Skin Walkers - King (5 page)

Chapter 8

King seriously needed to do something about his preoccupation with little Miss Prim-and-Proper.  His attraction to the boss’ personal assistant was disconcerting.  Sure, he hadn’t been laid in quite some time, but it shouldn’t be having this type of affect on him.  He stomped up the stairs to the waiting CEO wondering if he shouldn’t ask for reassignment.  He snorted at the thought.  If Monroe StoneCrow found out King wanted reassignment to avoid contact with Lilly, he knew the CEO and Dominant Walker would use the information to make King’s life a living hell.  Christ, the man was like a shark scenting blood in the water when he thought one of his Walkers felt even the slightest admiration for a female.  Outright attraction was a practical death sentence.  Damn man should’ve been named Cupid for all his rumored match-making.  Speaking of…

When King crested the
back stairs to the heli-pad on the roof top, he ignored the whipping blades and joined Monroe in the Pave Hawk helicopter that had no business outside of military grounds.

Putting on a headset, he buckled in and shoved the documents he’d retrieved to Monroe.  “Here’s your statement.” 

Monroe didn’t thank him, and King hadn’t expected him to.  The Dominant Walker believed all other Walkers existed to serve him.  “Crow, I’ve seen the plans for cabins behind the estate.  Legion says they’re for mated Walkers.”  There was a slight pause.  “You do realize there are no mated Walkers here currently?”

“I’m working on it.”

The words made King want to cringe.  He knew he’d be included with those poor unsuspecting Walkers being “worked on” if he wasn’t careful.  “Don’t you think that if Walkers wanted mates, we’d claim our angels?  It’s not that we can’t have mates, Crow, it’s that we don’t want them.”

Monroe dropped the papers he’d been studying.  “You don’t want them because you’ve never been able to protect them.”  He smirked knowingly, “I’ll remedy the safety issue and once that’s done, I guarantee children will come.”

“Children?”  King spoke over the whomp, whomp, whomp, of the chopper blades.  “Is that what this is about?  Walkers mating and procreating?”

Something glinted in the Dominant Walker’s eyes but he didn’t respond, simply dropped his eyes back to his paperwork.
 

Shit! 
It was worse than King thought.  Monroe wasn’t looking to grant his Walkers a place to exist in peace; he was looking to create a breeding ground. 
But why?
  “You know if we wanted children, we could hide in society and have them.” 

King was shocked when Monroe spun on him
to snarl viciously, “We shouldn’t have to!”

So that was it.  Monroe was building his Walker haven because he was tired of hiding, tired of being alone.  What was an Alpha without a pack?  It made sense to King, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t scary as hell.  He knew he couldn’t get away from Lilly without drawing suspicion, but maybe…

“Crow, have you considered replacing Ms. Worthington with a Walker?”

Monroe didn’t look up, “And why would I do that?”

“I thought this was supposed to be a Walker community.  Isn’t it your intention that eventually all staff and residence of StoneCrow will be Skin Walkers?”

“
Maybe in ten years, but right now there aren’t enough.  Besides, Ms. Worthington is good at her job.  I don’t have the time or patience to retrain anyone else.”

“She’s human
.  You’ve allowed her too close to vital Walker intel,” King countered feeling like a bastard.  “She could betray us once she finds out what we are.” 

Monroe relaxed back and stared straight ahead.  “I suspect Ms. Worthington has already become suspicious.  She’s an intelligent woman, King.  She’d have to be a damn fool to not realize something out of the ordinary is going on.”

“Which is exactly why we should cut her loose.”

“No,” Monroe smirked, “it’s exactly why I keep her.  She’s been nothing but loyal a
nd tight lipped.  Do you honestly think I’d take her at face value?  She’s been watched, King.  Hell, she’s still being watched.”

At the revelation, King’s hackles instantly rose.  The beasts within surged to the fore, demanding he protect
her.  He’d have to be careful.  He knew more than most about Monroe StoneCrow and his penchant for scheming to get what he wanted.  King had to force back a snarl of anger at the thought of anyone watching Lilly, and he recognized his own jealousy at not having been the one assigned the task.  Fiercely possessive emotions roiled through him and he struggled to tamp them down. 

He saw Monroe’s nostrils flare and panic hit.  If the Dominant Walker knew
…  The corner of Monroe’s lips ticked.  Not enough that anyone else would have caught it, but King had. 

“I’m reassigning the Walker that’s been tailing Ms. Worthington,” Monroe began.

Shit, here it comes!

“As Chief of Security, it’s now your duty to handle surveillance over our human staff.  I’d like you to
personally
keep an eye on Ms. Worthington.  She is, after all, closer to vital Walker intel then any other under my employ.”

The use of his very own words being tossed back into his face wasn’t lost on King.  He ground his teeth together to keep from telling Monroe where he could shove his assignment.  How had this happened?  Seconds ago, he’d been trying to convince the Dominant to fire Lilly and now he’d been assigned to her, which meant getting closer instead of further
. 
What in the hell is wrong with me?
  King wasn’t a stupid man.  He’d served his country and in some of the highest ranking capacities the military allowed, including the field of intelligence, but right now he felt like a fucking idiot.  His body tensed.  Monroe was toying with him, playing a game of chess that King hadn’t even realized they’d started.  If he was trying to put this King in check, he’d better be prepared for a fucking fight.

“Since your now in charge of Lilly’s surveillance, you should know that there has been a man watching her.”

Christ!  He couldn’t even get a second to get his fierce possession under control before Monroe hit him with the information.  Again, anger surged to the fore and his beasts stood, their attention seized.  “What man?”

Monroe shrugged one shoulder, “Not sure yet.  He approached her at home a few days ago and she blew him off.
We’re not sure what he’s after, but he’s after something.  He’s been watching her.  Staking out her place.”

A frown tugged King’s brows lower as he asked with a look of distaste as if the mere word soured his mouth, “Ex?”

“No.  He’s older.  Not really Lilly’s type.”

“And how do you know her type?”  Damn green-eyed monster.  Wh
y couldn’t King control himself?

Monroe smiled.  “I don’t.  I’m just pretty sure what she wouldn’t be interested in.  This guy’s
got a cattle ranch east of the city.  Don’t believe he’s Megalya either.”

The mention of the Walker enemy had ice shooting through King’s veins.  He didn’t want those fucking monsters anywhere near Lilly.  “You’re sure?”

“I’ll have the reports uploaded to your computer.  You can go over them once we return.  For now, let’s get this meeting with Tyce out of the way.”

King couldn’t let it go.  “If he’s stalking her why haven’t you taken him out?”

The CEO’s placating grin irked the hell out of King.  “If I did that then I’d never discover what it is he’s after.”

Resolved to take care of it personally once they returned to StoneCrow, King changed directions. 
“What is it exactly we’re supposed to be helping Tyce with?”

“Not him.  Mason
EnemyHunter has flown in from New York.  Apparently, he’s hiring Tyce’s team to assist in the search for his missing sister.”

“And this involves us how?”

“It doesn’t.  For now.  We’re going to collect samples from Mason, Tyce, and Tyce’s Walkers to add to our database at StoneCrow.”

King snorted, “Still searching for the source huh?”

Monroe didn’t respond.

“Maybe you should hold off on attempting to mate
all your Walkers to one another until you find out if we’re all related.”  The idea struck King as funny and had him smiling.

 
“Perhaps you’re right.  Maybe I’ll concentrate my efforts on just getting my Sentries mated to
human
females for the time being.”

King’s smile slid from place and he swallowed hard, knowing that if Monroe pushed him
to claim a certain human female, he wouldn’t have to push too hard.  Even now, there was that odd sensation, a tingling at the back of King’s mind.  It almost felt like a warning.  A warning to not overlook Lilly Worthington.  But why?  Was she an enemy infiltrating StoneCrow?  If she were, his desire for her was clouding his ability to see it.  Perhaps it was something else.  Maybe he was supposed to grant her his undivided attention for a very different reason.

Chapter 9

The meeting ran longer then King had hoped, and Monroe’s private helicopter didn’t return to StoneCrow until after five.  Lilly was already gone for the day.  Wanting nothing more than a hot shower and a hot steak, King forewent both, instead opting to travel immediately to the city to relieve Marko of his surveillance duties.  It was difficult to ignore the sharp bite of jealousy that seared through him at the thought of the other Walker watching Lilly.

He could have shifted and flown the forty-five miles to Great Falls, but he was beat.  Not
only that, but the back seat of the black humvee he’d borrowed from the estate had equipment he might need.

Lilly’s apartment was easy to find.  The town of approximately sixty-thousand wasn’t large by any standards.  The quaint duplex sat just across from the town’s lone pond that currently hosted a gaggle of Canadian geese, a pair of swans and two dozen ducks.

Marko had nothing to report and was clearly delighted to be relieved of duty. 

King drove by Lilly’s apartment and eyed the building and the cars lined up in front of it and in the parking lot.  One
pass by and he turned to the park where he parked the humvee and exited the vehicle.  Clad in gray sweat pants and matching jacket, he exited the vehicle, zipped the top halfway down to expose hardened abs, and fisted the keys before setting off on a steady lope around the park.  Several other joggers passed him by.  Jogging the park gave him a cover while offering a vantage point to study Lilly’s apartment from many angles.  He picked up on several things that’d need to be changed to guarantee her safety.  First, there were no lights on the outside of the building, meaning when she arrived home at night, she’d have to get from her vehicle to her door in darkness.

Second, there was no surveillance system.  Granted, most duplexes wouldn’t have that type of equipment, but if he had his way, Lilly’s would.

Circling the park, his breathing wasn’t even labored.  Like all Walkers, he was extremely fit.  He could run hard for hours before he’d even break a sweat.

Ignoring the flouncing redhead that jogged by, eyeing him with
clear interest, King’s eyes snagged on a car that had pulled in four cars behind where Lilly’s was already parked. 

King slowed to
watch as the driver, a man, rustled around the front seat before pulling up a huge pair of binoculars and pointing them at Lilly’s window. 
Amateur!
  The stalker stood out like a sore thumb and the mere idea of him catching any glimpse of Lilly with his outdated equipment had King shifting from a jog to a full on run.

He hit the loop at the end of the park to slingshot toward Lilly’s apartment, his mind drumming with
possibilities.  As he raced by the car, he noted the man didn’t even give him a glance.  King slowed and covered the last few yards to the humvee.  Climbing in, he started the vehicle and maneuvered it to the alley behind Lilly’s apartment where he parked, retrieved the length of thick, silver, chain from the backseat and threw it over his shoulder.  This would be a little risky in mid-day, but it wasn’t like he was dealing with any Spec Ops soldier.  No, the man watching Lilly was a first-class idiot. 

Stealthily, King crept to the row of vehicles parked behind the moron’s car and inched toward the man, making sure to keep out of the side mirror’s line of sight.  Just behind the moron’s car, he knelt to wrap the length of chain around the bottom of a fire hydrant that sat in the boulevard.  Once he secured it, he ran the length through his large hands, careful not to rattle the links as he crawled partially under the
man’s car to fasten the chain around the vehicle’s rear end.  It was quicker than he’d thought.  The moron, apparently bored, had opted to blare his country station and chant along with the lyrics, window down.  Talk about conspicuous.

Once the chain was secure, King crawled from beneath the vehicle and stayed low as he inched back down the line of cars toward his
ride.  He dusted off his ass and unzipped his jacket the rest of the way before climbing into the vehicle and pounding Five Finger Death Punch as loud as he could stand.  Gunning the motor, he peeled out of the alley and came to a screeching halt just beside the moron’s car, instantly earning his attention.

King schooled his features into a look of angry impatience as he jumped from the driver’s side and stalked toward the suddenly pale m
an.

“Hey!” he called, hoping he looked the part of the metal muscle head he was going for.  “You
’re parked in my spot.”

The moron opened his mouth, but King didn’t let him speak.  Instead he jabbed a finger down the street and ordered, “MOVE!”  He didn’t wait for a response
as he went back to his vehicle, climbed in, threw it in reverse and waited.

The moron’s car wheezed to life and the guy actually had the audacity to throw an arm out the window, middle finger held high as he attempted to peel out. 

Chain snapped taut and seconds later, the fire hydrant ripped free of its moorings to bounce off the concrete before jerking on the chain and being flung onto the moron’s trunk with a deafening crunch. 

King smiled as the man
slammed on his brakes, exited his vehicle, and threw both hands on his head.  An elderly woman poured from the apartment next to Lilly’s and screeched accusingly, “What did you do?  I’m calling the police.”

Moron paled as he pinned King with an accusatory glare before jumping in his rig and racing down the road
with the fire hydrant still crunched on the trunk of his car.

Feeling extremely self-satisfied, King’s smile slipped when he turned and caught Lilly frowning at him, arms crossed over her chest, and foot tapping as she stood in her front
entry way.

***

Standing in Lilly’s apartment, King felt like a kid who’d been sent to the principal’s office.

“What are you doing here?” 
Lilly’s blue eyes sparked with anger.  King couldn’t help but notice that they kept dropping to his exposed torso with barely disguised feminine interest.  He tightened his frame, accentuating each muscle.  His shoulders flared wider, his gut clenched and he slightly puffed his chest.  He wasn’t above posturing for her appreciative eyes.  He smiled when Lilly’s eyes dropped and her sweet little tongue darted out to wet her lips.

“I was running at the park.
  Was just heading back to StoneCrow when that guy pulled out in front of me.  Seem’s he was the brunt of someone’s prank.”

“That’s a lie, King.”  Lilly tore her eyes from his chest to frown at him.  “You wouldn’t drive all this way just to go for a jog.  There’s a gym at the estate.”

Shit!
  “I had to come to town anyway to do some shopping.  Thought I’d squeeze in a workout.”

Again, her blue eyes sparked angrily.  “Mr. StoneCrow called me an hour ago to say you two had just retur
ned to the estate.  He needed to know the password to the mainframe.”  Brows furrowed accusingly, “You’re spying on me.”

All the air left him as he relaxed his posture and zipped his jacket halfway up.  “I’m not spying.  I’m watching over you.  It’s my job.”

“No,” she turned and stalked to her tiny kitchen as King noted the cozy décor and cleanliness of her place.  “Your job is to watch over Monroe and everyone else at StoneCrow.  I’m not at StoneCrow.”

“You’re being watched, Lilly.”  He decided to get straight to the point.  “That asshole out there was casing your place.”  His anger flared when he realized she wasn’t shocked by the admission.  “You knew?  You knew you were being followed and didn’t tell me?”  He took several steps closer.

Lilly’s hands, working on pouring a cup of hot tea, stalled.  “I didn’t know I was being watched.  I just knew that…” she sought the right words.  “That I was being…
watched
.”

“Well,” King threw his arms in the air, “Great, now that we’ve got that all cleared up.”

His sarcasm wasn’t lost on Lilly.  “Oh for crying out loud.  He stopped me on the porch one time.”

“Do you know him?”

“No.”  The response was too quick and King scented the lie.

“Lilly!
”  The word was a warning. 

“I’m on a coalition to protect wolves.  He’s an opponent.”

“I want you off that committee.”

“No!” she gasped.  “I’m not quitting just because some crazy rancher doesn’t like what I’m doing.”

“Damn it, Lilly!”  King’s voice rose, “THIS ISN’T A FUCKING GAME!”

His shout had her face flushing in anger.  “And this isn’t StoneCrow!  I follow orders within those walls.  Outside, my time is just that. 
Mine!
”  She stalked to the door and jerked it open, “Good night, Mr. Mulholland.”

King stood seething in her kitchen for several tense moments before finally stalking to the door.  “Fine.  You don’t want my protection.  You don’t get my protection.”  He exited the apartment and barely cleared the threshold before Lilly slammed the door on him.

Climbing into his humvee, King was seething.  He’d have Monroe talk to Lilly in the morning when she arrived at work.  She needed to understand that she wasn’t the only one at stake.

Pulling away from the curb, King eyed the street.  No sign of the moron.  Hopefully, he’d
learned his lesson and wouldn’t be back.