“Why are you doing this?”

  She pushed him toward a chair and watched as he sat, his naked exposed olive skin a drawn for her. Lord, she wanted to sink to her knees and take his impressive cock between her lips once more.

  “I’m doing this to find out about the man who allowed me and my siblings to be raised in cages and used as weapons while we walked around with bombs in us, apparently in case we got out of line.”

  That wasn’t supposed to be said.

  “Explain.”

  She tipped her head to the left. “You need more explanation than that? I thought you were smart. That’s fairly self-explanatory. What do you need more on?”

  “You’re standing there, asking me to tell you things I don’t have the knowledge to because of some supposed bomb in your head and that of your siblings. Surely I deserve a bit more explanation on that.”

  It didn’t take her long walk to where his clothes were and she tossed him his pants to pull on. He was to fucking distracting for her naked. He listed to her silent directive, standing long enough to draw them on, then he sat.

  “One, I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. It’s not a supposed bomb it was a real one. Mine was cut out recently by a friend of my half-brother.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to expose the other shifters yet. Angling her body, she lifted her hair in one hand and lowered her shirt with the other, allowing him to see where it had been removed. “The one scar on me that hasn’t healed yet. This man, Emol, is my key to getting the information needed to find my other siblings and make sure they won’t be killed at some fuckwad’s whim.”

  He pushed a hand through his hair. “I don’t know why, but I fucking believe you.”

  She crossed her arms, wishing she had her old uniform on, the one that kicked her into the mindset of a warrior. The one that didn’t allow for all this touchy-feely shit to move though her mind, making her weak.

  “Tell me what you know of him.”

  Andrew rose from the chair, a pure glide of feline predatory movement. Sexy as fuck and completely capable of derailing her thoughts all over again.

  “This is going to need food. We’ll cook and talk.”

  She took a few moments to let his dictate fall into her mind. Kelly wasn’t sure what to make of him, but she wanted to listen to him. It wasn’t even something she could pass off as wanting to be with him a bit longer before she had to kill him. She wanted to listen to him.

  In his open kitchen, she rested a hip against the counter and crossed her arms.

  “I’m not cooking.”

  “I know, you’re going to help me cook. You wore me out woman and I’m hungry, I know you are as well.”

  “I was hired by a company called Killman’s. I was brought on to do a lot of behind the scenes work. By the time I realized it may not all be legit, I was in to deep. I was paid a lot of money and knew I would be killed if I talked. I discovered my company and others were all under the umbrella of another called J-HACKS. I couldn’t locate anything on the owner.”

  She tensed but continued stirring the bowl of batter he’d given to her. “And?” she prompted.

  “I didn’t know about you, but I have found proof of more like you.”

  She stilled. “How many?”

  Chapter Three

  Andrew hesitated for the barest of moments. For so long he’d been conditioned to either send people to a specific place if they wouldn’t take him at his word for a reason. This woman was different. He wanted to protect her. Even his cat who seldom made an appearance expect to demand a run, was in favor of doing what he had to in order to keep her alive and breathing.

  “I haven’t looked at it for a while so there may be more, but I remember two males. One who was raised and trained in Antarctica and the other was done the same way in Africa. I’m positive there were more, not a lot but some. And they were trying to duplicate what they’d done with the initial ones.”

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Damn she was astute.

  “I have a drop place I’m supposed to send people to if they won’t believe that I am telling them the truth. After which, I call a preset number.”

  “And say what?”

  His mouth turned down in a frown. “Nothing. I just call the number and hang up when it’s picked up.” He faced her.

  Her incredible green eyes were focused on something only she could see. For all he knew she could be communicating with someone else. He’d heard shifters had that ability. He didn’t talk that way with anyone, didn’t believe he had the aptitude for it.

  “What?”

  He put down his utensil and moved to her side, plucking the bowl from her hands and setting it on the counter.

  “Where is that number?”

  “In my head.”

  Her gaze slashed to him and he hid his shiver. “The way you look at me is like you’re trying to see if you can physically remove that number from my brain.”

  “I was wondering.” She moved around him, her long blonde hair trailing over his bare torso, setting him aflame once more.

  “You can’t. You could rip into my head, sure, but you’re not going to find the number printed there.”

  “You will tell me.” It wasn’t a statement or a request. That was nothing less than an ironclad command.

  “I will.”

  She pushed into him until he was against the counter, unable to move more. “I will also have the address from you.”

  “Anything you want.”

  “Why the change of heart? Is this part of your ploy?”

  “No, this is the basic fact that my cat wants to protect you. He asks so little of me, I will not fight him on this.”

  Her lids lowered, hiding her eyes but not before he saw the flash of leopard. “I like your kitty.”

  Cupping her through her pants, he rubbed against the seam. “I damn sure like yours.”

  “You’re coming with me.”

  His mind on sex, it took a moment before he realized she meant accompany her to this location.

  Andrew blinked a few times as he tried, unsuccessfully, to rein his leopard in. “Why?”

  “Because I know you are going to be hunted when you help me and I won’t let them hurt you.”

  His pride was a bit bruised there. More than a bit, and it sucked on many different levels. He bristled. “I don’t need a babysitter. I’m a full grown adult male. And a leopard shifter.” His words fell on a deadly rumble, indicative of the dangerous predator he could be.

  “Yes,” she purred in his ear. “Yes, you are, but I’m a trained killer with skills those coming after you won’t expect you to have.”

  Well, when she put it that way.

  Twenty minutes later, he paced outside watching the woman he was pretty damn sure was his mate as she strolled back and forth along a stretch of grass. She’d ditched her heavy black boots and was without footwear, allowing the grass to touch her skin.

  He wanted to be touching her skin. She was on the phone with someone she called Snyder and jealousy rose fast and swift. Until his sharp hearing picked up on her asking about the man’s mate, a woman named Tinder. The information soothed him a bit.

  She finished her call and pivoted to face him directly. The wind picked up and swirled her long blonde strands around her face where they hadn’t been captured in a ponytail. As she stood there graced by the sunlight, he swore he could pick out the rosettes on her body, symptomatic of her animal. Then she shifted and they vanished, much like the cat could do when it needed.

  He didn’t move when she strode toward him, eyes locked on him. She paused right before him and kicked her head slightly to the left.

  “Kelly.”

  Andrew blinked a few times as he tossed the name around in his mind. It fit her, in some aspects and yet, not at all in some others.

  He held out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Kelly…”

  She accepted the connection of his palm against hers. “Hogan.”

  His pulse kicked up. That name he knew but thought it had been a male. He’d not been allowed to see the physical stats of Kelly Hogan but the battle prowess put this subject up toward the top of them all. There were only six that showed such incredible potential.

  Her grip tightened. “What?”

  “I was wrong,” he admitted, gut churning with nasty bile.

  “About?”

  “Not knowing you previously. I did, I mean, I didn’t know you personally, but I have seen reports on you.” He tugged his hand free and rubbed his fingers against his temples.

  “I would like to know what specifically you are talking about.”

  His blood cooled and he realized this was the deadly woman who had been waiting for him in his house. There wasn’t any lingering sound or even scent of the woman who’d turned him out during their sessions of sex. This one was different. He didn’t know how to describe it but he hated it.

  Without stopping to figure the wisdom of his action he gripped the back of her neck and yanked her to him, slamming their mouths together. She held stiff then sank into him, purring. Inhaling deep he released her when her scent was right once more.

  “Let’s talk.”

  The lone candle on the table between them flickered as it continually dropped lower to the heavy silver holder it sat in. They weren’t beside one another but across from each other. Dinner plates were pushed to the side.

  They’d tabled the talk until later that day as people had shown up at his place. Unsure of what to label Kelly as he’d been pleased when she announced she was his fiancée. She willingly spent time with his neighbors and seeing the town.

  Now it was dark out and just the two of them there.

  Kelly waited for him to say something. He didn’t for a bit, just reached across the table and picked up her left hand. Andrew stared at her palm when he turned it over. She watched as he moved this thumb back and forth over the lines in her hand.

  “So delicate yet so deadly.” He turned it back over and mimicked the action on the back. “You said you met one brother. Are you wanting to meet the others?”

  Her insides were a mess from his simple touch. “I don’t care one way or the other.”

  “That can’t be true.”

  She pulled back as if he’d tried to strike her, lips turning down in a scowl. “Why not? I have no reason to lie. Why does what I say have to be an untruth?”

  “I don’t mean it like that but surely you wondered what it would be like to have siblings, right? We’re cats, Kelly.”

  “I’m not a cheetah or a lion. I don’t have a coalition or a pride. I’m a loner except to breed.” He yanked his head up and stared at her, dark eyes glittering in the flickering light. “I don’t wish for a family. I don’t know what I would do with one.”

  The heat drained from his eyes, not all but enough she could concentrate on his mouth and the words coming from it instead of the look and feel of his perfect lips. Lips she craved to have back against her. Didn’t have to be her mouth, just wanted them on her.

  “Play pranks on your brothers, and sisters if you had them.”

  “I grew up fighting for everything. I don’t know how to play.”

  His smile would have melted her panties had she been wearing any. “I’ll just have to teach you how to play then because to this leopard, that sounded like a fucking challenge.”

  Ignoring the heat spiraling in her gut, she cocked an eyebrow at him. “You have siblings?”

  “I do. They are in Hong Kong part of a big research breakthrough that’s going on.”

  Picturing his family going through what she had pushed rage through her veins in seconds. The low growl had escaped before she could contain it. He didn’t look disgusted or pull back from her hand.

  “Not like you, Kelly. Calm down. They were recruited out of school to work for this architectural firm.”

  “You’ve researched where they are.”

  “Fuck yes, even before they left. I made sure there wasn’t any connection between them and the company I’d signed up with.”

  She was a bit uncomfortable with the love she picked up on in his tone as he spoke about them, yet she was more than ready to kill for them if it was warranted. They meant something to this man and therefore, she would protect them.

  “You must be a very good brother.”

  His smile took the serious edge off his expression. “I like to think so, I’m sure my sisters would disagree with you.”

  She thought about Snyder and her heart gave a little lurch she wasn’t used to, and she frowned. Kelly shoved that away as promptly as she could. Now wasn’t the time for her to lose her focus.

  “Tell me what your brother said.”

  It didn’t escape her notice that he still held onto her hand, his thumb skimming along the back of her hand, like it was a common thing for him to be doing. Natural. She liked his touch and didn’t pull away even though it had been her instinctive reaction.

  “I passed along what you told me. He wants me to wait for him and Tinder to arrive before I have you call them and we get there.”

  “When would he be here?”

  “He said he could be here in three days.”

  “So when are we leaving? Tomorrow?”

  Her smile couldn’t be stopped and her gut tightened when he winked as he pressed a kiss to the her fingers.

  “I don’t want him to think that just because we share DNA he has the right to boss me around.”

  “It’s common for males to protect females. I ‘spect that just because he is your brother, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be any less in that vein.”

  “I went through what he did. I trained as he did. I deserve the respect a warrior has earned.”

  “I’m sure you have it. Because he wants you to wait doesn’t mean he thinks you are unable to handle this, but that he wants to be part of this. You have to remember, these are potentially his siblings as well.”

  “He’s a tiger.”

  Andrew snapped his head up. Eyes shifting with uncertainty and she could scent his nerves on the air.

  “What?” She ensured to keep her question calm.

  “Does he have a mark like you do?”

  “Yes,” she replied instantly, not making him describe the mark she and Snyder had on their wrists, made to look natural but was a far cry from it. “He’s also bringing some devices, we don’t have the experience to look at them and get more out of them, but you’re a fucking computer genius. Maybe you can tell us more.”

  “I’ll do what I can. So, if you know he’s coming why not wait for him? Is he bringing his mate?” Her lip curled and Andrew lifted an eyebrow. “What don’t I know?”

  “Tinder and I have spent years trying to kill each other. Makes things a bit tense between us.”

  “What the fuck for?”

  She shrugged, unsure. “No clue. It was just something we did.”

  “Maybe you two could bury the hatchet, so to speak, for the time being at least.”

  “No promises. Tell me more about why you were so shocked he was a tiger.”

  He poured them each another drink then reclaimed her hand. “I heard a story when I first started here about the top dog of this place. And I mean over everything the umbrella companies, just he owned all the shit. His word was law.”

  She leaned forward, elbows on the table. “And?”

  “I was just a little piddly intern who was in the lower sublevel getting an old file box. I overheard two others talking. So again, rumor.” He took a drink and she was momentarily distracted by the motion of his throat while he swallowed. “This man, they called him Dr. Moreau.”

  “After the H.G. Wells book?”

  “Exactly.” He squeezed her hand. “They spoke of how he had scoured the world, for certain feline shifters to steal the women for and breed to them. He wanted to create the perfect weapon. A cat specialist he would bring his knowledge into this. There were many attempts and more failures than they could count. But he got six eventually. Five males and one female. Lions, tiger, leopard, panther was also mentioned then a puma and a cougar.” He paused. “I know that’s seven but I heard something happened with the panther.”

  “You know there isn’t actually a panther, right? It’s a leopard or jaguar.” Even as the words tumbled from her mouth, she wondered about the validity of what he’d mentioned. If this were true, there would be five brothers for her to consider as family.

  “I may be a leopard shifter but I’m not about to stroll up to a man who’s a trained killer and tell him he’s not really a panther. I’ve done crazy things in my life, that would be suicide.”

  Her smile was distracted. “What’s the end game to this? I mean, why? If he was trying to create the ultimate weapon what was it about the others that didn’t pass and why, if it is myself and the other five who did, what was it about us?” She rubbed the inside of her wrist and wondered if there wasn’t another device implanted in her somewhere.

  Chapter Four

  Her expression told him everything. Andrew wasn’t sure how he’d believed she wasn’t expressive when he first met her, because right now, she was an open book. He could read every insecurity, fear, and unknown floating through her at rapid speed.

  Right now, his woman was on sensory and information overload. She was brilliant and deadly, but for this moment, he would claim she appeared more like a lost woman than what he knew her to be.

  “It will be fine.”

  With his four words, he got her attention back on him. Those green eyes were wider than normal but still a punch to his gut. Such beauty. Her cat hovered just below the surface, she waited to be called forth if needed. The rosettes were visible occasionally as they had been during daylight hours however, he didn’t believe he would have caught them had he not know she was who she was.

  “How do you know this?”

  “I have to believe that, otherwise what we’re about to do isn’t anything more than a stupid fool’s run and I like to think neither of us are stupid or foolish.”

  “What if there is another bomb inside me? What if they try to detonate the one in me before we get there and there was a failsafe linked to another?”

 

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