Page 14 of Hunted Mate
I scan the faces of everybody who filters in and out of the building. It’s not going to be as easy as I thought. For starters, some people are wearing baseball caps, or other headwear that protects them from the gaze of cameras.
I order Chinese food, and I keep scanning. I know he’s right in front of me in some of this footage.
I email back and request a little more footage, from further down the street. Having identified a few possible subjects, I keeprequesting, keep following until one of the men makes a mistake. He takes off his jacket and removes his hat. His hat doesn’t reveal anything, because I don’t know the face of the man who accosted me in the basement. But when he takes off his jacket, he’s in his shirt sleeves—and I know that tattoo. That tattoo was in front of my eyes as I was pinned down on the desk. Fangs. Fur. Geometric savagery.
“Got you,” I say, tapping in closer, enhancing. I go back. I see the frame where his face is revealed.
He’s chiseled. Hard jaw. Long nose. Wide eyes. Thick brow. Very, very heavy brow. There’s animal in that face. And those eyes, blue eyes and black hair. He’s magnetic.
And I know him.
“No. Fucking. Way.” I breathe the words in a long, slow exhale.
“You’re fucked,” I tell him. “I’m going to fucking ruin you.”
CHAPTER 4
Gray
I smirk at my screen.
I thought this would be a more satisfying moment in person, but this is good too. She’ll be coming for me through legal channels, and she’ll realize that there’s really nobody to come for.
Of course, this is never really supposed to happen. She’s not supposed to be able to find me. She’s not supposed to see my true face, or know my real name. It is Gray, but that’s all the truth she’ll be able to drill down into.
I’ve been watching her intensely from the moment she discovered the fire, hoping she would give the matter up immediately. Everything has been taken from her. She did not digitize and back up her documents. She was too paranoid about security for that. There are a few bits and pieces on her laptop, but the vast majority of her research is gone.
I thought her reaction would be to melt down completely at discovering that her hyper-fixation had been so thoroughlythwarted. I thought she might be inconsolable, tearful, perhaps even fall into a depression of sorts. I did not take any pleasure in setting that fire. I knew it would hurt her, and I am doing everything in my power not to have to hurt her, but sometimes, a ‘no’ has to be enforced, cruelly, if necessary.
Her actual response was far more entertaining than I could ever have imagined. She immediately began her search for me in earnest. She did not spend even a few hours in misery. She did not allow emotion to get in the way. She was calculated and she was careful in her actions.
And now she’s found me.
I like her little threats too, quite adorable.
She will look for me. She won’t find me, though. She’ll find the information I intend anybody looking for me to find. She’ll find a man who never existed, and cannot be found. She will be confronted with another mystery, a ghost she thought she knew.
I almost feel sorry for her, but I know I’ve done what is right. She’s safe from the potential consequences of her actions. She won’t face what happens to people who find out about our kind. We shifters protect ourselves with lethal force. The penalty for knowing about our curse is death.
The man she thinks she knows has an address in an apartment on the west side. He has an office in her family’s building. He has a job with her company. A social security number. None of those things are truly real.
Calista
I knock on Gray’s door. I got his file from HR, and I am at his place. It’s a neat little two-bed midway up a semi-nice building. Not really the sort of place I would have thought an editor would live in, but maybe we don’t pay our editors all that well. Wouldn’t surprise me. Nobody really earns enough anymore.
I tap on his door, fingers curled, breath coming short. I am flanked by two burly police officers, one of whom already has a pair of plastic handcuffs out. Gray is going to be arrested when he opens this door. He is going to be taken to a cell and he is going to be charged to the fullest extent of the law, maybe more. Maybe I’ll petition for him to be sent to one of the least comfortable prisons, the places they put people who really piss them off.
Burning my research was more than a prank. It was the cruelest thing anybody has done to me, as far as I can recall. Completely unconscionable. And the fact that he has been playing dress-up and taking advantage of me physically as well? I’ll take even more pleasure in knowing he’s behind bars.
There’s no answer.
“He’s not home, maybe,” I say. “Should we lie in wait for him?”
The cops don’t have much interest in lying in wait. I guess there’s not the funding for stakeouts. I know I could make them if I really wanted to. I could demand more resources. I could ensure every stone in this city was turned over, and I will if I have to.
The police step forward and rap on the door.
“Open up, police!”
