Page 59 of Brandon’s Mate

Brandon cut her off. This was something he was not prepared to talk about right now.

“I want to take you on a date,” he said instead.

As a distraction, it was a total success. “I—you what?” She stared at him.

“Want—to—take—you—on—date.” He said it slowly, like he was talking to someone who didn’t understand English.

“I know what the words mean, dork.” She was trying not to smile, but he could see how happy the idea made her. “You really want to?”

He pulled her in and wrapped his arms around her again. “I really want to. Let’s get this thing set up with the panthers, and then we’ll do something fun. You and me.”

“You’re paying, right? Even if I want snack cakes?”

He tugged on one of her curls. “Yes, I’m paying. But only if you put out.”

“Humph,” she said. “You’re gonna have to give me more than snack cakes for that, my friend.”

Chapter 23

They used Callie’s secret email account to set up a meet at a different trailhead than the one where she and Brandon had met before.

Kitty went with Brandon and Colt to give Callie the bugs, while Remy stayed behind to work more of his computer magic. She thought it might make Callie feel safer to have another woman there, someone who was a sort-of friend.

Although a real friend would kidnap her and take her away from Caleb the Crapper, not put her in more danger, spying on killers.

Callie didn’t see it that way, though, even when Kitty offered her the out.

She shook her head. “I’m not walking away and leaving my bar to Caleb. And the panthers are the ones that are backing him. Hell, they’re the ones who worked him up to go after Kirk and my brother. If it weren’t for those hellcats, both of them would still be alive.”

She looked around at the three of them. “You’re all putting yourself in danger.” She nodded at Brandon. “That guy’s been beaten up at least three or four times by the Talons.”

Brandon shrugged. “That’s just recreational.”

“Uh huh,” she said. “You still get hurt. But it heals, right? And at least you don’t have to feel like a coward.”

“You’re not a coward,” Kitty said.

Callie said fiercely, “I am. But nobody in this town is safe until they’re gone. I’m supposed to just hide out while everyone else does their part? Fuck that.”

Colt nodded in approval; Kitty could see the admiration in his eyes. “Hell, yeah.” He held out the tiny electronic devices he and Remy had prepared. “Okay. This one’s the cell phone signal interceptor. You can hide it pretty much anywhere in the building. It’ll track all cellphone calls made to or from that location as long as it’s active. And it picks up texts and copies them back to us.”

He gave her one of the McCall twins’ patented panty-dropper smiles, and added, “So no sexting while it’s on, unless you want me to read it.” Flirt that he was, he managed to make it sound like he was hoping she would.

Shit. “Ignore him,” Kitty said. “Really.”

“That’s okay,” Callie said coolly. “I know having a penis makes some guys super-impressed with themselves.”

“Ouch,” Colt said mildly, not noticeably put off. He pointed to the other two devices. “These two are bugs. Try to put one where Jax hangs out the most, and one where he’s most likely to phone his boss from.”

“I’ll put one in the private office, and try to get one near the corner booth where Jax usually sits.” Callie looked up at Colt. “Stay tuned. You never know when somebody might start going at it on the office desktop.”

Colt smirked. “Just don’t scream my name by mistake.”

Callie snorted and turned away.

It was a few days before they got the opportunity to approach Jax. Brandon seemed restless, and he didn’t say any more to Kitty about their date.

She also found him staring off into space sometimes, like she’d noticed before, as if he were seeing something the rest of them couldn’t. His panther got upset at weird times.