Shifter For Hire: For Hire Series - Book 2 Read online

  “Now I know they’re crazy. If we had pterodactyls flying around the city, someone would have noticed.”

  Quantita shrugged. “Yeah, they said they weren’t sure what kind of bird yet, but they’re looking into it. Just freaky. Gives me the chills. I won’t be going down that way to get my fried chicken for a long time. You can count on that.”

  “I hear you.”

  After Quantita left, Lachelle texted Skip.

  “I need to talk to you for longer than a minute.”

  He didn’t respond after an hour of her waiting while taking calls.

  “It’s about a murder and Commonwealth Avenue,” she typed.

  “I’ll call you tonight.”

  Tears flooded her eyes. She tried to tell herself she didn’t know why, but the truth stared her in the face. It wouldn’t be denied. Why would he respond that he would call only after she mentioned the murder?

  Skip knew her better than to think she was worried about one murder that wasn’t even on her side of town. She wasn’t the type to cower in fear because of the big dangerous world. Heck, she had already passed the written examination for becoming a police officer and waited for the date to take the physical portion. Soon she would kiss this call center job goodbye.

  So what was going on with Skip?

  She worked through the rest of the day, not sure if she passed on useful or accurate information to callers or not. At the end of the day, she jetted out of the office and rushed home. Only after she arrived did she realize she had nothing to eat in the apartment.

  With her appetite gone, she dropped onto the living room couch to wait for Skip’s call. Hour after hour slipped by. Her phone remained silent. She checked that no calls had come in or texts. Nothing. She double-checked the ring tone was flicked on.

  No calls.

  Chapter 3

  Gerard knew the direction the wind came from. Better yet, he sensed when it would change. Not only did he keep several miles between himself and the leader of his people, he shifted his position constantly, making sure he wasn’t detected.

  Holding the position where he crouched for too long, the muscles in his back ached. He stretched them out, rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck. All the while he kept his eyes on Declan.

  Gerard clenched his jaw and stood. He paced along the cliff’s edge, unsettling some of the dirt and rocks. He barely registered something scraping against his skin. All his attention was on Declan as he clutched his son close to his chest and kissed the baby’s face. Nearby was Declan’s mate, a human.

  Gerard shook his head in disbelief. What a fool, to take a human. Then again, he was aware that a shifter knew his or her mate upon sight. No one would choose to take someone who wasn’t his or her mate. It would be foolish, dumping hardship on their head.

  Well, it didn’t matter to Gerard. He had nothing to do with Declan or any of the shifters. He kept his distance from all of them and lived his own life.

  And if I’ve decided to keep my distance, why do I watch them?

  He sighed and pulled his wings out, feeling the skin opening and the muscle fibers tearing. The wings stretched wide, one touching the wall as the cliff curved to his left. He strained the points of his wings even harder, removing all the kinks. Once he felt revived somewhat, he let himself drop over the edge and freefell for long moments.

  The ground raced toward him. Wind slapped him in the face, and his breath felt a bit short because of the force. From long practice, he knew the precise moment when he should pull up, take the wind captive, and pump his wings.

  Time passed as he flew, and he didn’t grow tired. At long last, he was back to his own territory, the city where he lived. His stomach cramped with hunger. He needed to find something to fill it. Perhaps tonight, he would revisit the restaurant where he had recently bought a meal that tasted halfway decent. Being short on funds, he figured the smart thing to do was to save what he could. The ratty apartment where he stayed wouldn’t pay for itself.

  Thinking of the restaurant made him recall the woman, and then he laughed at himself. Truth be told, she hadn’t left his thoughts for one second after he met her. That night, he’d dropped down on the roof of the building next to the restaurant. He’d transformed from his dragon form to his human form in a smooth transition.

  An odd stirring came over him. He wasn’t quite sure what it meant. Something important was coming. He narrowed his eyes to look down the street, but only a bit of the landscape was in view. The buildings blocked his vision.

  A new scent wafted past his nose, and a footfall made him roll to the side and twist so that he faced the opposite direction. Crouched and ready to defend himself, he glared at the man standing before him.

  “Whoa, buddy, I’m not going to hurt you,” the man said, smiling.

  “As if you could.”

  The stranger chuckled. “Confident, aren’t you? What’s your name?”

  “That’s not your business.”

  “Come on, guy. We’re the same, you and me.”

  “We’re not. Go away. I have no interest in talking to you.” With those words, Gerard had turned back toward the street. He had already assessed that the stranger wouldn’t attack. On the other hand, he began to wonder if the guy would fly to Declan and share with him that he’d seen a dragon shifter who wasn’t one of them. Declan finding out about him would complicate his life.

  A car drew up below. A human man climbed out of it. At the same time, the shifter took off. Gerard heard the telltale sound of his wings flapping. He couldn’t be allowed to talk to Declan. Gerard swore because of the inconvenience. This was what he got for coming his curiosity.

  All thought about the shifter and the human male left his mind. A human woman drove up and ran after the man just disappearing into the alley. The moment he saw her that night, clear thinking vanished. He dropped from the roof without a plan or an idea of what he would say to her. His actions were instinct.

  Perhaps he lost his footing on purpose? After all, he’d allowed himself to fall from rooftops a lot higher than this one and never missed a beat. She barreled into him, and he went backward.

  “What in the heck!” She glared at him with the biggest brownest eyes he’d ever seen. “What is your deal? Are you crazy, dropping to the ground? Don’t you think people would be walking around down here? If you want to play monkey bars in alleys and risk breaking your ankle, you can do it somewhere I’m not!”

  As he thought about the incident, he recalled forgetting how to speak in the face of her rant. His senses filled with her scent, not to mention the softness of her figure. God, she was dressed indecently, and all of that lusciousness was pressed against him. He’d swallowed, trying to piece two thoughts together.

  When he lowered his gaze to her chest, she shrieked before jumping to her feet. Too bad. She started to run. He didn’t think before he caught her arm. She swung a fist at him, but she might as well have been moving in slow motion. He caught it, wondering that such a small woman could be so bold.

  Her outrage and a hint of fear scrambled his brains. He tried his best to explain. “There’s glass.”

  There wasn’t much that he missed. Darkness meant nothing. He could see as well in the night as in the day, maybe better. Not to mention the detail. Everything was taken in at a glance. It was a skill that was common to all of his people. They were simply better than humans in all points.

  When a strong familiar scent assaulted his, he pulled up short. All thoughts of the other night when he met the woman vanished as he realized where he was. His intention was to fly to his apartment or to find food, but instead he had tracked her down.

  Making a wide circle in the air, he gazed at the building below and the parking lot outside of it. A shadow shifted before one of the windows off the balcony. He swore. Why did he let his mind wander so much that he ended up tracking her? She meant nothing. She was human.

  She’s my mate.

  Even as he acknowledged the thought, it pissed hi
m off. What were the odds? Declan’s mate was a human, and so was his? No! He wanted to deny it. To take a human as a mate was to water down his bloodline.

  He backpedaled with his wings, telling himself to get out of there. After moving a few feet, he surged forward. Before he knew it, he landed on her balcony and folded his wings. They shrank first and then folded into his back. As if by magic—and he supposed it was a type of magic—his clothes simultaneously appeared on his body.

  While in his dragon form, he didn’t worry about anyone spotting him in the air. In human form, he wasn’t invisible to the human eye. A quick scan of the area around him showed no one in view.

  How should I meet her again to get to know her? I must be sure.

  Voices raised inside the apartment drew his attention away from his internal debate.

  “Don’t hand me that bullcrap, Skip,” the woman was saying. “I want to know why you lied to me.”

  “I didn’t lie to you.”

  “You claimed to be asleep the other night when I texted you. I know for a fact that you weren’t home.”

  “And how do you know that?”

  “Because…”

  Gerard willed her not to reveal that she was out.

  “Well?” the man insisted. “Got nothing to say?”

  “Because I came by your place to surprise you, and you weren’t there!”

  Gerard clenched his teeth. So she had been dressed like that for this guy. Jealousy almost had him breaking the door down to get to this guy and send him on his way. He barely restrained himself. She didn’t belong to him, and if he could resist the pull that seemed to originate in his core, maybe she never would.

  “I had to interview a source,” the man said. “It was the only time I could do it. That’s nothing new, Lachelle. So why are you on my back now?”

  “You were interviewing a source?”

  His voice dropped down low, but Gerard had no trouble hearing him. “Yeah, baby. So stop acting all suspicious. You know I love you, right?”

  “I know.”

  Gerard cringed in disgust. He leaped up from the balcony straight into the air, brought out his wings, and flew as far as fast as he could. He needed to get as much distance between these two as possible before he did something he would regret.

  After flying most of the night, wearing himself out, he returned to his crappy apartment, and landed behind the building in a vacant lot. He took his time strolling toward the building, noting the man leaning against the rickety fire escape stairs with his arms folded over his chest

  Two more men lurked in the shadows nearby, along with a woman. Gerard didn’t judge any of them to be a danger to him. He kept his gaze on the man in front. This one was dangerous, and Gerard planned to allow him two minutes to explain himself before he would send him on his way.

  “Gerard.” The man smiled as if they were old friends. Oily, is what Gerard would call it. “Good to see you, buddy.”

  “I don’t know you.” Gerard started past him. The man had the good sense not to touch him.

  “Hold on, friend. I wanted to talk to you about a proposition.”

  “Not interested.”

  “You’ll want to hear this.”

  Gerard didn’t answer. He reached into a bush to pull out a bag he kept stashed there. Keys to his apartment, shoes, and a few other things. He could wear the shoes, but why? The only time he donned them was when it was absolutely necessary or when humans would get the wrong idea otherwise.

  “If you take my offer,” the man went on, “you could move out of this dump. You could live in the lap of luxury. I pay very well.”

  Gerard tied the laces on the shoes and recalled he had forgotten the socks.

  “Oh, what am I thinking? I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Patrick Sevelle.”

  He paused as if Gerard should recognize his name.

  “I’m only here in town for a short while. Honestly, I don’t like being too close to the king. He visits his in-laws here sometimes, doesn’t he?”

  This information drew Gerard’s attention. From what he had seen, most of the dragon shifters lived out of state, on the same property as the king of the dragons. Gerard had heard of Declan being named the new leader and tracked him to this city, where he sometimes visited his mate’s family. After that, Gerard followed one of Declan’s men to his real homestead.

  If most dragon shifters lived where Declan lived, why did this guy say he didn’t want to be close to him?

  “Ah, I see that interests you.” Patrick moved to slap Gerard on the back and thought better of it at Gerard’s glare. The smile faltered a little. “I want to hire you to do a job for me.”

  Gerard straightened. “If you want me to kill the king, you’ve got the wrong guy.”

  “No, no, my friend. What I want you to do is far more important to my plan. There is an organization whose sole purpose is to kill off every dragon shifter. I want you to get me the names of all of them and then deal with them in accordance to my directions.”

  Chapter 4

  Lachelle turned up fifteen minutes early to take the physical for becoming a police officer. A couple years ago, she passed the test and was just about to join her fiancé, who was already an officer, but he was killed. Her world fell apart for a while, and it was just coming back together.

  She hadn’t discussed the desire to become a police officer with Skip, certainly not after their fight. A big part of her wanted to believe him and the excuses he gave. That was the desperate longing she had for becoming a mother. It shamed her, but she couldn’t deny wanting a family of her own more than anything.

  And here I am about to try for a job that could put my life in danger. Good move, Lachelle.

  She looked down at the jogging pants she wore. The sleek purple material gloved her skin, showing off her curves. She stretched her arms over her head and bent side-to-side and rolled up to her toes. The sneakers she had purchased not too long ago didn’t go to waste. While she didn’t get into running as she hoped, she could perform some mean yoga moves and a few Pilates ones.

  “Hello, everyone.” A man strolled up to the group wearing shorts and a T-shirt with the name of the city and the police department on the front. He offered them his name and title with a smile as he explained the program for the test. “Behind me is our testing grounds and the track you’ll use to run both the three hundred meter sprint and the mile and a half run.”

  Lachelle relaxed a bit more. The track didn’t look any different than her old high school one about a block from the home where she grew up. She had this. Even if she’d only been running for a couple weeks, it wouldn’t be hard to do a mile and a half.

  “In a minute my partner will be here to help assess each of you.” The officer, who was just under six feet if she had to guess, didn’t look all that intimidating. Fit yes, but not bulky.

  Lachelle looked around at the other candidates. Everyone appeared to be strong and healthy. A man about mid-thirties caught her eye. He flexed his muscles as he stretched and listened to the instructor. Every now and then, he tried to catch a woman’s eye and winked at her. Lachelle turned away.

  While the instructor droned on about the integrity of the police department, another man sidled up to Lachelle. Tall with dark skin and tight rough coils on his head, the man offered Lachelle what she could only term as a smoldering look. He couldn’t be serious.

  “Hey, how are you doing, sis?” The man’s gaze slipped up and down Lachelle’s form and lingered on her legs. “You sure you want to get into this line of work? You look too good to be messing around with thugs.”

  “I think I’ll be fine.” She wanted to hurl at his sexist comment.

  “Well I can give you a few pointers.”

  “No thanks.”

  “Don’t stop running when they start the clock, or they’ll disqualify you.”

  “I’ve got it.”

  “If you have to rest…”

  She sighed.

  “Most import
ant,” he continued, ignoring her protests.

  “Be quiet!”

  Every head swung in the direction of the barked command. Lachelle peered around the fool talking to her and drew in a sharp breath. Yards from where she stood was none other than the big guy who had dropped down on her in the alley. He looked right at her.

  His linebacker’s chest was encased in a T-shirt identical to the instructor’s and the dark gray sweatpants matched as well. A whistle on a string hung around his neck, and he carried a tablet in a fist so tight, she expected to hear the screen crack at any moment.

  What is he doing here?

  At first she thought the big guy was another candidate and then she registered the outfit. He couldn’t be a cop, could he?

  A woman near Lachelle fanned her red face. “Goodness, if I knew they built police like that, I would have signed up years ago.”

  Lachelle doubted that was true as the woman looked far younger than her own twenty-seven years. It was more likely she was just barely old enough to drink legally, let alone join the police department.

  Big-and-Overbearing moved up next to his partner, and the first man introduced him. Lachelle was so distracted watching him she only recalled his first name—Gerard. The name suited him.

  “I volunteer to work with Gerard,” the woman next to Lachelle yelled and waved her arm in the air. Several people laughed. The two officers weren’t amused.

  “Everyone will have their turn to test their agility. We will be looking at your performance doing sit-ups, pushups, the three hundred meter sprint, and the mile and a half run.”

  After the instructions were given, Lachelle flinched when she spotted Gerard barreling down on her. She had to tilt her head back little by little as he drew closer. If she forgot how big this dude was from the other night, he brought it home loud and clear.

  Her mouth dried when he stood over her—not from fear or intimidation but from awe. A skilled master molded Gerard’s form from a chunk of perfection.