Fascination: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Shifters Forever After Book 2) (3 page)

I
saac was
aware of Cade’s presence during dinner like one is aware they’re in a tornado. He couldn’t push the influence of her from his mind or his body. And his bear sure as hell wouldn’t let Isaac push the effect away.

The bastard.

Isaac and his bear hadn’t had an easy time of it. Their relationship had been strained when he was growing up. They always seemed to be at odds, and more often than not, Isaac pushed his bear aside and silenced him.

His brother Ky had an easier time with his bear. They’d always been close; they’d been best friends and inseparable, always in each other’s heads. Ky’s bear guided him throughout life. Which wasn’t to say everything was easy for Ky; Isaac knew it wasn’t. His time in the Middle East had taken its toll on Ky.

Isaac didn’t care much for his bear until he’d turned twenty. Even then, it was a grudgingly given compromise that characterized their relationship.

Probably both of us are too damned hardheaded,
Isaac mused.

Next to him, Cade took a bite, her arm brushing against his. Electric currents raced through his veins, leaving him charged. He took a bite of the salmon, knowing it tasted good, but he couldn’t tell for his senses were centered on her.

His bear was practically purring in his mind, content to be near her.

What the fuck? Bears don’t purr.

“Aunt Miriam’s expecting us at eleven on Christmas day,” Laken was saying.

Isaac forced himself to pay attention, noting that Laken called her Aunt Miriam, glad that she’d fit into the Romanoff clan as easily as she had. They weren’t always an easy bunch to get along with, he was the first to admit. Not with their characteristic bullheadedness. His last two girlfriends could bear witness to that. Of course, Aunt Miriam argued, they had never deserved him.

She spent so much time making Isaac, Ky, and Jonah feel like her own kids, taking the three rambunctious boys on after their parents had gone.

“I’ll be there,” Isaac said. He turned toward Cadence. “You’re going, right?”

Cade wouldn’t look at him. She didn’t answer right away.

“Of course, she is.” Laken shot him a glance, as if that was a stupid question. “Are you done with your Christmas shopping?” she asked him.

“It looks like I’m not. I don’t have anything for Cadence or Carina.”

“You don’t need to worry about me. I have everything I need,” Cade responded.

“Don’t be such a Scrooge.” Laken harrumphed and gave her a dirty look. “You know what you should do? Go Christmas shopping together tomorrow. That way, you can help Isaac pick up something for Carina, too. And you can tell him what you want, since you have everything you need.”

T
he look
in Laken’s eyes screamed manipulation and matchmaking.

I’m going to kill my sister.

Cade worked a tight smile to her lips. “Sure.” She knew she probably sounded petulant.

He only wants to put me in jail for a very long time. Why don’t I hang out with him and give him the evidence to do so?

Another dirty look from Laken. Cade couldn’t blame her sister, but Laken just didn’t get it.

The rest of the dinner was a hushed affair for Cade. Except that although she was silent, her panther wasn’t, turning tight circles filled with frustration in Cade’s mind. Snarling every so often, and roaring once or twice.

Her panther wasn’t the only thing that distracted Cade. Every damned time she raised her fork to take a bite, her arm nudged Isaac’s.

Why couldn’t we flip spots?
Having a left-handed and a right-handed person in this arrangement led to nothing but murmured apologies.

Every brush against each other, no matter how incidental, created a blizzard of sensations in Cade. Shivers left goose bump trails on her spine, while neutrons, protons, and electrons ran amok, bouncing around her body, sending signals she wished she could put a damper on.

No such luck. There was no controlling the vibrations that ran rampant.

When the night was over, and the cleanup was done, she breathed a sigh of relief as Isaac and Ky left for their “police business.”

Fifteen minutes after the men had said their goodbyes, Cade hugged her sister and told her she’d see her tomorrow, then headed down to the parking garage.

I
saac and Ky
were hidden on the rooftop they’d set up as a surveillance post.

Isaac was confident the thief would jump from one of the two adjacent buildings, taking the leap to the building he’d set up surveillance from. They’d changed into black, foregoing any bulletproofing because that would kill some of their running speed if there was a foot chase.

Plus, Isaac felt confident this criminal did not resort to violence. He didn’t want to admire the thief, but he did feel a grudging sense of respect. The criminal was clean and neat, only robbed the rich, and never hurt anyone.

What the hell is wrong with me? He’s a damned criminal. I don’t feel respect for perps.

They’d been here almost two hours. The hour that the thief usually hit was coming up.

Isaac scratched his unshaved scruff. He felt Ky’s eyes on him. “Go ahead, say what’s on your mind.”

“We’ve been here for a couple of hours. You sure he’ll show?”

“I set bait out, planted the right info with the right people. The thing I don’t get is, no one will flip on him. Not one single person will admit to knowing him. Why not?”

Ky’s expression didn’t sit well with Isaac.

“Say what you’re thinking.”

“I’m wondering if you’re a little…” Ky let a heavy breath out, as if he was carrying a huge burden. “Obsessed, maybe. If not, then tell me why you don’t have a team out here. Or backup.”

“I don’t have to. I told you that.”

“Yeah, I know, but common sense would dictate you’d have some. Unless you don’t want them to know how much effort you’re plugging into this.”

Isaac shook his head—except he wasn’t just shaking it at Ky. He was shaking it at his bear too, who wouldn’t shut the hell up about Cade.

“If you really need to talk, let’s shift and sync.”

Isaac shifted into his bear so Ky would too. After Ky shifted, he sent a signal that bumped into Isaac’s mind, trying to establish a link. They couldn’t communicate unless both shifted creatures enabled the link.

Isaac looked around carefully and inhaled deeply to be sure there were no onlookers. The last thing he needed was some human to witness two large polar bears on a rooftop in New York City. That would get ugly.

Happy now?
Ky asked him silently.

I don’t want this jeopardized. I’d like to close this case. If I do, then I’m a shoe-in for a spot with InterForce. I’d like to be in a paranormal unit there. Like you were, in Sigma Eps.

Ky had served in Sigma Eps, a military unit composed of paranormal individuals. Humans didn’t know the unit wasn’t simply human. That wasn’t discussed, but within the Sigma Eps, nearly impossible missions were brought to a successful end.

Have you talked to Jonah? He’d help you.

Their brother Jonah was in Unit 13, the paranormal unit in InterForce. In this case too, the humans in InterForce had no idea the unit was paranormal.

I didn’t want to make it on his coattails. I want to make it based on my achievements.

For fuck’s sake, Isaac. You’re plenty decorated and you’ve got a killer resume. You wouldn’t be getting it because of Jonah.

I’d rather do it my way.

Suit yourself. So what are you going to do about Cade?

What do you want me to do? Hit her on the head with a club? Drag her by the hair to the nearest cave and take her?

Except for the hitting part, what’s wrong with the rest of it?
Ky laughed, the sound reverberating in Isaac’s head.

As soon as Ky stopped laughing, Isaac gave him his opinion.
I don’t think that will work for her.

A sound caught Isaac’s attention. The tiniest of clicks.
Did you hear that?

Ky glanced around.
No.

A
nother day at work
. A dozen and a half bundles of energy had pushed her to near exhaustion.

Cade glanced at the phone. She was in the alley behind the targeted home.

Almost two o’clock. Almost go time.

Clothing: All black.

Hunter’s block: In effect.

Backpack with lock picking kit: packed.

Change of clothing: Check.

She’d really misspent her youth; she knew that. After their parents had died, Laken, Cadence, and Carina had been split up. No relative volunteered to take all three girls, so they’d gone to different relatives’ homes, not reuniting until they’d grown.

Laken had gone to one set of grandparents, Carina to the other set.

Cadence was left with her father’s younger brother, who had found her to be an adorable decoy while he plied and plowed his way through rich widows and bored housewives. After a few years, Cade wasn’t the cute little decoy anymore.

It was time for Uncle Ramon to include her in a completely different enterprise. She had a new place in her uncle’s plans.

Accessory.

She learned the ins and outs of lock picking, alarm disengagement, scaling buildings, and safe cracking. It didn’t hurt that she, like her uncle, was a black panther shifter. Scaling buildings was easy to manage when a single leap could take her to the second-story balcony. It also didn’t hurt that she could jump building to building, so even if she was pursued, it was a matter of a leap humans couldn’t handle that could put her out of reach of the cops.

And then one day, Uncle Ramon vanished. Poof. Gone. Sixteen-year-old Cade was left to fend for herself. And fend for herself she did.

She didn’t put the knowledge her uncle had given her to use. He’d stashed plenty of money, artifacts, and jewelry in a storage unit. She knew his contacts and had no problem fencing items to live. So she finished high school, forging his signature when a guardian’s signature was required.

She kept contact with her sisters, but they’d been raised in other areas and had “normal” family lives, so she didn’t let them know her situation. They’d email and call, and she’d pretend everything was as it should be.

Then came college. She had no clue what she wanted to do until she spent a summer working as a camp counselor at the Y. Teaching. That was what she wanted.

A few years later, she was doing just that: teaching kindergarten in one of the more underserved, financially deprived areas in the city.

She thought she loved the job until she saw little Ignacio and his daily bruises. She looked into it, tried to find his home. He was classified as homeless, with no address in the system.
A temporary situation,
the school told her, a situation that would be rectified when the boy and his mother were reunited with his father. But still she worried, and she wanted to follow him, to use her panther scenting to track him at night, but…

Time wasn’t on her side.

One day, Ignacio quit coming to school.

Two days later, she found out he was being buried that Saturday. She went to the funeral. His mother’s silent tears didn’t move Cade any more than his mother had been moved to protect Ignacio when he needed her. The boy’s stepfather was standing by her side, his face stoic. Cade didn’t need anyone to tell her he was the cause of Ignacio’s death.

The father appeared at the funeral too. A long distance truck driver, he’d been out of town. Word had it he was trying to find a way to gain custody of his son, and the reasons he didn’t were plentiful and understandable: his job, no one at home to watch the child, no stable home environment…

The reasons weren’t as heartbreaking as the final result.

When the father appeared at the gravesite, he lunged for the stepfather, screaming accusations of abuse. The stepfather’s friends stepped up, and the father was unconscious and being kicked repeatedly before anyone could react.

Cade left the cemetery that afternoon with two goals. The first was immediate. She took care of that matter within a few days, after Ignacio’s father had left town on his next long-distance haul. She wanted him long gone, with a solid alibi.

The stepfather’s disappearance remained a mystery.

The second goal was taking longer, much longer, but the special home she wanted to fund, Ignacio’s Place, was to be more than a dream soon. She was so close to meeting the goal, she could taste it.

Slow down,
she cautioned herself, because she knew if she rushed, she’d leave herself open to errors. Like Uncle Ramon had taught her, she’d be careful and methodical.

She glanced at the burner phone. Straight up two o’clock. She took a deep breath, powered down the phone.

Cade made her way across the building’s roof until she found the perfect hiding place for her phone. She set her it in a crack between two cinderblocks next to a large condensing unit.

Though the phone was powered down, she still didn’t want to risk it falling into the wrong hands. Somehow, they’d figure out it was hers, and there would be no talking her way out of anything if her phone was found at the crime scene.

She kept the backpack light, because although her clothes shifted with her, the backpack never did. After she shifted, she carried the backpack in her powerful panther jaws. God knew she’d tried to figure out how to get the backpack to shift when she did her. No luck.

If I could figure out the mechanics of shifting while carrying stuff, I’d have a leg up on this.

She slipped out of the stairwell and onto the roof of the building that was next to her targeted building. She’d shift into her panther skin and leap across, then she’d leap from balcony to balcony for fourteen stories.

If she was lucky, the balcony door would be open.
Why would they feel the need to lock it, forty-four flights up
? If she wasn’t that lucky, she’d pick the lock and disarm the alarm. She knew the model they used, thanks to a handy, nicely compensated hacker who’d cracked into the databases of several alarm companies.

Thanks to the same guy, she also knew where the control panel had been placed. Too bad the passwords weren’t kept online. That would save her a few seconds, though she wasn’t particularly worried about time, since the homeowners were said to be wintering in Florida.

A few paces from the rooftop’s edge, she slipped behind another unit, took off her backpack, and shifted into her panther.

Ready?
she asked her panther. The feline chuffed, eager to get started.

She picked up the backpack between sharp canines, made sure her grip was tight, then crept toward the very edge of the roof, the city’s lights twinkling in the background.

She lowered her powerful body, backing to get short running distance, muscles bunching in preparation. She catapulted herself forward, not looking down at what would be certain death.

That leap sent Cade safely onto the other building with distance to spare. She turned back to look at the ledge, her panther eyes glittering dangerously in the dimness.

She padded away from the edge of the building toward a condensing unit, slipped behind it and shifted back into her human form with an almost imperceptible tearing and crunching sound as bones, tendons, and flesh reformed. Then she adjusted her clothing and secured her black mask.

She snatched up the backpack before it could land on the ground and make any noise. That feat and the act of controlling the amount of noise she made when she shifted were courtesy of Uncle Ramon.

He’d made her practice and practice, over and over again, thousands of times, until he was satisfied she could perform the tasks to his satisfaction. Those were only two of the many skills Uncle Ramon drilled into her so she could perform her jobs with ease, confidence, and most importantly, success.

Slipping the backpack over her shoulders, she tightened the strap. She’d take the service stairs down eight flights, then enter an apartment she knew was empty. There, she’d shift again and make her way along the ledge that would take her around the building to the apartment that held the bounty.

Nothing to it.

She needed to not think that way. Being overconfident could be disastrous. Uncle Ramon had warned her of that repeatedly.

Eight flights of stairs and one hallway later, she made a right turn and was in front of the vacant apartment. She slipped her lockpicking kit out of the backpack, then, with a few low ticks of the tumblers as she worked on them, the door unlocked. Glancing around, she verified there were no witnesses and opened the door.

She entered and closed the door behind her with a soft click. Her shifter vision allowed her to see the empty room, find and unlatch the window nearest to the narrow ledge.

Stealthily, she left the vacant apartment behind and made her way along the ledge. Her surefooted panther had no problem retaining her balance as she put paw in front of paw. Several feet later, she was at the first balcony.

She leapt over the railing, then back onto the ledge. Ledge to balcony to ledge, she eased into the routine.

Two corners to turn, then the third balcony she came to would be the one. Less than twenty minutes later she’d leapt onto the balcony and shifted into her human form. And even though she felt confident the luxury apartment would be empty, old habits died hard and she caught the backpack before it touched the tiled balcony floor.

Lockpick set out, she was inside within seconds and zipping toward the room that had the control panel. Once the brass plate that hid the panel was open, she disengaged the blinking alarm.

Then and only then did Cade pause to take a breath, after which, she let it out in a flood of relief. It never failed: no matter how many times she’d done this, each time was a rush, each time was a failure waiting to happen. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, like they always did.

She paused, letting her sensitive shifter hearing listen for heartbeats and pulses.

Nothing.

The area was clear.

Cade hustled to the bedroom and spotted the large TV that hid the safe. She grabbed the remote and flipped the button which brought the TV forward and revealed a safe in the area behind the TV.

These manufacturers. They’d have been better off not putting everything online where it could be accessed so easily by a good hacker. Paper copies in files would have served them better in cases like this.

First she’d need to determine the contact points on the lock.

Thank goodness for shifter hearing.

She peeled the mask off, because a barrier over her ears wouldn’t help, then listened for the click to determine which numbers on the dial face corresponded to the contact area left and right of the notch that allowed the lever to pass through when it was spun.

Now for the parking position. She paid attention to the number of clicks each time the dial passed the parking position opposite the contact area.

She zipped through the process not realizing how quickly she did it, how professionally and effortlessly, until she’d completed the last step and had all the numbers in the combination. Now it was a matter of testing out variations of those numbers until she got the right one.

One pull on the lever on the third combination, and ta-da! She was in.

Cade shoved cash and jewelry into her bag. Just a few seconds more, and she’d re-arm the alarm and slip out, leaving the same way she came in.

An image entered her mind that she wished hadn’t. Isaac’s face.

Really? He’s going to make me feel guilty?

She pushed the image away and remembered little Ignacio’s face. Not the way he’d looked in the open casket, but the way he’d looked when he’d drawn a picture of Cade with a black panther behind her. Of course the little boy hadn’t known the significance of that picture, but he’d never know how close it struck the heart of Cade and her panther.

She opened the door, stepped onto the balcony and pulled her mask on. Setting the heavier backpack on the floor, she shifted into her panther and seized the bag between her teeth. Almost done. Now came the trek along the ledges and balconies back to the empty apartment, then a few flights up to the rooftop, a leap across, changing her clothing, and home.

She could taste freedom.