To Catch a Snake: Book Three - Supernatural Bounty Hunter Romance Novellas (4 page)

Marcus shrugged. “I don’t care; ask her to come down for an interview.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” squealed Mia and Carly together.

He grabbed the camel’s file and started heading out the door as the two women were bouncing around happily.

He could care less about this Ling woman getting fired. His niece needed help, and, although she was a little on the lively side for him, he liked Carly, and doubted she would recommend her friend without good reason.
As long as she could type, she’d do
.

His thoughts briefly moved onto the python shifter. Derrick Meyerson. He was just some idiot boy, susceptible to any shifter who was more dominant than him. He ended up being an errand boy for a slimy ‘legitimate businessman’ who worked out of the meat packing district. Derrick was an idiot. He got high one night and was convinced he could perform an appendectomy on his friend; apparently they made it look really easy on Grey’s Anatomy. His friend almost died, and Derrick was arrested, bonded and then he ran. He actually tried to go to Mexico, but Marcus caught him. He used Derrick’s mom as bait. Derrick put up a hell of a fight, which Marcus won, of course, but Derrick threatened Marcus, and said he would never forget what he had done. Derrick even sent him a sizeable amount of hate mail from prison in his first year. After that, nothing.
Until now…

Marcus stopped at a red light and fingered the camel’s file, lying on the passenger seat. Feeling restless, the other night Marcus had gone back to the office and read through every one of their open case files. Even if his snake hadn’t been so agitated, he would have found time to do that. He liked to know everything that was going on in the agency; he liked to stay on top of things. He already knew the file cover to cover, and at this time of day, he could make an educated guess that the camel was making his way over to the Arcana Avenue branch of Lunar Burger. He dealt pot out of the parking lot.

Norman was an oddball. When Marcus took the bond, he had a feeling Norman would skip his court date. He assumed the young man would be too stoned to remember when it was. He was starting to think his first assessment of Norman had been way off. It was hard to believe, but the shaggy camel was actually kind of calculating. It was odd that Norman hadn’t tried to skip town, although, on reflection, given his adeptness that avoiding capture, he had no reason to flee. Marcus was surprised the cops caught him in the first place.

He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. He wondered at his beast’s increased temper in recent weeks. He’d never had the most sanguine of beasts; he was a snake, but he was surprised and unsure what his animal wanted from him. He thought, after Kelly died, they were completely at peace with one another.
Things had apparently changed recently.

Marcus stared open-mouthed as Norman, the camel shifter and his quarry, sauntered across the road in front of him. He was whistling nonchalantly and generally looked like he hadn’t a care in the world. He turned his head and caught Marcus staring at him. After a few seconds realization hit the camel as he recognized just who Marcus was.

Norman shouted, “Oh, fuck!” and started loping away, his gangly limbs flailing.

Marcus cursed himself for his inaction and bolted out of the car. He ignored the irate honks of the cars that were now stuck behind his, and smoothly, sprinted after him. He was easily gaining on him, his fingers reached out and grazed the camel shifter’s sweatshirt.

The camel let out a small yelp and… Marcus was tackled to the ground.

His snake hissed in fury as Marcus thumped onto the hard sidewalk, and his bounty fled, arms and legs waving madly.

Marcus was hurled to his feet by a sneering cop. He was an elephant shifter. “You can’t just abandon your car like that!” he snapped.

Marcus felt his jaw tremor as his animal encouraged the shift.
Ooh, he’d love to digest this dickhead!

He tried to calm his animal as he explained the situation to the cop. He showed him his bounty hunter license, and grudgingly, the cop agreed to let him off with a warning. But, he shouldn’t just leave his car running in the middle of a queue like that again.

With barely concealed rage, he agreed and began stomping back to his car. The camel got lucky. That was all it was. It was just a matter of time until he got caught. His luck wouldn’t hold out forever; that was for damn sure.

His snake rumbled unhappily for a few seconds, and Marcus felt a pinch of uneasiness. He had the oddest feeling he was being watched. He shook his head and ignored it, making his way back to his car.

Chapter Five

“Hey, Ling,” called Carly carefully. “You upstairs, sweetie?”

She heard a muffled grunt and sighed. Thankfully, she had a spare key to Ling’s house, as she doubted her the panda shifter would have answered the door. Carly had never seen her friend so despondent, even when her marriage broke down.
That asshole Myron really did a number on her.

She half-turned back to her mate and whispered to him as they climbed the stairs, “Just don’t spook her, okay? Don’t make any sudden movements; we don’t want her running off.”

Jackson snorted. “To be clear, your friend was dumped and fired, she didn’t turn into a deer. She’ll be fine.”

“Says the man who’s never been dumped.”
Clearly, he’d never been used and then just tossed aside.

Jackson rolled his shoulders unconcernedly. “I was never in a relationship before I met you.”

“Aww,” Carly flushed happily as her fox mewled contentedly. It gave her a thrill to think that she had been the one to tame his bad body nature… sort of;
he was still pretty rough around the edges.

“And there’s no way you’re ever dumping me. If you ever try to leave me, I will hunt you down and chain you up.” He let out a rough growl to press the point.

“Duly noted.” She was way past reacting to Jackson’s possessive nature.
She and her fox loved it.

Carly knocked on Ling’s bedroom door before gently pushing it open. She was relieved to see Ling was fully dressed, and nodded for Jackson to follow her in. They’d learnt to do that the hard way. Right after Ling was fired, she couldn’t even be bothered to pull on her sweatpants. It had annoyed the hell out of Carly at the time.

She was a little surprised to find Ling sitting on the bed, munching on some toaster pastries. Ling smiled when she saw her friend and paused an episode of The Sands of Lunar Beach. She rolled her eyes when Jackson stomped in the room and, heavily, collapsed into her armchair, making it groan in protest.

Although she and Jackson were getting along better, she still found him to be uncouth and insensitive.

Carly perched on the bed next to her. “How you feeling, sweetie?”

Ling offered Carly a pastry, which was eagerly accepted. “Better, my mother came by…”

Carly looked at her in disbelief. “And that made you feel better?

Ling let out a genuine giggle. “Well, no, but she made me see that Myron isn’t worth getting upset over, any more than Robert was.”

“Damn straight,” growled Jackson. “If you want me to beat up the gorilla jackass, you just let me know.”

Ling smiled gratefully. She knew he would if she asked; it wasn’t an idle offer. “Thanks, I appreciate the offer, and I am tempted. He’s actually been trying to call me. He keeps leaving me messages telling me that he’s sorry.”

“Fucker!” exclaimed Jackson as Carly made grumbling noises.

“There’s no way you’ll actually go back to work there, is there?” asked Carly.

A guilty look flitted over Ling’s face. “Even if I wanted to, I don’t think I could, not the way I left…”

Carly had heard the edited version of what happened, including the part where Ling told him he was bad in bed in front of her office.
Perhaps it was time she divulged what happened next…

After bursting into tears in the elevator, Ling had felt a rush of anger. On getting out at the lobby, she proceeded to push over three large decorative cheese plants. On running into a senior partner at the company, who always tried to look down her top, she flashed him her boobs – he was 76 and he almost had a heart attack. Finally, she told the security guards that it was Myron who lobbied for them to get a pay cut. And for good measure, in the parking lot, she keyed Myron’s car and kicked his side mirrors off. It felt great at the time.

Ling’s cheeks reddened after she told them. “It was not my finest hour.”

Jackson looked at the panda shifter with new respect. She was wilder than he thought. “I beg to differ.”

Carly clucked her tongue and ignored him. “Well then, I have good news. There’s a job available at the bail bond agency; you can come and work with us!”

Ling blinked at her for a few seconds. “Umm, that’s a really nice offer but…”

Carly let out an irritated grunt. “Nice nothing, we need someone, and you need a job – it’s perfect!”

Ling screwed up her face. Yes, she did need a job, and she doubted she actually would get a very good recommendation from Myron.
Not now, anyway
. But, and she didn’t really like to admit this to Carly, working in a bail bond agency just seemed so… low-brow. A few weeks ago, she was a secretary to a rising executive at a multi-million dollar company. The idea of going from that to being an office girl at a company where they dealt with people, who were arrested for public urination, was just depressing. Surely, she was better than that. Carly, however, for some unfathomable reason to Ling, adored working there.

Carly jumped up and down on the bed a few times. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

Not for the first time, Ling realized they had different ideas about fun. Up until Carly met Jackson, she had been kind of shy, and Ling was the adventurous one. But now, Carly was turning pretty wild. Ling would consider a meal in a fancy restaurant a fun date. Carly would consider an evening chasing down a runaway bounty a fun date.
Ling wondered if she would also have a personality transplant if she ever met her true mate.

Ling chewed her lip. “I just can’t see me dealing with people who have been arrested.”

“Well, you won’t have to… well, not much anyway. It’s not like you’ll be out catching them; you’ll be in the office, filing things and answering the phone and, hey, wait a minute! I’ve been arrested before, and so have you!”

Ling let out a sigh. “Yes, but we were innocent.”

Carly frowned. “You weren’t innocent when you ripped up those twenty-six parking tickets, and are you saying you didn’t know that was marijuana in your purse?”

Jackson snickered, and Ling scowled at him. "First of all, I ripped up those tickets in protest, that parking lot was supposed to be free for anyone to use. And secondly, I didn’t know my asshat boyfriend had put that marijuana in my purse. He just put it in there because his pants didn't have pockets.”
Needless to say, they broke up after that
. “Look, I just think I should look for another job like my old one.” She was trying to be diplomatic;
it was better than saying she didn’t want to work in a flea-bitten bail bond agency.

Carly, in turn, tried her hand at being diplomatic. “Do you think it’s likely you’ll get another job like that without a letter of recommendation from My… from your previous employer?”

Her panda whined uneasily.
There was that
.

“You don’t need that at the bail bond agency,” continued Carly, snagging another toaster pastry. “We’ll take anyone - we’re desperate.”

Ling clutched a pillow to her. “Gee, thanks, that really makes me feel wanted.”

Carly waved a hand dismissively. “You know what I mean. I know it’ll be a wage cut, but at least it’s a job. Plus, we can gossip, and go out to lunch together. It’ll be fun.”

Ling’s animal perked up a little; that last part did sound nice. Since Carly bonded with the wolf, she had barely seen her best friend.

Carly was gratified that Ling was warming to the idea. “Besides, who knows? You might just meet a handsome bounty hunter; I was very pleased with mine.”

Carly winked at Jackson who returned it with a very lascivious growl.

“How handsome?” enquired Ling demurely.

Carly giggled. “Well, there’s a really enormous bear shifter and a super sexy tiger shifter…”

Jackson snarled furiously, and Carly ran over and jumped into his lap. “Not as sexy as the wolf shifter, of course, but he’s already spoken for.”

He preened as Carly nipped his chin and Ling scoffed.

She wasn't entirely convinced. “Isn’t the place run by a snake though? You know I don’t like snakes; they tend to be a little… terrifying.”

Snake shifters tended to be cruel at the best of times; they had a way of looking right through you that Ling hated.
Not to mention how quick to violence they were.

“Marcus is a good guy,” Jackson told her.

Ling looked at him in surprise; the surly wolf shifter rarely had anything good to say about anyone, other than Carly, of course.

Carly nodded in agreement. “He is; besides, he mostly just stays in his office. When he does come out, he only talks about work, and even then he doesn’t say much. You’ll barely even notice he’s there.”

The fox shifter could see the internal struggle on her friend’s face, and decided she needed a little push. “Come on, you can’t stay around the house and mope all day, you need a job. Unless you’re planning on giving in to your mom and joining the Country Club.”

Ling flashed her a look of horror, and Carly almost giggled. For the icing on the cake, she just needed to say one last thing, “Just think, if you did join the Country Club, you and your mom could play tennis with each other every day…”

The red panda cried out in alarm.
No, she refused to turn into her mother!
She leapt off the bed. “You’re right, let me get my purse and we can…”

Carly sucked in a breath. “Don’t you think you should…ummm…well…”

“Shower first,” supplied Jackson.

Ling frowned. Yeah, okay, maybe it had been a couple of days. “Fine, I’ll take a shower.”

Carly smiled in agreement. “And also you should probably… erm…”

“Brush your teeth,” suggested Jackson.

Ling held up a hand to her mouth and breathed. She coughed. “Yep, good call on that.”

Carly looked at her awkwardly. “Plus, I think it would be best if…”

“You wore some clothes that didn’t have pizza stains all over them,” interrupted Jackson.

Carly groaned and pushed off him, giving him the stink eye. “Alright, I think we’ve helped her enough for today. Ling, sweetie, we’re gonna go, and I’ll see you at the agency in what, a couple of hours?”

Ling nodded. Carly grabbed a couple of pastries for the road, and Ling watched her curvy figure sway out of the room with Jackson’s muscled frame lumbering after her. It pained her to admit it, but she was really jealous of her best friend. Not in that she actually wanted Jackson.
Yeuch!
That thought made her want to retch, but she would give anything to meet her true mate...
or even just a decent guy.

She shook her head, getting back to the matter at hand. Surely she didn’t look that bad… She faced the mirror and almost shrieked in shock at the bedraggled woman staring back. Yeesh, how the heck had she let things get this bad? Over an ungrateful bastard like Myron, no less!

She ran to the bathroom and quickly flipped on the shower. Alright, so she didn’t want to work at the bail bond agency, but so what? She’d worked jobs she didn’t like before, and she could do it again.

Her panda yipped in encouragement. She was determined to make the most of it.
Perhaps this time she just needed to avoid falling in love with her boss.