“He didn’t ask me out. I asked him for his number.” She shot Alec a defiant look. “If I wake up tomorrow and decide I’m not interested, I’ll screen my calls. I’m a big girl.”
Alec looked like he wanted to retort, but when he finally spoke, his voice came out mild. “I’m glad you’re feeling steadier, kiddo. I called Jackson and Mac. Mackenzie will be around to pick you up and take you back to their place as soon as the good doctor here’s ready to let you go. Hold off going out on any more dates until you get some sleep, would you?”
She could have sent Kat on right then, but Carmen laid a hand on her shoulder instead. “I’ll get you a cold pack for that eye, and I have a few more questions for you.”
Kat nodded. “You can go, Alec. I’m okay. Just promise me you and Jackson aren’t going to go track down my date and eat him.”
“Not going to track him down.”
“Or eat him.”
The corner of Alec’s mouth twitched. “Or eat him.”
Kat narrowed her eyes. “Fuck if I can tell if you’re telling the truth while I’m in this room. So go before I change my mind.”
“Will do.” Alec looked to Carmen. “You can keep her company until Mackenzie gets here?”
She was past due to leave. The night-shift doctor had probably already arrived and was hiding out in the lounge, drinking coffee. “I’ll stay with her until then.”
“Thanks. And I’ll see you”—he pointed at Kat, adopting a mock scowl—“no earlier than noon tomorrow. Take the morning off.”
Kat gave him a sloppy salute. “Yes, sir. Call me if you forget how to log into your email.”
With another of those odd, short laughs, Alec turned, his eyes catching Carmen’s for one moment. His stare was deep, intense, full of quick flashes of emotion she couldn’t begin to read, especially within the shields of the room. Though it was impossible to tell what prompted the odd darkness, he looked almost frustrated.
Almost.
There was a strange heat lurking in that inscrutable stare, one that left her fighting a hot blush. She opened and closed her mouth, suddenly unsure of what to say. “Good night.”
“Good night, Dr. Mendoza.” Then, with a small, enigmatic smile, he left, pulling the door closed behind him.
“Well,” Kat said without preamble. “He thinks you’re hot.”
The proclamation made Carmen’s stomach twist with nerves and something undeniably like anticipation. She ignored the words as well as the emotions and pulled an instant cold pack from the cabinet, activating it with a snap. “If the swelling in your eye doesn’t go down in a day or so, you’ll need to see an ophthalmologist.”
“An eye doctor, I’m guessing?”
“Right.” Carmen wrapped the pack and handed it to Kat. “You should be feeling more in control by the time that’s an issue. If it’s an issue.”
“Hey.” Kat closed her hand on Carmen’s before she could pull away. “I’m sorry. I’ve blurted out enough dumb crap by now to know when I crossed a line. I just thought….. Well, you know. Women seem to think Alec’s hot shit. I didn’t think you’d be upset.”
Carmen couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled up. “He is hot shit. And I’m not upset.” Not like Kat thought, not at all, but her past romantic entanglements were hardly an appropriate topic of conversation. “It’s fine.”
“Okay.” She looked a little dubious, but she released Carmen’s hand. “And don’t give your brother a hard time. I really did ask for his number. He was…..refreshing. He was in here five whole minutes and didn’t once promise to find the a**hole who’d punched me and kill him. Shapeshifter guys can be kinda exhausting.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.” Carmen was attracted to strong, dominant men. Shifters tended to fit the bill, but her relationships with them had a tendency to fail spectacularly, so she’d sworn off them entirely. That way, she didn’t have to spend weeks after every bad breakup cursing her own bad judgment, and she didn’t have to risk the sorts of matches her family might try to force her into.
She glanced at the door. She didn’t have a clue how Uncle Cesar felt about the Jacobson family, but if there was the slightest advantage to be gained, he’d probably jump at the chance to throw her at Alec.
Which only reinforced the fact that she had to stay far, far away from him.
Chapter Three
Alec didn’t bother looking for Jackson as he eased his truck into the small parking lot in front of Kat’s apartment. No doubt his partner had hidden himself behind his favorite spell as soon as his girlfriend had dropped him off, which meant Alec’s best bet was to park his truck and wait for Jackson to make his presence known.
He chose a space a few doors down from Kat’s, a spot next to a compact import that gave him a fair amount of coverage without sacrificing line-of-sight on Kat’s door.
There was a sudden thump on the passenger door of his truck, and Jackson stood there. Instead of motioning for Alec to open the door, he grinned and passed his hand over it. The lock disengaged with a dull snap.
“Got you a soda.” Jackson tossed a can at Alec as he climbed up into the truck.
Alec barely managed to catch the damn thing before it smashed into his face. “While you were invisible? If Kat hears rumors about a haunted snack machine, she’s gonna yell at us both.”
“Nah, I delurked long enough to hit the vending machines over by the laundry room.”
He didn’t have the faintest idea where the laundry room was, since his experience with Kat’s apartment building began and ended with the parking lot in front of it and a nagging concern that security there wasn’t nearly tight enough now that Kat’s cousin had married into the most important shapeshifting family in the country.
A worry for another time. Alec cracked open the soda and watched two teenagers stroll down the sidewalk in front of them. “I left Kat with the doctor at the clinic. The new one Franklin hired a few months back.”
“I remember.” Jackson snorted. “You’ve already bitched my ear off about how Franklin’s compromising his clinic’s neutrality by hiring on a member of the Mendoza clan.”
Alec fought a flinch. “It’s a valid concern. Her uncle’s spent the last six months putting his ducks in a row so he can get his hands on that empty Conclave seat. For all I knew, she was one of his ducks.”
“For all you knew, past tense?” He squinted at Alec and chuckled. “She’s cute, isn’t she?”
Smooth dark hair, smoky brown eyes, curves to make a pin-up jealous….. Cute was puppies and kids. Carmen Mendoza was a guilty fantasy come to life. “Sure. Sending hot women to spy is pretty much an institution, isn’t it? Or is that just in movies? I can’t remember.”
“Oh yeah. I’m sure, between the sprained ankles and the nasal allergies, she’s gathering some fierce intel over there.”
Appearing casual was vital, since Alec had given Jackson hell over the man’s descent into idiocy whenever Mackenzie Brooks blinked those big blue eyes at him. Unfortunately, appearing casual had never been his specialty. “Fuck off, Holt.”
“Jesus, have a sense of humor.” Jackson stretched his legs out as much as the cab of the truck would allow. “Mackenzie said Kat liked her a lot. The doctor, I mean.”
It figured that Jackson’s girlfriend had already retrieved Kat. For all the complaints Alec got about his lead foot, everyone knew Mackenzie was the one who drove like she was looking to run the NASCAR circuit. “Not surprising. Doctor’s an empath. Low level, I think, but still.” He hesitated, but setting Jackson on the case of future trouble might mean he wouldn’t have to deal with it. “She also has a smarmy telepathic brother who’s already wheedled Kat’s phone number out of her.”
“Smarmy?” Jackson considered that for a moment. “From what I’ve heard, that’s par for the Mendoza course.”
“You mean the shit with the oldest one? Julio?” Alec couldn’t help but laugh, though he didn’t feel particularly amused. “Gotta give the Mendoza propaganda machine their due. Only Cesar Mendoza could spin the fact that his little brother snuck off and played house with a psychic for over a decade. Talk to the man for more than ten minutes, and he’ll find a way to let you know the Mendozas are so badass that they father shapeshifting sons on human women. Asshole.”
“It is quite the manly feat, if you overlook the part where Diego dumped his wife as soon as his big brother told him to.”
Alec knew Jackson hadn’t meant anything by it, but he still tensed. Some things he’d never forget—his cousin, telling him that the family wouldn’t stand for the embarrassment of Alexander Jacobson the Third being married to a human. That night, he’d found his wife on the kitchen floor, surrounded by half-thawed bits of broccoli.
A few years ago, the memory would have paralyzed him. Liquor would have been the only cure. Now he took refuge in temper. “Because we all know staying is a brilliant f**king plan.”
Jackson stared at him for a moment and turned his attention to the building in front of them. “Best description Mac was able to get out of Kat was that the attacker was tall and blond. Her date, on the other hand, was shorter, with dark hair. If either shows up, it shouldn’t be hard to tell them apart.”
There was no question Jackson was pissed, but Alec didn’t have the emotional reserves to navigate an apology or—worse—a conversation about Heidi and the past that felt too raw today. Instead he accepted the tacit change of subject and tried to turn it into a peace offering. “Kat did real good. Zola says she’s been working hard, and obviously she has. She held off the guy with her stun gun.”
“Yeah.” Jackson pulled out his phone, punched a few keys and held it out. “That’s the date. I ran a check on him already. Nothing in the NCIC database, but that doesn’t mean he’s clean.”