CHAPTER TEN
Tamsin walked into the diner behind Angus, who was leading, as Shifter males liked to. She held Ciaran’s hand, absurdly pleased that he let her.
Angus dropped his hood as they went in, but the jacket covered his throat. Other men in this diner wore hoodies, as the rain was pelting down outside.
Ciaran looked like a human kid, even if he had wiry muscles and a gray-eyed stare like his father’s. If the people here weren’t used to Shifters, they wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that Angus and Ciaran weren’t strictly human.
Angus received a few startled glances, being as large as he was, and all Shifter males had something of the beast about them. But the fact that he was with Tamsin, who’d never be large, and Ciaran, who was adorable, softened the looks. The big bad male couldn’t be so bad if a harmless-looking woman and cute little boy followed him without fear.
It was a seat-yourself place, so Angus led them to the rear of the dining room, sitting down in the chair that let him put his back to the wall. From there, he could observe the entrance as well as the hall that led to the restrooms and rear exit.
Tamsin, living without a Collar and hiding her Shifter-ness for years, was less wary about those around her. Most people were out for dinner with families and friends, and because this was a local place, many of the diners knew one another. This town was on an interstate, however, which was only a few blocks away, and so the locals saw nothing odd in strangers stopping for a bite on their way through town or to the lake.
Ciaran lifted the menu, which was almost as large as he was. “Can I get anything I want?”
“Sure,” Tamsin said at the same time Angus barked, “No.”
Angus shot Tamsin an irritated look. “If you eat too much and get sick, you’ll slow us down,” he said to Ciaran.
“I won’t eat too much,” Ciaran scoffed. “If I get one steak and shrimp po’ boy and one sausage, that will be enough. Barely. Those guys really didn’t give me much to eat.” He made sad wolf-cub eyes over the menu at Angus.
Tamsin hid a laugh. Ciaran knew how to milk a situation, even a bad one. Good. Kept him from being traumatized. Tamsin knew all about trauma.
“Get the steak and shrimp one,” Angus said. “If you finish that, then we’ll order more.”
Ciaran let out an aggrieved sigh. “Oh, all right.”
The waitress stopped at the table, beaming a wide smile. “How are y’all? What do you want to drink?”
Before Ciaran could speak, Angus ordered glasses of water, which the busboy was already slamming down in front of them, and coffee for himself.
“And a giant sweet tea for me,” Tamsin said. “The sweeter, the better. With lots of ice in it.”
“Oh, Dad, let me have a sweet tea. It’s all right—it’s not like sodas. Dad doesn’t let me drink those,” he confided to Tamsin.
The waitress looked at “Dad” for confirmation. Angus gave a grudging nod. “Not too much.”
The waitress bustled away to fetch the drinks. She was back with them soon, the glasses beaded with condensation on this humid evening.
They ordered the po’ boys and the cheerful waitress sailed away again.
Tamsin studied Angus while pretending to keep an eye out around the diner. Angus’s gray eyes were focused on the door, waiting for whatever trouble might come through it. His body was tight, his fists curled on the table. If a Shifter Bureau agent did come through the door, Tamsin sensed Angus would have her and Ciaran down the restroom hall and out the back faster than fast.
An agent wouldn’t come in, Tamsin was willing to bet. She’d gotten good at knowing when she was being followed and when she was in the clear for a while. They’d given Haider the slip for now.
But he’d be coming for them eventually, she was well aware. Hopefully Angus and Ciaran would be safe from the man before then.
Angus was a good fighter though, as Tamsin had already seen. He was also nice-looking. His face had clean lines, though his nose might be a bit long—but he was a wolf, couldn’t help that—and his eyes had a way of pinning you even when he wore a neutral look.
As though Angus felt her watching him, he turned his head and met her gaze. Tamsin’s cheeks warmed, and she quickly looked away.
The food came. Long sandwiches on flaky bread piled with meat and dripping with gravy oozed on the plates, and the waitress plopped down a huge basket of potato chips for all of them to share.
“Tamsin,” Ciaran said. “This is how I eat mine. Watch.” He took off the top bun of his sandwich, swept up a handful of chips, and pressed them on top of his roast beef. Fried shrimp slid from under the meat, but Ciaran patiently replaced them. He jammed the top piece of bread back on and opened his mouth wide for his first bite.
Sauce and shrimp squirted out of the sandwich along with a few chips. Tamsin burst into laughter. She expected Angus to snarl at his son, but his lips twitched, and he said nothing.
Tamsin lifted her sausage and hot sauce sandwich and bit down. Her eyes watered as soon as the food hit her tongue, but she chewed enthusiastically. Good stuff, and she was hungry. The breakfast Ben had cooked very early this morning was a long time ago.
Angus was watching her. He had ordered a roast beef with debris, but he hadn’t eaten any of it yet.
Tamsin realized half her sauce had spilled onto her chin. She reached for the pile of napkins the waitress had left, but Angus had already lifted a napkin, and he touched it to the corner of her mouth.
Tamsin stilled, the spice from the sandwich and the warmth from his unexpected touch burning her. Angus’s gentleness manifested as he carefully wiped her lips and then her chin, catching a drip that threatened to trickle down her throat.
Tamsin’s heartbeat was off the scale. She wondered if Angus could feel her pulse banging against his fingertips.
I’m just horny, she told herself. Shifters liked to mate—had the instinct ingrained. She rarely trusted anyone enough to let herself be vulnerable to either a Shifter or a human male, so she’d avoided any kind of sexual encounter, or even opportunity, for a long time. Years, she realized.
Angus wasn’t offering her sex. Hell, she’d had to convince him to come in here and give her food.
He was simply wiping her mouth, like he would for Ciaran. Except he hadn’t reached for a napkin for Ciaran—he was busy scrubbing at his face with half the pile. Angus leaned toward Tamsin, his gray eyes flicking down as he concentrated on dabbing sauce from her chin.
He looked up, and their gazes met, as they had in the hidden room in the house. Right before they’d kissed.
Tamsin wanted to kiss him again. More than wanted to. She craved it. She wanted to kiss him, wrap her arms around him, and keep kissing him. She’d let her hands explore his body, the muscles under his shirt, his tight stomach, his firm buttocks. She wanted his weight on her, his mouth parting her lips, his hands learning her, his thumb brushing her breast and bringing her to life.
She struggled for breath. Angus’s gaze moved to her lips, but he straightened up in the next moment, dropping the crumpled napkin to the table.
Ciaran had ceased eating to watch them, and his expression held hope.
Tamsin smiled feebly at Ciaran, but when she lifted her sandwich again, her hands shook so hard she had to set it down and eat its innards with a fork.
They’d nearly finished the meal—Ciaran had changed his mind about ordering the second sandwich after he took the last bite of the first one—when Dimitri and Jaycee walked into the diner.
Angus didn’t bother waving for their attention. They’d have known where the Shifters were right away, even over the scents of hot sauce, sausage, gravy, and barbecue. The diner would never shake those scents, Angus had the feeling, even when its remains were unearthed in a thousand years.
Dimitri, a tall, red-haired man who walked with an easy stride, was a red wolf, his Shifter beast fast and powerful. Jaycee, who followed him, was on the short side for a Shifter woman, but she had even more grace, though she was restless with it. She wore her dark blond hair pulled into a ponytail and had the tawny eyes of a leopard. She and Dimitri were the best trackers Angus had ever met, including himself.
Discretion wasn’t going to rule here. Ciaran was out of his chair, arms outstretched as soon as the pair walked in. “Dimitri!”
Ciaran flew at Dimitri, who caught him and raised him high, spinning around before he hugged the cub.
Jaycee watched with an indulgent smile, then took note of Tamsin and came alert, her smile fading.
Jaycee had known Tamsin was sitting there—she’d chosen her moment to look at her, but not aggressively. Jaycee was a little more careful than that. Her assessment was calm, a tracker sizing up a newcomer to discover whether she was threat or ally.
That Jaycee had come with Dimitri at all surprised Angus. She was pregnant, and Dimitri had become highly protective of her. Of course, Jaycee wasn’t one to let a male Shifter tell her what to do, even her mate. Angus imagined she’d announced she was coming along and that was the end of it.
Dimitri dragged a chair over, sat down next to Tamsin and planted his elbows on the table. Dimitri’s hair was almost as red as Tamsin’s, though a different shade. Red wolf and fox. Both with attitude.
“So, who are you, then?” Dimitri asked her.
Jaycee seated herself next to Ciaran and across from Tamsin. “Don’t mind my mate. He’s rude as hell. I’m Jaycee.” She gave Tamsin a cordial nod.
Tamsin studied Jaycee’s neck, commenting without words about Jaycee’s lack of Collar. Jaycee studied Tamsin in return, clearly thinking pretty much the same thing.
“I’m Tamsin,” she replied. “A stray Angus picked up.”
Jaycee gave her a hint of a grin. “Angus does that. He picked up me and Dimitri once.”
“And that was the stuff of legend,” Dimitri said. “Get the story out of him sometime. I know he didn’t tell you already. He doesn’t like to talk much.”
Angus didn’t. He’d learned the truth of the saying Least said, soonest mended. Dimitri, a man who’d had a speech impediment most of his life, rarely stopped talking.
“Oh, I want to hear this,” Tamsin said.
Angus cut through the happy getting-acquainted party. “Did you bring it?”
Dimitri didn’t look offended. “We wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t.” He laid his hand, cupped palm down, on the table in front of Angus. When he lifted away, two keys on a key ring rested next to Angus’s plate.
No electronic key fob, so it must be an old car. Fair enough.
“Sorry it took so long,” Dimitri said. “It’s not the fastest vehicle on the road. But I’ve fine-tuned the engine so it goes quickly enough. Just not like, say, a Ferrari.”
“Anything is slow the way you drive.” Jaycee rolled her eyes. “I followed him on my bike so I can get him back home. He was going to hitch or take a bus, can you believe it? I almost ran over him about twenty times, the way he crept along. But he insisted I stay behind him.”
“It’s what Shifters do,” Dimitri said, giving his mate a meaningful look. “Males go first, to make sure the way is safe.”
“You go first to be a pain in my ass.”
“Yeah, but you like looking at my ass, so there you are.”
Jaycee gave him an exasperated glare, but she didn’t argue with him.
Angus had known Jaycee and Dimitri were madly in love with each other the moment he’d met them. When Dimitri had gotten himself captured, Angus had gone with Jaycee to help find him, knowing Jaycee would run after him on her own, no matter how many people tried to dissuade her. Angus hadn’t wanted to see her die, so he’d gone with her to protect her.
It was his curse, the need to protect people. Would get him killed one day. Nearly had already.
“Have you eaten?” Tamsin asked. “The po’ boys are spectacular.”
Ciaran nodded in agreement, pinching the last crumbs of chips and loose debris between his fingers. “Bloody terrific.”
“Come to think of it, we are hungry.” Dimitri sent his warm look to the waitress, who hurried over.
Angus frowned at them all once she’d taken their sandwich order—one crawdad and one beef. “We’re trying to be inconspicuous.”
“Doesn’t mean we can’t eat,” Dimitri said. “This is a restaurant. It would be more conspicuous if we didn’t eat.”
“Stay relaxed,” Jaycee advised. “The more natural you act, the less attention you attract. We’re just old friends meeting up, as far as the other diners are concerned.”
“She’s smart,” Tamsin said to Angus, then turned back to Jaycee. “You’ve done this before.”
“All my life,” Jaycee said. “You get used to stealth, Angus. After a while, you’ll be great at it.”
“I’m a tracker,” Angus said, pitching his voice low. “I know what I’m doing.”
Jaycee reached over and patted his arm, giving Angus the excuse, when she released him, to slide the keys into his pocket. “He’s my hero, Tamsin. Stood up to some scary people with me, and helped Dimitri and me get home safe.”
“That’s my dad,” Ciaran said proudly.
The restaurant’s business was picking up, as it was the time humans usually had supper, and they had to wait a while for Dimitri’s and Jaycee’s orders. But there was something to what Jaycee said. As they talked about nonsense things, Tamsin taking easily to Jaycee and Dimitri, the other patrons ignored them. Angus and his group weren’t behaving any differently from the other humans crowding around the tables.
Jaycee and Dimitri enjoyed their food, praising it, sharing bits with Ciaran, who declared he could eat more now. Tamsin then ordered a piece of cheesecake, which she split with Ciaran and Dimitri.
Finally, finally, the food was eaten, the bill presented. Angus started to dig for cash, but Dimitri beat him to it, tossing money onto the little tray the bill came on and telling the waitress to keep the change. She thanked him graciously.
They strolled out of the restaurant and around to the parking lot as though they had nothing more to do tonight than go home and watch TV. Angus made sure, however, that Tamsin and Ciaran walked in the middle of the pack.
Jaycee’s motorcycle was parked near Reg’s SUV, but Dimitri didn’t head for it. He led them instead to a vehicle that sat on the street, deep in the shadow, and was too large to fit into the tiny lot.
“There you go.” Dimitri waved a hand at it. “Wheels.”
“Cool!” Ciaran said in an enthusiastic whisper. Tamsin looked pleased, but Angus halted in dismay.
“Seriously?” He swung on Dimitri. “You want me to get away in that?”