Page 33 of Chased

Wow. That explained a lot about Outlaw Ridge. She asked Breanna, “Do you mind me asking how you ended up here? Because Sanchez gave me some bullshit about you being on the run from a crime kingpin.”

Breanna made a face. “Um. Kingpin is a little bit of an overstatement, but it’s basically true. I was trying to be a model and got coerced into working for a bad guy, and I wanted to get out. Switch sometimes transports people who need to disappear. But my rescue went wrong, so Switch brought me here, and we fell in love. When the man I was running from tried to get me back, the whole team came to my rescue.” She bit her lip. “Sanchez took a bullet in the vest that was meant for me. I owe them all, but I probably owe him the most.”

Wow. Sanchez really was a bona-fide hero. “I guess that’s what he does,” she said. “Rescues people. Although at least the lavender wasn’t shooting at me.”

Breanna smiled. “He’s a good man, down deep. He just has… issues.”

Madison didn’t have the courage to ask exactly what they were. It wasn’t her business to invade his privacy, and anyway, it seemed that a lot of the men here had trouble controlling their wolves. She’d heard trauma could do that to shifters. It was a shame, but it also explained why they’d specified only predator shifters in the job application.

And why her being what she was could be such a problem, she realized uneasily. She was going to have to be really careful.

Breanna had moved on. “The thing is, they’re doing good work here. Fighting bad buys, making the world a better place, in ways that maybe no one else can. I wanted to be a part of that—and to be a part of making their lives better. Giving them a shot at having families. People to care about them.”

Madison didn’t know what to say. She’d been thinking about this job as a way to earn money and a place to hide, but obviously to Breanna it was so much more.

A rush of hope swept over her, laced with envy for Breanna’s sense of purpose. Madison had always wanted something real to do—some way to make her life matter, besides producing Renard babies to be just as fucked up as their fathers before them. All of the sudden this felt like maybe it could be more than just a job. Maybe here, she could do something that mattered.

If only her being a damn rabbit didn’t mess things up. She wished she could confide in Breanna, but it would put her boss in an impossible position.

Breanna finished up, “And now I’m buried under tons of paper trying to create some kind of administrative systems, and I’m so glad you’re here I just want to fall on your neck and kiss you. For real.” She paused, then added a little shyly, “And I also hope we’ll be friends.”

Emotion welled up in Madison. She fanned the air in front of her face. “Okay, you just made me teary-eyed.” And it made her even more determined to keep her secret. She really needed a friend here.

Chapter 15

She spent the rest of the morning trying to sort all the files and paperwork into some sort of order, so they’d have some idea where everything was.

Just as Madison was getting hungry for lunch, the door opened and yet another incredibly hot guy swaggered in—the one in Breanna’s pictures. He walked over to Breanna, who was leaning over a file drawer, spun her around, and kissed her, bending her into a theatrical dip as he did it.

Madison stared.

Breanna was giggling as they came up. “Hey, babe,” she said to the guy. “Does my mate know you’re hitting on me?”

He grinned at her, his eyes full of affection. “Doesn’t matter. I beat the crap out of him, and now you’re mine.”

Breanna put her arm around him. “Madison, this crazy man is my mate, Switch. Switch, this is Madison. Look, she’s organizing! And she’s been here over twenty-four hours, and she hasn’t packed up and left this lunatic asylum. Even though she met the Sanchezes first, before anyone.”

“Impressive,” Switch said. He turned to Madison. “Rumor has it, you beat up Cisco and took his Butterfingers away. Truth? Lies? Please say it really happened.”

Madison told him very seriously, “It’s absolutely true. I won the Battle of the Butterfingers. But I gave some of them back to him. I’m not a total monster.”

“I like her,” Switch said to Breanna. “Anywho, I came to see if you’d be my date for lunch in the mess hall. And I brought you a present.”

The present turned out to be a little heart necklace with some kind of glass in the middle that turned colors. “It’s a mood heart,” Switch said, putting it around Breanna’s neck. “So it tells me if you’re in a good mood or a bad mood or a sexy mood.”

Breanna picked it up and looked at the heart, which was deep blue. “Are you going to tell me which color is which?”

“That one’s the sexy mood.”

Breanna narrowed her eyes, and then pinched the heart between her fingers until it turned green.

Switch said, “That one’s the sexy mood.”

The heart turned yellow. Deadpan, Switch said, “Look! That one’s the sexy mood.”

Breanna started giggling. “I’m sensing they’re all the sexy mood.”

“I hope so.” Switch waggled his eyebrows suggestively.