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Friday morning, Tess stood behind her desk at the downtown Spartanburg offices for SCIS, checking quickly through her messages. Nothing from Scarlett Sullivan, a consultant shifter who tracked and provided intel. No one in SCIS knew her animal. Not even the jackals on staff could figure it out. They scowled that her scent was off, whatever that meant.

Brantley took issue with Scarlett and didn’t hide his irritation.

Scarlett rarely showed up at SCIS in person, preferring to send in her reports and speak occasionally by phone.

Tess believed it was because Brantley considered Scarlett part of the security department and under his thumb.

As for Tess, she’d been trying to build a professional relationship with Scarlett, the one shifter who said what she meant and didn’t make Tess uncomfortable the way the jackals did.

Now Tess could add Cole to that list. Her worldview had broadened in the last two days.

Regardless, Scarlett trusted no one and hadn’t checked in today when Tess was hoping to have heard back about the side project. She’d asked Scarlett to track down the alpha who was involved in the shifter battle that triggered her mother’s heart attack. Tess had been putting out quiet feelers to her law contacts, seeking out a judge who might entertain her motion to have the court files unsealed. She’d been too off her game after her mother’s death—and too close to the case for reasonable analysis—but now, she had questions.

Brantley walked in without knocking.

Tess held her temper, but she did not acknowledge his entrance while she finished working through her notes.

Rude attitude deserved a rude response.

She and Brantley were headed for a confrontation, but that would have to wait for the right time. Rumor was, someone high in the government had used his or her influence to push Brantley’s resume through and influenced him ending up as Tess’s partner.

But he was not lead on the Black River Pack investigation in the southeast, which clearly was a bigger deal for him than she’d realized. Her background with shifters had given her a step up on him.

And now Cole had her looking at Brantley even closer.

Tess kissed no one’s butt at a job, but as a woman in SCIS, which was a dangerous field of operation, she had to go the extra mile every day to prove her capability.

Once she had a solid two years here, she’d put in to work with the national headquarters over all the SCIS operations, which would eventually lead to the director’s position where she could really make a difference.

When her visitor exhaled a long sigh, she dropped into her chair, looked up innocently and said, “Anything new on the blast at the food bank?”

Brantley’s face darkened with annoyance, but he pulled back a chair facing her and sat. “Body parts of one person have been recovered but no identity yet.”

That would be Sonic. Cole’s snitch friend had been blown to pieces.

Tess couldn’t very well tell Brantley she had information on the identity of the body without exposing the fact that she’d seen their escapee last night.

She asked, “Do we know if the body parts belong to a human or shifter?”

“Lab report on a recovered limb indicates the person was human. They’re still running tests.”  

Maintaining a hardnosed professional tone for Brantley’s benefit, Tess asked, “Has there been any sign of Colin O’Donnell? I reviewed the traffic cam from the food bank explosion. O’Donnell ran out a second before the bomb detonated and he was carrying that homeless woman, but he never looked at the camera.”

She knew that was because of Cole being a trained operative.

Tess pointed out, “He could have been saving that woman since I doubt she had any serious role in all of this. Probably an innocent caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.” That was close to what had happened. Her chest had ached at watching Cole almost die in the video.

He had tried to protect the homeless woman.

Brantley snorted with disgust. “Probably more like O’Donnell intended to use her for a human shield.”

Don’t kick Brantley.

At least they had no positive ID for Colin-Cole other than the SCIS staff members who put the mask on him after he’d shifted back from his wolf. How much could they have seen while nervously hurrying to install the mask?

Tess might not be objective after having been with Cole last night, but Brantley was just as subjective with his opinions.

She thought of a way to keep Brantley busy today. “You should interview that homeless woman for more information.”

Brantley waved off that suggestion. “You heard that initial interview with her. We’d get more out of a hamster.”

“Not necessarily,” Tess argued. “I just read a report from one of our people who found someone at the local shelter who knew the woman and could speak her broken language. Evidently she has no teeth and speaks Spanish. That’s probably why it sounded like gibberish.”

“So?”

Lifting the report, Tess scanned it and said, “One of the nurses who spoke Spanish said the homeless woman claimed an angel swooped in, picked her up and flew her away from the devil’s wrath.” Looking at Brantley, Tess added, “We could get more out of her with that translator.”

“She’s in the wind. Someone checked her out and no one can find paperwork on who did it or where she went.” He shared that with a smug look.

“When, exactly, were you going to share that information?” Tess asked, glad she already knew what had happened to the woman.

“Didn’t seem important since, as you said, she probably didn’t play any role in the event.”

She’d love to tell Brantley the escaped shifter was not with the Black River pack, but he’d love that. She had no proof other than talking to Cole, which she could never mention.

More than that, Cole trusted her to protect what he’d shared. She couldn’t betray that trust unless she discovered he’d lied to her.

She knew in her heart he hadn’t.

Plus, when she began putting the pieces of her conversation with Cole together, she figured out why he didn’t want to be seen with her or for SCIS to be involved in tracking Colin.

She believed Cole was making himself a target to draw out the Black River wolf pack.

The note on Sonic’s chest had been addressed specifically to Cole.

The next time she saw Cole, she might shake his head loose for taking these risks.

If she ever saw him again.

Unwilling to entertain that dismal thought any longer, she asked, “So nothing new on O’Donnell?”

“I stopped by the lab on the way here and the only thing they have determined is that his blood doesn’t match a specific shifter species of wolf or anything else.”

Tess had an idea why.

Cole had described his kind as an apex predator.

She knew there was more to it than that, but she’d have to wait until he was willing to trust her with more.

The deeper she got into this investigation, the further she moved from the center where she belonged. She couldn’t do a thorough job with her bias toward Cole, because she was withholding important information.

But Brantley was pushing just as hard to pin the bombing on Colin O’Donnell and prove he was a Black River pack member based on puny, circumstantial evidence.

Cole claimed there was a mole in her division of SCIS and she believed him, so for now she was sharing little.

Brantley scrolled on his phone as he spoke. “Our people continued tracking the missing paper trail on O’Donnell and actually got something. His identity disappears in records around the age of twenty-two when he entered this country. He dropped off the radar, which is suspicious in itself. No one disappears completely. Plus, we can’t find a photo anywhere of this guy. Even if a person goes into an agency such as the CIA, someone can confirm or deny his existence through our agency channels, especially if that person is found committing a crime.”  

Cole didn’t commit a crime at the food bank, Tess wanted to argue, but she had no way to prove who he was or what he’d done in the past seven years.

So why am I so ready to defend him?

Because while her mind was having a tough time with all of this, her heart had already made a decision and opened its gates.

Brantley was still reading from his phone notes. “On top of that, a year after O’Donnell disappeared, the Black River pack surfaced for the first time that we know of in the Middle East, then expanded to South America where they’re now headquartered.”

“You do realize this is all circumstantial, don’t you, Brantley?”

“So? It’s evidence. What’s your point?”

“My point is that I don’t want to get so focused on one potential tie to the Black River pack only to find out later O’Donnell isn’t connected and we wasted a lot of effort on him.”

Brantley didn’t even blink. “It’s not a waste. He’s our prime target right now.”

Showing a clear concern for the case so he didn’t turn this around down the road, Tess said, “It’s a shame we didn’t get a photo of O’Donnell while he was here, which is understandable since our people would have been in jeopardy. The staff was right to worry more about installing the mask the minute O’Donnell shifted back to human form than in taking pictures, but we could sure use a photo right now. I suppose we all thought we’d have plenty of time to observe him once he arrived at the SNR facility.”

Someone had tried to kill Cole on the way to that prison.

Tess intended to find out who inside SCIS was involved.

If Cole was correct in his suspicions and the mole turned out to be Brantley, she wanted to know who his powerful contact in the government was before she put him in cuffs.

Brantley eyed Tess with a superior look when he casually mentioned, “An image of O’Donnell is not a problem. I brought in a sketch artist last night to create an image. She spent hours with both of the men who had attached the mask.” 

Oh, hell. Brantley had probably been rubbing his hands together just waiting to drop that little bomb.

Tess refused to show any physical reaction about the sketches, but her stomach threatened to revolt over the results.

She said, “Really? When did the artist finish?”

“About one this morning.”

“Eight hours ago. Why haven’t I received those drawings?”

“You haven’t? I sent them to you an hour later.” He scrolled on his phone, mumbling to himself. “Here it is. I’ll send it again.”

Her gut was screaming that he lied about sending them earlier. She tapped the keys on her laptop and opened her email, then downloaded the images. Damn.

The artist had captured Cole’s image right down to his intense gaze, which seemed to stare at Tess, accusing her of taking the wrong side.

She would always stand on the side of the law.

But her legs were a bit shaky at the moment.

Moving on as if he were now running the meeting, Brantley said, “I sent the picture to contacts overseas and in South America immediately. Nothing has come back from our South American resources yet, but I did hear back from someone with US military who confirmed the man we’re calling Colin O’Donnell might have been seen in military operations overseas.”

Tess pondered what Brantley was sharing. Did he have more he was holding back? “Are you saying O’Donnell was in our military, but we have no record of his enlistment?”

“No, but you’re assuming he was fighting for our side. They didn’t indicate he was, so he might have been with our enemies. Could be a sleeper cell sent here. We just don’t know yet.”

Great. Cole was either part of a deadly wolf pack or a terrorist.

Putting a push of challenge in her voice, Tess said, “Since I seem to be the only one looking at all possibilities, I’ll play devil’s advocate. What if O’Donnell was in a Special Forces group with missions off the books?”

Brantley leveled her with a hard look that said he didn’t care for her dig at him. He moved ahead. “I sent an inquiry through a ... close contact I have in the government, one of which is an associate of a person in the Pentagon who would know about anyone in our military. I’ve heard nothing on it. I’d say that’s not realistic right now.”

Who was Brantley’s contact?  

Cole had made a valid point when he told Tess that SCIS had no evidence he’d committed a crime, but escaping from that transport yesterday screwed his argument for innocence. She had a hard time caring that Cole had broken a law by escaping since he’d managed to stay alive.

Ready to wrap this up, Tess asked, “What about the Jugo Loco? Was there any evidence of it being in the food bank building?”

“Actually, yes,” Brantley replied. “The explosion knocked a metal wall over piles of food supplies which protected some of the supplies from the fire. They found six jugs of standard tea that tested positive on site for Jugo Loco, but our people are doing a chemical analysis to be sure.”

So Cole had been telling the truth on that as well.

Why do I keep questioning him?

When she thought about it, she kept mentally judging everything she learned about him and the food bank explosion to build a case in her mind for his innocence.

A case she could defend, if she ever had to do so.

Changing subjects, Brantley asked, “You got an update on the bear shifter responsible for the Nantahala Honeymoon Massacre?”

Tess had just looked at a new report on that case this morning. “Not really. Can your jackal shifter who fingered the bear’s scent at the scene see if he can find anything around the food bank location? If the Black River wolf pack really did take in a bear, which is odd in itself, maybe he was involved in this distribution point.”

“I’d love to do that if that particular jackal hadn’t been killed transporting O’Donnell,” he replied wryly.

Crap. Since Cole’s people rescued him,  Brantley and SCIS would add that charge to the ones hanging over Cole.

Regardless, the bear shifter suspected of killing the human couple had to be brought to justice.

Tess shoved a loose strand of hair over her ear. She’d worn it up in her all-business mode with her mother’s wooden barrette. That hair accessory had been old when Tess was a child. Wearing it these days gave her comfort she couldn’t explain, especially when trying to solve these cases.

She couldn’t be wishy-washy when it came to capturing dangerous shifters, but Cole had her questioning a lot of what she knew and how SCIS operated.

Now was a bad time for her heart and mind to be playing a tug of war with her emotions. She wanted to believe Cole had the same goal as she did.

If so, then he would also want to end the Black River pack reign of terror and bring a dangerous bear shifter to answer for his crimes.

Tess couldn’t let her screwed-up feelings for Cole confuse her when it was time to act.

And her emotions were very screwed up.

In her mind, she knew a human and a shifter couldn’t mix, at least not her and Cole. Not in her world with a father like Senator Janver.

And how could it possibly work for a woman who wanted to remain on the career path Tess had laid out?

Just like Cole had said, it was complicated.

Whoa. Was she trying to figure out how to be with Cole? As in forever? She paused, stunned to find herself considering the pros and cons of that decision.  

“Tess. Did you hear me?” Brantley asked, lifting his voice.

Shaking off her mental debate, she cleared her throat to explain the brief delay. “Sorry. I was thinking about how that bear plays into all of this with a wolf pack that shouldn’t be allowing a bear to join them.”

“Who knows?” Brantley said, brushing off her comment. “They’re animals. Don’t try to use logic with something that is only half human. I was saying I brought in two new jackal trackers.”

Warning bells dinged loudly in her head. “Why? We could hand that to Scarlett when she comes in.”

“That shifter twit isn’t consistent enough with checking in. I want two dedicated trackers focused on nothing but finding O’Donnell.”

Brantley kept pushing Tess closer to a showdown by acting as if he had full authority. She’d let him think he was skating by for now just to keep him complacent. Once she had next week’s congressional meeting behind her, she might just put her own tracker on Brantley to get some answers before she lowered the boom on him.

That day was coming, but only when she was ready to act.

She’d bide her time, but she didn’t have unlimited patience, especially when it came to someone who thought they could pull the rug out from under her that easily.

Tess dismissed him by saying, “That’s fine. I have other cases for Scarlett even though she’s better suited to the O’Donnell case.”

Brantley cocked his head with amusement. “Not better than my new trackers. They’re bringing part of their pack with them.”

“Excellent,” Tess bluffed. “I expect results quickly.”

He studied her intently as if he had picked up on something.

Tess had cheered his aggressive stance as she normally would on hunting an escapee. That normally appeased him.

She hoped Cole was as good as he said when it came to dealing with other shifters. Brantley often described jackal shifters as invincible when they worked as a pack.

If they were as cutthroat as Cole had said, SCIS had just put a pack of killers on his trail.

That meant Tess had put those killers on his trail since she was in charge of this operation. Not that Brantley’s action was wrong, but she didn’t trust his motivations as being for SCIS. It was as if he wanted to bag a major shifter and present it as his capture when they met with the congressional committee next week.

He would one day find out she was similar to a Doberman.

Those dogs would allow you all kinds of room around them until you crossed the line into their territory.

Then they’d silently take you down.

She would be a team player only with teammates who worked toward a common goal.

Ending the meeting, she told him, “Please remember to let me know when we have an ID on the body from the bombing and if anything new comes in on locating O’Donnell, no matter how insignificant.” She made a point of holding his gaze just to let him know aggressive men who liked to hear themselves talk did not intimidate her. “Some Jugo Loco testing has produced markers that connect the batch to where it was created. We need to find out if we can trace connections from the food bank to an origination point.”

Grinning, Brantley said, “I’ll put someone on that right away ... boss.”

Tess tilted her head in a sign that this meeting was over. “Good. Let’s recreate everything that happened inside and around the food bank forty-eight hours prior to the explosion.”

She stood.

Brantley popped up, too. “Where are you headed?”

“To update the chief,” she said, not even hiding the frustration in her voice. Someone was working against her and SCIS, but she wasn’t about to broach that topic with her already irritated chief. Without solid evidence, he’d see it as trying to blame their problems on an unknown person. She’d point no fingers until she could put handcuffs on the perpetrator. She’d received a blunt text from the chief this morning. His job required that he oversee and report on major developments, and a copy of his reports went directly to the Congressional Committee on Nonhuman Affairs.

When Tess and Brantley faced that committee next week, they had to show the tax dollars spent on SCIS were making a difference so they could request more resources.

Brantley gave her a look of concern, which she didn’t accept as real. “Want me to go instead?”

Oh, sure. Like she’d tell him to take her place so the chief would think she couldn’t take the heat. Neither could she tell the chief that the transport arrangements had been orchestrated entirely by Brantley. That would sound like she was pushing off the blame on him even though she approved the transport.

Brantley deserved the blame, though. His jackals had gone off in the wrong direction, which gave the appearance that they’d been hijacked or working with the person undermining the SCIS operation.

That fiasco would be Brantley’s to explain at the congressional meeting. She planned to pass off any questions on security to him, since he claimed that area outright.

She picked up a folder and walked past Brantley, who could let himself out since he treated her door as though it didn’t exist. She never left anything in her office she didn’t want to end up in the wrong hands in case he snooped.

Telling her assistant where she was headed, Tess took a deep breath and went to face the chief. He’d made it clear he hadn’t wanted her at SCIS, but only because she was a senator’s daughter, and thus a high profile person he didn’t want harmed. Aside from that, the chief had always been professional and treated her fairly.

Or he had been until she’d had two jackal shifter casualties, a brand new transport vehicle blown up and lost Colin O’Donnell in the process.

Hell, she’d fire herself right now.