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After sending back an acknowledgment to Scarlett, Tess trekked three blocks down to Twilight John’s. She made one more turn to her right and entered the quiet pub, glad to be out of the drizzle. Shaking off any lingering water drops, she checked for the shifter.

Scarlett Sullivan sat at the bar, oblivious to her admiration club, which included every male in the place. Shiny brunette hair had been braided into thin strands and half of those braids twisted up with the other half falling loose around her shoulders.

Were all shifter females as attractive?

Tess knew this one only minimally and even that had taken some work. Scarlett didn’t care for meetings and snarled at the jackals on staff. Maybe Cole did have a point about those shifters. Tess would ask Scarlett, but this woman kept everything close to the vest.

Their semi-relationship had started as professional and might never go any further, but Tess intended to keep trying to find common ground with her so that they could actually work as a team.

Tess would never truly understand shifters if she stayed in an echo chamber of her own people.

Cole would be an excellent resource.

She hadn’t figured out how to move forward—or not—with him yet, though.

Better to keep building the bridge with this female shifter one step at a time and hopefully not lose any ground.

Scarlett dressed in jeans and boots that broadcast badass, but the lacy top she wore was all female. She dolled up with minimal makeup, but the mascara ramped up her exotic appeal.

Tess envied the long black lashes surrounding Scarlett’s hunter-green eyes. More than once, Tess had wondered if Scarlett was a feline, but she’d never asked.

During her years of studying shifters, she hadn’t nailed down protocol for asking about a person’s animal. The jackal shifters didn’t care much what you asked them, but neither did they seem to care what any human thought.

Scarlett turned as soon as Tess walked toward the bar and said, “You did show up.”

“Why wouldn’t I? You invited me. I texted back,” Tess said, dropping her coat and purse in the empty chair next to the barstool she chose.

“You humans are hard to figure out. Some would accept out of fear of insulting me, but you’re not like that. I see you more as someone who would accept out of curiosity. You want to know things. Everything.”

Tess did not want to sound defensive, because Scarlett would often toss in a jab just to get a reaction. This shifter tested everyone and didn’t care who she pissed off.

Tess shrugged. “Did you ever consider that I might want to get to know you better and that’s all?”

“Nope. Not even for a minute.”

“Well, you’re wrong. That’s why I agreed to come here.”

Scarlett gave her a long look. “Hmm. Trying to throw me a curve, huh?” She called over to the bartender. “Boodles with a splash of water and lime for my associate.” She turned back to Tess. “Did I get it right?”

“Yes. How’d you know?”

Scarlett tapped her nose that had a small, gold hoop ring in one nostril. “You have a tiny drop on your scarf. My guess is you had only one at dinner.”

Tess took in the amber color in the shifter’s glass. “So you’re a bourbon fan, but I’m thinking that’s not top shelf.”

“Oh, got a tongue that cuts like a knife. Yes, on bourbon and on not top shelf. How’d you know?”

“My second degree was on the study of shifters and while I consider it limited in many ways, I did glean a few things. You can’t get drunk on alcohol so many shifters find spending an exorbitant amount of money on something you’re going to just pee out later to be a waste.” 

From the lift of Scarlett’s eyebrows, Tess knew she’d gained a point by showing she paid attention to their world. She quipped, “What? Did you think I was making a commentary on your level of income or lack of expensive taste?”

Scrunching her pretty face into a funny expression, Scarlett said, “To be honest, that’s exactly what I thought. People don’t surprise me often. I’m going to have to work a little harder around you.”

Tess took that as a compliment and felt sure this shifter didn’t hand out many.

“Now that you’re here and we’ve got posturing out of the way,” Scarlett said with a sly grin, “you’ve got a problem in SCIS with leaks.”

Damn her father and Brantley. But she didn’t want to admit knowing about those two. “I agree. Got any ideas who is behind them?”

“Not yet, but I will soon, especially if it’s a shifter. I won’t work with a team I can’t trust.”

Tess bristled at that.

“Keep your shorts on, human. I can smell your anger. I didn’t accuse you of anything.” Scarlett leaned an elbow on the bar.

Note to self. Must do a better job of not showing reactions around shifters. Tess said, “Good. I don’t accuse anyone without proof and ask for that in return.”

“I’m on the same page with you there. But the mage intern sent down to snoop? I’m not so sure about him.”

Tess wanted to keep the conversation light and chatty, but she had no idea who Scarlett was talking about. “Mage intern?”

Scarlett gifted her with a sly smile. “Wondered if you’d act like you knew. That’s what most of those people would do.”

“I don’t play games. Who is he?”

“I don’t have an ID yet, only that we’ve been infiltrated by the Power Barons.”

That was interesting and frightening. Maybe Brantley wasn’t sharing anything he knew and was only reporting on Tess to her father, which was more than just irritating. It could end up being dangerous. “You think this mage intern is behind the leaks?”

“Most likely. As soon as I nail down who he is, I’ll be able to track him everywhere he goes.”

“Would you be able to detect him if you were inside our SCIS facility?”

“No. If that were the case, I’d have figured it out the last time I slipped inside for a secret visit.”

Tess didn’t even comment on that and let Scarlett keep talking. “He’s covering his scent trail with magic.”

“What do you think is going on?” Tess asked.

“Well, I’m here first for the shifters. I’m their sole voice in what happens. You’re here for the humans and he’s most likely inserted on behalf of the Power Barons, which means he has little to no interest in protecting humans or shifters.”

The Power Barons had never been photographed, one of their requirements for working with governments, and met with only a select few. Tess doubted even her father had met any of them or he’d have ranted on that for hours.

She corrected Scarlett on one issue. “I have never said I was only interested in human protection.”

Smiling as if she held the answer to the origin of the universe, Scarlett snickered. “It’s not a rule or law. It’s in your DNA to watch out for your people. It’s in my DNA to do the same. That’s how we’re wired.”

Tess couldn’t dispute the logic in that since she had yet to be forced to make a decision based on a person being a human or shifter, but she felt in her heart that she would choose according to what was right.

Just to throw this out for conversation, Tess said, “As I understand it, one Power Baron mage has voted twice in favor of shifter rulings.”

“See, that’s it. Why would he do that? That bunch only came out because they wanted to have access to all intel across the board, not because they give two shits about harmony between humans and nonhumans. I don’t trust any of them voting or their intentions. They don’t have a dog in this race.”

Tess considered that. “Do you trust my intentions?”

Scarlett pondered on that moment. “Yes, for now, until you give me reason not to.”  Leaning back, looking relaxed, but always ready to pounce, she added, “I picked up a rumor that the intern was at the food bank building four hours before it got bombed. I haven’t been able to confirm it but the information came from a good source.”

Hold everything. That was ... very interesting.

But rather than jump on that and make Scarlett pull back, Tess switched the direction on her. “That brings up something that I can’t sort out. I keep trying to figure out whether someone was trying to kill SWAT and SCIS first responders with a bomb, which would have happened if any of them had arrived even one minute sooner.”

“I don’t think that was the intention at all. I think they wanted you to capture that wolf you let escape.”

Being fingered for what happened to Cole kicked Tess off balance. Before she thought, she said, “How could anyone have known he was going to be there? He said—” She caught herself before she shared what Cole had told her.

Scarlett’s focus sharpened. “He said what?”  

Checking herself to watch her words, Tess replied, “The prisoner claimed he had nothing to do with the Black River pack. He lost someone in the bomb who was strapped inside a truck and wearing the bomb as ankle cuffs.”

“Interesting,” the shifter mused.

Tess had a sinking feeling the thing Scarlett found interesting would not work in her favor. She finished her gin as her phone buzzed with a text from her assistant. The files she’d been expecting had arrived. “I’ve got to get back to work.”

“Workaholic,” Scarlett accused in a teasing tone.

“Some of us have ambitious goals.” She smiled, pulling her coat and purse off the chair.

Playing with a straw from the stock of them on the bar, Scarlett said, “We all work, but in different ways. You go push paper and I’ll poke around.”

“Be careful,” Tess said.

Giving her an eye roll, Scarlett pointed to herself. “Shifter here.”

“True, but I’m sure there are all levels of shifters.” Tess wondered if Scarlett knew about Cole’s team. “By the way, anything on that alpha I asked you to check into?”

“I have a lead on him. Once I find him, I have to explain that you’re the daughter of the woman who had a heart attack in Richmond where he got into a dustup with that jackal. If he agrees to talk, you’ll know as soon as I do.” 

Tess felt a true friendship beginning. “Thank you. I’ll repay the favor any time.”

When Tess turned toward the door, Scarlett said, “Cougar.”

Turning back, Tess frowned. “What?”

“You wanted to know what my animal was the last time we met. You were polite about it and didn’t ask, just like this time. Mine is a cougar.” The shifter winked in a sassy way and added, “I’m gonna own it for real if I can find me some young thang when I get old.”

Tess laughed. “Thanks. I did want to know.”

“If you had an animal, I bet it would be some form of cat.”

That sounded like a second compliment from Scarlett. Tess smiled, unsure how to respond without screwing up the moment.

Scarlett added, “Just don’t let curiosity get your tail in trouble.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Tess stepped back out into a light drizzle and lifted the hood on her coat to cover her head. She didn’t like getting wet but with only five blocks to go, this wasn’t enough to warrant the small umbrella in her coat pocket.

When she reached the corner to get back on the main thoroughfare, she waited for the light to change so she could cross the street.

Sirens wailed, coming in from her right as the rain started coming down harder.

A police car screamed up with lights flashing and slowed just enough to be sure no one ran through the traffic light. Tess had stepped back to avoid being sloshed by water pooling near the curb. She sensed a vehicle stopping on her right, but like everyone else, her attention was on the two police cars racing toward some crisis or chasing someone.

Out of her peripheral vision, a door on a van to her left slid open and two men dressed all in black jumped out.

Her mind registered the threat at the same moment she lunged away to run and reached for the gun in her purse.

It turned into one of those bad dreams where it seemed like her body moved slower than swimming through mud and the attackers shot around her at hyper speed.

The first one cupped his hand over her mouth, stifling her scream even though the sirens drowned her out. He wrapped an arm around her chest, jerking her back. She yanked back and forth, but there was no breaking his hold. The second guy grabbed her legs even though she kicked as fast and hard as she could. She caught his chin with one shove and he snarled at her.

It took mere seconds for them to contain her and shove her into the van.

Scarlett wouldn’t get caught like this, dammit.

Tess had a moment of fantasizing she was a powerful shifter capable of ripping through these guys, but they’d handled her so easily she had a sick feeling they were shifters.

The van pulled away slowly, turning right, which was in the opposite direction the police cars were headed. The one in the back with her stuffed a rag in her mouth and pulled a black hood over her head.

Panic settled into her chest, paralyzing her lungs. Every breath became harder to pull through the cloth. She had to calm down or she’d hyperventilate with no help from these guys.

One of them said, “Don’t jerk around if you don’t want to get hurt, human.” 

Definitely shifters.

Another voice said, “We get paid to deliver you alive. If you stay calm, you’ll arrive without many bruises. Fight us and you might break one of those fragile little human bones.”

Someone released a high-pitched cackle that made her skin crawl.

She’d heard that before around SCIS. Jackals.

They zip-cuffed her wrists and ankles, pushing her down on her back.

In less than a minute, her life had changed.

Her heart pounded at a crazy rate.

What did shifters want with her? Or were these mercs working for a human? Cole had said they’d do anything for the right price.

They hadn’t tried to rough her up or molest her, but that didn’t mean the person paying for this wouldn’t. She’d never felt so helpless in her life.

Her father would go crazy at losing her.

He would assume the worst, that it was a shifter. Life would repeat itself if they grabbed the first available shifter and threw him in prison. No one would track these guys down.

Cole would.

He’d have to know where she was to do that.

These guys had likely set up the car wreck for the emergency vehicles to come by at that moment.

She strained quietly but they had her tied up tight.

This was the whole reason Tess had altered her life. She’d wanted to make sure the guilty were brought to justice, but she was beginning to think Cole might be right about jackals in general selling out their own.

If she didn’t survive this, would the jackals find some poor soul to hand over for murder?

Someone who would die in a pit?

She couldn’t think about that. If someone had sent these guys to bring her in alive, just maybe she’d have a chance to escape.

Optimistic even if it was unrealistic.

She would never stop fighting to survive.

The van had driven long enough to be outside the metropolitan area of the city. The further it went, the more she lost confidence that she’d walk away from this.

They were being careful, not driving too fast and stopping at what she assumed were traffic lights. Soon she’d be too far for anyone to hear her.

If she kicked the wall, would someone walking by think that was the sound of a captive fighting to get out?

Probably not. Most people kept to themselves. No one would help her. No one would know she was locked inside the van passing by.

She’d always been someone who didn’t give up, no matter what, but she’d never been kidnapped.

Despair pooled in her chest and chilled her skin. Tears drizzled down her cheeks.

She didn’t want to die.

Didn’t want to leave her father to bury her.

Didn’t want to miss seeing Cole again.

Fuck this bunch. A tear slid over her nose, ruining her defiance. She choked back a sob and focused on surviving.

Tess might not be Scarlett, but if she was going to die, she’d go down fighting.