Chapter Eight
By the time Navi pulled up to the side of the road near Jared’s Auto, she’d had plenty of time to think—too much time, if she were to be honest. The more she worked alongside Finn, the more her barriers broke down. While she always maintained a level head on the job, that wasn’t what threatened her. The way his presence worked under her skin, how he imprinted on her—that endangered the years of careful work she’d done in building impenetrable walls so that the constant goodbyes didn’t break her.
Back in the woods, Navi had prepared to deliver the execution like she always did—the hand of justice that had been passed down upon her when the shamans bound the panther spirit to her as a kid. Except Finn had looked her in the eyes like he saw right through the mask she donned and he’d done the job for her. Even now, her heartbeat quickened at the understanding in his eyes, at how he saw to the core of her when so few could. Navi scrubbed her face to get herself in the game before hopping out of her car.
As she made her way down the driveway to Jared’s Auto, Finn pulled up to the front of the building in that beaut of a Challenger, looking far too gorgeous behind the wheel.
Navi met him out front of the auto shop, soon to become a husk of a building with the owner deceased. The aluminum siding had taken some wear and tear and a couple of the garage doors lining the building were dented and wouldn’t shut all the way. The clear glass door of the service section wouldn’t deter break-ins for a heartbeat, but if this was a drop site or exchange point, the man probably hadn’t been too worried about security.
Already, this night had run on too long, yet there didn’t seem to be an end in sight. Even with the temperature drop, the humidity still hung in the air and coated her skin. Navi slunk over to the front door, keeping her pace measured and quiet in case other Landsliders happened to be lurking around here.
She could feel his presence at her back while she fiddled with the knob and damn if her pulse didn’t quicken at the lingering scent of leather he brought with him. Her nail turned into a claw as she slipped it in the lock and turned the tumblers until they clicked.
“You take me to the nicest places, Tremere,” Finn said behind her, a teasing note in his voice. “What’s next? Crack shack in Philly?”
“Like you’d be so lucky,” she murmured, trying to restrain her smile while the lock clicked. She opened the door, gesturing inside. Finn winked as he entered, walking in as if he owned the place, a return to the cocky, self-assured guy who’d approached her at the celebration of Dax’s victory. Yet the same man had frozen in caves in the grips of some fierce demons. Every time she thought she’d figured him out, he’d rewrite the words to his story, change the sentence mid-read.
She stepped into the auto shop, the smell a familiar one—oil and metal. Navi had spent a fair amount of time under the frame of a car, and any shifter-run auto shops let her play around, given her status as Tribe. Fixing the parts on a car helped her clear her mind in a way talking didn’t do, the process of problem-solving something that made sense and gave her the ability to reconcile the issues that didn’t. The scent of this place dosed her with comfort even though she remained on the alert for any movement signaling other intruders paying a visit.
Finn strode up to the lone service desk on the far side of the wall, one with a three-tier filing cabinet beside it. Once he’d crouched in front of the cabinet and opened the drawers with a quiet creak and click, he set to rifling through the papers and manila folders inside. Navi trusted him to handle that end of the search, because if the Landsliders were running drugs or fenced goods through here, the other area which might contain evidence would be the garage itself.
She wandered in through the side door, the metallic scent of the auto tools tickling her nose upon entrance. An old Camry sat on joists, the tires removed, while a newer-looking Jetta had the hood popped. Both were barely visible with the faint moonlight trickling in through the slatted windows in the garage doors. Her footsteps echoed through the place, the concrete floors and tall ceilings carrying the shuffling sound with ease. Navi didn’t waste time searching with her eyes. Instead, she sniffed the air, that sense so much sharper even with the conflicting scents of multiple shifters.
The sharp tang of metal, the wet fur of wolves and bears and the robust scent of oil and grease all drew her attention, but nowhere did she pick up the off-scent of meth or any sorts of drugs she was familiar with. However, a sickly-sweet stench did draw her attention, like bug spray on steroids, coming from the stacks of tools and equipment on the wire racks in the back of the garage. Navi slipped in the direction with ease, weaving past the Jetta.
The ratchets and compressors had been left slung about on the shelves in no seeming order, but Navi wasn’t looking for them. She ran her fingers over the surfaces while she followed the scent trail, trying to distinguish the source. The cool quiet of the garage seeped through her, amplifying her paranoia. One of the Landsliders could be waiting around any corner. Years of vigilance kept her guard up at all times and she couldn’t dismiss how her neck prickled.
Her hand paused over a locked Durabuilt box on the middle shelf. She grabbed the whole thing and set it on the ground before fumbling around on the shelves for the basics. When she rested her hand on a hammer, she returned to the ground and tilted the padlock onto the concrete. Navi slammed the hammer down, breaking the padlock open. The sound reverberated around the room and she glanced at the windows and the door to see if anyone was peering in at her.
Yellow eyes flashed in the garage door windows as someone tried to duck out of sight.
Navi’s blood ran cold. She snatched the toolbox from the floor and bolted toward the door. In the same moment, whoever had been watching galvanized to motion. The skitter of their footsteps echoed from outside.
“Finn,” she called, her voice tight when she skidded into the main room.
He looked up from behind the desk, his face paler than normal as he clutched a stack of papers.
“We’ve got company,” she growled, whipping around to face the door.
The moment the door flew open, Navi was prepared. On any normal mission with any normal shifter, a simple command could cause them to freeze. However, after the incident at the cave, she didn’t trust her ability to work. Instead, when the yellow-eyed bear charged in through the entrance, Navi unleashed a blast of water from her palm.
She funneled her energy into the shove, the wild side of her taking the reins like it did every time she exercised those powers. The element twisted through her, summoned from every drop in the air, every ounce soaked into the earth below her. The jet of water slammed straight into the bear’s face. The beast slowed for a second, but even though he had no way of seeing past the spray, he surged again to barrel forward. He rocketed past her, speeding toward the back of the room. Navi bolted for the door, hoping Finn had the common sense to follow.
She darted out right when the bear unleashed an enraged roar and Finn followed seconds later.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said, already rushing past her for his car. The door had been shoved off the hinges, so she kicked it in front of the entrance before rushing to Finn’s Challenger. A curse came from him as she neared.
“Asshole sliced my tires,” he spat.
The bear slammed against the flimsy door, sending the thing flying.
“Follow me.” Navi raced down the drive toward her Plymouth, parked enough out of the way to avoid backlash. She leapt into the driver’s seat of her car, threw the Durabuilt toolbox into the backseat and jammed her key in the ignition. Finn opened the passenger’s side of her door and slid inside.
Her engine roared to life.
The bear rushed out from Jared’s Auto, heading in their direction. Not like the two of them couldn’t take the beast on, but right now, the evidence they’d found in there was paramount and she wasn’t about to risk the contents of the Durabilt getting damaged or stolen. She slipped the gear into drive as Finn’s door slammed shut. The bear shifter raced toward them, his yellow eyes glowing when he reared up, ready to sink those claws into her car.
Her tires screeched when she jammed her foot on the gas pedal. The car flew forward as she gunned toward the road. She wheeled around, choking billows of gravel and dust coming in through the windows as her car faced the street. Without a second glance to Jared’s Auto, she slipped onto the road and accelerated.
Her high-beams sliced through the inky blackness of the country roads while her Plymouth shot down them at double the speed limit. Her heart thudded in her chest, and drops of sweat clung to her forehead. The adrenaline that swilled through her veins crashed down, spreading the silence like a stain in the air between them.
“Bastard scratched up my girl,” Finn growled while he stared out of the window. “I hate leaving her there like that.”
Navi clutched the wheel a little tighter. “We’ll get her back for you tomorrow.” His Challenger was a beauty—it had to have been agonizing for him to leave her behind.
“Might have to hold off on that one—as Sierra’s beta, I’ve got duties to attend to and so do you. Or did you forget you guys are presiding over their mating ceremony?” Finn opened the window, letting the breezes gust through her car.
Her skin prickled, but not from the cold. “Ugh, I forgot.”
“Try to be a little more disgusted, why don’t you?” he teased. She could feel the heat of his gaze on her while she continued to speed down the road, as far and fast away from the auto shop as possible. “Is it the parties involved, or are you one of those anti-love types?”
“Ding, ding, ding,” she said, tapping against the side of her steering wheel. The midnight scent of running water and freesia mingling in the breeze swept through her car. “Things like mates are for folks who can afford roots. Not for Tribe.” Even when the words escaped her throat, she couldn’t help the way her gut twisted. She normally remained in control behind the wheel of her Plymouth, but this conversation teetered into dark, dangerous territory, a yawning maw that threatened to swallow her alive.
“You’re telling me no one in the Tribe has ever found a mate? That’s hard to believe,” Finn said, his voice heated in a way she couldn’t dismiss.
“Why the hell do you care?” she shot back, driving past the familiar sight of Beaver Tavern. “It’s not like my issues are your problem. And you’ve got enough problems of your own.” She’d been heading for her motel on autopilot, despite the fact that she needed to drop him off somewhere.
“Oh yeah, fuck me for giving a damn about you,” he retorted, a familiar anger burning behind his words. “Do you honestly think you were put on this earth to be alone the rest of your life? That your position as Tribe makes you impossible to love?”
Navi’s nails turned to claws as they dug into the steering wheel. She pulled over to the side of the road with a screech and slammed the car into Park. Her heart pounded so ferociously she could feel it pulse through her whole body, could hear the sound over and over again. Finn Kelly had the unique way of driving through to her truth every single time, to the point that he wielded the power to devastate her.
The moment those words left him, she wasn’t the hardened warrior she’d become, the cool and impartial judge who wandered from town to town. No, she was six years old again and wondering why her parents had given her up. Wondering why every friendship she made fell to pieces. Why she set off for yet another new location each time, leaving everything she’d tried to build behind.
The silence between them was weighed down with all the things they didn’t say, but she couldn’t be here in this car with him as his larger than life presence threatened to overwhelm. As his words pierced right through to the core of her. Navi might be one of the most powerful individuals on the East Coast, yet this Red Rock beta managed to bring her to her knees with a couple of words.
She slipped out of her car, shutting the door as she stalked in front to the hood and found a spot to lean. On these country roads, few cars would be heading their way at this time of night. She gulped the cool air, willing it to clear her head and soothe the ferocious ache in her chest, a chasm that widened by the second.
A moment later the other door slammed as Finn hopped out from her Plymouth and came to join her. The man was relentless.
“I’m not sorry for giving a fuck about you, Navi,” he said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He leaned against the side of the car, close enough that she could feel the heat emanating off his body. “You’ve got strength in spades, but there’s so much more to you than the burden you’re shouldering, sweetheart. I’m more interested in the woman standing before me whose single moment of softness is worth a thousand from anyone else.”
She opened her mouth, but the words dried on her tongue. The intensity sparking in Finn’s dark eyes, the taut muscles of his neck as he argued with her and how his thick brows furrowed with the same irritation flowing through her—all of it ensnared her. He was supposed to be the same as all the others, a no-strings-attached fling. And yet the more she got to know Finn Kelly, the more she connected with him, fought with him and talked with him, she couldn’t help but like the bastard.
The air between them grew thick in her silence. She couldn’t convey how the man punched right through her chest to reach a hand out to the little girl who’d never been able to keep a friend. The tug Navi felt for him went beyond carnal to something deeper, stronger and more insidious than she’d first realized. Around him, she couldn’t help the way her pulse quickened, or how her guard came down when she rarely allowed anyone in apart from Jess and Lucas.
Finn reached forward, crossing the distance between them as he slid his palm to her face, tilting her chin until their eyes met. The warmth in his gaze as he looked at her and the serious press of those lips near took her breath away, made her forget rules and reason. His touch brought her desire to life, the surge of adrenaline rushing through her before pooling at her core. Her panther lunged for him even as Navi held back. Her wilder side had accepted him the moment they’d first hooked up, but she couldn’t just shed her hesitations.
Still, one more taste can’t hurt.
She leaned up at the same moment Finn descended. Their lips crushed together with all the passion burning in her chest, the irritation and frustration that threatened to choke her. His one hand wrapped around her waist, the other gripping the nape of her neck with a possessive hold she couldn’t help but melt into. Unlike so many others, she could spit venom and he’d go toe to toe with her despite the immense power she had over him.
She slipped her tongue into his mouth, eliciting a groan from him as he tugged her body against his. The thick length of his erection brushed against her inner thigh, igniting her libido. Her panther let out a low purr reverberating through her throat when he kissed her over and over again, her mouth, her neck, her collarbone. She sank into the heat of him, the inferno that threatened to tear her apart and remake her from inside out. If they continued on like this, clothes were going by the wayside and she was liable to fuck him here and now on the side of the road.
He pressed her against the car, bracing her with his big body there as she leaned against the Plymouth, surrendering to the thrill of his skillful mouth on hers, his teeth on her skin.
Headlights came into view from the curve of the road, drawing her attention. A horn blared as a car breezed by, swerving to avoid them. The distraction jarred her out of the haze of just how damn good his lips felt on hers. She didn’t have time to be messing around, not now.
Navi pulled away from Finn, from the heat of his embrace and the comfort he offered. Even though her body still revved from the taste of his lips and the way they’d crashed together, her mind took the wheel. They had evidence in the car, a mating ceremony to attend in the morning and she had a set of rules to uphold. Because she’d learned this lesson from an early age. The more she got attached, the more it hurt when she had to leave.
“I’ve got to get this evidence somewhere safe. I can drop you off along the way,” she murmured, hopping in the driver’s seat without a second glance. He slipped in on the other side and she set off down the road, trying to ignore how her heart sped in his presence. Trying to forget how he made her yearn.