Shaking his head in frustration, Glenn learned early on to avoid posing certain questions, because his mother had an amazing ability to ferret information from him no matter how hard he tried to keep it a secret. As far as she was concerned, there weren’t any innocent questions. Snorting, he thought for the umpteenth time that the agency should have hired his mother to do their interrogations. “Look, I’ve been thinking…”
“Always a good sign.” Ghost smirked.
Ignoring Ghost’s wisecrack, Glenn said, “I think the best course of action is to find this Luka asshole and take him out.”
“I agree, but how to do it is the question.”
“Here,” Glenn said, tossing Ghost the information he’d printed out that Riley sent him. Then, sitting back in his chair, he waited to see if his buddy made the same connection he did about their assassin.
As he read the information, Ghost’s frown grew along with his concern over which of them was the target. Luka was highly trained, deadly and had a perfect kill record. Glenn’s plan of taking him out was good but it would be nearly impossible to carry out from their place of hiding. The men Ghost had working for him were good, but they were no match for an assassin of Luka’s caliber. Finally, reaching the last page, he smiled at what Riley had turned up. Slapping the folder closed, he threw it back at Glenn, then growled, “You have to be fuckin’ kidding me!”
“Nope.” Setting the folder down, Glenn logged into the High Council’s database, entered a name and clicked on the search button before turning to Ghost. “I figure we can use him to lure Luka out of hiding…especially if it’s to save his brother.” Looking back at the screen, he smiled at the picture of the bait who’d lead Luka to them.
~/~/~/~/~
“Alex! Sweetheart…it’s okay!” Wrapping his arm around the shivering Alex, Sawyer tugged him to his side. “Hey, it’s all right. I’m under control…I promise you my wolf won’t hurt you…everything is gonna be all right.” Grabbing a spare beach towel, Sawyer draped it over Alex’s back while talking softly to him. He wasn’t sure if his mate could even hear him but he kept going, hoping it would eventually calm him down.
It was obvious to him that the condition Alex was in was caused by the inner struggle between Sawyer and his wolf but why it should affect him was puzzling, since it was part of every shifter’s life, at least every shifter he knew of.
Throughout his childhood, battles to control their wolves were something he and his brothers experienced many times, but no one ever reacted the way Alex did; it was just part of being a shifter. Goading someone’s wolf was a favorite game he and his brothers used to play. It was during one of those sessions that he and Mac discovered they could use each other’s strength to boost their own. They never told anyone but, from that point on, none of his brothers was ever successful in forcing his or Mac’s wolf to shift. But that was a long time ago.
Holding Alex tight, Sawyer felt his phone vibrate again but let it go to voicemail. Instead, he sent love to Mac, hoping it would assure his brother he was okay—it was the only thing he was willing to do right now because Alex needed him more. Watching the sun sparkle on the water, Sawyer remained where he was, doing what he could, waiting until Alex’s body stopped shaking and his mate’s breathing returned to normal.
Sensing Alex’s embarrassment over his reaction to the fight between Sawyer and his wolf, he decided not to question his mate about what triggered it. Instead. he asked, “Hey, wanta go for a swim in the ocean?”
Grateful Sawyer hadn’t bombarded him with a ton of questions or chastised him for his reaction, Alex turned to his mate. “I don’t know how to swim.”
“What? No way! Well, that settles it. Time for you, my mate, to learn how to swim.” Standing up, he pulled Alex to his feet and into his arms. “After all, I might need you to defend me against a shark and how the hell are you going to do that if you can’t swim?”
Stopping short when he heard the word shark, Alex tugged on Sawyer’s hand until he got his attention. “Wait! Sharks! You mean real sharks? Not the ones that are behind six tons of glass put there to protect me from being eaten? Those kinds of sharks?”
Pausing, Sawyer glanced at his mate, but seeing no fear, he continued towards the ocean, pulling a reluctant Alex with him. “Trust me, sweetheart, I was just kidding. The likelihood of you being attacked by a shark is…well, is very small. Trust me, I know these things.”
“How do you know? I mean did you do any research on it? Are there statistics that prove your point? And for that matter, who did the research? Was it done by a noted scientist? And how old is the data? You know the oceans are warming and that changes the pattern of…”
Swiveling around, Sawyer stared at Alex and, seeing furrows beginning to line his forehead, did the only thing he could think of to distract his mate. Lowering his face, he leaned in, gently kissing the deep pink lips that had been driving him crazy since last night. Groaning at their softness, he ran the tip of his tongue over them, lapping up his mate’s taste.
Stunned at the unexpected action, Alex felt his body stiffen until Sawyer’s flavor seeped through his lips, igniting a series of fireworks inside his mouth. Wanting more, he returned the kiss, whimpering at the loss when he felt Sawyer pull back slightly. Wrapping his handaround the back of his mate’s neck, Alex pulled Sawyer back to him until their lips met. But this time, Alex was the aggressor, deepening the kiss, until the rest of the world receded and only he and Sawyer remained.
~/~/~/~/~
Sending off instructions to his men, Ghost glanced at Glenn. “Is Smokey coming with us?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Just wonderin’.”
Putting aside what he was reading, Glenn studied his friend. Ghost never just ‘wondered’. Deciding he didn’t have time to figure out the message behind the question, he growled, “Spit it out. Is there a reason I should know about why Smokey shouldn’t be on this mission?”
Turning away from his computer to face Glenn, Ghost planted his hands on his knees, glaring at his friend. “What? You find a mate and suddenly turn dumb? You know as well as I do, something’s up with Smokey. Where the hell was he for six months…not in touch with me or you…that isn’t like him, you know that.”
“Oh…that.”
“Yeah…that!”
“I agree…somethingisup with him…but I can’t deal with it now. Once Luka is…”
“Someone else will be hired to take his place. This is only a stop-gap measure…but until we find out who hired him and which one of us was his target…”
