Craving Her (Keeping Her Series Book 4) (7 page)

“Well,” Miley said
ignoring the two lions with their backs up.  She clapped her hands together and
smiled, “Shall we have some of the wine we left earlier?”

***

With Lucas in her home no
one was going to get to Cleo.  All Shawn wanted to do was hunt, but he would’ve
had better luck following them when he had the chance. Now the trail would be
scent not site, and as a hawk-shifter that was not in his repertoire.  As a
shape-shifter, his senses were always heightened in human-form compared to
other men, but his sense of smell as a bird was nowhere good enough for that
type of hunt.  In fact, out of everyone in the pack, he would be the least
useful member of the team in this hunt when it came to the sense of smell.  But
there were other ways, and when you could see everything with the eyes of a
hawk, you didn’t miss much.

Shawn let go of the need
to go right after the attackers, and instead, he went after the security tapes
and the missing guards, hopeful that he would glean enough information to find
the men who dared to go after a Lionsgate female in that way.  Having Cleo shot
right in front of him was not something Shawn was likely to forget, not when it
felt for the longest moment of his life like it was a real bullet.  For that
endless moment of fear, when he saw her falling, and the man holding a gun,
with a mixture of rage and glee on his face, someone was going to pay.  The way
Shawn was feeling right now, payment was going to involve a great deal of pain
— right before a hard, screaming death.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

When Shawn returned to
Cleo’s apartment, she was clearly less than happy to see him.  As soon as she
saw who it was, he could see her desire to shove his ass back out again.  Luckily
for him, her father was the one who answered the door, all protective lion
ready to maul.  Otherwise, from the look she was giving him over those broad
shoulders, Shawn might have found the door slammed in his face . . . again.

“Report,” Lucas barked. 
Since his alpha was more lion than man at the moment, Shawn wasted no time
answering.

“Security guards were
darted from a distance, no ID on suspects, they were left in a lovely pile in
the security office, and tapes were taken, not wiped.  Eli showed while I was
looking, and he is set up with Logan in the security office.  They’ll both be
up once they have some information for you.”  Shawn met Lucas’ eyes.  “Logan is
working on finding the inside man.” 

And they all knew there
would be one.  The way the security was set up, someone had to let the bad guys
in while the rest were distracted.  Plus the tapes were taken, as well as the
hidden backups.  Someone helped them and Logan was working on who that was. 
Even knowing Logan was the best man for the job, Shawn wanted a more active role
in finding who attacked Cleo; instead, he was delegated to messenger for now. 
Eventually, they would have the information they needed and he would be up
again.  No one hunted better than him, except possibly Logan; the two of them
together were unbeatable.  Add Eli on the computer and it was no wonder why the
detective branch of Lionsgate was fast becoming legendary.  They always found
who they were looking for.

Lucas grunted at the not
unexpected news they had a traitor on the payroll.  It didn’t happen often
because the reputation of Lionsgate was such that most would not dare betray it,
but there were still exceptions, and they would still deal with them harshly
when they were uncovered.  Eventually, only the clinically insane would dare go
against this pack with betrayal in mind. 

Shawn was not really
surprised when, without saying more than “stay with Miley and Cleo,” Lucas was
gone himself – not when he would have done the same.  But that left him with
Cleo, who was feeling . . . aggressive just now.

“Come in Shawn,” she said,
smiling brightly at him as she pulled him forcefully across the threshold.  “Make
sure you are not available to spend the night if my father asks,” she muttered
low through her smile.  He blinked, but closed the twisted door as best he
could without answering.  What he was thinking was
No way in hell.
  He
turned back and took her in with his eyes.  He noticed she had changed into her
khakis and black t-shirt.  And she was packing. At least two guns and a
shitload of knives.  If she had any more handles peppering her person, she
would resemble a porcupine.  She also had on her shit-kicker boots with the
blade in the toe.  Clearly, she dealt with attempted kidnapping in her own
singular way. Why did that seem just as sexy as that black dress and boots from
a few hours ago?

“Relax princess, the
likelihood of your father picking me or any of the unmated males to stay here
with you, alone, is slim to none. It’s more likely he’ll consider everyone,
reject us all, and stay here himself with you and Miley.”

She blinked but lost her
fake smile.  “That was not the agreement,” she mumbled, but she was talking to
herself while she turned back for her kitchen.

“Would you rather I
stayed?” he asked blandly to her back, and had the satisfaction of watching her
stumble a bit on her usually graceful strut.  If he had not been a shifter, he
would have never heard the low mutter that trailed behind her.

“Only if you want to die
in your sleep, Tweedy.”  Since there was a definite bite to her words, and she
was walking away from him which gave him the mesmerizing view of her fine ass,
he was hit with a double reason not to stay the night, alone in her apartment. 
If the view didn’t kill him, the woman would.

“Shawn,” Miley said her
eyes searching, “did you find out anything?”

“Inside job,” he said
much more mildly then he felt.  “Lucas went down to discuss the situation.”

“I bet he did,” Miley
mumbled, then went back to her coffee.  It was obvious she understood what was
happening downstairs, and just as obvious she was going to trust her mate to
handle the situation without getting arrested.  Always the voice of reason was
Miley.  It didn’t hurt that she was a latent shifter, who understood pack
dynamics, despite her not being able to shift on her own.  Add in the fact that
she was a healer who looked fantastic in her tight skirts and ultra-feminine
tops, she made a hell of a mate for Lucas, and Shawn could not be happier about
it.  Lucas deserved that more than anyone else he knew.  But he was not the
only one who was lucky so far in his choice of mate.  Clytie had become Demon’s
world, and Cassandra was just crazy enough to put up with both Mac and Ben. 
They had all gotten lucky in the additions to their packs.  Of course, as much
as he craved the spitfire hopping up to sit on her kitchen island, practically
clanking with the weapons on her dangerous person, and with those amazing legs
swinging against the cabinets, he knew there would be no mate for him. 
Claiming Lucas’ young daughter would be a betrayal of the worst order, and he
knew there would never be anyone else, not after he saw Cleo at 15 and wanted
her more than he wanted anything in his life. 

It was a blatant betrayal
of everything he was.  She was a child.  A child in his pack, and Lucas’
daughter to top that off.  When he realized what was happening, he did his best
to stay clear of the girl with the long coltish legs and too much hair for her
slim shoulders.  He had sworn to himself he would never act on his desires, and
he never had.  But fuck all if he had not come close in the sultry wilds of the
Amazon.  He was going to have to get over this.  She was barely twenty-one, way
too young for him, and feeling things for the first time.  That she was feeling
things for him only made it worse.  He needed to get out and be gone, before he
did something they would both regret, like claim a beautiful lioness when she
was made for better things.

***

Cleo had no idea what
Shawn was thinking; she felt his eyes on her and turned to look, but as usual
he was blank-faced and giving nothing away.  If she did not have Miley looking
at her questioningly from the marble island where she sat with her wine, she
would hiss and swipe at him, just because he was in her territory . . . and
because he was not hers.

She rolled her eyes at
Miley when he refused to sit down, patrolling the rooms instead. You know, in
case someone had snuck in while her father was distracted. 
Yeah, right.

“Did something happen
between you and Shawn?” Miley asked gently. 

Turning away from the
sight of Shawn walking into her bedroom in taut Levis, she was forced to blink
her brain back into gear.  “What do you mean?”  Then she tried for innocent,
but since she had never been particularly good at the look it was not really a
surprise when Miley raised a doubtful brow.

“You know, I may get
hangovers unlike you, but that doesn’t mean I suffered any memory loss.”  Cleo
wanted to roll her eyes when she whispered it all, when she should know just
how good shifter hearing was.

“Believe me, Miley,
whatever you remember, nothing happened between me and Shawn, and it won’t.” 
And
that’s all I’m going to say.

“What exactly brought
Shawn to your garage just in time to rescue you from the attack?”

Cleo snorted, “I don’t
know if I would say he
rescued
me.  I was kicking ass when he showed up.”

“Until you were darted
and hit the pavement unconscious,” Shawn stated distinctly from the other
room. 
Bastard.

Miley jumped at his voice
and then laughed.

Cleo gritted her teeth. 
I
really am going to have to learn how to dodge those little fuckers.

The phone rang just as
she was reaching for her wine, and thinking of a way to deflect Miley’s
attention. Turned out the call worked just fine.  It was the landline rather
than her cell, and since she had that only for emergencies, at her dad’s insistence,
no one should have that number.  She was not even sure she had the number. 
Thinking it was probably a telemarketer, she answered with a rudely growled, “Yeah?”

But it was not a
telemarketer.

“I had hoped to finally
make your acquaintance this evening.”  The voice was smooth, but lacking in
emotion, or life.  It sounded the way she assumed an evil computer would
sound.  She knew as soon as she heard that voice she was talking to her would-be
kidnapper.  Something must have shown on her face because Miley pulled out her
phone and started furiously texting, her eyes flashing from Cleo to her phone
in rapid beats.  Shawn was by her side as soon as the words hit the air around
them.  No shifter would have missed that voice in the quiet of her apartment. 
Even on the other end of the line, and in another room.

“Arnaud Gerent, I presume?”

There was a long pause
before he spoke again; this time surprise was evident in that dead voice.  “Again
you surprise me.”

And she knew it was a
lie, both the emotion and the words. 
What the hell game was he playing?
 
“I doubt that.”  She met Shawn’s eyes, his emotions were surprisingly clear to
her at that moment in the stark planes of his face and his gold raptor eyes. 
He was already hunting.  She spoke to the man on the phone, but her eyes were
only for the predator in front of her.  That the look in his eyes was seriously
hot she refused to think about. “You know enough about Lionsgate to know what
you’re dealing with,” she paused.  “Or at least you think you do.  Because if
you really knew what you were inviting with this mate foolishness you would
never have started this.”

“I am willing to take my
chances to get what is mine.”

Cleo could not help
raising of her brow at that. 
What a presumptuous ass.
 
“That’s
quite a statement, when you have absolutely no right to call me yours, in any
way, shape, or form.  But I’m sure you have some half-baked self-deluded reason
to think it, and frankly, I just don’t have the energy to deal with crazy
tonight.  But I have to ask, why are you calling me now?  It seems the time to
call would have been for a date,
before
the embarrassing kidnapping
attempt . . . both of them.”

“I will admit when I
started this I made assumptions based on false information.  I won’t make that
mistake again.”

“Your false information
is still going strong if you think I’m in any way yours.”

“On the contrary, I have
known you would be mine for quite a while.  I assure you I keep what’s mine.”

“Yeah blah, blah, blah,
whatever.  How is your nephew?”  Her voice was dismissive as she studied her
nails.

“Yes, William,” Gerent
said just as emotionless, but there was a cold bite that issued a warning all
the same.  “He had to be punished, of course.”  Then his voice dropped to
threatening.  “I don’t like to be embarrassed.”

Cleo snorted, dropping
her hand to her lap with a slap.  “With your fucked up decision-making skills,
I doubt that was the first time you embarrassed yourself, nor will it be your
last.  You’re doing a pretty good job of it right now.”

This time the silence was
long and frosty.  She made big eyes at Miley who looked like she was in pain
listening to Cleo’s conversation, and shaking her head when Cleo crossed her
eyes.  Meanwhile, Cleo turned at a sound and saw her father and Logan standing
right inside the kitchen.  Logan made a winding motion with his hand she
understood. 
Keep the dirt bag talking
.  Eli must be on the cyber prowl
somewhere close.  Locating Gerent would go a long way in ending this.  It was
rare that anyone would have been able to duck Lionsgate.  It said a lot about
the man she was talking to that they had not already neutralized this target. 
It didn’t make her want to be nicer though.

Cleo lifted her chin to
acknowledge the command even as she turned her attention back to her phone. 
She didn’t moderate her disrespectful tone however.  She wasn’t that good an
actress.  “You still there?”

“Just picturing how I
will punish you when I finally have you.”  She could hear the anger in his
voice this time, it was the real deal.  “I can guarantee you won’t speak so
vulgar and disrespectful to me again.”

“I can actually guarantee
I will,” she muttered.  She wasn’t sure who was more pissed listening to this
conversation, but she was sure she was in the top three.  At least.  “Did you
call with a plan in mind, or were you just feeling like you didn’t get your toy
and wanted to whine about it.  ‘Cause that seems a bit ‘spoiled douche bag’, I
mean, in a really obvious way.”  She heard a thunk and turned to see Miley had
dropped her head to her arms and was shaking her head against them.  She was
not the only one shaking her head as she looked around the room.  Everyone else
seemed to be dealing with their own issues with her honesty. 
Whatever.

Again the frozen
silence.  “Hellooo?  Let me guess, you’re back in fantasyland where you have a
say in how I act?”