The Cougar's Wish (Desert Guards) (7 page)

“Um rahytor,” Mrs. Sheehan murmured.

A traitor
, Steven thought she’d said.

He shook his head and concentrated on the lines of the road. “Man, I thought my mother was a piece of work, but lady, you take the cake. I didn’t want to believe your family was as screwed up as Hannah made out because I like to give folks the benefit of the doubt, but there’s not a damned thing redeemable about you, is there?”

Mrs. Sheehan muttered something that was probably vulgar behind her gag.

“Just save it,” Belle said quietly. “You did this to yourselves. We might have had some leniency for Ralphie if he hadn’t scratched Hannah and if he’d asked us for help, but he didn’t do the right thing.”

“You would have helped me?” Ralphie asked.

Belle turned around yet again in her seat and said nothing for a while. She just looked back at the teen as if to determine whether he was speaking words or just garbage. “You know, even if we didn’t trust you, we would have tried to help you. That’s the way it’s supposed to work, right? Else what’s the point of there being an alpha? If you take your concerns to the alpha, he’ll find a way to correct your circumstances as much as he can.”

“Mason hates us.”

“Mason dislikes you, not hates you. There’s a difference. My brother isn’t a cold man, and he wouldn’t turn his back on you if you asked him for help. If you were afraid to approach him, you could have said something to Ellery.”

“Scared of her, too.”

“Yeah, you should be. She’s not thrilled about what you guys did, locking her up in that bunker, and we’re lucky she stuck around anyway. You tried to break the connection between her and Mason, and you failed. She’s angry that you tried, sure. If you try it again, she might do a little more than make you wet your pants.”

Steven caught Ralphie’s flinch in the rearview mirror, and it told him that Belle wasn’t speaking in hypotheticals. “Someone’s gonna have to tell me that story,” he said to her.

She cut him her patented
breathe fumes and die
look.

He shook his head and focused on the road again.

Obviously, negative reinforcement wasn’t working so well on him when it came to Belle. Try as he might not to look at her in that certain kind of way that could get him beaten up by a bunch of Foyes, she was just so damned pretty. And maybe he liked her a little mean. Made her fun to mess with, immature jerk that he was. Or maybe he liked that she pushed back a little and got him out of his own head. That was a lonely place to be.

“No one wants to tell the story?” Hannah called up. “All right, then. I’ll tell it since Ellery probably won’t,” Hannah said. “Ralphie could probably give you the firsthand account. Isn’t that right, Ralphie?”

Ralphie groaned.

“So, Ellery’s an air witch, right? She can move certain elements around to create disturbances. Not on the scale of what Agatha as a wind goddess can do, but still, Ellery can make you hurt. Apparently, she gave Ralphie a little shock when he got in her way.”

Ralphie groaned again, and Mrs. Sheehan made an indignant sound behind her gag.

Hannah leaned up and gave the lady a condescending pat on the shoulder. “Hey. It’s like Sean tells me all the time. We can all do different things, and that’s what makes us special.”

Steven somehow managed to suppress the snort clicking in his throat. He could imagine the exact voice her sister’s mate had used while making that statement. Sean had probably sounded like a cross between Mr. Rogers and the purple dinosaur Barney. Then Steven couldn’t help it. He laughed. “Shit.”

“I think your sense of humor could use some work,” Belle said quietly.

She talking to me?

He cut his gaze rightward at the cranky cat, and she was drumming her fingers atop her thigh and grinding her teeth. She wasn’t looking at him, but at the road.

He had to assume the comment had been directed at him since no one else seemed to have heard it.
At least she’s talking. Might as well talk back.

“Your brothers are funny. If thinking so makes me lowbrow, so be it. I never promised to be classy, dewdrop.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone refer to them as funny.”

“Well, maybe you don’t get to see the side of them other folks do.”

“Maybe you’re right. They don’t terrorize you and keep you from exercising your freedom. Maybe they’re a laugh riot, and I can’t see it through all the assholery.”

Steven sucked in some air.
Shit.

Sure, he could tell her she was probably looking at things the wrong way, but he doubted her
perception
of her circumstances was the only thing in need of correction. Her actual circumstances could probably do with a little work, too, though maybe not the kind she thought. He’d learned that hard lesson with Hannah. They’d both had to make compromises to mend their relationship. Hannah had been the wounded party, and Steven had to swallow his pride and stop making excuses. She was justified in having her feelings, even if she hadn’t been quite so entitled in thinking he’d done so much to cause them. He was guiltier in not standing up for her than of being the wounding party, but maybe that was just as bad.

“I’ll just say this.” He pushed the gas pedal down, getting up to the speed of traffic on the highway. “It’s better that they care about you than don’t care.”

“Hard to feel like that’s the truth sometimes.”

“And you’re entitled to your skepticism. I’m just an outsider asshole who’s only going to be here for a little while, so lord knows I’m not trying to get into your business. I just have a habit of trying to solve problems wherever I go. I guess it’s the detective part of me.”

“You could just go.”

“Okay. Sure. Who do you think they’ll get to shadow you when I leave? Maybe Tito? Darnell? Some other cat you can’t stand?”

“Maybe I’ll leave when you do.”

“Where are you going?”

She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Anywhere there isn’t a Foye shadow over every damn thing.”

And that’s a problem.

He caught Hannah’s gaze in the rearview mirror, and the slight shake of her head told him she’d caught the exchange.

There was no reason Belle couldn’t leave the nest, but setting off for some other place where she’d never been and had no connections wasn’t the safest thing for a woman, even if she
was
half animal and the daughter of an alpha.

The Foyes were fixtures in the area and invested in it, which is why they had their goddess’s favor. Who knew what would happen if Belle stepped out of the reach of it?

Maybe he was no better than her brothers, but if it were up to him, he wouldn’t let her go. Someone needed to look out for her if she wasn’t going to. For the moment, he was as good for the job as anyone, and he was going to figure her out, too.

He couldn’t call himself a good detective if he didn’t.

The moment Steven parked the SUV in front of the jail, Belle hopped out of the truck and took long strides toward the diner. She had to get back to work before the lunch rush.

A firm arm wrapped around her shoulders, pulled her back, and walked her in the opposite direction. She didn’t have to look to know who it was. The cat knew. The cat
liked
.

“Ugh! Let go of me, Steven.”

“What are you gonna do? Shift in public? I don’t think so.” He pinned her against the side of the SUV, bracing one hand on either side of her face, and let out a long, ragged breath of what seemed to be one half frustration and one half curiosity, judging by his cocked-brow expression.

Boo hoo for you. I’m frustrated, too.

He smelled like pancake syrup, coffee, sandalwood, and some other thing her supernatural nose couldn’t quite make out. She hadn’t caught a whiff of that note earlier at the diner, and she
had
to identify it now that she’d noticed it. She pressed her nose against the pulse point at the side of his neck and took a deep breath.

“What
is
that?” She tried the other side of his neck, yanking down the collar of his T-shirt with frustration.

He slipped his palms down the side of her body, letting his hands rest at her waist. “Tell me what you’re looking for, and I’ll tell you what it might be.”

“Stop touching me.” She leaned in once more and inhaled the unusual musk of ...
licorice
? As if her tongue had instincts of its own, it lashed out against the bend of his neck for the tiniest taste.

“Princess, you put off more mixed signals than a wartime message designed for interception.”

“What do you taste like?”

“The hell if I know. I don’t exactly go around licking myself. I usually leave that job to other folks.”

She groaned again and tried to duck under one of his arms, but that only brought her closer to the center of his chest, where the scent seemed to be even more intense.

She grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up over his navel.

“Now now,” came Sean’s scolding tone. “We’re in public.”

For gods’ sake ...

This time Belle
did
manage to duck out from under the little cage Steven had made for her with his body. It wasn’t like she could go far with so many damn Foyes around, anyway. Mason had shown up to talk to the sheriff, and Hank had been right behind him.

Sean rocked back on his heels and adjusted the tilt of his cowboy hat. “I mean, no one would dare accuse a Cougar of being decent, but we do try to act like we have some home training sometimes.”

“Shut up. I was just sniffing him. He has a scent I can’t identify, and that drives the cat in me nuts. I need to be able to catalog the scent. Sniff him.”

Steven pushed up an eyebrow.

Sean shrugged and leaned a little closer to Steven. He pulled in a deep breath and let it out. “Oh, that? That sweetly spicy thing?”

“Yeah. That.” She leaned in and took one more sniff. That smell was addictive. She could normally ignore or compartmentalize scents as she went throughout her day, because all that information could be overwhelming if she didn’t try to shove it to the back of her mind. Steven’s scent was hard to ignore. It was a standout scent, just like her favorite perfume. She’d smelled it once in a department store, and every time she walked past someone wearing it, she’d stop and watch them.

She must have gotten too close again, because Steven pressed his palm to the small of her back and kept her from toppling over when she pushed up on her tiptoes.

Gonna move. Just need to sniff him first.

Sean cleared his throat.

Belle pulled away. “Damn it. What is it?”

Sean laughed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Well, I guess the only way to say it is that it’s the essence of Welch. Hannah smells like that. You know, beneath the Foye funk that’s rubbed off from me.”

Belle shook her head. “That can’t be right. Humans don’t have notable scents like that.”

“Not quite true. I encountered a few memorable ones while traveling during my twentysomethings. They were definitely human.”

“But worth paying attention to, maybe,” Jill said through the window.

Belle started, hand pressed to her chest. She’d forgotten the lady was still in there. Jill was waiting for her ride to the bus station, and Mason had brought Nick to her for a quick good-bye.

“What do you mean?” Belle asked her.

Jill shrugged and unwound Nick’s fist from her shaggy hair. “I think Coyote noses are little better than yours on average. We just don’t always know what to do with the info. My mother always said if someone smelled weird, you’d better pay attention to them.”

“Huh.”

Jill went back to cuddling Nick, and Steven leaned against the side of the vehicle, arms crossed, staring at Belle.

“What?” Belle asked.

He shrugged.

“Don’t shrug. You’re not staring at me for entertainment purposes. If you’ve got something to say, spit it out.”

“Even if I were staring at you for entertainment purposes—which I’d never confess with your brother standing five feet from me—what’s so wrong with that?”

“You drive me nuts.”

“From what I hear, that puts me in excellent company. Who with a certain kind of equipment
doesn’t
drive you nuts?”

“Nick.”

“He’s a toddler.”

“Yup. The rest of you just act like toddlers sometimes.”

“Low blow, sunshine.” Steven clucked his tongue, lifted his baseball cap, and tucked some escaping hair beneath it. “Maybe you ought—”

Belle came back to reality with Hannah in front of her giving her shoulders a shake.

“
Belle
.”

“What?”

“Are you Belle?”

“Huh?”

“Are you Belle Foye?”

Damn. What did I do?
Belle swallowed hard and tried to get her expression under control. She couldn’t see it, but it felt wild, and she didn’t want to give them any more reasons to believe she didn’t have a grip on her faculties ... even if she didn’t. “Of course I’m Belle Foye. Who the hell else would I be?” She looked around and found herself pinned inside a circle of cats. Mason, Hank, Sean, Hannah, Tito. Steven paced behind them.

“Do you know what you just did?” Hannah asked.

“I ... was talking to Steven, wasn’t I?” She managed to sound a hell of a lot more confident than she felt.

“You were doing a little more than talking to him, which I’d usually say is none of my business, but you don’t generally pull 180s like that.”

Belle cocked up one eyebrow. “
Did
I pull a 180, though?”

“I’d say so. I mean, you don’t ... uh ...” Hannah’s cheeks went red, and looking at Sean, she cringed. “Somebody want to field this for me?”

Seriously, what did I do?
Belle looked to Steven for a clue, but his expression was completely neutral. Artificially so. She could tell by the twitching of one his cheeks. In the weeks she’d been in his acquaintance, he hadn’t once tried to hide his feelings. He didn’t want to tell on her.

Why not?

She figured her only course of action was to make something up. Vague seemed the way to go. She shrugged and waved a dismissive hand. “I mean, it’s like Sean said, right?” Belle asked. “Can’t accuse a Cougar of being decent, so ... let me out. I need to, um ... go to work.”