Birds of Prey (3 page)

Ignoring everything else except his job, he inclined his head. “We want answers too.”

Her gaze narrowed at his sharp tone, but she didn’t say anything. She turned on her heel and returned to her seat.

Cody stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He hadn’t meant to snap at her but damn, he hadn’t expected her.

“I’m Cody Johnson,” he began, once he knew he had control of himself again. “I’m leading this investigation”—he nodded towards Ryder—“along with my team.”

Mike crossed his arms over his chest. “Mike Williams. Head of security”—he waved a hand to the others at the table—“and
my
team.”

Cody understood that the man was upset and angry, but he didn’t have time to play. He took one of the empty chairs and sat.

“Mr Williams,” he challenged. “You can either help us get answers or waste our time. I’ll tell you the more time this takes, the longer it will be until we can find out what happened to your boss.”

Mike opened his mouth, but before he could speak, another man responded.

“We made copies of the security disks as your man requested. What more do you want?”

“Your name?” Cody asked.

“Joey Michaels, I supervise the night patrol,” he answered.

“Good, then we’ll start with you. Is there someplace we can speak privately?”

Mike jumped up and surged forward. “We don’t have time for this!”

Still on his feet, all Ryder had to do was shift his stance and wrap his arm around Mike’s waist to pull the man back. They kept going back until Ryder had Mike against the wall.

The security team were on their feet in an instant, and Cody jumped to put himself between his man and the others.

Mike wasn’t struggling. He buried his face in Ryder’s neck and started to weep.

Ryder was a big guy, but Mike outweighed him. It took a lot to get Ryder angry. In fact, in all the time he’d worked with Ryder, he’d never seen him lose control.

Ryder hadn’t this time, either. He was consoling the other man, letting Mike sob and shake while holding him.

Cody held his hands up to ward off the security team.

“Stop,” Aubrey spoke softly, when two security members advanced on him. “Let him be. Joey, go ahead with Agent Johnson. Use the main office.”

She waved the others back into their seats. She turned and looked at Cody. “Let’s get this done. We have things to do. We have a Cast that needs protection.”

Cody wanted to reach for her, something he’d have done before so that he could take that devastated look off her face. But it couldn’t be done now. And probably never again.

“Follow me,” Joey said, drawing his attention from her.

Cody turned and trailed the man out of the door.

Joey was shorter than Cody’s own five foot eleven. Cody would place the man’s age in the mid-twenties. He could feel the dominance radiating from the guy.

Bird shifters operated in a kind of military hierarchy. The more dominant the shifter was, the higher up the ladder he climbed. Experience added to that ranking. Gregory had been the strongest falcon shifter in the entire state.

Cody would place Joey at midlevel in the Cast, but after he had more experience and a few more years under his belt, Joey would no doubt be upper-level.

Joey led him into a large office with monitors showing their grounds.

Cody took one of the chairs and motioned Joey into the other. “Why don’t you start explaining the set-up and procedures?”

Chapter Two

Aubrey Reynolds tried to keep her leg from bouncing, but anger and impatience had her nerves screaming. Mike had calmed down and now sat next to her drinking from a bottle of water. While they waited, another agent had joined their group and had brought them water and coffee.

The two agents in the room stood on either side of the door. They spoke neither to them nor to each other.

She shifted in her seat. She wished they would hurry up. Not that she was looking forward to being interviewed by her ex-lover, but she needed a minute to process the fact that Cody Johnson had just walked back into her life.

Not only was he home, but he was also now in charge of the case in which her leader had been killed.

Killed, murdered, Gregory was dead.

She bent her head as nausea flooded her.

How could this be happening?

Once she had control of herself again, she sat up and glared at the two silent agents. It wasn’t their fault that she was stuck in the room, but it made her feel better anyway.

Joey, Gina, Scott, Tyler and Daniel had already gone and spoken to the agent in charge. Chad was with him now, then it would be Aubrey’s turn. She wanted to get the interview over with. At the same time, she dreaded it.

Cody Johnson. Jeez, what were the chances? And why hadn’t she known that he was back? Sure, they didn’t travel in the same circles, but she should have known.

She’d once thought that she would always be aware of where Cody was. Of course, that had been before he’d left her. Broken her heart and moved on.

She couldn’t let her personal feelings get in the way here. Still, did he have to look so good? If karma had been kind, Cody would have been fat and ugly. Miserable and alone.

She had no idea if he was miserable or alone. However, after just one look at him, it was certain that he wasn’t fat or ugly.

No, he had looked good.

He’d aged well in the over fifteen years since she’d seen him. She had to ignore that. Couldn’t think of the way her heart had soared when he’d walked into the room.

Or the fact that she had to fight to keep herself from running to him.

She had a job to do. She needed to check in with her family, make sure everyone else was accounted for, and she was going to find out what happened.

Chad came back in and nodded to her.

This was it. She could do this. She
would
do this and stay calm.

Aubrey stood and they passed each other as Chad headed to Mike for instructions.

She strolled out into the hallway then to the office. The door was open and she paused at the threshold just long enough to take a deep breath. Unfortunately, that also brought her the scent of Cody Johnson.

And that didn’t help her self-control.

Damn it, she had to shake it off.

She passed through the door and, without looking at Cody, took a seat. She kept her eyes on the desk where an open notebook lay. Cody turned to a new page and tapped his pen.

“You look good,” he said.

She couldn’t think of a way to respond. She wanted to yell at him. Ask him why he hadn’t let her know that he was back. Instead, she pulled in the memory of him leaving and replied coolly, “So do you.”

“You are second-in-command of the security team under Mike?”

“Yes,” she answered shortly.

He dropped the pen. “Look at me.”

She raised her head and locked gazes with his sharp, brown eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

That was such an open statement. Sorry about Gregory? About leaving her? Coming back?

She shrugged.

“I didn’t know I would see you here today. I didn’t know you were still in town.”

Of course he didn’t. He hadn’t kept tabs on her. Why would he? Just because they had been in love once? She snorted.

He sighed and picked his pen up again. “Why would someone kill Gregory?”

She couldn’t look away from him. “I don’t know.”

He shook his head. “You have to have some idea.”

“I don’t know,” she said, voice trembling. She pressed her lips together to regain some composure. She wouldn’t be any help if she fell apart.

“You liked your boss?”

“Liked?” Anger replaced her despair. “I loved my boss.”

His brow lifted.

“Not only was Gregory the Cast leader, he was also my uncle. His sister is my mother,” she explained.

He frowned and started writing in his little notebook. It pissed her off. He’d never met her family. In the past it hadn’t been important.

“I didn’t know you were related to him.” Concern filled Cody’s voice. “This will be even tougher for you than the rest of the security team. I wish I could give you some time, but the sooner we start the investigation, the quicker we’ll find who did this.”

“I know.”

“Good.” He nodded. “Tell me about your uncle.”

“Gregory was a good man,” she told him. “He was a great leader and without him, my Cast will be in turmoil.”

He opened and closed his mouth several times before clearing his throat. “He’d have a successor,” Cody replied.

“Yes, and I’m sure you’ve already been told that Adrian Brown isn’t even here,” she snapped.

“Yes, I’ve been informed. Convenient that the second-in-command is out of town when the Cast leader was killed.”

Fury rolled through her. She slammed a fist on the desk. “Adrian did not do this!”

“Why not?” he questioned and leant back in his chair. “Because you’re sleeping with him?”

Aubrey was out of her chair before she knew what she was doing.

Cody was faster.

She found herself pushed up against the wall with his body holding hers in place.

“Temper, temper,” he taunted.

Aubrey bared her teeth. Cody knew how to push her buttons. He always had.

She tried to ignore the feel of his strong form holding her in place.

He held her arms firmly, but it was his chest and legs against hers that had her swallowing a whimper. He was solid in all the right places.

“So your boyfriend goes on a business trip and your leader is murdered,” Cody stated, voice not entirely steady. “That’s an avenue we will be following.”

“Follow it all you want,” she provoked. “Waste time.”

“I’m wasting time?” he scoffed. “We need your help. But every member of the security team has held back. I want answers, Aubrey, and you’re going to give them to me.”

She couldn’t think when he was touching her. “Let me go.”

He smiled then, and it wasn’t friendly. “Or?”

If he didn’t release her, she wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Her mouth watered for a taste of him.

She struggled to get away, but that only brought her body tighter to his. And her stomach brushed over his hard cock.

“Cody,” she whispered his name, as she froze, feeling his hard-on.

“Are you going to calm down and answer my questions?”

“Let’s just get this over with,” she managed.

He eased back, still holding her. “Someone got inside this fortress of yours. Not only got inside but also knew what vehicle Gregory would be driving and placed a bomb in it. They then either had it on a timer or waited and detonated the explosive just as he reached the gates. You’re entire security force is not exactly jumping to help us. That is suspicious.”

Aubrey shook, hearing it all laid out to her. She’d been thinking the same. However, hearing it was different. It made her ill.

“Either someone here is involved or they got very lucky,” he alleged. “Do you want to know which way I’m leaning?”

“Okay,” she replied. “I get it. I’ll help.”

He stepped back and the loss of his heat made her shiver. She felt cold deep down in her bones, and scared.

She’d never admit it to anyone—however, the truth was that she’d never got over Cody leaving her.

“Please sit,” he requested.

She tried not to brush past him as she retook her seat. She couldn’t handle any more contact.

“Have any threats been made against Gregory or the Cast?” He started again with his questions.

“No.”

“Internal mumblings, issues, that sort of thing?”

“There’s always issues,” she answered, swiping her hand over her mouth. “A Cast this big? Egos get trampled on and there’s always going to be disagreements.”

“Enough to kill the Cast leader?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Never.”

“What about Gregory’s law firm?” Cody asked next. “Any cases he’s working on that would put him at risk?”

“Not that I know of,” she responded. “If he was threatened, he would have told us. Told me and Mike for sure. But we have a separate security team at the firm.”

“They answer to Mike?”

“Yes, he runs all security matters,” she told him. “Mike wouldn’t have anything to do with this either. He loved Gregory like a father.”

Cody smirked. “You seem to have a lot of opinions on who didn’t do this. None on who did.”

“I know the people I work with. They are my family.”

“You’re, what, number eight in command of the Cast?”

So he had some information if he knew her rank. Was he proud? Not that it should matter what he thought, she reminded herself.

“Yeah, so?”

“That’s pretty high for a woman of thirty-five,” he commented.

“I’m good at my job,” she retorted.

His eyes flashed. “Is that all it is?”

“What exactly are you asking?”

“Did your boyfriend help you move up? Or was it being Gregory’s niece?”

She had to dig her nails into her palms to keep herself from punching him. “Figure it out.”

She knew she had earned her position. She should probably set the record straight about her and Adrian, but she just wasn’t going to do it. Let him think what he wanted.

“How’d they get in last night?” he questioned.

“I don’t know. Have you looked at the security disks?”

“Not yet. Have you?”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ve been locked up in the conference room since this happened so when would I have had time?”

He lifted a shoulder.

She blew out a breath. God, he was annoying. Had he always been like this? Yes, yes he had. When he thought he was right, he hardly ever considered any other avenue.

“Let’s start at the beginning.” He grabbed his notebook again and began peppering her with questions.

Aubrey answered truthfully, with only a little resentment bleeding through. She evaded the best she could when he asked about Adrian. Her own little ‘screw you’ pointed straight at Cody.

It wasn’t common knowledge through the Cast that she and Adrian were no longer together.

Only a few people knew. Gregory and Mike, her family and a couple of close girlfriends.

She wasn’t surprised that someone had told the agent about her and Adrian. Honestly, she could see where Cody would have to ask about Gregory’s successor. However, she didn’t believe for a minute that Adrian was involved.