other. Kendra and Jax sat in front. As always, Jax drove.
When I’d first spoken to Kendra about this case, and any other we might get, we’d agreed to use certain gifts we had to elicit information during transport from whatever skip we ran across. I looked at Brad and made my voice sultry and as sexy as I imagined I could be. “Brad, look at me, sweetheart.” He did. Big sparkling blue eyes as blank as a new canvas stared into mine. I probably didn’t need to use my seduction voice, but Jax was watching me in the rearview, and I didn’t miss his low moan when I spoke to Brad.
When Brad tilted his head, I smiled. “I have to ask you some questions.” My eyelids were half-mast, and my voice sounded like I smoked a pack a day and loved it. “Word on the street is that you’re the man. Are you, Brad? Are you the man?”
He nodded. “I’m the man.”
“They all say you keep your fingers…” I grabbed his hand, rubbed it with mine. It was gonna take three or four showers to get this ick off me, but I was a woman with purpose. “On the pulse of the city.”
He nodded again. “It’s how I knew which truck was the one I needed.”
“Ooh. I could sense that about you.” A shoulder shimmy, because Jax was watching while we sat at a stoplight. “Have you heard about any big crime going down soon? Something big and naughty.”
Oh, Lord. I was going to need a brillo pad and bleach to clean the filth off me after this. But I pressed on, because I wasn’t a quitter.
“Naughty?” He breathed in sharp on the tail end of the word.
“Oh, yeah. So naughty.”
My mind wandered as I attempted to draw information from Brad.
What I knew about this night: Jax was reading one of those olden days tawdry romance novels in the hopes of gleaning information on how to manage our new relationship dynamic. He cared enough to stop a guy from throwing a box of adult incontinence underwear at me and to dumpster dive after the same guy when he got away. And he was a big fan of my acting skills.
“I don’t know anything.” Not only was I using my power to compel, the slutty investigator thing would’ve probably worked by itself with this guy.
“Nothing about someone putting a hit on bond agents?” I prompted.
“You’re a bond agent?” I nodded and he batted his lashes at me. “I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt you. Unless you asked real nice.”
Ugh. I concentrated on not throwing up then tried one last question as Jax slammed the car into park in front of the police station.
“What about crime lords? You know any of those?”
He shook his head.
I glanced at Paige. Me playing the vixen hadn’t gotten us new information, really hadn’t done much more than make me feel like I needed a bleach bath, but at least we knew this guy—one in a city of 1.5 million, give or take—wasn’t involved in trying to kill bond agents. That was something.