Bad Cat Baby Blues (Shifter Squad Six 3) (14 page)

Dutch was at the door, leaning back against the wall with his usual amused smirk resting on his lips, the one he wore when he was trying to be both annoying as well as unnoticeable. At least that was Ari’s take on the situation. Connor, however? He was irritated. And she couldn’t blame him.

She believed that same desire for results burned in Dutch three times as hot as it did in Connor, seeing as her team had to keep tearing Dutch away from getting too involved in the investigation on account of Carter more often than they would have liked.

“Told you, Lieutenant,” Dutch said in a lazy drawl, his shoulders hunched as Ari shared a look with him.

You couldn’t have kept him out of my hair, could you? Not enough that I have to worry about how Roman’s getting on without me and with the nanny, and dealing with you, but now Connor too? I can only deal with so much…

Her flustered sigh was real and she tapped one of the techs on the shoulder at the station closest to where she was standing. Sitting down, she pulled up surveillance videos they’d managed to capture a few days ago, showing movement in and out of a large storage facility, a logistics center by the name of North Haygrove Logistics Base. A pretentious name for a simple warehouse and truck depot, but Ari knew enough by now to be sure it was not simply that.

“We got this off of a drone we flew over the center when we got a tip that Haygrove might be worth the look. You see those trucks moving in and out? We intercepted one of them and as far as we can tell, most of them are empty. Decoys, or just something to make it appear like normal operations are still present. It seems they all head out of Detroit on several different paths, circle around over a period of a few days, change their plates, and come back just the same.”

“So it’s a front,” Connor said, peeking over her shoulder.

Ari was intensely aware that Dutch had come to join him, his presence setting the air between them crackling with electricity. It was unnerving. Not only because of how intensely she felt it, but because of how greedily her body accepted it, as if drawn to him by a magnetic force beyond her comprehension.

“Seems like a likely conclusion.”

“For what?” Dutch asked.

“That’s what we don’t know yet,” Ari said, anticipating the frustrated groans she was to receive from the two men. “We’re working on it. Whatever it is, it’s using a whole lot of electricity. We’ve been surveying the grid and Haygrove’s electricity use is up four-hundred percent since about six months ago. Before that, it was a legitimate logistics center.

“My people tracked down a couple of former workers. They got pink slips one after another over a week and hefty severance packages. No one raised a fuss because they made off like bandits. Whoever’s running this wants to keep everyone quiet and out of the loop.”

“Who’d want to stir shit in Detroit?” Dutch scoffed, straightening up. “Let alone why’d anyone want to come here to begin with?”

Ari chuckled, turning around in her seat as she shut off the video.

“That’s an easy enough question. For the same reasons that The Firm is here,” she said.
And why I am here,
she added under her breath. “It’s a wasteland. It’s an urban desert, a city that pretends to be alive but underneath it all is actually dead and buried. A ghost land. The place where you come when you don’t want anyone to know that you exist.”

Guess I had a flaw in that plan,
she thought grimly.

Dutch’s eyes met hers and for a moment she saw something in them, maybe a sense of realization that she would have rather been spared. The last thing she needed was for him to start asking questions and figuring things out. She bit down on her lip, her mind racing to find a way to get them out of her hair and to get Dutch’s mind off of the very obvious carrot dangling in front of his face.

“McLaughlin, I understand that you are frustrated. We all are. But what if I offer you something to do, something that might actually help?” Ari asked, grasping at straws but finding one of them surprisingly sturdy.

Connor’s gaze was questioning and she’d expect nothing less from a man who’d managed to keep his squad intact for far more years than anyone else in The Firm. Shifter Squad Six had not lost a man since its formation, and though Ari figured it was a testament to the individual characters of the men he commanded, like Dutch, she was also certain that it had plenty to do with the lieutenant himself.

“I’m listening,” Connor replied dubiously, straightening up.

“I have a number of operatives out there whose combat readiness I am not completely sure of. Dutch here can tell you that we might have sent out some when they were not yet ready for the burden they had to bear.”

She exchanged a look with Dutch and his expression became stony, showing her no emotion but revealing all of them with that action. He must have been more frustrated than all of them put together, especially with there being little movement on the front of figuring out where Carter had disappeared to.

“So I was thinking that perhaps you and your team could give them a quick rundown, make sure they’re prepared for the streets and for their faceless nemesis. If they’re not, either drill them or discard them. I can ask command for replacements. But I do not want to lose people.”

The more she spoke, the better the idea sounded to her. She was in desperate need of someone giving a once-over to her team, and Squad Six was one of the best, not to mention the only ones at her disposal. Ari would have to use her assets the best she could.

In the back of her mind, she was very much aware that she was not the most qualified nor the most seasoned lead Spade could have picked for this mission. Why he’d made that call still plagued her, along with the very real threat of babbling about Ro whenever Dutch was around, but neither of those things meant that she could get sloppy with her job at hand. For her own safety, as well as her baby’s and everyone else’s on the team, she would have to be sharp.

“Does that mean you as well, Miss Gutierrez?” Connor asked, giving her a stern look.

Ari fought the desire to look at herself in much the same way he was. She was not in the best fighting form, that much was evident. While it might have looked simply like slacking off after leaving the strict fitness regimen forced on its agents by The Firm, Ari knew it was simply the aftereffects of the pregnancy combined with the lessened training. She could still kick the ass of most men who crossed her path, but she had a sinking feeling that the people working with Soyo were not
most men
.

“Of course,” she replied flatly, the emotion drained out of her words.

“Well then. I accept. Get me a schedule; we’ll use one of the training halls in the basement.”

Connor grinned, flicking a look at Dutch and then Ari. She couldn’t speak before Connor had made up his mind and to Connor’s credit, the tactic had been put to use so quickly that Ari had only recognized it happening when it was too late.

“As for you, I think you’ll be best left in Dutch’s capable hands,” Connor said, clapping Dutch on the shoulder. “Don’t go easy on her, huh? After all, we all
depend
on her being at the top of her game. Nothing a Marine likes better than a few cuts and bruises, right?”

The twinkle in Connor’s eyes was only outshined by the equal parts trepidation and excitement in Ari’s and Dutch’s. Her breath caught and her skin got clammy. Connor, the sly… well, not fox, but bear, had caught both of them in a trap and he’d done it so smoothly that Ari had to wonder whether the idea of having her crew trained by Squad Six had been hers at all or if Connor had been conditioning her for it.

Spirits above, can I not catch a break?

“Hoo-ah,” Ari muttered, tossing Connor a scorching look that the lieutenant shrugged off smoothly.

“Aye, lieutenant. I’ll take off the kid gloves,” Dutch promised as he and Connor made their goodbyes, stalking out of the crowded recon offices like two men who’d simultaneously won and lost a battle.

Ari’s eyes tracked them as they went and she caught the moment when Dutch looked over his shoulder, straight at her. He threw her a wink and she wondered if she was supposed to be afraid. Probably. To the best of her knowledge, the man was a menace, a danger to all around him.

So why was it that she felt herself getting wet with excitement?

You are so screwed, Ari. And not in the good way.
 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Dutch

Ariadne was a distraction like no other. Dutch had no problem admitting that.

She’d changed out of her slacks and shirt to come in for their training session, and now her body was far more exposed to his hungry gaze. She was dressed in leggings and a black workout top, not revealing anything and giving her room for function and movement, but it also showed off her delectable curves, the arch of her back, and the slightest hint of her heavy breasts. And that was pure torture, undiluted and brought to Dutch in the form of an assignment.

I’m going to have to beat Connor up for this shit one of these days,
he thought, trying to find his voice to speak to her as she warmed up, his eyes glued to every ripple of muscle, every motion she made.

Perfection. Now even more so, with her slightly rounder curves and a body that could fill his big paws, were he only allowed to touch it.

He stretched his neck side to side, feeling the crackle it sent down his spine. He had a crick in his left shoulder from getting too close to a lunatic with a knife back in Afghanistan, and his knee had never been the same after taking that damn bullet. But those were small grievances in comparison to losing limbs or worse during service.

The only good body is one being put to use,
he reminded himself, trying to focus on the task at hand instead of Ari’s tempting ass.

“Let’s go then, baby,” he said, holding firmly to the affectionate moniker even though he saw a strain of irritation cross Ari every time he used it.

That was probably why he kept using it. Well, that and the fact that it took him back to that one night they’d shared every damn time and that was a nice enough memory to revisit often.

She stopped warming up, her eyes sharply on him as she met him on the cushioned mat in the middle of the small, private room. He’d made sure there would be no one to walk in on them, no one to disturb them. The doors were unlocked but it was late in the evening, as both of them seemed to prefer, nocturnal shifters as they were.

“Let’s make this fast. I have places to be,” she said with the beginnings of a snarl.

Dutch grinned. “We’re not done before I say we’re done. Lieutenant’s orders.”

It wasn’t a complete lie. Dutch knew as Ari must that all of this was as much to piss him and her off as it was to actually make sure she was on top of her game. They’d have weapons training the next evening with a larger group, but physical prowess and hand-to-hand combat was something they could check in private. It wouldn’t have to take long, but that all depended on how much they ended up enjoying it.

“What do you want me to do?” Ari asked as Dutch brought up his hands and parted his legs for better grip on the dark blue mat.

“Take me out,” he said, a wolfish smile spreading on his lips. “I’ll play nice.”

“I thought you said you wouldn’t?” she huffed back, though he could see the smirk that she lazily tried to hide from him.

“I’m a man of my word whenever it suits me,” he said leisurely, the last words delivered when Ari was already making a pass at him.

She jabbed with her right hand, feigning a hit to distract him when her left came up, a tight fist rolled and getting by Dutch easily. He hopped to the left, putting some distance between them.

“That the best you can do?” he asked, loving the determination he could see on her, making her muscles strain and her teeth bare.

Ari came at him again and this time, she didn’t waste any time on misdirection. Her left-handed punch rattled past his arm and into his ribs and she brought up her knee in order to sock him in the gut, but he batted it away easily enough, putting some shoulder into it and making her spin away for balance. He could have grabbed her leg and brought her down on the mat, but it was too early.

“That better?” she questioned with a feral grin as Dutch touched his ribs gingerly, adrenaline beginning to course through him, life-giving and thick.