Hawkins_McCullough’s Jamboree_Erotic Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance Read online

  “Yes, but I can only get whatever he’s thinking about at the time. Unless I can touch him. Then I get whatever I want.” Lauren thought about that. She knew that Hawk could read minds too, but he had to touch the person to get it. Even Jon could do it, but as far as she knew, he couldn’t track backwards on one person to get to another one. “What is it you’re thinking? By the way, being you back there, that is scary as shit the way you work. I got what I could from you and Hawk on how you’d do it if you were there.”

  “From what I heard, you had me dead on. Thanks for taking that on. I might well have shot the lot of them.” She grinned at her. “I want you to touch Jarvis’s mind. And backtrack him to Jackson. Maybe we can pick up on more of him since I’m sure that he’ll be thinking of his end game.”

  “You want me to go into the most powerful man in the world’s brain? You’re as fucking nuts as Hawkins is. No way am I— What if I find out something important? Like, I don’t know, the combination to the football thing that someone carries around for him?” Lauren told her. “You’d shoot me? Are you kidding? You’d shoot me if I did that? You’re aware that I can murder you without anyone knowing about it, right?”

  “No, I’d not do that. But it was fun seeing you all worried and shit. But the other thing, the fire? I might have a use for that later. I’m thinking that this Jackson guy isn’t long for this world.” Jamie asked her if she had a plan. “It’ll depend on what you can find out when you search back to him. Shit, I wish you could have touched him at some point. This would have been so much better.”

  Lauren got up and started for the family room that she knew Jarvis was in. Boyd had come over earlier and checked out his wounds. He’d required a couple of stitches, but he was otherwise all right. Lauren turned when Jamie didn’t follow her.

  “You have the mind of something evil, you know that, don’t you?” Lauren thanked her. “I didn’t mean for you to take that as a compliment, dumb ass. I was insulting you.”

  “Yeah, well, I take it where I can get it. And this is the most fun I’ve had in a while.” She told Jamie to come on. “When we get in there, it would be awesome if you were me. I like to get his panties in a twist once in a while too. Keeps him on his toes.”

  Having someone like Jamie to work with was great. She wished that she’d been in the service with her, and wondered what sort of messes the two of them could have gotten into. Lauren loved all the women in this family—they had all been great additions to the McCulloughs, but with Jamie, she had someone that could think like she did—on her feet—and act without hesitation. That shit got you killed if you didn’t do whatever you needed when you needed.

  Jarvis was, of course, willing to help out. He did caution Jamie about some of the more sensitive things that he had on his mind. She promised him that she’d only find his connection to Jackson. When he told her he was ready, Lauren asked if she could record it all. So she’d not miss anything.

  “It’s doubtful that she ever misses anything, my girl here. And the fact that I owe her and Hawkins my life isn’t even nearly what I owe them both. They’ve always been there for me and this presidency.” He looked at Jamie like he was going to have a fucking test later. “You, I think, are going to be on that very short list of people as well. Also, while you’re in there, could you look at a woman I’m sort of seeing? And yes, I’ve had some contact with her, but not sexually. Just so you know going in.”

  “Thanks for dishing out way too much information, but all I need is her name.” After he tells Jamie, Lauren is surprised as she’d thought it was someone on staff. “I can find out anything about her, but again, it might not be something you want to hear. All right?”

  “Anything is better than me getting my ass handed to me if she’s only out for something I don’t want her to have.” Lauren wanted to ask Jarvis what sort of things he thought she wanted, but didn’t. Jamie was ready to start. “Now, this won’t hurt at all. I’ll be gentle with you. Nor do you have to think about anything in particular. I’ll find it.”

  As Jamie sat down, Lauren thought that she’d have to keep holding his head or some shit. But once they shook hands, she just sat there drinking her glass of tea that had been set in front of her. Lauren thought it was sort of boring watching the two of them sit there until Jamie started talking.

  “The woman is forefront in your mind, so let me look at her so that we can move on. Iris Nash is a divorced woman with two kids. They’re doing well financially, better than well now. She’s not anyone you should be seeing, I’m afraid. It’s Jackson again. He’s asked her to spy on you, and she’s being well funded. In a few months, she is going to say that you impregnated her.” Jamie paused and sipped more of her tea. Lauren had never been patient, and now wasn’t any different. “She’s never been in your bedroom and needs badly to get in there. Iris will be able to tell them what the room looks like, and that will be all the proof that they need to have a scandal attached to your name.”

  “Well fuck.” They both looked at Jarvis and he laughed. “Burcher, I do believe that you’re rubbing off on me. I’ll end it today when I return. Thank you, Jamie. I’m indebted to you.”

  “No, that was easy. Now I need to find out about Jackson.” She was quiet again, and this time Lauren had something to occupy her mind. She was going to have to help him end this with Iris. She didn’t know how yet, but she would make sure that she understood not to fuck with Jarvis again. “Jackson has been in your office a great deal over the last few weeks. He is frustrated with you because you are very good at keeping your desk cleared of anything that he can use. Just this morning he was sitting in your chair, thinking about himself being there. But he won’t be. He has other people that he wants in place there so that he can manipulate them, and the shit doesn’t come back on him. Christ, he’s a piece of work.”

  Jamie paused for a few moments, and Lauren thought that was all she was going to get. But when she looked at her, the hair on the back of her neck danced and her heart started to race. She asked her what she’d found.

  “He, as you have probably surmised, wants you and Hawkins dead. He thinks that once you are gone, no one will be around to look into anything that he’s up to. He believes that the two of you are responsible for too many things that have happened to his predecessors. And he’s up to a great many things.” Jamie listed off about ten things Jackson was doing to put himself in the big league of bad guys, including the gun running, which she knew about. But the money laundering for some of the biggest names on the FBI wanted list was a surprise to her. “He’s dangling a carrot tomorrow, he thinks, for you to get your fucking asses dead. His words, not mine. There will be a call from the vice president, which I’m going to help him with to expedite this shit. It’ll be about a terrorist coming into the U.S. VP Bentley will call for you, because that’s what I’ll tell him to do, and you’ll be one of the many killed. He believes as of right now that Jarvis is dead.”

  “Can we use that?” Jarvis looked at the doorway and she turned to find Hawk there. She asked him if he needed to be brought up to date. “No. This is another one of those freaky things. I can feel and see what she does when she’s searching. I was having a nice talk with Mom and Dad, and suddenly I’m in the mind of a woman I don’t know.”

  Jamie seemed to relax when Hawk sat beside her. Lauren hadn’t thought of how much this was stressing her out. Fuck, if she could do this, she’d be all over everyone’s mind and not give a good fuck if they liked it or not. But Jamie, while a kick ass woman who didn’t take shit, even from her, might feel like she was invading someone’s privacy.

  “I think that not only can we use this, but I think we can actually make it work out for a great many people. Jamie, when you were in the mind of Iris, was she being blackmailed into doing this or she was all for it?” She said she was all in. “Figures. Okay, I’ll need a minute here.”

  Lauren went to her office and sat in her chair. This had to work out, and she’d make it work for everyone on
her side. Hawk came in a few minutes later and sat in the chair across from her.

  “Just like old times?” He smiled and nodded. “Okay, I’ll bounce, and you tell me the million and one ways that it’s not going to work, and I’ll show you how it will.”

  “Yes. But, if you remember correctly, they all didn’t usually work out.” She nodded this time. “Once I said it wouldn’t work, you’d try and prove to me that it would and find out I was right.”

  “Yeah, but don’t tell Colin. He thinks I’m brilliant at figuring things out.” She looked at him closely and noticed something that she’d never seen on his face before. “You’re happy, aren’t you? I mean, like a cone dipped in that colorful shit that looks like puke to me, kind of happy.”

  “Yes.” Hawk laughed hard before continuing. “You know, you have such a way with showing your feelings that I’m surprised that you don’t work for a greeting card company. You’d be a hit.”

  “Yeah?” He told her no, he’d been making a joke. “Oh. I was thinking of one that I could write up. ‘Love me or leave me, I don’t give a shit. So long as you don’t take my dog.’”

  Hawk was still smiling when she started thinking of a way to use their information. She had never seen him smile this much. And that was another thing that she’d never seen before. Hawk’s laughter. Lauren thought that love did make a difference in a life. Who knew?

  ~*~

  Hawk made his way quietly through the outer office and into the Oval Office from the door that Jarvis had given him a key to. No one was in here this late at night, so he took full advantage of the opportunity to do what he’d been sent there to do. Jarvis had also given him the key to his desk drawers, as well as the combination to the safe. He pulled out the paperwork that went into the safe just as Jamie contacted him.

  I want you to know that this covert shit is for the birds. That’s just my opinion. I know that it’s important, but having you gone in the middle of the night isn’t my idea of fun and relaxation. I want you here. He laughed as he decided which drawer the papers should be in, so anyone could find them. Also, you should know that I’m nuts about you. Even though you’re a big shithead that’s never around when I need you to be.

  Oh, really? Before I left you tonight, to go on a mission that you helped with, I thought for sure you were sated. You told me several times, as a matter of fact, that I wore you out and that you might not move for the rest of the night.

  Yes, you did. But that’s not what I need you for. Although, now that you mention it, I have recovered, and if you do whatever it is that your—

  He paused in opening the drawer on the desk, and tensed up when he saw the lights go on under the door.

  Don’t move. He said that he wasn’t planning to. It’s Jackson. He’s coming in there to find something on the president. He does think that he’s dead, and wonders why the police or anyone else hasn’t made it public. Hide. He’ll open the door, but he’s going to wait to see if anyone calls out to him.

  Hawk moved back away from the desk after planting the paperwork, then made himself move to stand just outside the office. It was then that he realized too late that he’d left the drawer slightly ajar. Maybe it would be good—at least he hoped so. He pulled out his phone to start recording. The guards there couldn’t see him, so he wasn’t worried about being caught.

  The man was about as stealthy as a child in a room full of toys. Then Hawk got to thinking about children, and wondered if Jamie would even want any with him. He wouldn’t if he were her. While he was feeling a good deal better, he knew that he wasn’t right in the head most—

  Do you want me to come there and kick your ass? I will, damn it. Where the fuck do you get off telling me that I don’t want children with you?

  He told her that he’d technically not told her anything, but smiled when she put together a string of curse words that would have had Lauren impressed. Honey, what is a fucking douche cock sucker? He laughed when she called him a dick head once again. Your threats aren’t really making me afraid of you. But I appreciate you putting me on the right path. Again.

  You just wait until you get home. I’m going to teach you the real meaning of kick your ass. You cannot be thinking that way. Not anymore. She was screaming at him in his head, and all he could do was smile. I have had it up to here with you thinking bad thoughts. Do you hear me, Hawkins? I’m going to hurt you.

  I dearly love you, Jamie, but I’m sort of working here. You can beat me up when I get back there. She said that he could count on it. Okay, now back to work. Jackson is taking the bait. And now he’s at the safe. It seems our little Miss Iris has been very busy of late. I wonder how she found out the combination to the safe when it’s not written down. Can you look, Jamie? I’m not nearly as good at this as you are. I think I only got this information because you had it from him.

  It’s much too late for you to start sucking up. Let me see. Oh, and this one is all on Jarvis. He didn’t change the combination from when the other guy, I think it was Joe Irwin, was there. Iris went in one day and opened it with the old combo from Irwin. She knew it from when he was there because he would have her put things in it for him. She asked if she should tell Lauren.

  Not yet. I want to see what he’s going to do now that he has the goods. And Jackson was working hard at getting in the safe, as he was having to start over several times before he finally got it open. This guy is a moron, just in case you didn’t know.

  Frank Jackson was going to prison, for a very long time, and Hawk was going to see to that. Just as he and Lauren had made sure that the former President Joe Irwin and Brigadier General Garth Wilson had. So, when Jackson sat in the big chair, he watched him swing around and around while Hawk recorded him acting stupid. And the way that they were going to catch him was with all the paperwork that he now had.

  Jarvis had come up with that idea. Lauren had pouted for about a minute before she asked how the papers should appear. She danced around the room when Jarvis told her to make it look good. Hawk even signed his name to the documents just for the hell of it. If Jackson had been any kind of thief, he might have checked that out first. But he wasn’t, and Hawk was glad for that.

  In ten minutes Jackson was gone. He left behind enough prints and bodily fluids when he had sneezed all over the desk that they could convict him now. Having the cleaning crew come in late tonight to scrub the place down had done that for them. It was going to look very badly for him in the very near future.

  When the door closed behind Jackson, Hawk stood there for several minutes and thought that it had been too easy. There was something about this that didn’t ring true. Going back into the office, he reached out in the room, looking for anything that might be out of place, or if he’d missed something earlier. Then he found it.

  I’m fucked. Jamie asked him what was going on. There is a camera in here that recorded me in the office before Jackson. I have to trace it back to the source or he’ll use it against us when we bring him in.

  Taking the camera off the corner where it had been planted, he wondered why he’d gotten in and out with the camera running. He hadn’t. Since Jackson was the one that was in charge of this, then he’d be the only one that could turn it off when he was in here. Talking to Jamie, he started spit balling.

  He has the room being recorded. Which is, I’m happy to say, against the law. So that means he has it running around here, and close enough where he can turn it off and on at a whim. The device that he used is high grade stuff and has a serial number on it that I’ll have Lauren check. Hawk looked up at the wall where it had been and saw that a very small wire that was still there. I’m going to try something here. I’m going to use our little power to see if I can trace this to the source.

  I can do that. Hawk did a little jig. Okay, I don’t know what you’re doing right now, but you suddenly got very happy. What are you doing right now?

  Dancing. And if you tell anyone about this, I’ll never let you come again. She promised him that s
he’d not do that. All right, my dear, find the computer that this is feeding to.

  Got it.

  Hawk had no idea why, but he’d thought it would take longer than that. When she told him where it was, he actually laughed out loud. Not only was Jackson terrible at sneaking into a room, but he was a moron at hiding things too. Hawk went to take care of it.

  The computer that it was attached to was the one that Iris used. Going to the computer, he wondered what her password might be and opened the drawer. When there was nothing there, he turned over the small plastic flower that sat on her desk and found it. Some people were just too predictable. Plugging in the information, he looked for the icon for the recorder on the hundred or so icons she had on her desktop, most of which were games and shopping places. He might need to have that checked out on her usage as well.

  Once he had all that he needed to turn the camera off and delete tonight’s information, he decided to look for more video. Apparently this wasn’t the first time that Jackson had been in the room.

  Twice he’d had sex with Iris on the desk. And another time he’d had someone that Hawk didn’t know. As he searched through the recordings, he set up the computer to send all the videos to his computer at home, as well as Jarvis’s personal computer. He had no idea what he could use them for, but to have them was a good idea. Then he cloned Iris’s computer.

  What the fucking Sam hell are you doing? He smiled when he heard from Lauren. He hadn’t realized that it had gotten so late, and he needed to get out before the crew came in for the day shift. Hawk told her what he was doing. He added her address to the email and sent it to her as well, and told her to look at it. So, our little liar has been busy, hasn’t he? Christ, is that Iris that he’s fucking on the presidential desk? What the hell? That’s some fucked up information, don’t you think?