Fierce Player (Sierra Pride Book 4) (3 page)

“You go out, you come in,” Gabriel drawled. “Your lion’s restless, obviously. And you haven’t even made us bet on the winner, much less on which team’s cheerleaders has a higher blonde to brunette ratio.”

“Shut up. I wouldn’t make that bet.” But he knew he totally would have, if he hadn’t been so preoccupied.

Gabriel gave him a feral grin. “There’s a girl, isn’t there?”

Maverick ignored him.

“Come on, tell me,” Gabriel said.

The flickerings of an otherworldly magic tickled Maverick’s nose.

“Don’t make me say it,” Maverick said. Everyone was watching them. He’d kill Gabriel.

Gabriel grinned wider. “Say it.”

A wave of subtle power spread through Maverick, and he felt himself opening his mouth without wanting to.

“Fuck you, yes,” Maverick spat out. “But you’re an asshole for making me tell you.”

Gabriel laughed until Miranda, his mate, punched him in the arm. “You’re being an insensitive prick,” she said.

Handing Maverick a beer, Gabriel said, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist. You’re right, it wasn’t fair to use my alpha status to find out. I didn’t really need to, anyway—it’s all over your face.”

Miranda gave Maverick a sympathetic look. “Sorry, he’s really not fit for polite company. I don’t know what I see in him, anyway.”

Gabriel laughed from behind her, but the laughter stopped in an “ow” when she punched him again.

“Ignore him,” Miranda said. “And if you feel like it, tell me about your girl.”

He inched closer to her, more for the simulation of privacy than any chance of being able to avoid eavesdropping. The cat shifters’ hearing was too strong, and he knew they were all focused on him anyway, even if they were pretending to watch the game. “She isn’t mine. I barely know her—I just saw her at the library once. I don’t even know her name.”

“You seem worried, though,” Miranda said, her brown eyes wide with concern.

“Yeah, a bit,” Maverick said. “I just feel…weird. It’s the same way I’ve been feeling about Cora and Justine, lately. Like we should reach out—”

Gabriel interrupted him. “I told you we’re not doing that.”

Miranda shot Gabriel a warning look and turned back to Maverick. “You know how I believe in logic and all that, right?”

“Yeah.” Miranda was the smartest person he knew. She’d been the one to help him apply to colleges.

“Well, when it came to Gabriel, I followed more instinct than logic. Even though he’s an ass sometimes,” she said with a smile, “I’m glad I listened to my gut, you know?”

“It was the same for me, man,” Gabriel said from over her shoulder. “When I first saw her, I hadn’t even met her, but I slept in a tree that night so I could make sure she was safe in the woods. Was it hard to leave your girl?”

Maverick nodded. He’d had to drown out all his thoughts and feelings with music. His hearing felt a little dull, even.

“Maybe you should go after her,” Gabriel mused. “We’d understand.”

Maverick looked around at the others in the room. Everyone had been listening in, but not watching his exchange with Miranda and Gabriel, and they slowly made eye contact with him and nodded.

“Okay,” he said. “I’m going.”

After another round of hugs, Blake followed him out to his truck.

“I’ll come back for Thanksgiving,” Maverick said. “Really. But right now, I feel like…I don’t know. I feel wrong for being here.”

“You’re worried about your girl,” Blake said.

Maverick shrugged and looked past Blake.

“It’s okay, I’ve been there,” Blake said with a laugh. “Go check up on her. She’s probably gone home or somewhere for Thanksgiving, but if she hasn’t, invite her here. We’ve got plenty of space.”

Maverick followed Blake’s gaze through the front window to Blake’s mate, Hera. Her hand was absently curved around her rounded belly. There’d be a new kitten in the family soon. He was glad they’d gotten past Nan’s rule of not letting humans visit. Maybe he could bring “his” woman here.

“Thanks, man.” Without another word, Maverick hopped into his truck and sped back the way he’d come. Back to the woman who smelled like springtime.

Chapter Six

“Are you sure you don’t want to come down here for Turkey Day?” Trina asked.

It was Monday morning, and Kate had already spent all of Saturday and Sunday studying and writing outlines for term papers. She’d mostly stayed in her apartment, so that jumpy, paranoid feeling hadn’t returned, thankfully.

Kate smiled. “Thank you, no. This is going to be the perfect opportunity for me to really be alone and finish the story line for this new game. Besides, you have enough stress inviting Cameron this year.”

“Well, will you at least call me every day?”

Did Kate imagine it, or was Trina also relieved that Kate wasn’t coming for Thanksgiving? Damn, her mom
and
her best friend. Kate’s self-esteem was taking a good knocking this week.

“Of course I’ll call you every day,” Kate said. “I already do, dork.”

“Geek.”

“Nerd.”

“Noob.”

“Compared to you? Yes,” Kate said with a laugh.

As soon as she was off the phone with Trina, she packed up her tablet and notebook. She’d head to the coffee shop near campus and make good on her promise to finish the story line for her game.

This was the first time she’d been outside for longer than the five minutes it took to take out her trash or move a load of laundry. The sky was too big, and every noise was too loud. In the harsh morning light, it felt like everyone was looking at her. Unable to resist the compulsion, she dropped to the ground to pretend to straighten her sock, and peeked behind her.

A man stood staring in a shop window. He looked similar to the guy she’d seen on Friday night, and just like then, his hands were in his pockets and he leaned back slightly. Coincidence? Déjà vu?

She was not an important enough person to follow around, dammit. Nobody cared about her or her games.

Kate stood and started walking again, faster this time. Fucking sick of her own subterfuge, she spun around mid-stride and faced the man. He was walking toward her now, so she waited. Let him catch up to her. There were people around on the sidewalk, and there were cars on the street. What the hell was he going to do to her?

He brushed past without making eye contact. He didn’t even look at her funny, like “what the hell are you doing standing still in the middle of the sidewalk”—and that was kind of strange.

But whatever—he wasn’t following her, and she wasn’t going to stay trapped in her apartment for an entire week because she was jumpy. As soon as classes started up again, she’d look into using the campus psychology services. Trina had praised them for helping her through a bout of depression during her freshman year.

Kate’s ankle boots clopped loudly on the sidewalk. A car horn blared and she looked toward it.

That same man was across the street, watching her.

No. She hadn’t imagined it. She’d been ignoring her gut for long enough. Something was wrong.

She ducked into the coffee shop and watched as the man typed something into his phone, his gaze on the coffee shop door.

The shop wasn’t crowded, but a few of the tables were taken by professor types and one family of four was talking loudly over some kind of video playing on a laptop.

Kate waved at the barista and edged to the back of the room. There was a second exit that way, leading straight onto campus.

A group of three businesswomen stood to take their leave, blocking the man’s view of Kate. She took the opportunity to slip out the back exit, not knowing why. She was acting on pure adrenaline at this point, although look where it had led her: a campus, completely empty of students. Everyone was gone.

But some lights shone in the building nearby. Hallelujah. The library.

Chapter Seven

After leaving his family behind, Maverick had been back in town for the whole weekend. The entire time, he’d tried to convince himself that he wasn’t stalking the girl. Sure, he’d wandered to her apartment complex a few times, but that had to stop. He’d figure out a way to run into her normally, and then he’d introduce himself without coming off like a total ass this time.

Maybe.

He knew she hadn’t gone away for Thanksgiving yet, because he’d seen her apartment lights go on last night.

By now it was Monday morning and he felt like a fucking creeper. This wasn’t like him. The uneasy feeling he had, though, wouldn’t allow him to stay away from her for too long.

Maverick didn’t have much to do in the way of school work, because he’d done everything pressing already. He woke up early and tried to outline his paper. “Indie Businesses in the New Economy.” It was a subject that would put him to sleep normally, but sleep was out of the question. His mountain lion was unsettled, because something wasn’t right with the springtime girl.

Unable to keep fighting the temptation to check on her, he called his boss at the library. “Zora, do you have any hours you need filled?”

“Hang on,” she said. There was a muffled sound, and then she was back. “Brett was just asking if he could get out of his shift today. Last day we’re open this week, and he wanted to go home early. I was thinking of just closing us up, because not many students have been coming in.”

“Please let me work,” Maverick said. “Brett can go home, and if anyone needs the library, it’ll be open.”

“You sure? Don’t you have family to get home to?”

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “We changed our plans a little bit. I’m going to head up on Wednesday instead.”

“All right,” Zora said. “Come in whenever.”

When Maverick arrived, he could see what Zora meant. The library was supposed to be open one last day for any students who wanted to catch up on research or work. So far, no takers. It looked like the majority of campus had decided to slack off and head home early for the holiday.

Totally fine. That meant Maverick could give at least a little attention to outlining that paper, and he was stuck here so he couldn’t rush off to check on the girl’s apartment every time he got bored or worried.

A couple of students wandered in, and Maverick nodded at them before going back to his laptop. He eavesdropped for a second as they talked about when they’d head home for the holiday, and one of the women went on a mini rant against Thanksgiving and how it romanticized the colonial maltreatment of indigenous people. Maybe that was how it used to be, and how it still was to some, Maverick thought, but he wanted the holiday to grow past that and be more about family. Fuck the pilgrims—he missed his brothers and sisters.

The doors to the main entrance opened again, and the scent of springtime graced his nose. He looked up, hardly able to believe his eyes. After all his waiting around her apartment, she had finally,
finally
come to him.

A heavy scent of fear laced about her, however, and her movements were jerky and panicked. He stood up, knocking over his empty coffee cup.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She glanced around, as if on alert for danger, before finally relaxing. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s
you
, huh? Don’t worry, I’ll keep my phone off.”

She started toward the Clark room. No, he couldn’t let her brush him off so fast. At least give him a chance—

“Wait,” he called. “Please.”

Slowly, she turned.

“I’m Maverick.” He held out his hand, even though she was already twenty feet away from the front desk where he stood.

She stared at him for a long moment, and he forgot how to breathe. Finally, she came trotting over. “Kate,” she said. “Phone abuser.”

“Mav,” he answered. “Library warden.”

She laughed, and he wished he could bottle the sound of it to save for later. They shook hands, and a zing of powerful heat went through his arm, straight to his heart. A connection was here between them. There
was
something about her; he hadn’t been imagining anything.

“Sorry I came off like such an asshole on Friday,” he said.

“I was an asshole, too.”

“I’m not usually an asshole,” he said.

She laughed. “I am.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“Well, you don’t know me, then.”

Now she was frowning and looking thoughtful, and maybe a little sad. Maverick didn’t know what to say.

“Anyway, I should get to work,” she said.

“Can I have your number?” he asked. “I mean.” He coughed. He’d sort of blurted that out, but, “Yeah. I meant what I said. Can I have your phone number?”

Her eyes brightened when she smiled, and her neck got pink. “Yeah, okay.”

He handed her his phone and she tapped at the number pad. “Kate-astrophe?” he asked.

“Yeah, it’s a gaming thing. There,” she said, handing the phone back. “So, are you hanging around for Thanksgiving?”

“For a couple more days, maybe,” he said. “You?”

“Yeah. My mom’s busy with work, and I could’ve gone to my friend’s, but her girlfriend is going to meet her parents for the first time, and everyone’s super stressed. I did not want to see that show firsthand, you know?”

“Better to give moral support from the safety of a phone call later,” he agreed.

“Exactly.”

“I bet you a coffee and a scone that it doesn’t turn out as bad as everyone’s worried about.”

“How are we going to quantify ‘bad’ and ‘good’ in this scenario, and what everyone’s fears are?”

“Probably a one to ten scale.”

“And you trust me to give you the honest results?”

“Yeah,” he said, feeling like he’d never spoken a bigger truth, “I trust you.”

“So that one to ten scale,” she said. “Is it like, one is easy-breezy, and the parents fall in love with the girlfriend and want her to come for Christmas, too?”

“Right. And ten is that they not only kick out the girlfriend, but their daughter as well.”

“That’s horrible.” She looked aghast. “I can’t believe you’d even joke about something like that.”

He backed up a step. “I meant, um, shit.”

She laughed, then, and if she’d been one of his brothers he’d have picked her up and thrown her down for a wrestling match. It was still tempting. He put his hands behind his back.