Midnight Wolf (Shifters Unbound #11)(15)

“No,” he snapped.

Tamsin ate slowly, bite by bite, as though determined to enjoy every ounce of her food. When she finished, she tilted her head back and sucked the last drops of mayo from the tips of her fingers.

“Wow,” she said softly. “That was good.”

Ben snorted a laugh. “Save it, sweetheart. I’m too old, and Angus is unseducible. He’s a bouncer in a New Orleans club. Scantily clad women try to get on his good side every night, the poor guy.”

“A bouncer?” Tamsin opened her eyes and looked at Angus in surprise. “I thought you were with Shifter Bureau.”

“No,” Angus said in a hard voice. “I don’t work for those dickheads.”

“Except tonight.” Tamsin leaned toward him, her red hair falling forward. “Why are you working for them tonight?”

“Because an annoying woman is causing trouble,” Angus returned. He stood up, gathering the empty plates, and stamped with them to the sink.

“Touchy, touchy. Struck a nerve, didn’t I, Ben?”

“Yeah, Angus, I think we need to know what this is all about,” Ben said. “She doesn’t look like a dangerous criminal. And you hate Shifter Bureau. So why are you at odds instead of working together? Talk, both of you.”

Angus clattered the dishes into the sink. “No offense, Ben, but this is none of your business.”

“Everything is my business. I’m everyone’s friend, me. Plus I have some useful abilities. Why are you running from Shifter Bureau, Tamsin?”

“Well,” Tamsin said, “I was born in the shack of a rogue Shifter and have been stealing and conning my way across the country since I was three. I’m wanted in twenty-seven states for so many offenses I forget them all. I stay one step ahead of the law with my cunning, and all the cops let me go because I’m a sweet-talker.”

“And all of that is a big fat lie,” Ben said. “I’m as good at detecting them as Shifters.”

“I’ll bet it isn’t all a lie,” Angus said, watching Tamsin. “But I don’t care. We’ll get you healed up, and then I’m done with you.”

Tamsin’s face paled, though she tried to hide her nervousness. “Aw, and I was starting to have a big crush on you.”

“You need to rest.” Angus returned to the table. “There are plenty of bedrooms to lock you in.”

He wrapped his hand around Tamsin’s shoulder and hauled her to her feet.

She stood up readily. “Oh, sweetie, and we only just met.”

“You know, you are really starting to grate on me,” Angus said with a growl. “If you want to save your ass so much, you’ll shut up.”

The look Tamsin shot him was full of fear but also calculation. Her chatter and silliness hid the fact that behind her eyes, she was gauging the situation and running through many plans to get out of it.

Angus needed to hand her over to Shifter Bureau as soon as possible, before he started to help her do just that.

Tamsin woke hours later, stiff and sore in spite of the soft bed. Her chewed-up arm hurt like hell, but she had to admit the sleep had done her good. Her edge of exhaustion had gone, and the sandwich, first solid meal she’d had in a while, had restored some of her energy.

The faint gray of false dawn touched the window. Tamsin sat up, dragging her hair back from her face. She hadn’t meant to sleep so hard, or even fall asleep at all.

After Angus had shoved her into this bedroom and slammed the door, locking it, she’d searched for any possible exit. The closed window would not budge. Any attempt to break the glass had failed—it was damned good glass. She picked open the door’s lock with a hairpin she’d found in the dresser drawer, but the door refused to open. No fireplace in this room, so no chimney, and she couldn’t find a secret passage anywhere. What self-respecting old house didn’t have a secret passage?

Tired, Tamsin had lain down on the bed to rest before she tried again. The wind outside had been soothing, whispering through the wind chimes, and she’d fallen asleep before she could stop herself.

A key scraped in the lock, and Angus opened the door.

He did so cautiously, as though expecting Tamsin to be waiting behind the door with a cosh, and looked surprised to find her blinking at him from the bed.

“The healer is here,” Angus said abruptly. “Come on.”





CHAPTER FIVE


Tamsin rolled to sit on the side of the bed and groaned. Her hand was on fire, her arm too stiff to bend. The gauze and bandage grated on her torn-up skin.

“What kind of healer won’t come to a patient’s bed?” She struggled to stand, and stumbled, a moan dragging from her throat.

Angus was next to her in an instant, his arm around her waist, his warm strength keeping her from falling.

Tamsin considered collapsing against him, letting him hold her up, giving in to her need to forget all this and be normal. Have friends, a mate . . . cubs. The wanting for that suddenly rose up and nearly choked her.

But normal meant living in a Shiftertown with a Collar around her throat, her cubs captives, her movements restricted. Her own mother lived in a Shiftertown near the Canadian border, and Tamsin was rarely able to communicate with her, hadn’t seen her now for five years. Their last encounter had been covert and heartbreakingly brief, and they hadn’t been able to meet since. Tamsin’s sister was long dead, killed by a Shifter hunter twenty years ago when un-Collared Shifters had been fair game for hunters. There had been no penalty then for killing an un-Collared Shifter; in fact, it had been encouraged.