Unconditional (3 page)

“Easy for you to say. I guess you’re part of that pay grade I’m not in. So? We gonna get on this or what?”

“Step one is to go to that rest stop. You said you saw their energy at two stops?”

“I pulled off at every single one between Roseburg and here. There may be more north of Portland but I wanted to come here first.”

“Good idea. Let’s go to the first one so I can get a good scent, and we’ll head to the second one so I can compare. I just need to stop by my apartment so I can get changed, and we’ll get moving.”

“Don’t you have minions to do this sort of thing?”

He snorted. “Yes. But I don’t want to assign this to anyone else.”

“Josh, it’s just a job.” She needed him to know there was nothing beyond this. He’d wrecked her heart already, she wasn’t about to give him another shot.

He paused, going very still, the pupils of his eyes nearly swallowing all the green. She sucked in a breath and got pine and loam. “Oh my God, I just smelled your wolf, didn’t I? That’s so cool.”

The flash in his gaze sent a shiver through her, and she had to ball her fists to keep from touching him. Damn it, she had to not be fascinated.
No
. She needed to remember two things. One, he left her life without even a word, and two, her best friend was missing and in grave danger.

“I’ll help you, but I have a price.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Are you serious? Never mind.” She grabbed her bag. He took her hand and turned her to face him.

“You don’t even want to hear my offer?”

Sighing, she gave him the
get on with it
hand sign.

“Dinner. After we go to the rest stops. Let me take you to dinner. Let me get to know you again. Catch up. It’s been…”

“
Twelve years
. It’s been twelve years. And there’s no catching up. That’s over.”

She knew him well enough to understand the set of his shoulders meant the discussion was not closed. But whatever.

“We’ll see. Come on. I’m going to have one of my people come along with us so more than one of us has the scent. Then I can send them north.” He began to gather his things with one hand while he shoved another sandwich into his face. On most men it would have made her cringe a little. But this one managed to make it look sexy.

Figures.

Why couldn’t he have lost all his hair or gotten a huge beer belly? Why did he have to look so damned good?

He escorted her out, his hand at the small of her back. She quickened her pace but he did as well, keeping contact. “Hold up a moment. I need to speak to my people.”

She could have suggested she meet him downstairs, but in truth she wanted to see how his operation worked. It wasn’t as if she had regular dealings with the werewolf pack structure. Or werewolves at all.

They had a sort of magick too, she noticed as they entered a large room with several desks occupied by large men. Lots of large when it came to werewolves, apparently. They all came to attention when Josh entered the space, gazes straight to him, waiting.

“Who has some open time to help me with a tracking project?”

“I’ve got some.” Tall, dark and gorgeous stood, tipping his chin in Josh’s direction.

“Great. Damon, this is Michelle Slattery, she’s an old friend and a cop from Roseburg. She’s here tracking a missing woman, a witch we think has been taken by mages.”

He took her hand, engulfing it in his, and she wasn’t a tiny woman by any means. “I’m happy to help however I can.”

“Bring GiGi with you. I want everyone working with a partner until we’re clear of this mage business.”

A tall blonde approached, smiling at Michelle as she thrust a hand in her direction. “Nice to meet you.”

“Meet me at my place in forty-five minutes. We’ll leave from there.”

He spoke quietly with another guy for a bit and then turned back. “Ready?”

Once they got to the elevator she spoke again. “I have a car.”

“Why don’t I follow you to your hotel and you can drop it off and we can drive together?”

“I don’t have a hotel yet. I came straight here. I might go north after we go to those rest stops today. I need to keep moving.”

“How long has it been since you’ve slept?”

“So anyway, why don’t I drive and then I can drop you back here when we finish up?”

“Why do you have to resist so hard?”

“What does it matter? My best friend is missing and she could be dead. I can’t just fucking sleep and I don’t understand why it matters to you anyway.”

God. Her voice nearly cracked and he totally heard it. Truth was, she hadn’t slept more than those four hours before she’d gone over to Allie’s place the day before. She was freaked and exhausted and on edge, and it was all bad business for a cop to get that way.

But what else could she do?

The guys back in Roseburg were on it. Her boss had given her some time to come up and look for Allie, but he’d made it clear there was an official investigation and she was too close to the missing person to be effectively on it.

“I’m driving. You can stay in my guest room. And I care because I care about you. I never stopped caring about you. I left Roseburg behind but it didn’t have a thing to do with you.”

“I’m not staying in your guest room.”

“Where are you parked?”

“I found a street spot about two blocks up.”

“I’ll drive you to it, and you can follow me to my place and park there.”

“You’re very bossy,” she muttered. It was a good plan, but he was so pushy about it.

“Yeah, I’ve heard that a few times.”

His car was waiting at the curb because someone had brought it out for him. “Must be nice.”

He grinned as he opened her door and she slid in. “It is.”

And so of course he lived in some swanky, cool loft-type building a few minutes away from the office. He’d told her to go inside the gate when it opened and to park in spot fourteen so she did. She sat there in the silence for a while.

She needed to hold herself together. To keep her eyes open and not miss anything. It didn’t matter that she was tired. That she’d been slapped in the face with one of the worst memories of her life. What mattered was finding Allie.

When all this was over, when Allie was back at home, Michelle could break down. Until then, there simply wasn’t time.

He rapped on her window, concern on his features, and she did her best to put her cop face back on as she got out.

Chapter Three

He wanted to hustle her into his bedroom, pull back the blankets and make her sleep. His wolf wanted her to be naked when that happened. The man had to push the wolf back and assure it neither was going to happen any time soon.

A great deal of his agitation smoothed once he’d locked the door behind them and she was safely in his space.

“I’m going to put the kettle on to make some tea to take with us, all right? You probably don’t need more caffeine but some tea will warm you up.”

She moved to the windows and stared out, her shoulders slumping slightly. He forced himself to get the water on and headed into his bedroom. The need to comfort her built inside as he moved, changing from his suit into more casual clothes. If he had to shift, it’d be a lot easier to shuck jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt than a button-down shirt and a tie.

She’d grown into a woman worth getting to know.
Damn it
. He knew she wanted him to walk away. Or that she said so. But there was something between them. Flavored with what they’d been to one another before, but certainly it was more now. They were grown-ups now.

His life was radically different than he’d ever imagined growing up in that shithole house with his craptastic parents. It hadn’t been hard to walk away from that, not really. What he faced if he’d have stayed there was most likely a dead end where high school would have been the high point of his life.

Like it had been for his own father.

Because of a stupid freak-of-nature moment, Josh had risen in the ranks of Pacific. Now he was a leader. He had nice things. An excellent job. People looked to him for advice. He was strong and fast and feared as well as respected. He’d fought hard for the life he had, and he did not regret leaving Roseburg, and the limited options it had presented him behind.

He didn’t even regret that it meant leaving her behind. He couldn’t be the man he was now if he hadn’t cut all ties. But he did regret hurting her. It had been careless and irresponsible. That he’d been nineteen really wasn’t the point.

He could make it up to her. His wolf certainly wanted to. Which was interesting and most likely connected to his former relationship with her.

She was on edge. Frayed. Exhaustion ringed her eyes and he ached to fix it. Ached that most likely Allie was dead, or on her way to dead, and there was probably nothing they could do to save her.

With a sigh he went back out, and she stood at his windows still, her phone in her hand.

“I’m just checking messages. Looks like we have a sighting on the SUV here in the Portland area. So I want to go there first.” She rattled off an address.

“That’s northwest of downtown. There are some parks and wilderness areas out that way. We run out there sometimes. We’ll go there and then back to the rest stops. I want to compare the scents.”

She nodded absently. “Yes, good idea. Do you need to be in wolf form? Is that the right term? Form?”

He poured hot water into two travel mugs over the teabags. Just a small amount of black tea with some other things that would probably help.

“Form is fine. I think on it like my skin. Right now I’m wearing my human skin. When I change, my wolf is in charge and I’m wearing my wolf skin. I can get a scent without changing, but if I can shift, my senses are even better. Not always possible in public though. At least not during daylight hours. We’ll head over and see what it looks like. GiGi is really good at tracking. She and Damon both. He’s mated to a witch, by the way. I think it’s good to have him involved.”

“I feel like it’s my first day of school.” She took the travel cup, wrapping her fingers around it. “I don’t know anything really, about this world of werewolves and witches and cat shifters.”

He brushed a loose tendril of her hair back from her face. “It’s all right. I do. We’ll figure it out together, okay?”

Her gaze flicked up from where it had been at her feet, locking with his and everything stilled, even his wolf who’d been pacing, urging him to protect her. She swallowed hard and licked her lips.

“I’m so afraid I’m going to fail her.”

He sighed, slowly taking her free hand and squeezing. “I will help you in any way I can.” She might fail. Not because of anything she did, but this enemy…

His phone buzzed, and he knew Damon and GiGi were waiting downstairs. He wanted to kiss her so badly it was all he could do to step back and grab his keys. “Ready?”

She nodded.

“Drink your tea and I’ll be way happier. Think of it as keeping the wolf happy.”

“The wolf? Why would it, he, whatever, why would the wolf care?”

He guided her out and then into the elevator. “What I do, who I am now is all about protection. An Enforcer is more than just a cop. It’s my job to be sure everyone I’m responsible for is safe and in line.”

“I’m not a werewolf. I’m responsible for my own self.”

The set of her mouth screamed out for him to kiss it softer, to ease the stress lines there. She could think whatever she wanted, but his wolf believed otherwise. And frankly, so did he.

He lifted a hand to Damon, who ambled over and filled him and GiGi in on the newest developments. “We’ll go to the address, looks like a gas station, to get a scent.”

“I’ll do a quick canvass while you guys do that.” Michelle slid sunglasses on, and he watched as she pulled her cop around herself like a coat.

They headed over, but it was already three and traffic made it slow going. She sipped her tea and stared out the window.

“When did you become a cop?”

“Seven years now. I was twenty and I’d gotten my BA but I didn’t want to live in Eugene and I couldn’t see myself in marketing, which is what I got my degree in.” She chuckled.

“Twenty and you got your BA?”

“I graduated early from high school and headed off to college. I just ended up taking a really heavy load to stay busy, summer courses too, and I finished early there as well. I was rushing off to do something but once I finished I just didn’t know what.” She leaned her head back against the seat, and the sun, pale though it was, hit her just right and she seemed to glow.

“I was working as an admin person at city hall, and I started hanging out with a cop.” The smile on her face told him hanging out might have been of the naked, horizontal nature. “He was satisfied with his life. He liked his job. He and I had started working out, and I ended up taking the exam because Allie dared me. I did really well and so I got the job, and thank God Mark, my friend, had been working out with me because the physical part was hard. I guess it was meant to be because they had an opening.”

“And the friend?” He would hate it if she was with someone. Not that it would necessarily stop him from pursuing her. His wolf wasn’t that noble.