Xander_Winchester Brothers_Erotic Paranormal Wolf Shifter Romance Read online

  “Why would he do that?” With a sexy grin, he told her. “Oh. Yes, he might be angry at you for taking my virginity. But once he figures out that we’re a mated couple, then he’ll not hurt you too much.”

  “It’s the not too much that I’m worried about.” They both laughed this time. “You’re very beautiful. But the police are coming, so we have to at least act like we’re concerned that these men are dead, don’t you think?”

  Jamie pulled out her badge and was surprised when Taylor did as well. While hers hung from her belt, his was on a chain that hung around his neck. The letters FBI made her skin run cold and her body freeze nearly solid.

  You are distant now. What’s happened? She told him nothing, that this had been a mistake. Jamie, come here to me and explain.

  No, I like you just where you are. You’re with the FBI. You must know this guy that’s your boss. I hate him. He asked her what his name was and what he’d done to her. You know, I might have been the bad guy in all this. Why do you sound as if you know it was him and not me that’s the terrible person? But his name is Lyman Finch. I call him Birdman.

  Yes, I know him, but I don’t work for him. I’m from the presidential task force that works on international situations. And I know who you are, as well as about Addie. She is on the FBI list of known assailants. She told him what she knew, not revealing that Addie was only at the grocery store a block or two away. We have had Birdman, which I have to admit, suits the little fucker, in our sights for some time now. He’s a playboy that tries to play in the big leagues, but has found himself lacking. He’s also in trouble about some women that he hurt.

  He tried to hurt me. He said that he’d been aware of him hurting a woman, but not that it was her. I’m not the only one either. Addie. He asked her.... I’m sure you’ve heard.

  Yes, all of it. President Baker asked me to come here to keep an eye on things, and to watch out for Birdman. And since I was here, your father, a nice man by the way, asked me if I would keep an eye out for you as well. I’m not sure that Birdman would be smart enough to try anything with either of you after seeing you in action. And had he seen you a few minutes ago, he would stay away. But the problem is, I don’t think he’s all that smart.

  He’s not. The police seemed to be at a loss as to why someone would try and kill them. What they really said was that someone had shot at them, not the killing part. We’re going to end up in jail or prison if we can’t get these people to believe us here.

  I’m sure soon that they’ll have their shit together.

  She wasn’t so sure and said as much. But just as she was ready to draw her gun and fire in the air, just to get their attention and make them focus, she saw Caleb coming toward them.

  One of the officers dropped to the ground; another stood his ground, but looked like he’d take off if anyone said anything to him. Or he’d wet himself. Then she saw the anger on Caleb’s face. He wore it like a mantel, like this was his game face and he wasn’t going to take any prisoners today. If he ever had.

  “What the blue fuck is going on around here?” The second man did drop then, and rolled to his back to show his belly. “Get up, you moron. This is a public forum. What the hell are you doing detaining the FBI and the CIA? Did you not read what their badges said?”

  “We were told to hold them.” Caleb asked by who. “Agent Finch. He’s on his way here. He said that if we had any trouble with the CIA, we was to call him right away and he’d come talk to them. Something about an unsolved murder of Agent Riddell.”

  “In the event you didn’t notice, I’m not murdered.” She clicked her tongue at them. “You know, I think Mr. Winchester is right, you are morons. And that guy over there, Agent Warren? Why is he being detained? Or is he supposed to be held because he’s.... Wait, he can’t be with me, I’m fucking dead.” The last words were shouted at them, and each of them, human and wolf, whimpered.

  Taylor came to stand next to her, but he didn’t try to take over nor did he touch her. She was both upset with that and glad. If he touched her, he’d be taking her thunder away. And right now, she was on a roll.

  After demanding that they give her any contact information on Birdman—they snickered when she called Finch that—she handed it off to Taylor. As he dealt with that, she waited for her father.

  Taylor told her that he wasn’t going to speak to the men, not after she told him what had gone down. But he wanted to be close to her, to make sure that no one else was helping Birdman.

  “What’s the plan?” She glanced up at Taylor and her mind went blank. “You keep looking at me like that, and not only will there not be a plan from you, but you’ll be gone for a long time before your father shows up. Now, calmly, without making me insane to have you, let out a long breath and think.”

  Inhaling deeply, she could smell Taylor and what he meant to her. He was a strong cat, like her father was. He would, more than likely, take over a leap one day if he didn’t have one already. But when she let out her breath, he moaned, and that made her less focused on her job again. But without Birdman in custody, they were all fucked.

  “I need to catch Birdman at his worst.” He asked her how she was going to do that. “I don’t know yet. I don’t suppose you have any ideas.”

  “Yes, two. And one of them has to do with you.” She cocked a brow at him and he laughed. “Christ, I’m going to enjoy taking you to bed. I was thinking that we could use you as bait. That way—”

  “You will not be using my little girl as bait for anyone.” Taylor stepped in front of her, cutting her off from her dad. When he grabbed Taylor, more than likely to kill him, she slapped her father in the face. No one moved.

  “Step back.” He growled at her. “Dad so help me, if you don’t step back, you’re going to call my cat and we’re all going to be fucked up.”

  “He is not going to use you as bait.” She told him to let Taylor go. “Baby, you’re pissing me off.”

  “Well, welcome to the club. Dad let my mate go.” No one moved. Not her father nor Taylor. And in that moment, she knew that if pushed, Taylor could have killed her father. But he’d remained calm and in control when her dad had not. “He’s my mate. The man you had following me, he’s my mate.”

  She wasn’t sure what was going through her dad’s head. He looked shocked—so was she, Jamie supposed—but then all of a sudden, it was like a light had gone off and her dad was picking Taylor up, and she was sure that he was going to be killed.

  “Welcome to the family.” He set Taylor down, then hugged her in the same manner. “A man to keep you under control. Though if he’s a smart man, which I believe that he is, then he won’t try and corral you, but let you do what you do best. Be the best man there is.”

  “You’re all right with this?” Dad asked Taylor why he thought he wouldn’t be. “I don’t know. I’m FBI, she’s CIA. I’m a man, she’s not.”

  “I’m well aware of what she is, young man. And I think what you’re trying to tell me is, that you’re a man with experience, and she is not.” Taylor looked so relieved that she wanted to remind them both that she was still there. Instead, she simply walked away. She heard her dad’s burst of laughter. Then Jamie saw Birdman.

  The piece of shit car looked like it was older than he was. When he got out, his passenger did as well. Right away she knew that it was his father. From the pictures that she’d seen of the man, he looked ten times worse now than he had when it had been taken. Which, if she remembered correctly, was only about four years ago.

  “There you are. I’ve been trying to locate you since you left work a few days ago. I’ve been covering for you.” She asked him how he was doing that. “You know, telling your boss that you were injured and that you needed time off.”

  “I’ve spoken to my boss as well. He is well aware of me not being hurt, not unless you count you nearly jerking my arm out.”

  He looked to her right, and when he smiled, she turned too. “Hello, Mr. Warren. You seem to have forgotten to r
eport to me when you’re in my jurisdiction.”

  “No, I didn’t.” He didn’t say more, and Jamie had to cover her mouth so as not to laugh at the expression on Birdman’s face.

  “Hello, boss.”

  ~*~

  Addie knew that the exchange between the two men was going to be heated. What she didn’t expect and probably should have was the anger that was displayed on Birdman’s face. It was as if he had expected to waltz in here, take over, and bring her back to a firing squad. Instead of speaking, this time she listened to the men. Listening, she thought, was one of her strongest suits.

  “You? You’ve been popping up all over the place, haven’t you, Mr. President?” The man from the car came barreling up to them and tried to push Birdman out of the way. “You’d almost think you were stalking me.”

  “I don’t need to stalk, Birdman, I know where you are at all times.” The elder man laughed, his face nearly purple with it. “You think you have something to say?”

  “This is my idiot son, your honor.” Ben said he wasn’t anything but Mr. President. “All righty then. I’m the idiot’s father, Leonardo Finch. I love that you call him Birdman. We’ll have to do that at home as—”

  “Dad, you were supposed to stay in the car. I’m here to retrieve Ms. Dyer and her partner, Ms. Riddell. They have some things to explain to me.” Ben asked what that might be. “Well, for one thing, the murder of Mr. Boone. Then there are the deaths of several of my men when they tried to stop her from killing him.”

  “Really? That’s the best you can do? Well, I have it on good authority that you ordered the hit. The men were there before she was. That shots were fired at her before she even left her spot, and that you went above your own boss’s head to make all this happen.” Birdman said that was all lies. “Are you calling me a liar, Birdman?”

  “My name is Agent Lyman Finch.” He seemed to have remembered who he was speaking to. “I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t think you have all the facts just right. I didn’t have a contract with Ms. Dyer, nor did I contact her—”

  “Agent.” Birdman looked at her finally. “Suffix isn’t Ms., nor is it Dyer. My name is Special Agent for the CIA, Adaline Winchester. And it would behoove you to remember that.”

  “Winchester? You mean those upstarts that have been harassing me all over town? Just the other afternoon, they told my father and me that I should—” His dad told him it was just him they’d told to leave town, not him or his other son, Leo. “One of them told me that my family and I should leave town before we were hurt. Of course, I chose to ignore that threat. Especially when I have a job to do.”

  “And just what is it your job to do?” Addie wanted to know what it was too. So, she waited with Ben for an answer. “You’re required by law—law that I’m going to hold you to—to answer me. What is your job? Or better yet, what is the motto of your area?”

  “Fidelity, bravery, and integrity.” He seemed quite pleased with himself, and Ben turned to her and winked. Then he asked Birdman what the words meant. “Meaning? Well, fidelity is loyalty or trustworthiness, I guess. Bravery is.... Why does it matter if I know every little word in the motto?”

  “It’s only three words.” Ben looked over at her. “You know them, don’t you? And you’re not even one of his men. What are they, Addie?”

  “Thank God, I’m not. As for what they mean? Fidelity stands for faithfulness and reliability. Bravery is courage and valor. Integrity is having dependability and honesty. The motto for the Central Intelligent Agency is The Work of a Nation. The Center of Intelligence.” She stared right at Birdman. “The reason you should know them is, they were on the test. And your test score, if I remember correctly, was a hundred percent. You should have known them, you moron.”

  “Now see here—”

  Whatever he was going to say was cut off. When she watched his face crumble with pain, Addie pulled both her knife and gun from under her shirt. The person standing on the back of a pickup truck that was starting up was putting his weapon down when Birdman took a tumble backward.

  She didn’t know the man nor the vehicle. When it sped away, she told Bug to follow as soon as he could. When he was in flight, she also saw Asim trailing alongside of the truck, and knew that sooner than she could have found them, they’d be caught.

  “Shoulder wound.” Addie waited for Taylor to tell her that he was surely going to die, but he only shook his head. “He’ll make it. But his father is dead.”

  The bullet meant for someone else, she surmised, had done a through and through in the chest of Mr. Birdman—Finch, she supposed. Feeling for his pulse, just to be sure he was dead, the ruthlessness of the man himself was there for her to envision. Had he been anything like his son, she would have felt that too, but he was far worse—like hundreds of times worse.

  He’d killed, she knew that too. And without mercy. Mr. Finch had also been brutal to his son, Lyman. Leo, however, was the favorite of the two of them, and his being in a wheelchair was the fault of his mother. An accident. But that wasn’t the end of it. The accident had been terrible, but not nearly enough to have someone killed over it. And her death hadn’t been easy. She’d been murdered, and quite heinously.

  Birdman Senior had hired the two men to take Addie and then Lyman out of the picture. Why her, she didn’t know, but she could see the reasons behind having Lyman killed. This family was really fucked up.

  There were other things she could see in Birdman’s head when she touched him, things that she knew he’d done in the name of his own self-proclaimed power trip. And then she saw the reason that he’d done all of this—because she had spurned Birdman when he’d asked her out. So long ago that she had very little memory of it now.

  When the medic took him away, Birdman was still out. But she had enough information now, enough not just to have him put away, but also his brother. Had their father not died, he’d be right there with them. Prison might not be kind to Lyman, but it was going to be horrific for his brother.

  “You all right?” She shook her head at Xander, then nodded. “I’m afraid of that, if you want to know the truth.”

  “So should Lyman and Leo Finch be.” He asked her if he could help her. Pulling him to her, she kissed him like she might not see him again, and that was just how he took it. “I’m coming back, I promise, but I’m going to kick some ass while I’m gone. I think this has gone on long enough.”

  She spoke to Ben and told him what she’d found out. Not all but most of it. There was one point, the sticking one, that she kept all to herself. And that, she knew, was going to be the most fun she’d ever had. Telling him what her plan was, she asked that both Taylor and Jamie go with her. Jamie was the best at electronics that she’d ever met.

  “What can I do for you? I need to help.”

  She nodded and pulled Xander aside. This next conversation was for him and him alone. It wasn’t until she was in a large SUV, which was moving as she got into it, that she realized that she was having fun again. It had been so long since she’d enjoyed her job that she had seriously considered quitting. As the car pulled away, she told them her plan. It was perfect, so long as nothing went wrong. Laughing, she wondered how much fun Xander was going to have, as well as Charles.

  The old ghost had taken a shine to her, Xander told her. He wanted to just sit and talk to her, about the wars she’d seen, the people that she might have known. Charles asked Xander if he was going to write a book about her, and she told him not so long as she was an agent. And that she was unlike Jamie, who wanted to stay now that she’d found her mate. Jamie wanted babies and a nice quiet life at home. She was even going to grow a garden and plant flowers.

  Addie wasn’t a flower planting type of person. She was more of a trample them down sort of individual, and wearing a dress to anything other than a wedding or a funeral wasn’t her thing either. But for her, like Jamie, there were dress blues that they wore. No dress, no stockings, and certainly no heels. That was what she wanted to do, be a se
rvice man, for as long as they’d let her.

  The building had been a safe house at one time. Even now they used it for security purposes. Like Jamie had told her, it was state of the art shit that cost more than the entire block of buildings was worth. Going to the upper level, she saw that Jamie had already gotten to work on her request, and handed her a printout of the things she’d asked for.

  What do you know of international taxes? She told Jamie that she knew nothing. Yeah, me neither. Can you make some shit up?

  The two of them had exchanged blood a long time ago. Few knew that, Jamie’s father being one that did. But as far as the rest of her team, the men that she or Jamie worked with, they hadn’t a clue. While talking on the phone with each other, they could and did have long covert conversations that could get them both killed. Right now, Jamie was talking verbally about the house that she was going to purchase soon.

  Make shit up about international taxes? Yes, you know that I can. What do you know? Jamie pointed to the last page of the document, and Addie decided that no matter how many stupid flowers she planted, Jamie wasn’t leaving the service. Where did you dig this up? And before you tell me, have a look around. This paperwork can be looked at by invisible eyes as good as what I can see.

  Yes, I’m aware of that. The cameras were everywhere in this place, and sound was recorded too. Even in the event of a power outage, there were enough generators running at all times that it would run after lights out for about ten years. They can no more see them than I can the way you’re facing.

  Holy fuck balls, Jamie. You’re going before a firing squad if this isn’t right. She told her that it was all true. You were searching for this long before I asked you to have a look, weren’t you?

  Yes, years. Since I joined up. Addie sat down, handing the paperwork to her. Tell me what you can find out about the Winchesters. All of them. If what you found is true, they’re as fucked as we are.