“I can assure you of my discretion.” Selina leaned back in her chair.
It was a smart move on Peyton’s part. He now had two people at the FBI office and two more who were influential in pack politics who would dissuade any rumors of a sexual liaison between Tess and Peyton. Well played.
“Now you.” Angela propped her elbows on the table, gluing her gaze on the elf. “Are you shagging Jack?”
Selina didn’t squirm, didn’t flush, didn’t do anything to give a reaction away. “I don’t answer questions about my personal life.”
An incredulous sound burst out of Jack, he couldn’t help it. “After what you just asked Peyton, isn’t that a little hypocritical?”
Her mouth formed a thoughtful moue. “No ... I don’t owe anybody. Peyton owed me, remember? I don’t have to admit to anything.”
“So you admit there’s something to admit to. Ha! I knew it,” Angela sang out. “I knew it, I freaking knew it.”
Selina’s dark eyes slitted. “What exactly did you say about me?”
“Nothing! I mentioned I was working with a new woman. That’s it.” Jack heaved a sigh. How had this devolved so fast? And how had it ended up his fault? He hadn’t put anyone on the spot about their private life.
“It was the tone he used. A mother can sense these things.” Angela held up her finger. “I knew it. I even told Darren after you mentioned her on the phone yesterday, didn’t I?”
Darren chuckled and reached over to run a hand down his wife’s hair, leaning in to kiss her forehead. “Yes, my love, you told me.”
She grinned, cupped his face in her hands, and smacked a kiss on his lips. “I adore you.”
“Please, people. You’re going to kill my appetite before I can even get a bite of the food.” Jack groaned, teasing them as he had since they started dating in his teens.
Darren reached over and ruffled his hair, and Jack laughed and ducked away as best he could in his chair. His laughter died when he glanced up and saw sadness cross Selina’s face. Did it pain her to see people interacting with family? When had she last let anyone in enough to let them joke and play with her in public? She was so locked down, so frozen everywhere except in bed, he was always surprised to even hear her laugh. That couldn’t be healthy, and he didn’t give a damn how much older and more experienced she was, he knew repressed and unhealthy when he saw it. All he could do was loosen her up and hope she didn’t hex his ass in the process. Good thing he was a man who liked risks.
She looked away from him, offering his stepdad a smile. “So how’re things going in the packs? Your leader has some fascinating thoughts about the treatment for lycanthropy Chloe Standish is developing.”
Now there was a subtle topic change guaranteed to light Darren’s fire. Jack glanced around them. There was no one else sitting near them on the patio, so unless they had werewolf hearing, they weren’t going to hear an elf asking about werewolves.
Darren growled, the sound bestial enough to have Grim on his feet searching for the threat. Selina reeled her familiar in and stroked his head. Darren’s face darkened as he spoke. “They’re arguing about how to handle the treatment when it comes on the market. Some are even talking about rejecting it, as if they’d have that kind of say in things. People are going to be all over it no matter what. They’re chomping at the bit now, just waiting for it to make it through FDA approval. The pack Alpha is an archaic moron, and his son is even worse because he should know better.”
Darren was big and quiet, and he’d scared the shit out of Jack when he’d met him as a kid. But his stepfather was solid. He’d lay down his life for those he loved, and that was a bedrock Jack and his mother had both needed back then.
The pack leaders had pissed Darren off more and more the last few years, and Jack wouldn’t be surprised if his stepfather challenged the current heir for leadership when the Alpha died. The ins and outs of wolf pack politics were always a bit murky, but Jack was fairly certain challenging for leadership involved hand-to-hand combat.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about his family getting that deep into politics, but Cavalli’s father was on the Vampire Conclave, and Merek had just married into a family that ruled the Witch Coven, so Jack figured he’d be fine.
“Well, you know the pack Alpha has had his hands full. Maybe caution would serve him well.” Absolute evil gleamed in Selina’s gaze as she dove headfirst into a political debate with Darren, with his mother egging them both on, while Jack and Peyton watched with amusement.
This? This was the Selina Jack wanted to see more of. When she let some cracks show in those walls of hers, she was amazing to watch. If she were like this all the time? It would be almost irresistible. Not that he minded the ice queen, but the warmer, more passionate Selina was damn fun.
Peyton apparently thought so, too. This was probably the closest Jack had ever seen the wolf come to a full-on smile. Another Magickal who could use some time blowing off a little steam. Maybe Tess would do that for him, though Jack didn’t even want to think about what that meant for Cavalli. That was a hot mess Jack wanted no part of, and he hoped like hell it didn’t spill over into the office.
Selina hadn’t admitted to anything about their affair, which didn’t surprise Jack at all. She’d said she wouldn’t answer personal questions, and that was final. Jack had no clue where things with them were going, but he was willing to strap in for the ride and find out. As he watched her yank his stepfather’s chain—a mountain of a werewolf that made most people shake in their boots—he knew he’d at least be entertained, no matter what came of this.
I like this one. She’s got grit. His mother’s telepathic voice whispered in his head.
Yeah, that was the problem. He liked this one, too. Far more than was good for his peace of mind.
7
“Where are you from, originally?” Jack glanced over at Selina as he drove them back to his place after dinner. They’d spent the entire time discussing work, going over details of the case. It had been a long, frustrating week and a half of accomplishing not much. Between Selina, Peyton, and Jack, they’d questioned everyone who might know anything, pored over every file until they had all the words memorized, stared at every crime scene photograph until it was seared into their brains, and they were no further ahead than they had been ten days ago.
“Where are you from, originally?” she countered.
“North Carolina. Camp Lejeune. Then I joined the marines and was stationed down near San Diego, at Camp Pendleton. When I wasn’t overseas, which I was quite a bit.” To put it mildly. He’d spent more time away than he had at home. “Now you. Where are you from?”
She shifted in the passenger seat to look at him. “What, I don’t sound like an American to you? Do I have an accent showing?”
“Not at all, but since you’re not Native American, it’s not that likely that you were born in the U.S.” He turned into his driveway and hit the remote to open his garage door. “Am I right?”
“Yeah.” She shrugged, smoothing the fabric on her slacks. “I lived a couple of human lifetimes in England, which is where I was born.”
“Did your parents stay there when you came here?” he prompted, because she never seemed to be willing to talk about her family.
“No. They were dead,” she said shortly, staying true to form.
“How did they die?”