Avenger's Heat (15 page)

O
nce Brianna left the bedroom, Erin dressed, then turned on the dead human's laptop. She sat on the bed and as she waited for it to power up, she ran a towel through her damp hair—and tried to keep her gaze off Noah's broad chest. He'd showered but he'd put on only pants. Nudity to shifters was no big deal and she preferred to wear as little as possible when she could, but seeing all of his bare, muscular body had her tense and more than a little sexually frustrated.

After the way he'd pleasured then comforted her last night—well, technically this morning—she was on edge and unsure of herself. She'd been convinced she could compartmentalize Noah into a certain part of her life just like before. Now she knew that to be impossible. He wouldn't go willingly back into that “box” and she couldn't even try to put him back there. Things would never be the same between them again.

“How'd you sleep?” Noah asked quietly, forcing her to look at him. He'd flipped the desk chair around and sat on it backward like he normally did. The way he leaned his arms on it only accentuated the muscles and striations. She wondered if he was aware of how crazy he drove her.

Blinking, she mentally shook herself. “Good. Thank you.” God, she felt so awkward. Like a teenager with a ridiculous crush. Of course nothing about their relationship was ridiculous. Just complicated. She'd basically laid herself bare to him when she'd admitted everything she'd lost and she didn't worry he'd judge or even feel sorry for her, but it didn't negate her discomfort.

“I liked holding you last night.” Noah watched her intently.

Part of her enjoyed that he was so blunt, but right now she was barely hanging on. “I liked it too.” Way too much. Looking away, she crossed her legs and pulled the computer into her lap, determined to block him out.

She pulled up the file labeled
PICTURES,
then right clicked on the first one to check the properties. The first ten were of the human and the dead vampire she and Noah had found in her kitchen. Their sizes ranged from nine hundred kilobytes to three megabytes. When she got to one that was almost eight megabytes she made a note of it and continued checking the rest. Only two were bigger than normal so she e-mailed them to Ryan, then texted him to let him know so he'd check the e-mail immediately. It was early but she knew he'd be up. That man never slept.

Sure enough, five minutes later she received a message with a bunch of text documents extracted from the photos. The first document listed names and addresses of not only the women who'd been taken so far, but half a dozen other shifters who were also pregnant.

In addition it had other stats like how far along they were in their pregnancy and in some cases the names of their doctors. It made sense that the human would have known this if she'd been their Pilates instructor. Women talked about this kind of stuff without any thought, especially to someone they assumed they could trust. Even though Erin wished the woman was alive just so she could question her, she sure as hell wasn't sorry the woman was dead. What kind of monster could betray women she saw all the time? Women who in all likelihood considered her a friend or were at least friendly with.

Erin turned the computer so Noah could see. While he read she grabbed the printer she'd brought, plugged it in, then attached the USB cord to it and her laptop. She wanted to print out a copy for herself. Technology had a lot of uses, but it was easier for her to read this way and she could carry the list with her. She also forwarded the information to Brianna and Angus and copied Jayce just so he'd know what was going on. They'd kept in touch with texting but they'd both been too damn busy to talk much otherwise. As she was printing it out, another e-mail popped up from Ryan.

“Holy shit.” She turned the computer screen to Noah again and let him read the laundry list of crimes committed by Kelly Bridges. Also known as Bridgette James and Janice Bright. She probably had more pseudonyms they'd never know about. Her crimes ranged from petty larceny, solicitation, check fraud, driving without insurance, and a bunch of scams she was never convicted of but arrested for. About two years ago it looked as if she'd cleaned up her act and settled down in New Orleans. Apparently the lure of a lot of cash was too much to resist and she'd gone back to her criminal ways. Or more likely, she'd never stopped and just happened to be caught this time.

“What do you want to do?” Noah asked as he looked up from the screen.

“Will you call your father and ask him if he has enough people to shadow the women on the list?” Erin could call Angus herself but she'd seen the way Angus was subtly reaching out to Noah. When he'd come outside the compound last night he'd squeezed Noah's shoulder in that typical fatherly manner and the look of raw longing on his face had taken Erin by surprise. He wanted to be in his son's life. Maybe more than Noah realized.

Seeing that had made Erin ache. Like a punch to her bruised, scarred heart, she'd suddenly remembered the agony she'd experienced the night she'd been told her parents and little sister were dead. She thought she'd buried her grief years ago and for the most part she'd learned to live with it, but Noah hadn't lost his parents. Just his sister. That was sad and she understood his pain, but it didn't negate the fact that his father was
alive
and clearly wanted a relationship with him.

Noah's eyes narrowed. “I thought you wanted to be his contact for everything. You made that pretty clear.”

She shrugged. “I need to finish scanning the rest of the documents and he's
your
father.”

“Don't push something like this,” he growled in an angry tone she'd never heard from him before. He was coming out of his shell with her now, not afraid to hold anything back.

“I'll push whatever I want,” she snapped. She'd opened up to him and he supposedly wanted everything from her. If that was the case, then he'd have to give her all of himself too. The second
that
thought entered her mind, she cursed herself. No, no, no. She shouldn't even be thinking in these terms. But damn her, she was.

His eyebrows rose and he started to say something, but unable to stop herself, she cut him off. “My parents are dead, Noah. Yours are right here in front of you and they're pretty freaking nice. You might talk to your mom all the time but how long since you've seen her because of your stupid pride?” He tried to interrupt but she was on a roll and the edgy way she was feeling this morning had killed her filter. Not that she had much of one to begin with. “Your dad hasn't given me any grief about being in his territory. He's completely given me the reins for this case, which I know is my absolute right, but I didn't expect it. He cares deeply about his pack, felines who aren't even his responsibility, and it's clear he cares about you. You're pissed because he wouldn't let you kill the vampires who killed your sister? Did you ever think that maybe he was doing it for your own good? That he was trying to be a good father?”

“He pushed Fiona away! It's his fault she left.” It was one of the few times Noah had said his sister's name.

Erin didn't back down. “You don't think he lives with that grief every second of every day? You think you're punishing him more than he probably does every damn day?”

“I'm not trying to punish him.” Noah's jaw clenched tight and she knew she'd crossed a line, but she didn't care.

“Whatever you want to tell yourself. You've got a family that loves you and you've turned your back on them for no good reason. If I were in your shoes . . .” She trailed off, realizing she couldn't finish that thought. If she was in his shoes she'd hug her family every damn day. She'd tell them she loved them as much as she could.

“You fight fucking dirty,” he snarled and stormed from the room.

Yeah, she guessed she did. The problem was, she and Noah had never argued before. Not truly and not over anything that mattered. Little spats about who got to control the television remote—and she'd always won that one—didn't count. Things between them had been full of sexual tension for the past year but they'd always been friends.
Buddies.
And Noah had been very careful around her. She could see that now with twenty-twenty vision. Now that they'd veered into dangerous territory the gloves had come off in too many ways. If he got to push her until she was about to snap, she got to do the same. He deserved a family who loved him and he had one. She just wanted to see him make up with his father even if he was pissed at her in the short-term. Hell, if he was annoyed with her maybe he'd lay off on pursuing her.

Sighing, she turned back to her computer and pulled up the rest of the files. Somehow she shut down thoughts of Noah. She had work to do.

Most of the files were old records of people the human had scammed before. Their names, addresses, and money she'd stolen. Even bank account numbers. Lord, it was like the woman had kept a journal of all her misdeeds. Maybe it turned the shitty human on or something.

Nothing else was tied to Erin's case so she forwarded the rest of the pictures to Ryan. As she did, an e-mail from Ian popped up. His screen handle,
biteme
, made her laugh despite her mood. He sent her the same list Angus had already given her, but he'd made notes next to each name. After making notes in the margins of the list she'd already printed, she turned off the laptop.

Noah strode back in, fully dressed in a black sweater and jeans. He wore a knit skullcap and some dark strands of his hair peeked out. Underneath his sweater she could see the outline of a few weapons. Guns mostly, she assumed. Well, they were going to visit the houses of six different bloodborn families. Definitely made sense. She was certainly strapping on more armor than normal.

Before she could ask anything, he said, “My father can spare enough for all the females except two. He's keeping the compound on lockdown with everything going on and won't put his pack at risk.”

Erin nodded. She understood that. “I'll ask Brianna and Angelo to take the other females until we're done. Then we can take over for them?”

Noah's expression remained dark, but he nodded. “My father also talked to the rest of the families with missing women. I know we have enough info for a connection, but they all confirmed the women were taking Pilates at the same place.”

“Thanks.” She didn't expect a response, yet when he turned on his heel and left her alone she fought the sadness welling up inside her. He was dealing with stuff in his own way. Even if she disagreed, maybe she shouldn't have pushed him so hard. Hell, she'd been in denial about her own issues for an entire year.

She'd just been freaked out after the night they'd shared and she'd pushed his buttons. God, he was right. She did fight dirty. She still thought he needed to work things out with his father but that wasn't her place. They weren't mates.

After calling Brianna—who told her as soon as she and Angelo met up with one of her vampire contacts they'd be splitting up and shadowing two of the pregnant shifters on that list—she found Noah outside leaning against the passenger side of her car with his arms crossed over his chest.

He still wore that dark expression and it killed her. Before she could change her mind, she tossed him her keys.

Eyebrows raised, Noah caught them. “What's this?”

“You can drive to the first address.” In other words,
I'm sorry
.

He paused for a long moment and the tension in his shoulders loosened. “Damn, you don't fight
that
dirty, short stuff.” A hint of a smile played at the corner of his mouth.

She rolled her eyes at the nickname. “Fine, give me the keys back then.”

He just shook his head so she got into the passenger seat before she could change her mind.

Noah slid into the driver's seat, making a sound of overexaggerated appreciation as he grasped the steering wheel and basically stroked it. Taking her off guard, he leaned over and brushed his lips over hers before starting the car.

That small action had butterflies taking flight in her belly. Sighing, she looked out the window. She was so screwed when it came to him.

•   •   •

Noah slowed Erin's car as they pulled down the long, winding road that couldn't really be called a driveway because it was two miles long. Live oak trees covered in Spanish moss lined the paved road and covered much of the surrounding acres. Even though the gate hadn't been closed, Noah knew they were being watched.

His innate wolf sense was going crazy, clawing at him to be set free. There were definitely more than two vampires in the vicinity. Probably worked for François LaPomeret, the vamp they were visiting. Or maybe he had guests. It was late afternoon and after visiting six other bloodborn households in and around New Orleans Noah was ready for a break from interacting with vamps. The first two they'd visited had been unattached males who'd had no interest in continuing their line at the moment. They'd been relatively young bloodborns born into this century living off their family money, and while they'd been annoyed to have had their sleep disturbed, they'd seemed so human compared to many of the vamps Noah had interacted with. And they'd both checked out Erin blatantly in the way Noah imagined human college boys would have done. Under other circumstances it would have pissed him off, but they'd been harmless. Well, as harmless as a vampire could be, but no threat to either him or Erin. And Erin was hot. Other males would notice and it was something he was trying to deal with.

“Ian made an interesting note next to LaPomeret's name.” There was a touch of humor in Erin's voice that made Noah turn toward her.

“Ian?”

She nodded, her lips quirking slightly. “He sent the same list your father gave me but he added anecdotes next to each name. The others have been professional but apparently this guy is a goat-fucking-piece-of-shit and if I killed him the Brethren would probably give me a medal or make me an honorary vampire.”