Page 56 of Brandon’s Mate

Kitty shook her head. “Of course I do. I’m saying only one of you two can be in on this. Actually, you probably shouldn’t even go out of the house at the same time.”

The twins exchanged looks.

“She’s right,” Brandon said. “One of you alone isn’t that noticeable, but identical twins? Leopard and owl? Practically every shifter in America knows about you two, and they know you’re Bad Blood.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Colt asked. “Makes it more likely that they’ll take us seriously.”

“Oh, they’d sure as hell take us seriously,” Brandon said. “Now I’m imagining Flynn’s reaction when he wakes up one morning with the Shifter Council on his doorstep, wanting to know why the Bad Bloods are making a territory grab in Kentucky. And he knows nothing about it.”

Yikes. Kitty had only seen Flynn really angry a few times, and she had no desire to see it again. Not to mention that it wasn’t fair dragging the rest of the crew into something that had nothing to do with them.

“That could be a complication,” Colt acknowledged.

Remy nodded. “I’ll stay out,” he said. “Since I’m the indispensable computer genius. Somebody throw me a morsel of food now and then, will you?”

Colt tossed him half a slice of bacon and Remy caught it in his mouth.

“So how do you want to play it?” Kitty asked Brandon. He didn’t look at her. That was a bad sign—it meant he still hadn’t decided if he was going to treat her like a fifteen-year-old who needed to be protected, or as a partner.

“I’m thinking we get Callie to plant a cell interceptor in the Crows’ Nest, and maybe a couple of bugs. I go in, with Colt as my muscle, and talk to Jax about being a sub-crew in their territory. But I’ll only do a deal with their top guy. If Jax agrees, then hopefully I get to meet with the person who ordered the hit on Nick.”

So he wasn’t planning on letting her back him. She was going to have to do something about that, but that was a private conversation. Or beat-down, depending on how stubborn he planned on being.

“And if he doesn’t agree?” Colt asked.

“That’s where the cell interceptor comes in,” Brandon said. “Jax will probably call his boss and tell him about our proposal. Then Remy traces the signal. With any luck, we’ll get his ID and location from that. At least we’ll be a few steps further along.”

Remy said, “Okay. While you prep that, I’ll work on decrypting the rest of Nick’s intel. And see if I can trace these shell companies. I’ll also tag some of my sources and see if Jax Darius is listed as belonging to any off-the-grid shifter crews.”

Brandon nodded. “Thanks,” he said. There was a pause, and then he added, “I’m glad you’re here.”

Chapter 22

After breakfast, Remy and Colton went back to the computers. Kitty disappeared into the bathroom to take a shower.

Brandon decided that one bathroom between four people was really going to suck. Especially since it opened right off his bedroom. He might have to talk Kitty into continuing to hose off the McCall twins outside when they needed it.

He also needed to explain to Kitty why he didn’t want to take her to meet with Jax.

When he went into the bedroom, he could hear Kitty splashing in the shower, singing the theme from Star Wars at the top of her lungs. “Daah, daah dun dun dun daaaaaah dah…”

He bit his lips, unable to keep the smile off his face. Crazy wolf. She fuckin’ brought sunshine everywhere she went, just by being herself.

He went over to the bed and lay down, inhaling her scent from the sheets. For a minute it was like being surrounded by Kitty, and the stab he felt in his heart felt like equal parts happiness and pain.

Getting something you never thought you would, while knowing you were probably going to lose it any minute.

He took another deep breath, and a ghost panther wafted through the wall. It didn’t look at him, just sniffed around the room like it could smell something different.

Fuckin’ ghosts, ruining his moment.

Brandon got up. His stitches had bled through his shirt at some point, so he walked around the ghost and went over to his dresser to see if he had any clean, unshredded, non-bloodstained t-shirts left.

After going through his drawers he decided he was going to have to make a trip out to Target and stock up pretty soon. Being a shifter was damn hard on the wardrobe.

Kitty had already spread her stuff all over the top of the dresser. Her makeup pouch had gotten knocked over and everything was spilling out. Automatically he picked it up to set it upright, and a necklace on a chain slithered out.

Brandon felt like his heart stopped. It was half a heart, with a jagged edge, and two lines of letters.