Roar For More (Online Shifter Dating Agency Romance) (8 page)

“But surely he’ll give them up if I press him about the situation? Everyone has superiors, and who wants them finding out you’ve turned the other cheek to a matter of life or death?”

“That sounds completely reasonable, Aubrey, but I have to stress, you’ve never met this guy. He’s one of a kind. It’s not just his professionalism, you see. How he got the job—or any job—is a mystery, but he really is a bit of a yo-yo. Not that
he
would ever believe that to be the case.”

“Worse than Donald Rumsfeld?”

Pausing before another fork of salad entered his mouth, Jesse flicked his eyes up to her and pulled a serious expression, then said, “I happen to believe Donald Rumsfeld is one of our very best politicians.”

For just a second he had her. Aubrey stopped herself mid-chew to dart a glance back at him, and then she realized that he was winding her up.

“Jesse,” she said in a faux-warning tone, although there was a smile creeping over her face which made it clear she wasn’t serious. “Is this the kind of thing I’m going to have to put up with from you today?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t take you on too often,” he replied, his eyes gleaming with mischief. “One small victory against you is more than enough.”

“So you’re going to quit while you’re ahead?”

“If I’m wise. By the way, I might have a plan to get our hands on those keys…let’s just hope it actually works.”

Jesse was as good as his word and insisted on paying for their meal when they finished, and soon they were off to begin the task of completing their mission. With most of her acquaintances, Aubrey would have had to proceed with the hope that Jesse was as brave as he sounded, but with him, she only had to picture the striped beast that had defeated the current to save her from drowning to know that he was.

He was more than brave, actually. He was
incredible.

Chapter 9

Hunters were always calm and collected until they had prey in their sights.

Jesse may have seemed so to Aubrey as they joked and chatted casually before setting off, but his predatory instincts had been focused on the obstacle that Mr. Simpson would present since the moment he realized Aubrey would need access to the reservoir office.

The man had proven to be a frustration throughout town for as long as he could remember; the kind that folk endured though they longed to have nothing to do with. If mountain communities were as gun-happy as stereotypes often painted them, then the reality was that someone would probably have blown the man’s head off many years ago. Instead, Jesse’s fellow citizens remained civil to the town’s most unpopular resident out of some duty to humanity that was regularly tested by whatever spirits were at work. Simpson himself only avoided physical hurt through being a law-abiding member of the community while having a physique that any strong individual would feel cruel to inflict physical harm upon, as he was rather scrawny. He was short-tempered and rude to everyone, and in response everyone else attempted to let his irritating nature wash over them, but this was not always possible. ‘
Why is it when you’re having a bad day you always have to bump into Simpson?
’ they would often say after having the misfortune of an encounter with the man.

As much as Jesse wasn’t one of the easiest people to irritate, the thought of getting one over on the contemptuous prick was too difficult to resist. He was happy to give Aubrey her chance at being reasonable, if just to prove to her what an obnoxious jerk Simpson was, but then he would be all about the business of pulling the rug out from under him. Simpson was such an exacting individual that Jesse knew he would consider the theft and misuse of something as small as a key to be a serious crime—regardless of the fact that they had asked nicely for it in the first place and wanted it to save lives.

The exchange went just as he had imagined. After their request to the town hall’s receptionist to see the head of the department was met with an ‘
Are you serious?
’ face, they insisted a second time, and Simpson finally emerged with a look on his face that a Judge might pull if someone asked him to release all of the state’s murderers.

“What’s all this then?” they heard him ask before he had even set eyes upon them.

“Mr. Simpson?” Aubrey spoke up, after a little nod from Jesse that seemed to say ‘
I told you so’
. Simpson’s response was to stare at her open-mouthed without any greeting or enquiry as to what she wanted.

“I’m here because of a query about the town’s main water supply, Mr. Simpson,” she continued. “I mean the reservoir up on Mt. Brown; the one that provides water to Pine Valley and all the surrounding towns. It’s nothing too complicated. I just need the keys to access the office at the reservoir site, and I hear you have a copy. It’s just to…”

“That might sound uncomplicated to you, young lady,” Simpson replied, “but I can assure you it most definitely is not. I can’t go around giving keys to any old person who swans into town for no reason. You’ll need to get some high state authority and write to me if what you need is indeed proper, instead of just knocking on my door.”

“But there’s no time for that, this is for medical research,” Aubrey said. “And I didn’t want to concern you, but it’s really quite urgent.”

“Look,” he said curtly. “Your research might be urgent to you but that doesn’t mean we all have to sing to your tune. I think you’ll find that you need proper authority to access our reservoir, as you would with anything in our town.”

“But it’s a matter of life or death, Mr. Simpson,” Aubrey tried desperately, but even this failed to impact on his tone.

“Life or death?” he said incredulously. “Don’t you think if it was life or death there would be someone far more important than a little girl like you knocking on my door about it, Miss Whatever-your-name-is?”

“Miss Vierra isn’t a “little girl”,” Jesse cut in, incensed now. “She’s an expert in rare shifter diseases.”

“Is that so? Well, Mr. McCoy, we all know you’re a shifter, so if you’ve got yourself in trouble from chasing girls around the forest all the time, I’d go and see a doctor, rather than asking to go poking around in our reservoir. Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got no time to be dealing with silly children.”

After a shrug from Jesse, the two ‘children’ retreated into the street in order to undertake Plan B.

“Told you he was a dickwad,” said Jesse.

“I think you were too nice about him,” Aubrey replied. “Donald Rumsfeld doesn’t seem like such a bad guy anymore. So, what’s the backup plan?”

“I can get the keys easily without being seen,” Jesse said. “The only scenario we need is for Simpson to be out of the office for five minutes.”

“So we need a distraction.”

“Yeah. I’m sure he’ll go out for lunch sometime soon.”

“Or maybe he’s taken the same lunch box and sandwich filling to work for thirty years. So no,” Aubrey decided. “Let’s make it happen now.”

Seeing Aubrey take out her cell phone, Jesse had to voice some doubts as to whether Simpson could be duped.

“He isn’t very gullible,” he warned.

“No, but I’m guessing everyone has an ego of some kind. Especially a guy like him,’ she replied before dialing the phone number that was clear to see on the department entrance and asking to be put through to Mr. Simpson.

“Hello, Mr. Simpson?” she began, putting on a monotonous voice. “I work at the train station over in Bear Grove. We have a Mr. Kelley here who’s wondering if someone is going to come and collect him. I’m not sure who’s responsible for it but he mentioned you by name so I thought I would call…oh, I see. Okay, I’m sure he can make it on his own—if you’re sure that’s what you want. Mr. Kelley? He’s the Secretary of State for Conservation. But as you said, you’re busy, and you can’t…oh? Okay, great. Thank you, Mr. Simp—’

As Aubrey had spoken the two of them had made their way to the side of the building, aiming to avoid detection if Simpson was to emerge, but Jesse still had his doubts. He could not hear what was being said on the other end of the phone but imagined the department’s head would not believe anything that had not been filed and signed off weeks in advance.

“I think he bought it,” said Aubrey.

“I’m not sure,” Jesse replied. “Even if he has, I suspect he’ll send some minion to go and greet him. Is there really a Secretary of State for Conservation, anyway?”

Aubrey snickered. “I’ve got no idea.”

Whether there was or not actually turned out not to matter. A few minutes after Aubrey had made her attack on the Simpson ego, there he was, hurrying from the town hall entrance and shuffling some documents into a folder as he went. Perhaps he thought that somewhere in that mass of papers was a letter confirming what was going on, or else he was just carrying them to seem important, but what mattered was that the bluff had worked. Clearly someone as prestigious as the Secretary of State for Conservation did not come to Pine Valley often.

“I don’t believe it,” Jesse said, eyes crinkling with mirth. “The man actually bought it.”

“Lonely and bitter people are often the vainest,” Aubrey replied.

“Who said that?”

“I did, just now. So anyway, I got you what you need. What’s your plan?”

“Just bear with me one second,” Jesse replied before disappearing around the back of the building.

Once she was left alone, Aubrey let her guard down, assuming that Jesse had some way of sneaking into the offices that he did not want to risk the both of them getting caught doing. A day earlier she might have thought him a rogue for knowing how to accomplish such a thing. Keen as she was to chase down a cure, however, she did not care if Jesse had a shady background. All that mattered was that he was on her side; a fellow comrade who would be crucial in saving many lives.

But it turned out she had been completely presumptuous over what he had in mind. Out of the corner of her eye she became aware of something moving towards her and spun around to see that Jesse was in his tiger form.

Although she had witnessed him after shifting once before, that whole experience still felt like a dream. For some reason she had still not been ready to see such an imposing beast standing beside her in full daylight, and she was unable to resist a look of shock. She hoped her expression had not offended him, but he didn’t linger at all; instead he jumped out of sight, right up to the second floor roof as easily as a man might leap up three or four steps.

Once again Aubrey was left in awe of the tiger’s blend of power and agility. For a cat of that size and muscle to still be able to leap in the same way a house cat might from a garbage can to a fence was something special indeed.

Realizing that Jesse had planned something else entirely, therefore, Aubrey could not resist the temptation of taking a few steps back in order to see more. In doing so, she was just in time to see Jesse leap through an open window they would have otherwise needed a ladder to reach, which she supposed must have been Simpson’s office. Soon enough, Jesse re-emerged with what looked like a shiny set of objects hanging from his jaws, and she knew then that he had the keys.

Good job, tiger.

From her perspective, the vertical leap back to the ground looked treacherous, but Jesse made it look easy, lowering his front paws down its height then allowing the rest of his body to drop and land lightly. Aubrey could not help but feel fearful as he drew nearby, though she knew he would do her no harm. It was only natural for the human mind to be alarmed in the presence of a beast it knew instinctively it had no chance against. Aubrey could not help wonder if those who still insisted on hating shifters did so because they had failed to address this fear rationally. Prejudice via nervousness had been responsible for numerous evil events throughout history.

Maybe seeing a tiger shifter up close would have been good therapy for these people, however, because then they’d also see how gentle they could be…just as Jesse was when his powerful jaws placed the set of keys in Aubrey’s small, outstretched hand. After that, Jesse quickly disappeared around the corner again, to where he had left his clothes.

Aubrey couldn’t help but be slightly amused by this. Were his priorities to save her from the spectacle of seeing him naked, or from the sight of his transformation? Perhaps a bit of both, but she wished she knew him well enough to ask which was the most important. Somehow not seeing either made the experience feel far more mysterious than it might otherwise have.

Aubrey’s senses were sent into a whirlwind at the knowledge that Jesse was shifting back into human form just out of sight and also that he would emerge completely naked when it was done; something she wouldn’t be able to see. When he finally appeared in view again—completely dressed—she noted he was out of breath but not nearly as much as the previous day. Of course, he hadn’t had to swim through a fierce current to rescue her on this occasion.

“I didn’t realize you were going to do that,” she said, hoping her levels of excitement were not too obvious. “You feeling okay?”

“Yeah, I thought you might talk me out of it, but I’m good. It’s more tiring than it should be, but praise be to broccoli.”

“I’m almost sorry you didn’t just do that with Simpson in the office. Would have given him the shock of his life.”

“Ha! That’s a tempting thought,” he admitted. “But he’d have the town council on to me in a flash. He doesn’t need an excuse to make someone’s life a misery.”

“But he’ll know these keys are gone before we get back.”

“Probably, but it’ll confuse him. I don’t think he credits me with enough intelligence to pull off anything like it, so he’ll probably just think it was you.”

“Wow, thanks,” she said with a sarcastic grin. “Anyway, you need an energy drink or something before we head off?”

“No, I’m good,” he replied. “Can’t wait to get going, in fact.”

“Well, thanks to you, we’re in business,” she said, holding up the borrowed set of keys.

“Let’s get over to Claire’s store then.”