Avery pushed through the door and slammed it behind the two of them.
Kayla was outside. “Did you get what you needed?”
Avery was seething. “I could kill him. I could really kill him.”
Kayla’s brow wrinkled. “He’s a sick man. I hardly think that’s appropriate.” Drawing herself up, she opened the door. “You’ve probably upset him very much.” She swept inside.
Then they were alone in the hallway. There was nothing but the silent white walls and the gray tile on the floor. Dana peered up at the fluorescent lights, unsure of what to say.
Avery took three steps, shoved his hands in his pockets, and closed his eyes. “You said you only did things with him when you were a wolf.”
Dana didn’t want to have this conversation. She didn’t answer.
“Is he lying?” Avery looked at her. “Tell me he’s lying, Gray.”
She scuffed a toe against the floor.
“Motherfucker,” said Avery. “So, when I let you go, when I lied to protect your ass, and you went to see him, you were getting naked for him? In his fucking cell?”
She drew in a breath sharply. “It’s hard to think when I’m around him. Something about him makes me all...”
“All what? All slutty-I’m-going-to-flash-you-my-tits?” Avery asked. “Oh, wait. I forgot it was a little more than flashing.”
She glared at him. “That’s not fair.”
“Fucking A.” He started to walk up the hall.
He’d leave now. He’d cool down. After he’d had some time, he wouldn’t be so angry. And they’d figure out what they were going to do. It would work out. Or maybe it wouldn’t, because if Avery was that pissed at her, maybe he’d want nothing to do with her anymore.
He stopped moving and turned. “Maybe we should just give him what he wants, huh, Gray?”
“What?” she said.
“When Kayla’s done, we’ll send you in there. And you can let him feel you up and then we’ll get our information. You have no respect for yourself, so I don’t see why we don’t just whore you out.”
Dana blanched. His tone was so ugly.
“What do you think he’d tell us if you sucked his dick?” said Avery.
She wouldn’t look at him.
“Oh, God, don’t tell me you’ve already done that,” he said, disgusted.
“No,” she said.
“Sure,” said Avery. “Whatever.” He stalked back up the hall, leaving her behind.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Avery was back in five minutes. “I forgot that I’m not leaving you alone.”
“Does it matter?” Dana wasn’t sure that she was ready to talk to him yet. He’d said some pretty horrible things to her. “I mean, now that you know what a ‘whore’ I am?”
He smiled tightly. “I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, Gray. But you don’t do the kinds of things you’re doing with a killer. You just don’t. So, I mean, I could have been less colorful, but I think what I said stands.”
Oh, he did? She backed away. “You know what, Brooks? I don’t think I need you to babysit me anymore, okay?”
He caught her by the arm. “You aren’t going anywhere without me. He wanted me to feel like this, and that’s why he said it.”
She shook him off. “I don’t see why you care anyway. It’s none of your business who I feel attraction to.”
“It’s my business when the guy you’re feeling attracted to is killing people,” said Avery.
Maybe he was right. But she didn’t care. She wanted away from him. She started to walk down the hall.
Avery stopped her. “I’m serious, all right? You aren’t going anywhere without me.”
Dana opened her mouth to argue, but she was interrupted when the door to the room where Cole was being held opened. She and Avery both turned in that direction.
Kayla came out of the room, leading Cole by the arm. He’d been detached from the chains that bound him to the wall, but he was still chained hand and foot.
Avery stepped forward. “Kayla, aren’t you supposed to wait for the guards from downstairs to transport him?”
Kayla shot him a reproachful look. “Well, they won’t be here for another hour, and Cole’s a complete mess thanks to you. Whatever you said to him was very traumatic for him.”
“What I said to him?” Avery’s eyes widened. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
Cole stood quite still next to Kayla, a small smile on his face. His eyes sought out Dana.
“He wanted to be taken back to his cell,” said Kayla. “I’m taking him.”
Suddenly, Dana couldn’t stand it anymore. She raced over to Cole. “I’m not a trophy. You don’t get to brag about me. You can’t use what happened between us to manipulate people. You can’t do that to me.”
“Gray,” said Kayla. “Step back from him. You’re not helping his mental state.”
Cole lifted his chained hands. His knuckles grazed the swell of her breasts.
She jumped back as if he’d burned her.
He laughed. “You need to listen, beautiful. That’s the answer. Listen.”
“Cole,” admonished Kayla, “ignore them both.” She tugged on his arm.
He allowed her to lead him away, and the two began a slow walk down the hallway, his chains dragging against the tile. Cole looked over his shoulder. “Help me, Dana. It’s the only way we can be together.”
She averted her gaze until Cole and Kayla were both on the elevator, and the door had closed behind him.
“What’s he want you to help with?” asked Avery.
“He wants me to let him out,” said Dana.
Avery’s mouth twisted. “So you two can be together?”
“I wouldn’t.”
He grabbed her shoulder. “Part of you wants to, though, doesn’t it?”
“Wants to let him go, or wants to be with him?” She glared at Avery. Maybe she didn’t feel like being ashamed for once.
“Either.”
“I don’t want him to get out, Brooks. I know what he is. But yeah, I want him. I want to fuck his brains out. You satisfied?” She stalked up the hallway and hit the button on the elevator.
Kayla and Cole had taken it all the way down to the bottom level, so it took a while to get back to them. Avery walked up next to her, his hands in his pockets. He didn’t look at her, and he didn’t say anything.
Finally, the door opened.
Dana got inside. Avery followed.
The doors closed after them.
“Hell,” said Avery. He snatched Dana’s hand, pulled her against him, placed his hand firmly on the small of her back, and pressed his lips against hers.
She was too startled to know what was going on at first. It was completely not what she expected him to do, especially after she’d just declared her lust for Cole so loudly.
But there was no denying that Avery was kissing her.
He was close, warm, and eager. His mouth was sweet on hers, his tongue tentative but skilled. He radiated heat and joy and desire for her, and if his hands on her were a little clumsy, he made up for it with enthusiasm. It was a charming kiss, a nice kiss, and under any other circumstances, Dana was sure she would have liked it.
But...
There was an undercurrent of wrongness to it. She couldn’t quite understand it. But something inside her rejected him. He wasn’t... right.
He wasn’t Cole.
And when she realized that, she froze. No movement anywhere.
And Avery stopped. He pulled back, straightened, backed away from her.
The door to the elevator opened.
Dana couldn’t look at him, but she couldn’t step outside either.
It was Avery who left the elevator first.
She followed him.
They walked down the hall in single file, until he got to the door to his apartment. He stopped there, unlocking it.
Dana kept going.
When he realized that, he turned and went after her. “Gr
ay, you can’t be by yourself.”
“Maybe I’m not comfortable being alone with you,” she said.
“Too fucking bad!”
She stopped at the door to her own apartment and opened it. “I’m confused, okay?” She tried to get inside first and close the door on him.
But he was too fast, and he squeezed past before she could stop him. Then they were both in the kitchen of her apartment. “I’m confused too,” he said. He was standing between her and the door to the hallway. He was also blocking her exit into the living room.
She had no choice but to walk further into the kitchen.
“I don’t know why I did that,” he said.
She turned around to face him. “You shouldn’t have.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. He took a step closer to her.
She backed up. “Well, you should be.”
Another step. “You didn’t like it, did you?”
“I...” She backed up again. “I wanted to like it.”
“What does that mean?” He was still coming closer, damn it.
She backed into the refrigerator. “I don’t...”
He was kissing her again. Why was he doing that? Hadn’t she just told him...?
It was just as pleasant and nice as it had been in the elevator. Avery was wholesome and buoyant. There was no darkness in him, no undercurrent of shame or fear to his kiss. It should have been good. But it wasn’t. It didn’t feel right.
She pushed him away. “Don’t.”
He rocked back on his heels, crossing his arms. “Sorry. I did it again.”
“I noticed.” Her voice was sharper than she meant it to be.
“It’s only that you seem like you’re into it, and then you... aren’t.”
“You aren’t him.”
He looked stricken.
“I’m sorry, Brooks,” she said. “I’m only being honest.”
“What kind of hold does he have on you, anyway?”
“I don’t know,” she said. She glared at him. “Why are you kissing me?”
He rubbed his forehead. “Fuck, Gray, I’m not even sure.” He took a seat at one of the stools next to the bar in her kitchen.
“You called me a slut and a whore,” she said.
“I know,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“And then you kissed me,” she said. “Twice.”
“I know,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I guess I wanted to.”
She sat down at one of the stools. “Do you have feelings for me, Brooks?”
“No,” he said. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“How long have you had them?”
He rested his head in his hands. “No, it’s not like that. I don’t think about you that way. You’re Gray. You’re my partner. We’re best friends.” He lifted his head. “But then, suddenly, it’s like you’re... you know, a girl.”
She glared at him. “I’ve always been a girl.”
He turned away from her, his face reddening. “You haven’t been someone who... did girly, sexy things.”
“Girly, sexy things? What?”
“And then all of the sudden, you’re looking at him the way you look at him, and he’s talking to you in that voice, and calling you beautiful, and saying things about your—” He glanced at her chest. “You know. And for some reason, it really starts bothering me.”
“What?”
“Thinking of him doing things to you. It makes me crazy angry. And then, out of nowhere, I wanted to kiss you. So... I did.”
“Oh,” she said. She thought of the night she’d ogled Avery’s bare chest, of the way they’d woken up that morning, all wound up together. It was a little confusing.
Avery got up. He walked around the bar into the living room. “I won’t do it again.”
“Good,” she said. But was it good?
“I got confused, that’s all,” he said. “I’m really sorry, Gray. I promise I’ll keep things professional from now on.”
“Professional?” she said. “Because technically, we don’t even have a job right now.”
He collapsed onto her couch. “Dammit. We really didn’t get anywhere today, did we? We didn’t get his scent. We didn’t get answers. We got nothing.”
“Except for him saying disgusting, embarrassing things about me,” she said. “He’s a bastard.”
“He played us,” said Avery.
“Well, he did say the thing about listening,” she said. “Do you think that means something?”
“What could it mean? It wasn’t like you weren’t listening to him.”
They were quiet.
“Hey, Gray,” said Avery.
“Yeah?”
“Is it gonna be weird between us now? You know, because of what I did?”
She smiled. “No. It’s not gonna be weird. I’m not even thinking about it.” She peered at his lips. They were nice lips. Why couldn’t she enjoy them?
* * *
She awoke from a dream in which she was a wolf, traipsing through a snow-covered forest, her paws whispering in the white powder, the bite of wintry air on her nose. Her ears were pricked, listening for her prey. She was hunting for her pack. For her mate and their offspring. Together, they would feast, but first they must take down the prey, tear into it, destroy it.
She listened, but all she could hear was the whistle of wind, knocking snow from the branches of fir trees. It was silent and white out here.
Then there was a sound.
A voice.
She’s resistant, and I think they’re keeping her from me. I’m working on a different plan, but right now I have nothing. I can’t believe she hasn’t come through for me.
Cole.
She sat straight up in bed. That was Cole’s voice. She’d heard it before, once, when she was running. At the time, she thought that she was going crazy, imagining his voice because she was so obsessed with him.
Now, she could easily convince herself that the voice was a product of her imagination, simply part of her dream.
But it didn’t make any sense in the context of her dream, and it didn’t seem like something she would imagine Cole saying.
So she let out the part of her wolf that could hear, and listened as hard as she could with her razor sharp wolf hearing, for the voice.
She heard someone else. Someone who wasn’t Cole.
You sacrificed Ella for her. You were sure it would work, and now it hasn’t.
Ella was the first name of the rogue that Dana had killed.
I’m sorry. I was so certain. Cole’s voice again.
You are blind when it comes to Dana Gray. We have all told you so.
Dana vaulted out of bed, throwing back the covers. Who was talking? Where was that person? She wasn’t imagining it. She was hearing it with her wolf hearing. It was real.
No, said Cole. I see her clearly. But perhaps I expected results too quickly.
Dana flew out of her bedroom. She had to follow the voice that was talking to Cole. She had to find it. This was how he communicated. He spoke.
Avery sat up on the couch. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going, Gray?”
She tapped her ear. “Listen.” She threw open the door and ran out into the hallway.
Avery came after her. “Listen? There’s nothing to hear.”
“Use your wolf hearing,” she said.
Well, then, you are telling us to simply wait? Wait until you can convince her to free you? said the voice that wasn’t Cole’s.
That is the only plan I have now, said Cole.
“Shit,” said Avery. “What is that?”
“He’s talking to somebody,” she said, sprinting down the hallway, heading in the direction of the voice. “But they’re listening with their wolf abilities. They could be very far apart and still hear each other.”
Certainly, there must be some better option.
Dana burst out into the night air. There was a faint c
hill, but it was springtime, so it wasn’t cold. She could hear the sounds of crickets in the distance, frogs on a nearby lake, the wind rustling new leaves, and cars going down a nearby road.
It was too much, all the sound. How would she single out the voice she was hearing? How would she know what direction it came from?
If only she could smell whoever spoke. She was good at tracking scent. She’d never used hearing to track before.
An opportunity will present itself, said Cole. We simply must wait.
Dana turned in a circle. She knew where Cole’s voice was coming from. He must be in his cell. His voice was carrying outside because of her intensified hearing. Could she pinpoint the other voice in relation to his?
She waited.
Avery caught up to her, a little out of breath.
She strained to hear over the sound of him wheezing.
“I don’t hear anything,” said Avery.
She didn’t either. Did Cole realize that someone was listening to him?
She stayed outside for the good part of an hour, hoping to hear the voices again, but she didn’t.
* * *
“Well, at least we know how he communicates,” said Avery.
“But we don’t know who he was communicating with,” said Dana. “He’s got someone on the outside, someone he’s talking to. And he’s been doing it right under our noses this whole time. He doesn’t need to use email when he has werewolf hearing. We’re such idiots.”
“We’re not,” said Avery. “The only people at the SF who have that kind of training are trackers like us, and we never think to turn on our super hearing in headquarters. We aren’t stupid. He’s brilliant.”
“Right,” she muttered. She sighed. “No, he knew that I would figure it out last night, because he told me to listen. And that’s why he made sure not to reveal anything while he and the other wolf were talking.”
“They were talking about getting Randall out of here, weren’t they? About how he wanted you to do it, but you weren’t cooperating?”
She nodded. “I think so, yes.”
“He hasn’t given up, then. He’s going to find a way.”
“Well, we have to stop him,” she said. “We need to keep him in a soundproof cell or something.”
“How are we going to do that? We don’t have a cell like that.”
“We need to talk to King,” she said. “She’ll pass it along to the higher-ups. He can’t be allowed to communicate with the outside world. And he can’t be allowed to force any more of his betas to shift.”
“Well, we don’t know how many betas he has, do we?” said Avery.