CHAPTER 3
Hoxson was distracted. It was strange enough that he'd woken up in the home of Adie Raine, but he wasn't expecting her to be just as goddamn good-looking as she'd always been. Even more, actually – she'd lost the last bit of baby fat from her cheeks and she'd come into the full bloom of her womanhood.
Her straw-blonde hair hung loosely onto her bare shoulders, the color as bright as the sun. Her heart-shaped face framed her features perfectly, her grass-green eyes as sensual and inviting as ever, her nose small and pert, and her full, Cupid's bow lips just begging for a kiss.
And her body was still something else. Hoxson found himself staring forward as he talked to her; all it took was one glance at her slender, shapely physique for his cock to start twitching in his jeans. She wore a small crop-top shirt that showed off her toned stomach, and her denim short-shorts put her lovely legs on full display.
Hoxson found himself wondering just what was going to be on his mind after he drained a couple more of these beers.
"Why I'm here," he said, snapping himself back to the present moment. "Well, you know how one of the things we loved about Starwood was how laid-back it was? How shifters could just live here and not have to worry about any of that bullshit drama like in San Francisco or LA?"
"Damn right," she said. "One of the few shifter cities in the country where we didn't have to constantly navigate power plays."
"Well, I think that's all about to change."
"It already has with these damn bears moving in. But I've heard about biker bear gangs moving into cities before. Usually, they just cause a scene for a little while before getting bored and moving on."
"But these bears have stayed put," said Hoxson. "And now they've gone quiet."
"That's right," said Adie. "Damnedest thing. Biker bears keeping a low profile? Whoever heard of such a thing?"
"Okay," said Adie, raising her hands, the fingers of one wrapped around her beer. "But why do you care about all of this? You just here out of a sense of curiosity?"
"No," said Hoxson. "I'm a merc."
"A ‘merc'?" she said, totally confused.
"A mercenary. I do…dirty work for money."
"Are you serious?" asked Adie, her green eyes going wide. "Like, you kill people for cash?"
"Now, I'm not a damn assassin," he said. "But yes, me and my team have killed our fair share of people during our time together. We're called the Silver Talon Mercenaries, and we're one of the top dragon outfits in New York."
"As in the city?" she asked. "You're here all the way from New York?"
Hoxson nodded. "Yep. We got a call for a job from a client in San Francisco. Said that they've heard rumors that shifter activity has been getting strange here around Starwood. Thinking it might be being used as some kind of staging area for shifter clans in the city."
Adie said nothing, taking this all in.
"So, I gotta ask you – anything weird going on around here other than the bear gangs?"
Adie looked away for a moment, thinking hard.
"There's my new job, I suppose."
"Your new job?" asked Hoxson. "What kind of new job?"
"There's this family that bought up some big tract of land outside of town with one of those old mansions on it. They moved in a couple months ago, getting the place remolded. And once they were done, they hired a few girls from here in town to work as maids there."
Hoxson sat up straight, thinking very carefully about all of this.
"And are they shifters?"
Adie shook her head.
"No way to know. They're very, very secretive. We come to clean the place up when they're not there. Haven't even met them; they did their hiring through some assistant. And he's the one we talk to if we need anything."
"What's this family's name?"
"The Mendozas," she said. "Rich as hell. But I've got no idea where they get their money."
"And you didn't think there was anything strange about this family moving in?"
"Why would I?" she asked. "Not like it's unheard of for rich families to buy up these old mansions and move out of the city. Not like they've got some witch's den or drug lab in there or something."
"That you know of."
Adie rolled her eyes.
"As far as I can tell, they're on the level. Why – what're you thinking?"
Hoxson thought for a moment.
"I need to know if you can get me into that house."
Adie's eyes went wide.
"Are you fucking kidding me? Just let you into that place? Why?"
"The reason I'm here by myself is because I'm the team's recon specialist. I move into places, check out the scene, and get intel before the rest of the Silver Talons make a move. So, maybe this rich family's just some shifters who want to get away from the city, like other shifters in Starwood. Or maybe they're just some wealthy humans. But between the bears and them, I'm starting to think there might be something more going on than we're thinking."
"I can't just let you into the house," said Adie. "They've got major security at that place."
"Even more suspicious."
"Or they're just careful – who knows. But they check me and the other girls pretty damn heavily when we arrive and when we leave. Not sure how I'd sneak you in, even if I wanted to."
"Adie, I'm not asking you to smuggle me in your damn purse or anything; you just need to lead me to the mansion; I'll do the rest."
"I don't know," said Adie. "Every vibe I get from these people makes me think they're not the type to be screwed with like that."
"All the more reason to check it out. If it's nothing, then it's nothing."
Hoxson watched Adie carefully. Part of him wondered if the woman he'd known since he was a teenager could be hiding something from him. So far, however, she seemed to him to be on the level.
"And why would I do that?" she asked. "Why would I risk my job just to help you out?"
"Because the clients who hired us for this job seem to think that there's a good chance major shit's going to be happening here in Starwood. I mean, think about it – it's a quiet shifter town; a perfect place to stage some kind of operation away from anyone in the cities."
"What kind of ‘major shit'?" asked Adie, suddenly sounding very worried.
She stood up and walked over to the railing over her porch. Adie put her palms on the edge and leaned forward. Hoxson couldn't help but take a long look at the hint of her ass that peeked out from underneath the hem of her shorts. His cock was already starting to throb.
Hoxson took a deep breath and focused back on the mission. He stood up from his seat, took a long swig of his beer, and walked over to Adie. As soon as he took his place next to her, her scent, that rich fox scent that always smelled to him like sex and ice cream, flooded into his nose. The smell brought back a powerful wave of nostalgia, and he could picture, with perfect clarity, just how Adie's face used to look when they fucked back in the day.
"Could be nothing," he said, trying to calm down Adie. "Could just be some paranoid family in San Francisco getting worried over nothing. But my job isn't to figure out if they're spending their money in a smart way; my job is to do what they ask. And that involves me taking a peek inside that house."
Adie turned to Hoxson. They were standing close now, and the fabric covering her ample breasts grazed Hoxson's arm as she turned in place. Hoxson swallowed hard, now not sure for how long he'd be able to keep his hands off Adie.
"This Friday," said Adie, "most of the non-work crew will be out of the house. If you just had to scout the place, that'd be the day to do it."
"Perfect," said Hoxson.
It was Thursday, so that gave him time to prepare.
Standing there, he could feel the heat from Adie's body. He took in another long draw of air through his nostrils, smelling her scent one more time.
"You'll just have to stay out of trouble until then," she said. "If you can manage it."
"I can keep a low profile when I want to," said Hoxson. "I only went out to the bar to see what kind of reaction me coming back to town would have."
Adie's eyes flicked over the bruises on Hoxson's arms.
"And did you get the reaction you were hoping for?" she asked, a small grin tugging at the side of her mouth.
"I figured some people would be pissed off to see me, but I didn't expect some random bears to be all up in my shit."
"And then we've got all this to deal with," said Adie.
Hoxson turned toward her and raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean ‘all this'?"
"This between you and me?" she said, seeming shocked that Hoxson didn't know exactly what she was talking about.
"What…what you wanna talk about?" Hoxson asked.
Adie balled up her hands into small, hard fists and brought one down hard on Hoxson's chest. Hoxson could only smirk at her little display.
"You've come back into my life after nearly a decade and act like it's nothing!"
"Still haven't answered my question."
Adie let out a little squeal of anger that Hoxson couldn't help but find pretty damn adorable.
"You can be a real prick, you know that?" she said. "I'm sure you had your big, important fucking reasons why you left, but you have no idea how hard that was for me. The first love of my life abandoning me out of the blue after we'd all but pledged our lives to one another…it was hard."
Hoxson said nothing, figuring she just needed to get it all off her chest.
Truth was, Hoxson didn't know how to deal with all of this. He knew what he did, and, deep down, he'd always wondered just what would happen if he ever saw Adie again. And now that he got his answer, he wondered why it was even a mystery to begin with – she was pissed.
"And not even a fucking word from you! For all I knew, you were dead, that your smart-ass mouth had finally pissed off the wrong person."
"I'm here now," said Hoxson.
"Yeah, you are. For now. And only because you've got a job to do. A job that you need me for."
Adie's little spat of anger had caused a few stray strands of hair of fall over her eyes. It made Hoxson think of how she used to look after they'd fuck, with her hair all mussed. His heart was beginning to beat faster, and he felt his self-control dwindling by the second.
"Here's the deal," she said. "You want my help, then you'd better stick around, at least for a while. No running off without telling me what you're doing."
"Stick around, huh?" Hoxson asked, turning to Adie and looking down at her.
"Um, uh, yeah!" she said, her eyes going wide as she realized just how close Hoxson was to her.
However overwhelmed he was getting from Adie, Hoxson could tell that she was feeling at least that. He watched her swallow hard, her eyes now wide. She looked up at him, her tongue dragging slowly over her lips.
"You'd better let me know…before you do anything…drastic…"
Then, without another word, Hoxson leaned in and kissed her hard.